"Did I learn a fake Nine-Dragon Emperor Art, and the one the cowherd learned is the real thing?"
Lynn Ling felt a bit lost. The "Nine-Dragon Emperor Art" Quinn taught her belonged to the Ling family, but only included the opening form; everything after that went far beyond the scope of the Ling clan's Nine-Dragon Emperor Art—not just beyond, but surpassing it.
The most unsettling thing was, the Ling clan’s Nine-Dragon Emperor Art seemed like a branch evolved from the starting form, while the one Quinn passed on was the trunk—the branch was just one possible offshoot of the main method!
The primordial Nine-Dragon Emperor Art was like a seedling just breaking through the soil; the Ling family’s perfected Nine-Dragon Emperor Art was a snapped trunk that only grew a single branch, while Quinn’s version had grown into a full tree.
The Ling clan had refined the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art over generations, and by Emperor Evan’s era it finally reached perfection—but it had already hit its limit, with no way to dig out more potential.
But Quinn’s Nine-Dragon Emperor Art made her see limitless potential!
Still, how could the Ling clan’s tireless effort over so many generations be outdone by Quinn’s momentary "insight"?
Could he be another prodigy who appears only once every five hundred years?
Quinn, however, didn’t dwell on it. The "Nine-Dragon Emperor Art" he comprehended from the True Dragon Nest wasn’t complete either; he simply taught Lynn Ling what he’d figured out, as a kind of compensation to the Ling family.
As for the Imperial Disc, there was no way he’d return it to the Ling family. It was a treasure Crippled Joe had given him, and in the Great Ruins, once something is given, it’s never taken back.
Besides, the True Dragon Nest and the Imperial Disc are a matched pair—one can't work without the other. Even if the Ling family got the Imperial Disc, it wouldn’t help; only when the True Dragon enters the Nest can the complete Nine-Dragon Emperor Art be revealed.
After Quinn retrieved the Imperial Disc from the Dragon Nest, the flood-dragons and the Dragon-Qilin instantly felt the crushing pressure vanish. They all got up, gazing at Quinn with newfound awe.
Quinn ordered them to keep heading toward Heavenly Dragon Star Palace. Glancing at the Dragon Nest, a thought struck him and he smiled: "If you want to cultivate the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art, I know the perfect place. Lynn, come with me—let’s jump into this Dragon Nest." With that, he grabbed Lynn Ling’s hand and leaped inside.
Lynn Ling was startled—how could they jump into a bonsai rockery this small? But suddenly, she saw the "bonsai" beneath their feet growing larger and larger, and their bodies plummeting as if falling from thousands of zhang above.
The "bonsai" transformed into a vast space over twenty li wide!
Just the circumference of the ninth tier of the Dragon Nest alone was over ten li!
They had barely landed when a startled cry echoed overhead—Serena Yunxiang had jumped down after them. Only upon landing inside the True Dragon Nest did she realize it was a whole other world, and couldn’t help but marvel.
Lina the Spirit Fox saw the three vanish from the dragon’s back and hurried over, peering into the "bonsai." She saw Quinn and the others, now as tiny as ants, moving and talking as if they’d become part of the ornament.
Yet the three were still moving and speaking, though their voices sounded as if coming from dozens of li away—faint and indistinct.
The trio looked around, curious about everything. Quinn had entered the Dragon Nest before with the Dragon-Keeper Lord, but that time most of the Nest was flooded with magma, so he’d never seen its full interior.
This was the first time he’d truly seen the entire interior of the Dragon Nest.
Inside, the Dragon Nest was divided into nine layers. Each layer was filled with glowing pillars—some like stalactites, some resembling dragon fangs, others just columns. Strange rune patterns and shifting script flickered constantly across the ground and pillars, hinting at hidden mysteries.
Lynn Ling took a breath and instantly felt a surge of incredibly dense dragon qi flooding in, making her gasp in surprise.
The dragon qi here in the True Dragon Nest was far richer than in the Imperial Capital. Compared to the Nine Dragons qi there, this was worlds apart—the quality couldn’t even be compared!
The dragon qi here seemed even more advanced, vastly surpassing the Nine Dragons qi. After all, the Nine Dragons qi was formed by the convergence of nine dragon veins, but here, dragon qi from dozens of veins in both the Everpeace Empire and the Great Ruins gathered together—forming the True Dragon Lord’s own dragon qi!
"Cultivating here is much faster than in the capital!"
Lynn Ling circulated the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art Quinn had taught her, and immediately felt her cultivation surge—her yuanqi grew purer and stronger!
The Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra also contained a dragon-observing method. Serena Yunxiang tried it and felt wave after wave of dragon qi pouring in; in just moments, it was like she’d spent dozens of days in hard training—she was stunned.
If you could cultivate here for more than ten days, it’d be like training for decades outside. Without realm restrictions, your mastery of arts and divine powers would be unimaginable!
Even with realm restrictions, it was still extraordinary—absolutely a sacred site for cultivating dragon-system arts and divine powers.
"Too bad it’s not much use to me," Serena Yunxiang shook her head.
