If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 1333 One Day the Dragon Was Slain, the World Shocked
"What, the son of the White Emperor?"

Lu Wan took a few more steps closer and looked around. Sure enough, she saw obvious signs of a fight.

A large locust tree broken in two, a bottomless pit, and a messy forest.

He even noticed the bloodstains on the edge of the pit.

But the giant python's corpse was gone.

"Was there a white snake here before? Where did it go?"

Meng Qi said quietly, "Do you know who that white snake is? It was the son of the White Emperor, but it was killed by some unknown dragon. Its body has already been taken away by its mother, and only resentment remains here."

This humble Taoist priest is performing a ritual to help its departed soul find peace.

These words weren't taught to him by Xiaoyu. He wasn't a time traveler either, and he didn't know the story of "Emperor Gaozu slaying the white snake."

But he still said it this way because he was telling the truth, only his words contained a hidden meaning.

Lu Wan didn't understand the hidden meaning and asked with a doubtful look, "Daoist, I understand the principle of 'those who see it get a share'."

If you need the flesh of the spirit snake for alchemy, our eldest brother is always generous and will give you all the flesh and blood of the spirit snake.

But you can't try to fool us with this kind of nonsense!

Meng Qi sighed, "If you had come sooner, or if you were more perceptive, you would have been able to sense the lingering resentment and unwillingness here."

He had been smashing the basin and crying at the grave for almost half an hour, which had resolved most of the resentment.

Lu Wan squinted and asked, "If that white snake is the son of the White Emperor, why has it come here?"

Meng Qi said, "Its fate is sealed; it's time for it to come here and receive a sword strike."

"I think you, you thieving Taoist priest, deserve to take a sword. Lu Wan made it clear to you that if you wanted the spirit snake meat, I could give it to you for free, so why are you still spouting nonsense?"

"Do you really think we're fools, that we don't know you've coveted that python?" Zhou Ke shouted.

"Zhou Ke, how dare you be so rude!" Lu Wan scolded him, then bowed to the old Taoist priest in apology, and asked, "Just now, the Taoist priest said that he didn't know who killed the White Emperor's son, and also said that the Hidden Dragon killed it. What is the reason for this?"

Meng Qi said, "I don't know what just happened, but I know that the one who can kill the son of the White Emperor must possess the aura of a true dragon and be a hero who can participate in the struggle for supremacy and at least has the mandate of kings."

Ordinary people like you, even if you possess the martial prowess of a human immortal, will surely tremble with fear once you get close to the son of the White Emperor.

He couldn't even stand steadily, and it was difficult for him to move even slightly; he couldn't even draw his sword.

Only those who possess dragon energy can resist the dragon's might and slay the son of the White Emperor.

Lu Wan was both surprised and delighted. "It was my brother who killed the white snake! Daoist, could it be that my brother is destined to become a king?"

“Destiny is destiny, but destiny is not the same as fate, and it may not come true!” Meng Qi said tactfully.

"Thank you for your teachings, Daoist Master. I understand now." Lu Wan bowed again and invited, "My elder brother is Liu Ji, a famous figure from Pei County, no, from Sishui."

He was extremely hospitable and especially fond of Taoist masters.

Please, Taoist priest, step forward. Oh, Taoist priest, please wait a moment. Let me call Brother Ji to come and pay his respects to you.

Meng Qi remained noncommittal and continued chanting incantations as he performed the ritual.

Lu Wan turned around and muttered a few words to Zhou Ke.

Zhou Ke looked reluctant and glared at Meng Laodao with suspicious eyes several times, but in the end he still led his ten brothers back the way they came.

However, they did not find Liu Ji and the others. Instead, they saw lightning flashing continuously in the sky more than ten miles away.

After searching for a while longer, Zhou Ke still couldn't find Liu Ji and had to return to the woods where they had been before.

But the woods were empty; the old Taoist priest was gone, and Lu Wan and the others were nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Ke felt uneasy and, without saying a word, immediately led his brothers to take a shortcut back to their old lair—the cave that "Wu Ya Zi" had previously opened up halfway up the main peak of Mangdang.

"You scared me to death! I was worried that the old Taoist priest was some kind of evil spirit and would eat you all up!"

Zhou Ke finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Lu Wan and the others inside the cave.

"What's wrong with you? I told you to call Brother Ji, and I've been waiting for ages, but you still haven't come back." Lu Wan looked annoyed. "That Taoist priest is obviously a hermit, probably even a great immortal."

