Dragon King's Son-In-Law

by Dragon King

  Hao Ren didn’t dare to be careless. He followed the steps Zhao Guang told him and followed him steadily.

  This way of walking was similar to the playground game of hopscotch, but the pressure on Hao Ren was insane!

  Who would think that such dangerous array formations were hidden under the tranquil and serene sea water?

  “Four steps forward, then turn right!” Zhao Guang shouted.

  Hao Ren looked at his steps closely as he walked four steps forward quickly and then turned right immediately.

  “We’re here,” Hao Ren felt relieved at Zhao Guang’s words.

  A short walk of ten minutes made him sweat through his entire clothes.

  He rubbed his neck, raised his head, and looked up at the golden, luxurious, and grand East Ocean Dragon Palace!!

  84 Long Live Fuma Hao Ren!

  The golden structure was even more majestic than the Forbidden City in Beijing! One couldn’t even see the end of it! The red defense walls that were more than ten meters tall stretched sideways with bright golden encaustic tiles on top, the defense walls were so long that their endings were nowhere in Hao Ren’s sight.

  Thousands of golden armored soldiers were patrolling along the defense wall, and they looked like little gold dots from afar.

  More than 80 Elders in purple robes awaited politely on the sides of the entrance, and over 20 well-built generals in heavy black armors bowed with hands folded in front of them on the defense wall.

  “Welcome back, Dragon King!”

  They shouted out together with hundreds of soldiers who were standing behind them as Zhao Guang stepped forward.

  The sound was so loud that it created a huge wave in the ocean.

  Zhao Guang waved casually and walked the city with Hao Ren, and the Elders followed them in.

  The Generals bowed again and continued with their patrolling duties along the defense wall, followed by their soldiers.

  Hao Ren noticed that there were sections of different palaces beyond the defense wall. There were generals and soldiers in different uniforms patrolling around each section.

  Bom, Bom, Bom… A hump-backed short elderly man in a gray robe jogged over.

  “Forgive me, Dragon King, for not welcoming you at the gate! I had no idea that you were coming!” he kneeled and said as soon as he got in front of them.

  Zhao Guang pointed casually at where this old man was kneeling, and the old man was got up with the assistance from Zhao Guang’s energy. Zhao Guang asked as he kept walking, “Premier Xia, anything new lately?”

  Premier Xia walked right beside Zhao Guang and said, “Dragon King, the Dragon Palace has been in peace for the past month. Everything is under the governing of the elders…”

  “Get to the point,” Zhao Guang said.

  “Of course…” Premier Xia nodded, “I have passed the important issues on to Elder Sun and Elder Lu for you to read over. As for the trivial things, the elders here in the palace and I took care of them. I stored the 36 ripe Thousand-Year Crimson Fruits sent from the South Ocean into the Ice Palace. We delivered six pearls of the highest grade as a gift to North Ocean’s Sixth Princess’ wedding. Since West Ocean’s Qinghe Dragon King’s nephew’s is having some trouble with cultivation, they borrowed the green-grade technique, Seven Hearts and Spirit Scroll, from us. After discussing with several Elders, we decided to lend it to them for one month. They will probably return it with some gifts by then…”

  Zhao Guang listened to Premier Xia’s report and hummed from time to time. Premier Xia, on the other hand, talked timidly as he didn’t want to say anything wrong.

  Hao Ren noticed that the Elders behind them didn’t make any noise out of respect, and they even walked quietly in order to not make any sound. Hao Ren truly experienced the “power of the king” for the first time.

  Zhuang Guang seemed like such an easy-going person with his quiet and calm personality. Who would have thought that he was the leader of the East Ocean Dragon Clan that had control over 30 million ocean creatures in the East Ocean region! Any decision of his would be able to turn the ocean around!

  “Is Elder Zhao’s altar almost ready?” Zhao Guang asked abruptly.

  “We have finished 78 working procedures, and the altar can generate six large array formations and 32 small array formations. It should be done in about another ten days. Third Lord is extremely powerful, and no one in the Human Realm can defeat him. He can certainly go through the Heavenly Tribulation successfully next month and level up into a Heavenly Dragon!” Premier Xia said.

