The deeper they went into the Crystal Palace, the fewer skeletons Lin Tian and Purple Lightning encountered—yet the number of those with intact humanoid forms was actually greater than in the outer hall.As Lin Tian walked, he made a rough count: the outer hall held barely over twenty corpses, yet in the deepest chamber there were more than thirty.
That meant that, in ages past, this place had gathered at least fifty to sixty aquatic spirit beasts of the high "Shapeshifting" stage—equivalent to human cultivators at the Grandmaster, Gathering Truth realm!
Along the way, Purple Lightning couldn't stop murmuring in awe, his voice tinged with fear.
"Too terrifying… So many seniors at the Spirit Beast realm, all turned to bare bones! This Crystal Palace… it shocks me even more than the Five Elements Primordial Spirit Pearl."
Lin Tian's face was solemn, though his mind was unusually clear.
"I thought we were only dealing with a single flood dragon. Now it seems the so-called Five Elements Dragon-Binding Array was just a ruse. Once the array map is destroyed, people are transported straight into this Dragon Palace. Whoever set the array… wanted us here to find something."
He recalled the moment he had sensed the collapse of the miniature world earlier—it had almost scattered his soul. And now, after seeing countless aquatic corpses, the mystery only deepened.
The man, the serpent, and the snake reached the center of the main hall—and their steps froze in unison, their eyes filled with shock.
This was no hall.It was an execution chamber—a place built specifically for putting dragons to death.
Azure Dragons, Green Dragons, Qiu Dragons, Li Dragons—even newly-shapeshifted flood dragons—as well as dragon-blooded beasts such as Taotie, Bixi, Pulao, Yazi, Suanni, Jiaotu… even the Bofu serpent Lin Tian had seen inside the Water Spirit Pearl—all had left behind cold, lifeless remains here.
Clearly, they had offended some transcendent existence that spanned time and space. In the very heart of the Dragon Clan's royal court, they had been tortured to death in unimaginably cruel ways.Some had been nailed through their limbs by Dragon-Slaying Nails; some boiled alive in cauldrons twenty zhang across; some had their flesh sliced away piece by piece by gilded Dragon-Slaughter Wheels… Many more had been flayed and had their sinews torn out—their fates too gruesome to look upon.
The dragon race—throughout all time and in all realms—were the most exalted of sacred beasts and divine beasts. Even a single scale, when refined, could become a spirit artifact; not to mention dragon blood, dragon bone, dragon horns, and dragon sinew, each of which was a peerless treasure worth a king's ransom in the cultivation world.Yet here, they lay discarded like refuse.
What kind of audacity and wealth would it take to throw away such riches like scraps?And what kind of unfathomable power would it take to slaughter an entire dragon tribe—one capable of producing a Dragon King—and leave behind such a ghastly execution ground?
Stranger still—the spirit beast remains and magical treasures outside the hall had long since rotted and weathered away; yet within this chamber, the scene seemed as if it had just happened. The dragon blood still gleamed a deep, wet crimson.
Purple Lightning's scales trembled.These names—Li Dragon, Dragon King… they had been the ultimate goal of his cultivation path. Yet now, all of them had been mercilessly butchered!In that moment, his conviction wavered.What meaning was there in cultivation? Even if he became a true dragon, he would still be meat on someone else's chopping block. For the first time, a haze of confusion clouded his golden vertical pupils.
A voice echoed in Lin Tian's heart:
"To do all this… it could only be a 'Middle-One'! Such a being could wipe out a Dragon-King-level tribe without effort…"
But he quickly pushed down the shock. What mattered most now was collecting the treasure strewn across the floor. To him, every drop of dragon blood, every inch of dragon flesh here, was a priceless gift.
Yet when he tried to use his meager spiritual power to move them, he found he couldn't even budge a single scale.Refusing to give up, he tried brute force with his bare hands—still no use.Purple Lightning tried to swallow a piece of true dragon flesh, but it was as though the meat had fused with the earth itself, immovable.
They were just about to give up when—From among the dragon remains, a wave of boundless, icy resentment rose into the air, thick as mist. It seeped into their bones, filling their hearts with uncontrollable dread.
The mist gathered, slowly condensing into a vague figure—a true dragon phantom, ninety-nine chi long, as thick as a water barrel. Its size was similar to Purple Lightning's, but its aura was ten thousand times greater.Its formless pressure alone froze them in place—they couldn't even move their eyes.
"Human… and a lowly worm who bears my clan's bloodline… To think the ones who finally came here… are you!"
Its voice seemed to come from an ancient abyss, dripping with death and hatred.
Lin Tian and Purple Lightning found even their thoughts suppressed—they could not speak.
"Two insignificant beings… This time, you are fortunate. Agree to one condition, swear a Cycle-Oath in the Three Realms and Four Domains, and you may inherit my clan's legacy."
Lin Tian sneered inwardly—if the dragon clan's inheritance were truly so mighty, how had they been slaughtered in the first place?He sensed that this was merely a projection of grievance condensed into an illusion—not a complete dragon soul. Without the time-sealing restriction of this hall, it would have long turned to dust along with the bones.
Sensing their hesitation, the phantom eased its pressure slightly.
"Quickly now. I do not have much time left. If you want the dragon clan's legacy, show your sincerity."
Lin Tian's voice was cold.
"Sincerity? You want us to avenge you? Even if we inherit your mantle, to that being, we are still ants—just as you were."
The dragon shadow was silent for a moment, then changed its offer.
"Our remains here could be refined into several Dragon-Essence Blood Pills, to temper your bodies until they are as one with true dragons. This palace's Heavenly Crystal and Earth Essence are also treasures for those at your cultivation level."
Lin Tian's heart stirred—this was likely the most he could gain here.
"What oath do you want us to swear? What must we do?"
"Engrave everything you have seen here into a spiritual imprint, and deliver it to our clan's supreme Ancestral Dragon God. That one sealed this space, so that even the Ancestral Dragon God cannot witness the truth. Only you can carry it out. Then, the Ancestral Dragon God will avenge us."
Lin Tian asked,
"Where is this Ancestral Dragon God now?"
"In the Myriad Beasts Seal. During the war of sealing, the Ancestral Dragon God was trapped in the interdimensional void by your despicable human experts."
Lin Tian's heart trembled—that was the place where over ten thousand Void-Shattering-level beasts had been sealed, including hundreds of ancient demon lords. Even the most mysterious Profound Nether Sacred Domain might not be more fearsome.
"This so-called inheritance—what exactly is it? If it's merely the treasure of the Profound Nether Sacred Domain, we have no means to retrieve it." Lin Tian probed.
The dragon shadow's voice was deep:
"The True Dragon Inheritance—your only chance to transcend the shackles of Heaven's Dao! In all the Three Realms and Four Domains, only the dragon race has the greatest chance of transcending it. Had we not discovered the secret of Heaven's fate, why else would we have been slaughtered? After the sealing war came the Dragon-Phoenix Catastrophe, where the strongest bloodlines of both dragons and phoenixes waned—and only then did you humans rise to prominence…"