Her main cultivation was the Creation Chapter of the Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra, passed down from the Young Patriarch. The Young Patriarch perfected the Seven Creation Chapters and taught her all his insights. Quinn also taught her the entire Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra, except for the Grand Unification Art; even so, Serena Yunxiang was already one of the top talents of the younger generation.
Quinn was also absorbing dragon qi, but unlike Lynn Ling, who cultivated the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art, he was trying to fuse its body-refining section into his Overlord Three-Core Art.
The strength of the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art lay in its power, which rivaled the Overlord Three-Core Art, and in its formidable body-refining technique. The Overlord Three-Core Art lacked such a body-refining method, so it could be complemented by the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art.
Originally, Quinn had already fused Emperor Evan’s Nine-Dragon Emperor Art into his Overlord Three-Core Art, but the new insights he gained made the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art more complex. The dragon language and script were also different from the human ones, making fusion extremely difficult—even absorbing just the body-refining method was a challenge that couldn’t be completed quickly.
Quinn left Lynn Ling, who was meditating in the Dragon Nest, and took Serena Yunxiang out. As they flew out, their bodies gradually returned to normal size, and when their feet touched the ground, they felt no discomfort.
Quinn looked ahead and saw a stretch of ruined palaces—Heavenly Dragon Star Palace was a cluster of ancient buildings, with villages nestled among them. Above the palaces, gigantic stones, black, red, blue, and all colors, floated in the air like mountains.
These stones were riddled with holes, constantly colliding and sending showers of debris down like rain. The massive rocks in the sky were battered and pitted, but the falling fragments never struck the villages—only the outskirts.
The towering divine palaces of the past had become a field of ruins, yet they still sheltered the people living here.
Seeing the villagers in their rough fur clothing, Quinn felt a sense of kinship. Serena Yunxiang, however, blushed—these villagers wore fur shorts and vests even in winter, and several half-grown kids squatted down with half their backsides exposed, which was quite embarrassing.
"I was just like that when I was young!" Quinn the Cult Master exclaimed with excitement.
Serena Yunxiang couldn't help but imagine the dignified Cult Master squatting with half his backside exposed, and spat in embarrassment.
Quinn stepped forward, greeted an elder of the village, and asked about the exact location of the Starsea. After a while, he returned, full of excitement: "That elder said the Starsea is very dangerous—it keeps spraying out stars, and at night it’s dazzling! Let’s hurry over!"
Serena Yunxiang grumbled inwardly.
They led the herd of dragons to a vast gorge. At the bottom lay a deep, unfathomable abyss, but within its darkness countless points of light flickered—looking down from above, it truly resembled a starry sky, with those lights like stars overhead.
"So beautiful!"
Lina the Spirit Fox exclaimed excitedly, "It really looks like the night sky! There’s even a Milky Way!"
Serena Yunxiang felt a chill run down her spine. The galaxy in the Starsea Abyss really did resemble the one in the sky, but the "stars" here kept colliding like a boiling cauldron—clearly extremely dangerous!
Whoosh—
A strange, pitch-black wind blew out of the abyss, sending a “star” flying out. It was as big as a mountain, but didn’t fall to the ground—instead, it floated in midair.
Suddenly, another “star” shot out of the abyss. The two gigantic stones collided with a dull boom, unleashing a burst of power that made Serena Yunxiang’s heart tremble. She quickly said, "Cult Master! This Starsea isn’t a place for people of our realm—even those at the Divine Bridge Realm might never return if they enter!"
Don’t worry, we have a group of flood-dragons helping us. There won’t be any danger.
Quinn glanced at the Starsea Abyss, feeling a bit uneasy. "The Sunwell is far from here, at the center of the Great Ruins. But Crystal Blaze said their Sun-Herder Clan came out of the Starsea and returned to the Sunwell. Is there a passage in the Starsea that leads directly to the Sunwell?"
After thinking for a moment, he played the gold flute, controlling the flood-dragons to fly toward the Starsea. Serena Yunxiang braced herself for danger, then relaxed and shook her head, "If the stars crash into us, I won’t be able to stop them. I’d better see what the Cult Master can do."
Quinn carefully activated the Dragon-Controlling Mantra, steering clear of the stars as they approached the galaxy in the Starsea.
This was clearly underground, but it didn’t feel like it—instead, it was like another world.
It was as if they’d entered vast, deep outer space, surrounded by stars the size of mountains. Quinn looked back and saw the place they’d descended was a huge fissure, with no sign of the surface.
The dazzling stars shone in every color, and the star-river coiled like a whirlpool. Millions upon millions of so-called “stars” swirled in the vortex, constantly colliding, sending waves of power that sliced their faces like knives.
“Divine Dragon Shield!”
Quinn shouted, and the flood-dragons changed shape, linking tails and claws, heads down, forming a protective dome over the group to block the impact.
Quinn looked toward the center of the galaxy and saw a yin-yang fish pattern, like two giant wells. Countless stars circled the deep wells, and above them, there seemed to be two fissures.
That should be the surface of the Great Ruins, where the Sunwell and Moonwell are located!
Quinn was shocked. This Starsea wasn’t something artificially made, but rather like a miniature world—a world shrunk countless times!