Chapter 1: Barbarian Dragon Island

  Yanzhou, one of the Nine Provinces, located in the northwest, also known as Bingtu.

  In the southeastern corner of Yizhou, there is a lake that is 70,000 li wide and 180,000 li long, called Manlong.

  Manlong Lake is very large, so large that people living on the lake often unconsciously refer to Manlong Lake as the sea. In Manlong Lake, there is a small island called Manlong Island. The island is not big, only about 20 miles long and wide, but it is the only island in Manlong Lake with the same name as Manlong Lake. As for why this island alone was named Manlong, it has been lost to history.

  In the southwest corner of the small island of Man Long, there was a small fishing village with more than 20 households and over 100 people. Every day, the fishermen would go out to work at dawn and return at dusk, generation after generation living a peaceful life far from the world, like a paradise on earth. However, this morning, all the villagers gathered under the ancient apricot tree at the village entrance as soon as it got light, which was an unprecedented event in this small fishing village that seemed to never change for centuries.

  "Elder, what happened on the lake south of the island last night? The thunderstorm raged for half the night. Has some kind of monster appeared in the lake again?"

  The speaker was a middle-aged man in his forties, and the elder he spoke of was an old white-haired man sitting under an ancient apricot tree. This person was not only the elder of the island but also the private school teacher in the small fishing village. It is said that when he was young, he had been out for decades before returning to the island with his wife and children.

  The old man with white hair looked at the south of the Barbarian Dragon Island, which was also the direction where the strange weather appeared yesterday. He then shook his head abruptly and said, "Our Barbarian Dragon Lake has a lake god to protect us, what kind of monster is this?"

  The Manlong Lake has a lake god, an ancient legend that is indeed true. Not only the white-haired old men but also ordinary middle-aged men have seen it. The Manlong Lake God appears on the surface of the lake every ten or so years. Every time this happens, fishermen from the nearby island villages will sail their small boats to the lake with offerings to worship.

  "What happened last night then? There wasn't even a cloud in the sky, and yet there was such a big moon hanging up there, where did the thunder come from?"

  For a moment, the villagers sitting under the ancient apricot tree couldn't help but discuss it, even the mischievous kids were quietly sitting next to their parents, as if they had all been frightened by the thunderous sound that shook the sky yesterday.

  Just as the villagers were discussing, a surprised voice suddenly came from the top of the old apricot tree, "Hey, Lao Er, take a closer look at these little ghosts, they all seem to be a bit strange."

  The sound was not loud, but it seemed to be ringing in the ears of the villagers under the tree. For a moment, everyone's eyes were involuntarily cast towards the top of the ancient apricot tree. It wasn't until then that they discovered two strange black-robed middle-aged men sitting cross-legged on the top of the ancient apricot tree above their heads.

  As soon as someone was seen sitting on a leaf, most people were stunned, but the white-haired old man called the elder was frightened and before the villagers could recover from their surprise, he hastily got up and rushed to kneel down towards the two people on the tree.

  "The little old man paid his respects to the two superior immortals."

  As soon as they saw the white-haired old man, they knelt down. Especially after hearing what the white-haired old man said, the stunned villagers around them finally came to their senses and hurriedly followed suit, kneeling down in worship.

  In the nine states, the Upper Immortal is not actually an immortal, but a respectful title for cultivators. However, to ordinary people, cultivators are already equivalent to immortals, so kneeling and worshiping when seeing a cultivator is almost the most normal reaction for ordinary people. This is naturally not unfamiliar to a white-haired old man who has been wandering outside for decades.

  Just as the villagers were kneeling, a white-clothed man suddenly appeared in a strange way behind the villagers, and this person was obviously not one of the two black-clothed middle-aged men that the villagers had seen on the tree earlier.

  A man in white appeared and immediately pulled out a boy of about ten years old from the crowd, and then he let out an exclamation, "Pure Fire Spirit Root!"

  As the voice of Huo Linggen, more than 100 villagers who were kneeling around suddenly had a dozen or so figures appear among them. These figures included both men and women, old and young, and almost everyone who appeared immediately pulled out a teenager from the crowd, including the two black-clad middle-aged men who were previously sitting on top of the ancient apricot tree, also each pulling out one person from under the tree in the crowd.

  "Pure Golden Spirit Root!" "Pure Earth Spirit Root!" "Pure Water Spirit Root!" "Pure Wood Spirit Root!" "Pure Fire Spirit Root!" At this moment, almost all the figures that appeared after grabbing someone let out such an exclamation.

  As the commotion subsided, everyone's gaze once again fell on the few remaining young men and women in the crowd.

  "Halt!" Just as everyone was about to take action against the remaining boys and girls in the crowd, a hoarse voice suddenly rang out from above the empty ground. Upon hearing this voice, everyone's movements came to an abrupt stop, but almost everyone subconsciously tightened their grip on the children they were holding.

  "Mother, father!" The young men and women who were caught in the hands of the crowd seemed to have finally come back to their senses from the shock. When they saw that they were being held by strangers, one by one, they all burst into tears.

