Chapter 1203: Preparing to Go Home

He hadn’t expected Lan Xuanyu and the others to return so quickly. He couldn’t help but silently praise their cleverness. They’d won the championship, and the practical benefits wouldn’t be few. What was the point of staying on in Rising Dragon City to accept congratulations?

As soon as he heard Lan Xuanyu and the others had returned, he immediately came to visit, personally inquiring after their health, and brought many Heavenly and Earthly Treasures for Lan Xuanyu to heal his injuries. Lan Xuanyu “weakly” informed him that he had sustained severe injuries, and that his very foundation had been damaged—he would likely need to enter seclusion for a long period of recovery. During this time, he probably wouldn’t be able to receive visitors. Then he told Huang Daoqi about the idea of delaying the trip to the Dragon Realm.

Huang Daoqi was naturally overjoyed. What he feared most right now was Lan Xuanyu leaving Fenglong City—especially that “she” might have more contact with other families.

Having offended the Head was actually a good thing. Otherwise, if she’d become the Head’s successor, that thousand-year contract would be nothing but a piece of paper. Now that Lan was going into seclusion to heal, he wished Lan would take even longer. After all, the Huang family producing a Dragon Champion was already enough for him to be proud of.

Huang Daoqi told Lan Xuanyu to rest easy and recover. As for building the new Dragon Force Hall, he would handle everything personally and guarantee Lan Xuanyu’s satisfaction.

After the father and son left, Lan Xuanyu immediately said to Bai Xiuxiu, “Xiuxiu, make a trip to Elder Shu. Tell him we’re preparing to go home.”

“Go home?” Bai Xiuxiu’s eyes lit up, but she quickly frowned. “But what if they want you to go to the Dragon Realm? We can’t control the timing of that.”

Lan Xuanyu said, “Use the excuse of severe injuries that damaged your essence—say you’re going into seclusion to heal. We’ll deal with it after the recovery. After we go back this time, it’ll probably be a long time before we can return again, so even with some risk, we have to go back once. Bring all the plant-type soul beasts over, and bring our gains back too. The data we’ve accumulated over these months is enormous—it’s the best help we can give the Federation. After we return to Celestial Dragon Planet, we’ll be staying here for a long time, cultivating hard and striving for a breakthrough.”

Bai Xiuxiu said, “Alright. If it comes down to it, just have your servant tell them we’ve gone back to where we used to live. They don’t know exactly where we lived before anyway.”

“Mm.” Lan Xuanyu narrowed his eyes slightly. Now was the time—they had to go back. If they missed this opportunity, given his increasingly important status on Celestial Dragon Planet, disappearing for dozens of days would be nearly impossible.

…

The Rising Dragon Platform.

The eighteen Dragon Knights spread out, each standing at a different position on the platform. The Celestial Dragon Head stood at the very center of the entire Rising Dragon Platform. This was also the place closest to the Dragon Realm—the necessary path to the Dragon Realm.

By now, the Celestial Dragon Head’s emotions seemed to have returned to normal. He said in a deep voice, “Begin.”

The eighteen Dragon Knights simultaneously raised their right hands. Driven by their own bloodlines, drop after drop of blood fell from their fingertips onto the ground before each of them.

Their positions were very particular. Although they were all attempting it together, the higher-ranked Dragon Knights stood closer to the center.

Blood at the Dragon Knight level was completely different from ordinary Dragon Clan blood. Each drop of dragon blood was heavy as a hammer, striking the ground with loud thuds.

The Celestial Dragon Head’s blood in particular was a golden-red color. When each drop hit the ground, it smashed out small pits, with scorching golden-red qi surging forth, accompanied by low, rumbling dragon roars.

The other Dragon Knights’ blood also showed different phenomena as it dripped. For a time, Dragon Force filled the entire Rising Dragon Platform, far surpassing what it had been during the Rising Dragon Competition.

If the Dragon Knights hadn’t been able to use their cultivation to suppress it, those low dragon roars would likely have covered the entire Rising Dragon City.

Each of them was a Super God-level powerhouse. As their dragon blood dripped, they watched the ground with burning gazes, their Divine Sense fully open, sensing the changes in the Rising Dragon Platform beneath them.

Soon, more and more blood pooled beneath their feet. Their blood colors differed according to their own attributes—they weren’t pure red. Dragon blood suffused the air, and for a time, the entire Rising Dragon Platform was filled with frenzied dragon roars.

Suddenly, as if something had been triggered, the Rising Dragon Platform began to tremble slightly. The eighteen Dragon Knights present naturally all felt it. Overjoyed, they immediately strove to drive their blood, accelerating its flow as it dripped rapidly onto the ground.

At their level of cultivation, blood was their most precious resource. Although they could recover blood very quickly, the energy accumulated in their original blood was the most immense—built up from absorbing who knew how much Dragon Force and essence of heaven and earth.

At this moment, the dense, hazy light filling the Rising Dragon Platform carried energy fluctuations even richer than the immortal essence of the Divine Realm.

After all, immortal essence existed commonly throughout the Divine Realm, whereas what was before them now was equivalent to eighteen First-Rank Gods bleeding! This was a change on an entirely different level.

The trembling of the Rising Dragon Platform grew stronger and stronger. Such an enormous platform could now clearly be felt quaking, and the dragon blood on the ground trembled along with it, beginning to seep down drop by drop.

Golden light blazed in the Celestial Dragon Head’s eyes. His blood was undoubtedly the highest-tier among all the Dragon Knights, containing the most immense energy. He also believed that if there was any feedback, he would definitely be the first to receive it.

At this moment, even he couldn’t afford to worry about the loss of his bloodline. Ever since his cultivation reached this level, he’d been able to perceive many things he couldn’t before. For instance, his current cultivation was actually unstable—hovering within a certain range. If he absorbed too little Dragon Realm energy, his power would even diminish; but absorbing to saturation couldn’t raise it either.

He didn’t know how many years it had been since his cultivation last improved. He understood this was because he had no God position. Even they, Super God-level powerhouses, couldn’t form a self-sustaining system within their bodies—they all needed to constantly supplement with external energy to maintain their cultivation. But while cultivation could be maintained, lifespan could only be extended, not truly made eternal and undying.

The eighteen Dragon Knights had once tried to rely on their collective strength to create a Divine Realm. But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t touch the threshold of a Divine Realm. To this day, they still didn’t know how a Divine Realm should be created, how it should be born.

They could only grope in the dark.

And because the Celestial Dragon Head was the strongest, his perception was naturally the clearest. He vaguely sensed that unless his strength could cross another great bottleneck and reach the legendary God King level, creating a Divine Realm might become a matter of course.

But that level was like a natural chasm even for him. Without a special opportunity, he understood that no matter how many more years he cultivated, it would be impossible to succeed.

The Dragon Clan power within the Dragon Realm was certainly formidable, but it was still far from enough to support him in reaching that level. Or perhaps even now he still hadn’t obtained the true essence of the Dragon Clan’s world.

How to achieve that, he himself didn’t know. But this time, Lan had obtained a higher-tier bloodline energy on the Rising Dragon Platform, triggering a bloodline evolution—and that had shown these Dragon Knights an opportunity. If their bloodlines could evolve, perhaps there would be a chance to continue cultivating. Although breaking through to the God King level remained remote, at least a certain possibility now existed.

Because of this, today the eighteen Dragon Knights had all gathered here—precisely to make this attempt.