by Dragon King
“Go ahead! What’s your problem? I don’t even mind!” Zhao Yanzi put the cup into his hand after seeing him not responding.
There were tiny water drops all over the plastic cup along with Zhao Yanzi’s handprint. There was even her lip print on the straw.
Hao Ren took a sip of the orange juice. It was sweet.
At the same time, Zhao Yanzi took large gulps of the iced coke Hao Ren just had.
Zhao Yanzi put the empty coke bottle down when she realized that Hao Ren was staring at her. Her face blushed, and she appeared to be angry again. “What are you looking at? I’m full! Let’s get out of here.”
She dragged Hao Ren up. Then, she lightly patted a little boy, who was standing beside them waiting for the seat, on the head and said, “These seats are yours, little guy!”
The boy immediately cheered up.
Zhao Yanzi walked out of the crowded KFC with Hao Ren.
“Alright, where do you want to go next?” Hao Ren took in a deep breath of fresh air after they got outside.
“Go where? You are such a little kid.” Zhao Yanzi stared at Hao Ren. “Let’s get back earlier to see Grandma!”
“Um…” Hao Ren was utterly speechless. “Zhao Yanzi called me a little kid…”
She dragged Hao Ren toward the parking lot forcefully. However, Hao Ren didn’t feel a slight hint of ‘murderous intent’ in the entire process.
Zhao Yanzi looked as aggressive as usual, but she was actually very gentle; she would only act like this if she were with someone she could rely on.
Hao Ren was dragged to their vehicle by her. He put the bags of clothes in the back seat, started the car, and drove to his house.
It was a sunny day, and it was the perfect weather to drive a convertible. The Ferrari arrived at the beach steadily.
The golden sunshine, the blue ocean, and the clear sky put them in a pleasant mood.
Zhao Yanzi kept her mouth and eyes closed as she breathed in slowly, enjoying the breeze.
The wind blew into her light sweater and swept her hair to the back of her head. She looked pretty and graceful.
There was no need for any word or music as the very situation was relaxing and comfortable.
The sports car drove forward at high speed. Zhao Yanzi suddenly opened her eyes and turned to look at Hao Ren.
Hao Ren got nervous. “What… what’s the matter?”
“You look a little handsome from this angle,” Zhao Yanzi said quietly.
“Not good enough for a princess like you…” Hao Ren said back to her.
“Humph!” Zhao Yanzi turned to her right where the ocean view was.
After half an hour, they arrived at the house. Zhao Guang’s black Chevrolet was already parked outside.
“Dad! Mom!” Zhao Yanzi went inside with her new clothes as if she was entering her own house.
“Zi…” Grandma came to the door cheerfully and held Zhao Yanzi in her arms.
“Grandma!” Zhao Yanzi called out in a sweet voice; it was so sweet that one could make honey out of it.
Hao Ren parked the car in the garage and came in the house.
It was very lively in the living room.
There were Zhao Yanzi’s family of three, the Lu sisters, Grandma and Hao Ren himself. The house had never been as lively as this moment.
Lu Linlin and Lu Lili were busy bringing everyone tea and water, and Zhao Hongyu helped them with the glasses. Obviously, she had just arrived as well.
The twin sisters looked like two little butterflies in their light pink laced shirts, plage short skirts, and leggings. They didn’t seem overbearing at all even though they were both Qian-level masters. On the contrary, they looked more like two patient maids.
Zhao Guang stood on the side silently, watching Lu Linlin and Lu Lili take care of Grandma. He wondered if they were the ones who restricted the cultivation techniques of West Ocean’s 16 elders and threw them into the East Ocean.
“I bought a dress and a jacket today, Grandma!” Zhao Yanzi took out the clothes as she leaned on grandma.
“Ah! They are so beautiful!” Grandma praised and asked, “How much are they?”
“Not much! The dress is 350 yuan, and the jacket is 380 yuan,” Zhao Yanzi answered without blushing or blinking.
Hao Ren had his eye wide open, and he almost choked himself. Zhao Yanzi lightly cut the price by skipping a “0”!
“Hehe, that is not expensive at all! Zi is so good at getting the good deals!” Grandma said as she ran her hand through Zhao Yanzi’s smooth hair.
