Chapter Summaries

Ao Han’s commanders planned how to cross the Weak Water Boundary while guarding against ambushes, and Ao Han ordered the central army to carry the birthday gifts. The vanguard crossed first and began recovering its spiritual power as General Lei’s troops entered the boundary.

• General Lei volunteered to counter a possible Spear Fish Striking Water Formation with his Lightning Flash, Dragon Cry battle formation, and Ao Han approved.
• Ao Dongping proposed moving the birthday gifts with the central army, while Ao Zhenyuan warned that the wagons could slow the crossing and leave the vanguard vulnerable.
• Ao Han accepted Ao Dongping’s proposal and said the army would reorganize after crossing so it could deploy the Dragon Soaring Across the Four Seas Battle Formation.
• After four more hours, the army reached the Weak Water Boundary, and the vanguard prepared to cross while General Lei assembled his troops for the second wave.
• The vanguard crossed, formed the Cloud Whale Dragon Plate battle formation, and began replenishing its spiritual power; General Lei’s demon troops then entered the Weak Water.

The army crossed the Weak Water while Military Advisor Li scouted ahead, but Cui Jiuyang became stuck when the barrier blocked him and his mount passed through. The enemy launched a pincer attack from both sides, and General Lei formed the Lightning Flash, Dragon Cry Battle Formation to face the incoming spear.

• Military Advisor Li used his Sea-Listening Divine Ability and signaled General Lei that no ambush lay within sixty li.
• Ao Han arranged the central army and birthday-gift wagons to cross the Weak Water in formation.
• Cui Jiuyang was blocked by the Weak Water and fell from his seahorse, while Ao Dongping crossed by withdrawing into his shell.
• A phantom spear from the Spear Fish Striking the Water Battle Formation attacked the vanguard as a Black Dragon phantom appeared behind the army.
• Ao Han recognized the Black Dragon Shocking the World Battle Formation as Ao Bo's and saw his central army trapped across the Weak Water.
• General Lei formed the Lightning Flash, Dragon Cry Battle Formation, summoning a lightning dragon to confront the phantom spear.

Ao Han used Bloodline Summons to bring his central army through the weak water and prepared to counter Ao Bo’s ambush. After the armies recovered and formed up, Ao Han’s sword strike shattered the devil ray’s battle formation.

• Ao Han realized the central army would not cross the weak water before Black Dragon Shocks the World arrived, while Cui Jiuyang helped Ao Dongping move the treasure wagons aside.
• Cui Jiuyang concealed the trace of his true-form aura as General Lei fought the Spear Fish Great Demon and two more enemy formations appeared: a devil ray and a Tiger-Head Shark.
• Ao Han used a command token and Dragon Qi to synchronize his soldiers’ bloodlines, allowing the remaining central army to cross the weak water at the cost of much of their Demonic Power.
• Ao Han ordered the central army to form Dragon Soaring Across the Four Seas and recover while the vanguard and central army prepared to face the enemy formations.
• Once the armies had recovered, Ao Han attacked from the golden-armored Divine Dragon and shattered the devil ray’s battle formation with one sword strike.

Cui Jiuyang secretly rescued General Lei from the Spear Fish demon’s deadly attack and bound him as a new servant, while Ao Han and Ao Bo prepared to fight after Ao Bo’s army crossed the Weak Water. The chapter left the Dragon Princes facing off as the tiger shark and Cloud Whale formations resumed battle.

• Cui Jiuyang used a dragon-qi-infused Water-Defense Shield and the Five Warlords Register to save General Lei and conceal his new allegiance from the Dragon Palace.
• Cui Jiuyang gave General Lei the Ten Directions Demon Army battle formation, delighting the newly bound servant.
• Ao Bo crossed the Weak Water with the Black Dragon Shocking the World Battle Formation and confronted Ao Han.
• Ao Han questioned Ao Bo’s mastery of bloodline assimilation, and the brothers exchanged accusations before taking their fighting stances.
• The tiger shark formation charged back into battle against the Cloud Whale Coiling Dragon Formation while the Spear Fish demons rested and recovered their power.

