Chapter 411: Pillaging the Dragon Palace!

Just how wealthy was the True Dragon Clan?

Everyone knew that the True Dragons were rich—after all, they were the noble scions of Heaven and Earth, with an ancient lineage, and had True Lords guarding them. It was simply impossible for them to be poor.

But how rich were they, exactly?

In this regard, the True Dragon Clan had always been extremely tight-lipped, never leaking a single detail—until today. Lü Yang had finally seen it with his own eyes.

Upon entering the treasure vault—

What caught Lü Yang off guard was that the vault itself wasn’t large at all. It was merely a small room, furnished with a desk and two bookshelves to either side.

Then, Lü Yang was dumbfounded. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

He saw it as clearly as could be—the desk and the bookshelves were all made of wood, but flowing across them was an aura far too familiar to Lü Yang: the qi of Immortal Spirits!

‘These are stillbirths of Immortal Spirits? Ones that failed to be nurtured, never made it to birth, and ended up perishing in the womb? This desk, these shelves… they’re all made of 【Jia Wood】? That’s right. All of them were crafted using the stillbirth of a 【Jia Wood】 Immortal Spirit as the foundation!’

This was extravagance to the point of absurdity!

Such a tier of spiritual material was enough to forge a top-grade superior spiritual treasure—or even be directly refined into a Heavenly Gang or Earth Fiend material, with power to spare!

And yet here, its only purpose was to hold things.

Lü Yang shifted his gaze to the items placed on the desk and shelves. On the desk lay a Daoist scripture, along with the Four Treasures of the Study: brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

Each of the two bookshelves held three items.

On the left shelf were: a teapot, a seal, and a jade stone with seven orifices.

On the right shelf were: a small box, a crystal sphere, and a streak of dazzling golden light sealed inside a glazed vial, radiating so brightly it was nearly blinding.

“Holy crap!”

Lü Yang might not recognize the rest, but that streak of golden light in the vial—he couldn’t be more familiar with it.

It was actually a Metal Nature!

Immediately, Lü Yang activated his 【Exquisite Heart】 to inspect it.

That streak of Metal Nature appeared before his spiritual sense, taking the form of a fierce, snarling white Chi dragon, its enormous dragon eyes glaring menacingly ahead.

Lü Yang pinched his fingers into a calculation, instantly grasping its origin.

‘This is… that 【White Chi】!’

The Dragon Monarch’s eldest son—the previous Crown Prince of the Dragon Palace before Heavenly Jiao—once a prime candidate for achieving the Golden Core among the True Dragons. In the end, he was lured out and slain by the Four Great Powers.

“After elder brother died, a Dao-Sin emerged. Father suppressed it and refined it into a Metal Nature, which has been stored here ever since.”

Heavenly Jiao’s tone was calm.

“Father’s cooperation with the Dao Court wasn’t just to find a path of survival for our race—he also harbored some hope of reviving my brother.”

“Oh?”

Lü Yang raised an eyebrow. “The Dao-Sin was already born; the soul must have long reincarnated, completely dissipated. What are you going to use—a single Metal Nature—to revive him?”

“That, I’m not sure.”

Heavenly Jiao shook his head. “I only know that Father poured countless efforts into creating this third-grade True Art, solely in preparation for Brother’s revival.”

Lü Yang followed his gesture and looked at the Daoist scripture on the desk.

『Dragon Chapter of Heavenly Speech and Radiant Flame』!

Lü Yang swept it with his spiritual sense and immediately frowned.

This was indeed a third-grade True Art, but to his surprise, it wasn’t meant for True Dragons or beast cultivators at all—it was tailored for human-bodied cultivators.

And not just any human cultivators.

“According to Father, joining the Dao Court comes with both pros and cons. The benefit is naturally a return to the Inner Lands, with the Dao Court as backing—this would greatly empower the True Dragon Clan.”

“The downside, however, is that being under the Dao Court means a descent in spiritual rank. From a conceptual standpoint, it would be like lowering our divine status. From then on, all True Dragons would no longer be born with Foundation Establishment as a birthright—they’d merely be beasts with decent talent, greatly diminishing the clan’s potential.”

“But there is one way to avoid this downside.”

At this point, Heavenly Jiao instinctively lowered his voice.

“That is—rebellion! Overthrow the Tian Wu royal house, and let the True Dragon Clan take their place!”

At those words, Lü Yang froze.

