"Damn woman!"
The one who hid the deepest was actually the Third Prince Ao Xin. He had been secretly lying in wait long before those ancient crickets arrived. He personally built this palace, which had a checkpoint that no one knew about, not even his own sister.
He anticipated that this place would become a battlefield between the ancient sorcerers and the Ancient Insect, so he had been secretly watching from here for a long time.
As expected, the Ancient Insect wanted to directly control a royal species, an ambition that was within his expectations. Compared to those lowly human races who only wanted to Dragon Transformation, this Ancient Insect indeed had the courage and ambition.
And it also has enough resources. Its special talent, just as it had foreseen when it was created, allows it to control all the ancient things in the world by nourishing special insects with its special blood.
Yes, he designed the Ancient Insect himself!
He proposed the concept and had the group of human sorcerers who only knew how to follow plans experiment with it. After thousands of years of repeated experiments, they finally produced the thing in the Heavenly Dragon Palace. Although they did not anticipate the thing's terrifying splitting ability during the experiment, which allowed it to escape, its performance did not disappoint them!
Back then, he strongly urged the Dragon Palace to reveal the Nine Heavens Mirror Valley technique and teach it to that woman. One reason was to prevent that guy from actually invading the Dragon Palace, and the other was that he also wanted to reclaim this perfect biological weapon.
Nine Heavens Mirror Valley is a top-tier magic array within the Dragon Palace, possessing numerous wondrous uses. Originally, it was thought that locking up that monster until the Dragon Palace unsealed it should be no problem.
But unexpectedly, so many changes occurred. That woman's descendants were able to pass on the Nine Heavens Mirror Valley to outsiders. Even more unexpectedly, this woman actually used the Nine Heavens Mirror Valley to seal the dragon clan!
How foolish! How ridiculous!
Ao Xin mocked angrily.
This formation also requires a sorcerer to operate. No matter how strong the formation is, if the person in charge of the formation is not powerful enough, it will ultimately be impossible to trap such Transcendent creatures. Therefore, when the dragon clan entrusted the formation to her, they were not afraid that she would use it against the dragon clan. Being able to trap that Ancient Insect was the woman's limit.
But the woman didn't seem to believe it.
Ao Xin looked around at the environment where he couldn't get out no matter which way he went, and at the distorted spacetime, in a spacetime corridor where he couldn't get out no matter which way he went.
"Your Highness, what should we do?" asked the only remaining Yaksha beside Ao Xin, his voice filled with worry.
The Nine Heavens Mirror Valley is incredibly mysterious. Trapping such Transcendent creatures like them places a heavy burden on the formation. The more powerful the creature, the greater the burden on the formation as it rotates within this spatial corridor. Ao Xin, of course, knows the weakness of this wondrous spatial corridor. As long as this Yaksha is not bewitched and continues to circle the corridor rapidly, after hundreds of Samsara, the formation will collapse by more than half!
But he didn't want to do that.
"Wait a moment," Ao Xin whispered. "We can't let this formation collapse now. You saw it yourself, those useless fools had no power to resist that Ancient Insect!"
Yaksha was slightly taken aback. Wasn't that obvious?
That Ancient Insect used its retinue to control four or five Yaksha. With such a force, how could those who haven't even crossed the threshold of the ancient realm possibly put up a fight?
If it weren't for those sorcerers' bizarre methods, their mastery of various secret techniques, and their fearless willingness to use blood magic to fight to the death, they would have been wiped out long ago!
"What does Your Highness mean?"
"Let the Nine Heavens Mirror Valley provide cover for them," Ao Xin sneered. "At least let a few of the lower-level dragons hatch, then we'll have a chance to fight that guy."
"So, Your Highness means to wait?"
Ao Xin remained silent. In truth, he did not like this approach. If the Ancient Insect won, his Dragon Palace would surely be destroyed. However, if those ancient sorcerers grew stronger, it would also be troublesome. Although those guys were lowly, they were not benevolent. Once they gained power, they would never be content to remain subservient to the Dragon Clan. At that time, it would be quite difficult to seize one or two of them to capture their essence.
To capture it, one must take advantage of a situation where both sides are weakened, but now that he is trapped, he cannot see the situation outside and can only guess the timing of breaking the formation based on his intuition.