Ao Han turned the battle against Ao Bo with a hidden blue-light attack that pierced both his brother and the Black Dragon projection, leaving Ao Bo defeated. As Ao Han collapsed from his wounds, Cui Jiuyang suspected the blue light was an Innate Magical Treasure and wondered whether Ao Han had refined it himself.

• Ao Bo attacked Ao Han, while their dragon projections fought and the other battle formations clashed below.
• Ao Dongping told Cui Jiuyang that General Lei had died and assessed Ao Han's prospects as poor.
• The Spear Fish Striking the Water Formation joined the fight against the Cloud Whale Coiling Dragon Battle Formation, helping Ao Bo's side gain the advantage.
• Ao Han unleashed a streak of blue light that pierced Ao Bo's chest and the Black Dragon projection, allowing the golden Divine Dragon to defeat it.
• Ao Bo fell, and Ao Han landed badly wounded as Cui Jiuyang wondered whether the blue light was an Innate Magical Treasure.

After killing Ao Bo, Ao Han forced the surviving dragon soldiers to choose between serving him and dying, then continued toward the Dragon Palace. He asked Ao Dongping how to face the Dragon King, while Ao Dongping began reflecting on how much Ao Han had changed.

• Ao Han ordered Ao Dongping and Cui Jiuyang to retrieve Ao Bo’s body and bring back the wounded dragon soldiers.
• Ao Dongping used a turtle shell to shrink Ao Bo’s corpse, while the lesser demons ate the dead dragon soldiers and Dragon Guards in the coral thickets.
• Ao Han offered his dragon blood to the captured soldiers; most accepted his rule, and his guards killed those who refused.
• Ao Han extracted and swallowed Ao Bo’s Dragon Pearl, stored the corpse, and led the party onward into the Dragon Palace’s sphere of influence.
• Ao Han asked Ao Dongping how to answer the Dragon King for Ao Bo’s death, and Ao Dongping advised him to tell the truth about the attack.
• Ao Han asked whether Ao Dongping had questions about recent events, prompting the old turtle to recall their first meeting outside the Dragon Palace school.

Ao Dongping worried that Ao Han’s secret blue-light attack might require a terrible price and discussed how to explain Ao Bo’s death to the Dragon King. Cui Jiuyang advised telling the truth while withholding details, matching the plan Ao Dongping had already given Ao Han.

• Ao Dongping told Ao Han they would explain the truth to the Dragon King, then returned to the rear camp.
• Ao Dongping wondered whether Ao Han’s blue light came from the Sea Eye Spell Canon and feared its use might impose a devastating cost on the caster or others.
• Cui Jiuyang finished the battle report, and Ao Dongping recognized him as a student to whom he wanted to pass on his experience.
• Ao Dongping asked Cui Jiuyang how they should answer the Dragon King’s questions about Ao Bo’s death.
• Cui Jiuyang proposed saying they had come with congratulatory gifts and that Ao Bo had suddenly ambushed them, while letting the gift inventory reveal other irregularities.
• Ao Dongping laughed with relief and told Cui Jiuyang that he had given Ao Han the same advice.

Cui Jiuyang grew close to Ao Dongping as a student while the army recovered, then accompanied Ao Han’s procession to the Dragon Palace. Ao Han reached the palace gates and learned that the Dragon King had been waiting for him for several days.

• Cui Jiuyang listened to Ao Dongping’s lessons about Dragon Palace affairs and accepted him as a teacher despite his false identity as Yang Chenghu.
• Ao Dongping entrusted military duties to Cui Jiuyang and Military Advisor Zhang while grieving General Lei devoted himself to the rear army and General Lei practiced inside the Five Warlords Register.
• Ao Han ordered the rested forces to resume their journey, and they soon saw the Dragon Palace ahead.
• A lobster chief steward welcomed Ao Han at the palace gates, and Ao Han secretly gave him dragon scales taken from Ao Bo’s body.
• The chief steward told Ao Han that the Dragon King had been waiting for him for several days.

