When the first dragon roar sounded.
Only Chen Xia heard it. It was a very faint dragon roar. Compared to the previous roars, this dragon roar was more like a call.
Chen Xia looked up at the dim starry sky without saying a word, exceptionally calm.
After a long time, he lowered his head. His eyes were slightly slanted as he looked at Xu Zhen beside him and said,
“It’s almost time.”
“Mm,” Xu Zhen nodded. Her eyes narrowed as she chuckled lightly, “When entering the Great Death Realm, the quasi-emperor talents of the Immortal Realm used the great divination technique to divine the Great Death Realm. They deduced that there were a total of eight opportunities to become saints, corresponding to eight Great Saint ruins.”
“Although we don’t know how many Great Saint ruins have been opened now, this Celestial Dragon Great Saint ruin must be one of them. So many Repairing Heaven Realm cultivators from all planes have squeezed into the Great Death Realm for the sake of seizing this opportunity to become a saint.”
“Cultivation is like this. Steadily following the steps will never catch up to seizing opportunities when they come. Moreover, there are limited seats for future Great Saints and quasi-emperors. Whoever sits in those seats first will get them, otherwise no matter how high your talent is, if those seats are already taken when you get there, you can only watch helplessly.”
Xu Zhen stroked her cheek and chuckled again, “Brother Xia, I remember you have some similar Celestial Dragon supernatural powers. So I want to help you obtain this Great Saint opportunity.”
Chen Xia was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a laugh, “I’m fine, little Xu. Besides, I didn’t come in to help you get opportunities.”
He really was fine with it. Even without the opportunity to become a saint, he could still slowly progress by accumulating. It would just take too much time.
Xu Zhen chuckled again and replied,
“There are eight opportunities to become saints. Don’t worry Brother Xia. After you obtain the Celestial Dragon Great Saint opportunity, you can still help me snatch other opportunities.”
Chen Xia could only nod, “Let’s see how things go. We haven’t even found a clue about the Great Saint remnants yet. Who knows what other changes may happen.”
“Mm,” Xu Zhen nodded without further comment.
What they had to do now was wait until the Great Saint remnants truly appeared.
Within the small cosmos, tens of thousands of cultivators were constantly exploring, wandering around the little stars and seeking out many opportunities.
Some were supernatural powers, some were treasures left behind. In addition, at the top of the small cosmos, a mysterious blue portal had opened. It looked like a teleportation formation.
Cultivators went to explore and discovered that the formation led directly to the outer Dead Star River. In other words, they could not only go out, but also return back after departing.
This was interesting. They had explored so many ruins but this was the first time they encountered such convenience.
According to common sense, each ruin was a tomb for a powerful being. And most did not want others to come and go freely from their tombs, so there were often hidden dangers.
But so far, there didn’t seem to be any danger in this Great Sage ruin. It was like a reward, freely given to the cultivators. They could even casually enter and exit.
The cultivators were overjoyed, feeling as if they had encountered a great treasure. They began frantically exploring the small cosmos.
It was like this until a year later.
A Repairing Heaven Realm peak master from an average plane led some heaven’s prides and dug out a tomb.
Inside were only sporadic bones without a trace of spiritual energy fluctuations.
The Repairing Heaven Realm peak master was puzzled and had the cultivators piece the bones together to see what was inside.
Because some bones had crumbled to dust, it was difficult to discern what it had been even after piecing them together. The peak master stared closely for a long time before vaguely discerning the shape.
“A dragon?”
This led to the second dragon roar.
The second dragon roar was no longer calm, full of fury. In the first instant of the roar, more than half of the cultivators below Repairing Heaven Realm 5 Heaven were crushed into bloody smears.
Chen Xia at 9th Layer Postsea Realm was an exception, as was Ma Xiaohong who he protected.
The roar did not cease after that and grew increasingly violent. The anger turned into furious roars that shook the entire small cosmos, extinguishing the starry sky.
The few cultivators who dug up the dragon bones bore the brunt of the dragon roar’s might. Their skin and flesh rapidly withered as if scattered by wind. Next, the bones and organs also swiftly perished until the last shreds of their souls were extinguished.
A peak master at the pinnacle of Repairing Heaven Realm and several heaven’s prides of Repairing Heaven Realm did not have the slightest ability to resist the dragon roar and were completely annihilated.
After this dragon roar, the tens of thousands of cultivators were reduced by five thousand people. The remaining cultivators were horrified, finally realizing that this small cosmos was not as simple as they had thought and truly hid lethal dangers!
The dug-up dragon bones lay quietly as if nothing had happened. Those from bigger planes came to probe later and found that the bones belonged to a newborn infant dragon that had perished soon after birth. That was why no trace of a flood dragon's aura could be sensed from the bones.
After this dragon roar, the various planes also figured out the method to locate the Great Saint remnants.
Dig up dragon bones!
The seven major planes in the small cosmos began frantically burrowing, even peeling away entire stars, all to uncover dragon bones.
Seeing their frenzied actions, cultivators from other planes realized what they were doing and quickly left, never entering the small cosmos again.
These planes had never harbored any hopes toward the Great Saint opportunity anyway, so they naturally wouldn’t linger.
The planes that remained were the ones vying for the Great Saint opportunity in order to defy the heavens and change their fates!
Chen Xia sat atop a little star, hearing the seventh dragon roar echoing by his ears.
This meant they had dug up seven dragon skeletons. The huge plane cultivators had placed the skeletons amidst the starry skies. Judging from the size, the skeletons were ten thousand zhang tall with a shattered head that seemed to bear a sword wound. The dragon had likely perished by a flying sword.
Chen Xia’s right eye twitched. A pure white aura permeated as he felt strangely grief-stricken. He sighed softly, perhaps lamenting the changing times or feeling sorrow over the Celestial Dragon’s demise.
He closed both eyes. His consciousness abruptly pulled back as if stepping onto a lake surface and gazing upward only to find the lake was infinitely vast and infinitely distant.
"Heart lake?" Chen Xia frowned. This was his first time seeing such a massive heart lake.
He then took a single step and traversed an extremely lengthy distance, arriving at the center of the clear and pristine heart lake.
There, a white-robed elder sat cross-legged. He looked no different from an ordinary old man except for his broken horns.
The elder slowly opened his eyes which were pure white like the distant ancient times, profoundly serene as he gently observed Chen Xia. He chuckled lightly.
“I have bitterly waited forty million years to finally welcome the revival heir of the Universal Celestial Dragon Clan.”
As he rose, the entire heart lake faintly trembled. The world seemed to tilt as he stood face to face with Chen Xia and continued.
“Forty million years ago, a great war occurred between this plane and two ancient planes. There was even interference from an outsider celestial demon. Along with heaven’s reckoning, three emperors were ground to dust.”
“My Universal Celestial Dragon clan was already declining then. I was fated to become an emperor and revive the Universal Celestials. But time did not wait for me. I ultimately perished in the starry sea.”
“Of the eleven in the Universal Celestial Dragon clan, not a single one survived.”
“Unresigned, unwilling for the Universal Celestials to disappear, I used half my soul to grasp the opportunity of the heavens. My remnants have persevered for forty million years...”
A pure white radiance erupted in the elder's eyes. Between the heart lake, massive dragon eyes opened and he pointed straight at Chen Xia, his voice rumbling.
“Waiting just for you!”