"Why are they carrying lamps out here? What kind of strange pomp is this?"
Shi Mo grumbled inwardly. Sensing an aura from the other party that was no weaker than those of the Ancestral Witches, his brow furrowed. "Torch Dragon? The Dragon Clan's Grand Elder King of the East mentioned? Why hadn't I seen him at Purple Heaven Palace? Was he not even interested in going there to hear the Dao?"
"Greetings, Grand Elder!" Ao Li and the other Dragon Clan experts hurriedly bowed respectfully.
Torch Dragon's single eye, brilliant as a pearl, turned toward Shi Mo and King of the East. "I did not expect a clash between two juniors to alarm two fellow Daoists."
"Fellow Daoist Torch Dragon, it has been a long time," King of the East said courteously with a cupped-fist salute and a smile. His tone clearly carried a hint of wariness toward Torch Dragon. "Fellow Daoist Torch Dragon, let me introduce you. This is—"
"Fellow Daoist Shi Mo of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain. I have heard of him," Torch Dragon said before King of the East could finish. He continued with a wistful sigh, "In a manner of speaking, we are old acquaintances. I simply did not expect that, when we met again, you would already have been reborn, while I now..."
Hearing this, Shi Mo's thoughts raced. Torch Dragon actually knew his original form? Could he also have originated as a Chaos Fiendgod?
Yet Torch Dragon's words carried the bleakness of a setting sun. Had the Dragon-Han Cataclysm drained too much of the Dragon Clan's fortune? With the Ancestral Dragon's fall, had even Torch Dragon been affected?
Perhaps this is the root of the Dragon Clan's decline, Shi Mo thought.
"Fellow Daoist, I heard that you have provided the Wu Clan with