Ao Han returned to the Dragon Palace and followed the lobster chief steward’s advice to visit his mother before seeing the Dragon King. As Ao Han and the Third Consort went together to the Dragon King’s study, his retainers discussed how her family’s influence might help him face his father.

• Ao Han gave the lobster chief steward dragon scales and learned that the Dragon King’s anger had worsened while his mother had stayed safely in her chambers.
• Ao Han sent his troops to the barracks, brought a few trusted retainers into the Dragon Palace, and went alone to visit his mother.
• Ao Dongping, Ao Zhenyuan, and Cui Jiuyang waited in a side hall and chatted about the Dragon Palace’s lavish banquets.
• Ao Zhenyuan spotted Ao Han ascending toward the Dragon King’s study alongside the Third Consort.
• Ao Dongping said the Third Consort could ease the father-and-son meeting, and the retainers recognized the importance of her natal group’s political power.

Ao Han left the Dragon Palace for the barracks after his audience with the old Dragon King, where he learned that his father’s authority had weakened and reflected on killing Ao Bo. He ordered his men to establish a camp in the ruined barracks and told his core subordinates what had happened in the study.

• Ao Han emerged from the study and told his followers that they would stay at the barracks outside the city instead of the palace.
• Ao Zhenyuan told Ao Han that a Dragon Whale close to Ao Lie commanded the palace guards, and Ao Han angrily complained about being watched by patrols.
• Ao Han found the assigned barracks in ruins, and Ao Dongping reasoned that a Striped Shark General had deliberately given them poor quarters at someone else’s direction.
• Ao Han ordered his troops to pitch tents and summoned his core subordinates to his command tent.
• Ao Han described how the old Dragon King had lost the force to intimidate him, recounted their argument over Ao Bo’s death, and concluded that killing Ao Bo had also destroyed part of his father’s authority.

Ao Han and Ao Dongping assessed the eldest prince Ao Lie’s seizure of Ao Lei’s fief as a probe of the Dragon King’s authority. Cui Jiuyang noticed something strange about Ao Han’s cultivation and decided to sneak into his tent to investigate.

• Ao Lie’s forces seized Ao Lei’s fief, and Ao Lei disappeared after the eldest prince accused him of supporting an attack on his merfolk harvesting tribe.
• Ao Dongping told Ao Han that Ao Lie was testing whether the Dragon King would intervene, while Ao Han recalled the brothers’ longstanding conflicts.
• After leaving Ao Han’s tent, Cui Jiuyang sensed unusual Dragon Qi leaking through a gap in its Restrictive Spells.
• Ao Dongping advised Cui Jiuyang not to show doubt in Ao Han, and Cui Jiuyang’s attempt to divine the source of the strange aura yielded no answers.
• That night, Cui Jiuyang returned to his human form, concealed his tent, and prepared to use the Five Elements Evasion Technique to enter Ao Han’s tent.

Cui Jiuyang infiltrated Ao Han’s command tent to investigate a strange dragon qi and discovered Ao Han cultivating with an icy-blue object. When urgent news arrived, Ao Han swallowed the object before Cui Jiuyang could identify it.

• Cui Jiuyang bypassed the ancient runic barriers around Ao Han’s tent by altering them with his essence blood.
• He searched the tent and found no clues among Ao Han’s military orders and belongings.
• Cui Jiuyang crept to the screen and glimpsed an icy-blue object with dark red traces resting across Ao Han’s knees.
• A Dragon Guard announced urgent news, and Ao Han swallowed the object in a flash of blue light.
• Cui Jiuyang recognized the object as possibly the Innate Magical Treasure that had killed Ao Bo.

Cui Jiuyang spied on Ao Han, learned that the Second and Third Princes had fallen into the Bottomless Sea Trench, and considered killing Ao Han before deciding to wait for answers. The next morning, he followed Ao Dongping and Ao Zhenyuan to hear the Dragon King's decree, which appeared to settle the succession decision.

