"Master… just now… was that a legendary true dragon?" Hua Ming felt his mouth go dry, his brain momentarily short-circuiting.
Hua Ming had spent his entire life idling around Yellow Oriole Valley, never having witnessed anything truly grand.
At this moment, naturally, his horizons had been blown wide open. He felt a deep sense of disbelief.
Jiang Chen smiled faintly. "It was."
Hua Ming's eyes went wide, his face filled with shock as he swallowed hard. "Then… isn't the true dragon a legendary divine beast? Won't it become a legendary divine god?"
"It will." Jiang Chen didn't deny it.
Hua Ming was completely stunned. He was beginning to understand, in a vague way, why his master had said he didn't particularly care about even the Ten Great Divine Kingdoms.
A true dragon was serving his master as an attendant. Just how terrifying must his master's background be?
Could there exist something in this world even more powerful than the Ten Great Divine Kingdoms? Hua Ming felt his little head simply wasn't big enough to process it all.
For a time, Hua Ming was speechless.
"All right, don't make such a fuss over every little thing. Just wait here. The true dragon is about to break through, and it will take some time."
Jiang Chen could see that Long Xuan's cultivation had reached a point where it could no longer be suppressed. Having sensed the laws of heaven and earth, he was about to advance to the Celestial Realm.
This area was rather desolate. Breaking through here carried some risk, but it was still better than doing so somewhere like Yellow Oriole Valley.
Jiang Chen began summoning the Gold-Munching Mice, ordering them to set up a defensive perimeter within a three-hundred-li radius. Any particularly suspicious presence was to be reported immediately.
As a true dragon, Long Xuan's breakthrough to the Celestial Realm would undoubtedly produce an awe-inspiring display. Jiang Chen had to make preparations.
Fortunately, the true dragon clan's breakthroughs didn't require nearly as long as those of the human race. The process was also far less complicated.
This was one of the advantages of the true dragon lineage.
Within this wilderness, there was no sign of human settlement for three to four thousand li in every direction, so Long Xuan's breakthrough proceeded relatively smoothly.
Then came that final moment — true dragon qi surged straight into the heavens, triggering heaven-and-earth phenomena of astonishing magnitude. But in this desolate region, there were very few people nearby.
As a result, it didn't disturb anyone.
By the time people from farther afield were alarmed and arrived at the scene, Jiang Chen and his companions had long since vanished without a trace.
After Long Xuan's breakthrough, the effect on the Taisui White Tiger seemed quite significant. Jiang Chen could clearly sense that the White Tiger's fighting spirit had grown even fiercer.
This kind of healthy competition was exactly the sort of thing Jiang Chen was happy to see.
The rivalry between dragon and tiger, each spurring the other on, would allow them to become truly formidable helpers for Jiang Chen in the future.
Still, Jiang Chen couldn't help but admit that the bloodline of an ancient divine beast was simply heaven-defying. All things considered, he and Long Xuan had been progressing at roughly the same pace.
And his own cultivation speed was already monstrous. Yet Long Xuan, relying on his dragon bloodline, had completely outpaced Jiang Chen's rate and was the first to break through to the Celestial Realm.
"Sigh, divine beast bloodlines are all freaks of nature. Human geniuses truly can't compare when it comes to bloodline advantages."
Jiang Chen wasn't about to belittle himself over it. He understood this was simply the advantage of the divine beast clans — there was no need for jealousy.
About an hour after Jiang Chen and the others departed, powerful figures from every direction began converging on the area. The tremendous upheaval that had just occurred had drawn out the old monsters from within ten thousand li, all coming to investigate.
The breakthrough of a true dragon — that kind of momentum was truly astonishing.
Even after an hour had passed, that fearsome dragon qi had not fully dissipated.
"What powerful spirit beast aura is this?"
"The heaven-and-earth phenomena just now — dragons soaring and phoenixes dancing — it felt extraordinary. Could some divine beast bloodline be breaking through here?"
"A divine beast bloodline? Why would it choose this barren wilderness?"
"Hard to say. Perhaps it just happened to be passing through and gained inspiration for a breakthrough."
"This aura is filled with an ancient quality — it feels like it must be an ancient bloodline, possibly even a divine beast bloodline!"
"Why do I feel this is dragon qi? Although the Blue Smoke Island Domain has never produced a true dragon, sub-dragons and dragon descendants have appeared before. It feels very similar. But clearly far more powerful!"
"A dragon — a true dragon? Impossible, isn't it? When has the Blue Smoke Island Domain ever produced a true dragon? Impossible, impossible!"
"Myriad Abyss Island has never had any true dragon legends either."
"You'd be wrong about that. Myriad Abyss Island does have true dragon legends in its history."
"How could a true dragon bloodline appear so easily? If one does appear, it surely signals the arrival of a great era!"
"The endless seas of Myriad Abyss Island must surely harbor true dragon bloodlines somewhere. It's just that nurturing a true dragon bloodline takes an incredibly long time. Who knows when one will appear?"
"Perhaps a true dragon bloodline was born in the seas around the Blue Smoke Island Domain and simply passed through here?"
"If it really is a true dragon, this aura isn't especially formidable yet — it should still be a young dragon."
The powerful figures from every direction discussed the matter among themselves.