“.Huh?”

Rebellion under the Dao Court’s rule?

That’s madness!

“You don’t know, Master.” Heavenly Jiao shook his head and explained, “The Jiangdong Dao Court is different from the other three great factions—it permits rebellion.”

“The great currents of the world—long divided must unite, long united must divide.”

“That is simply 【Heaven’s Law】.”

“Before the Tian Wu royal family, it was the Zouyu imperial lineage, wielding the Fruit Position of 【City Wall Earth】—so overbearing! And yet, they still fell like any other.”

“So Father’s plan is: after joining the Dao Court, wait for the right moment. When the imperial throne is in flux, have my brother’s Metal Nature reincarnate, bestow him with this 『Dragon Chapter of Heavenly Speech and Radiant Flame』, and let him join the struggle for the throne—with the full backing of the True Dragon Clan.”

“And this kind of thing… the Dao Lord won’t interfere?”

“Of course not!”

Heavenly Jiao chuckled. “The Dao Lord’s vision is far too grand to concern himself with such matters. Besides, once our clan joins the Dao Court, we’ll be part of his inner system.”

“What’s more, Father specially created this 『Dragon Chapter of Heavenly Speech and Radiant Flame』 precisely to win the Dao Lord’s approval.”

“As a third-grade True Art, its targeted Fruit Position is 【Heavenly Fire Above】—the supreme Fire Element. So far, no one has successfully attained it.”

“If our True Dragon Clan can achieve it and ascend to the Dao Court's royal line, it would mean pulling this Fruit Position into the Dao Court’s official hierarchy. Such a tremendous benefit—how could the Dao Lord possibly refuse? Especially after 【City Wall Earth】 fell to the Pure Land, the Dao Court would only be glad to see it!”

“So that’s how it is…”

Only then did Lü Yang grasp the entire scheme of the True Dragon Clan. Undeniably, in terms of ‘laundering their reputation and going legitimate’, this plan was extremely thorough.

What he valued even more was:

‘This 『Dragon Chapter of Heavenly Speech and Radiant Flame』... might be perfect for me!’

Because when the Dragon Monarch created the technique, he deliberately embedded a restriction—based on its concept, only a human-bodied dragon descendant could cultivate it.

And this wasn’t something like a beast taking human shape and putting on a disguise. It required one to truly possess a human body and the noble rank of True Dragon bloodline—a complex and cumbersome process. Even with the Dragon Monarch’s abilities, constructing such a being would be incredibly difficult.

In other words, despite being a third-grade True Art—

There was actually no one in the world who could currently cultivate it. Not even its Qi Condensation stage entry was accessible, let alone using it to establish a foundation.

But for Lü Yang, none of this was an issue.

Thanks to the Golden Talent: 【True Dragon Bloodline】!

At this moment, Lü Yang met every criterion for “human-bodied dragon descendant”—inside and out. This technique might as well have been custom-made for him!

Truth be told, if not for the fact that 【True Dragon Bloodline】 was granted by the 【Book of a Hundred Lives】, and 『Dragon Chapter of Heavenly Speech and Radiant Flame』 had clearly been part of the Dragon Monarch’s plan from many years ago—he would’ve suspected someone was manipulating him.

Because this coincidence was just too uncanny.

‘Don’t tell me there’s another trap…’

With that thought, Lü Yang rubbed his temples, uncertain what to think. He could only shelve it for now and turned to inspect the other items in the vault.

For example—the Four Treasures of the Study on the desk, aside from the 『Dragon Chapter of Heavenly Speech and Radiant Flame』.

At first glance, they looked unremarkable. But when Lü Yang activated 【Exquisite Heart】 and pierced through the illusion—his eyes nearly popped out.

Brush: 【Wu Earth】.

Ink: 【Wu Fire】.

Paper: 【Ji Earth】.

Inkstone: 【Wei Earth】.

‘【Heavenly Fire Above】… damn it, these are the corresponding Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend elements! The Dragon Monarch already prepared them all for his son!’

In that moment, Lü Yang was so furious that his hands trembled.

So this was what being a second-gen Immortal looked like?

He recalled how much hardship he had endured just to gather Heavenly Gang and Earth Fiend materials back then…

You rich bastards! This world was falling deeper into decay because of all these background-leeching, shortcut-climbing parasites!

…Wait, no. I’m a True Dragon now too.

In that case, aren’t these technically my assets?

Then never mind!