"Actually, I'm a dragon….."
The faces of everyone froze up as soon as they heard what Xiao Rourou said. None of them knew how to react to something like that.
For a while, no one said a thing.
The fact that no one even gasped at what it said filled Xiao Rourou with discontent. "What, frightened? Snrk, is that it? Am I too amazing? I am a soulbeast who has the blood of the dragons running through my vein, it's just dormant and was undiscovered. Senior Long Gui was able to see my potential and helped me awaken it, that's why I'm suddenly so much stronger now. If I wasn't afraid of rushing things, then I wouldn't become a class seven already. But...I'll definitely become a powerful being in the future!!"
It was trying to show off to everyone, but everything it said only made it sound very narcissistic and completely self-deluded almost. Already in its eyes it saw itself as a budding being to be beheld on the continent.
"……"
Everyone looked at one another with a strange look on their faces. Bai Yunfei himself had a quirked smile on his lips as he 'exclaimed', "You're….you said you're a….dragon?!"
"That is correct!" Xiao Rourou stated in pride.
"Who told you?"
"Senior Long Gui."
"Er...who is that?"
"That'd be Da—well, I cannot call him that name. The senior Dai Dai was just talking about. He is a 'dragon turtle', a soulbeast with the bloodline of the dragon race in him. He is powerful beyond measure and one of the strongest in the world!"
"Are you talking about that 'Da Huang'?!" Bai Yunfei cried out, this time in earnest. He could disregard the question about Xiao Rourou being a 'dragon' for now with this 'Da Huang' now back into play. Since Xiao Rourou was saying Da Huang was a 'dragon turtle', then there was a person—a soulbeast actually—that could somehow easily elevate Xiao Rourou's strength due to being a super powerful soulbeast!
Zheng Kai's eyes flew wide open. "Oh hell!!" He cried out in alarm, "You said 'dragon turtle' just now, didn't you?! Are you talking about the legendary guardian of the Royal Family, the Dragon Turtle?!"
Bai Yunfei looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "You know about it?"
"Of course I know about it. Who doesn't know about the legendary guardian of the Royal Family? But….who would've known the 'Da Huang' the Princess Wu Ping was talking about was that same being!" Zheng Kai exclaimed, "The Dragon Turtle is the 'Guardian Beast' the Royal Family has 'worshiped' for thousands of years. There's a lot of stories about it, but I think the Dragon Turtle is one of the rare soulbeasts who can't humanize and have one of the strongest defenses of them all. But how strong it is, no one really knows….people say that it's been around since even before the Empire was founded, though."
"It's been living since then?" Bai Yunfei's eyebrows flew up on his head, "Then….it's been alive for at least two thousand years? Is that even possible?"
"Those are the rumors, how should I know?" Zheng Kai shrugged. "Even if they're true, who's going to know except for the Dragon Turtle itself?"
Bai Yunfei felt amazed. He never thought that the 'Da Huang' Wu Ping was talking about would be such an amazing existence as the 'Guardian Beast of the Royal Family'. That was by no means an appellation to take lightly. He had never heard of a dragon turtle before, but the fact that it was able to make Xiao Rourou even stronger in no time at all was proof of its strength. It was beyond what a class seven soulbeast should be capable of, so was it a….class eight? Or possibly even stronger maybe?!
Somewhat realizing everyone was now gossiping and talking more about the dragon turtle rather than itself, Xiao Rourou snorted in displeasure, "Hey hey, you lot. Don't bother guessing wildly about what it is you're thinking about. Even senior Long Gui doesn't know how long he's been living for himself. As for how strong he is….I don't know myself. It's definitely not what you all think it is though."
Bai Yunfei reconcentrated his attention onto the little boar after that. "Then this Da….I mean 'senior Long Gui', said you have the blood of the dragon race in you?!"
Xiao Rourou stuck its chest out, "Correct! Senior Long Gui doesn't know just how many generations it was hiding for, but he said that my body really does have the blood of a 'dragon'. And….it's as pure as senior Long Gui's!! He said that with luck, I'll definitely be able to 'dragonize'!! I'll become a soulbeast stronger than anything in the same class!"
"Dragonize??" Bai Yunfei raised an eyebrow, this was a relatively special sounding term. Xiao Rourou didn't say that it'd be able to turn into a dragon, but it'd be able to 'dragonize'. In other words, it wasn't able to transform to become a true dragon, but it'd gain a few 'dragon-like' qualities…..
