Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Foundation Was Too Weak

How could such mysteries ever be seen by ordinary mortals like them?

Ruo Feng's gaze shifted to Long Ruixuan.

The man was utterly dumbstruck. He had never imagined that there would actually be dragons in this pond!

His whole body trembled, and he was even terribly excited.

At last he understood why, the moment he stepped into this small courtyard, the dragon soul within him had begun to tremble.

Long Ruixuan suddenly felt as if he had seen the light.

So it was because the fish being fed in this pond were not koi at all, but dragons!

Yes, a whole pond of dragons!

The thought left Long Ruixuan speechless.

He was a member of the Golden Dragon Imperial House.

The reason their imperial house had become a sacred land was simply that one of their ancestors had, by some chance, once seen the shadow of a divine dragon.

From that, the ancestor comprehended part of the great Dao and founded the Golden Dragon Imperial House.

By using that ancestor's cultivation art, one could awaken a dragon soul within the body. As long as the dragon soul existed, it was equivalent to possessing some of a dragon's power.

It was by relying on this method that the Golden Dragon Imperial House had established itself in the Heavenly Martial World.

Only later, after reading some historical records, did Long Ruixuan understand that the dragon their ancestor had seen was not a true dragon of pure bloodline after all.

It had merely been a mixed-blood dragon!

And yet even that kind of dragon, seen only once, had led future generations to found a sacred land.

And now, before him...

These were all true dragons!

If the people of the Golden Dragon Imperial House knew that the peerless expert in the South Ridge Mountains truly existed, and that he actually kept a pond full of true dragons, they would absolutely offer up every treasure they possessed just for a single glance at the dragons in this pond!

His master was now going to teach him how to raise fish, which meant he could observe carefully...

This opportunity was simply too great!

Just thinking about it made Long Ruixuan tremble with excitement.

This truly had to be Heaven seeing how much he had suffered before and now making it up to him!

No sooner had Long Ruixuan pulled himself free from his thoughts than he discovered something astonishing: the dragon soul within him, which had always been damaged and incomplete, had suddenly become whole in an instant!

And that was not all!

The dragon soul was still circulating within his body, and in the blink of an eye it had advanced to a higher level.

Long Ruixuan could barely contain himself. He dropped to his knees with a thud.

"Thank you, Master. I will definitely study fish raising properly from now on!"

He was truly filled with reverence. In fact, Zhu Xiaoyuan might as well have been his second set of parents!

He had given him a second chance to cultivate.

Zhu Xiaoyuan smiled at the young man before him. Why were these people all so polite?

Probably because the world outside was in such misery and their lives were so harsh. Now that they had seen this courtyard so peaceful and so pleasant, it was only natural that they would all be so moved.

"Get up. From now on, you’ll be in charge of the little pond here."

Zhu Xiaoyuan handed the remaining feed in his hand to Long Ruixuan.

Long Ruixuan accepted it respectfully, bowing his head with a very serious nod.

"All right, then. Your master will leave things to you for now. Work out the rest yourselves."

After saying this, Zhu Xiaoyuan walked over to the shade beneath the peach tree and sat down, looking utterly carefree. "Ruo Feng, set up the zither and play a tune."

Ruo Feng immediately arranged the Empty Silence Zither beside her. Then her slender, fair hands plucked out a few notes.

Compared with before, there were far fewer flaws in Ruo Feng's music now. Though it was still somewhat lacking, a faint immortal grace was already hidden within it.

When Lu Ran and Long Ruixuan heard the music, their feelings deepened greatly.

These two senior sisters looked to be about their age, yet their cultivation had already reached the level of venerable experts, and they could still comprehend so much of the immortal path...

It seemed these two senior sisters would probably become immortals before long.

At this moment, an immense pressure seemed to settle over Long Ruixuan and Lu Ran.

If they did not work hard from now on, would they not become the ones who held everyone back?

Lu Ran was still standing beside the vegetable patch. He took a deep breath, recalling how Zhu Xiaoyuan had farmed earlier. He intended to imitate him and act step by step.

Thinking this, Lu Ran lifted the hoe before him, trying to raise it and bring it down toward the vegetable patch.

But no matter how hard he tried, the hoe would not move an inch.

Meanwhile, his body trembled, all his strength gathering on the hoe before him.

His face turned pale.

He used every ounce of strength in his body to lift the hoe high, just about to bring it down into the vegetable bed.

Yet because he could not control the hoe in his hand, it slipped from its intended path and slammed into the ground instead.

And merely by making such a simple motion, every trace of spiritual energy in Lu Ran's body was exhausted.

For an instant, even his bones seemed to ache.

His whole body hurt.

"Just how strong is Master's power, exactly?"

"Such a terrifying hoe, yet in his hands it was like a toy he could move however he pleased."

Lu Ran said.

...

By the pond.

Long Ruixuan was also recalling Zhu Xiaoyuan's earlier movements. After a long while, he picked up a grain of feed in his hand and gently tossed it into the water.

The water rippled, and a koi swam up.

Long Ruixuan looked at it, only a single glance.

The moment his eyes fell on it, a deafening roar seemed to erupt in his mind. His vision darkened and spun, and he could not even make out the appearance of that lone koi as it swam.

Long Ruixuan knew that all of this was because his own strength was truly far too weak.

With no other choice, he could only stop and stand by the edge of the pond to rest for a while.

Only after an extremely long time did he once again pick up a pellet of feed and cast it into the pond.

Soon, a whole day passed.

When night fell, Huan Yue called everyone to dinner. Today’s meal had been carefully prepared by her.

There was a dish of tomato and scrambled eggs.

A bowl of egg soup.

And a plate of stir-fried green peppers with meat.

Everything seemed homely and ordinary, yet it somehow created an especially warm atmosphere.

The meat was actually cured meat.

Earlier, when the South Ridge Mountains had shaken violently and a group of beasts had died near the village, Ruo Feng and Huan Yue, unwilling to let such a waste go to waste, had simply gathered them all up and dried them to make cured sausage.

Zhu Xiaoyuan did not mind that much. If Ruo Feng and Huan Yue wanted to do it, then let them do it.

"Come eat quickly!" Huan Yue called out with a smile.

Zhu Xiaoyuan rose from the recliner beneath the peach tree and called his disciples to sit around the small table together.

At this moment, Long Ruixuan looked utterly weakened, while Lu Ran was drenched in sweat from head to toe.