  Hao Ren, who was walking beside Zhao Guang, figured that they were talking about Zhao Yanzi’s Third Uncle, Zhao Kuo. Although he knew that Zhao Kuo was powerful, he never had a clear idea of how powerful the man was. This “undefeatable in the Human Realm” remark demonstrated how terrifying his strength must be.

  Zhao Guang suddenly turned around once they entered a palace and said, “Elders, please head back to get some rest.”

  “That…” Premier Xia pointed at Hao Ren secretly as if he was trying to say something.

  “Oh,” Zhao Guang came to his sense and pointed at Hao Ren as he explained, “This is Zi’s future husband, Fuma Hao Ren.”

  “Long Live Fuma Hao Ren!” more than 80 elders bowed as they greeted Hao Ren.

  Hao Ren felt extremely flattered by this greeting.

  “There is no water in the Dragon Palace due to the protection of the array formations. Why are you still holding the Water Repellent Bead in your mouth?” Zhao Guang noticed Hao Ren’s stuffed mouth.

  After hearing this, Hao Ren spat the bead out.

  He was astonished at everything on the way as he followed Zhao Guang through almost half of the Dragon Palace. On top of that, Premier Xia’s reports amazed him as well. He still needed more time to recover from all the surprises.

  Premier Xia took out a silk handkerchief and wrapped Hao Ren’s Water Repellent Bead up before handing it back to him.

  Hao Ren caught his apple-polishing motive but still thanked him.

  “You can show Ren around, Premier Xia. It’s his first time here, and he’s not familiar with the place yet. Explain to him patiently if he has any questions,” Zhao Guang said.

  “As you wish, Dragon King!” Premier Xia bowed with his hands folded in front. Then, he glimpsed at Hao Ren and backed out of the palace.

  Zhao Guang stayed in the palace to deal with matters that weren’t reported to him on land. Just like what Premier Xia said, important issues would be delivered to Zhao Guang by Elder Lu and Elder Sun, and the trivial things, which didn’t need to be reported, were kept inside the Dragon Palace for the Elders and himself to work on. However, those that were neither important nor trivial were left behind for Zhao Guang’s return.

  Hao Ren and Premier Xia had walked out of Zhao Guang’s main palace.

  Seeing Premier Xia’s hunched back, Hao Ren suspected that his original form was a shrimp. However, Hao Ren held back asking that because he didn’t want to hurt this elderly’s self-esteem.

  “Fuma, let me show you around since this is your first time at the Dragon Palace,” Premier Xia said to Hao Ren as he humbly stood half a meter behind Hao Ren.

  “Thank you, Premier Xia,” Hao Ren bowed to him with hands folded in the front just like how they did it.

  Premier Xia was glad that this Fuma, whom he had heard of but never met, was so easy to get along with; even his hunched back straightened a little. He led Hao Ren to the back and said in a loud voice, “This way, Fuma. Right in front of you is the Hundred-Flower Palace. There are precious fruits of over hundreds even thousands of years here, and they are all great for creating elixirs. I can show you around, but please make sure you don’t touch anything because some of them are deadly toxic. I would be in huge trouble if anything were to happen to you…”

  “Up ahead is the Mystic Creature Palace. We keep some bizarre creatures in there. The gods treasure all lives, so we, the Dragon Palace, don’t take their lives. Due to the lack
of Nature Essence in this realm, there isn’t enough living space for them on the land. Therefore, we established this place for them to live in…”

  Premier Xia got more and more excited before they even reached their destination.

  Hao Ren listened to the amazing stories as he followed Premier Xia. He suddenly thought to himself, “Would there be an imperial harem in such a majestic palace for Zhao Guang?”

  Premier Xia suddenly turned back to look at Hao Ren.

  “Um…just pure curiosity…” Hao Ren found an excuse for his weird thoughts and hastily caught up with Premier Xia.Third Lord is a close translation. In Chinese, people refer to people who they respect as “Grandpa”, but the term “Lord”, in this case, works better.

  85 Countless Treasures

  Instead of a yard full of flowers as Hao Ren had expected, the Hundred-Flower Palace was a large hill. Premier Xia followed Hao Ren anxiously, afraid that he would touch something he shouldn’t.

