Eve of the Dragon-Han Final Battle: Secret Orders from the Three Clans Enter Guixu

After the Three Lives Gate purified the resentful souls, Guixu remained completely quiet for three hundred years.

That quiet did not mean the storms outside had ceased.

Quite the opposite.

Although the Calamity-Viewing Platform had sealed off the images of the main battlefield, more and more wounded were arriving from beyond Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

In Blackwater of the Northern Sea, shattered dragon scales, charred phoenix feathers, and cracked qilin horns could often be seen.

Carried by the currents to the outskirts of Dragon-Suppressing Pass, they resembled death notices drifting out from the depths of the Great Tribulation.

All the clans of Guixu knew that the true final battle was drawing near.

Eastern Sea.

Within Ancestral Dragon Palace, the Ancestral Dragon stared at the Four Seas water-transport map without moving for a long time.

On the map, the Dragon Clan's fortune remained immense.

Ten thousand dragons occupied the Four Seas.

Countless aquatic clans submitted to them.

Yet above that vast fortune, increasingly dense blood-red karmic burden had already begun to coil.

Ao Cang knelt below the hall and said quietly, "Your Majesty, the demonic aura in the west has grown ever more active."

The Ancestral Dragon's gaze remained calm.

"Luohou wants the three clans to slaughter each other to the bitter end."

Ao Cang's heart trembled.

"Since Your Majesty knows, then why still..."

He stopped halfway through his sentence.

The Ancestral Dragon did not blame him. He merely said lightly, "The Dragon Clan can no longer retreat."

The currents within the hall trembled faintly.

Those words were too heavy.

For the lord of the Four Seas to say with his own mouth that there was no retreat meant the Great Tribulation had already forced the Dragon Clan onto a dead end.

If they won, perhaps they could suppress it for a time.

If they lost, endless tribulations would bind them.

The Ancestral Dragon raised a hand.

The aura of the Ancestral Dragon's Reverse Scale flashed past.

The other half of that half-scale still remained in his palm.

"Send the secret order."

"If the Dragon Clan Main Lineage collapses, the young branches are forbidden from entering battle."

"Carry the aura of the Reverse Scale and head for Northern Sea Guixu."

Ao Cang abruptly raised his head.

"Your Majesty!"

The Ancestral Dragon looked at him.

"This is the final path I have left for the Dragon Clan."

Ao Cang's eyes reddened as he bowed heavily.

"Your command shall be obeyed."

At the same time.

Undying Volcano in the south.

Yuanfeng stood atop the volcano.

Above the heavens, the Phoenix Clan's fortune burned through the sky like divine fire, making all living things in the south tremble.

Yet beneath that divine fire, black-red karmic burden was hidden as well.

Yuanfeng looked at the lingering trace of aura upon the Frostflame Phoenix Feather.

She could sense that the Frost Phoenix Lineage was doing well in Guixu.

The Frostflame Parasol Tree had already taken root in the Northern Darkness Sea.

The Frost Phoenix fledglings cultivated the "Guixu Stillness Art" at the juvenile academy and no longer had to be driven onto battlefields of water and fire.

Zhu Yan stood in the distance, his expression complicated, not daring to say much.

Yuanfeng spoke.

"Send the Frost Phoenix secret order."

"If the Phoenix Clan Main Lineage suffers calamity, the fledglings and remnant branches must not follow the army into a desperate battle."

"Seek survival in Northern Sea Guixu."

Zhu Yan's expression changed drastically.

"Your Majesty, how can the Phoenix Clan..."

Yuanfeng glanced at him.

Zhu Yan immediately fell to his knees, and even the divine fire around his body trembled.

Yuanfeng's voice was cold.

"The Phoenix Clan may die in battle."

"The young branches should not burn away alongside us."

Zhu Yan pressed his forehead to the ground, unable to say another word.

Deep beneath the earth.

The Primordial Qilin stood before a stretch of fractured earth veins.

Behind him, the experts of the Qilin Clan stood in silent solemnity.

The earth's fortune was boundlessly heavy, yet war had already torn countless cracks through it.

The Primordial Qilin raised a hand, and another thread of the Earth-Vein Seal's aura fell into his palm.

He recalled what that Northern Sea Black Tortoise had once said.

Fortune that was too heavy would inevitably bring tribulation to those who bore it.

The more he pondered those words over the years, the heavier they felt.

The Qilin Clan bore the earth's fortune, yet was also held back by the earth's karmic burden.

The Primordial Qilin slowly spoke.

"Send the Water Qilin secret order."

"If the Buzhou Earth Veins collapse, the young branches and the wounded must not hold their ground to the death."

"Go to Guixu's Three Lives Gate."

A qilin elder's voice trembled.

"Your Majesty, can Guixu truly be trusted?"

The Primordial Qilin looked north.

"That Black Tortoise does not contend for fortune."