Still, there was an odd look on Bai Yunfei's face at that. He stared at the snowy-white body of Xiao Rourou and then thought about how its body would turn crimson red like a 'healthy boar' whenever it fought. If the ability to Dragonize lead to things like that….the more such an ability felt amazing to Bai Yunfei.
But then came the hardest question to answer. How could a boar 'Dragonize'?
The fact that Xiao Rourou was a magiboar was something that didn't need verification. It was already a very rare soulbeast in its own right, but now that it was revealed it had the blood of the dragon race in it, then….
Bai Yunfei rubbed at his chin with his finger to think. "Well, in that case, you're a….dragon boar?!"
Xiao Rourou rolled its eyes again, "I said I'm a dragon! Can you not add the 'boar' bit?!"
"Even if your relative is a dragon, that doesn't change the fact that you're a boar! You can't just completely ignore one part of your ancestry like that!"
"......"
Afterwards, the entire group listened to Huangfu Rui as she renarrated the 'epic' of her journeys in the Imperial Palace, her adventures with Wu Ping, and all the 'beautiful' things she saw in it. They continued out from the academy as she talked, and when Tang Xinyun told her about the plans to travel outside the Capital, all anyone could hear was Huangfu Rui's excited shouts….
……
That night in a dark room somewhere in the large compound of the Cheng.
"Damn it all!!"
A gloomy voice suddenly spoke out. There was a thud and then a flash of dark green light before the entire table was reduced to ashes. A single white-haired elder sat behind with his left hand holding onto a white jade slip, his eyes burning furiously as he stared at it.
This white jade slip was a recording slip. On the slip had but only five words. "The plan has been postponed."
……
Outside the Capital, two figures in black soared through the night sky. The person on the left looked back to the Capital, which was growing tinier and tinier in the distance, "Are we really going to give up just like that? Mo Huangkong has gone to the Fate School, this is a rare chance to have. If we miss this opportunity, then just when will we have a chance like this again?"
The other person didn't look back. "Mo Huangkong might not be here, but there are still plenty of strong ones in the Capital. Now that things in the Capital have gotten tense, the Tianhun School are using what happened to the two Ministers' families to take action. All of our plants have been rooted out, we'll only be found out if we tried to stay. There'll be a time when we'll get 'that thing', but I can't guarantee our safety when we do."
He paused for a moment to sigh. "That thing has already been sealed for a thousand years. We can afford to wait. But one day, it'll see the light of day and let the whole world know that the strongest type of soul armament aren't just the 'Regalia'!!"
……
At the same time under a different part of the skies. In a completely unknown city countless distance away from the Capital.
The strongest person in this city was a person who hadn't been able to become a Soul King for the last few dozen years. It was more than likely this person would forever stay at the level of a peak late-stage Soul Exalt until he died. He was also the lord of the city's most powerful family.
Sitting alone in his ancient-looking room, the grizzly-haired man was meditating. Despite not being so sure about his future, the man always spent his days working towards to breaking through and reaching his own personal goal of strength.
Suddenly, the old man felt something alert his senses. Eyes flying wide open, he suddenly realized there were two strangers standing there in the same room as him!
One of the two persons wore black robes as they stood there. This person's aura felt almost non-existent as if they were a ghost. The other person wore red robes, but it was a type of red that was stained with black shading. It was almost as if it was….the exact shade and color of congealed blood!
"Who—"
The old man was barely finished speaking when the person in the blood-colored robes disappeared from sight. All the old man saw was a withered hand suddenly spring up in his vision and latch onto his face!
Almost immediately, the elder's face began to shrivel up. Almost as if being sucked up, the man's vitality and lifeforce began to decline sharply.
It didn't even take a minute for the very last vestiges of his soulforce to be sucked up before the elderly man had been turned into a….dried up corpse!
Tossing the corpse away, the figure in red let out a satisfied groan. Turning his head towards a source of light, his eyes shined a strange red light that seemed to still thirst for blood almost.
Simultaneously, the ground beneath the place started to shake a bit, sending the previously silent compound into a loud commotion.
But rather than the commotion being that of confusion, it was that of….the howls of despair and anguish!