“What happened?”
“What’s going on?”
The voice of Dragon the Fifth and the old lady of the Moon Dao Sect sounded almost at the same time.
Li Mu hurriedly shouted, “I didn’t do it.”
The two heads were both stunned, and then they burst into laughter.
They were not here to punish the wrongdoer.
It was the first time that such abnormality had happened in the Green Lotus Pool. Soon, the heads, future leaders, and experts of the other branches also arrived and surrounded the pool that Li Mu was in. Ye Wuhen, the Virgin Goddess of the Moon Dao Sect, had put her clothes on and come to her grandmother… At least a hundred people were around the pool.
“Well…” In the rising mist of the lotus qi, Li Mu seriously deliberated for a moment and then said, “Can you leave me alone for a minute and let me put my clothes on?”
“Why are so many people watching me bathe in the ‘hot springs’?
“This is simply embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“Bro Duan, how do you feel?” The characteristic loud voice of Dragon the Fifth was heard.
Li Mu said, “I feel… Here it is. I feel like putting my clothes on first.”
At this point, Ding Yi also hurried over breathlessly and called, “What’s up? What happened? Don’t mindlessly use the 36 Styles of a Magical…” As he saw Ye Wuhen, who was standing beside the old lady of the Moon Dao Sect and fully-dressed, he quickly shut up. It seemed that it was not the situation he thought.
“Bubbling!” “Bubbling!”
The spiritual liquid in the Green Lotus Pool started boiling like boiling water, and the mist of lotus qi became richer and richer.
Li Mu only felt that the spiritual liquid was getting hotter and hotter, nearly felt like magma—a temperature that was hard for Li Mu to bear. So it could be imagined how hot the spiritual liquid had become.
The people standing around the Green Lotus Pool also felt that hot waves were sweeping in their faces. Even Dragon the Fifth and other heads had to step back a few paces.
“Are you alright?” Ye Wuhen could no longer hold herself back. She frowned and asked, “Why don’t you… come out first?”
Li Mu also felt that the situation was a bit weird.
He prepared to take the risk and jump out of the Green Lotus Pool naked. But just then, with a bang, a dragon roar came out of Li Mu’s body, and then a silver dragon emerged in the Green Lotus Pool, swimming in the spiritual liquid. The huge body of the silver dragon almost occupied the entire Green Lotus Pool. It opened its mouth and roared, then it wrapped itself around Li Mu.
Such a turn of events struck Li Mu dumb.
The next moment, Li Mu only felt that the blood in his body began boiling like magma, and his body went out of his control in an instant. He was unable to move at all.
But the people outside the pool saw a completely different scene.
The dragon roar was really clear. Yet, after the dragon roar, the vapor of the spiritual liquid spread out in an instant. The vapor contained a kind of strange power, which threw all the heads of the major branches backward. After that, abstruse silver figures flickered in the vapor of the spiritual liquid and formed a deployment shade that covered the pool where Li Mu was.
“What’s that?”
“I think I’ve seen a divine silver dragon.”
“Is the lotus pool sealed?”
“Quickly break the seal and get him out!”
“Let me have a try.” Dragon the Fifth had activated his qi to the full. His purple robe bulged even without wind. The dragon pattern on his right palm flickered, then, it directly turned into a purple-gold dragon claw, which slammed on the shade that was glowing with cyan light.
“Boom!”
A terrifying rebound force appeared.
Dragon the Fifth bounced off the shade and turned into a black dot in the distance, disappearing into the sky.
The crowd was stunned
“The result is obvious.” The old lady of the Moon Dao Sect remarked, “Our strength can’t break this shade. It’s odd. Why is there such a change in the lotus pool?” She was not quite worried because they were in the Green Lotus Pool, White Emperor City, the territory of Divine Sect, and there was nothing that would hurt Li Mu. The incident they were witnessing was just a little strange.
The experts of the Divine Sect were all discussing it.
At this time, Dragon the Fifth flew back.
“Do you remember that when our Sect Master was still alive, every time he was in closed-door training, there will be a strange phenomenon of sword light floating in the sky and a large deployment sealing the pool?” Dragon the Fifth landed on the ground and stroked the purple wickets, saying, “This looks a bit like that phenomenon.”
A trace of consternation crossed the eyes of the senior members of the Divine Sect.
“I now recall it after hearing this old snake’s words. Everyone, take a closer look, and see if this scene in front of you is the exotic phenomenon of the ‘Dragon-Rising Deployment’ that has been secretly passed down in our Divine Sect,” Ouyang Huanyu, the head of the Sky-reaching Pavilion, exclaimed.
“You mean…” Mr. Shuiyue beside him suddenly thought of something as well. “However, the Dragon-Rising Deployment only exists in theory. Even our Sect Master didn’t really…” Halfway through his words, it suddenly occurred to him that this matter was a secret of the Divine Sect. It was not appropriate to go further into the matter with so many people present. Even so, the shock in his eyes was difficult to conceal.
With a strange expression in her eyes, Ye Wuhen gazed at the lotus pool covered by silver figures and the cyan shade, while her beautiful, aquamarine long hair billowed in the wind.
“If that’s the case…” Dragon the Fifth and the other heads looked at one another and instantly formed an invisible tacit understanding.
The Green Lotus Pool was soon closed up.
Everyone was ordered to leave and were forbidden from entering again.
“Hope Brother Duan Shuiliu can successfully transform into a dragon and get out of the lotus pool as soon as possible.”
The eyes of the heads were filled with both expectation and concern.
What they were expecting was that the thing existing only in theory would really take place.
Once he succeeded in transforming into a dragon, he would possess unimaginable power. Then, the rise of a new Sect Master would occur without any doubt.
