Chapter 211: The Weakest Pair of Partners?

The River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting Zhao Hongyu used was undoubtedly an advanced Dharma Treasure. It broke into the void and went above the ordinary clouds in the blink of an eye.

The nine layers of heavens were called Zhong Heaven, Qian Heaven, Cong Heaven, Geng Heaven, Zui Heaven, Kuo Heaven, Xian Heaven, Shen Heaven, and Cheng Heaven. Fifth Heaven was also Zui Heaven. Since mortals could reach the first four Heavens, this Fifth Heaven was where the human cultivation world began.

The immortals lived in Ninth Heaven and up, so the range between Fifth Heaven and Eighth Heaven was a buffer territory between the mortal world and the immortal world.

The dragons could move under Fifth Heaven freely. According to Zhao Hongyu, the wood, water, fire, and earth-elemental dragons could soar as high as Seventh Heaven while the gold-elemental dragons could reach the Eighth Heaven.

When Zhao Guang took Hao Ren to the sky to watch the process of rainfall creation, it seemed high for Hao Ren. However, it was only on Second Heaven.

The airplanes flew above the ordinary clouds, but it was still within First Heaven.

Comparatively, Fifth Heaven was much higher!

Even with Dharma Treasures the River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting, which was a super fast traveling Dharma Treasure, it took them half an hour to reach Fifth Heaven.

Boom!

The seven-colored light beams broke through a pale blue array formation and got through a thick layer of auspicious clouds.

Fifth Heaven!

Standing on the River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting, Hao Ren looked around and saw numerous green mountains.

It was a celestial world.

Standing in front, Zhao Hongyu checked the direction and steered the painting forward.

The speed of the painting had slowed down, and the seven-colored light beams had disappeared.

Flying above the mountains, Zhao Hongyu turned slightly and said to Hao Ren, "Except the Origin Dragon Grand Palace, then there are nine smaller palaces in rings around it. The nine small palaces are Qiuniu Palace, Yazi Palace, Chaofeng Palace, Pulao Palace, Suanni Palace, Baxia Palace, Bian Palace, Fuxi Palace, and Chiwen Palace. They are the branch palaces of the nine ancestors of our Dragon Tribe. There are four entrances in the Origin Dragon Grand Palace. Once you enter the Nine Dragon Palace, you will appear at the entrance in the east since the East Ocean Dragon Palace is located in the east."

"Ok." Hao Ren listened attentively, knowing that the trip was crucial and would probably influence the development of East Ocean Dragon Palace in the next tens of years.

"This is a map." From an ordinary-looking ring on her finger, Zhao Hongyu took out a scroll. "This map has the route of the Origin Dragon Grand Palace and the information about the parts of the nine branch palaces that we have so far explored."

Hao Ren took the map and opened it with Nature Essence. He found that the map was very detailed in some parts and vague in other parts.

"This map is the result of the efforts of several generations of East Ocean. It's very precious, and you must make sure it doesn't fall into other people's hands," Zhao Hongyu warned Hao Ren.

"Got it." Hao Ren put the map into his hidden space. Since it was not food, he was sure that Little White wouldn't eat it.

"The Nine Dragon Palace opens every 50 years, and the cultivators must be younger than 100 years old to enter it. Of course, it would be a waste of an opportunity to allow cultivators who are very young into it. Usually, the opportunity was given to those who have 50 to 60 years of cultivation experience, and that was why no one could enter the Nine Dragon Palace twice. Zhao Guang and I entered once and didn't bring back anything extraordinary," Zhao Hongyu said with regret in her voice.

"Mom, I'm a lucky girl. I will get good stuff this time!" Zhao Yanzi shouted.

"It's not a field trip. Although the Nine Dragon Palace has no traps in there, it's not absolutely safe." Zhao Hongyu looked at Zhao Yanzi seriously, and the latter immediately shut her mouth.

Zhao Hongyu turned to Hao Ren. "The Nine Dragon Palace is protected by prehistoric array formations. Although the palace is in desolation for thousands of years, the major array formations are still operating. The Origin Dragon Grand Palace is in the center of the Nine Dragon Palace while the nine small palaces surround it. However, their positions are not fixed; each time people go in, they would find that the positions of the small palaces had changed. Since the time interval is 50 years, each person had only six hours to explore it, and the Four Ocean Dragon Clans don't share information, no one knows about the movement patterns of the nine small palaces. With the current information, no one can be sure if they moved according to astrology or the Eight Trigram. Which branch palace you will enter and what kind of treasures you can get is all based on luck.

"Which small palace did you and Uncle enter last time?" Hao Ren asked.

"We entered Fuxi Palace and got this River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting," Zhao Hongyu answered.

"Can we only take one treasure?" Hao Ren asked immediately.

"No. You can take as many as you can. Except for the items in the Grand Palace, everything else in the Nine Dragon Palace is legacy left by the ancestors of the prehistoric times and can be taken with you. In fact, the Four Oceans came up with the solution of opening the Nine Dragon Palace every 50 years because we couldn't agree on a distribution plan of the fortunes. So, each time the Nine Dragon Palace opens, each ocean would send out two young cultivators to take everything they can with their luck and abilities."

