It was as if the dragon was issuing sentences to the four companions. Either obey or die.

“What benefit will we stand to gain if we let you out? I bet we’ll die anyway, right?” Wang Bugui asked as he grunted coldly. He was the only one who could still think clearly now.

“No, I’ll give you something.”

“What is that?”

“If I point you to the path of immortality, would you be willing to free me?”

The ancient dragon asked Wang Bugui. It made the hearts of his three companions beat faster, and they could feel their emotions stir. Regardless of era, being directed to the path of immortality was the lifelong dream of all practitioners!

“The path of immortality?” Wang Bugui was the first to speak.

“Right. You have considerable talent, and I can help you onto the path of immortality. You only need to follow my instructions and release the seal binding me, and I’ll give you a treasure rarely seen in this world. I obtained it before I was sealed away, and even though it’s not perfect, there’s the aura of an immortal contained in it. It can also give out an infinite amount of divine aura, and it’ll surely help you become in immortal!”

The ancient dragon tried to tempt Wang Bugui and company. He felt that attaining immortality must be incredibly important to practitioners in the era of late arts. Unfortunately, the person he was talking to was Wang Bugui, and he was destined to fail.

“Haha, what’s so great about attaining immortality? I don’t care about it. There’s a big enemy of mine that I have to kill as a human! Immortality means nothing to me; I want to become a Human Emperor instead! My only wish is to kill him as a human. If he has the power of a true immortal, I’ll defy Heaven’s will and slay him anyway!” replied Wang Bugui resolutely.

His statement stunned the dragon. He had not expected for this human to not have any desire to attain immortality. In fact, he even wanted to challenge a foe at immortal level as a mortal.

“Hahaha, foolish human. Do you know how powerful a real immortal is? Just by willing it, he or she can destroy an entire nation and consign a golden era into history. Thousands of ants like you can be killed in a single breath! So what if you become Human Emperor? Which Human Emperor in history could defy Heaven’s will and slay immortals? None!”

“The Yan Emperor Shennong, the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, the Xuan Emperor Zhuanxu, Yao, Shun and Yu Emperors- all of them were amazing, but none of them could do that before they became immortals. At most, they managed to accomplish miracles with the help of deities from ancient historical times.”

“You’re merely a practitioner in the era of late arts, yet you want to become Emperor? Let’s not discuss whether you’ll be able to make it first. So what if you do? There was once a Human Emperor who called himself Emperor Qin Shihuang, and he thought that he was much stronger than the eight Emperors before him.”

“Haha, the first three Emperors were gods from the beginning of time. Even Nuwa, the female god of creation, was one of them. He was a mere mortal, yet he wanted to be on the same level as the 10 Prime Gods of ancient historical times. How could a mere flicker of light compete with the glory of the moon? in the end, he failed in defying Heaven’s will anyway!”

“The Heavens killed him in anger, and he could not even resist. They even used him as an excuse to punish the mortal world, resulting in us slowly descending into the era of late arts after the fall of the Qin Dynasty,” the ancient dragon said. His tone was derisive as he explained the secret history to the humans, as he felt that is was due to Ying Zheng’s fault that the mortal realm entered the Age of Dharma Decline, and humans would forever be unable to beat immortals.”

“What? Ying Zheng died because he defied Heaven’s will?” Wang Bugui asked, his eyes wide open. He had never expected that the talented individual to have died in such a pathetic manner; he was removed after trying to defy the Heavens and angered them.

“Humph! Even though Human Emperors are at the peak of human power, how could they compete against true immortals? Furthermore, even real immortals dare not defy Heaven’s will. It’s impossible to accomplish, even for them!” the ancient dragon chided.

“Even if he was defeated by Heaven, you have no right to lecture me. Would you have dared defy the Heavens, if you were in his shoes? Even though he was ruthless, he united the entire China. You don’t the right to make wild statements about him!” scolded Wang Bugui.

“No matter how strong Emperors become, they will die. I’m offering you a path to immortality now. This is real immortality I’m talking about. Aren’t you tempted?” asked the ancient dragon.

“Immortality? Perhaps I’ll try to attain it someday, but not now. My goal is to become Human Emperor, not an immortal. I’ll think about it after slaying my foe,” replied Wang Bugui proudly, as if the idea of becoming immortal was something not even worth thinking about to him. It was not a opportunity to him, even in this era of late arts.

His companions had already realized which sect he came from. Other than Ying Zheng, who was self taught, there was only a group of people in history who dared to declare themselves Human Emperors. He must be from the Yuxu Palace of Mount Kunlun, from the line of the Palace of Human Emperors.

“Hahaha…. what insanity! However, your path in the Age of Dharma Decline will also be ardous. My artifact will also be of aid to you,” said the ancient dragon as he rolled his eyes. He was still trying to tempt Wang Bugui.

“You’ve been championing your artifact ever since you appeared, but you’ve been trapped here for so long. How powerful could it be?” Zhao Changge questioned the dragon through gritted teeth.

“Do you know why I was trapped? It was because of an incredibly precious item- a piece of the Divine Heaven Mending Stone!” the dragon said with a low growl.

“What?!”

All four humans were stunned upon hearing his statement. They did not expect a shard of the Divine Heaven Mending Stone to be located here. No wonder there was a pile of bones from a sage at the shore, and no wonder Yao Shaoshi would engage the dragon in battle. So, this was the truth behind the legend. The dragon had a shard of Nuwa’s divine stone, the ultimate treasure of the Primordial Age. It was an artifact that would draw thousands of practitioners to fight over it.