"Precisely because of that, he is more trustworthy than many of the Dragon Clan's waterside estates, the Phoenix Clan's volcanoes, and the Qilin Clan's spirit mountains."

Three secret orders were sent forth from the Eastern Sea, the south, and the depths of the earth.

They did not spread throughout the Primordial World.

They only fell into the hands of three young people.

Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

The night was deep.

Ao Lie sat cross-legged upon a black reef outside the outer gate when he suddenly felt the formation mark between his brows tremble faintly.

A strand of the Ancestral Dragon's Reverse Scale aura unfurled within his Primordial Spirit.

The Ancestral Dragon's voice entered his heart.

"If the Dragon Clan Main Lineage collapses, let the young branches enter Guixu."

"Ao Lie, guard the gate."

Ao Lie froze in place.

After a long while, he slowly lowered his head.

The Dragon Clan Main Lineage collapsing.

Those words struck his heart like a giant hammer.

He had never dared to imagine it.

Yet now, the Ancestral Dragon had personally delivered this secret order to him.

That meant the Ancestral Dragon had already seen some kind of future.

Beneath the Frostflame Parasol Tree in the outer city.

Feng Li also received Yuanfeng's secret order.

The Frostflame Phoenix Feather trembled gently, carrying Yuanfeng's cool voice.

"Frost Phoenix, survive."

"If Phoenix Clan fledglings come to Guixu, receive them."

Feng Li gripped the phoenix feather, her fingertips trembling faintly.

She knelt beneath the Frostflame Parasol Tree and did not raise her head for a long time.

On Mysterious Peak Mountain.

Lin Yue watched the Earth-Vein Seal light up.

The Primordial Qilin's voice was heavy and weary.

"The Water Qilin young branches are entrusted to Guixu's final hope."

"Lin Yue, guard Mysterious Peak Mountain well."

Lin Yue closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the mountain stone.

"Lin Yue accepts the command."

That night.

Ao Lie, Feng Li, and Lin Yue did not cultivate.

As if by unspoken agreement, they came to Dragon-Suppressing Pass.

Han Jue had been patrolling the pass. Seeing their expressions, he did not ask a single question.

He merely carried his spear over and sat beside them.

After a long while, Ao Lie said softly, "His Majesty the Ancestral Dragon told me to receive the young branches."

Feng Li's voice was very quiet.

"Her Majesty Yuanfeng told me to receive the Phoenix Clan's fledglings."

Lin Yue looked toward Mysterious Peak Mountain.

"His Majesty the Primordial Qilin entrusted the Water Qilin young branches to Guixu."

Han Jue remained silent.

This time, he did not bicker.

Nor did he say anything stirring.

He merely looked toward the Blackwater beyond Dragon-Suppressing Pass and slowly said, "Then we'll receive them."

Ao Lie looked at him.

Han Jue's voice was calm.

"When they come, let them pass through the Three Lives Gate."

"Those who follow the rules may stay."

"Those who want to kill people can be thrown into Calamity-Resolution Hall."

"I'll stab any demonic cultivator spies."

Ao Lie suddenly laughed.

A trace of gentleness appeared in Feng Li's eyes as well.

Lin Yue nodded softly.

That night, the four sat atop Dragon-Suppressing Pass, watching the black tide churn in the depths of the Northern Sea.

Everyone knew the great battle was coming.

Deep within Guixu.

Lu Chen also received Lan Shuang's report.

The secret orders of all three clans pointed toward Guixu.

He remained silent for a long time.

"They're treating Guixu like a storehouse for kindling."

The system's voice sounded in response.

"The rulers of the three clans have all left Guixu as an escape route for their young branches."

"Guixu's Three Lives Gate bears the karmic fate of the three clans' sparks."

"The Old Shell's fate-bearing capacity from the Chaos Shell-Shedding Method has increased."

Hearing that final sentence, Lu Chen's mood improved slightly.

Trouble was still trouble.

But the reward was genuinely tempting.

He opened a corner of the Calamity-Viewing Platform. Rather than looking at the main battlefield, he merely cast a distant glance toward the armies of the three clans.

Within the water mirror.

The Ancestral Dragon stood atop the Eastern Sea as ten thousand dragons marched out.

Yuanfeng spread her wings in the south, and a sea of fire rolled up like a heavenly curtain.

The Primordial Qilin shattered the earth beneath his feet as the Qilin Clan's battle formation advanced toward Buzhou Sea.

The armies of the three races moved at the same time.

The Dragon-Han Final Battle officially entered its countdown.

In the seventh year after the three races' armies set out, Blackwater beyond Dragon-Suppressing Pass turned blood-red.

At first, only scattered wounded arrived.

Later, they came in groups of surviving bloodlines.

Later still, the area outside Dragon-Suppressing Pass was already packed with fleeing refugees.