Dragon King's Son-In-Law

by Dragon King

  Zhao Yanzi moved left and right on Little White, and it almost looked like the mini gold coin catching game in the computer game, Richman. Zhao Yanzi looked nervous and excited at the same time as she screamed time to time. She looked exactly like the character Sun Xiaomei in Richman.

  Little White was exhausted; it ran around the palace with its tongue sticking out.

  “Hold the bottles tight and don’t drop them!” Hao Ren reminded Zhao Yanzi.

  “I know! I know! So annoying!” Zhao Yanzi was busy catching the dropping bottles, and she already had a dozen bottles of different colors in her arms. There was a hint of greed on her face.

  Boom!

  The entire palace turned pitch black all of a sudden!

  They sensed the ground shaking.

  Hao Ren ran toward Zhao Yanzi’s direction in the dark. He felt Little White’s smooth, fluffy body, and then he grabbed Zhao Yanzi’s arm.

  “Uncle! Did we die?” Zhao Yanzi immediately became nervous.

  “Nonsense! This space is not stable, so we might be kicked out at any time,” Hao Ren’s hand moved up along her arm.

  “Where are you touching!” Zhao Yanzi suddenly screamed.

  “Hand those bottles to me so we won’t drop them when we get kicked out,” Hao Ren said.

  Zhao Yanzi stuffed over 20 bottles into his arm, and he sucked them all into the space in his necklace.

  “Come in, Little White!” Hao Ren patted Little White.

  Shoo! It shrank into the size of two palms and crawled into Hao Ren’s necklace.

  Zhao Yanzi and Hao Ren both felt a little dizzy. Zhao Yanzi curled up in Hao Ren’s arms from being scared, and Hao Ren put one of his arms around her waist and the other one around her head.

  Boom…They suddenly fainted. When they slowly came back to their senses, they were already back on the meadow outside of the Nine Dragon Palace where they first began. Zhao Hongyu was looking at them with a smile.

  Zhao Yanzi got embarrassed when realizing that she was in Hao Ren’s arms. She immediately stood up and hit Hao Ren’s chest with her fist.

  They looked around and found that Zeng Yitao and his servant, the couple from South Ocean, the brother and sister from North Ocean had all come out already.

  Zeng Yitao held an ancient-looking black flute, South Ocean’s couple got a black rope and a short black dagger, and the brother and sister from North Ocean got an ugly-looking copper mirror and a wicked-looking staff.

  Only Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi came out empty handed as if they didn’t get anything.

  “Hehe, so this is the new generation of East Ocean? It seems like East Ocean had been training some great talents!” Oldman Zeng said to Zhao Hongyu.

  Zhao Hongyu ignored him coldly. In her opinion, it was worth it since Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi protected and cared about each other during this trip; it could help them bond deeper. She didn’t expect them to get anything at all.

  However, she kept quiet and didn’t speak her thoughts.

  Although the elders from South Ocean and North Ocean said that Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi were still young with a lot of prospects, they secretly looked down at East Ocean.

  Hao Ren noticed Zeng Yitao’s stare, but he didn’t mention anything about the Natal Dharma Treasure on purpose. In order to save his own face, Zeng Yitao didn’t tell anyone, not even his grandma, that his Coil Dragon Golden Spear had been taken away by Hao Ren. However, he was thinking of a way to get his Natal Dharma Treasure back.

  It seemed like the flute they got was worth West Ocean this trip. However, since Hao Ren took Zeng Yitao’s Natal Dharma Treasure away, this Crown Prince of West Ocean couldn’t be that arrogant anymore!

  On the one hand, if the Natal Dharma Treasures were even a little-damaged while in other people’s hands, the owner would suffer damage to his or her mind and spirit. On the other hand, it was embarrassing that one’s Natal Dharma Treasure was taken by a low-leveled cultivator.

  If it weren’t for Hao Ren’s interference, West Ocean could have gotten three treasures.

  The representatives of Four Ocean Dragon Palaces said goodbye to each other.

  “Goodbye, Mrs. Zhao!” The elders of the South Ocean and North Ocean left with the young cultivators.

