Dressed in Taoist rope, the appearance as pretty as a young woman with a plump face, this could not be anybody other than young master An.
“Miss Lin!” An greets Lin Luoran, regardless of the different looks of all the people.
It seems like An came closely after Xin Yuanping. With too much unknown to her, although things are happening too fast to catch up with her train of thought, Lin Luoran has the instinct that a clue is connecting the ambiguity together.
“Now that young master An is here, and he represents master Huizhu, of course we need to share some treasures with him.” She solely wants the Soul Wood and doesn’t mind how much she gets. It looks like she is proposing casually, yet she is keeping an eye on the expressions of both Xin Yuanping and An.
“Miss Lin must be joking. I’m here on behalf of the superior of the Qingcheng Taoist Temple to look for a missing old piece. Please excuse me for bothering you and Miss Xin.”
An appears to be very calm and takes his share for granted.
The look on Xin Yuanping’s face is not so good. Although she seems to be smiling, the smile is not from the bottom of her heart.
Huizhu did make too much out of this matter. He sends a student who has not even reached the later stage of Training Qi yet still wants a share. Even if he is a cultivator of the later stage of Laying Foundation, he takes Lin Luoran and Xin Yuanping too lightly — even though Lin Luoran doesn’t mind, Xin Yuanping, as the most unreasonable demonized cultivator, had the courage to attack Qingcheng Taoist Temple, which means An is potentially at high risk.
Somebody wants to take her place to be the center of animosity. Lin Luoran would like to see that happen.
“Miss Xin, shall we begin now?”
This marks a very weird combination: a mortal, a Taoist, a demonized cultivator and a female cultivator in the level of Laying Foundation. A wave of nervousness flushes through Lin Luoran. She doesn’t know what might happen in the palace, yet her wish is to find the Soul Wood as soon as possible before something bad happens.
“Let’s get started.” Xin Yuanping says out of her own secret interest. She finds the calmness of An and his high profile intolerable. Then, she throws the stamp in the air.
The stamp stops in the air three feet from the golden gate. Lin Luoran tells Rong Donglin to stay behind her while infusing pure water Wakan into the stamp.
The stamp is like starving, displaced person while the Wakan is like the delicious gourmet. Unprepared, Lin Luoran’s Wakan is almost all snatched by it.
Fortunately, the water nebula has already formed, transforming water Reiki into Wakan in an instant. Also, the bottom of the Dongting Lake was once the territory of the king of the Shui nationality. Therefore, even the half-deserted palace is filled with water Reiki to be consumed by the stamp.
It sparks blue light, and the adequate water Reiki almost makes the surrounding Wakan become ripples.
The blue light goes on and off — Lin Luoran’s strength is running out.
Watching the insatiable little thing, Lin Luoran is relieved. She worried about the reason why Xin Yuanping wanted to cooperate with her in the first place. But there are only a few cultivators in the State of Huaxia who reached the level of Laying Foundation. Except her, she could not think of other people who can have such great amount of water Wakan.
Determined, she puts the water Wakan into the stamp and then feels powerless. The little stamp seems to have perceived that and automatically stops absorbing.
Suddenly, Xin Yuanping gets hold of Elly who has been standing quietly, and cuts her wrist to suck out some blood. A great deal of blood is purified into three pure blood drops by a spell and put into the stamp.
She lets go of Elly whose face became pale because of loss of blood. Then she stares at the stamp. Here comes the moment of success.
After absorbing water Wakan and drinking human blood, it loses its shine. Yet the blue light surges after its three rounds of wary flying. The howling of dragon comes, resounding through the outer palace miles away —are there still dragons in this palace?
Smile crawls on Xin Yuanping’s face. She throws a “jelly” to Elly who can barely stand. She finally becomes lively again after eating the “jelly”.
A shadow is formed in the center of the blue light. Not only ordinary people like Rong Donglin, Li Anping and Elly, but also Lin Luoran, who has seen fire phoenix, silver fish in the space and keeps a golden hawk and a silver fox in her house, is lost at this scene.
As the totem the State of Huaxia has been worshiping for thousands of years, dragon holds special meaning for the Huaxia people.
They have been calling themselves the descendants of the dragon.
The people on the boats on the Dongting Lake who are rushing to fish before fishing prohibition period find the surface windy with all kinds of fish jumping out. The fish gather together and head to somewhere deep in Dongting Lake.
The fish is only the uncultivated creature in the bloodline of the Shui nationality, yet they sense the presence of the king.
This is the power hidden in blood to pass on from generation to generation which makes all kinds of fish rushing towards the Dragon Palace —they’re going on a pilgrimage!
Not just the people in the palace, the howl of the dragon even makes the fire phoenix which is digesting the Strange Fire in the space peep out from the log cabin in Lin’s space. Its eyes contain reminiscence while looking in the direction of the stamp through the heavy mist.