We had some connection with Brother Ji and with him, and now we've let it slip away—it's such a pity.

“Brother Ji never said he would stay and wait for us. He led the rest of the brothers to continue searching for the Immortal Abode.” Zhou Ke turned his head and looked at the sky. It was still afternoon, and there were at least two hours until dark.

"What happened to you?" He turned back and asked Lu Wan, "I went back to look for you, but you and the old Taoist priest were nowhere to be found."

Lu Wan said, "You left less than half an hour ago, and the old Taoist said that the ceremony for the son of the White Emperor was over and he was leaving."

I pleaded desperately, but he ignored me. I could only follow behind with my brothers.

After walking several hundred feet, he suddenly vanished. He's clearly a powerful immortal!

I shouted a few times in the woods and even knelt down and kowtowed, but it was no use.

Left with no other choice, I had to lead my men back.

"I do believe you; that old Taoist priest is definitely not a charlatan. But he's eccentric, sinister, and spouts nonsense. It's best not to get too close to him; keep your distance."

Think about our sister-in-law.

It is said that the Taoist priest was also dignified and otherworldly, and looked like a virtuous person.

A cultivator with great magical power could be a good person like Master Wuyazi, or a wicked cultivator like Master Shi.

"We shouldn't blindly worship a celestial being just because they have magical powers," Zhou Ke said earnestly.

Lu Wan said irritably, "Didn't you hear him say that Brother Ji has the aura of a dragon and will become a king in the future? That's nonsense!"

Zhou Ke thought to himself, "This is a common trick used by sorcerers. How can they deceive people without saying nice things?"

But seeing the burning gazes of his brothers around him, he swallowed his thoughts back.

“That’s definitely the truth. We already knew it without him saying it. Master Wuyazi is the real immortal, a true sage. He predicted Ji Ge’s fate long ago: he is the reincarnation of Tian Kui, destined to make a name for himself in this chaotic world.”

This was to stabilize the morale of Liu Ji's troops, and it was also the truth in his heart.

The group discussed for a while longer, and as darkness fell, Liu Ji finally returned with his brothers.

"Brother Ji, you killed the son of the White Emperor, and his mother is crying! There is also a great immortal who is responsible for the salvation of the White Emperor's son's soul."

Brother, you were able to easily kill the son of the White Emperor. The Taoist priest said you are definitely not an ordinary person.

I reckon that the one who could kill the son of the White Emperor must at least be the son of a Great Emperor.

"I think Brother Ji is the son of the Jade Emperor!" Lu Wan said excitedly.

After listening to his brothers' story, Liu Ji was both surprised and regretful. "Alas, north of the marshland, a black dragon is undergoing tribulation. Heavenly thunder is terrifying, blood stains the deep ravine, and the sky collapses and the earth cracks."

I took my brothers to see it, and we even picked up a few scales, which might be enough to make a set of armor.

The old immortal who missed the ceremony to pay homage to the son of the White Emperor.

From that day on, the story of Liu Ji, the son of the Jade Emperor, beheading the son of the White Emperor began to spread among Liu Ji's acquaintances.

It wasn't until they encountered a true Taoist practitioner who understood the "Theory of the Five Elements and Their Cycles" that the story was revised again, changing "Liu Ji was the son of the Jade Emperor" to "Liu Ji was the son of the Yan Emperor".

Meanwhile, when Wu Yazi returned to the cave where Xi Juan and the others were temporarily staying, Meng Qi also smiled and recounted what had happened next.

"Why do you say I am the mother of the White Emperor's son? I feel I am worthy of being the White Emperor's mother." Wu Yazi was not happy.

Meng Qi was taken aback for a moment, then said, "You really are a bit of a nutcase. The White Emperor is the spirit of the five elements in the Pangu world, a primordial deity. His mother is 'God of Heaven,' and you want to be 'God of Heaven'?"

"Don't worry, if the White Emperor were here, I would kneel down and kowtow, respectfully calling him 'Father'."

"What I mean is, if you're going to talk big and brag, why not go all the way?" Wu Yazi said. Meng Qi's expression twisted a few times before he said in a low voice, "I'm not talking big. Didn't you notice that your son was originally a black fish, but after being possessed by the essence of the Ancestral Dragon, his body was covered with white dragon scales?"
With China at the center, the Qin Dynasty is located in the west and belongs to the element of 'metal'.

