Chapter 872: The Vast Ocean Dragon’s Song Echoes
Qin Mu beamed with a smile, pushed the old man’s hand back through the gate, and closed the Gate of Heavenly Succession, saying, “Imperial Heavenly Lord is doing very well. I left him at the Jade Capital Academy, and he is now training alongside thirty-five Human Sovereigns, including the First Ancestor Human Sovereign. He’s incredibly formidable now. Once I abdicate the position of Human Sovereign, he will become the thirty-eighth generation Human Sovereign…”
The Yin Cha old man had no intention of leaving. Qin Mu forced the door shut, finally managing to close the Gate of Heavenly Succession, and then with a thought, the gate dissipated.
“Young master, the seawater has turned black.” Yan’er looked down at the water and said.
Qin Mu lowered his head. The seawater had indeed turned pitch black. In the dark water, a paper boat floated beneath the surface, and the Yin Cha old man, with a resentful expression, shone his horse lantern toward him.
Long Qilin saw the scene beneath the water and shuddered in terror, quickly leaping into the air.
Qin Mu felt helpless. “You Yin Heavenly Lord, go to the Jade Capital Academy and see for yourself. Then you’ll know whether what I said is true or false. Why must you follow me?”
The Yin Cha old man beneath the water slowly faded away, his voice drifting faintly: “I will go to the Jade Capital Academy. If I find that things are not as you said, I will come back and have a serious talk with you!”
Only then did the darkness beneath Qin Mu’s feet dissipate.
Not long after, another Yin Cha old man arrived at the Jade Capital Academy.
The realms of the underworld and the living world were distinct. The Yin Cha old man did not wish to interfere with the living world, so he did not reveal himself directly but instead hid in the shadows to observe.
Then, he saw the Human Sovereigns of the Human Sovereign Hall disciplining a chubby little boy.
The smile on the Yin Cha old man’s face stiffened. He thought to himself, “That little fatso definitely can’t be Imperial Heavenly Lord…”
“Lan Yutian, let’s spar!”
The burly Qikang Human Sovereign sealed his divine treasury and then began to beat the chubby boy. After Qikang finished, Yishan took over, and after Yishan, Lan Bo continued.
The Yin Cha old man’s face turned completely dark, and he felt an urge to destroy the world.
Fortunately, although the chubby boy was beaten harshly, the Human Sovereigns were still measured in their strikes, and his life was not in danger.
Those Human Sovereigns crowded around the thoroughly subdued Imperial Heavenly Lord, criticizing this move as wrong and that technique as flawed.
“Our Human Sovereign Hall’s tradition is: if you don’t beat them, they won’t become useful; if you don’t strike them, they won’t become talented.”
“Our Human Sovereign Hall also has another tradition: once you’ve learned something, you must beat your teacher!”
“Don’t learn from us! We never learn from our masters’ teachings; we always create our own techniques and divine abilities! If you don’t create your own techniques and divine abilities, how will you ever defeat that brat surnamed Qin?”
…
Hearing this, the Yin Cha old man felt relieved. The Human Sovereigns’ educational methods displeased him somewhat, but their educational goals were excellent.
Qin Mu, Yan’er, and Long Qilin continued their journey in the direction the Yin Cha old man had pointed. After traveling for over ten days, they still hadn’t found the Dragon Earl Kingdom. The sea offered nothing but waves and flying fish, making it feel like a desert that drove one mad.
Long Qilin once again planned to float on the sea surface, but Qin Mu no longer had the strength to beat him. He grabbed Long Qilin by the tail and dragged the massive creature along the sea surface as he traveled.
These days, Yan’er had been eating nothing but sea fish and sea beasts, and she was sick of it. She stood on Qin Mu’s shoulder with vacant eyes, occasionally lifting a claw to pick a fishbone from the corner of her mouth.
Qin Mu flipped open the geographical map drawn by Bai Qu’er, glanced at it, and then tossed it into the sea.
The geographical map drawn by Bai Qu’er was a maritime map from forty thousand years ago. The seas had changed, and the geography of the Eastern Sea was no longer what Bai Qu’er had seen back then.
Moreover, the Primordial Realm had been sealed once, and after breaking the seal, the geography had undergone massive changes.
Especially the sea. The changes in the underwater mountains and rivers were even harder to detect, and many islands on the sea surface had disappeared, making it even more difficult to determine their position.
Suddenly, Qin Mu tilted his head and said in a hoarse voice, “Sister Yan’er, do you hear a song?”
Yan’er said weakly, “Young master, you must be mistaken. Where is there a song… Huh, there really is a song!”
