Ancestral Dragon's Thought Descends Upon the Northern Sea

Outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

The sea was calm and the winds were still.

A hundred years had passed since the Ancestral Dragon's Dragon Decree departed.

Throughout those hundred years, Guixu had remained on alert.

Lan Shuang reinforced the formation patterns of the Outer Gate of Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

Ao Lie had also kept watch over the direction of the Eastern Sea.

Ancestor Xuan Jia personally guarded the inner gate, not daring to let down his guard in the slightest.

Everyone knew that the Ancestral Dragon would not let the matter rest so easily.

They simply did not know how he would come.

Lu Chen was especially so.

He had not slept soundly for the past hundred years.

The Ancestral Dragon might make a move at any time, and he had to prepare beforehand.

The Heaven-Deceiving Tortoise Shell had been activated to its utmost limit.

The Great Dream Black Tortoise Technique was also ready at all times.

Outside the Guixu Womb Membrane, Lu Chen had even secretly added three layers of tortoise-breath sealing restrictions.

In short.

Hide as deeply as possible.

If he could avoid revealing his true body, then he would not reveal it.

On this day.

The sky above Dragon-Suppressing Pass suddenly fell silent.

The currents of the Northern Sea stopped in an instant.

It was as though the entire sea had voluntarily lowered its head.

Ao Lie was the first to sense that something was wrong.

He abruptly raised his head and looked toward the Eastern Sea.

A thread of golden waterlight was traveling along the waterways of the Four Seas.

That waterlight appeared minuscule, yet it carried an indescribably ancient majesty.

Ao Lie's pupils suddenly constricted.

"Ancestral Dragon..."

At Dragon-Suppressing Pass, every being with Dragon Clan blood instinctively bowed low at that moment.

Even Ao Lie could not stop himself from lowering his Dragon head.

Phoenix Li, Lin Yue, Han Jue, and the others felt an immense pressure as well.

This pressure differed from that of the Blackwater Dragon King, and it differed from Ao Cang's.

It was more ancient, more majestic.

It was as though the authority of the entire Four Seas had descended together with that golden waterlight.

Lan Shuang stood atop the pass wall, the Book of Cause and Effect flipping frantically in her hands.

Yet the Book of Cause and Effect could reveal only an endless expanse of golden light.

Within that golden light, a true Dragon seemed to coil, stretching across the Four Seas.

Ancestor Xuan Jia's expression became incomparably grave.

"Ancestral Dragon Dao Thought."

The moment his words fell.

The golden waterlight descended outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass and transformed into a middle-aged man dressed in black robes.

The man was not particularly tall.

His eyes were deep, and his demeanor calm.

Yet the moment he appeared, every formation pattern on Dragon-Suppressing Pass began to tremble.

The Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation seemed to have encountered the true lord of the Four Seas, emitting a low hum.

Ao Lie immediately dropped to one knee.

"Greetings, Your Majesty the Ancestral Dragon."

Ao Xuan and Ao Cang stood behind him, both lowering their heads as well.

The various races of Guixu felt tremendous pressure.

Han Jue clenched his long spear, his palm trembling faintly.

This was not cowardice.

It was the body's instinctive reaction when facing an ultimate powerhouse.

Phoenix Li, too, truly felt the Ancestral Dragon's might for the first time.

She murmured, "So this is the lord of the Dragon Clan..."

Lin Yue's expression was solemn.

"No wonder the Dragon Clan could suppress the Four Seas during the Three-Clan Hegemony."

Lan Shuang drew a deep breath and forcibly steadied herself.

She knew that this was not the time to panic.

With the Ancestral Dragon Dao Thought personally arriving, the Emperor would certainly appear.

Inside and outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass, everyone waited.

The Ancestral Dragon raised his head and looked into the depths of Guixu.

"Mysterious Abyss Emperor."

"I have come."

His voice was not loud.

Yet it passed directly through Dragon-Suppressing Pass and entered the Ruins Sea Eye.

When Lu Chen heard that voice, he had already started cursing inwardly.

He really came.

The Ancestral Dragon had really come.

Though it was only a Dao Thought, its oppressive presence was far stronger than Ao Cang's.

Fortunately, it was not the Ancestral Dragon's true body.

If his true body had descended, Lu Chen would probably have to consider sealing Guixu shut and playing dead.

The system offered no choice.

That meant he had to handle this himself.

Lu Chen gritted his teeth and condensed the Guixu Dharma Body.

A phantom of a Black Tortoise ten thousand zhang tall emerged above Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

Compared to when he had faced Ao Cang, an additional layer of hazy, Heaven-Deceiving aura now surrounded the Dharma Body.

The Great Dream Black Tortoise Technique silently merged into it as well.

The Ancestral Dragon raised his head and saw through many things at a glance.

"Your true body is not here."

Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat.

As expected.

The Ancestral Dragon was far harder to deceive than Ao Cang.

However, he had long prepared for such a situation.

"My true body is in seclusion and does not receive outside guests."

The Ancestral Dragon did not grow angry upon hearing this.

He merely watched the Guixu Dharma Body, faint golden light flowing through his eyes.

"You seem to enjoy seclusion."