What worried them was that the 10 battles on the fighting ring would take place in two days. Some of the extraterrestrial cultivators of the Decent Alliance had already landed on this planet to help them win. As for the Divine Sect, their most promising fighter, Duan Shuiliu, had entered the dragon-transforming process. According to the secret records of the Divine Sect, the dragon-transforming process could last for a long time, and So, Duan Shuiliu might not be able to catch up with the battles. If so, the situation was rather worrying.
Everyone had left.
Ye Wuhen still stood quietly outside the cyan tactical deployment shade.
Through the shade, she saw the rising vapor of the spiritual liquid inside which blocked her view. She had no idea what Li Mu was doing inside.
She just looked at the lotus pool in a daze and sighed softly. No one knew what she had thought of.
Then, she sat cross-legged beside the lotus pool and began to cultivate.
The inside and the outside of the pool were two different worlds.
“This is?”
Li Mu widened his eyes.
When the mist generated by the spiritual liquid began to change, he suddenly understood something.
Now, he was absolutely sure that when the white mist of the spiritual liquid reached a certain density, it became the space-time mist that appeared in all the secret realms and Heavens on Earth.
As Li Mu began to be wrapped in the mist of the spiritual liquid, the images and colors in front of him whirled rapidly. His view was constantly changing. Finally, the sight was fixed on an illusory galaxy. A slender figure in a white robe appeared. He had a jade-like face, sword-like eyebrows, and starry eyes, and three strands of long beard below his chin. The man who looked like a Taoist immortal in ancient China appeared before Li Mu.
“This person looks somewhat familiar, doesn’t he?”
Li Mu immediately noticed something unusual.
Soon, he realized who this man was.
“Knights from the Song Dynasty wore unadorned hatbands and carried shining machetes. His silver broadsword showed against his white coat, and the horse galloped forward as fast as a shooting star. He killed one person with every ten steps. He left no trace even though he traveled thousands of miles. He walked away when his mission was completed. His name and esteem were known to few….”
This handsome, middle-aged man was wearing a smile on his face. He had an unspeakable charm about him. There was a long sword hanging on his waist. Strolling in the galaxy, he sang leisurely of the poem, Ode to the Gallant, a masterpiece of the famous Tang dynasty Poet, Li Bai.
Li Mu began to tremble with excitement.
“Who else could it be other than him?”
This handsome, white-robed man with a face clear as jade was exactly the great poet, Li Bai.
“… Even if he died, he wouldn’t feel ashamed in front of the heroes in the world. Who can be like that man, working on his work even when his hair already grew gray?”
When the song was finished, Li Bai withdrew his eyes from the distant starry sky and looked at Li Mu.
“You’re finally here.”
He spoke to Li Mu. His soft voice held an enigmatic power that could not be described in words.
“Senior, are you really… Senior Li Bai?” For a moment, Li Mu did not know what to say.
Li Bai said, “You know me? Well, that’s nothing peculiar…” He was a world-famous figure in the first place. So, he could confidently make that assumption. “Since you activated the power of the Gallant Sword Deployment in the Green Lotus Sword Pool, you must be a descendant of the Tang Empire and your strength has reached the Void-breaking Realm. This day finally comes. Fortunately, you didn’t make me wait too long.”
After hearing that, Li Mu was thoroughly enlightened.
It turned out that the reason why there was a mysterious phenomenon in the Green Lotus Pool was that he had entered the pool with all the necessary conditions of activating the Gallant Sword Deployment.
The full name of the Green Lotus Pool was Green Lotus Sword Pool. It was a device Li Bai left behind.
“Senior, you’re waiting for me?” Li Mu asked.
He had already seen that the Li Bai in front of him was just a projection of a doppelganger, not a real person.
But this was enough to make him thrilled.
Because this was the first time that he had met a forefather who had really went out of the earth. It was very likely that Li Mu could get a lot of information from him and solve many mysteries that had been baffling him for a long time. Moreover, even though it was just the projection of Li Mu’s doppelganger, it still possessed his consciousness and wisdom. This showed that Li Bai’s real cultivation was not only in the Soldier Realm but far beyond his imagination.
“Well, I’m waiting for you, waiting for a person who is supposed to appear… There’s not much time left. You should have come here a long time ago.” Li Bai nodded, sizing Li Mu up. Suddenly, a curious expression appeared on his face. “Uh? No, you haven’t reached the Void-breaking Realm, haven you? But why? Your strength is not enough, but you actually triggered my Gallant Sword Deployment?”
He looked a little taken aback.
Li Mu did not know how to explain this.
Although his cultivation had not yet reached the Void-breaking Realm, he could already kill experts in the Void-breaking Realm.
“It seems that you’re carrying a lot of secrets.” Li Bai smiled and did not ask more questions. Instead, he said, “Young man, what’s your name?”
“I’m Li Mu,” Li Mu said honestly.
“Surnamed Li?” Li Bai’s eyes lit up and he burst out laughing. “Very good. Surnamed Li. Excellent. Really excellent!”
He was from the Tang Dynasty, which was ruled by the imperial Li family. His own surname was Li. And looking a little further back, Lao Zi, the first man who ever traveled beyond Earth was also surnamed Li. It appeared that the surname “Li” had a mysterious power, which was passed on in the Li family. For Li Bai, it represented his home and a sense of belonging, which gave him a warm and cozy feeling.
Li Mu did not know what to say, so he asked, “Senior, you’ve built the Green Lotus Sword Pool to draw me in here. So, do you have anything to tell me?”
Li Bai nodded and said, “There are some things that I should let you know now.”
