41: Pulao

While Gao De was focused on his cultivation and plotting around the Lin and Zhu families' "family matters," the tianji mirror he used for gathering information and secret trading was suddenly flooded with a glowing, forced-top headline reward!

The issuers were none other than those two behemoths, the Tianji Sect and the Nine Dragons Chamber of Commerce!

The content of the reward caused Gao De's pupils to shrink—the giant cross-province trade flying vessel that had set out from Shu, passed through Jingzhou Province and this local area, and headed toward Yangzhou to scout and open new shipping routes, was confirmed to have crashed!

The reward announcement included a very short video clip sent back by the flying vessel before its final moments.

In the footage, the flying vessel hovered over a vast, endless emerald lotus pond where the lotus leaves were as large as carriage canopies and the lotus flowers resembled jade towers.

The surroundings were shrouded in mist, and the scenery should have been quiet and beautiful, yet it exuded an indescribable eeriness.

Just a moment before the video ended, an extremely faint "croak" of a frog, which seemed to pierce the Divine Soul, came from the background!

The announcement explicitly stated that the two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators stationed on the flying vessel had also lost contact at the same time!

The Tianji Sect and Nine Dragons Chamber of Commerce jointly offered a sky-high reward for any clues related to the crash site, that strange lotus pond, or that frog croak. Anyone providing key information would be handsomely rewarded!

For a moment, the entire Tianji Realm was in an uproar! The discussion area under the reward post was instantly submerged by a massive volume of replies, with various speculations, analyses, and even groundless rumors running rampant.

Gao De’s heart shook. He immediately tried to click on more detailed insider information or higher-permission discussion boards, but found that his tianji mirror's Rank was insufficient. He could only stay in the public forum for the three-country region of "Jing-Yang-Local," watching the mostly irrelevant discussions with mounting frustration.

He simply could not enter those "Province-level" or even "Cross-Province-level" boards that involved higher-level intelligence analysis and core clues.

Amidst this chaos, a post that was rapidly gaining popularity in the anonymous section of the "Province board" caught his attention.

The poster's username was "Bai Ze."

This "Bai Ze" seemed to have vast knowledge; his speech was logically clear and cited classical texts.

He directly ruled out several mainstream speculations and then proposed an earth-shattering inference:

[...Observing the footage, the lotus pond is boundless and the mist locks the Divine Soul. Though the sound is faint, its penetration is extremely strong, vibrating directly into the spirit platform. These characteristics match the habits of the Mythical Dragon Son, Pulao, and its descendants recorded in ancient texts.]

["Records of Strange Tales" states: 'Pulao is a son of the Dragon; he loves to cry out and roar, but fears whales. When a whale strikes him, he roars so loudly the sound shakes the heavens.' However, his Bloodline variants may reside in great marshes and lotus ponds. Their cries are not out of fear of whales, but possess the effect of snatching souls, especially countering those with powerful Divine Souls and high magic power. With the flying vessel moored above, the loss of contact with the Nascent Soul Cultivators may not be due to being outmatched in power, but because their Divine Souls were suppressed, falling into a state of 'Nirvana-like Extinction.']

[Inference: The flying vessel likely stumbled into the habitat or Domain barrier of a descendant of Pulao, or even the Mythical Dragon Son himself, and suffered an innate Divine Soul attack!]

"Mythical Dragon Son?!" Gao De's heart jolted violently!

As a dragon blood descendant, his Bloodline Legacy contained ancient memory fragments that naturally held vague records of the Nine Sons of the Dragon.

The Mythical Dragon Son was indeed one of the dragon sons, characterized by his love for crying out, and his voice possessed various incredible powers!

If Bai Ze's inference was true, what did that mean?

It meant that beneath that giant lotus pond, there might be hidden a Mythical Dragon Son with a pure dragon son Bloodline, or at least a powerful direct descendant!

Its level was definitely far beyond a Fourth-Rank Flood Dragon, likely a fifth-Rank or even higher existence! Otherwise, it would be impossible for two Nascent Soul Cultivators to lose contact instantly without even being able to fully send out a distress signal!

And the "Mythical Dragon Son" was the son of a True Dragon!

The nobility and power of its Bloodline were far beyond what his current 86% Dragon Fish Bloodline could compare to!

If he could obtain a trace of its Essence Blood... no, even just obtaining some spiritual items associated with its habitat or understanding its power characteristics would provide inestimable help to Gao De's path to dragon transformation!

An Opportunity! A massive Opportunity!

But behind this Opportunity was extreme danger where even Nascent Soul Cultivators could perish in an instant!

Gao De forced himself to calm down.

With his current strength, let alone searching for the Mythical Dragon Son, he couldn't even determine which direction that lotus pond was in the Yunmeng Great Marsh. Going there blindly would be certain death.

However, the importance of this information was beyond doubt. It pointed out a certain ultimate danger and Opportunity hidden within the Yunmeng Great Marsh, and gave him a clearer understanding of future perils.

"Mythical Dragon Son..." Gao De silently memorized this name and its characteristics. This might be one of the ultimate goals he would need to avoid at all costs or attempt to explore once he had sufficient strength in the future.

For now, it was better to focus on what was in front of him. The Zhu Family's Pig Dragon was the "supplement" he could reach and had the ability to digest at this stage.

He switched the tianji mirror interface back to the local forum and Lin Xiaofan's private channel, continuing to closely monitor the progress of the Lin Family's Foundation Establishment and the movements of the Lin and Zhu families.

The reward from the Tianji Sect and Nine Dragons Chamber of Commerce, as well as Bai Ze's inference about the Mythical Dragon Son, were like a giant rock thrown into a calm lake; the ripples were spreading.

But in the prologue of this magnificent era, it wasn't yet time for a Dragon Fish like him, lurking in a deep pool, to play the lead role.

He needed time, and he needed power.

Gao De took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. His Demonic Power circulated as he sank back into cultivation.

Only this time, his goal was clearer, and his gaze was cast toward the more distant future hidden deep within the Yunmeng Great Marsh.

While Gao De was silently cultivating, digesting the energy of the dragon pearl fossil while patiently waiting for the potential upheaval the foundation establishment pill might cause between the Lin and Zhu families, the tianji mirror's local forum was once again flooded with explosive news. Its heat even briefly surpassed the discussion of the Nine Dragons Chamber of Commerce's flying vessel crash!

Demon King Fushui, who had occupied the core waters of the Eight Hundred Li Dongting Lake for over a thousand years, had actually successfully broken through to the fourth Rank!

And the key Opportunity for its Breakthrough, according to several "well-informed sources," was none other than that dragon pearl whose whereabouts had been unknown after causing the fight between the Fourth-Rank Flood Dragon and an unknown existence when the Black Water Stream grotto-heaven collapsed a few years ago!

"The dragon pearl... it actually fell into the hands of this old turtle!" Gao De's heart was incredibly shaken.

Demon King Fushui's true form was an old turtle with the Baxia Bloodline, known for its formidable defense and long lifespan, but its cultivation progress was extremely slow.

The role of a supreme treasure like the dragon pearl in its ability to break through a thousand-year Bottleneck and step into the fourth Rank was beyond doubt.

However, blessings and misfortunes come hand in hand.

During its Breakthrough, it ultimately failed to completely mask the unique and vast Dragon Clan Origin aura of the dragon pearl.

This aura instantly alerted the existences within the Yunmeng Great Marsh.