Book 3: Chapter 102: Dragons Confronting the Soaring Palace Hall
Book 3: Chapter 102: Dragons Confronting the Soaring Palace Hall
Rumble…!
Three thousand four hundred dragons chased after six hundred dragons and sub-dragons. This was simply a one-sided slaughter. The six hundred dragons and sub-dragons loyal to Ao Shun fled in all directions. The other dragons also gave chase. As a result, the shock waves around the palace were not strong.
While the shock waves were not strong, the dragons fighting each other were still extremely ferocious. The shock waves produced strong winds, heavy rain, and flying sand and stones. Countless observers fled in horror.
The rebel dragons got captured one by one, brought into the palace’s ritual array. However, once they entered, there was no more news of them.
No one knew what happened inside.
In the blink of an eye, more than one thousand dragons entered the ritual array. The rebel dragons grew fewer. However, the fighting stopped just at this moment.
Be it those loyal to Ao Sheng or Ao Shun, they all stopped fighting to the death and looked at a magnificent flying ship.
“Crown…Crown…Crown…Crown Prince? Why are you arriving from outside the island?”
“Crown Prince, you just arrived? Then…then…then, who is in the Soaring Palace Hall?”
“Elder Lin, Elder Gen, you…you… the crown prince did not capture you?”
The dragons all felt stupefied when they saw Ao Sheng’s flying ship.
How can that be the crown prince’s flying ship? Isn’t the crown prince in the Soaring Palace Hall? Also, what about Elder Gen and Elder Lin? Shouldn’t they be restrained? Didn’t the crown prince clean out the dragon race’s inner circles?
Could it be…
Suddenly, the dragons thought of a possibility. The instant they thought of this possibility, nearly all the dragons felt uncomfortable, like they had just swallowed a dead rat.
The flying ship slowly flew towards the palace. As it did so, more dragons gathered over.
In the blink of an eye, eight hundred dragons and sub-dragons gathered, feeling complicated emotions. Be it the dragons or sub-dragons, they all showed perplexed expressions; they could not understand what was going on.
On Ao Sheng’s flying ship, the dragon race elders listened to a detailed report from a captured dragon and appeared perplexed as well.
“Absolutely disgraceful! The crown prince is here. How can there be a crown prince in that Soaring Palace Hall?” an elder said with a glare.
“It’s true. There really is a crown prince in there!” The dragon being questioned felt stupefied.
Ao Sheng also showed a dark expression as he slowly turned his head to look at the Han Royal Dynasty’s palace.
The battle outside the palace had already stopped. The moment the dragons saw the real Ao Sheng, they all felt stupefied.
Some of the fleeing observers also showed confused expressions.
“Is that…is that…is that Crown Prince Ao Sheng? I have seen him before in the Qian Heavenly Dynasty. It really is Crown Prince Ao Sheng!”
“That’s impossible. If he is Crown Prince Ao Sheng, then who is in the Soaring Palace Hall?”
“Two Crown Prince Ao Shengs?”
Countless cultivators revealed shocked expressions. They still had not recovered from the shock from the two crown princes’ fight earlier. Now, another crown prince appeared?
When Sima Changkong saw that flying ship, he showed a faint bitter smile. “Gu Hai is in trouble now!”
“He! He! He! That’s impossible!” one of Sima Changkong’s subordinates exclaimed while goggling.
“That is Ao Sheng without any mistake. Those are the dragon race elders behind him. He is Ao Sheng!”
“If the one on the flying ship is Ao Sheng, then who is the one in the Soaring Palace Hall?”
Sima Changkong’s subordinates goggled, falling silent for a while. Like the dragons, they felt quite uncomfortable, like they swallowed a dead rat. Earlier, they had been praising how incredible the Ao Sheng in the Soaring Palace Hall was. They even swore that it was definitely Ao Sheng in there. This was a blatant slap to their faces.
The real Ao Sheng arrived.
How could the one in the Soaring Palace Hall be the real one?
The earlier noisy battle stopped, the surroundings turning incredibly quiet. A strange atmosphere lingered outside the palace. Everyone goggled, appearing confused.
If the real Ao Sheng was on this flying ship, then all the dragons and everyone else had been fooled, fooled by the voice coming from the Soaring Palace Hall.
“Crown Prince, this is the place! This is the place! Someone has been masquerading as you to trick us!” the Leader Bai from earlier roared sorrowfully as it pointed to the palace.
——
Inside the ritual array:
After Gu Hai slaughtered one thousand five hundred dragons, he broke into the Golden Core Realm’s seventh layer. Just as he felt confused over the lack of more dragons, he suddenly heard a sorrowful cry coming from outside.
Crown Prince?
Gu Hai suddenly raised his eyebrows. Then, he waved his hand, enabling him to see the outside from inside the ritual array.
He saw an incredibly magnificent flying ship in the air, with a red-robed man leading the people on it. This man showed a dignified expression as he looked coldly at the ritual array. A group of subordinates dressed in various styles stood behind him.
The dragons stopped fighting each other, hovering around the flying ship now. There was a total of one thousand dragons around the flying ship. The remaining dragons had probably taken their fight far away; no one knew where they were now.
“Hall Master, it’s…it’s…it’s not good. It’s Crown Prince Ao Sheng. Why is he here?” Mu Chenfeng ran over, changing his expression. As he had seen Ao Sheng before, he immediately recognized Ao Sheng.
Ao Sheng?