  The parents of these young people also seemed anxious and stood up, wanting to rush forward to take back their children, but were firmly blocked by the white-haired old man.

  "Everyone, esteemed seniors, could you please put down the children in your hands? If our village is needed, just give us orders."

  After hearing the white-haired old man's words, except for one of the gray-robed old men who put down the girl in his hand as he said, the others instead unconsciously tightened their grip on the children in their hands.

  The girl who was put down by the old man in gray robes cried and threw herself back into her mother's arms. The old man in gray robes looked around, then spoke to the white-haired old man with a tense face: "I am the law enforcement elder of the Dongnan Zhengdao Alliance in Yizhou. Yesterday, I accidentally entered your island while chasing a demon gate monster. Old gentleman, don't worry."

  Upon hearing that the other party was a Orthodox Cultivator, the white-haired old man let out a long sigh of relief. He then bowed his hands to the gray-robed old man and said: "I don't know which immortal mountain the senior comes from? This old man has cultivated outside the Yuanyuan Immortal Mountain for fifteen years."

  "Guiyuan Mountain?" The old man in gray thought for a moment, but it was clear that he couldn't recall any such immortal's gate in Yizhou. "Which of you knows where Guiyuan Mountain is?"

  More than ten people mostly shook their heads, and after a while, a beautiful girl who looked over twenty years old opened her mouth with a hint of uncertainty: "It seems that one of the three-generation disciples of our Jiuhuan Mountain has opened a Taoist temple in a place called Guiyuan Mountain."

  After finishing speaking, the beautiful girl turned her head and asked the white-haired old man: "Is your entry-level exercise called Thousand Tribulations Hundred Turns?"

  The old man with white hair nodded repeatedly as soon as he heard the name. He had indeed learned this skill called "Thousand Calamities and Hundred Turns" when he was on Mount Guiyuan, but unfortunately, he didn't have the talent for cultivating immortality. After fifteen years of practice, he only managed to complete two hundred calamities and eventually left the mountain in disappointment, returning to this island of Barbarian Dragon.

  "Do you know what's going on with the spiritual roots of these seventeen children? Why did your island suddenly produce so many single-attribute pure spiritual roots, while all of you others don't have any spiritual roots at all?" As he spoke, the old man in gray robes carefully examined everyone in the empty space again, and once more confirmed that except for the seventeen or so children around ten years old, none of the others had spiritual roots, including those few-year-old toddlers. This was truly a strange occurrence that could be called unprecedented in thousands of years.

  "Essence Root!" The white-haired old man had cultivated for fifteen years, although he hadn't achieved anything remarkable, but when it came to Essence Roots, he was extremely familiar. Upon hearing that there were seventeen children with Essence Roots on his island, the white-haired old man almost became so overjoyed that he fainted on the spot.

  As soon as he saw the white-haired old man's expression, the gray-robed old man secretly furrowed his brow and then casually waved out a silver-white light ball that entered the white-haired old man's forehead.

  The white-haired old man suddenly felt his spirit greatly invigorated, and the true yuan in his body, which had already begun to dry up, suddenly came back to life again, and more so than at any other time. He, who understood a little, hastily bowed deeply to the gray-robed old man, before opening his mouth to say: "Returning to the Upper Immortal, I'm not quite clear why these children possess spiritual roots. This old man's cultivation is limited, unable to investigate the spiritual root."

  The old man in grey robes furrowed his brow, then seemed to turn back and converse with the surrounding cultivators for a while, but the fishermen on the empty ground couldn't hear any sound.

  After a while, the gaze of the old man in gray robes turned to the white-haired old man again. "Did anything strange happen on your island eight years ago?"

  Among all the children under twenty years old on the empty land, the one with the smallest spiritual root was a ten-year-old girl who looked very cute, while the oldest child without spiritual roots was an eight-year-old boy. From this, it can be roughly inferred that the reason for this strange situation should have occurred eight years ago.

  The old man with white hair was taken aback after hearing this, but he apparently didn't quite understand and asked, "Immortal, isn't the spiritual root said to be either innate or cultivated through practicing immortal techniques?"

  He had also cultivated for fifteen years, although he didn't have any achievements, but he learned a lot of common sense about cultivating immortals. The formation of the spiritual root was one of them. According to his knowledge, the spiritual root should come from parents, that is, innate. As for those acquired later in life, they can only be called pseudo-spiritual roots. Moreover, most of the time, pseudo-spiritual roots cannot be called spiritual roots at all, but rather a clever trick in the cultivation path. Furthermore, the spiritual root obtained through clever tricks in later life is much more difficult to cultivate than the innate spiritual root.

  "The spiritual root is indeed mostly innate, but it's not impossible to acquire later in life. The path to acquiring it later in life is just extremely difficult, so it's not known to the masses."