According to the Yin-Yang school's theory of the Five Elements, the Qin dynasty revered the color white, inherited the mandate of heaven from the White Emperor, and was considered the son of the White Emperor.

Wu Yazi immediately said, "Of all the schools of thought, I have the least respect for the Yin-Yang School."

Like the Mo Sect, they learned only a little bit from the Xuan Sect.

Momen focuses on technology and is committed to improving people's lives; its technology has withstood the test of practice.

The Yin-Yang school is full of nonsense, even illogical, and cannot justify its own arguments.

The Qin Dynasty revered black and deep red; this superficial phenomenon is obvious and needs no further explanation.

I am the Grand Tutor of the Great Qin Dynasty, and no one understands the true nature of the Great Qin and the essence of the First Emperor better than me.

It has absolutely no connection with the Western spirits or the White Emperor.

Meng Qi shook his head and said, "What you understand is only the present Qin Dynasty. At the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, the Ying clan's dragon vein was not in the Qinling Mountains, but in Feiqiu, which is further west."

The Ying clan themselves had offered sacrifices to the White Emperor, writing sacrificial texts to thank the White Emperor for protecting the Ying clan and bestowing upon them the 'royal mandate'.

If you don't believe me, go back and ask the former kings of the Qin Dynasty. They believed that their destiny came from the White Emperor.

The Yin-Yang school's "Five Virtues of the Seasons" is like judging the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter by temperature rather than celestial phenomena.

It makes some sense, but it only scratches the surface and doesn't grasp the essence.

As the four seasons change, the 'Five Virtues' also keep changing.

The corresponding innate Five Elements changed at different stages of the Qin Dynasty.

Initially, the mandate of heaven for the Ying clan belonged to the metal element of the west, and was associated with the color white. As the Qin state expanded its territory eastward, conquering Guanzhong and westward beyond Tongguan, the 'Five Elements' changed sequentially, from metal to wood, and then to water.

Once the world is unified, all five virtues will be present, or only one or two will be lacking.

Now that a second ancestral dragon has emerged, the Ying clan's ancestral dragon naturally retreated from the 'Dragon Vein of the Divine Land' back to its original form as the 'Dragon of the Western Qin Region,' becoming the 'Son of the White Emperor' with white dragon scales.

"The Ying clan's dragon veins have also migrated."

Wu Yazi was like someone sneaking in the dark, seeing a spark flash by in front of him.

I vaguely saw something, but I couldn't make it out clearly.

Inspiration vanishes along with the firelight, impossible to grasp.

"Dragon veins are alive and can certainly migrate, migrating with people. The place where a dragon vein originates is often different from the place where it dies."

Because the place where Qianlong rose to power is not the same place as the capital of the country that dominated the world.

For example, during the Zhou Dynasty of the Ji clan, the phoenix initially sang on Mount Qi, indicating that the dragon vein resided there. Later, after King Wu successfully overthrew the Shang Dynasty, the dragon vein shifted to the vicinity of the Qinling Mountains. Still later, when the Zhou emperor moved the capital eastward to Luoyang, the dragon vein also moved eastward with him.

Meng Qi asked in confusion, "You've protected so many dragon veins, how come you don't even know this?"

“Of course I know. Being too familiar with the Qinling Ancestral Dragon has actually created a barrier to my understanding,” Wu Yazi said.

Meng Qi didn't think much of it and asked again, "Where did your dried blackfish go?"

"He completed the Dragon Transformation Tribulation and broke through to the 'Five-Clawed Heavenly Dragon' realm in one go. I then sent him back to the Jihe Water Palace."

Although he has now successfully transformed into a dragon, he is not very familiar with the supernatural powers of the dragon race.

In the West, there are many demon kings and monsters who hate me, so I might as well continue my secluded cultivation in the Jihe Water Palace.

"Once he masters the great supernatural power of the Heavenly River Vortex, he will be able to leave the Water Palace," Wu Yazi said.

After completing his dragon transformation, Black King Kong was full of fighting spirit and had an arrogant attitude of looking down on the world. He wanted to stay in the Central Plains and fight for his mother in the wild.

Yu Gan Niang didn't want a long-haired person to send off a black-haired person, so she updated the versions of "Dragon Transformation Tribulation" and "Forty-Nine Transformations of the Water Demon" and sent him back.

Once Black King Kong masters the great supernatural powers she taught him and is able to leave the Jihe Water Palace, he can officially assume the divine duty of "Black Dragon River God".

