I flew on a sword at the magic academy

Just then, the Ninth Princess suddenly cried out in surprise. In the blink of an eye, the little dragon appeared on the Ninth Princess's shoulder, tightly gripping her Buddhist robe and refusing to let go.

Two pairs of bright, watery eyes met, blinking and fluttering, both with innocent and bewildered expressions.

"Ninth Princess, be careful!"

"Your Highness, get out of the way! Don't let that beast hurt you!"

A group of people nearby shouted. The Ninth Princess was the golden branch and jade leaf of the Great Xia Dynasty. If anything happened to her here, they would inevitably be angered by the emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty.

The Ninth Princess blinked her big eyes as she looked at the little guy hanging on her shoulder.

The little one blinked its bright eyes and met the Ninth Princess's gaze. Sensing no malice from her, it boldly moved closer to her snow-white swan neck, then lingered there, looking pitifully at the unfriendly expressions of the crowd around it.

Jiang Yue opened her arms wide, grinned at the little guy, and said, "Good boy, come back to Mommy quickly, Mommy promises not to scold or hit you anymore."

She was genuinely afraid that the little guy might accidentally hurt the Ninth Princess. After all, she was now a member of the Great Xia Dynasty, and if anything happened to the Ninth Princess, she would definitely be held responsible.

But the little guy just turned his head away and didn't even glance at her.

"Little cutie, why don't you come home with me? My family has lots of spirit stones for you to eat," the Ninth Princess said with a grin to the little dragon on her shoulder.

"Prince Xiang, this little fellow seems to get along very well with Ninth Princess. Why don't we sell it to him?" the Third Prince said at this moment. As the elder brother, he would naturally try his best to satisfy his younger sister's preferences.

"I need to think about it," Jiang Yue replied politely. She had received the same question countless times before, but she never responded.

She took out a pure, high-grade spirit stone from her storage ring, waved it in her hand, and coaxed the little dragon, "Good boy, hurry back to your mother, and your mother will give you something good to eat."

The little dragon sniffed hard, staring longingly at the high-grade spirit stone in Jiang Yue's hand, its mouth practically watering.

But when it thought of Jiang Yue scolding it for being wasteful and saying she would slap it to death, it angrily waved its little paws, turned its head to the side, and ignored her.

"Hey! You swallowed my entire Holy Spirit Stone in one gulp, and I can't even have a temper?" Jiang Yue put away the high-grade spirit stone in her hand, ready to fight back.

"That's Little Darling's Holy Spirit Stone. It can eat it whenever it wants. Why are you being mean to it?" Princess Jiu said, wrinkling her delicate nose.

"Your Highness, we must speak reasonably. That Holy Spirit Stone, including this little one, was cut from the stone by me. I hold the power of discourse. How can you say that a No. 1 rare treasure belongs to a No. 2 rare treasure?"

Jiang Yue was both amused and exasperated. She looked at the little dragon again and warned in a low voice, "I cut you out of the stone with my own hands, so you're practically my mother, right? Don't betray me, or I'll catch you and stew you into broth."

"How dare you!" Upon hearing this, the Ninth Princess immediately became displeased, glaring at Jiang Yue with her large eyes and angrily saying, "You're not allowed to hurt my little darling! Otherwise, I'll have my Third Brother beat you!"

Jiang Yue touched her forehead, feeling a sudden headache.

She is now a member of the Great Xia Dynasty, and if the Ninth Princess uses her status to pressure her, she can only obediently accept it.

She also noticed the lewd look on the little Taotie's face, which looked like it was about to pounce on the little dragon and swallow it whole.

"Can you tell what kind of creature this little guy is? Is he really a dragon that's just one step away from transforming into a dragon?" Jiang Yue secretly asked the little Taotie.

She needed to determine what the little thing was before considering how to deal with it.

"No, it is not a dragon, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the ancient dragon race," said the little Taotie.

Jiang Yue listened with a face full of question marks. It was neither a well-cultivated dragon nor related to the ancient true dragon clan, so what exactly was this little guy?

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be the legendary Nine Transformations Ascending to Immortality Silkworm." As he said this, Little Taotie couldn't help but drool onto the ground.

"Nine Transformations Ascending to Immortality Silkworm?" Jiang Yue looked at the little dragon with surprise and doubt, muttering to herself as she pinched her chin, "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with silkworms at all."

