"This is simple enough to explain, but to me, it weighs a thousand tons."
Chen Ling sat cross-legged in his seat and spoke with a bitter smile.
"Some twenty years ago, when the late emperor was still alive, a dragon fell into the sea beyond the Huai River. My father, a newly surrendered general, received an imperial command to sail out and find the Dragon Corpse. He found it, but he also encountered that Dongyi Grand Commander. The man wasn't a Great Grandmaster yet, but he was already renowned among Grandmasters, and he had ample naval forces from both Dongyi and the Demon Race's islands with him... Naturally, the Great Wei navy was defeated in a single battle..."
"Once defeated, everyone fled in disarray, each seeking his own escape. Only my father, newly surrendered as he was, held to his imperial orders. Even after a Dongyi expert shattered his arm, he remained in his lone boat, preferring death to retreat. As they say, fortune and disaster are hard to predict. This actually won that Grand Commandant's admiration. He called out to stop him on the spot, then cut off an arm from the Dragon Corpse for my father to take back and show the late emperor."
"After he returned, the late emperor praised my father's loyalty and courage, then bestowed a piece of the dragon bone back on him, a fearsome thing covered in fine spines. Father brought it home and hired craftsmen, who spent half a year separating it. From it came forty golden awls, which he intended to pass down through the generations."
At this point, Chen Ling pointed a finger at Zhang Xing. "Zhang White Ribbon, do you understand what I'm saying?"
Zhang Xing nodded slowly. "If I'm not mistaken, you mean that keeping your Chen Clan