Next Time We Run Into This, We Have to Beat Them Up

Elsewhere, amid a sea of clouds tens of thousands of miles away.

Qing Yi turned her head, her clear eyes fixed unblinkingly on Qing Xuan.

"Qing Xuan, why do I feel like you were deliberately avoiding them?" the girl bluntly voiced her doubts.

Qing Xuan asked in surprise, "Was it that obvious?"

Qing Yi nodded very seriously. "Yes, very obvious."

"From the moment you sensed the Dragon Race's aura, you were eager to leave. Later, after that Yinglong said Fellow Daoist, Please Stay, you practically stomped the world's Great Dao beneath your feet into smoking, and your speed increased by at least another thirty percent."

Hearing such an accurate jab, Qing Xuan could not help but laugh.

"Fine, I admit it."

With his hands behind his back, Qing Xuan looked over the vast, boundless lands of the Primordial World. "But I wasn't avoiding Yinglong himself."

Yinglong's cultivation was indeed deeper than theirs, but Qing Yi and he were both Great Luo now, and each possessed a Supreme Innate Spirit Treasure.

If they truly fought, two against one, even if Yinglong could win, he certainly would not get away unscathed.

What he truly wanted to avoid was the colossal entity behind Yinglong.

The Dragon Race.

"When the Fierce Beasts still existed, the three races had Shen Ni as their common enemy. Naturally, they could advance and retreat together, close as family."

Qing Xuan's gaze was profound, as though it had pierced through the sea of clouds before him and seen the boundless Blood Sea of countless ages to come.

"But now that the Fierce Beasts have been wiped out, the Dragon Race, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Race have all inherited the merits of the calamity. The Dragon Race rules the seas, the Phoenix Clan commands the skies, and the Qilin Race governs the beasts of the land."

"When these three ever-expanding powers truly collided, none of them would be willing to yield even half a step."

"Qiuniu said the three races had already begun to clash."

"Heh, was that merely friction? Those were sparks that would soon set the plains ablaze! Conflict was only a matter of time."

Qing Xuan turned to Qing Yi and spoke seriously. "The conditions offered by the Dragon Race are indeed tempting enough to make anyone jealous."

"Eastern Sea Blessed Land, endless opportunities, and Fate Aura at its peak—but in this Primordial World, every gift bestowed by fate has long since had its price secretly marked."

Qing Yi listened quietly and nodded.

As a fellow Great Luo, she naturally understood what Qing Xuan meant.

"So you think the Dragon Race can't defeat the Phoenix Clan and the Qilin Race?"

"No."

Qing Xuan shook his head.

"I don't favor any of the three races."

As a transmigrator, he knew the outcome of the Dragon-Han Tribulation all too well.

There would be no winners in that earth-shaking war.

The elites of the three races would be wiped out, burdened with boundless Karmic Force, and could only withdraw from the stage of Primordial World history to struggle on in miserable survival.

Anyone who stepped into those muddy waters would die.

"If the three races want to fight over supremacy of the Primordial World, let them fight. We only need to keep our heads down."

Qing Yi nodded slightly.

She had not been particularly interested in the Dragon Race's promised sanctuaries and Fate Aura to begin with.

Since Qing Xuan did not wish to go, then they would not go.

They continued forward side by side. After a while, Qing Yi suddenly seemed to remember something and asked again:

"Then... what about Fellow Daoist, Please Stay? Why did you run so fast the moment you heard those words?"

Her clear, flawless eyes rested on him. Clearly, she was still hung up on the fact that those five words had made him stomp the Great Dao beneath his feet into smoking.

Qing Xuan fell silent for a long while. At last, he looked up at the skies of the Primordial World and forced out a sentence. "Those words... are an extremely vicious curse!"

"A curse?" Qing Yi frowned slightly, her cool features filled with confusion.

"That's right."

Qing Xuan said, "Qing Yi, remember this. If you ever hear someone shout those five words at us again, or say the words 'fated with this poor Daoist,' beat them up first and talk later."

Seeing Qing Xuan's utterly serious expression, a faint smile finally appeared in Qing Yi's eyes.

"Alright. I'll listen to you."

Blue Star, Unknown Plane Research Center.

The two figures in the Primordial World Firmament had already disappeared beyond the end of the sea of clouds.

No one present could understand what was so special about the phrase Fellow Daoist, Please Stay.

But everyone had clearly seen Qing Xuan accelerate his escape light twice in succession.

Compared to the final exchange between the two, what interested the Research Center more was the enormous Dragon manifestation Yinglong had revealed while pursuing them.

The footage was pulled up again and frozen at the instant Yinglong's Great Dao manifested.

Its dragon body was long and slender, winding through the sea of clouds.

It had two horns on its head, flowing whiskers, and a pair of pale gold wings behind its back that covered the sky.

From the footage alone, it truly possessed an ancient and majestic air.

But soon, several dragon files from Douzhe Continent appeared on the right side of the Firmament.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, wreathed in blue-violet lightning.

The Light Sacred Dragon, snow-white from head to toe and capable of controlling ultimate light, once cultivated to level ninety-nine by that Dragon God Soul Master.

The Dark Sacred Dragon, equally renowned and hailed as one of the Black-and-White Sacred Dragons.

