Dragon Scale

Xiao Fan returned to his room and lifted a cup of water with slightly trembling hands, taking a sip...

A fear rooted deep in his memories made his fingers tremble involuntarily.

It was not that he feared his elder sister all that much, but the original Xiao Fan's fear of her ran far too deep.

In the original Xiao Fan's memories, his eldest sister had been a devil!

From childhood to adulthood, the original owner's parents had hardly ever seriously reprimanded him. It could be said that they doted on him excessively... Only his eldest sister had often beaten him, pounding on him from when he was little until he grew up.

Thus, the original owner feared neither his father nor his mother. The person he feared most was his eldest sister, Xiao Jinlan!

Whenever he saw his sister, he was like a mouse seeing a cat... Yet the more pathetic and cowardly he looked, the more Xiao Jinlan wanted to pound on him.

He truly could neither beat her nor escape her—what a miserable original owner...

After Xiao Fan transmigrated here, his personality kept him from being as submissive and timid as the original owner. And with his emotional intelligence intact, he could always coax his elder sister into a good mood, so naturally, he was rarely beaten.

But one thing was one thing... From the original owner's memories, he knew that when Xiao Jinlan got physical, she truly had no sense of restraint!

It had been one thing when they were children. How much strength could a little girl have...

But ever since she had begun practicing martial arts, when that girl beat someone, it was no longer a simple matter of whether it hurt or not!

"Ah... forget it... Tomorrow, I'll go out and buy my sister something delicious to improve our sibling relationship. Maybe it'll hurt less when she beats me..."

Xiao Fan muttered helplessly to himself. Though he had transmigrated here half a year ago, he truly had interacted little with his elder sister—especially after becoming a gray-robed agent of the Shadow Pivot Court, when he was away from home all day.

Then, Xiao Fan took out the incomplete scroll of Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal Ji Xuanyuan had written for him and prepared to study it carefully!

The first thing that entered his sight was the general principle of the cultivation art he had seen during the day:

[General Principles

By Heaven's mandate, its fortune rests within the body.

The hidden dragon lies silent in the abyss; concealed scales gather the wind.

Nine transformations shed mortality; the Purple Palace becomes a celestial hall.

Claws seize the stars; horns butt against the vault of heaven.

Breath joins the eight wastes; meridians span the nine heavens.

Spirit and form shine in glory—I am the true dragon!]

This time, he had made some mental preparations and steadied his inner qi in advance, so his qi channels did not fall into disorder as they had last time.

Yet even so, a blazing heat still surged upward from his dantian!

"Phew..."

Xiao Fan immediately adjusted his breathing, using his inner qi to guide the spreading heat within him. He circulated it through the heavenly cycle before returning it to his dantian, repeating the process until his qi had completely stabilized.

After adapting to the general principle, he began reading the content that followed...

[First Realm: The Hidden Dragon Awakens

Sit cross-legged in the Bright Hall, let your intent sink into the Nine Netherworlds.

Sense the earth veins; dragon qi flows like a current.

A hundred apertures absorb essence; sinews and bones first take draconic form.

Scale patterns faintly emerge; your will reaches for the clouds.]

Xiao Fan read it carefully three times and gained an initial understanding of the essence and key points of the First Realm... Earth veins, dragon qi!

As the saying went, Heaven was governed by the gods, while earth belonged to the Human Emperor. Dragon qi lay hidden within the earth veins—this was the dragon vein of an empire ruled by the Human Emperor!

To cultivate the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal, the first step was to sense the dragon vein, allowing one's consciousness to forge a connection with the earth's dragon vein and obtain dragon qi.

But that raised a problem: how was one supposed to sense a dragon vein?

Xiao Fan was stumped... He was not a member of the imperial clan. How the hell was he supposed to know how to sense a dragon vein?

"Forget it... I'll try it according to the cultivation art first!"

First was the opening line, "Sit cross-legged in the Bright Hall"... The Bright Hall usually referred to the Son of Heaven's temple, a place where the emperor held major ceremonies and rituals. It was said to reach Heaven above and connect to the dragon vein below.

Heaven-Bearing Hall within the Great Liang imperial palace was the "Bright Hall" of the Great Liang royal family.

Did cultivating the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal require sitting in meditation at Heaven-Bearing Hall within the imperial palace? Who could even get in there?! The palace was filled with masters, and that old emperor was a first-rank Martial God.

Xiao Fan was greatly disappointed. He could not even carry out the first line of this cultivation art.

"Wait... Ji Xuanyuan doesn't seem to have specifically mentioned this problem. Or rather... Heaven-Bearing Hall is the Son of Heaven's Bright Hall. Even imperial princes couldn't possibly go in there every day to meditate, could they?"