Only Zhao Hongyu, who studied design and architecture knew that the price of the clothes would not be cheap as soon as she saw them. “Since Zi has a limited allowance, Ren must have paid for all of them,” she thought.
“Here is your Longjing tea, Grandma,” Lu Lili brought a cup of hot tea to Grandma.
“Hehe, good, take some rest yourself,” Grandma pulled her down on the couch.
The tea gave out a strong fresh aroma. Zhao Hongyu took a glimpse at the tea leaves in the cup and realized that it was actually top-tier Greenwood leaves instead of Longjing tea leaves.
Even cultivators on and above Fifth Heaven couldn’t have easy access to Greenwood leaves. Greenwood Trees were of pure wood element, and its leaves contained nature essence. It could definitely help Grandma to live a prolonged life.
In fact, Lu Linlin and Lu Lili traded 250g of top-tier Greenwood leaves with the piece of a mid-tier Spirit Stone when they went to the Trading Convention on Fifth Heaven with Hao Ren last time.
The dragon cultivators and human cultivators seldom communicated since they were cautious toward each other. Therefore, the Spirit Stones, which weren’t so important to dragon cultivators, could be used to trade for some rare items that weren’t commonly seen in the mortal world.
Zhao Yanzi took her new dress and jacket upstairs to get changed while Hao Ren stayed in the living room to entertain the guests as the host.
Grandma was in high spirit. She chitchatted with Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang and told them stories about her stay in Zhejiang.
Lu Linlin and Lu Lili sat on the couch, combing each other’s hair lovingly after serving everyone their drinks.
“Do I look pretty, Grandma?” Zhao Yanzi suddenly appeared on the stairs in the dress and jacket she just got.
There was a small platform on the stairs when the stairway turned, and it looked like a natural stage for Zhao Yanzi. Her appearance in her new outfits was beautiful.
“Little Zhumu is so pretty!” the twins couldn’t help but praise her.
Zhao Yanzi was very satisfied with their compliment, and her impression of the girls had improved. She never saw them as opponents. On the other hand, Zhao Yanzi only saw Xie Yujia as a serious threat.
Grandma gave Zhao Yanzi’s outfits a lot of compliments as well, although she mostly complimented Zhao Yanzi.
Zhao Yanzi was so happy. She held the railing and spun twice before hopping back onto the second floor to get changed.
Hao Ren saw how cheerful she was. He knew that she wasn’t very confident on stage, so she was looking for some encouragement.
Hao Ren’s expectation for Tuesday suddenly got very high at this thought. He imagined Zhao Yanzi, who had always been good with her words, stuttering on stage and making a fool of herself.
“I got a lot of groceries on the way here. We can enjoy hot pot tonight!” Zhao Hongyu smiled at Grandma gently after Zhao Yanzi disappeared at the end of the stairs.
“Yeah, we have a good number of people for hot pot!” Grandma nodded in agreement.
Didididi… Zhao Guang’s cell phone suddenly rang.
He slowly picked it up.
Hao Ren, with his acute hearing, immediately heard Elder Lu’s worrisome voice through the phone, “Bad news, Dragon King. The 16 elders from West Ocean have escaped from the Dragon Palace!”
274 Kicked an Iron Board
“How did it happen?” Zhao Guang asked immediately.
“Oldma
n Zeng came to the Dragon Palace in a fury. He broke into the palace and unlocked the acupoints of the 16 elders. Then, they rushed out of the palace together,” Elder Lu told him over the phone.
Hearing the news, Zhao Guang’s face turned livid with rage. Oldman Zeng was so outrageous that he broke into the East Ocean Dragon Palace!
He didn’t know that Oldman Zeng was struck by lightning last night, and half of his dragon horn was cut off. Thinking of West Ocean’s masters who were imprisoned in East Ocean, Oldman Zeng went insane with rage, and that drove him to break into the East Ocean Dragon Palace to free the 16 elders.
While Elder Lu was reporting to Zhao Guang, ferocious Oldman Zeng led the 16 recovered elders toward Hao Ren’s house by the seaside.
“A mere mortal dared to set traps for our West Ocean Dragon Clan!?”