A dragon is gradually formed in the blue light. Its horns are majestic, its scales shining, its paws sharp, glistening.
As magnificent as it is, it is nothing more than a shadow… Could this be the residual soul of the silver dragon?! The fire phoenix sends a special signal yet receives no response from the dragon. It is disappointed — this is nothing but the residual soul with no consciousness at all. It can never be back to the once-imperial dragon.
There will no longer be dragons in the world, which is the same as phoenix. The fire phoenix is frustrated and goes back to the log cabin, dragging the onlooking silver fish with it.
The space remains quiet. Warm spring breeze blows through the grass, making them bow slightly. No one knows the sadness of the fire phoenix.
Even if it is only a piece of soul, it is the purest sense of dragons.
The gate of the main hall is standing there. No matter which waters this silver dragon belonged to, the gate of the Dragon Palace could never shut down on a dragon.
The shadow moves to the gate. The gate opens slowly.
Lin Luoran looks down to get things straight in her head. How come Xin Yuanping knows so much about the palace under the Dongting Lake? She knows all about using her Wakan as the fuel, Elly’s blood as the lead and the stamp as the key to the gate… Although she cannot figure out the uniqueness of Elly’s blood, she is wondering why Xin Yuanping brought Li Anping here.
Also, the presence of An is peculiar.
Since Huizhu already has the Chronicle of the Nine Provinces, he should have known about the palace under the Dongting Lake. Why didn’t he come here earlier?
He didn’t interfere until they are here. What is it that he actually wants…?
The front hall is magnificent and the majestic throne is at the center of the hall. The silver dragon howls again, going toward the throne. Yet the stamp drags it back and takes it in.
Lin Luoran can sense that the water Wakan around the stamp is depleted. Even though she has reached the level of Laying Foundation, her Wakan can only hold the soul of the silver dragon for only a short period of time, suggesting the great power contained in this small piece of soul.
“Come quickly!” Xin Yuanping drags Li Anping and Elly into the gate.
Finding them harmless, Lin Luoran follows them into the gate with Rong Donglin. As for An, he sticks loosely to them, even closing the golden gate slowly.
The main hall seems boundless with golden pillars, splendid and imposing. Xin Yuanping has disappeared with Elly and Li Anping. Lin Luoran doesn’t want to go with An and is glad to see that he goes to one of the side halls as if he knew what was going on in her mind.
Seeing that no one is around them, Lin Luoran signs Rong Donglin to take out a piece of crumpled paper and starts to look at it closely.
They have some preparations. What they are holding is the map of the palace they drew according to the bamboo sheets unearthed from the Han tomb.
The person who wrote the bamboo sheets is unknown, yet he knew all about the interior of the palace under the Dongting Lake, even miles of the architectural complex around the outer palace.
“Miss Lin, that place is on the right side of the Sea-view Pavilion. Come this way!”
Rong Donglin says with certainty, raising his head and pointing to the direction behind the main hall. It is an out-of-the-way, secret place which the two previous groups didn’t notice.
The Teleport Figure has not worn off yet, so Rong Donglin moves at high speed and leads the way. Lin Luoran follows him and disappears behind the door.
The main hall remains quiet. An comes out of from the back of a pillar and looks to the secret door reluctantly.
“My master asked me to follow Miss Lin to find the thing, but is it the right thing to do?” As hesitant as he is, he is no longer the past self who was content with just frying the tofu in the temple. As the successor of the Qingcheng Taoist Temple, he finally crushes a figure paper in his hand.
A green halo falls on him and he disappears, flesh and soul.
If Wen Guanjing sees this, it would give him a heartache. The Qingcheng Taoist Temple is founded on magic figures. The Thunder-summoning Figure is among the highest rank of magic figures, which is extremely expensive for cultivators. The value of the magic figure An just used almost exceeds all the other magic figures. This is something that Huizhu keeps as a secret treasure and has never revealed to any other cultivators. It has never been sold to the outside world — just as the America’s technology monopoly against the State of Huaxia！
“Are you alright?”Li Anping cannot help whispering to Elly while Xin Yuanping is exploring the hall.
The Dragon Palace, the stamp, the spell, the silver dragon, human blood… and Lin Luoran… All these elements are mixed together, making Li Anping have a lot of mixed feelings. He casts away his hatred for Elly for the time being and starts to care about her.
After all, only Elly and him are of the same kind now. Others are like people with extraordinary talents in American TV series.
Elly gives him a cold look and doesn’t respond. Nobody knows if she can feel a little bit of warmth in her heart.
Seeing the interaction between the two of them, Xin Yuanping smiles.
Do not get attached —Lin Luoran, I hope you like the “present” I give you.