"Could it be... this Bright Hall is a broad concept? Or perhaps it refers to an area—an area capable of sensing the dragon vein? Rather than only Heaven-Bearing Hall?"

"For example... the entire capital?"

Hope flared anew in Xiao Fan's heart. He decided to hell with it—he would try first and worry about the rest later.

With that thought, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, sinking his consciousness as his thoughts descended ever deeper. He visualized a dark abyss, answering the second line: "let your intent sink into the Nine Netherworlds"...

Gradually, within the deep, dark landscape of his inner vision, a glimmer of golden light appeared, like a dragon's eye opening for the first time...

Immediately afterward, Xiao Fan felt as though needles had pierced every inch of his body... The pain of countless needles threading through his tendons was unbearable!

"Hiss!!!"

Xiao Fan gritted his teeth and endured, steadying his mind. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead like rain, dripping over the edge of the bed...

Gradually, those invisible "needles" pierced deep into his body, sinking into his tendons and bones! The golden scale on his chest heated up, growing increasingly scorching!

It was like a red-hot branding iron being driven into his chest, agony so sharp it made him want to cry out!

Anyone with weak willpower wouldn't have been able to endure even a moment—they would have fainted from the pain long ago... Yet Xiao Fan persisted. His unyielding will was the last thing he had to rely on to survive in this world!

The good news was that... the malice poison value hadn't changed...

The bad news was that the scale on his chest was getting hotter and hotter! Who the hell could withstand this?

Just as Xiao Fan was about to give out...

System text appeared in the darkness of his inner vision...

[The first realm of the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal... has been unlocked]

[New abilities acquired: Hidden Dragon Scales, Manifest Dragon Scales]

[Hidden Dragon Scales: Dragon qi scales cover the surface of the body, toughening the skin and allowing it to resist blades and swords to a certain extent]

[Manifest Dragon Scales: Dragon scales manifest and cover the body, impervious to blades, spears, water, and fire. At the same time, malice poison will accumulate within the body. Excessive use carries a risk of mutation]

Holy shit... I really can cultivate it!

Xiao Fan was overjoyed. This cultivation art was incredible... The Ji Clan of Great Liang had subdued the four seas through martial might with the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal as their foundation. For over two hundred years, every emperor had firmly occupied the pinnacle of martial strength across the Nine Provinces.

The two skills he had obtained were quite similar to the Bronze Skin and Iron Bones of the eighth-rank Iron Bone Realm... but their effects were clearly stronger. [Manifest Dragon Scales] in particular not only provided physical defense, but also increased resistance to spells. Of course, the drawback was that it couldn't be sustained for long, or there would be a risk of mutation.

If those scales mutated and embedded themselves into one's flesh and blood, the pain would be unimaginable... Xiao Fan had experienced that firsthand.

Then, another surprise came crashing in!

[Cultivation: Martial Path Qi Refinement Realm, complete: 182/100... realm breakthrough successful]

[Cultivation: Martial Path Iron Bone Realm, early stage: 82/500]

I want to fight ten of them! Xiao Fan shouted excitedly in his heart.

Of course, that was just a joke. Forget fighting ten—he might not even be able to beat his own older sister...

"So the cultivation method for the first realm of the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal encompasses both the ninth-rank and eighth-rank martial realms!" Xiao Fan suddenly understood, feeling like he had made an absolute killing.

Drawing dragon qi into the body could massively strengthen one's physique. It was broadly similar to the cultivation method of the ninth-rank Qi Refinement Realm, except that its effects were far stronger!

The scales faintly appearing and vanishing beneath the skin were, in truth, the process of dragon qi penetrating deep into the tendons and bones and further transforming the body into that of a dragon. It achieved the same goal by different means as the Bronze Skin and Iron Bones of the eighth-rank Iron Bone Realm!

The difference was that an ordinary Iron Bone Realm cultivator needed to temper their tendons and bones over and over again—commonly known as getting beaten up... But the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal didn't require that.

Not only that, dragon bones and dragon scales offered even greater defenses than Bronze Skin and Iron Bones. Its resistance to spells in particular elevated a martial artist's defensive capability to an entirely new dimension!

Amid his excitement, Xiao Fan immediately thought of an utterly absurd question...

Ji Xuanyuan had clearly stated that only the Ji Clan's imperial family could cultivate the Sovereign True Dragon Heart Seal, because only those with Ji Clan dragon blood in their veins could sense the dragon vein and absorb dragon qi.

No matter how ordinary people cultivated, they simply couldn't resonate with the dragon vein, much less absorb dragon qi.

So the question was...

"Why can I cultivate it?"

Xiao Fan muttered to himself, posing a question from the depths of his soul...