Even when faced with a terrifying enemy that he could not defeat, he could use the divine laws to escape back to the Jihe Water Palace.

"Ah, you really got a great deal. A mere black fish spirit with low talent has actually become the highest-level five-clawed heavenly dragon, and is destined to leave a significant mark on human history—the 'Dharma body' of the first ancestral dragon to be slain."

Although he only lent his body, he will surely continue to gain humanitarian faith as the story spreads.

In the future, by "using the false to refine the true," he might actually be able to transform into the "Son of the White Emperor."

"If the Ao clan knew about this, they would be green with envy," Meng Qi sighed.

Wu Yazi said, "What's the use of being jealous about this? I'm definitely going to keep the benefits for my own people."

Meng Qi said, "They really have reason to complain. All the benefits that come from Shenzhou and are advantageous to the Dragon Clan can only belong to the Ao Clan of the Four Seas."

This is a rule protected by divine law!
The Jade Emperor, with his golden word, granted their request.

For example, the Heavenly Court spent a considerable amount of money to get the position of the Dragon King of Huai River back from you, and then turned around and gave it away to Ao Guang, the Dragon King of the East Sea, for nothing.

"Your adopted son doesn't even have the blood of the Ao clan's dragon race; he's just a barbarian black fish."

Wu Yazi was speechless. "People are divided into barbarians and savages, and blackfish are also divided into 'fish from superior lands' and 'fish from barbarian lands'?"

Just as Meng Qi was about to speak, a beam of light suddenly flew in from the sky, stopped abruptly in front of him, and transformed into a rune that shimmered with spiritual light.

"It's a message talisman; someone is looking for me."

Meng Qi shattered the rune with a single grab, the spiritual light dissipated in his palm, and the information flowed into his heart.

"The First Emperor of Qin has been beheaded, and the celestial phenomena have not yet shown any obvious changes, but fate has already been altered. Fuqiu Gong and the others have sensed it and calculated that the change is related to you and me, and they have come to ask me about it."

Meng Qi looked at Wu Yazi and hesitated, "Is there anything you need to hide? I may not be able to hide it all, but I will try my best to cover it up for you."

Wu Yazi countered, "Have I done anything shady?"

"Since you're so carefree, I feel a little more at ease too." Meng Qi leaped into the air and disappeared into the horizon.

"What are you all doing here?" Meng Qi thought it was just a few familiar people like Fuqiu Gong looking for him, but he didn't expect to see a group of great immortals when he arrived above the main peak of Mangdang.

Forty or fifty.

Among them were near-Daluo masters such as Fuqiu Gong, Luding Xian, and Yangbo Sanren. Even Li Futu "endured humiliation" to come to the scene.

There are also powerful Golden Immortals from the Dragon-Supporting Court, and even a group of celestial deities, such as the Big Dipper Star Lord.

They all rolled up their sleeves, their eyes gleaming, sometimes looking up at the stars in the night sky, sometimes looking down at the Mangdang Mountains, and sometimes staring intently at the direction of the cave below.

Meng Qi had been wandering around Mangdang for the past year and immediately recognized this place as the lair of "bandit Liu Ji".

—They indeed went straight to Liu Ji, who had slain the dragon.

"Do all of you great gods also intend to join the calamity and support the Dragon Court?" he asked in confusion.

"If you don't support the Dragon Court or enter the calamity, does that mean you can't care about the major events that shock the immortals and gods of the Three Realms?"
"Even the First Emperor has been slain. Which deity in the Three Realms is not terrified?" said the Star Lord of the Big Dipper.

"Fellow Daoist Meng, is Liu Ji below the one who slew the dragon?" Yangbo Sanren asked, pointing downwards.

“It is indeed him,” Meng Qi nodded.

"The master of the aura of the emperor in the southeast is actually a rogue and a bandit from the mountains?"

"Ah, you can't say that. Although Liu Ji is a bandit and has fallen on hard times, he is generous and magnanimous, with the demeanor of an elder and the spirit of a hero. However, his inner strength is indeed lacking, and he doesn't look like a ruler at all!"

"Even after beheading the Ancestral Dragon, the aura above his head didn't even form a seven-colored canopy. That's not normal!"

The great gods and immortals discussed it among themselves, most of them finding it strange, and quite a few even expressed their disdain for Liu Ji.

(End of this chapter)