After thinking for a moment, Ao Xin said in a low voice, "Five hours have passed since these guys came over. I secretly used the water mirror to see clearly that they are smart. Not all of them were after the high-level dragon species. Each group had some going to the second floor to settle for the low-level dragon species. Judging from the time, at most three more hours will pass before someone successfully Dragon Transformation."
"When Dragon Transformation, it is in a vulnerable state, which is the best time to break the formation!"
--
"Best time?"
On the other side, Murong Yunji looked at Chen Qing and asked curiously, "Why do you say that? Shouldn't we wait a bit and let those low-level dragons recover from their weakened state before breaking the formation?"
After the formation is broken, the two sides will definitely fight each other again. If those low-level dragons are still in a weakened state, how can they possibly defeat Shen Laoda?
"If those low-level dragons recover from their weakened state, we're doomed!" Chen Qing sneered. "Everyone here wants to take the initiative; nobody's a pushover. With the combat power of dragon seeds, what do you think will happen to those without them?"
Murong, having also fought his way through the beast clans, immediately understood Chen Qing's meaning.
Dragon Transformation has a success rate. Once the period of weakness is over, families with low-level dragon combat power will definitely prioritize killing those without combat power, including high-level dragons who are still transforming into dragons.
Although the Dragon Palace is vast, it's human nature to want as few people as possible to share the spoils.
Not to mention her and Chen Qing, whose locations have already been exposed, and they might even become the targets of both sides' priority elimination!
After all, everyone probably wants something like the Nine Heavens Mirror Valley.
"Wouldn't we be targeted if we broke the formation at the best time?" Murong couldn't help but ask.
"Meeting!"
Chen Qing nodded. "At that time, to break the formation, Shen Laoda must kill all the low-level dragon species as soon as possible. Otherwise, once he survives the weakened period, Shen Laoda 'll probably be in serious trouble. However, based on my feeling just now, even in this dire situation, Shen Laoda will still prioritize attacking me!"
"Uh, why?" Murong was taken aback. In terms of the level of threat, shouldn't those ancient sorcerers who had already successfully Dragon Transformation be dealt with first?
"Because it's a clever being," Chen Qing said with a wry smile. "It had already determined that I was in greater danger than these ancient sorcerers!"
Murong Yunji: "."
This person is quite narcissistic.
But it seems that's indeed the case. When Chen Qing appeared, that guy personally led a group to chase after him, clearly showing that he really valued Chen Qing more than the ancient sorcerers here.
"Isn't that a dead end?" Murong frowned, then added, "No, why must we break the formation? Can't we just wait until Yuchi Dragon Transformation before taking any action? You mentioned before, right? The thing Yuchi Dragon Transformation has an extremely high potential; its combat power shouldn't be inferior to those above, right? Once it succeeds, wouldn't it be more secure?"
"I never said that," Chen Qing sighed, "That I was the one who broke the formation."
"Forehead?"
"The formation is currently maintained mainly thanks to the ancient sorcerers who are willing to contribute. None of them are responsible for operating a portion of the formation. The reason they are working together now is because no one wants to be attacked by the Yaksha. But once someone in their own clan successfully Dragon Transformation, they will definitely want to get out as soon as possible, and may even prioritize killing others."
"But they'll at least wait until their weakened state is over, right?" Murong wondered. "Even if they're truly broken by then, Shen Laoda shouldn't have the energy to bother us with so many dragons that have already passed their weakened state, right?"
"It won't come to that," Chen Qing shook his head. "The formation will be broken before then."
Why is that?
"Have you forgotten?" Chen Qing said quietly, "The West Sea Dragon Palace still has its own powerful forces!"
"That Prince Ao Xin?" Murong wasn't stupid after all, and immediately realized, "He's in here too?"
"Of course it's in here," Chen Qing sneered. "Even those ancient sorcerers who had no information whatsoever came to this place, how could it not be here?"
Taking a deep breath, Chen Qing stood up and said, "Let's go!"
"Where to?" Murong Yunji was taken aback. Shouldn't she be obediently guarding Yuchi at this time?
"As you said, our only chance of survival is to hold onto Yuchi. And to drag this out until Yuchi Dragon Transformation, we cannot allow anyone to break the formation at the optimal moment, so..."
"So what?"
"We have to take it down!!"
Murong Yunji: "."
This guy... are you kidding me? How are you going to take him down?
Chen Qing turned to Murong: "I'm telling you, listen, and remember. You only have one chance!"
No extra chapter today, but more tomorrow.