Lu Chen very much wanted to say, If I don't cultivate in seclusion, should I go out and court death instead?

But he could not say that before the Ancestral Dragon.

"Those who cultivate should quietly uphold their own path."

The Ancestral Dragon nodded slightly.

"Your own path."

"Is your path to shelter the fleeing members of my Dragon Clan?"

There it was.

Everyone at Dragon-Suppressing Pass tensed.

But Lu Chen had long considered his answer.

"Those who enter Guixu are judged only by cause and effect, not by their origins."

The Ancestral Dragon's gaze shifted slightly.

Once those words fell, Dragon-Suppressing Pass became even quieter.

Of course the Ancestral Dragon understood the weight of those words.

The Dragon Clan's rule over the Four Seas relied in large part on origin, bloodline, and clan order.

True Dragon stood supreme.

Flood Dragon came next.

The aquatic races served beneath them.

The weak races obeyed their commands.

This was the order of the Four Seas established by the Dragon Clan.

Yet Guixu's statement—judging only cause and effect, not origins—almost completely bypassed the Dragon Clan's entire system of order.

Within Guixu, Dragon Clan bloodlines were no longer inherently noble.

Nor were those born of minor races destined to be lowly.

Those burdened by killing karma would be punished.

Those with merit would be rewarded.

Whoever entered Guixu had to pass the Book of Cause and Effect.

This was what truly interested the Ancestral Dragon.

He did not immediately refute it, merely asking, "If one of Dragon Clan blood and a creature from a minor race enter Guixu together, how would you handle them?"

Lu Chen said, "According to Guixu's rules."

"If a member of the Dragon Clan breaks the rules?"

"Punish them."

"If a member of a minor race breaks the rules?"

"The same punishment."

The Ancestral Dragon smiled.

"It sounds fair."

Lu Chen did not respond.

The less he said, the better.

The Ancestral Dragon's gaze swept across Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

He saw Ao Lie.

He saw Feng Li.

He saw Lin Yue.

He also saw Han Jue, Lan Shuang, Ancestor Xuan Jia, and Lady Mingzhu.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the embryonic aura of the Three Lives Gate, which had yet to be fully established.

Although the Three Lives Gate had not yet formally appeared, a unique order had already taken embryonic shape between the Book of Cause and Effect, the Guixu Womb Membrane, Dragon-Suppressing Pass, and the Northern Darkness Sea.

At last, a trace of seriousness appeared in the Ancestral Dragon's eyes.

"You are gathering the Three Clans' Flame Seeds."

Lu Chen's heart jolted.

Those words were far too sensitive.

He immediately denied it.

"Guixu only accepts those fleeing tribulation."

The Ancestral Dragon stared at him.

"Those fleeing tribulation are often the sparks."

Lu Chen fell silent.

There seemed to be no way to refute that.

The Ancestral Dragon did not need his answer.

He continued, "You refuse to leave Guixu, refuse to enter the conflict among the three races, yet take in my Dragon Clan Remnant Lineage."

"What exactly do you wish to see?"

Lu Chen sighed inwardly.

See what?

He only wanted to see whether he could keep his four legs.

But he certainly could not say such a thing.

He could only continue maintaining his inscrutable air.

"The tides rise and fall."

The Ancestral Dragon's eyes narrowed.

"Tides rise and fall."

"Do you think the Dragon Clan will ever ebb?"

The moment that question was asked, the atmosphere at Dragon-Suppressing Pass became oppressive to the extreme.

Ao Lie suddenly raised his head.

Lan Shuang was shaken to the core.

Phoenix Li, Lin Yue, and Han Jue all held their breath as well.

This was absolutely no ordinary test.

The Ancestral Dragon was asking about the Dragon Clan's greater fate.

A poor answer might provoke the Ancestral Dragon's wrath.

Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat as well.

This question was far too difficult.

To say the Dragon Clan would not fall was to defy the greater trend.

To say the Dragon Clan would fall would easily offend the Ancestral Dragon on the spot.

Lu Chen remained silent for a long while.

The people of Dragon-Suppressing Pass fell silent with him.

The Ancestral Dragon did not urge him.

He simply gazed calmly at the Guixu Dharma Body, as though he truly wanted to hear an answer.

At last, Lu Chen slowly spoke.

"The Three Clans have reached the height of prosperity, and their karmic burden has grown heavy."

"The Fortune of heaven and earth is like tides. Once it rises to its peak, it must eventually recede."

"Guixu does not take in those who vie for supremacy. It only takes in living beings fleeing calamity."

When his words fell,

the entire Northern Sea became terrifyingly silent.

The Ancestral Dragon said nothing.

Yet Ao Lie felt as though something were pressing down on his chest.

The Three Clans have reached the height of prosperity, and their karmic burden has grown heavy.

The Fortune of heaven and earth is like tides. Once it rises to its peak, it must eventually recede.

Those words had almost directly exposed the hidden danger in the Dragon Clan's future.

Yet spoken by Lu Chen, they carried not the slightest trace of mockery.

There was only a calm so cold it was nearly cruel.

For the first time, the Ancestral Dragon truly fell silent as he looked at the Black Tortoise Dharma Body.