Angering an Ancient Dragon at a time like this was hardly a good idea for Yang Kai, so after sensing the Ancient Dragon's warning, he promptly shut his mouth.
What was currently underway should have been the ceremony to open the Dragon Pool — lengthy, tedious, and utterly dull.
Every member of the Dragon Clan was watching with rapt attention, but Yang Kai found it incredibly boring.
Though he possessed Dragon Veins, he was after all born of the Human Race, making it difficult to appreciate the atmosphere of the Dragon Clan at a moment like this.
After half a day finally passed, the ceremony seemed to reach its conclusion. The three Ancient Dragons opened their eyes in unison, and the one in the center boomed: "Today the Dragon Pool shall open! We invoke the power of our ancestors to aid our younger kin in refining their bloodlines, and pray for the eternal prosperity of the Dragon Clan and the endless continuation of our lineage!"
As his voice trailed off, roaring dragon cries echoed without end. In an instant, the sound of dragon roars shook the heavens within Unreturning Pass, and dragon might permeated the air.
At the same time, the five massive dragon statues standing upon the plaza showed faint signs of anomaly — though they were statues, they now seemed as though they might come alive, each of their dragon eyes gleaming with brilliance.
Yang Kai felt the Dragon Origin within his body give a faint pulse, as if some inexplicable connection had formed between himself and one of the statues.
He couldn't help but be startled. Looking more closely, he discovered that the one his origin was connected to was none other than the golden statue.
During his time cultivating in the Sacred Spirit Ancestral Land, the Sealed Demon Ground, and within the Dragon Clan's sacred relic, the Crystal Palace, Yang Kai had witnessed through the mysterious power of temporal reversal the ancient battle in which the Dragon and Phoenix Clans sealed the Ink-Colored Giant Divine Spirit. From this, he learned that the origin within his body belonged to the Golden Sacred Dragon Origin of that era's Dragon Emperor.
The current situation inevitably stirred some associations in his mind.
Five statues, each a different color, and yet it was the golden one that had formed a connection with him.
If that was the case... could these five statues be the statues of the Dragon Emperors throughout history? There was no other way to explain it.
In other words, from ancient times to the present, there had been a total of five generations of Dragon Emperors in the Dragon Clan. This number was undoubtedly minuscule in the records of the Human Race, but for the long-lived Dragon Clan, it was hardly insignificant. After all, Dragon Emperors were the supreme powerhouses of this world, and barring any accidents, they generally lived out their natural lifespans.
Passed down through the ages, the Dragon Clan had seen five generations of Dragon Emperors. The current era should have one as well, but Yang Kai had yet to see them, nor did he know whether they were in Unreturning Pass or not.
This connection was extremely subtle, and judging from the reactions of the other Dragon Clan members, they were likely unable to perceive it.
Yang Kai probed it carefully but found nothing particularly remarkable.
Just as his thoughts were drifting, the three Ancient Dragons of the Dragon Clan each shifted and transformed into their dragon forms.
The Dragon Clan was divided into Young Dragons, Great Dragons, Ancient Dragons, and Saint Dragons — one could determine their cultivation level by their size alone. Under a thousand zhang, they were Young Dragons; from a thousand to five thousand zhang, Great Dragons; from five thousand to ten thousand zhang, Ancient Dragons; and only above ten thousand zhang did they become Saint Dragons.
Among Saint Dragons, the strongest of all was the Dragon Emperor!
Like Ji Laosan, who had previously transformed into a dragon form of roughly five thousand zhang — he had essentially reached the peak of the Great Dragon stage. If he entered the Dragon Pool this time, his advancement to Ancient Dragon was a foregone conclusion.
Had that not been the case, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to block Yang Kai outside Unreturning Pass. With such a precious opportunity for advancement stolen by Yang Kai, how could he possibly let it slide? True, the Dragon Pool would open again someday, but who knew how many years — or lifetimes — that would take.
The three Ancient Dragons had cultivated for untold ages, virtually reaching the ten-thousand-zhang limit of their forms. If they fully unfurled their dragon bodies, Unreturning Pass might not be large enough to contain them.
And so the three Ancient Dragons did not fully reveal their true forms. Even so, each was at least a thousand zhang in length.
Their imposing might was awe-inspiring.
Yang Kai's mind trembled.
Though he had never witnessed these three Ancient Dragons in combat with others, the sheer intensity of their pressure alone told him that all three were more powerful than any Human Race Eighth-Order cultivator he had ever seen.
Yang Kai couldn't help but wonder — how long could a Human Race Eighth-Order cultivator last against such beings before falling?
The disadvantages of Sacred Spirits were starkly obvious — their immense lifespans meant correspondingly slow growth. Yet their advantages were equally clear: formidable physical constitutions and the accumulation of countless ages of refinement made them virtually invincible within their realm.
And what was more, the Dragon Clan stood at the pinnacle of the Sacred Spirits, surpassing even other Sacred Spirits in power.
The three Ancient Dragons were each a different color — one black, one azure, and one green.
The differences in color reflected the different elemental attributes of their origins. Yang Kai, for instance, had a gold-type origin, which made him more lethal in combat.
Having assumed their true dragon forms, the three Ancient Dragons darted back and forth through the air. Under the activation of various profound secret techniques, space and time became distorted.
Yang Kai did not know what they were doing, but he presumed they were opening the Dragon Pool.
The Phoenix Empress had said that the Dragon Pool was a place of unfathomable mystery, accessible and openable only by the Dragon Clan — unlike the Phoenix Nest, which was hidden atop the Indestructible Wutong Tree and could be found by the naked eye.
Yet he had clearly sensed the existence of the Dragon Pool in the Void before. Since it existed, that meant it was not some ethereal, intangible thing.
How could that be explained?
Unable to figure it out, he couldn't be bothered to dwell on it. He was not a true member of the Dragon Clan, after all, and there was no way he could know all of their secrets.
As the three Ancient Dragons continued their work, the five Dragon Emperor statues became increasingly lifelike. Before long, a mysterious power began to emanate from the statues, converging and merging, forming into a cohesive whole.
Yang Kai stared wide-eyed as he watched, noticing that the power was slowly revolving among the five statues, accelerating with each passing moment.
In no more than half a cup of tea's time, a vortex-like presence had appeared at the very center of the five statues.