"Don't get hung up on the word 'silkworm,' the key is 'nine transformations.' Legend has it that this kind of silkworm will undergo nine transformations in its lifetime, and each transformation is a new life, so its form will naturally change accordingly. It is said that after completing the ninth transformation, it is not far from ascending to immortality," Little Taotie explained earnestly.

"Ascension to immortality? Is that really possible?" Jiang Yue was shocked.

"If there really is such a thing as the path to immortality, then the most likely being in this world to become an immortal is definitely the Nine Transformations Ascending Silkworm. As for whether it can actually succeed, no one has ever seen it with their own eyes. Anyway, that's what my father said back then."

"So, which transformation has this little guy undergone now?"

"It should be the third transformation, right? It seems that the third transformation is the dragon form," the little Taotie pondered.

As far as it knew, the Nine Transformations Ascending to Immortality Silkworm was not a solitary creature; it had a race in ancient times, and most of its members' third transformation was into the form of a dragon.

"This is the third time it's changed already, no matter how I sell it, it feels like I'm losing money..."

That little guy feeds on spirit stones, and he swallowed even the rarest holy spirit stones without hesitation. Jiang Yue couldn't afford to raise this spendthrift.

But she felt it would be too much of a loss to just sell it like that.

That's a species that could potentially ascend to immortality, and it's already undergone its third transformation. Perhaps we can glean the secrets to becoming an immortal from it.

Based on this point alone, no matter how many spirit stones she sells, Jiang Yue feels that she is the one who is at a disadvantage.

She turned and walked towards the Wu family descendant. Not only did she also cut out a piece of Holy Spirit Stone, but she also brought with her a living creature that resembled a dragon. The outcome of this duel was already clear. She would collect her due first.

"A bet's a bet, so give it to me." Jiang Yue chuckled and took the Holy Spirit Stone and the amber containing a wisp of blood from a true dragon's bloodline from the Wu family heir's hand.

The Wu family heir's face was extremely grim. He had thought victory was assured, but this was the unexpected outcome.

The feeling of falling from the mountaintop to the bottom of the valley made him feel terrible, and he even had the wicked thought of killing someone to steal their treasure.

However, everyone present was of high status, and with so many eyes watching, he couldn't afford to act recklessly.

Moreover, Jiang Yue is now a vassal king of the Great Xia Dynasty. If he dares to kill Jiang Yue in Tai'an City, he will have no chance of returning to the Wu family alive.

Weighing the pros and cons, he could only grit his teeth and clench his fists, watching helplessly as Jiang Yue took away the two rare treasures he had cut out.

Jiang Yue tossed the crystal-clear amber containing a wisp of blood from a true dragon's ancestor to Little Taotie, something she had promised it beforehand, and naturally couldn't break her word.

Then she turned around, weighing the Holy Spirit Stone in her hand, and tempted the little dragon, "My dear, this Holy Spirit Stone is so big, do you want to eat it? If you want to eat it, come to your mother."

Before the words were finished, with a "whoosh," the little dragon, unable to resist the temptation of the Holy Spirit Stone, transformed into a golden light and rushed over.

It was so fast that it was impossible to catch its shadow with the naked eye, but Jiang Yue was prepared and took the wine gourd hanging from her waist with her other hand.

As the stopper of the gourd was pulled out, a sudden gust of wind arose, and a powerful force devoured everything like a whale gulping down water. The tall ancient ginkgo trees around were uprooted and sucked into the gourd.

But with a flash of golden light, the little dragon was unaffected by the gourd's devouring power and flew safely back to the Ninth Princess's side.

The whole process happened in the blink of an eye, and it was over before many people could even react.

Jiang Yue, looking utterly defeated, put away the Holy Spirit Stone, picked up the wine gourd, and gulped down a large mouthful of wine, secretly grinding her teeth and thinking, "Once this little guy gets on his guard, it won't be easy to catch him again."

Unbeknownst to anyone, the White Ghost also arrived silently at the scene, standing outside the crowd, staring thoughtfully at the little dragon beside the Ninth Princess.

His body was emaciated, and he was still wearing that old, faded, and somewhat tattered Taoist robe.

Noticing his sharp gaze, the little dragon darted behind the Ninth Princess's neck, only revealing half its head, its bright, intelligent eyes cautiously peeking at the White Ghost Seeking Life.

"Don't be afraid, my little darling. I won't let anyone hurt you," the Ninth Princess said softly.