• A Dragon Guard told Ao Han that the Second and Third Princes had fallen into the Bottomless Sea Trench, and Ao Han privately celebrated their apparent deaths.
• Cui Jiuyang found no clues about the ice-blue object, considered killing the drunken Ao Han, then abandoned the idea and left.
• The next morning, Cui Jiuyang learned that Ao Han had summoned Ao Dongping after a herald delivered a decree from the Dragon King.
• Cui Jiuyang caught up with Ao Dongping and Ao Zhenyuan, then followed them into Ao Han's main tent to hear the decree.

After the Dragon King decreed that his sons would compete for the East Sea succession in fifteen days, Ao Han's officers debated his chances. Ao Dongping advised him to build alliances and hinted that the best strategy against Ao Ming was to prevent him from reaching the contest.

• Ao Han announced the Dragon King's decree ordering every Dragon Prince to compete in combat for the throne.
• The officers argued about Ao Han's prospects and the dangers of the contest until Ao Han ended their debate and invited them to offer plans privately.
• Ao Dongping told Ao Han that six princes were already unlikely to compete and identified Ao Xin, Ao Yi, and Ao Ming as his main remaining rivals.
• Ao Han and Ao Dongping discussed winning over Ao Xin and asking Ao Yi to oppose the eldest prince in the arena.
• Ao Dongping warned that Ao Ming would fight Ao Han to the death over Ao Bo's murder and said the superior strategy was to keep him from entering the arena.

Ao Han visited Ao Tai with Cui Jiuyang to ask about the old attack, but found his younger brother severely disturbed and abusing his servants. The visit ended with Ao Han demanding to know whether any maids had conceived a dragon child.

• Cui Jiuyang warned Ao Han that the unidentified attacker behind earlier princes’ defeats might be Ao Xin, and advised him to question Ao Tai.
• Ao Dongping sent Cui Jiuyang with Ao Han to visit Ao Tai while he returned to the military camp.
• Ao Han learned that Ao Tai still feared a North Sea Cold Li Dragon and had been hiding in his residence since the attack.
• Ao Han and Cui Jiuyang saw that servants had removed much of the hall’s furnishings, though Ao Han chose not to confront them.
• Ao Han found Ao Tai naked and demanding that a maid continue playing with him, while the maid insisted the servants had not seduced him.
• Ao Han asked whether any of Ao Tai’s maids had conceived a dragon child, and the maid denied it.

Ao Han questioned the deranged Ao Tai about the attacks that had left him mentally impaired, but Ao Tai's confused answers revealed little. Cui Jiuyang summoned Yixin, a Mind-Bewitching Insect demon, to enter Ao Tai's mind and uncover the truth, leaving them about to begin the investigation.

• Ao Han restrained Ao Tai, sent the frightened palace maid away, and questioned his brother about the attacks and his injuries.
• Ao Tai gave confused and contradictory descriptions of his attackers, while Cui Jiuyang struggled to hold back his laughter.
• Ao Han gave up questioning Ao Tai and left Cui Jiuyang alone with him, after which Cui Jiuyang knocked Ao Tai unconscious.
• Cui Jiuyang summoned Yixin and explained that they needed to learn what had happened to Ao Tai.
• Yixin agreed to use his innate ability to enter Ao Tai's mind, and Cui Jiuyang agreed to protect him as Yixin prepared to release his insect blood.

Cui Jiuyang and Yixin entered Ao Tai’s mind to uncover memories of the attack that had made him mad, but repeated dream reenactments failed to identify his enemy. The chapter left them testing whether Ao Bo’s Black Dragon Shocks the World had triggered Ao Tai’s trauma.

• Yixin used a blood formation and Cui Jiuyang’s spiritual power to enter Ao Tai’s mind while an illusion covered their absence.
• Cui Jiuyang and Yixin found Ao Tai’s thoughts filled with palace maids, then traveled to a blank mental space where Yixin heard the waves Ao Tai longed for.
• Yixin summoned Ao Tai’s consciousness into a formation and explained that they would replay possible attacks to awaken his memories.
• Cui Jiuyang tried fire, lightning, cold, floods, trees, and blades, but Ao Tai’s reactions showed that none matched the attack.
• Cui Jiuyang imitated Ao Bo’s Black Dragon Shocks the World, and Ao Tai recognized the aura as his Seventh Brother’s.

