Outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass.
The wind was calm, and the waves were still.
A hundred years had passed since the Ancestral Dragon's Dragon Token departed.
Throughout those hundred years, Abyss 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 easily.
They simply did not know how he would come.
Lu Chen was especially so.
He had not slept peacefully for those hundred years.
The Ancestral Dragon might make a move at any time, so he had to prepare in advance.
The Heaven-Deceiving Tortoise Shell had been activated to its limit.
The Great Dream Black Tortoise Technique stood ready at all times.
Lu Chen had even secretly added three layers of tortoise-breath sealing restrictions to the outer layer of the Abyssal Womb Membrane.
In short.
Hide as deeply as possible.
Do not reveal the true body unless absolutely necessary.
On this day.
The skies above Dragon-Suppressing Pass suddenly fell silent.
The currents of the Northern Sea froze in an instant.
It was as though the entire sea had voluntarily lowered its head.
Ao Lie was the first to notice something amiss.
He abruptly looked up toward the Eastern Sea.
A thread of golden waterlight was traveling along the water veins of the Four Seas.
Though the waterlight appeared faint, it carried an indescribably ancient majesty.
Ao Lie's pupils suddenly constricted.
"Ancestral Dragon..."
At Dragon-Suppressing Pass, every Dragon Clan bloodline instinctively bowed low at that moment.
Even Ao Lie could not stop himself from lowering his dragon head.
Feng Li, Lin Yue, Han Jue, and the others felt an equally overwhelming pressure.
This pressure differed from that of the Blackwater Dragon King and Ao Cang.
It was older, more majestic.
It was as though the authority of the entire Four Seas had descended alongside that golden waterlight.
Lan Shuang stood atop the pass walls, the Book of Cause and Effect flipping wildly in her hands.
Yet the Book of Cause and Effect could only reveal an endless expanse of golden light.
Within that golden light, a True Dragon seemed to coil across the Four Seas.
Ancestor Xuan Jia's expression grew solemn to the extreme.
"The Ancestral Dragon's Dao Thought."
The moment his words fell.
The golden waterlight descended outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass and transformed into a middle-aged man in black robes.
The man was not particularly tall.
His features were profound, and his expression calm.
Yet the instant he appeared, every formation pattern at Dragon-Suppressing Pass began to tremble.
The Black Tortoise Sea-Calming Formation seemed to have encountered the true master of the Four Seas, letting out a deep hum.
Ao Lie immediately dropped to one knee.
"Greetings, Your Majesty Ancestral Dragon."
Ao Xuan and Ao Cang stood behind him, their heads lowered as well.
The various races of Abyss, meanwhile, felt immense pressure.
Han Jue clenched his spear, his palm trembling faintly.
This was not fear.
It was his body's instinctive reaction when facing an absolute powerhouse.
For the first time, Feng Li truly felt the Ancestral Dragon's might as well.
She murmured, "So this is the lord of the Dragon Clan..."
Lin Yue's expression was grave.
"No wonder the Dragon Clan could suppress the Four Seas during the Three-Clan Hegemony."
Lan Shuang took a deep breath and forcibly steadied herself.
She knew she could not lose her composure at a time like this.
With the Ancestral Dragon's 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 toward the depths of Abyss.
"Mysterious Abyss Emperor."
"I have come."
His voice was not loud.
Yet it pierced straight through Dragon-Suppressing Pass and entered the Abyss Sea Eye.
The moment Lu Chen heard that voice, he began cursing inwardly.
He really came.
The Ancestral Dragon really came.
Though it was only a Dao Thought, its oppressive aura far surpassed 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 off Abyss and playing dead.
The system offered no choice.
That meant he had to deal with this himself.
Lu Chen steeled himself and condensed the Abyss Dharma Body.
A phantom Black Tortoise ten thousand zhang tall appeared above Dragon-Suppressing Pass.
Compared with when he faced Ao Cang, the Dharma Body now had an additional layer of hazy, Heaven-Deceiving aura.
The Great Dream Black Tortoise Technique silently merged into it as well.
The Ancestral Dragon looked up and saw through many things at a glance.
"Your true body is not here."
