Not all comers had the right to participate in the Dragonling Assembly—even the major factions of Azure Dragon Region were limited in the number of representatives they could send. As the foremost faction, Azure Dragon City could send seven, second tier faction Coiling Dragon City could send five. The rest could only send three.
Thus, each spot was incredibly precious. Not only did each faction have to consider their own interests, but they also had to use the spots to recruit allies.
Everything came down to strength.
It wouldn’t do the weak any good to participate in the Dragonling Assembly. At best, they’d be heavily injured and at worst, they’d lose their lives. It was a frightfully common occurrence for geniuses to die at the gathering.
Coiling Dragon City had started preparations for the assembly ten thousand years ago, then later recruited Leng Che, You Cang, and Ghost Dragon to its banner. When Qing Ting traveled to Cloudexit City, she’d been preparing for the occasion as well.
She was extraordinarily talented, her potential even greater than her brother’s. However, her breadth of experience and knowledge of facing actual enemies were extremely lacking, so the city lord had sent the Azureclad Duke out with his sister.
When Lu Yun met Qing Ting, she’d already crossed paths with ghosts numerous times and was slowly growing into her own. Lu Yun’s reputation in Coiling Dragon City was so substantial partially because of her. She talked about him constantly upon her return, mentioning his name in almost every other sentence.
As time went on, the entire city learned of this character.
The other reason was due to the Azureclad Duke. When the Champion Duke’s recognition grew, he immediately had servants spread word that this was a good-for-nothing upstart who heavily relied on his weapons. His own strength was very mediocre and his strength too subpar to be a titled duke.
Thanks to the actions from the brother and sister duo, everyone in the city knew of this person and he was even rather famous.
……
There was nothing more important than a spot for the Dragonling Assembly, so rounds of discussion needed to commence before a decision could be made. Lu Yun was assigned a separate residence within the city lord’s manor.
Leng Che, You Cang, and Ghost Dragon didn’t live in this august residence. They had their own businesses in Coiling Dragon City and the factions behind them were allies with Coiling Dragon, nothing more.
After he moved in, Lu Yun shut himself away in closed door cultivation. Qing Ting came to find him a few times, but caught no sign of him.
Inside the Army Pagoda.
Drenched in blood, Lu Yun wielded a regular flying sword and knelt on a single knee, heaving for breath. The last “soldier” toppled heavily onto the ground and transformed into a strange power wanting to melt into Lu Yun’s body. He declined the attempt.
The Army Pagoda was a very particular treasure. If one fed it purple crystal veins, it would produce endless soldiers.
The kings of Origin World only knew it to be a treasure for use in cultivation, but didn’t know that if it consumed enough purple crystals, it would produce king grade soldiers or ones even stronger, forming a terrifying army.
Lu Yun was using the pagoda to hone his sword dao. There were ten tendrils of order within his body, making him stronger than Qing Ting and able to defeat a second step king.
The flame of order could enhance his strength, but its effects were less apparent the more it came to life. It’d been a qualitative change when the first tendril of fire appeared; Lu Yun had advanced rapidly then, progressing with tremendous strides. After the flame of order began its transformation, further tendrils of fire resulted in diminishing rates of return.
This wouldn’t change until Lu Yun coalesced three hundred and sixty-five tendrils of flame, forming a flower of fire and evolving once more. Since the flame of order couldn’t supply him with more strength at the moment, he chose to practice with the Army Pagoda.
The soldiers it projected were no different from real people. Every one of them was an independent entity, rather than a puppet on strings. Their combat arts ran the gamut, many of them techniques and methods that he’d never seen or heard of before.
He continued to grow and develop as he fought the soldiers, gaining experience that couldn’t be found in the chaos and world of immortals. Most importantly was that when the soldiers were defeated, they transformed into a wondrous power that melded into their attacker to enhance one’s strength and cultivation level.
However, what he needed now was to improve his sword dao and battle techniques. The power wouldn’t do anything for him other than accelerate his rate of reaching titled kinghood. It was more worth his time to refine the flame of order.
Since he didn’t want to break through just yet, he declined the power and scattered it throughout the Army Pagoda, returning it to the treasure’s core essence.
“What combat art did the last soldier deploy? If I hadn’t formed the third stroke of my sword dao at the last possible second, I would’ve died to it.” Cold sweat and fresh blood oozed out of his back.
Death in the Army Pagoda was permanent—there were no second chances. This was a primary reason why Origin World was unwilling to use it to train its disciples. Not only was it a waste of purple crystals, but there was incredible risk involved.
Combined attacks from a hundred and eight half step king soldiers had almost resulted in Lu Yun’s final end.
“The first move is Dragonrise, the second move is Dragonsoar. So what’s the third?” Lu Yun mused over the third stroke he’d just grasped. Though he’d formed a rough concept, it hadn’t crystallized into a complete move.
“Again!” Lu Yun swallowed a healing pill and swiftly recovered from his wounds. With a quick thought, another one hundred and eight half step king soldiers materialized in the void.
Women, men, elderly, young, tall, short, fat, skinny, and all manner of forms charged at him. They each displayed different combat arts, but their moves formed a complete whole that perfectly complemented each other. If it wasn’t for their lack of information in the Spectral Eye and only the presence of a marvelous rule, Lu Yun would’ve thought that they were a crowd of living people.
They were far more terrifying than the disorderly ghosts. Ordinary ghosts and even ghost kings rarely used combat arts. They more often threw themselves in headfirst without care or concern. These soldiers, however, wielded inordinately sophisticated combat arts.
With a wave of his hand, Lu Yun summoned the ordinary sword he’d stuck into the ground to him as a streak of sword light. He slashed forward with the will of the third stroke, transforming into a purple dragon shape that rushed the one hundred and eight soldiers.
“First stroke of Dragonrise, second stroke of Dragonsoar, third stroke of… of…” Lu Yun slashed forward again and again with the third move, but couldn’t quite grasp its true form.
“Charge!” A keen light flashed through one of the soldier’s eyes and it roared, stabbing straight at Lu Yun’s back.
“You again!” Lu Yun reacted swiftly. “I almost died to you just now, so I’m not repeating my mistake!”
He twisted around and evaded the harrowing stroke, striking back on his return swing.
The soldier simply shifted to the side and evaded Lu Yun’s attack by the slightest margin, then continued with a second slash at Lu Yun’s neck.