  Oldman Zeng glimpsed at Zhao Yanzi and then at Zhao Hongyu. He snorted and summoned a jade plate. Then, he pulled Zeng Yitao and the servant onto it and left.

  The other three Dragon Palaces all had gotten treasures from the Nine Dragon Palace, so they were all in a rush to get back and learn to use them.

  “Let’s go.” Zhao Hongyu slightly nudged Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi.

  Although this trip was an extra practice and was earlier than they anticipated, she still felt embarrassed about Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi not getting anything.

  They stepped onto Zhao Hongyu’s River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting and headed toward the clouds.

  That magnificent Nine Dragon Palace, which looked like a long lost ancient city, had already disappeared.

  It would take a while for them to get to First Heaven from Fifth Heaven.

  Zhao Hongyu focused on steering the River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting as Zhao Yanzi stood behind her, looking worried. She thought for a bit and asked at last, “Hey… Did you… Touch anything just now?”

  “Touch what?” Hao Ren was confused.

  “I mean…” Zhao Yanzi pouted and said lightly, “When we got out of Nine Dragon Palace.”

  Hao Ren looked at her and thought for a bit as his eyes slowly moved from her arms up… Zhao Yanzi immediately blushed. “Forget it! You don’t remember anyway!”

  Hao Ren looked down at his palm and thought to himself, “I forgot earlier… But now that you mention it…”

  “What are you thinking! You touched my neck just now!” Zhao Yanzi dashed over and pinched Hao Ren’s neck all of a sudden.

  Hao Ren yelled. It was as hard to see if she was telling the truth or not since she was too emotional.

  “Quit it, you guys! Or you would fall off,” Zhao Hongyu turned to them.

  Zhao Yanzi finally let go of Hao Ren’s neck reluctantly with her face blushing.

  Hao Ren stretched his neck a bit and didn’t feel any pain. Instead, he felt a little comfortable after being pinched by her soft hands… Zhao Hongyu shrugged at them, but a hint of a smile was on her face.

  Although they came back empty-handed, East Ocean got threatened by the other three Dragon Palaces, and the other Dragon Palaces all benefited from this… If the news of Zhao Kuo’s Heavenly Tribulation failure got released, the opening of the Nine Dragon Palace would give East Ocean a lot of pressure…

  As long as Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi had made improvements, practiced their skills, and bonded from this, everything would be worthwhile.

  The River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting went below First Heaven, which was the mortal world. Zhao Hongyu began to speed up and returned to their balcony in a flash that was not visible to an ordinary person.

  “Ah… Finally home,” Zhao Yanzi breathed out deeply. They left in the morning, and it was already dusk; an entire day had passed by.

  Zhao Hongyu put the River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting away and entered the house with Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi.

  Zhao Guang was sitting in the living room, waiting for their news.

  “How did it go?” Seeing the three of them walking down the stairs, he couldn’t help but ask.

  “It went ok, but we didn’t get anything,” Zhao Hongyu said.

  “Ah, I thought that would be the case.” Although Zhao Guang expected that, he was still a bit disappointed.

  “Auntie, actually, we did get something. We just didn’t want to take them out in front of others,” Hao Ren said abruptly.

  “Oh? What did you get?” Zhao Hongyu’s eyes suddenly lit up.

  Hao Ren sat on the living room couch and took a little bottle out of his necklace. Then, he carefully put it on the glass table in front of him.

  “Ancient Elixir!” Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang
were both amazed.

  But Hao Ren slowly took out another bottle.

  Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang were astonished.

  Then, Hao Ren took out another bottle and put it on the table. Then another one, then another one… Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu were both stupefied even though they had seen many amazing things.

  It is always better to hide away your wealth. Comparing to face, East Ocean needed to conceal its power and wealth more nowadays! Instead of showing off in front of Oldman Zeng, it was a better idea to hide these elixir pills and leave other believe that East Ocean didn’t get anything!

  Just when Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu were staring at the table full of colorful bottles of elixir pills, East Ocean University’s Electromechanical Engineering Program’s counselor was complaining, “Hao Ren from Class Two is getting more and more ridiculous! It has been a few days since he attended any classes! Professor Wu, don’t you think we should give a warning to a student like this? He thinks he can do whatever he wants just because of his connection with Su Han!”

