A thousand-zhang giant dragon lay dead at the foot of Wolong Mountain. As the ages passed, the dragon's blood had long since flowed dry.
Yet despite having died no one knew how many years ago, the dragon's physical body showed no signs of decay whatsoever, a testament to its incredible strength. It simply lacked blood, giving it a withered appearance. Yang Kai also discovered that a significant portion of the dragon's internal organs were missing.
Combined with the enormous wounds covering its body, it wasn't hard to imagine just how grueling that final battle must have been.
A dragon of this magnitude—even dead for countless years, nothing more than a corpse—was an absolute treasure trove. Dragon scales, dragon bones, dragon tendons, all of them could be used in artifact forging. Their value was truly immeasurable.
Yang Kai couldn't quite figure it out. A dragon this massive should have possessed terrifying strength, so what could have killed it? And judging by the marks of those wounds, whatever creature had fought it couldn't have been small either.
Dragonkind was the paramount among all living things. What could possibly threaten them? Even Miemeng had been that powerful, yet had still been imprisoned by the dragons.
Suddenly, Yang Kai thought of a certain existence—one that was known as the bane of dragonkind, feeding on dragons themselves!
Such a dragon absolutely could not have been a native creature of the Grand Void Realm. It was highly likely that, like himself, it had been swallowed into this place by the Grand Void Realm. After arriving here, its injuries had been too severe, and it had perished in this location.
He wasn't sure whether his guess was correct. But Yang Kai's attention was quickly drawn to something else.
From somewhere deep within the dragon's body, an unusual fluctuation of power emanated. Following the direction of that energy fluctuation, Yang Kai made his way through the dragon's interior.
After a full incense stick's worth of time, Yang Kai finally arrived at the dragon corpse's chest area.
And there, in that very spot, a sphere roughly the size of a tabletop was revealed in Yang Kai's field of vision. The sphere was perfectly round, radiating a faint luster, earth-yellow in color, like a glowing orb.
The dragon blood within Yang Kai's body surged as he stared at the sphere, his eyes lighting up. "A dragon pearl!"
Dragons possessed dragon pearls—the very foundation of a dragon's being. Much like the inner cores of other demon beasts, it was a treasure that gathered together a dragon's essence, energy, and spirit.
The dragon corpse had been hidden here for countless years. Although Little Black and Little Red had sensed something unusual below, their bloodline limitations had prevented them from coming to search for it. This had allowed the dragon pearl to remain preserved until now.
What surprised Yang Kai even more was that this dragon pearl was actually an earth-attribute dragon pearl!
And earth-attribute power was precisely what he needed most urgently right now.
Among the forces of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, he had already gathered wood and fire. Wood gave birth to fire, and fire gave birth to earth. The next force he needed to condense was the earth element. He had been wondering where he might find suitable earth-element power, making inquiries along the way, but had come up empty. He never expected to find it right here.
Whether this dragon pearl would meet his requirements remained to be tested.
It probably would, Yang Kai thought to himself. After all, this dragon had been a thousand-zhang long in life. The quality of its dragon pearl couldn't possibly be poor.
He reached out toward the dragon pearl.
The instant his fingers touched it, a ferocious dragon pressure surged forth from within the pearl. Before Yang Kai's eyes, a vivid illusion materialized—a monstrous dragon charging at him with savage fury, about to swallow him whole in a single bite.
Yang Kai's body shuddered as he activated the Origin Power of the Golden Holy Dragon. A dragon's roar rang out, and the illusion shattered instantly.
A gentle yet massive earth-element power flowed from the dragon pearl. Sensing the purity and richness of that earth-element force, Yang Kai grinned, smiling silently to himself.
His guess had been right. The earth-element power contained within this dragon pearl truly did meet his needs. Though he didn't know exactly how to evaluate its specific grade, from what he could feel, it was on par with the Golden Crow True Fire at the very least.
This was truly a case of searching high and low for something, only to find it without any effort at all! Yang Kai felt an overwhelming urge to throw his head back and laugh out loud.
This alone made the trip to the Grand Void Realm completely worthwhile!
Rubbing his hands together, Yang Kai bowed deeply and respectfully to the enormous dragon pearl, murmuring, "Senior, you fell in battle many years ago, and leaving your dragon pearl here would be a terrible waste. Today, this junior borrows Senior's dragon pearl for a while. Once my cultivation bears fruit in the future, I will never disgrace Senior's name. Please forgive me, Senior!"
After finishing his words, Yang Kai rubbed his hands together again and circled the dragon pearl several times before finally finding a comfortable position. He sat cross-legged, placed both palms on the dragon pearl, slowly closed his eyes, activated the Dao Seal, and began to draw out the earth-element power within.
In an instant, the dragon pearl blazed to light. The dense earth-element power that had lain dormant within it for countless years surged through Yang Kai's palms, following his breathing, flooding wildly into his body like a whale swallowing the sea.
Within the Dao Seal, there had originally been only black and green hues. But as Yang Kai worked his technique, a layer of earth-yellow gradually appeared, lending it an incredibly solid and steadfast impression.
The earth element inherently governed defense, let alone the power contained in a dragon pearl from a thousand-zhang giant dragon.
Gradually, Yang Kai lost track of time, devoting himself entirely to the great task of condensing earth-element power.
Days passed one by one. Outside Wolong Mountain, Yue He and the others had casually found a spot and set up camp. With the two extraordinary beasts, Little Black and Little Red, standing guard, no one dared cause trouble. Occasionally, some cultivators passing through the area would sense the fierce aura of the two beasts and give them a wide berth.
However, Little Black and Little Red seemed to be natural rivals and got along terribly. They frequently tangled together for the most inexplicable reasons, fighting with earth-shattering force. Fortunately, both exercised restraint and weren't truly fighting to the death—though with creatures of their size, injuries were unavoidable.
Half a month flew by in the blink of an eye. During these two weeks, the others had lived leisurely and comfortably, but Yang Kai had remained nowhere to be seen. This left Yue He somewhat worried.
Before departing, Yang Kai had said he would be back in three to five days at the shortest, half a month at the longest. Now the deadline had passed, and there was still no sign of him. Yue He naturally couldn't put her mind at ease.