Cui Jiuyang and Yixin questioned Ao Tai inside his mind, and Ao Han learned that the attacker may have used the Dragon-Binding Technique. Ao Dongping began recounting an ancient record of a Heavenly Court immortal’s visit, leaving the account unfinished as his ancestor was about to receive the immortal.

• Cui Jiuyang and Yixin made Ao Tai reveal that his attacker had mastered Crossing Waves and the Dragon-Binding Technique, then Cui Jiuyang struck him down with Heavenly Thunder.
• Cui Jiuyang awakened Ao Tai, who fell back into madness and asked for palace maids; Ao Han sent the maids to attend him.
• Cui Jiuyang told Ao Han that Ao Tai’s attacker had used the Dragon-Binding Technique, prompting Ao Han to suspect a connection to the Heavenly Court.
• Ao Han and Cui Jiuyang returned to camp, where Ao Dongping arrived and said his ancestor’s books recorded a Heavenly Court immortal visiting the East Sea.
• Ao Dongping recounted that the immortal had come to investigate a great demon’s escape from Guixu, and that his ancestor had been summoned to receive him.

Ao Han and Cui Jiuyang traveled west to ambush Ao Ming before he reached the Dragon Palace arena, using a mountain of magnetic source stone as cover. Cui Jiuyang hid inside Ao Han’s cave and watched as Ao Han prepared to merge with his ice-blue Magical Treasure.

• Ao Dongping explained that the Dragon-Binding Technique drew on the Binding Dragon Rope’s bloodline-suppressing power, and Ao Han decided to intercept Ao Ming on the way to the Dragon Palace.
• Ao Han arranged for Ao Dongping to conceal his absence, then changed into a jade pendant and had Cui Jiuyang carry him west past the Dragon Palace patrols.
• After traveling three hundred li, Ao Han resumed his dragon form, transformed into a sea snake, and continued west with Cui Jiuyang concealed on his tail.
• Ao Han’s transformation consumed much of his demonic power, so he stopped to recover during the journey while Cui Jiuyang watched for signs of the unusual dragon qi.
• Ao Han and Cui Jiuyang chose a magnetic-source-stone mountain as an ambush site, and Ao Han hid in a cave to merge with his Magical Treasure.
• Cui Jiuyang used the Five-Phase Escape Technique to hide inside the cave wall and saw Ao Han’s ice-blue, elongated Magical Treasure.

Cui Jiuyang spied on Ao Han and discovered that he was using an ice-blue treasure to gradually alter his aura and cultivate. After Ao Han revealed that Ao Bo had possessed the treasure’s original material, Cui Jiuyang grew convinced the Dragon Princes were involved in something alarming, but a powerful being approached before he could confront Ao Han.

• Cui Jiuyang sensed Spiritual Power cycling between Ao Han and an ice-blue Innate Magical Treasure, and realized the treasure was slowly changing Ao Han.
• After watching Ao Han for three days, Cui Jiuyang noticed his aura becoming colder and suspected the treasure was transforming his Dragon Body.
• Ao Han took out Ao Bo’s corpse, cut away dragon meat, and explained that his Seventh Brother had used a treasure to strengthen himself rather than refine it into a weapon.
• Cui Jiuyang crushed the dragon meat and saw blue specks within it, realizing Ao Bo had merged the treasure’s natural material into his body while Ao Han had first refined it into a Magical Treasure.
• Ao Han smeared the pulp onto the treasure, which absorbed the blue specks, and Cui Jiuyang connected the discovery to strange Dragon Qi and resolved to confront him.
• A powerful being approached Magnetic Source Mountain just as Cui Jiuyang was about to draw Three Chi Seven.