After Cultivator Guo reached an agreement with Zhang Yu, he took his leave.
The next day, he came calling again. Besides the flying carriage he rode in, he had brought another carriage with him. Both slowly descended before the palace-temple.
Zhang Yu emerged from the palace-temple with several disciples. Looking over, he saw that the two carriages were exceptionally large, and each was drawn by four dragon-kind. After examining them, he said, "True dragons?"
Daoist Guo walked over, first giving him a salute before saying with a smile, "They are indeed true dragons. These are true dragons who have been punished. Origin Upper Hall oversees the central affairs, and every world must provide tributes. Northern Unfinished Way provides such true dragons with every tribute. We use them to draw our flying carriages. Though these creatures are wild and unruly, Origin Upper Hall naturally has ways to tame them."
The moment Zhang Yu heard this, he knew the man's words carried a touch of exaggeration.
Having read so many reports, he already understood much of Origin Xia's internal affairs. Strictly speaking, this could not be called a "tribute." Rather, the various worlds handed over manpower and resources to Origin Upper Hall for allocation according to their agreements with Origin Xia.
Origin Upper Hall was still far from being able to overawe all the worlds and demand their offerings, though a few weaker worlds might indeed be manipulated by it.
As for these true dragons, he did not believe that every carriage was drawn by such creatures. Otherwise, they would have brought them out when he entered Origin Upper Hall's domain last time. These had clearly been deliberately borrowed, meant to tell him through the enslavement of true dragons that Northern Unfinished Way had declined and could offer them no assistance whatsoever.