“Hmm… Who dares to trespass on my secret vacation spot?”
The woman in red sat up slowly before turning toward her two unwelcome guests.
The vexation on her beautiful features gradually gave way to astonishment.
“An Lin, Xu Xiaolan, how did you two find this place?!”
“Ms. Ao Xiaowu? Why are you here?”
Both sides spoke at almost the exact same time.
Everyone instantly fell silent.
“This is my vacation spot.” Ao Xiaowu was not very pleased.
“We thought this mountain looked like a turtle and speculated that there must be some treasures in this cave, which is why we came in,” Xu Xiaolan explained.
She didn’t hold any hostility toward this beautiful aunt, so her attitude toward Ao Xiaowu was a lot more pleasant in comparison to when she encountered other Dragon Court cultivators.
“To think you were able to break open my painstakingly arranged spell formation.” Ao Xiaowu stroked her chin as she sized up An Lin and Xu Xiaolan, upon which her pupils contracted minutely. “You progressed to the Return to Void Stage?”
“I was lucky.” A slightly embarrassed smile appeared on Xu Xiaolan’s face.
“So fast…” Ao Xiaowu sighed with emotion.
She looked into the distance where the sea met the sky, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes again as she lay down onto the beach. She was planning to continue sleeping!
The sea breeze blew past, and she lay with her gorgeous body completely splayed out in a vulgar sleeping pose, striking a slightly disconcerting contrast with her image.
An Lin and Xu Xiaolan were a bit dumbstruck by Ao Xiaowu’s decision to continue sleeping.
She spoke in a lazy voice, “Alright, if you don’t need anything else, then you can leave now. Of course, you can also stay here and sleep as well.”
An Lin: “…”
Xu Xiaolan: “…”
“You’re powerful enough to basically crush everyone in this Ancient Tai Chu Dragon Realm, so why aren’t you taking this opportunity to obtain more power of dragons?” An Lin couldn’t help but ask.
“The power of dragons is already useless to me, so I don’t need that stuff anymore,” Ao Xiaowu replied honestly in a soft, gentle voice.
“So… you’re planning to sleep here until the conclusion of the Ancient Tai Chu Dragon Realm trial?” Xu Xiaolan asked.
“Of course! Is there anything else more comfortable than sleeping?” Ao Xiaowu murmured, “This place is my exclusive vacation spot in the Ancient Tai Chu Dragon Realm, so don’t go telling anyone about it.”
Xu Xiaolan looked at Ao Xiaowu with a speechless expression.
An Lin then thought of Ao Qingyu and Ao Mingyu’s struggles. “Even if you can’t obtain the power of dragons, shouldn’t you be helping your fellow Dragon Court cultivators to reduce the death count?”
Ao Xiaowu burst into laughter. “Protect them? Why do I have to protect them? I’m not their mother, and they’re free to do whatever they like with their lives.”
This was a very willful answer.
The woman in red lay down on the beach and drew circles in the sand with her slim finger. “If I try to help them all the time by protecting them, battling in their stead, and taking revenge for them… the Dragon Court would be in ruins in less than ten thousand years. Of course, I may very well be dead by then as well.”
An Lin and Xu Xiaolan had no response to this.
After thinking about it, what she had said made a lot of sense.
Looking back in history, many large sects fell not because the most powerful beings within the sect were picking fights and bringing about the sect’s downfall. Instead, it was usually the small fry who picked fights, and the most powerful beings within the sect tried to mop up their mess for them before everything escalated until the entire sect was destroyed…
In that sense, Ao Xiaowu was actually doing the Dragon Court a favor as a stabilizing force that didn’t easily engage in conflict.
“Alright, that will be the conclusion of our conversation. I’m very grouchy when I wake up, so don’t bother me again. If you wake me up, don’t blame me for fighting you.” Ao Xiaowu put an abrupt ending to their conversation and continued with her slumber.
An Lin and Xu Xiaolan both fell silent before exploring this peculiar world.
“This place is so strange. The continent outside consists entirely of a starry night sky over a continent, whereas this place has a clear, blue sky and an ocean. It feels like two completely different worlds,” Xu Xiaolan transmitted her voice.
“Could this be a small mystic realm?” An Lin raised his head to find that there was light in this world, but no sun. He also could not detect any trace of pure yang power.
“An Lin, look!” Xu Xiaolan suddenly pointed behind them with excitement on her face.
An Lin turned to discover that there was a gargantuan turtle statue above the cave. The statue was extremely realistic, and it looked like it could almost spring into life at any moment!
“No, wait, that’s not a turtle. It has a snake head.” An Lin discovered a disparity.
“Could this be a statue of Xuan Wu?” Xu Xiaolan asked.
Looking at its outward appearance and thinking back to the information they had read on ancient texts, this was most likely one of the four holy beasts that existed alongside heaven and earth, Holy Beast Xuan Wu.
An Lin stroked his chin as a bold thought occurred to him. “I haven’t been able to find the statue of the ancestor of the Heavenly Turtle Tribe this entire time. Could this be it? Xuan Wu should have some ties with the Heavenly Turtle Tribe. Maybe I should bow to it and see if some sort of light shines down upon me?”
An Lin had gotten nothing out of this trip thus far, and Xu Xiaolan was feeling a little sympathetic toward him. Hence, she clenched her fist and offered words of encouragement.
“I think you should try it!”
During this period of time, she had received an inheritance, the power of dragons, and even progressed to the Return to Void Stage. She had reaped massive rewards, so she was hoping that An Lin could reap some rewards of his own.
An Lin was a little nervous as he made the hand seals he had seen earlier before bowing to the Xuan Wu statue.
A full three minutes passed, but the statue did not react in the slightest.
The atmosphere was a little awkward.
“Perhaps Xuan Wu hasn’t had any visitors for a long time and fell asleep? Maybe it requires some sort of stimulus?” Xu Xiaolan suggested.
“Stimulus?” An Lin’s brows furrowed.
“When treating a dormant ancestor, one must not resort to violence in order to awaken it. One must learn to be warm and gentle,” he muttered to himself. His eyes lit up as he spat a drop of blood essence onto Xuan Wu’s face.
Xu Xiaolan: “… You call that warm and gentle?”
Xuan Wu had blood essence splattered all over its face, but it still didn’t do anything.
An Lin was feeling quite crushed. He had finally found a statue of what he thought to be a Heavenly Turtle Tribe ancestor, only to find that it wasn’t what he was looking for after all.
“Perhaps… it’s unable to recognize you as one of its descendants? You have to prove that you’re a turtle!” Xu Xiaolan offered another suggestion.
An Lin almost threw up a mouthful of blood. “Turtle my *ss! I’m not a turtle! How am I supposed to prove that I’m a turtle?”
That was what he said, but he still unleashed his Evading Turtle Technique after a minute.
The dazzling green turtle shell appeared over his body.
An Lin stared at Xuan Wu with anticipation in his eyes. Look over here, Xuan Wu! Your descendant is awaiting your blessings!
Rumble…
The statue suddenly began to tremor.
Immediately afterward, a dazzling pillar of light fell from the sky and onto An Lin’s body.
The boundless dao intent unique to a holy beast began to flow into An Lin’s mind.
An Lin was full of excitement. So this turtle shell really did work after all!
