With only three thousand living souls still in contention, the rainbow bridge turned into a real bridge that fused with Dragonhollow Mountain. The mountain was called thus because it was a continent that hovered over the boundless Hongmeng Sea. While it looked to be separate from the realm, it was still part of the Hongmeng.
The Hongmeng Sea’s mighty waves reared endlessly, but it was just a massive lake compared to the rest of the third realm.
If all of the regions in the Hongmeng were combined, they would be far greater than the sea. Things were just as Hong had said—the realm was too big. The kings in the Hongmeng saw less than even the tip of the iceberg.
Rainbow colored light dazzled over the mountain, turning it into a mountain-shaped rainbow. It was divided into seven floors and climbed successively based on red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
Different dragons lived on different floors, and the higher one ascended, the more noble one’s bloodline was. The lizard-dragon, a notable half step king in the Hongmeng, was just a resident of the lowest floor. Though it was of the dragon race, it wasn’t a pureblood and thus could only live on the bottom. It couldn’t even see the mountain in its entirety.
Now that the ancestor dragon had awoken and established the Dragonling Ranking, Dragonhollow Mountain was poised to influence the entire realm. Thus, the mountain revealed itself in full.
The rainbow bridge was solidly connected to the highest floor of violet. Everything on it set foot onto the mountain.
……
“What do you make of it?” Miao asked Qing Yu in solemn tones.
“Stronger than Hopeless Major.” Qing Yu frowned faintly. “It looks like there’s seven floors, but there’s actually nine. The last two are hidden in another void, and the mountain would be less than Hopeless Major without them. With them, Dragonhollow Mountain is stronger.”
The little fox looked at the peak of the mountain, but didn’t see anything. She abruptly realized that although her cultivation had progressed faster than Qing Yu’s, she was still the weaker one.
Qing Yu’s ninth dao rule strengthened by the day and she was ready to fuse her dao rules at any given time. She’d been suppressing them all this time so they wouldn’t fuse. Dao rule fusion was the next stage after ninth step kinghood. She wanted to carefully theorize about the step and fully map out this extremely foreign method of cultivation.
Not only did this have to do with herself, but also Lu Yun and the little fox.
And Lu Qing.
She was certain that he was at ninth step kinghood.
Their silent conversation didn’t raise any attention. The attendees on the rainbow cloud also landed on the seventh floor of Dragonhollow Mountain. Dense dragon qi thoroughly permeated the air.
Dragon qi was one of many energies in the realm. It was a kind exceptionally suited to dragons because it contained the strength they needed.
The three thousand beings from the rainbow bridge took in deep lungfuls of the dense qi. Their power increased significantly as they did so; even cultivators who had nothing to do with dragons felt a noticeable improvement.
Before dragons appeared as a race, the character “dragon” represented the life force of the Hongmeng and fourth realm, the energy by which all other life was derived. The first being born of this life force was thus called the dragon race.
The “dragon” part of the Dragonquake Scripture name didn’t pertain to the actual dragon race. It was a reference to this life force of the third and fourth realm, which was why it was taboo in the Hongmeng.
The various life forces of the realm weren’t protected by the land, so the Dragonquake Scripture could easily manipulate them. Once it reached perfection, it would be able to direct all such forces in the Hongmeng—even something like Dragon Butterfly.
Thus, it’d be the easy snap of a finger to destroy the Hongmeng or become its ruler. No one knew where the Dragonquake Scripture came from or who’d invented it. It wasn’t an innate cultivation method.
When he set foot onto Dragonhollow Mountain, Lu Yun’s Dragonquake Scripture began stirring to life. He jerked with shock and hastily called upon the Tome of Life and Death to scatter the circulating method.
Dragon Butterfly isn’t the greatest dragon of the realm… Redbud Region isn’t the greatest mine of the Hongmeng. This mountain is!
One thousand nine hundred and ninety-three cultivators exchanged glances with a thousand and seven arcane beasts. What were they supposed to do now?
No disembodied voice was forthcoming.
“Er… is this one of the rewards of the assembly? For us to cultivate here?” Azureclad murmured. “Our cultivation speed in here should be more than a hundred times faster than in the outside world. But at our level, this kind of increased speed isn’t very useful.”
“If my guess is right, something’s going to happen in a bit. We should meditate first and bring ourselves back into prime condition,” Lu Yun called out. “I can protect you on the rainbow bridge, but it’s up to yourself now that we’re here.”
The hearts of Azureclad and the others clenched; they’d realized just how much they’d been relying on the Champion Duke and Qing Ting after setting foot on Dragonhollow Mountain and reaching the final stage. Everything about this would be meaningless if they continued to rely on Lu Yun.
“Champion Duke!” Blackclad suddenly said. “I hear the others say that you guided them in cultivation on the bridge, finding the flaws in their combat arts and methods. I’d like to—”
“Sure!” Lu Yun agreed before he could finish.
Rather than being a type of protection through proving his self-worth, him guiding others was a form of joint cultivation. He’d already explained it to the group that instead of teaching them, this was more his own cultivation. But since the five hundred had advanced dramatically thanks to his tutelage, they didn’t mind this.
Blackclad wouldn’t not know about this upon making this request now.
“Count me in!” Seven Slaughters piped up. “No one’s been able to teach me since I reached half step king. Those kings were less than me when they were in my realm! If we were on the same level, perhaps some of the seventh step kings wouldn’t be a match for me either!
“But you’re different, you’re stronger than me and you can teach me!”
The other half step kings resonated with his words. After reaching their level, particularly the titled dukes, none of the kings were able to teach them anything anymore.
Rather than mindless pursuit of higher cultivation levels, these geniuses wished to continue tapping into their potential in the same realm. Only a genius like Hua Fengwen could teach them, and now there was also Lu Yun.
Flying again today, zzz.
