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

At this point, the Dragon Emperor slowly closed his eyes, his voice tinged with a deep sigh: "That history was buried in the flames of war. Later generations only know about the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity, but few know that tens of thousands of years before the Dragon-Phoenix Calamity, the Mountain and Sea Realm experienced an even greater catastrophe."

"I only learned some of the secrets from some old, tattered scrolls."

After listening, Ye Ming remained silent for a long time before slowly asking, "Where is that seal now?"

The Dragon Emperor opened his eyes, his gaze solemn: "After I ascended to the Dragon Throne, I also learned those secrets from the tattered scrolls. After that, I ordered the Dragon Clan to search for the whereabouts of the seal throughout the entire Mountain and Sea Realm."

"Finally, we found the sealing array that was set up back then in the far north, but after tens of thousands of years of erosion, the power of the seal has gradually weakened. I personally check it every hundred years - the last time I checked it was about twenty years ago. The state of the seal is not optimistic."

"I tried to repair the seal, but no matter what materials I used, I couldn't repair the energy that had disappeared from the seal."

"According to my calculations, the energy of this seal will completely disappear in less than 10 years."

After listening to the Dragon Emperor's words, Ye Ming remained silent for a long time.

The hall was so quiet that only the faint crackling of the burning candles could be heard.

After a long silence, Ye Ming slowly spoke, his voice carrying a hint of solemnity: "Indeed, from all the information I have received, there will be a great catastrophe in 10 years."

The Dragon Emperor nodded: "Indeed. Ten years from now, if the seal completely fails, that spatial rift will reopen. At that time, those creatures will once again flood into the Mountain and Sea Realm—and there are already multiple spatial passages between the Mountain and Sea Realm and your human world. Once the Mountain and Sea Realm falls, your world will also be exposed to their military might."

Ye Ming took a deep breath and slowly exhaled: "Therefore, reinforcing the seal is the only way out."

"Theoretically, that's true." The Dragon Emperor's gaze held a hint of contemplation. "But those three materials you mentioned—Dragon Phoenix Wood, the Heart of the Earth Vein, and the Core of the Star—I've only ever read about them in ancient texts. You've already obtained the Dragon Phoenix Wood, but even in the Dragon Clan's records, there's no clear mention of the Heart of the Earth Vein and the Core of the Star."

Ye Ming nodded, showing no disappointment—he had expected this outcome. He pondered for a moment, then looked up at the Dragon Emperor: "Senior Dragon Emperor, I would like to go and take a look at the location of that seal."

The Dragon Emperor's brow twitched slightly: "You want to see the seal?"

"Hmm." Ye Ming nodded. "Since the seal was set up by the combined efforts of all races back then, I want to see its structure and state with my own eyes. Perhaps I can learn something from it, or find some clues about the Heart of the Earth Veins and the Core of the Stars."

The Dragon Emperor remained silent for a moment, then slowly stood up: "Very well. I was planning to check on the seal's status again soon. Since you're here, let's go together."

Ye Ming stood up, settled the young phoenix and Sui on his shoulder, and said with a firm gaze, "Then I'll trouble Senior Dragon Emperor to lead the way."

The Dragon Emperor nodded without saying anything more. With a wave of his hand, a spatial ripple spread throughout the hall. He stepped inside, with Ye Ming following closely behind.

After a brief moment of disorientation, the scene before my eyes suddenly changed. A biting wind, carrying ice and snow, rushed towards me, and before my eyes lay a vast white world—the sky was hazy gray, the earth was covered with a thick layer of ice and snow, and in the distance were undulating ice and snow-capped mountains. It seemed that only the sound of the wind and the howling of the snow remained between heaven and earth.

The far north.

Ye Ming exhaled a breath of white air, his gaze sweeping over the desolate and cold land. He could sense that the concentration of spiritual energy here was far lower than in other parts of the Mountain and Sea Realm, and there was a faint sense of oppression in the air—as if something was sleeping beneath this ice and snow.

Sui shrank his neck, his six thin legs clinging tightly to Ye Ming's collar: "This damn place... is much colder than Longyuan City."

Chi seemed quite adapted, even stretching its wings and letting out a contented low cry. Phoenixes belong to the fire element, but the phoenix clan's original rebirth power inherently contains the principle of yin and yang balance, so the extreme cold environment has little effect on it.

The Dragon Emperor walked in front, and the ice and snow under his feet automatically melted to create a path after he passed, only to freeze again behind them.

"Let's go, the seal is here."

After walking for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the Dragon Emperor stopped in front of a huge ice wall.

The ice wall soared into the clouds, its surface smooth as a mirror, reflecting the greyish-white light of the sky. At first glance, it was no different from the surrounding glaciers, but Ye Ming's Observation Haki keenly detected an extremely subtle anomaly—within the ice wall, there was an extremely weak yet extremely ancient energy fluctuation, like a sleeping heartbeat, slowly pulsating deep within the ice.

The Dragon Emperor raised his right hand and made a light, sweeping motion with his five fingers in front of the ice wall. A pale blue ripple spread across the surface of the ice wall, and then a crack slowly opened in the center of the ice wall, receding to both sides to reveal a deep, dark passage leading to the earth.

The Dragon Emperor stepped into the passage first, saying, "The seal is below."

Ye Ming took a deep breath and followed the Dragon Emperor's steps.

The passage was long, extending diagonally downwards, and the space became more open the further down one went. On the ice walls on both sides of the passage, ancient carvings began to appear—the style of these carvings was extremely primitive, the lines rough and powerful, depicting patterns that Ye Ming had never seen before: enormous, multi-legged, shelled creatures fighting with all kinds of living beings; a huge crack opened in the sky, from which countless dark shadows poured out; the earth burned, mountains and rivers were shattered, and life was ravaged.

Sui leaned on Ye Ming's shoulder, looking at the murals, his tone unusually solemn: "These murals... should be recording the hundred-year war that the Dragon Emperor spoke of."

Ye Ming didn't speak, but simply memorized the details of the murals.

After walking for about half an hour, the passage finally came to an end. The scene before them suddenly opened up—it was a huge underground space with a dome hundreds of feet high, and the four walls were covered with dense runes and array patterns, emitting a faint light.

In the very center of the underground space, a huge, circular sealing array floats.

The sealing array is about a hundred feet in diameter, and is made up of countless complex array patterns. It floats about three feet above the ground and rotates slowly.

The array pattern is a deep, dark gold color, but many areas have become dull and lackluster, and there are even obvious breaks and defects.

Beneath the seal lay a bottomless darkness—as if something was lurking, waiting, and watching from within that darkness.

The Dragon Emperor stood before the sealing array, his gaze fixed on the dim array patterns, his voice heavy: "When I last came to see it, the array patterns were about 70% intact. Now... I'm afraid less than 50% remains."