Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 369 Dragon Clan's "Customs"?
"May I ask if you are a disciple of the Taiyin Sect? Perhaps Fellow Daoist Baili has some guidance for you?"

Although the enormous dragon head could not hide its fatigue, it still asked politely.

Zhao Qing quickly tried to establish a connection, saying, "Fellow Daoist Kui Huai Ren! Should you now be the River God of the Wuyue River? Or the Dragon King of Wuyue? I am Zhu Tu Meng Jin! Do you still remember me?"

"I dare not call myself the Dragon King! Please just call me Huai Ren, fellow Daoist!" Huai Ren was somewhat surprised. He did remember this Taiyin Sect disciple who had been transferred into Baili Shuang's puppet body, but he didn't understand why the other party had come to find him: "I still remember you, but I don't know what brings you here, fellow Daoist?"

Zhao Qing explained, "No, no, I just heard from Senior Sister... um, Baili Shuang, that you were injured and had expended a lot of your cultivation, so I came to see if there was anything I could do to help! After all, you've suppressed this place, which is a favor our Taiyin Sect owes you, so we can't just ignore it!"

"Fellow Daoist, there's no need for such politeness!" Huai Ren was taken aback for a moment, then breathed heavily through his nostrils, lowered his voice, and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Besides, I filled this rift valley with water to turn it into a river and suppressed this place, which was partly for my own selfish reasons. I'm glad the Taiyin Sect doesn't blame me, so how could I possibly ask for favors!"

"Oh, don't be so polite! Cultivation is so arduous. No matter what your purpose is, expending your cultivation to suppress this place will ultimately benefit our Taiyin Sect. Hmm... let me think..."

Zhao Qing pondered for a moment, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration and began frantically pulling out Taiyin Essence from her Qiankun Bag: "This, this! This must be good for your recovery, right? I've seen other people use this to heal injuries and it works really well! If you need it, I'll get you some more!"

"This is... the Taiyin Pearl?"

Huai Ren recognized it at a glance.

The essence of Yin is not uncommon, but it is rare to find something natural. If it is "man-made", it needs to be condensed by setting up an array, and it often takes several years to produce a batch, so it is quite valuable.

Of course, as the son of the Water Dragon King, he was not only a second-generation cultivator but also a second-generation rich kid. He and the Dragon Girl often ate this as a snack. After all, it only cost a few hundred spirit stones to buy, which was not expensive.

It was precisely because it wasn't particularly valuable to him that he didn't carry it with him. Since suppressing the Wuyue River, he hadn't had time to return to Taishui to find medicinal pills and tonics. Zhao Qing's eager offer made it hard for him to refuse—he really needed this!

"Since you are so kind, I will gladly accept your offer. The Taiyin Pearl is indeed of great use to me now!"

Huai Ren could tell that Zhao Qing genuinely wanted to befriend him. Even though he didn't understand why she was so eager, he couldn't refuse someone who was smiling, especially since she had helped him so much at the last minute. So, he opened his mouth, sucked several Taiyin essences into his mouth, chewed them a few times like candy, and swallowed them. Then, while absorbing the Taiyin essence in his stomach, he asked in a friendly manner, "However, one cannot accept something for nothing. May I ask what you seek, my friend? Please speak freely!"

"Sigh! I don't really have a concept of it either!"

Zhao Qing scratched her head somewhat awkwardly.

Her request was quite straightforward: she wanted to increase the favorability of the Tai Shui Dragon King's son, the future Wu Yue Dragon King—and perhaps even, in the future, she could orchestrate some kind of "diplomatic strategy" like establishing diplomatic relations between Chang'an City and the Wu Yue Dragon Palace! But she couldn't just say it out loud, could she? Besides, this wasn't a game at all, and the so-called "favorability" wasn't something that could be quantified! "Uh, if this works, I'll send you some more later..." Zhao Qing said, then hesitated, thinking that if she really forced them to give them away, it might make the disciples of the Tai Yin Sect seem too cheap. It would be better to exchange gifts to show genuine friendship, so she tentatively said, "But if you feel that's not appropriate, how about this? The world we Tai Yin Sect disciples live in doesn't have dragons. If you really think about it, you're the first dragon I've ever seen! So do you have any shed scales or anything like that? Give me one as a souvenir, okay?"

As Zhao Qing spoke, fearing the other party might misunderstand, she quickly added, "If your dragon race doesn't have anything like molting during cultivation, and scales don't naturally fall off, or if this request is particularly offensive to you, then forget it! I don't know about your dragon race's cultural customs! Just saying, just saying, haha..."

"I wouldn't be offended..."

Whether it was Zhao Qing's imagination or not, Huai Ren seemed to have an embarrassed look on his dragon face. He said, "Because the scales, bones, and even blood of the dragon race are considered extremely valuable spiritual materials among humans, many of our clan's younger members who are short of money will secretly sell their dragon scales and blood..."

Zhao Qing was startled and asked with some worry, "Ah! Won't you be hunted down by some greedy cultivators?"

Could it be that there's some kind of grudge between the dragon race and the human race?
She immediately became worried.

If there is any discord between the two tribes, it will be very detrimental to Chang'an's future diplomatic efforts!

"This... surely no human cultivator is so overconfident... Even a young dragon that's not yet capable of fighting is already at the Golden Core stage of a human, not to mention that a young dragon wouldn't appear alone. If it's an adult dragon, even if its cultivation is weak, it's at least equivalent to a Nascent Soul stage of a human cultivator. As for me, if we're talking about cultivation, I'm probably already at the Deity Transformation stage. My sister is only one step away from achieving immortality, which is what you humans often call a celestial body!"

Huai Ren expressed his views tactfully, and also introduced the relevant market prices that surprised Zhao Qing even more: "Moreover, the prices of these things are not high on the market. Even the most precious dragon bones are only a few hundred spirit stones per kilogram. It's not enough to make human cultivators risk their lives to confront the dragon race head-on..."

"Several hundred spirit stones per pound!?"

Zhao Qing was so shocked by the price that she almost bit her tongue!
Who sells rare medicinal materials by weight?!

"But, but, if we really consider this dragon bone, isn't it your dragon clan's... um... corpse? Aren't you angry that it's being sold as a spiritual material?"

"Why are you angry?" Huai Ren asked calmly, his eyes filled with doubt, as he spoke of the "dragon clan customs" that made Zhao Qing even more terrified: "When we dragons die, we are buried with dragon pearls. As for dragon bones... we use them to craft magical artifacts... Actually, we use bones from all races, not just dragon bones. My father once had a magical artifact made from a human skull, but he later gave it to my mother. Besides, that artifact was too brittle and broke several times! Human bones are just not as sturdy as dragon bones..."

As Huai Ren spoke, he even shook the huge dragon head in disdain.

Zhao Qing gasped, "Hiss... Your dragon race is so... so wild..."