Era

Zhao Changhe immediately understood what that meant. As a man, this old emperor was scum through and through.

But right now, he did not even have the leisure to curse him.

The legacy of the top-ranked expert on the Heaven Ranking was clearly immensely powerful, perhaps not much inferior to the Azure Dragon Seal... Yet faced with a windfall that might make everyone under heaven green with envy, Zhao Changhe was frantic.

He wanted a windfall badly, but not this kind. He had just been thinking about escaping the "fate" of this Position Card, only for fate to stick itself to him again.

But just as Luo Qi could not shake off the Azure Dragon Seal, Zhao Changhe could not shake off the jade pendant either. He stamped his feet in fury. "Is this an Azure Dragon or a slug? Why does it keep sticking to people!"

"The legacy he left behind isn't necessarily related to the Azure Dragon. The genuine article is over here with me." Luo Qi regained his composure quickly, studying the scene before him with interest. "Logically, this thing probably can't compare to the Azure Dragon Seal. At the very least, it shouldn't have the effect of Meridian Washing and Marrow Tempering. If leaving a little intent or power inside an object could achieve that, it would be far too heaven-defying. Wouldn't you be able to mass-produce people with excellent innate aptitude?"

Zhao Changhe paused. That was true. The Azure Dragon Seal was presumably a legacy condensed over an entire lifetime, while a Jade Pendant like this clearly was not. If Xia Longyuan could casually imbue a Jade Pendant with the same effects as an ancient treasure like the Azure Dragon Seal, that would be far too heaven-defying.

"I think it's more likely that it simply passes on a cultivation art, both to give his 'child' the strength to protect himself and to identify him in the future. After all, a jade pendant can be lost, destroyed, or copied, but the cultivation art is unique." Luo Qi glanced at Zhao Changhe's expression. "You don't want it? Don't panic. Try experiencing it first... If that's all it does, you can still choose not to learn it if you really don't want it. It's still within your control."

Zhao Changhe drew a deep breath and calmly examined his own body.

Luo Qi's judgment was correct.

There was indeed no effect of Meridian Washing and Marrow Tempering to transform his innate aptitude. It did nothing to address the disadvantage of his having started martial training too late, nor did it pour power straight into him and open his extraordinary meridians to instantly turn him into a first-rate expert.

Instead, a strange force traveled back and forth through his meridians, circulating without end. Essentially, it was showing him a route through the meridians for him to imitate-it really was only teaching him an internal cultivation method.

With this wisp of energy as a primer, Zhao Changhe could even skip the step of cultivating his first trace of internal energy from scratch, entering directly into internal cultivation.

This feat alone-leaving true qi inside an object for sixteen or seventeen years without it gradually dissipating, making it compatible with another person's body and able to operate according to a preset design, and even distinguishing between men and women before activating-truly lived up to the standard of the Heaven Ranking's number one. It was impressive indeed.

This meant that not only was the cultivation art unique, but the energy was unique as well. Anyone who cultivated with a wisp of Xia Longyuan's true qi as a primer would be recognized as his "child" the moment they met.

Zhao Changhe felt conflicted.

A superior internal cultivation art really was important to him.

Not only would he obtain a method more powerful than the Blood God Art, allowing him to cultivate internally and externally together, but more importantly, it might well eliminate the drawbacks of the Blood Baleful Art. Even Luo Qi's sharp, highly aggressive White Tiger Art had helped soothe his blood and qi back then. What about this gentler, vaster art an emperor had left for his child to practice?

Even if it could not completely eliminate the drawbacks, it could at least ease the pain and remove his dependence on medicine. There was hardly any doubt about that.

Zhao Changhe wrestled with it for three seconds.

Why shouldn't I learn it? To hell with fate.

Once again, he gave up fighting it and sprawled on the ground with his legs apart, without the slightest concern for appearances, letting that energy dart around inside him.

Seeing that he seemed to have gained something too, Luo Qi's earlier unease over "stealing his windfall" largely faded. Watching Zhao Changhe quietly examine his own body, his beautiful eyes filled with tenderness. "Changhe..."

"Hmm?"

"What are you thinking about? Is this art difficult? Do you need me to help figure it out?"

"Oh... It doesn't seem difficult." Zhao Changhe came back to himself and asked, "I was thinking, this legacy your father left doesn't seem capable of checking bloodlines. If someone else got the Jade Pendant, wouldn't he just be giving it away for nothing?"

"Bloodlines have always been difficult to check. People have found that when they test kinship by mingling blood, sometimes actual relatives' blood won't mingle, while a random passerby's might. I suspect he did set up a bloodline test, and yours just happens to be compatible with his?"

Zhao Changhe did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Though this world was fantastical, it was not fantastical to an absurd degree. They were still testing by blood type, not DNA... Of course that was unreliable.

Luo Qi said uncertainly, "Also, I imagine he thought Mother was very strong. She wasn't injured or ill, just pregnant. There was no reason she couldn't keep a jade pendant safe, so it shouldn't have fallen into anyone else's hands? Though I find that a little strange myself. He should have known Mother died, and then the pendant might not have remained safe..."