  For the dialogue between the two, everyone heard it in their ears. At this time, the middle-aged man who spoke before suddenly opened his mouth and said: "Immortal, nine years ago when there was a severe drought, our Manlong Island did have a strange thing happen. I remember that day when I came back, I saw these little brats moving a white giant turtle as big as a millstone."

  "What's this about a giant turtle?" Everyone's curiosity was piqued, including the white-haired old man, who clearly had never heard of it before. "What kind of giant turtle is this? Why have you never mentioned it to me before?"

  The middle-aged man saw everyone's gaze turned to himself, and he smiled somewhat awkwardly. "Around our island of Man Long, the most common thing is the giant turtle. If I hadn't seen that giant turtle looking a bit strange at the time, I wouldn't have remembered it in my heart. Besides, if the immortal above hadn't asked just now, I would have almost forgotten about this matter."

  "Nine years ago there was a great drought in the Barbarian Dragon Lake? How come I've never heard of it?" The old man in gray suddenly asked strangely.

  Facing the question of the gray-robed old man, the white-haired old man hastily replied: "Reporting to the superior immortal, nine years ago our Barbarian Dragon Lake indeed experienced a severe drought, at that time the water in the lake dropped by nearly three zhang, however this severe drought only lasted for less than half a month."

  The Manlong Lake is located in the southeastern corner of Yanzhou. Given its size, a severe drought in Yanzhou would not have had a significant impact on an area like Manlong Lake that was originally abundant with water. Moreover, since it lasted for a short period, no one paid much attention to it except for the fishermen living by the lake.

  At this time, the old man in gray robes suddenly cast his gaze towards an eighteen-year-old youth among the crowd. Perhaps because of his relatively advanced age, he was one of only two individuals who had not been taken away when the Spiritual Roots were seized during his youth. "Young fellow, you should recall the situation back then!"

  The young man, now eighteen years old, certainly remembered the situation at that time. He saw the young man bow to the gray-robed elder and all the cultivators on the scene, and then opened his mouth: "Nine years ago, I still have some memories of the situation. At that time, due to the severe drought, the lake water receded quickly, and many large turtles on the island could not retreat with the water in time. So we started helping these large turtles move their homes. The largest one was that white turtle. I remember that although it wasn't the largest of those big turtles, it was the heaviest. More than a dozen of us couldn't move it, and in the end, we could only push it little by little to where there was water. We pushed for three whole days before pushing it into the water."

  "Do you still remember what was strange about that big white tortoise?" The old man in gray asked after thinking for a moment.

  The young man heard this question, carefully recalling it for a while before speaking: "I don't remember the specific appearance, but I remember that the big white turtle had a very large mouth, and there were several long whiskers around its mouth like a carp."

  At this point, the young man paused for a moment, but just as everyone was lost in thought, he continued to speak: "In addition, there is another thing, that big white turtle has very large eyes and two horns on its head."

  "Longzi Baxia!" After hearing the young man's last words, almost all the cultivators, including the old man in gray, exclaimed in unison. For a moment, everyone's gaze towards the lake outside the island was filled with a hint of horror, as if the Longzi Baxia they spoke of was right there in the water.

  "Now that we've got the situation clear, let's divide these seventeen people among us. My Tianjian Sect will take two of them." As soon as he finished speaking, the old man in grey robes beckoned with his hand and first retrieved the girl who had been returned earlier to his side, then brought out the youth who had just spoken about the White Tortoise.

  The old man in grey just finished his move, and the beautiful girl from Jiuhuan Mountain immediately followed up by saying: "I also need two people from Jiuhuan Mountain." After that, she picked out another slightly older girl from the crowd, adding to the girl she had previously picked out beside her, making a total of two girls.

  Among these cultivators, it was clear that the two of them had the highest status or the greatest backing. After they finished picking, the remaining thirteen young men and women were allocated by the remaining cultivators. The whole process was very fast, after all, almost everyone had already grabbed one next to them before, now the remaining ones just needed to be swapped for the spiritual root attributes they needed.

  After the distribution was over, the old man in grey robes looked at the white-haired old man who was still excited and said, "Old gentleman, we will take these children away. I don't know if you agree or not."

  The selection has already been completed, and the old man in grey is simply a typical case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Not only the old man in white, but also the parents of these young men and women are all excited. Becoming an immortal is something that ordinary fishermen dare not even dream of, so they naturally cannot oppose it.

  "If all of you immortals can take a liking to these children, that would be their good fortune as well as the good fortune of our Savage Island."

  The old man in grey robes smiled and nodded, but when he saw several crying girls among them, he couldn't help but frown. After a moment's thought, the old man said very succinctly: "Take your children back and explain to them. They will be gone for at least over ten years, or even dozens or hundreds of years, and may never come back. We'll wait here for an hour."

  For those who are about to part with their loved ones, a watch is very fast. After a watch, more than a dozen figures took the young men and women of the Barbarian Dragon Island directly into the sky, but just as they left not long after, the white-haired old man suddenly exclaimed: "Damn it, we forgot that kid Leng Yun."