BOOK 2: CHAPTER 451: PRIMORDIAL MAGNETISM REVEALED, THE ULTIMATE TRUTH OF DRAGONS

Vol 2 Chapter 451 Primordial Magnetism Revealed, The Ultimate Truth of Dragons

"These Five Dragons Heavenly Palace were refined by me in my early years. If Dragon Lord finds these flood dragon spirits offensive, we can switch to another artifact for travel." Elder Pang's implication was clear—he feared offending Dragon Lord Shuyu by using flood dragons to pull the carriage.

Though these five flood dragons couldn't compare to a single scale of an ancient dragon in terms of bloodline, one couldn't rule out the Dragon Lord being a bit petty.

"These flood dragon spirits are indeed... not ideal."

"Then I'll change—"

Elder Pang frantically searched through his storage ring.

"Change them to ancient dragons."

"Ah?" Elder Pang's hand froze mid-air as he slowly looked up, utterly bewildered. "Change to whom?"

Dragon Lord Shuyu nodded slightly, as if her suggestion was perfectly reasonable: "Exactly five would suffice."

Elder Pang's mind raced before suddenly understanding—she meant the neatly matched family of five from Cangming Dragon Palace!

......

The five flood dragons parted the sea of clouds, riding lightning as they pulled the carriage toward the heartland of the Hundred Immortals Alliance.

The two sat in silence within the palace, with Elder Pang maintaining considerable distance, his smile stiff with fear of offending the Dragon Lord—this wasn't just pettiness, but pettiness of the highest order!

Noticing his trepidation, Dragon Lord Shuyu seemed amused and asked:

"Where are we headed?"

"Yong Province."

The original territory of the Hundred Immortals Alliance comprised seven provinces and twenty-three prefectures, with Liang Prefecture bordering the sea.

Originally, to facilitate maritime trade routes, the Jiushan Realm had mostly remained in Liang Prefecture.

"Recently, the Jiushan Realm has been stationed in Yong Province."

Yong Province wasn't close, separated from Liang Prefecture by Chen Province.

"Stationed?"

"As expected, nothing escapes Dragon Lord's notice." Elder Pang regained his composure. "Henceforth, the Jiushan Realm will rotate among the seven provinces rather than remaining fixed in one location." ℞ἁ𐌽ȫ฿Èš

"Why is that?"

Elder Pang remained mysterious: "Dragon Lord will understand upon arrival."

Hearing this, Dragon Lord Shuyu couldn't help showing curiosity as she gazed ahead.

Since Elder Pang's breakthrough to Soul Formation and his refinement of the Five Dragons Heavenly Palace using the Nine-turn Golden Core Method, the artifact's speed had become incomparable to its past.

Despite crossing two provinces, they neared their destination in just six days.

"What is that?"

Having suppressed her curiosity throughout the journey, Dragon Lord Shuyu finally pointed ahead and asked.

Her finger indicated a peculiar mountain—not particularly tall, but strange in appearance:

Devoid of vegetation, its black surface faintly reflected light.

With her keen vision, Dragon Lord Shuyu could discern the mountain's overwhelming primordial magnetic energy.

She had seen many magnetic mountains before, but none as bizarre as this.

Observing the ant-like stream of people moving up and down the mountain, Dragon Lord Shuyu asked Elder Pang: "Are those your Jiushan Sect disciples?"

"Indeed."

No longer playing coy, Elder Pang explained: "The Jiushan Realm is here to pilot the Earth Vein Primordial Magnetism Network."

"Earth Vein Primordial Magnetism Network?"

"Dragon Lord may also call it the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array."

This name made sense to Dragon Lord Shuyu. Her gaze lingered on the strange mountain when she suddenly stiffened.

"They've detected us?"

Considering her True Immortal cultivation and Elder Pang's Soul Formation Zhenren status, their perception far surpassed those disciples on the mountain.

Normally, only a Soul Formation cultivator's divine sense could reach such distances where the Five Dragons Heavenly Palace currently hovered.

Yet Dragon Lord Shuyu clearly saw the mountain disciples suddenly turn their way, gathering as if preparing defenses.

"Is there a Soul Formation cultivator on the mountain?" flashed through her mind before she dismissed it herself.

No Soul Formation presence could escape a True Immortal's detection. The highest cultivation among those Jiushan disciples was merely Nascent Soul.

"This mountain serves as a node for the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array, possessing detection capabilities," Elder Pang finally explained. "They recognize my spiritual energy and won't trigger alarms, but Dragon Lord's presence is unfamiliar to the array."