Zhao Changhe said, "Exactly. I can understand him not wanting to see your mother while she was alive, but once she died, why didn't he come take his child to the capital? Was it really just because this counted as an Imperial Family scandal? Or was the Empress's Lineage really that hard to deal with? This is all the greatest expert under heaven amounts to?"

Luo Qi shook his head absently. "Whatever the reason, neither of us is him. Who could possibly guess? Either way, what's done is done. There's not much point guessing what he was thinking back then..."

Luo Qi thought there was no point, but Zhao Changhe thought otherwise. Now, he could connect anything suspicious to the mystery of his transmigration and the fate represented by the Position Card.

Of course, Luo Qi was right too. They were not Xia Longyuan, so how could they know what he was thinking? However much they guessed, they would be no better than those bandits spreading rumors, filling in the blanks with their imaginations... He would probably have to find an opportunity to meet the emperor before he could unravel this.

While he was pondering this, the gentle glow of the Azure Dragon Seal on Luo Qi's side finally faded. A sharp light seemed to flash through Luo Qi's eyes, vanishing in an instant.

The fifth level of the Profound Pass.

This was not the Azure Dragon Seal directly imparting power. Instead, it had improved his physical condition and expanded his meridians and acupoints, not only breaking through the barrier that had previously held him back, but also paving a smooth road ahead. He might never face another bottleneck from this point onward.

At the same time, it had probably also passed on some of the Azure Dragon Art...

A wondrous treasure that bestowed Meridian Washing and Marrow Tempering and passed down a divine art—it really had been perfectly suited to Zhao Changhe's circumstances. But now, with the White Tiger Art and Azure Dragon Aura illuminating each other, it was Luo Qi's future achievements that truly knew no bounds.

He exhaled and said softly, "I still feel like I got the better end of the deal."

"You..." Zhao Changhe laughed. "You're still going on about that... Hey, we seem to have been talking about you and the emperor all this time. Can you tell me a little about the Azure Dragon Seal too? You said you'd wanted it since you were little. Was that connected to your mother?"

Luo Qi nodded. "'Mang' means a hill where the dead are buried. In the previous era, this place was once the burial site of an emperor. This Azure Dragon Seal is actually an imperial seal."

Zhao Changhe froze again.

That seemed to match the explanation of "Mang Mountain" he had always known.

Right. In a sense, doesn't Luo Qi almost fit that line too? "Neither emperor nor king, a thousand chariots and ten thousand riders flee to North Mang"?

The strange connections between this world and his own...

"What do you mean by the previous era?"

"I'm not too clear on that. I was young then, and Mother didn't tell me much. She said the world wasn't like this before. It only became this way after a great cataclysm. Much of what we know now comes from surviving records of the previous era, things we've never actually seen-like Yao and Jie, whom you once asked me about."

Zhao Changhe was dumbstruck.

Fuck, don't tell me this is Earth Online after a reset? No, that's not right. Earth's era didn't have some mighty expert buried in North Mang who left behind an Azure Dragon Seal. It did have a whole bunch of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, though.

"What's buried in this imperial tomb should be the Azure Dragon Inheritance from the previous era. Dragons and emperors have always been closely connected. Naturally, the imperial tomb originally had many wards, but they weren't here. They were at the underground altar we saw. The Four Symbols Cult broke through them many years ago and emptied the place out. From the records buried with the emperor, they learned there was also an Azure Dragon Seal, a legacy he had left for someone destined to receive it. The legacy wasn't difficult to find, nor was there any danger. You just needed the right chance."

"So that's how it was... But if they broke through all those years ago, why did they only start looking now?"

"Because Mother was in charge of this matter back then. You could say that this affair misled her into choosing the current emperor, too. When the person responsible unexpectedly disappeared, the Four Symbols Cult lost its leads. I suppose someone rediscovered a clue many years later and only then started searching... Actually, I didn't know the exact location either, much less that it needed blood baleful energy to reveal itself." Luo Qi said softly, "Put that way, you were the one truly destined to receive it."

That was why he still felt a little guilty about stealing Zhao Changhe's opportunity. Zhao Changhe felt the opposite. He increasingly believed this thing had belonged to Luo Qi all along. Had he taken it himself, he would truly have cut off Luo Qi's path.

The difference in their attitudes came down to nothing more than whose interests they were considering.

I find the green mountains so enchanting; surely the green mountains see me the same way.

Seeing Luo Qi's guilty little expression, Zhao Changhe's throat bobbed, and he said softly, "This is clearly a wonderful thing. We both gained a windfall, so that month and more of hunger and cold in North Mang wasn't for nothing. Why are you still wearing such a miserable face...?"

"You... Your future is uncertain, and Xia Longyuan's cultivation art is clearly far inferior to the windfall offered by the Azure Dragon Seal." Luo Qi was torn. "And you've been dragged into the Imperial Family's troubles, too. It doesn't seem like what you wanted. I..."

Zhao Changhe suddenly stood and stepped closer.

Luo Qi instinctively took a step back.

In that tiny space, his back soon met the wall, leaving him nowhere to retreat.

Zhao Changhe lowered his head to look into his somewhat flustered eyes and said softly, "If my eldest senior brother feels so bad about it... then dress up as a girl and give your brother a little pleasure."