“How do I know if you’re telling the truth?” Wang Bugui questioned the dragon as he rolled his eyes. He then used the power of his pendant to transmit his voice secretly to his three friends, before looking at the dragon to see if it had noticed him doing so. The other three nodded slightly to him to indicate that they had received his instructions.

The ancient dragon opened his mouth and a small stone of five colors appeared in the air. It contained huge aura, and the barren ground surrounding them began to show some signs of life. The four friends noticed bits of green grass bursting forth from the ground, and such wonderful phenomenon could definitely not be faked.

“This… this is truly a shard of the Divine Heaven Mending Stone! If you train with it in possession, you’ll be able to reduce the effects of the era of late arts by half. It can even heal wounds. I never expected to see one of them!” Yu Wude exclaimed. His eyeballs had nearly popped out of their sockets, and he was drooling uncontrollably.

“Can I come closer for a better look? I’ve never seen such a wonderful treasure my entire life!” Wang Bugui said as he scratched his head, as if he was a young boy who had never seen the world.

The dragon thought about it and did not find anything wrong with Wang’s request. Even though he was already old, he still was of Joint Tao Realm level. The four humans were at most at Voiding Realm strength, and they were incredibly close to him. If they tried anything funny, he could slay them in one blow. As such, he nodded and placed the divine stone before them.

“What divine treasure! You’re really amazing, Senior Dragon. You managed to survive such a brutal battle that time and killed countless practitioners to obtain this artifact! I have such endless respect for you, Senior Dragon! You’re really a living example for me!” Yu Wude tried to flatter the dragon as much as he could as he looked at the shard of the divine stone. The dragon, upon hearing him, was so happy that it began grinning happily.

He scratched his beard with his claws and cocked his head back to say, “Haha, if you guys help me escape, I’ll give the shard to you. How about that?”

“Fine, but don’t you regret later!” Wang Bugui said, as he laughed.

“A dragon never lies! If you can…” the ancient dragon began to speak as it nodded and laughed happily. Before it could finish, however, it saw something that stunned it. A gold colored energy surged out from Wang Bugui’s body and shattered the dragon’s magic instantly. A similar energy shot out from the other humans, and they fled without even turning back after the magic seals binding them were released.

At the same time, a black figure flashed past them and grabbed hold of the Divine Stone shard. It was a puppet controlled by Wang Bugui from a great distance away, and it immediately retreated upon obtaining the stone shard.

“Qin Dragon Energy? Damn you, how dare you fool me? Die!”

The dragon was stunned at first, but soon it flew into a rage. These young humans had dared to trick him and even snatched the Divine Heaven Mending Stone shard away from him. A yellow energy bolt shot out from his mouth, shattering anything and everything that stood in its path. This was the strength of a creature in the Joint Tao Realm, and aside from the true immortals, few people were more powerful than them. They could destroy tens of thousands of living beings in a rage.

“Be careful and don’t turn back!” Wang Bugui shouted.

Yu Wude could feel the destructive power from the dragon surging toward them and immediately summoned a platform before throwing it backward. “Rest assured, I came prepared. Witness the might of my divine platform! With me around, there won’t be any mishaps!” he said.

However, the energy bolt absorbed all of the energy released by the platform. Eventually, even the platform itself was swallowed up.

“Oh my! We’re more than one realm apart in terms of power. Run quickly!” Yu Wude exclaimed as he witnessed the destruction of his platform. He was so frightened by the turn of events that he turned around and ran faster than any of his companions.

“Damn you, you’re so unreliable!”

“Damned fatty, you tricked us again!”

“Where’s the ‘grandmaster’ that you spoke of earlier?!”

Zhao Changge and the rest rained insults upon him. At the most critical moment, he had gone missing again. In fact, he was running faster the them.

Their speed was nothing for the dragon, who was in the Joint Tao Realm. He caught up with them almost instantly. Upon seeing this, Wang Bugui, who was leading the group, gritted his teeth and decided to run back toward the dragon.

“What are you doing, Bugui?!” asked Zhao Changge in surprise. Wang Bugui pushed them ahead even further with his prana power and replied, “Leave first, I’ll catch up with you guys later!”

“We’ll wait at the exit for you. Hurry up!” Yu Wude replied.

He then grabbed Zhao Changge and continued running. They could only choose to believe their friend at this moment.

Wang Bugui channeled his Undefeatable Body of the World technique and activated half of his Eight Limits Universal Order skill. He psyched himself up and charged toward the energy bolt released by the dragon.

“Heavenly Battling Force – activate! Blood Ignition Technique! Blood River Break Heaven Fist!” Wang Bugui roared before activating another two secret techniques and punching at the bolt of energy with his fist, which was covered in blood vigor by now.

“Boom!”

There was a large boom. Wang Bugui spat out a big mouthful of blood, and the impact of the blow shattered his arm. His insides were also damaged, and he was already beginning to see stars. His insides churned, and luckily the dragon could not escape from the yellow river. If not, they were doomed.

“Hrumph!” the dragon roared before he clawed at the youth. Its huge claw was even bigger than a three storey house, and it tore through the skies as it came crashing down upon Wang Bugui.

“Roar!”

Wang Bugui’s body was entirely infused with blood prana power, and the lashed out with a Primordial Palm. There was a large boom and the impact of the blows created a huge shockwave, illuminating this dark patch of the world.

“Wang Bugui!” Zhao Chengge clenched his fists as he screamed in the direction of the blast. He could not see what happened, but such power was too terrible. If it were him fighting the dragon, he would have been gone by now.