Chapter 523: Ah Dou, It's Time for Us to Leave!

[The Fifty-Seventh Year, Age Eighty-Three.]

[Drawing trait tag...]

[Draw successful!]

["Built-In BGM" (Green Rare): You make an entrance accompanied by background music fitting the current situation. Although it's not very useful, it's... totally awesome!]

[Adjust trait tag?]

[Yes/No]

[You chose No.]

[You've lived quite comfortably these past few years.]

[Both your body and spirit have been fully relaxed.]

[Your comfortable days haven't been many, so they've brought you different experiences and insights. With the enhancement of "Mortal Bones," you've gained a new Divine Ability.]

[Pray for Rain: Perform a ritual to pray for rain and alleviate drought.]

[A new Earth Fiend Divine Ability.]

[Used on its own, this Divine Ability only has the effect of making a certain area rain.]

[But if you can transform it into a Divine Art, it can produce effects similar to water-element forbidden spells from magical worlds. It can attack and defend, offering a rich variety of uses.]

[You haven't figured out how to transform it yet.]

[Then you just won't figure it out.]

[Once you get to Vermilion Violet Star and enter the Ji family, you can look directly through the Ji family's Myriad Books Hall.]

[Or the Torch Society on Vermilion Violet Star. Surely they also have a rich stock of Divine Arts.]

["Your Majesty!! There's bi-bi-bi-bi-big trouble!!"]

[You were practicing calligraphy in your study when the chief eunuch rushed in, threw himself on the ground, and started shouting.]

[Your "Traffic Light" has already been trained into a passive ability, so it's active at all times. If there were any real danger, anomalies would have appeared in your vision long ago.]

[There are none right now.]

[So you spoke very calmly.]

["What is it? What's all the yelling about? Have some decorum."]

["It's Young Master Zhong. He-He-He-He-He-He beat up another classmate again. This time it was pretty bad. He broke one of his legs!"]

["Oh... which one did he beat up?"]

["The Heir Apparent of Marquis Huaiming, Cong Lala!"]

[Young Master Zhong is naturally Ah Dou. As for the one who got beaten, you can tell from that ABB-style name that he's a Dragon-Man.]

[The capital city has a Royal Academy, specifically for the descendants of the imperial family, nobles, and high officials to study.]

[This place doesn't teach cultivation. The instructors only teach ordinary knowledge.]

[The ones studying here are all relatively young children.]

[Of course, this "relatively young" has to be viewed according to different races.]

[Dragon-Men have longer lifespans and grow and develop more slowly. To them, twenty years old is still a child.]

[To humans, twenty years old obviously isn't.]

[These past few years, you discovered more human children with high aptitude from among the common people.]

[After obtaining their parents' consent, you brought these children to the capital city to be looked after.]

[After the age of three, they all study at the Royal Academy. It counts as giving Ah Dou some company and also cultivates more talent for the Human Race.]

[The Royal Academy has many members of the Alien Race.]

[Influenced by their elders, these children more or less look down on humans, so bullying happens often.]

[Unfortunately, Ah Dou is born with divine strength. His physical constitution is even better than the Demon Tribe in his class. He's clearly only eight years old, yet he already has the height of a teenager in their teens, and his build is even more robust, immensely strong, and his body is like stubborn stone.]

[It can truly be said he fought from the junior class all the way to the senior class without meeting a match.]

[The human children in the academy all rallied around Ah Dou, practically treating him as the king of the kids.]

[With him watching over them, whichever Alien Race member dared to bully a human would get a beating from him.]

[Every time he caused trouble, you would punish him heavily afterward.]

[This was necessary. Otherwise, even your sycophants would think you were too partial toward the Human Race.]

[Only this chief eunuch truly understood you. He saw that punishing Ah Dou wasn't what you really wanted, but he never said it out loud, and he often used his bit of authority to shield Ah Dou.]

[This chief steward was also a Dragon-Man, but he only thought about how to please the imperial heart. He never gave other matters much thought.]

["Send Marquis Huaiming an epic Spiritual Treasure and two hundred thousand Source Stones as consolation. Bring Ah Dou here. I'm going to punish him severely!"]

["Yes!"]

[Not long after, you saw a bruised and swollen-faced Ah Dou in your study.]

[This little guy was only eight years old, but his height was already one point six meters.]

[Anyone who saw him would have to say: How the hell is this eight years old?]

[He looked at you askance, neither bowing nor kneeling, his face full of arrogance.]

[You dismissed the servants from the study and sat on the dragon throne with a smile.]

["Ah Dou, got into a fight again?"]

["My name is Zhong Yanqing, not Ah Dou!"]

["Fine, fine, fine, Ah Dou. Can you tell me the reason you hit someone today? I heard this Cong Lala didn't bully you or your clansmen?"]

["His father, Marquis Huaiming, submitted a memorial last month proposing that humans across the globe pay triple the grain tax!

Food is the heaven of the people! Why is it that we humans farm the land, yet we have to pay the most grain tax to support this pack of Alien Race!

I can't beat up Marquis Huaiming, so I beat up his son!"]

["Oh... his father submitted the memorial last month, so why did you only beat up his son today?"]

["If I'm going to hit someone, I need a justified reason. Cong Lala hadn't made any mistakes before, so of course I couldn't hit him. But today he made a mistake!"]

["What mistake did he make?"]

["He talked back to the instructor! He said the instructor has no cultivation level and isn't qualified to teach them!"]

[This instructor Ah Dou spoke of was actually not human, but Ah Dou respected teachers and valued principles, so he held no prejudice against this instructor.]

[You watched Ah Dou speak so plausibly and sighed inwardly. How was this like an eight-year-old child?]

[Many things you had never taught him, yet he seemed to be born with a certain awareness.]

["I need to properly teach you a lesson..."]

[Ah Dou wasn't afraid of you, the emperor, at all. He raised his chin.]

["Punish me then! I'm not afraid of you!"]

["I'm taking you away from Blazing Star."]

["Hm?"]

[Ah Dou was stunned. His big head clearly hadn't caught up yet.]

["What kind of punishment is this, exiling me to another planet?"]

["No, I'm leaving with you."]

["Nonsense. You're the emperor. How could you leave your own country?"]

[You smiled.]

[Then you snapped your fingers, and a doppelganger jumped out.]

[Due to the effect of the trait tag, the doppelganger always maintained the same appearance as you, even though you currently had the outward appearance of a Dragon-Man.]

["Starting today, he will stay on Blazing Star in my place, and I'm going to take you to explore that sea of stars!"]

[Ah Dou scratched his head.]

["I... I don't understand..."]

[You laughed loudly, then transformed in an instant, restoring Chen Dong's appearance.]

["Actually, I'm not a Dragon-Man. I'm human, just like you!"]

[The next half hour was earth-shaking for Ah Dou.]

[His tiny worldview was reshaped on the spot.]

["So all of this was your and the Torch Society's plan? Before long, we humans will hollow out the Alien Race and become the true controllers of Blazing Star?"]

["That's right."]

["Hahaha! Great! Then why leave?"]

["There are still some things I must go complete. A tiny Blazing Star shouldn't be your endpoint either, Ah Dou. The fate you carry should be displayed on a much bigger stage!"]