Gu Hai frowned slightly, narrowing his eyes slightly.
“What should we do now?” Mu Chenfeng appeared anxious.
Gu Hai remained silent for a while. After some thought, he took a deep breath and said, “Gu Qin, deactivate the ritual array!”
Nearby, Gu Qin could also see out. He appeared worried, but he obediently flipped his palm and pulled his hand back. Then, the fog around the palace immediately scattered.
This revealed one thousand five hundred sets of dragon bones on the ground to everyone.
Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!
Loud gasps rang out around the palace when the dragon bones appeared.
Not far away, the observing Thousand Islands Sea cultivators felt chills.
This scene looked even more terrifying than the cliff outside the palace with many Thousand Islands Sea Nascent Soul Realm experts pinned to it. One thousand five hundred dragons had been slaughtered in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, they were missing all their skin and flesh, leaving only dry bones. What happened to them earlier?
These were dragons. Just one dragon could destroy Nine-Five Island. Now, one thousand five hundred dragons all reduced to dry bones within a short twenty hours?
There were still cultivators with designs on Gu Hai’s dragon vein. Now, they completely forgot about their unrealistic plans.
Snatch? Snatch my ass! Who would dare to?
“Milord, these dragons all turned…turned into dragon bones, just like in the Silver Moon Sea?” One of the subordinates looked at Sima Changkong in shock.
However, Sima Changkong’s expression appeared very calm, as though he had guessed this long ago.
At first, the dragons looked angrily at the ritual array. After all, the people in the ritual array completely fooled them. If they met the people in the ritual array, they would definitely rip them to shreds.
However, when the one thousand five hundred skeletons appeared after the ritual array scattered, the dragons all suddenly shivered.
“What happened earlier?”
“All dead? They all died?”
The dragons look at the center of the bones in horror. Gu Hai stood there, holding a crimson saber and a bone saber.
“Old…Old…Old…Old Demon Gu!”
“It’s Old Demon Gu! It’s him! This is just like Love Flower Valley. It must be Old Demon Gu!”
“Old Demon Gu?”
The dragons looked at Gu Hai in shock.
Gu Hai was a Golden Core Realm cultivator? Some Golden Core Realm that was. When had a Golden Core Realm cultivator ever killed so many Nascent Soul Realm cultivators? The dragons looked at Gu Hai in shock and horror.
“You…you…you killed more than a thousand of my dragon race?” a man on the flying ship, who appeared to be an elder, snarled while glaring.
Gu Hai looked towards Crown Prince Ao Sheng. Ao Sheng raised his eyebrows as he looked back at Gu Hai.
“Elite Hall Master, Gu Hai, greets Crown Prince Ao Sheng!” Gu Hai said politely.
The moment Gu Hai spoke, the surroundings fell quiet. The other dragons did not dare to interrupt. However, they all looked at Gu Hai with ferocious expressions despite their shock and horror.
“Elite Hall?” Ao Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly.
Mu Chenfeng immediately said, “His Holy Eminence personally issued a decree installing Gu Hai as the Elite Hall Master! He is a marquis of the Qian Heavenly Dynasty.”
“Gu Hai failed in coming out to receive Crown Prince Ao Sheng despite Crown Prince coming to visit from afar,” Gu Hai said with a faint smile.
However, Ao Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly. “Failed in coming out to receive? Haha! I don’t care whether you are the Elite Hall Master or not. Did you impersonate me?”
Ao Sheng spoke in an icy tone. The surrounding dragons glared at Gu Hai. It was Gu Hai who fooled all the dragons earlier? If they did not take revenge for this, they would never be able to vent their hatred.
“Crown Prince Ao Sheng must be joking. When have I ever impersonated you?” Gu Hai denied with a smile.
Gu Hai’s denial caused the surrounding people to open their eyes wide. Do you think that everyone is blind? Do you think that denial will do you any good?
“Crown Prince, it is definitely him. He is the one who tricked us earlier. He masqueraded as you and tricked Ao Shun, as well as tricked us into killing each other,” Leader Bai said hatefully.
“Humph!” Ao Sheng looked at Gu Hai coldly.
A vast aura pressed down. The expressions of the Han Royal Dynasty officials below changed. The pressure prevented them from even raising their heads.
“You dare to lie before me?” Ao Sheng said coldly.
“Ha! Crown Prince Ao Sheng and this Leader Bai, what’s wrong? Was I lying earlier? It is true that I spoke to Ao Shun from inside the Soaring Palace Hall. However, when did I impersonate Crown Prince Ao Sheng? Did I say I was Ao Sheng? Did I say that I was acting on Ao Sheng’s behalf? Ask the dragons here. Ask everyone here. Did I ever claim to be Ao Sheng? What did I say then? What tone did I take then?” Gu Hai asked.
“Huh?” Leader Bai paused.
Ao Sheng also frowned as he looked at Leader Bai.
The white dragon thought for a while and frowned. According to his memories, Gu Hai never claimed to be Ao Sheng.
“You lot! Do you remember what exactly Gu Hai said?” Leader Bai looked at the other dragons.
The other dragons searched their memories of the conversation between Gu Hai and Ao Shun. However, no matter how hard they searched, they could not find an instance of Gu Hai claiming to be Ao Sheng.
It seemed like Gu Hai never claimed to be Ao Sheng at all.
The dragon’s expressions turned stiff.
“Crown Prince Ao Sheng, it looks like I am innocent,” Gu Hai said with a faint smile.