"It seems that Dad and Mom were not very powerful at the time," Zhao Yanzi raised her head and said.

Zhao Hongyu smiled helplessly. Hao Ren saw her expression and knew that he and Zhao Yanzi were even weaker. One of them had just reached Li-level while the other didn't even possess a Dragon Core...

"All in all, if you can take back three ancient treasures or elixirs, it will be a big success. If you get two, it will be good. If you get one, it will still be better than nothing," Zhao Hongyu turned serious and said.

"Ok!" Zhao Yanzi and Hao Ren said in unison.

While they were talking, the River-Mountain Qian-Kun Painting had flown into the center of a round valley. Hao Ren looked down and saw that some people were already gathered on the meadow below them. Among them were Oldman Zeng and Zeng Yitao.

Zhao Hongyu steered the painting and landed on the meadow slowly.

"Mrs. Zhao!" The representatives of North Ocean and South Ocean came over to greet her.

"Elder Xu, Elder Hu! How are you?" Zhao Hongyu greeted them with a smile.

Since each ocean sent only two cultivators and a representative who led the way, there were altogether 12 people there. Zeng Yitao's partner was a boy who looked a couple of years younger than him; he was probably Zeng Yitao's little servant.

South Ocean's team was comprised of one guy and one girl who were in their mid-twenties. They were holding hands and looked like a couple. North Ocean's team was made up of one guy who looked 20 and one girl who was about 18; they looked like brother and sister.

"Mrs. Zhao, you are the last to arrive. I thought you are too afraid to come!" Oldman Zeng glanced at Zhao Hongyu and said in a cold tone.

"Well, since West Ocean is eager to open the Nine Dragon Palace, how can we East Ocean not join in on the fun?" Zhao Hongyu replied breezily.

"We proposed to open the Nine Dragon Palace so that the young elites of the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces can come and practice. But from the looks of it, you are in dire need of talented youths, right?" Oldman Zeng looked at Hao Ren to Zhao Yanzi and said sarcastically.

Zhao Hongyu didn't want to argue with him. She looked away, pretending to have not heard his remarks.

As the most senior and most powerful cultivator in the group, Oldman Zeng stopped his offensive comments after Zhao Hongyu ignored him. He snorted disdainfully.

Eight people were going to enter. Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi from East Ocean were respectively a Li-level cultivator and a mortal. The couple from South Ocean were young elites, and they both had reached top-tier Geng-level; South Ocean had already arranged for their dual-cultivation. This time when West Ocean proposed to open the Nine Dragon Palace, South Ocean had eagerly agreed, hoping that this young couple could take this opportunity to gain another breakthrough. The siblings of North Ocean were the oldest son and second daughter of the Crown Prince of the North Ocean Dragon Palace. They had both reached Zhen-level and were charging at Geng-level. Zeng Yitao had reached Zhen-level half a year ago, and his servant was just an assistant to him. Zeng Yitao would enjoy all the treasures they get in the Nine Dragon Palace.

Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi were the weakest pair among the eight cultivators and probably even among all the participants in history. After all, the weakest participant so far was at low-tier Zhen-level. That was why Oldman Zeng mocked them, and Zhao Hongyu had no choice but to ignore him.

This opening was only 30 years after the last time, and the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces had sent relatively young cultivators to participate. 20 years later, the Nine Dragon Palace would open again and then again after another 50 years. It meant that any cultivators under 20 years of age could be able to enter the Nine Dragon Palace three times if they were given the opportunity. That was why the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces had all sent young cultivators who were all royal descendants.

"Well, it's almost time. The Nine Dragon Palace will show up any minute now." Sensing the undercurrent, Elder Xu and Elder Hu looked up into the sky and tried to smooth things over.

In fact, South Ocean and North Ocean were prompted by West Ocean to agree to the extra opening since West Ocean stated that the reason behind the proposal was to celebrate Zhao Kuo's success in passing the Heavenly Tribulation. East Ocean had no reason to say no.

The truth was, East Ocean was at its weakest period. In the younger generations, they had no extraordinary talented cultivators. Zhao Yanzi was lazy in cultivation and now didn't even have a Dragon Core, Hao Ren had just entered the world of cultivation, and others in East Ocean were just ordinary cultivators. East Ocean would gain the least benefits from this opening of the Nine Dragon Palace.

Boom!

While Elder Xu and Elder Hu looked up, a huge palace that was bigger than a mountain appeared in the high sky.

The powerful pressure it released made people want to bow at it.

With a low murmur, Oldman Zeng summoned a huge umbrella and blocked the overwhelming pressure temporarily.

The palace was grey and ordinary-looking, but the buzzing array formation around it was emitting black lightning flashes.

The palace was almost as big as a city.

A small-scale white array formation fell from the sky. In the four corners of the array formation were four circles which had different colors: red, yellow, green, and blue.

"Zi, Ren, stand in the dark red circle in the east," Zhao Hongyu instructed.

It was Zhao Yanzi's first time witnessing the Nine Dragon Palace, and she was stunned by it. Hao Ren pulled her into the red circle.

Standing in the green circle opposite them, Zeng Yitao glared at Han Ren. Then, he turned to Zhao Yanzi and said, "Little Zi, you are mine."

Boom!

With a white flash, the array formation on the meadow vanished.