They followed the sound of the song. Before they had gone far, they saw a massive skeleton on the sea surface, half submerged in the water and half standing above it.
This was an unimaginably huge divine dragon skeleton. The seawater was very deep, yet half of this divine dragon’s bones still stood above the water, showing how enormous it must have been in life.
The song was coming from the skeleton. When Qin Mu and the others approached, they saw that it was this skeletal dragon singing.
Its dragon head opened and closed its mouth, and the song came from within. But this divine dragon was nothing but bones—how could it still sing?
The skeletal dragon’s song was rough, long, and deep. It was like a poet of the sea, its melody filled with melancholy and sorrow.
“Young master, what is it singing?” Yan’er didn’t understand dragon language and asked.
“It’s singing about its homeland in very ancient dragon language.”
Because Qin Mu had spent his early years trying to decipher the dragon language on the nest of the True Dragon Master, he had a deep understanding of dragon language.
“Its homeland is the Dragon Earl Kingdom.”
Qin Mu listened to the skeletal dragon’s song and said, “It says the Dragon Earl Kingdom was a beautiful place, where divine dragons roamed the sea surface, with beautiful Dao language. The dragons built magnificent and imposing structures on the islands, ruling the vast ocean. The various races in the sea paid tribute to them, offering delicacies and sea jade and jewels. They lived in harmony. Many dragons left their homeland to become rain-bringing Dragon Kings, highly respected.”
Suddenly, the song turned somber, filled with killing intent and confusion.
“It says that one day, the Heavenly Court’s Imperial Guard came and destroyed its homeland. The dragons were separated from their families, turned into slaves, with chains piercing their bodies. Many captives were beheaded, their blood dyeing the sea red. Many slaves were loaded onto ships.”
Qin Mu listened to the dragon’s chant and continued, “The Heavenly Court’s Imperial Guard used their flesh and blood as sacrifices, offered to the Heavenly Emperor of the Heavenly Court. Their king, the Dragon Earl King, was also captured, turned into a slave, and sent to the Heavenly Court for trial. Thus, its homeland was destroyed, and it became a wanderer without a home. When it missed home, it returned to the devastated homeland, only to see lonely ghosts and wild spirits drifting there.”
Long Qilin hid behind Qin Mu, timidly peering at the divine dragon skeleton, and asked, “Master, where is its homeland? And why did it die here?”
The skeletal dragon had long since died. Its longing for its homeland kept it singing this dragon race’s homesick song, unable to answer them.
“Is this Dragon Earl the one that Qu’er encountered in the Eastern Sea back then?”
Qin Mu thought for a moment, then activated the Ten Thousand Spirits Natural Art to enlighten the skeletal dragon.
The dragon bones standing on the sea suddenly rattled violently, stirring up massive waves. The divine dragon’s dry bones pulled out of the water, stood up, and roared, “Homeland! Homeland! I cannot be buried elsewhere—I must return to my homeland!”
Qin Mu stood below as the floodwaters surged, deflected by his vital energy.
The young man looked up and shouted, “Where is your homeland?”
Whoosh—
The skeletal dragon suddenly soared into the sky, shaking its head and tail as it flew into the distance. But without flesh and magical power, it fell from the air after traveling just a mile, crashing into the sea with a splash of foam. Its bones scattered everywhere.
Qin Mu had awakened it using a soul-summoning technique. The divine dragon’s skeleton reassembled, quickly restoring itself. It didn’t fly but swam through the sea, moving very fast.
“Follow it!”
Qin Mu jumped onto Long Qilin’s head, and Long Qilin hurriedly followed. The skeletal dragon swam faster and faster, charging across the sea surface. Suddenly, it vanished from their sight.
Qin Mu was stunned. Long Qilin rushed to that spot and cautiously extended a claw to test it. His claw disappeared into the air ahead.
“It’s a kind of illusion array.”
Qin Mu stepped into it. The sea before him suddenly receded, and a magnificent scene unfolded before him. Countless divine beings were pressing down dragon-headed, human-bodied Dragon Earls and beheading them. Countless heads fell, their blood forming an ocean, with waves of blood surging into the sky.
In the sky was a massive altar, blood churning on it. It was a spectacular sacrificial scene.
The shouts of the Imperial Guard’s divine and demon generals echoed continuously. The people of the Dragon Earl Kingdom had become offerings in this sacrifice, their flesh and blood offered to the Heavenly Court, becoming delicacies for the Heavenly Emperor and his civil and military officials.
Qin Mu stood frozen, shaking his head.
Suddenly, the illusion before him disappeared, and the bleak, barren reality appeared before him.
