Dragon's Origin

“So urgent?” Wang Sheng couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the old Taoist's figure. For the old Taoist to arrive at the core of the Thousand Absolutes Land a month early, how anxious must he be? The old Taoist was usually so steady, not someone like this.

“There weren’t that many things to begin with.” The old Taoist and Wang Sheng went directly back to the ice house they had built near where they played with Big Snow, started a fire, slowly roasting meat and warming water, chatting as they cooked. The old Taoist held a wine bottle, taking small sips, and said, “Some things don’t need me, the old Taoist, at all. I’m not that kind of person for handling matters anyway.”

Wang Sheng laughed. Lingxu Old Taoist was definitely a master among masters when it came to guiding him in cultivation and helping him comprehend martial arts secrets, but if he were asked to do some of the mundane tasks of the Taoist sect, he probably could only tolerate copying scriptures. Anything else, like burning incense, worshiping the ancestors, or attracting pilgrims, would be absolutely impossible for him. He was a rebellious old Taoist, best suited to be a free and unrestrained Taoist like Yan Chixia.

Since the things that needed to be done and the instructions that needed to be given had all been taken care of, the old Taoist certainly didn't want to stay in the Old Lord Temple. Anyway, with the Grand Master in charge, the Old Lord Temple was absolutely foolproof. So, the old Taoist rushed into the core of the Thousand Absolutes Land to find Wang Sheng.

Besides Wang Sheng, the old Taoist was the only one who regarded the demon beasts in the inner circle of the Thousand Absolutes Land as nothing. Counting on the fingers of one hand, there were only two of them who dared to venture into the core area of the Thousand Absolutes Land alone without worrying about their safety. Perhaps Uncle Li of Worry-Free City could also do it, but wasn't Uncle Li staying in the underground of Worry-Free City organizing that pile of secret manuals?

“You’ve been making quite a stir lately!” After the old Taoist finished talking about his own affairs, he immediately turned the topic to Wang Sheng: “You wiped out all the Xia family people here?”

“I had to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys!” Wang Sheng smiled wryly. He understood what the old Taoist meant. Killing the Xia family so ruthlessly meant an irreconcilable feud. Was it necessary to be so extreme?

The old Taoist was just too lazy to deal with those mundane affairs, not that he didn't understand. After listening, he could only sigh helplessly. Wang Sheng had come this far, and it wasn't something that could be solved by bowing his head or giving in.

“The Xia family might be about to flip the table.” After pondering for a while, the old Taoist said to Wang Sheng, “On the way here, I ran into a group of Xia family experts. They might be planning something big here.”

“Normal!” Wang Sheng smiled. It would be strange if the Xia family didn't make a big move. If they didn't seize the opportunity to cause trouble, their Xia country probably wouldn't be stable either: “It’s not just the Xia country, the Shi country is probably going to go berserk too.”

The old Taoist didn't know about the attack on the Shi country. It happened around the time he set off. Each family knew about it, but they didn't publicize it. Even the Xia country didn't know, neither the royal family nor the Old Lord Temple had received the news.

Not knowing the situation, the old Taoist hurriedly asked what had happened to make the Shi country act so recklessly? Did Wang Sheng even deal with the Shi country?

After Wang Sheng explained, the old Taoist breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the other six families had taken advantage of the Shi country experts' physical problems and declining strength to raid the Shi country's camp. As long as it wasn't Wang Sheng who did it, it was fine. As for the various families, hadn't they been cooperating and finding opportunities to undermine each other for the past few hundred years?

However, neither Wang Sheng nor the old Taoist cared whether the Xia family and the Shi family would cause trouble in the core area of the Thousand Absolutes Land. On the contrary, they were a little期待, thinking that if the two families made a fuss, Wang Sheng and the old Taoist could save a lot of trouble.

The old Taoist was knowledgeable, so Wang Sheng first showed him the Xia family's map that he had snatched from Xia Feihong, asking him to see what might be there.

Holding the map, the old Taoist looked at it for a long time, then threw it back to Wang Sheng, answering with a disdainful tone: “They’re looking for a place, but they’ve obviously got the direction wrong.”

“What’s there?” Wang Sheng certainly knew they were looking for a place, but he was just curious about what they were looking for. From Wang Sheng's own perspective, there seemed to be nothing else that could move the Xia family so much: “Cultivation manuals? Then what about the treasures hidden in the Shi family and Gan family's collections?”

“Not that kind of manual.” The old Taoist shook his head: “The records passed down in the Old Lord Temple are vague. It might be a kind of manual that can’t be taken away.”

“A manual that can’t be taken away?” Wang Sheng frowned. What could be considered a manual that can’t be taken away?

“This is my guess, not something that’s actually recorded.” The old Taoist added: “The Old Lord Temple didn’t participate in the siege of the Lin family back then, but before that, someone from the Old Lord Temple had been to the Lin family manor and vaguely knew a little bit.”

“The eight great families should know more.” Wang Sheng was sure of this, but then the problem came: “Then why are the excavation sites chosen by the various families different?”

“I really don’t know about that.” The old Taoist, like Wang Sheng, couldn't understand this. The truth of the matter could only be known by the ancestors of the various families.

The two of them pondered for a long time but couldn't understand what the families were excavating. They had the mind to grab someone and ask, but later dismissed the idea. This kind of top-secret information was probably something that even the families wouldn't dare to let their own people know, except for the elders leading the team. Why bother having another head-on collision with the various families because of this?

“When do we start?” The old Taoist came here, of course, for the aura of the peerless expert on that long sword. Last time, a broken hairpin had already benefited them greatly. What would a complete long sword bring?

“Wait a little longer!” Wang Sheng didn't hide his plan: “Wait until the Xia family and the Shi family stir up the water a bit more. It’s not easy to clean up if you make a big move at this time.”

The old Taoist also knew this principle. A big tree attracts the wind. Making too much noise would attract everyone's attention. Now that there was a Xia family and a Shi family attracting everyone's attention, why not take advantage of such a good opportunity?

While the two were chatting, a new batch of Xia family experts had already entered the edge of the Ice and Snow Basin from various directions.

At the same time, the injured experts from the Shi family had already left the camp in the Thousand Absolutes Land and returned to the Shi family's territory to recuperate. The Shi family head's latest instructions were also sent to the camp via messenger birds. A dozen new peak Legend experts, also set off from the Shi family's camp, avoided the blockade of the man-eating ants, and also entered the core of the Thousand Absolutes Land from several directions.

What was completely different from the others was that the Song family experts closed off their own excavation site at this time, carefully and slowly withdrawing all the experts to the outside. They would arrive at the edge of the Ice and Snow Basin in at most two days.

In the core area of the Thousand Absolutes Land, a strange atmosphere permeated, about to erupt.