The glow of the golden blade flickered in the sea, and in an instant, the water was filled with blood.
Li Shou’s head had been severed.
As Lu Xuan sheathed his sword and glanced towards the body of Li Shou, the stress that Li Shou had brought to him in this period of time had been completely relieved.
However, Lu Xuan knew he could not relax just yet.
Li Shou was only the beginning and he had never seen him as a true rival.
Right now, the sole person whom he could consider a rival was the XuanHuo Sect leader.
Although the two have yet to cross paths, from Lu Xuan’s knowledge, the XuanHuo Sect leader should be at the pinnacle of the Consolidation Realm, thus putting him at the top of the Tempest Ocean Realm.
With the current state he was in, there was still too large a gap in their abilities for Lu Xuan to launch an attack against him.
However, Lu Xuan did not have much time on his hands and he had to utilize this period to improve as much as possible.
Lu Xuan thought carefully about his course of action. Within this tight time frame, there was only one place for him to make improvements so great that they would shock anyone.
“Guess I’m left with no choice but to pay Jiao Dragon Palace a visit. The old dragon is a hidden threat anyway,” he thought. “Defeating him a little earlier is not a big deal!”
The Jiao Dragon Palace was a unique place in the Tempest Ocean Realm. It was a place of meditation for monsters, and therefore it differed greatly from the other tribes that shared similarities with the deep-sea snapping turtle clan.
The name Jiao Dragon Palace originated from the thousands year-old great serpent that resided in the palace, which was called the Jiao Dragon King.
After the Jiao Dragon King attained enlightenment, it constructed the palace within the depths of the Tempest Ocean Realm and recruited strong monster clans from throughout the Realm to be under the Jiao Dragon reign.
Unbeknownst to the outside world, the present Jiao Dragon Palace had already become a formidable force within the Tempest Ocean Realm.
The location was memorable to Lu Xuan, for the Jiao Dragon Palace had been one of the parties behind the Great Monster Apocalypse in his previous life.
A century later, the Jiao Dragon Palace would conquer the Tempest Ocean Realm. Under the command of the Jiao Dragon Palace, countless fearsome deep-sea monsters emerged from the sea onto the land and embarked on their merciless slaughter spree.
Moreover, in the Northern parts of the Holy Sun Continent, there was another Demonic Sect. This Demonic Sect was home to a powerful entity: the Demonic Deity of the North.
The Demonic Deity of the North has several highly skilled individuals under their command. They worked side by side with the Jiao Dragon Palace. While the palace attacked, the Demonic Sect commanded the demons to invade human territories and planned to wipe out humankind.
They were the responsible for the Great Monster Apocalypse – and this was only the start.
In the Tempest Ocean Realm, the XuanHuo Sect Leader, the Jiao Dragon King, and the Demonic Deity of the North formed a powerful trinity.
Among humans, there were a handful of masters of the Consolidation Realm, namely, the Five Consolidations. They were able to match the powers of the demons due to the reputation and strength of the XuanHuo Sect Leader.
Unfortunately, the monsters evolved to outrank the XuanHuo Sect Leader. Under immense pressure, the Sect Leader came to secret agreements with the Jiao Dragon Palace and the Northern Demonic Sect to be included as a partition of the world after the Great Monster Apocalypse.
The human world was shocked when this information was released. The betrayal of the XuanHuo Sect Leader greatly diminished the morale of their warriors and hatred towards the XuanHuo Sect Leader grew. After all, the leader was bringing the downfall of mankind.
In the most crucial moments, Lin Ziyi stepped up and held up the flag of the humans, an act that stabilized the crisis.
However, Lin Ziyi’s powers were unable to hold up the advancements of the trinity. The XuanHuo Sect decided to give up on protecting the Tempest Ocean Realm and instead conquer Earth as their new colony.
It was in these circumstances that Lu Xuan entered the center stage as well.
Through his experiences in numerous gruelling battles, he eventually rose to the level of the Consolidation Realm. This was an act that finally solidified the humans’ strength in battle.
With Lu Xuan, Lin Ziyi did not have to face the strength of the trinity’s Consolidation Realm alone.
While Lu Xuan worked on improving himself, Lin Ziyi fought battles as well. She has been the target of attacks, betrayals, and had lived through multiple experiences of hell.
Even for someone who lacked ambition and drive, Lin Ziyi was spurred into action to defend mankind.
As Lu Xuan ascended to the Consolidation Realm, he and Lin Ziyi planned to take down the Demonic Deity of the North.
Their game-changing battle shocked the whole world. The battle carried on for decades. Lu Xuan’s abilities reached a new peak, and the duo managed to eliminate the Jiao Dragon King before finally uniting to vanquish the XuanHuo Sect Leader once and for all.
Although the leaders had been defeated, there remained many highly skilled individuals of the Consolidation Realm. However, they were nothing compared to the joint forces of Lu Xuan and Lin Ziyi.
After decades of hard battles, the duo finally brought an end to the Great Monster Apocalypse.
The journey was difficult, where uncountable men sacrificed their lives. Many innocent civilians had been roped in to be a part of the defensive forces and they were set up as Earth’s final line of defense.
Tragically, when the battles came to an end, less than one-tenth of the population in the Tempest Ocean Realm survived. The battle losses were tremendous.
The people of Earth and the Tempest Ocean Realm reconciled and elected to assimilate their cultures and people together. There was a mass migration of humans from Earth into the Tempest Ocean Realm and the two worlds merged into one entity.
Those were the most challenging times of his past life. He swore that in this life, he would change the circumstances and protect the world from disaster.
Aside from preventing future calamity, he knew that the Jiao Dragon Palace contained mountains of the treasures that the Jiao Dragon King had accumulated over thousands of years.
The treasures not only served to provide a lavish lifestyle for the Jiao Dragon, but has been used to cultivate and train the descendants of the Jiao Dragon. The treasures were crucial in the conquest of the Tempest Ocean Realm.
On top of that, Lu Xuan was aware of one particular treasure hidden in the Jiao Dragon Palace.
This was an item that was the core of the dragon clans, the object where one stored all of its energy and mana: the Dragon Pearl. This Dragon Pearl was all the more special, for it was the Dragon Pearl of a Genuine Dragon. In other words, a Genuine Dragon Pearl.
The Dragon Pearl was the most valued item of the dragons. Even in death, a dragon would not let their Dragon Pearl leave their side. For many aggressive dragons, they would resort to self-destruction to avoid exposing the Dragon Pearl. The Genuine Dragon Pearl was no exception. Lu Xuan had come across this pearl only once in his past life.
However as the Jiao Dragon King did not know the technique of mana refining, it resorted to absorbing the power of the Genuine Dragon Pearl little by little after it had obtained the pearl.
Nevertheless, this technique had granted him the power to transform from a monstrous serpent to a Jiao Dragon, which a waste of precious resources in Lu Xuan’s eyes.
One day, Lu Xuan would benefit from the Genuine Dragon Pearl as well, and it would be a great help in his journey to learn the technique of mana refining.
If Lu Xuan was able to acquire this Dragon Pearl now, there was a greater probability of catching up to the level of the great trinity in this short period of time.
The mere thought of this filled Lu Xuan with confidence. He abandoned his hesitations and made his way towards the Jiao Dragon Palace.
In his past life, he had paid the palace many visits; more times than he could count. The trip to the palace was a familiar route to him.
Deep within the boundless sea, the Jiao Dragon Palace radiated a blinding golden shine. Before the luxurious and glorious palace stood the silhouette of an unannounced visitor. Lu Xuan’s eyes gleamed equally bright as he surveyed the courts of the Jiao Dragon Palace that stretched out before him.
