Master of Strange Dao

Passing by one sea demon after another, in just a breath or two, his flickering figure suddenly stopped.

He panted for a moment, and a wisp of golden wind flew out, causing the sea demons' bodies to all turn to dust in the golden wind.

Wisps of black qi flew out from the dust and turned into nothingness in an instant.

Yu Ziqing furrowed his brows slightly. He didn't know what that black qi was. It wasn't Demonic Qi, nor was it Devil Thought, but something that made him feel uncomfortable.

Devil Thought wouldn't give him this feeling either.

Yu Ziqing didn't stop. He continued wandering through the Dragon Palace, killing everything that could discover him and held malice towards him.

When he crushed the last sea demon to death, its body crumbled into dust and dispersed, a ray of heavenly light shone upon the solemn and somber palace.

The dim corridors and the black coral slowly gained color under the heavenly light.

Murals covering the palace's Sky Dome depicted various living beings flying out and landing in the palace.

Schools of You Yu also began to appear around the palace, weaving through the corals.

Amidst a crowd of Sea Clan, a boy, who looked about ten years old with horns on his head, stepped forward and solemnly bowed to Yu Ziqing.

"Thank you."

Yu Ziqing stared into the boy's eyes and immediately recognized them as identical to those of the juvenile dragon he had seen on the upper level.

"What exactly is this place? Who exactly are you? What's going on here?"

"Please follow me."

The boy put on a serious face, pretending to be solemn, and gestured politely.

He led Yu Ziqing to the center of the palace, the heart of the heavenly light, where mottled rays fell from above, illuminating the place as if it were cast from crystal.

When they sat down, some fresh Spirit Fruit was brought.

The boy maintained a serious and earnest demeanor.

"I'm Ao Qing. Since you're able to come here, you should have heard of me."

"The True Dragon lineage, I suppose."

"That's right. For a long time, the Dragon Clan has had no True Dragon. Strictly speaking, True Dragons and the Dragon Clan are two different races.

I am the only True Dragon bloodline of the Dragon Clan in nearly ten thousand years.

Unfortunately, they were all wrong. There are no more True Dragons in this world; none existed even before the Ancient times, and all descendants of True Dragons lack the True Dragon lineage."

Yu Ziqing took a bite of a Spirit Fruit. It was quite fresh, proving this place truly existed and could grow Spirit Fruit.

"Take your time. I'll give you only one chance. If you don't explain clearly, I'll turn around and leave."

"Then let me start from the beginning.

Before the Ancient times, all True Dragons had fallen, and so had all True Dragon bloodlines.

From the start of Ancient times, there was never any True Dragon lineage among the Dragon Clan.

Even when the Dragon Clan went through all sorts of schemes to produce one occasionally, it always ended in disaster.

Twenty thousand years ago, the Dragon Clan produced one. Unfortunately, that True Dragon lineage existed for only three years before it perished.

He died because he tried to steal a forefather's inner core from the Dragon Tomb and was overwhelmed by it.

Afterward came me. They thought it was a failure in teaching prior True Dragon lineages, but the moment I opened my eyes and received the inheritance, I knew my fate."

The boy spoke calmly, picking up a Spirit Fruit to eat.

"All True Dragon lineages are cursed, and the curse is fused into the True Dragon lineage itself.

Moreover, the stronger I become, the stronger the curse's power grows, eventually destroying me.

So, from the moment I was born, I started preparing, like other Dragon Clan members, creating a Mausoleum for myself.

This is one of the Mausoleums I prepared.

What you saw last time was me at the age of one, buried in my birthplace.

What you see now is me, ten years old by your human age, interred in this palace of mine at ten.

I can only rely on this to keep my spirituality untainted by the curse and unpolluted by the True Dragon lineage,

hoping for a sliver of survival in the future.

Sadly, I still underestimated the power of the True Dragon lineage and the curse merged into it.

The curse's power was very strong and terrifying. Even burying my ten-year-old self here, I couldn't escape it.

Those you killed, transformed into sea demons, were manifestations of a thread of the curse mixed with a wisp of True Dragon lineage.

Actually, I'm quite curious about how you did it, because I can't kill them at all.

They're like poison attached to my bones, turned into my bone and blood; I can't kill them, only hide and maintain my spirituality.

Of course, you don't have to say if you don't want to. I'm just happy you could kill them.

At least it lets me see a glimmer of hope."

Yu Ziqing sat cross-legged, listening to Ao Qing's story, eating seriously and listening intently.

"Has anyone been here before?"

Ao Qing nodded decisively.

"Yes, any who have perfected their cultivation, regardless of Cultivation Realm, can sense the natural Formation's rhythm, discover the key I hid within it, learn a Secret Technique key, and open the Mausoleum to enter here.

However, you're the first to skip the key and instead directly cultivate a Step Technique on the natural Formation."

"They all died, didn't they?" Yu Ziqing asked a key question.