Lu Chen's heart jolted.
As expected.
The Ancestral Dragon was far harder to fool than Ao Cang.
Still, he had prepared for this situation long ago.
"My true body is in seclusion and does not receive outside guests."
The Ancestral Dragon did not grow angry upon hearing that.
He merely looked at the Abyss Dharma Body, faint golden light flowing through his eyes.
"You seem to enjoy seclusion."
Lu Chen wanted to say, If I don't stay in seclusion, should I go out and throw my life away?
But he could not say that before the Ancestral Dragon.
"Those who cultivate should naturally remain still and uphold their own path."
The Ancestral Dragon nodded slightly.
"One's 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 since prepared his answer.
"Those who enter Abyss are judged only by cause and effect, never by origin."
The Ancestral Dragon's gaze shifted slightly.
After 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 the order of the clan.
True Dragons were supreme.
Flood dragons came next.
The Water Clan served beneath them.
Weak races obeyed their commands.
This was the order of the Four Seas established by the Dragon Clan.
Yet Abyss's words, judging only cause and effect rather than origin, nearly bypassed the Dragon Clan's entire system of order.
Within Abyss, Dragon Clan bloodlines were no longer innately noble.
Nor were those born of lesser races destined to be lowly.
Those burdened with killing karma were punished.
Those with Merit were rewarded.
Whoever entered Abyss had to pass the Book of Cause and Effect.
This was what truly interested the Ancestral Dragon.
He did not refute it at once, merely asking, "If one of Dragon Clan bloodline and a living being from a lesser race entered Abyss together, how would you handle them?"
Lu Chen replied, "According to Abyss's rules."
"What if the Dragon Clan member broke the rules?"
"Punishment."
"What if the lesser race member broke 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 nascent aura of the Three Lives Gate, which had yet to be fully established.
Although the Three Lives Gate had not officially appeared yet, a special embryonic order had already formed between the Book of Cause and Effect, the Abyssal 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 skipped a beat.
Those words were far too sensitive.
He immediately denied it.
"Abyss only accepts those seeking refuge from calamity."
The Ancestral Dragon stared at him.
"Those seeking refuge from calamity are often the flame seeds."
Lu Chen fell silent.
There seemed to be no way to refute that.
Nor did the Ancestral Dragon need his answer.
He continued, "You refuse to leave Abyss, refuse to enter the conflict of the three clans, yet you take in remnants of my Dragon Clan."
"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 intact.
But he absolutely could not say such a thing.
He could only continue maintaining his profound facade.
"To watch the tides rise and fall."
The Ancestral Dragon's gaze sharpened.
"The tide rose and fell."
"Do you think the Dragon Clan would ever fall?"
The moment that question was asked, the atmosphere at Dragon-Suppressing Pass grew oppressive to the extreme.
Ao Lie jerked his head up.
Lan Shuang's mind shook.
Feng 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 overall fate.
A wrong answer might provoke the Ancestral Dragon's wrath.
Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat too.
This question was far too difficult.
To say the Dragon Clan would not fall went against the greater trend.
To say the Dragon Clan would fall could easily offend the Ancestral Dragon on the spot.
Lu Chen remained silent for a long while.
The people of Dragon-Suppressing Pass also fell silent.
The Ancestral Dragon did not urge him.
He simply watched the Abyss Dharma Body calmly, as though he truly wanted to hear an answer.
At last, Lu Chen slowly spoke.
"The three clans have reached the height of their prosperity, and their karmic burden has already grown heavy."
"The Fortune of heaven and earth is like the tide. Once it rises to its peak, it must eventually recede."
"Abyss does not take in those who vie for supremacy. It only takes in living beings seeking refuge from 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 heavily against his chest.
The three clans have reached the height of their prosperity, and their karmic burden has already grown heavy.
The Fortune of heaven and earth is like the tide. Once it rises to its peak, it must eventually recede.
Those words had practically laid bare the Dragon Clan's future danger.
Yet coming from Lu Chen, they carried not the slightest trace of mockery.
There was only a calmness so cold it was almost cruel.
The Ancestral Dragon gazed at the Black Tortoise Dharma Body and, for the first time, truly fell silent.