As for the underlying principles, Elder Pang found them difficult to explain simply.

In essence, it functioned as an ultra-powerful spiritual energy detector.

Dragon Lord Shuyu frowned slightly, and Elder Pang, seeming to read her thoughts, smiled: "Of course, had Dragon Lord possessed superior concealment techniques, the array wouldn't be so sensitive."

Somewhat reassured, Dragon Lord Shuyu finally praised: "This detection range likely rivals that of a Dharmakaya cultivator."

Elder Pang nodded: "Approximately."

Producing his Tongjian, Elder Pang sent a Spirit Message as the Five Dragons Heavenly Palace continued toward the strange mountain.

The earlier incident had piqued Dragon Lord Shuyu's curiosity about the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array, and she scrutinized the mountain's activities closely.

"Are those disciples... setting up an array?"

Having presumably received Elder Pang's message, the mountain disciples returned to their tasks.

They formed hand seals, embedding various magical tools into the mountain rock.

Most of these tools were unfamiliar to Dragon Lord Shuyu, though she understood they must relate to the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array.

"This is..."

Just as Elder Pang prepared to explain, a blinding light erupted, whiting out their vision.

Startled, Dragon Lord Shuyu looked toward the light's source—undoubtedly the strange mountain's doing again.

Lightning swirled around the mountain, converging at its peak into a pure white orb.

Even at this distance, Dragon Lord Shuyu could feel the orb's terrifying heat and power—by her estimation, it contained energy equivalent to a Dharmakaya cultivator's full might!

As if responding to her thoughts, the orb unleashed a thick, ferocious beam toward another majestic mountain in the distance.

The world flashed bright then dark, like a lamp switched on and off.

The orb remained suspended at the mountain peak, seemingly having done nothing, with all calm restored.

Yet that unfortunate mountain had completely vanished!

Not destroyed or shattered, but utterly erased from existence.

"Dharmakaya—no, even peak Dharmakaya-level power."

Dragon Lord Shuyu's cultivation method resembled demonic techniques, and her "Dharmakaya" corresponded to the immortal path's Yang Spirit stage.

This level of power meant little to her.

But observing the mountain disciples who appeared completely unfazed and seemingly unexhausted, she couldn't hide her astonishment: "Does this array not consume the disciples' energy?"

With her knowledge, she knew many arrays could enable low-level cultivators to unleash power beyond their normal capacity.

But the terrifying aspect of the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array was that releasing such a powerful beam—equivalent to a peak Dharmakaya's strike—apparently consumed almost no disciple energy!

She fully grasped the implications—this suggested the array might only require some low-level disciples to sustain prolonged resistance against high-level cultivators.

Elder Pang explained: "It's not zero consumption, but the array primarily draws from earth veins, making the cost minimal."

Seeing Dragon Lord Shuyu's lingering shock, Elder Pang added with a smile: "Actually, we took inspiration from Dragon Lord's divine abilities for this array."

"My divine abilities?"

"From Dragon Lord, we learned about heaven and earth's tremendous power. This Primordial Magnetism Array essentially emulates Dragon Lord's maritime divine abilities—though currently far inferior. Should it spread across the entire Hundred Immortals Alliance or even Xuanwei, that would change."

"..." Instead of being comforted, Dragon Lord Shuyu looked as if she'd heard some outrageous fallacy. "But those are my dragon race's innate bloodline abilities."

Elder Pang appeared humble: "We naturally can't compare, hence this laborious approach."

"Laborious?"

Dragon Lord Shuyu inexplicably sensed an unfamiliar, even faintly terrifying power lurking beneath his words.

"Mountain by mountain, earth vein by earth vein." Elder Pang pointed at the disciples. "Without heaven and earth's favor, we Jiushan Sect disciples can only gradually reshape this land to our vision."

"..."

Dragon Lord Shuyu fell silent, carefully observing the mountain disciples before turning to regard Elder Pang with entirely new eyes.

Previously, she'd somewhat looked down on him—not out of contempt, but as an ancient dragon, it was difficult not to feel superior toward humans, especially lower-cultivation ones.

Particularly since Elder Pang had seemed overly... cautious.

Yet these few words had completely transformed Elder Pang's image in her mind.

Or rather, the world-altering, even heaven-defying ambition beneath his calm tone left her speechless, making her feel that these Jiushan Sect members displayed thousands of times more pride than her ancient dragon self who took pride in heaven and earth's favor.