Finally came a pure-blooded black dragon coiled amid boundless black clouds, its eyes like golden suns.

More than eight hundred and twenty thousand years of cultivation.

The foremost of the Ten Great Fierce Beasts.

The beast god who ruled the Star Dou Soul Beasts, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.

Every dragon in those files possessed an enormous body, sturdy limbs, and wings that blotted out the sky when spread.

Especially the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.

Its true body, revealed only in historical footage, resembled a black mountain range stretching across the heavens.

The majesty belonging to a pure-blooded Dragon Race made ordinary Soul Masters instinctively feel oppressed, even through recorded images.

By comparison, Yinglong's form appeared exceptionally unusual.

It also possessed dragon horns, scales, and wings, but its body was far more slender and vastly different from the known pure-blooded dragons of Douzhe Continent.

In Linjiang Class Seven's training channel, someone quickly sent a message.

"Does this count as a dragon?"

"Doesn't it look more like a giant snake with wings?"

"I thought the Primordial Dragon Race would be like the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, but aside from its horns and scales, it isn't even the same kind of creature."

"That Yinglong does look powerful, but being powerful doesn't mean its bloodline is pure. Douzhe Continent also has many powerful draconic Soul Beasts."

"The Primordial World hasn't even developed a complete civilization yet. Perhaps anything with some dragon-like traits is simply classified as part of the Dragon Race."

This time, no one immediately refuted them.

Douzhe Continent's research into Soul Beast and Martial Soul bloodlines had developed for countless years.

What was a true dragon.

What was a draconic subspecies.

What was merely an ordinary Soul Beast with a trace of Dragon Race bloodline.

Whether in bodily structure, bloodline concentration, or Martial Soul inheritance, there were relatively complete standards of classification.

Even the mighty Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon merely stood at the pinnacle of dragon-type beast Martial Souls.

Above it were top-tier Martial Souls such as the Light Sacred Dragon and Dark Sacred Dragon, which had cultivated dragon power to its utmost limit.

Among Soul Beasts, there was also the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, a true Dragon King that had lived for more than eight hundred thousand years and possessed an incomparably pure bloodline.

By comparison, the Primordial World's classification of the Dragon Race seemed to remain at the most primitive level of tribal identity.

Soon, a preliminary analysis from Li He was transmitted to the Research Center.

Li He was now an official student of the Soul Beast Research Academy.

After three months of systematic study, he no longer made judgments based solely on Blue Star's basic data. He had truly begun to come into contact with Douzhe Continent's bloodline classification system.

[Based on appearance alone, Yinglong's true bloodline and strength cannot be directly determined.]

[The Primordial World and Douzhe Continent possess entirely different paths of life evolution. The dragons of the two worlds may not have any direct connection.]

[However, according to Douzhe Continent's existing standards, Yinglong's form differs significantly from that of pure-blooded giant dragons. It more closely resembles a dragon-blooded life-form of the long-bodied, winged-serpent type with stable inheritance.]

[It is recommended that it be temporarily classified as an independent dragon branch and not directly placed alongside the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, Light Sacred Dragon, Dark Sacred Dragon, and Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.]

Li He had not directly concluded, like the other students, that Yinglong was merely a draconic subspecies.

But this relatively cautious analysis still demonstrated one thing.

The Primordial Dragon Race was not the same form of true Dragon Race recognized by the people of Douzhe Continent.

The researchers responsible for the Soul Beast archives included Li He's judgment in their report.

Shen Qinghe did not participate in the bloodline classification.

Although life research was related to Soul Beast bloodlines, the two fields were not completely identical.

After comparing the images on both sides, she merely left her approval mark behind the tentative conclusion of an independent dragon branch.

"For now, we will not discuss what kind of strength Yinglong possesses."

Shen Qinghe looked at everyone present.

"The Firmament did not reveal his true pressure, and we have no materials capable of verifying it."

"However, the Dragon Race has proven that the Primordial World does not consist solely of Innate Divine Beings with no connection to one another."

"They possess a clear race, rulers, and territory. They are repairing Water Veins, recruiting powerful beings, and have even begun competing with the other two major races for dominion over the living beings of the Primordial World."

This was more important than what kind of dragon Yinglong actually was.

Previously, the Primordial World shown to Blue Star had always contained only powerful lives walking the heavens and earth alone.

Qing Xuan.

Qing Yi.

Hongjun.

They had no academies, no sects, and no mature system that allowed later generations to grow step by step.

But the Dragon Race that had now appeared already possessed the earliest form of an organized power.

Yet in the eyes of Blue Star's people, this form of power remained extremely primitive.

They divided their race by bloodline, used Ancestor Dragon's personal strength and prestige to rule the Four Seas, and used Fate Aura, sanctuaries, and opportunities as conditions to recruit other powerful beings.

There were no precise cultivation courses, no Soul Ring planning, and no training plans tailored to each member's Martial Soul, cultivation, and potential like those of top academies.

The Primordial World had developed organized powers.

Yet it still could not compare to the mature extraordinary system that had formed after Douzhe Continent had been explored for centuries.

This judgment gave quite a few people a sense of superiority.

And Qing Xuan's next choice further confirmed that perception.