Gao Wu: I became the minor villain that the protagonist was about to destroy.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

During these three days, Ye Ming was not idle. He carefully placed the Dragon Phoenix Wood in the underground secret chamber of the Long family and set up several protective barriers to ensure that nothing went wrong.

Afterwards, I had a brief exchange with each of the nine team leaders, and we shared in detail the background information, known clues, and subsequent search directions for the three materials.

On the morning of the third day, Ye Ming stood in front of the teleportation array at the Long family manor.

Sui perched on his left shoulder, while the fledgling phoenix perched on his right. Sui glanced at the crimson-gold phoenix, a hint of displeasure in his voice: "I mean... it's one thing to bring this egg, but to take this bald chicken to the Mountain and Sea Realm? To the Dragon Clan's territory? Taking a phoenix to the Dragon Clan's lair? Do you think it has too long a life?"

Chi immediately retorted, "None of your business! I can go wherever I want! Besides, with your malnourished appearance, you'd only embarrass the dragon race!"

"Who are you calling malnourished! You little brat, you haven't even grown all your feathers yet, and you dare to lecture your grandpa Sui!"

"Alright, alright." Ye Ming reached out to stop the two from arguing, then turned his head to look at Chi on his right shoulder. "This is an investigation, there will definitely be a place where he is needed. The Dragon Emperor won't hold a grudge against a newborn phoenix."

Upon hearing this, Chi immediately raised his head and said, "See? I know what happened back then. You little flea don't know anything. Shut your mouth."

Sui leaned on his shoulder, looking furious: "You!!"

Ye Ming shook his head, not wanting to pay attention to the two anymore. He stepped into the teleportation portal, and with a flash of light, Ye Ming's figure disappeared into the teleportation array.

After the familiar feeling of weightlessness subsided, the scene before him suddenly changed. The majestic Dragon Abyss City reappeared in his sight. The dragon guards on the city wall had clearly recognized him and did not stop him, but instead nodded to him from a distance.

Without delay, Ye Ming headed straight for the Dragon Emperor's Palace.

Inside the Dragon Emperor's Palace, the Dragon Emperor seemed to have anticipated his arrival and was sitting on the dragon throne above the main hall. By the time Ye Ming arrived at the Dragon Emperor's Palace with the elders, the Dragon Emperor was the only one left in the entire hall.

"You're here, please have a seat."

Ye Ming didn't stand on ceremony and sat down on a chair on the side of the hall, getting straight to the point: "Senior Dragon Emperor, I've come here today to discuss a few important matters with you."

The Dragon Emperor nodded, signaling him to continue.

Then Ye Ming told the Dragon Emperor about his serious injuries, the dragon egg, and what the dragon soul had told him.

After listening to Ye Ming's account, the Dragon Emperor remained silent for a moment, a complex expression flashing in his eyes.

When she looked at Ye Ming, she also saw the little phoenix on his shoulder.

"Young Phoenix? You've got some nerve, bringing the Dragon Clan's blood feud to Dragon Clan territory. Aren't you afraid I'll wipe him out?"

Ye Ming gently stroked the young phoenix's back feathers and replied calmly, "To be honest, he is a fire phoenix that survived tens of thousands of years ago. However, due to some reasons, he was accidentally pulled into the secret realm. He knows some things from tens of thousands of years ago, so I brought him here."

After looking at the fledgling phoenix for a while, the Dragon Emperor understood something. "It must be a secret technique of the Phoenix Clan."

Ye Ming nodded. "Yes, that's the only way to bring him out."

The Dragon Emperor paused, not taking the fire phoenix matter to heart. "Bring out that dragon egg so I can take a look."

With a wave of his hand, Ye Ming caused the dragon egg to float in the air. With a wave of his hand, the Dragon Emperor slowly sent the dragon egg toward his palm.

Touching the shell of the dragon egg, a slight vibration came from inside, which made the Dragon Emperor pause in surprise. "There really is a life force, although it is extremely weak. When I studied it back then, there was absolutely no movement from it."

"Are you sure it was nurtured with phoenix fire?"

Ye Ming nodded: "Yes. Although the changes are very subtle, the patterns on the eggshell are indeed clearer than before, and there is a faint sign of life inside."

The Dragon Emperor was still somewhat incredulous. "Tens of thousands of years ago, the Dragon Emperor used a secret technique of the Phoenix Clan to turn himself into an egg."

"Could it be that there really is some hidden story behind what happened back then...?"

The Dragon Emperor pondered for a moment, then shook his head helplessly, clearly not understanding the reasoning behind it. He then returned the dragon egg to Ye Ming.

"Since it's starting to change in your hands, then you should continue to keep it. Perhaps only in your hands can it truly hatch its first day."

Ye Ming put the dragon egg back into his storage space, then said solemnly, "Senior Dragon Emperor, I have come here today to ask you about something even more important."

"You mean the Zerg invasion I just mentioned?"

Ye Ming nodded, his gaze fixed on the Dragon Emperor. "As far as I know, tens of thousands of years before the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity, the Mountain and Sea Realm experienced an invasion by extraterrestrial creatures. However, this history was completely destroyed during the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity, and no one knows the specifics of what happened back then. I would like to ask Senior Dragon Emperor—do you know any relevant clues?"

The Dragon Emperor remained silent for a long time.

The atmosphere in the main hall became heavy. Sui and Chu Feng also sensed the heavy atmosphere and fell silent in unison.

After a long silence, the Dragon Emperor spoke slowly, his voice unusually deep: "That period of history... I do know some of it."

Ye Ming's brow twitched slightly, but he didn't rush to ask any further questions. Instead, he waited quietly for the Dragon Emperor to continue.

The Dragon Emperor's gaze became distant and profound, as if piercing through the barriers of time and returning to that distant era: "That was about 3 years before the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity erupted. At that time, a huge spatial rift appeared in the far north of the Mountain and Sea Realm."

"On the other side of the rift, a large number of creatures emerged—they were unlike any living beings we had ever seen, devoid of intelligence and emotion, possessing only a pure, insatiable desire for destruction."

"Initially, the various races did not take this matter seriously, regarding it as a small-scale anomaly in the secret realm, and dispatched several patrol teams to deal with it. However, those patrol teams were completely wiped out, with no survivors."

"Afterwards, all races realized the seriousness of the matter. The Dragon Clan, Phoenix Clan, and Qilin Clan—the three dominant races of the Mountain and Sea Realm at that time—joined forces for the first time to fight against the creatures that emerged from the rifts, together with all other races."

That war lasted a full century.

The Dragon Emperor's voice carried an undisguised weariness and heaviness: "In the century-long war, more than half of the creatures in the Mountain and Sea Realm perished. The three dominant races were severely weakened, and countless smaller races were completely wiped out in that war."

"In the end, we paid a heavy price to drive those creatures away. The dragon race lost dozens of dragon emperors, the phoenix race lost dozens of phoenix lords, and the qilin race was almost wiped out. Even those who survived were seriously injured and never recovered, eventually disappearing from the stage of history."

"In order to prevent the invasion of creatures again, all races decided to seal the spatial rift with a seal set up by the combined efforts of all races, and finally completely sealed it off."

"After the war, all races were severely weakened, and the trust between them was completely destroyed in the century-long war. The relationship between the Dragon Clan and the Phoenix Clan began to crack, with each accusing the other of conserving strength and refusing to fight with all their might. The rift widened, and finally, tens of thousands of years later, the Dragon Clan and the Phoenix Clan completely broke out for unknown reasons."