At this moment, everyone else also noticed the arrival of the White Ghost, and their faces showed tension.

"The White Ghost is here... Why is this guy here too?"

"When did he arrive in Tai'an City? Why didn't I receive any notification?"

The White Ghost's Revenge—a name that strikes fear into the hearts of all—was now being used by the very person in question, and the noise of the scene gradually subsided.

Even the ancient monsters at the ancestral level silently closed their mouths and stopped making a sound, showing great fear of the White Ghost's life-taking.

The Third Prince shielded the Ninth Princess behind him, staring intently at the White Ghost Seeking Life, secretly gathering the Imperial Dragon Qi within his body onto his arms, ready to strike at any moment.

Ignoring the strange looks around him, Bai Guishou stared at the dragon for a while, then looked up at the cloudless sky.

"Even snakes, pythons, dragons, and serpents, after transforming into dragons, is there still a path?" he muttered to himself, looking up at the sky.

At this moment, among everyone present, apart from Jiang Yue and Xiao Taotie who knew the inside story, everyone else believed that it was a dragon that had achieved cultivation and was about to transform into a dragon, including Bai Guisuoming.

The evolutionary path of snakes, pythons, dragons, and jiaos is remarkably similar to their cultivation path.

However, for the lesser ones, once they reach the Dragon Transformation stage, it seems they have reached the end of the road, while the latter still has an elusive path to immortality that drives countless people to strive for it.

The White Ghost Seeking Life doubts whether there truly is a way to become an immortal. Why, after so many years, has no one been able to confirm that they have truly become an immortal?

Is the so-called path to immortality truly achievable, or merely an unrealistic fantasy of the ancient sages?

Jiang Yue wanted to go and pay her respects to this ruthless person, but as soon as she took a step, the other party vanished from the spot in a flash, coming and going without a sound.

Jiang Yue felt embarrassed. She had originally wanted to have a few words with this ruthless character in front of so many people, to let them know that she also had powerful backers. However, the other party left so decisively, without giving her the chance at all.

"Your Highness, I've already ordered a banquet to be prepared. How about we have a drink together later?"

"Ignore that old geezer. I've already made a reservation at Zuixianlou. We'll have a good meal together later."

After the White Ghost left, the once quiet island suddenly became lively and noisy again, with a group of old monsters vying to win him over.

Of course, it wasn't just Jiang Yue; the Wu family descendants also received invitations from various forces.

People with profound expertise and skills in the field of observing stones and exploring spirits are respected guests wherever they go in the desolate land of Huangzhou.

"Fairy Jiang, what do you plan to do with this little dragon? Do you want our Liyue Temple to auction it off for you?" Tantai Jing walked over.

Jiang Yue shook her head and said, "It's a living creature after all. I feel like I'm losing out no matter how much I sell it for."

"So, what does Fairy Jiang plan to do?" Tantai Jing asked curiously.

"This little guy eats too much, I can't afford to keep him around, so I've decided to rent him out."

"How do you plan to rent it?" The Third Prince asked, leading the Ninth Princess over.

"Well..." Jiang Yue pondered for a moment, stroking her chin, and said, "Five million high-grade spirit stones a year."

Upon hearing that the annual rent would cost five million high-grade spirit stones, the people around couldn't help but curse Jiang Yuexin for being greedy.

"Five million high-grade spirit stones a year, Prince Xiang really has a clever plan."

Jiang Yue smiled and said, "Whether you rent or not is entirely up to you. It's a matter of mutual consent. If you think it's too expensive, then you don't have to rent it."

She receives a stable income of five million high-grade spirit stones every year, which is the maximum profit she can imagine.

"Five million high-grade spirit stones a year, I'll rent it." A strong voice came from outside the crowd, and everyone turned around in response.

The newcomer was a middle-aged man dressed in luxurious silks and satins, wearing a flat crown. He was tall and imposing, with a deep and imposing imperial dragon aura flowing around him, making him appear divine and extraordinary.

"Uncle?!" The Third Prince and the Ninth Princess were both surprised and quickly stepped forward to greet him, showing great respect to the newcomer.

The middle-aged man nodded, gesturing for the two to stand behind him, and then stepped forward.

The natural pressure emanating from him made everyone present look uncomfortable, feeling as if they couldn't breathe.

This was an absolutely terrifying being, so much so that even the disfigured old man who was responsible for guarding the place frowned and could not face him calmly.