Oldman Zeng understood the whole incident from his elders and decided to capture Hao Ren’s grandma in person. He couldn’t find Zeng Yitao in the East Ocean Dragon Palace, so he didn’t dare to stay longer in the palace and left in a hurry.
After flying out of the sea, he thought for a while and decided to capture Hao Ren’s relative and trade for Zeng Yitao. It would be an easy solution.
The 17 people formed a triangular formation while they flew swiftly above the sea surface toward the seaside villa.
Meanwhile in the house, seeing Zhao Guang put down his cell phone with a heavy expression, Grandma smiled genially. “It’s ok. You can go and handle your business.”
Zhao Guang hesitated and wasn’t sure if he should go back to the dragon palace to check up on the people in there. Oldman Zeng had high status in the Dragon Tribe, and the elders guarding the East Ocean Dragon Palace wouldn’t dare to hurt him without Zhao Guang’s permission.
That was why Zhao Guang was afraid that Oldman Zeng had caused casualties in the dragon palace. Since Elder Lu got the news from Premier Xia, he didn’t know about the details of the conflict himself.
Meanwhile, Oldman Zeng and 16 elders were getting closer to Hao Ren’s house by the seaside.
Oldman Zeng was experienced and knew that the Lu sisters used a pair of powerful dharma treasures. However, he would arrange the 16 elders in an array formation and use it to counter the pair of dharma treasures.
In the house, Zhao Guang was silent for a short moment. “Well, I’d better go back and have a look.”
The moment he stood up, thunder crackled outside.
He walked to the window and looked out but could see nothing unusual.
While they were flying above the sea surface, Oldman Zeng and the 16 elders also heard the thunder. Oldman Zeng, who had just been struck by lightning last night, shivered involuntarily.
“I will say this one last time; don’t make a move against mortals!”
A majestic voice came from the white clouds in the high sky.
Swoosh!
Then, 16 bright shooting stars shot down from the sky and landed on the spines of the 16 elders.
With muffled grunts, the 16 elders all fell into the sea and created 16 splashes.
Oldman Zeng immediately paused in mid-air.
Swoosh! As if they were water-skiing, the 16 elders slid onto the beach by momentum.
When they stood up, they were horrified to find that their cultivation strengths of Qian-level and Kun-level were all destroyed.
They were turned into mortals!
Their cultivation strengths were all burned up, and they couldn’t activate even one trace of nature essence.
Their cultivation strengths were not locked but destroyed! The hundreds of openings in their dragon cores unblocked, and their hundreds of years of cultivation were gone.
“You tried to make moves against mortals repeatedly. This time, the punishments are just reminders. If you do it again, both your bodies and souls will be destroyed!” The stern voice resonated in the high sky.
“Who is it?” Stunned, Oldman Zeng flew up into the sky.
“Look up; the gods are watching!” The voice answered him while a dazzling shooting star shot down.
It struck Oldman’s Zeng’s back, making him fall half a meter.
Oldman Zeng tried to fly up again, but another shooting star hit his head.
Then another, and another…
There were seven of them in total.
They struck him down meter by meter until he fell into the sea!
When he got out of the sea, he was horrified to find that his cultivation strength had been lowered from Qian-level to Zhen-level.
His tough dragon core seemed to be blocked by cement, and only 40 small openings were left.
The sky was again peaceful.
The white clouds floated leisurely as if nothing had happened.
“Grand Dragon King, what should we do?” Soaked, the elders stumbled to Oldman Zeng’s sides.
Oldman Zeng gritted his teeth and looked up at the sky. “In 100 years, we will never bring up the topic of taking East Ocean’s territory!”
Having lived hundreds of years, he wanted to cry at the current pathetic situation.
He had taken West Ocean’s elites to East Ocean City, intending to exert pressure on the East Ocean Dragon Clan. However, before the battle began, his force was destroyed.
Not only did the top 16 elders loss all their cultivation strengths in one instant, but he himself had dropped from the powerful Qian-level to the insignificant Zhen-level!
This loss didn’t include Black Wolf who had been captured by the Dragon God Shrine.
The force that West Ocean had spent hundreds of years nurturing was turned into dust in the blink of an eye.
Right now, Oldman Zeng only wanted to go back to the West Ocean Dragon Palace and end this nightmare.