  Keeping Premier Xia’s warning in mind, Hao Ren just looked around and was careful not to touch anything without permission.

  The Palace was enormous, and it was impossible for him to see everything there in a short time. Premier Xia gave him a small tour before leading him out.

  When they were on their way out of the Hundred-Flower Palace, Premier Xia plucked two small red fruits and handed them to Hao Ren.

  “These are…” Hao Ren asked.

  “These are the most common fruits in the Hundred-Flower Palace,” Premier Xia said with an ingratiating smile, “They aren’t special except for the good taste. You may eat them for fun.”

  There was no reason for Premier Xia to trick him, so Hao Ren put the two cherry-sized fruits into his mouth. Chewing tentatively, he found that they were coreless, and he swallowed them right away.

  A super cool sensation spread from his stomach outward to the acupoints all over his body. It felt like all his acupoints were purged and refreshed.

  A surging strength instantly filled Hao Ren’s body, and even the Mount Tai Bracelets on his wrists felt much lighter.

  “These fruits really don’t have anything special to them?” Hao Ren asked suspiciously when they walked out of the Hundred-Flower Palace.

  Premier Xia nodded and confirmed, “They are just sweet fruits. Their power is very weak; one fruit would only give you five-years of cultivation progress of a mortal martial art master.”

  He spoke casually, but Hao Ren was stunned.

  “One of these common roadside fruits in the Hundred-Flower Palace was equivalent to five-years of cultivation of a martial arts master? What about the rare herbs?” Hao Ren thought.

  Premier Xia didn’t give him much time to digest this information. He continued excitedly, “Next to the Hundred-Flower Palace is the Mystic Creature Palace. There live many ancient beasts that are extinct in the mortal world. However, we don’t have any unique creatures such as Kirin or Phoenix there.”

  Listening to Premier Xia’s introduction, Hao Ren felt like he was in a wildlife preserve where different animals had their own territories and followed the natural food chain. Premier Xia didn’t dare to venture too deep in there with Hao Ren. After he pointed out several beautiful animals for Hao Ren to look at, he led him out of there quickly.

  Next, they went to the Profound Cultivation Palace which had more guards than the previous two palaces. This palace was an exquisite seven-level pagoda with each level in a color of the rainbow; from the red bottom level to the purple top level with orange, yellow, green, indigo, and blue in between. Soldiers in gold armors were patrolling the outer fences around each level.

  With Premier Xia as his guide, no one questioned Hao Ren when he entered the pagoda-shaped Profound Cultivation Palace. The guards were informed of Hao Ren’s identity, and they all greeted him deferentially.

  Embarrassed by their formal greetings, Hao Ren followed Premier Xia into the palace in a hurry.

  Sparsely decorated, the palace had bookshelves built around the circular walls. In each of the compartments on the bookshelves. there were radiant books which were protected by array formations.

  In the rare occasion that outsiders sneaked into the palace, they couldn’t take the cultivation techniques with them if they couldn’t break the array formations.

  Seeing the confusion on Hao Ren’s face, Premier Xia explained, “Fuma, the strength of our dragons is divided into the levels of Qian, Kun, Xun, Dui, Gen, Zhen, Li, and Kan. After breaking through the basic Spirit Concentration Scroll and entering Kan-level, one can cultivate more advanced techniques. The grade of the techniques is divided into the grades of red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and purple. The cultivation techniques are respectively placed on the seven levels of the Profound Cultivation Palace. The widest first level is for the most common Red-Grade Techniques.”

  He led Hao Ren to the second level and said, “The second level is for the Orange-Grade Techniques.”

  Hao Ren followed him up the levels one by one. The higher the level, the array formations for the protection of the books were more complicated and more powerful, undoubtedly with stronger defense and offense abilities. Of course, the higher the level, the smaller the area got, and the fewer the books.

  When they got up to the fourth level, Premier Xia stopped. “Fuma, we have to stop here. I only have the authority to the first four levels. It means that the Green-Grade Techniques are the best techniques I have access to. Without Dragon King’s permission, we can’t go up any further,” he said.

  Hao Ren didn’t want to cause trouble for Premier Xia, so he nodded and cast a glance at the fourth level before going downstairs. After all, he was on the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll and had a long way from Kan-level; these cultivation techniques were useless to him anyway.