As they reached the strange mountain's base, Dragon Lord Shuyu fully grasped the situation:

The Jiushan Realm hovered in nearby space.

Endless streams of disciples shuttled between the peculiar mountain and Jiushan Realm, carrying various magical tools and artifacts.

"Did the Jiushan Realm come here specifically to construct this array?"

"Partly."

Dragon Lord Shuyu turned to Elder Pang with curiosity.

Truthfully, she'd visited Jiushan Realm multiple times, yet her understanding remained superficial—during previous visits, she'd rarely even met Zheng Fa, heading straight for the dragon eggs instead.

Partly due to her aloof personality—one could say she'd cared little beyond dragon eggs before.

Partly from pride—despite Jiushan Realm's unique immortal techniques, she hadn't held them in high regard.

But today, witnessing the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array, she found herself unexpectedly more interested in Jiushan Realm than ever before.

"The Jiushan Realm relocated here primarily to construct the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array—our sect's most important project for the next fifty years."

Despite possessing Sleeve Universe divine abilities, modifying earth vein primordial magnetism was a massive undertaking.

Zheng Fa could only handle part of the work—countless meticulous yet essential tasks fell to elders and disciples.

Hence the Jiushan engineering team's constant mobility.

"Another reason stems from the Sect Leader's vision—even after completion, Jiushan Realm will rotate among the Hundred Immortals Alliance's seven provinces."

"Why is that?"

Before Elder Pang could answer, Zheng Fa's voice arrived: "To supervise disciples."

Zheng Fa quickly approached, bowing to Dragon Lord Shuyu: "My apologies for not welcoming Dragon Lord properly."

Glancing at the unfinished array, Dragon Lord Shuyu shook her head: "Compared to this array, welcoming me is trivial. What exactly requires supervision?"

Her interest in Jiushan Realm's activities clearly differed from before.

Zheng Fa escorted Dragon Lord Shuyu into Jiushan Realm, explaining frankly: "Once complete, this array will grant our sect far greater control over the Hundred Immortals Alliance."

"Isn't that beneficial?"

"It is, but also problematic... What if some Jiushan disciples abuse this power?"

"..."

"Mortal can't resist cultivators. With the Profound Earth Primordial Magnetism Array's power, our disciples would face no mortal constraints. While Jiushan Realm's Divine Path method can gather mortal information... the Hundred Immortals Alliance lacks this."

Before Dragon Lord Shuyu could respond, Elder Pang unusually voiced dissent: "Our Jiushan disciples' conduct has been commendable."

"It has, and I don't distrust them," Zheng Fa said softly. "But one malevolent individual could cost thousands of lives. Elder, can you guarantee no disciple will ever harbor ill intent? Now or in the future?"

Elder Pang fell silent, evidently knowing the answer.

"So you propose having Jiushan Realm patrol the Hundred Immortals Alliance?" Dragon Lord Shuyu suddenly understood.

"Precisely. Jiushan Realm's mobility offers convenience, though this is still experimental—optimal implementation requires exploration."

As Elder Pang noted, most Jiushan disciples currently exhibited good conduct, owing to the sect's selection standards and rapid development phase before internal strife or mortal exploitation emerged.

But development inevitably plateaus.

Zheng Fa didn't consider systems omnipotent, but compared to human nature or morality, he trusted systems slightly more—especially since many must be established early before problems became irreversible.

Since this didn't concern Dragon Lord Shuyu directly, they briefly discussed it before proceeding to the heavenly palace.

"Dragon Lord, your message mentioned important matters for discussion with Jiushan. May I inquire what they are?"

"I've come to propose cooperation between our factions against Cangming Dragon Palace."

Zheng Fa nodded slightly—he'd anticipated this.

"Please sit." Zheng Fa had disciples serve spirit tea before asking: "What form of cooperation does Dragon Lord envision?"

After a pause, Dragon Lord Shuyu unexpectedly stated: "If you agree to one condition, I'll nominally subordinate myself to Jiushan Sect."

Surprised, Zheng Fa asked: "What condition?"

"You dominate above water;

the depths remain my domain."

This puzzled Zheng Fa further—the terms seemed excessively generous, differing little from the status quo.

If so, why would Dragon Lord Shuyu willingly subordinate herself?

Seeming to notice his confusion, Dragon Lord Shuyu revealed bitterness: "Cangming Dragon King doesn't merely want my submission—he seeks exclusive control over these waters."

Now Zheng Fa understood—Dragon Lord Shuyu had seen through racial solidarity to grasp the ultimate truth of dragons:

Those who wish you dead are always your peers.