Although notorious for his cunning and viciousness, Oldman Zeng was suddenly filled with fear. He waved his hand, saying, “Go home! Go home!”
East Ocean was deceptively powerful, and he could never defeat it.
Oldman Zeng finally “understood” the deceptive game the East Ocean Dragon Clan had been playing. Obviously, it had shown its weakness to lure him into their trap!
The elders who had lost their cultivation strengths had never seen Oldman Zeng in such a panic. They looked at him with the same panic, asking, “Grand Dragon King, what about the Crown Prince?”
“We can’t help him now. We’ll talk about it after we get back!” Oldman Zeng fled toward the road on the seashore.
Since he was lowered to Zhen-level, he could be killed easily by a Dui-level cultivator. Besides, he was leading 16 elders who were literally mortals!
Oldman Zeng could think of nothing but to get back to the West Ocean Dragon Palace and hide there for two or three hundred years.
He was arrogant and aggressive and thus had made many enemies. If his enemies knew that he had been lowered to Zhen-level and lost most of his elders, they would undoubtedly hunt him down for revenge.
He could only be saved inside the Dragon Palace under the protection of the palace’s defense array formation. It would be a disaster if he met any of his enemies on his way back to the Dragon Palace.
Oldman Zeng lost all of his previous arrogance, and in its place was fear.
While stumbling on the beach, something dawned on him, and he paused and yelled, “I was tricked! Tricked!”
“What’s it, Grand Dragon King?” The 16 elders asked him anxiously.
“I took one wrong step and lost everything!” Oldman Zeng said with sudden understanding, “Zhao Kuo must have passed the Heavenly Tribulation and flown into the heaven as a Heavenly Dragon! It is Zhao Kuo who had been messing with us!”
Thinking of the shooting stars and meteor shower, Oldman Zeng was still afraid. He murmured to himself, “The Realm of Heavenly Dragon! It must be Zhao Kuo! We were all tricked by East Ocean!”
He stomped hard on the sand. “In the next 500 years, no one talks about taking East Ocean’s territory! Since they have a grandmaster on the Heavenly Dragon Realm, we West Ocean will
never gain the upper hand in the battle with East Ocean!”
In his mind, only grandmasters on the Heavenly Dragon Realm were capable of such power.
The more he thought about it, the more fearful he got. “Since Zhao Kuo has reached the Heavenly Dragon Realm, from now on, West Ocean will have to give ways to East Ocean!” he thought.
In his panic, he would never have imagined that Zhao Kuo had failed the Heavenly Tribulation. In fact, the one who struck them was a grandmaster on the Soul Formation Realm!
Meanwhile, in the house by the sea, Zhao Guang thought for a while and decided to go back to the dragon palace to have a look.
Digging out his car key, he walked toward the door. “Auntie, I have to deal with some urgent business matters. I will come back later.”
“It’s ok. Get on with your business first!” Grandma said with understanding.
Zhao Guang walked out of the house and passed the door, driving away in the black Chevrolet shortly.
Zhao Hongyu was worried about Zhao Guang, but she remained calm and continued to chat with Grandma. Hao Ren knew something was wrong, but since Zhao Guang was already dealing with it, he settled down and kept his Grandma company.
After about ten minutes, Zhao Guang returned.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing he returned so soon, Grandma asked.
“Nothing. The problem is solved!” Zhao Guang looked relaxed and cheerful, entirely different from the look he had when he left a moment ago.
Even Zhao Yanzi had never seen her usually stern father so cheerful.
Zhao Hongyu was curious, so she bumped Zhao Guang lightly. “What happened?”
When Lu Qing called Zhao Guang, she had heard the conversation. It didn’t sound like good news since Oldman Zeng broke into the East Ocean Dragon Palace and rescued 16 West Ocean elders.
“Hehe, Auntie, it was just a business issue. It’s all solved!” Zhao Guang’s tone was upbeat, and his face was flushed with excitement. He looked different.
“It is good to hear that your problem is solved!” Grandma didn’t probe. Seeing the cheerful expression on his face, she was relieved.
However, Zhao Hongyu was not satisfied. Pinching his arm lightly, she asked in a low voice, “What happened?”