  “Ms. Liu, proceed with the warning. As you said, his skipped classes without sick notes.”

  “Yeah, teach him a lesson!” The counselor made up her mind as she knocked on the desk.

  Suddenly, the door was pushed open, and the head of the program walked in. “Ms. Liu, here is a note for you from the Vice Principal.”

  The counselor took the note and read, “Hao Ren, in your program, has been participating in an important off-campus activity arranged by me lately. He might have to miss a few classes. Please allow on behalf of the program. I wanted to tell you this earlier, but I have been caught up in many things.”

  The Vice Principal’s signature, Lu Qing, as well as a huge red stamp was at the bottom of the note.

  217 Such a Slim Waist!

  In a little while, there were already over 20 bottles on Zhao Yanzi’s family’s living room table.

  Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the colorful bottles in the light.

  “These… Are all from the Nine Dragon Palace?” Zhao Hongyu was usually calm, but her voice slightly shook as she asked lightly.

  “Yes… We could have gotten more, but we ran out of time,” Hao Ren said.

  “23 bottles…” Zhao Guang was a little amazed too. He picked up a random bottle and brought over a small plate. Then, he opened the bottle and poured the elixir pills out of it.

  Splash… Over ten shining Ancient Elixir Pills fell into the plate, twirling.

  The large living room was immediately filled with their aroma!

  Hao Ren felt a surge of energy after smelling this aroma. The sleeping Dragon Core inside of him suddenly broke open 12 openings!

  The aroma alone was insane! If he were to swallow one, he might be able to break through Li-level or even Zhen-level!

  In the legends, the Immortal Pills of the Queen Mother of the West could assist an ordinary person to achieve ascendance realm!

  “I’m feeling dizzy, Mom!” Zhao Yanzi shouted out. The aroma could help Hao Ren improve his cultivation, but it was too much for her.

  Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu looked at each other, stupefied. Since they realized that there were Ancient Elixir Pills in these beautiful bottles, they hastily put the elixir pills back into the bottle.

  It would have created trouble if the elixir pills caused a natural phenomenon.

  It was the first time Zhao Yanzi saw her parents panic like this. She blinked and asked, “These elixir pills are that powerful, Mom?”

  “One bottle equals an ancient treasure. In other words, you guys took back 23 ancient treasures!” Zhao Hongyu pinched Zhao Yanzi’s cheek and said in excitement.

  Zhao Yanzi looked happy with Zhao Hongyu’s answer. “Mom, I told you that we would get a lot of treasures! If it weren’t for the time limit, we could have made a few copies of the techniques in Baxia Palace.”

  “What? You went to Baxia Palace?” Zhao Hongyu’s astonishment was beyond words.

  Zhao Guang also looked at Zhao Yanzi in surprise, wondering if she was lying or not.

  “Yes. We went to Yazi Palace first, but the other three teams were there. So, we went to Baxia Palace. However, it was challenging to get the techniques. Therefore, we went over to Suanni Palace and got these elixir pills,” Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi explained.

  Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu knew that Zhao Yanzi wasn’t bluffing since Hao Ren agreed. However, they looked as surprised as before.

  They had never heard of anyone going through three palaces in the Nine Dragon Palace and coming out with 23 bottles of elixir pills. There were over ten elixir pills in each bottle; altogether, there would be hundreds of shiny Ancient Elixir Pills!

  “It is because of Little White. We might not even be able to get to first branch palace if Little White couldn’t fly,” Zhao Yanzi said.

  “Little White?” Zhao Hongyu asked.

  “Um! Uncle’s… Oh… Hao Ren’s Spirit Beast,” Zhao Yanzi said. It seemed like she had gotten used to calling Hao Ren ‘Uncle.’ She called him by this even during the most dangerous time when they were kicked out of the Nine Dragon Palace.

  Hao Ren let Little White out of the space in his necklace. It had learned to behave and appeared in the form of its smaller self in the city.

  “Transform, Little White!” Zhao Yanzi reached out to rub its head.

  “Woof!”

  Little White made a slight sound as it rolled over into a meter-tall Snow Lion.