  Seeing the Fuma was so reasonable, Premier Xia felt a growing fondness for him.

  When he was walking down the stairs, Hao Ren suddenly wondered what kind of cultivation technique Su Han, who had reached Qian-level, was using.

  “Premier Xia, in theory, I can reach Qian-level with the most basic Red-Grade Techniques as long as I work hard, right?” Hao Ren asked when they were out of the Profound Cultivation Palace.

  “In theory?” Premier Xia froze for a moment before answering, “I suppose so, but no one has ever reached Qian-level by practicing only Red-Grade Techniques. The better the techniques, the greater the power they contain, and faster the cultivation will be.”

  Looking back at the towering seven-level pagoda, Hao Ren was amazed at the large collection of techniques the East Ocean Dragon Clan had gotten in the past thousands of years. An ordinary sect would be proud to have three to four cultivation techniques, but this Dragon Palace had a collection of hundreds of them. No wonder smaller Dragon Clans had to come here to borrow cultivation techniques.

  Premier Xia then took Hao Ren to the Godly Treasure Palace which had three levels, and each level was crammed with all kinds of Dharma treasures. The shining Dharma treasures were protected by their respective array formations.

  The Dharma treasures were roughly divided into three grades: upper grade, intermediate grade, and lower grade; this grading system was much simpler compared to the cultivation techniques. According to Premier Xia, the best Dharma treasure for a cultivator was the one most fitting for him or her. Since the East Ocean Dragon Clan only collected the good ones, Premier Xia offered, “Fuma, if you like something, you can pick one. Access to the Dharma treasures is not strictly off limits as with the cultivation techniques. The East Ocean Dragon Clan has the best forge master who could make any Dharma treasures as long as you could provide the materials.”

  Premier Xia stood taller with pride when he said that.

  Hao Ren was tempted since it was the only palace he had seen by now that was not off limits.

  He spotted a pretty heart-shaped silver pendant.

  “Won’t it reflect badly on me if I give Zhao Yanzi this Dharma treasure as her birthday gift? It is tech
nically from her home,” Hao Ren thought.

  Noticing Hao Ren’s interest in the pendant, Premier Xia took a step forward and suggested, “This is a small-scale spatial Dharma treasure which could store objects smaller than two meters tall. However, I don’t think the shape will look good on you.”

  “Is it difficult to make?” Hao Ren asked.

  “It’s a simple Dharma treasure that has little combat power. It gives you the convenience of carrying things around. This item here would be a better choice for you,” Premier Xia explained patiently as he pointed at another Dharma treasure.

  “Shall I give this to Su Han as a gift?” Hao Ren hesitated and thought, “She has done me many favors and tutored me with my cultivation. I will just tell her that this is a gift from the Dragon King.”

  He made the decision and took two steps forward to pick up the pendant.

  Bing!

  A white flash of light bounced Hao Ren’s hands away.

  “Mount Tai Bracelets!” Premier Xia was startled, “You are wearing Inspector’s Mountain Tai Bracelets? You can’t take this pendant then since Mount Tai Bracelets rejects all Dharma treasures.”

  “Is the Water Repellent Bead a Dharma treasure?” Hao Ren asked.

  “It’s a bead with a special power. However, it is not good enough to be a Dharma treasure. Only those that could be controlled by Dharma spells are Dharma treasures. The pendant which caught your eyes needs a Dharma spell to open the small storage space inside,” Premier Xia explained.

  “Got it,” Hao Ren replied.

  “Su Han, Su Han, I meant to be nice and wanted to give you a gift. Well, I’d better work hard to reach Kan-level as soon as possible so I could get rid of the chains on my wrists,” he thought.

  Rubbing his sore wrists, Hao Ren had to give up on the Dharma treasure and walked out of the Godly Treasure Palace.

  Hurriedly, Premier Xia followed him out and asked, “Fuma, where do you want to go next? Shall I take you to the Godly Elixir Palace for a tour?”

  “Let’s go to the Ice Palace you just mentioned. Is it off limits?” not wanting to dampen Premier Xia’s spirit, Hao Ren asked after some consideration.