On the western side of the Dragon Palace, the light of the Night-Luminescent Pearls filtered through a pale golden barrier, looking a little dimmer than usual.
The Purple Sky Dragon King had been moved out of that dark underground chamber and now reclined on a cold jade couch spread with deep purple brocade. His complexion was still ashen, but the Death Markings at his temple had stopped spreading, as though some power had temporarily pinned them in place.
His eyes were lowered, watching the hand resting on his knee.
It was withered and pale, its knuckles slightly raised, its skin as thin as a sheet of soaked rice paper.
In more than a thousand years, he had never felt his own aging so clearly. Death could truly be right before his eyes.
Lin Shisan's Little Black Cauldron could strip away Mo Jiao's restrictions and the Gu Poison that had taken root in his body for a century, but it could also become a potent weapon in someone else's hands.
If he obtained that cauldron, not only could he remove the restrictions on his body once and for all, he could even claim the power contained within it for himself.
The Purple Sky Dragon King slowly raised his eyes toward the Dragon Scale Guards Commander standing before his couch.
"Make preparations. Go and try tonight. I want to see just how many trump cards this Human Race still has that I don't know about."
"Your Majesty, if the new king and the Eldest Princess..."
"They won't know, because you are Mo Jiao's covert agents."
"Understood."
"Understood, my lord." The Dragon Scale Guards Commander fell silent for a breath, bowed, and withdrew soundlessly from the bedchamber.
Lin Shisan sat by the window in his room in the Guest Courtyard, wiping away the