  “Little White, fly!” Zhao Yanzi pointed at the ceiling. It appeared as if she had already taken Little White for a circus animal.

  Little White understood Zhao Yanzi and hopped up. But to her surprise, it didn’t fly up.

  “Fly, Little White!” Zhao Yanzi patted its bum, worried.

  “Roar! Roar!” Little White tried its best, but it couldn’t get into the air. Its paws sparkled from time to time as it had reached its limit.

  “I know! There was plenty of Nature Essence in the Nine Dragon Palace so that the Spirit Beasts could bring their innate power into play. However, the Nature Essence is thin outside, so it can’t put its innate power to use,” Zhao Guang looked at Little White and said.

  Little White looked at Zhao Guang and Hao Ren as it appeared to be embarrassed with everyone around it.

  It probably felt ashamed for not being able to fly. Having failed at playing the powerful character, Little White transformed back to its small size and started rolling around on the floor.

  Hao Ren was embarrassed. “Hey… Please… You are a giant lion. Save the energy and quit acting cute.”

  Hao Ren put Little White back into the space in his necklace to save it from the embarrassment. As soon as Little White got back into the space, it bit onto Zeng Yitao’s spear and whipped it around to vent its anger. That poor Natal Dharma Treasure of Zeng Yitao was now a toy for Little White.

  “Don’t tell anyone about the elixir pills,” Zhao Guang put the bottles away and said, “I will discuss with the elders about how to put these elixir pills to use. After all, these are all Ancient Elixir Pills, and we might not be able to consume them directly.”

  Hao Ren nodded. It was like when Zhao Jiayi and the guys ate the cakes mixed with Essence Replenishment Pills made by the twin sisters. The power was too strong, and it gave diarrhea to all of them. Even ordinary cultivators might die if they weren’t able to handle powerful elixir pills.

  “But don’t you worry, Ren. You are the hero this time; as soon as we figure out how to use them properly, I will give half of them back to you,” Zhao Guang continued.

  “That’s ok. It was lucky for me to get the opportunity to enter the Nine Dragon Palace. East Ocean is in a critical situation right now, and the elders need the elixir pills more than I do. I am still low in level, so I need to cultivate more rather than using elixir pills,” Hao Ren said.

  “Um.” Zhao Guang didn’t insist and put the bottles away. “Come with me to the attic. I need to make some det
ailed record of what happened in the Nine Dragon Palace. Since you could get into three palaces this time, we can better improve our record. Especially for Baxia Palace; we had never learned about those techniques before.”

  It was clear that Zhao Guang was very interested in ancient techniques.

  “Ok!” Hao Ren stood up and followed Zhao Guang upstairs.

  Hao Ren took the map out when they got to the attic on the third floor. He explained what they did in the six hours inside Nine Dragon Palace in detail.

  Zhao Hongyu came to the attic after a little while as well. Since she was an architect, she added onto Hao Ren’s map with a special set of rulers and pens.

  No amendment was needed for the Origin Dragon Grand Palace since it was the same as before. Yazi Palace was the one that was the easiest to be found, so there were very detailed descriptions about it on the map. One of the cultivators from South Ocean went into the Suanni Palace before, and East Ocean was able to gather some information about it. However, it was somewhat unclear. This was the first time they learned about Baxia Palace. There were giant stone monuments inside Baxia Palace, and that was very importation information.

  From five o’clock to seven o’clock, Zhao Guang jotted down every single detail as Zhao Hongyu made accurate adjustments to the map. Although it was a big surprise for them to get over 20 bottles of elixir pills, it was equally important to gather precious information.

  The most important thing was that all other three Dragon Palaces thought Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi escaped and never went to other palaces after Yazi Palace, and that was why they came back empty-handed. They could never imagine that Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi would obtain over 20 bottles of elixir pills as well as get information about three palaces!

  As Hao Ren explained everything in detail, Zhao Hongyu admired his attention to details. He thought of counting his own steps in order to calculate the distance from the starting spot to Origin Dragon Grand Palace. From that, he calculated the approximate travel time needed. None of the previous cultivators including herself had thought of this brilliant idea!

  Although Hao Ren’s cultivation wasn’t very strong at the moment, his intelligence would for sure allow East Ocean to prosper!