That sacrificial scene was merely a reflection of history—the time during the Dragon Han era when Wei Suifeng led the Imperial Guard to suppress the rebellion in the Dragon Earl Kingdom, slaughtering its people and offering them to the Heavenly Court.
What now appeared before him was reality.
Ahead of him, countless massive dragon bones lay scattered across a vast, expansive continent. Skeletons were everywhere. In the collapsed, magnificent dragon palaces, ghost fires swirled around white bones, causing these Dragon Earl skeletons to stand up and wander around.
This place was like a ghostly underworld. In the sky, skeletal dragons with ghost fires flickering in their eye sockets swam back and forth. In the vast city, skeletal dragons were bustling about, shopping in the market. He even saw a real ghost market.
—Those Dragon Earls seemed to be alive, buying and selling goods in the Dragon City.
He even heard the sounds of haggling.
Qin Mu led Long Qilin and Yan’er into the Dragon Earl Kingdom’s city. Compared to these massive divine dragons, he was like a tiny speck. Even Long Qilin, in his true form, was a dwarf here.
The prehistoric divine dragons had built a brilliant civilization and a grand kingdom here. Qin Mu stood among the walking skeletal giants, watching them live carefree lives as if they were still alive.
But this scene was indescribably eerie.
He also saw the skeletal dragon that had led them into the Dragon Earl Kingdom. This skeletal dragon transformed into a dragon-headed, human-bodied Dragon Earl, as if reborn, shuttling through the air.
What Qin Mu saw was a pile of white bones, but in its eyes, the Dragon Earl Kingdom was not a ruin but a place full of life, where all the Dragon Earls were still alive.
It excitedly greeted the moving skeletons, completely unaware that it was already dead, and that its people were also dead.
Everything here was merely the result of the wronged Dragon Earls forgetting they had died, repeating their past actions in confusion and ignorance.
However, this Dragon Earl who had returned to his homeland had his obsession dispelled, and he found peace.
“Master, don’t they know they’re dead?” Long Qilin asked fearfully.
Before Qin Mu could answer, suddenly all the divine dragons in the Dragon Earl Kingdom seemed to hear his words. Every single bone turned in unison to look at Long Qilin.
Long Qilin’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly hid behind Qin Mu again, tucking his tail between his legs and trembling.
Crash!
It sounded like a tsunami. In an instant, the once-lively Dragon Earl Kingdom collapsed. All the dry bones fell to the ground, the ghost fires in their eyes extinguished, and not a single Dragon Earl remained standing!
They hadn’t known they were dead, but Long Qilin’s words awakened them. The spirits lost control of their dry bones, and the entire Dragon Earl Kingdom died in an instant!
The sound of bones falling subsided, and utter silence fell, with no sound to be heard.
The sky gradually darkened.
A faint sigh came from above. Ghost fires floated up, and small paper boats sailed from the Netherworld. Yin Cha old men stood at their prows.
Qin Mu bowed in greeting, and the Yin Cha old men returned the gesture.
“The Dragon Earls here have been dead for nearly a million years. They didn’t know they were dead, so their souls lingered, unwilling to leave.”
One Yin Cha old man explained to Qin Mu, “Earlier, their attachment to life was too strong, so I couldn’t enter here to guide their souls. Now that they realize they are dead, I can come in and lead them to the Netherworld.”
Qin Mu looked around. Most of the Dragon Earls’ dry bones had their heads severed, their dragon heads lying on the ground. He frowned and said in a hoarse voice, “You Heavenly Lord, the Imperial Guard Commander of the Dragon Han Heavenly Court back then, Wei Suifeng, was my senior brother. Was he truly so brutal? Did he really have to annihilate the Dragon Earls’ race and kingdom?”
“It wasn’t Wei Suifeng who was brutal.”
That Yin Cha old man said, “It was the entire Dragon Han Heavenly Court that was brutal.”
Qin Mu was stunned.
“Sacrificing a rebellious race or kingdom to the Heavenly Court, offering it to the Heavenly Emperor, was common in the Dragon Han era.”
The Yin Cha old man continued, “The Imperial Guard suppressed the rebellion, destroyed the Dragon Earl Kingdom, annihilated the race, and offered them to the Heavenly Emperor for him to feast on their flesh and blood. That was the most normal thing in that era. Your senior brother was just going with the flow; he couldn’t change anything. Changing would have made him an outlier. Throughout the entire Dragon Han era, such things happened often. Why did the Heavenly Emperor have to die? Why did the Heavenly Alliance have to eliminate him at all costs? This is the reason.”
Qin Mu’s hair stood on end.
The ancient god Heavenly Emperor did not die unjustly!
— Returning home in the afternoon, Zhai Zhu will do his best to write the next chapter on the high-speed train!