Chapter 3: The Dragon Energy of the Son of Heaven

  Put the jade token away, before he could cultivate his body to the point where it was immune to all poisons, he still had to rely on this treasure that he previously didn't think much of to save his life. So since its creation, the jade token has been carried with him at all times - as long as he had it on him, even if he were poisoned, he could preserve his life and if he put it in his mouth in time, he could detoxify.

  As soon as he finished, a palace maid came in to light the lamps in his bedroom. Although Liu Xuan was not a highly regarded prince, he was still a prince after all, and in terms of living conditions, there wasn't much to be worried about. His food, clothing, and daily necessities were almost on par with those of the top-ranking princes in the palace.

  At the same time, the palace maids assigned to him were all young and beautiful women, which in a way meant that they were at his disposal. However, Liu Xuan never made a move on any of them, which not only surprised the people in the palace but also his father, Emperor Ling of Han, who even privately commented to his trusted eunuch Zhang Rang: "Xuan is still young, yet he can be so self-disciplined; if he were to become emperor, he might make a wise ruler!"

  Only Zhang Rang knew about this in the palace, and after Liu Hong finished speaking, he regretted it. He never mentioned it again from that day on, and even intentionally avoided seeing Liu Xuan from then on. But he didn't know that his words had been secretly remembered by Zhang Rang.

  Liu Xuan didn't know about this matter, and even if he did, he wouldn't have paid attention to it. After the palace maids left, Liu Xuan returned to his own bed, then released the white crane made of white silk, looked around cautiously, and slowly began to cultivate the Dragon Qi of the Son of Heaven again.

  White day cultivation is to absorb the scattered heavenly dragon energy, and at night it's not convenient to absorb, mainly tempering the heavenly dragon energy inside the body. Otherwise, although the dragon energy is absorbed into the body, it won't listen to commands, and when operating it will inevitably be awkward. Liu Xuan has cultivated once before, so he naturally wouldn't make this mistake.

  "True power is the power that can be used for me, and the power that cannot be commanded is useless no matter how strong it is!"

  At present, the dragon energy in his body still presents a smoke-like state, which is only the initial stage of the heavenly dragon energy. It doesn't even count as completing the first step. When he started cultivating this technique, as long as he condensed some dragon energy, the dragon energy in his body would be in this state.

  It starts with a misty appearance, and as the dragon energy gradually increases, the white mist will gradually turn light yellow, then golden. Only when all the cloud energy turns golden can the next stage begin, condensing the dragon egg.

  This dragon egg is not a metaphor, but a real condensation of an egg. Only when this dragon egg has condensed can the heavenly son's dragon energy be considered to have laid its foundation.

  Immediately afterwards, it entered the incubation period... During this period, the dragon's energy was very awkward, with basically no benefits at all. The absorbed dragon energy could not be called upon and was all condensed within the body, surrounding the dragon egg to warm and nourish it constantly until this stage passed completely.

  When the dragon egg hatches, the young dragon will break out of its shell and enter the next stage, which is the juvenile dragon stage. The young dragon born from the dragon egg is extremely small, but even so, the dragon's aura has already been initially cultivated, and what needs to be done next is much simpler, that is, to continuously cultivate and raise this young dragon into a golden giant dragon.

  But that's not all, the Taoist said nine is extreme, this one golden dragon can't be considered strong, if it's just like this, the Tianzi Dragon Qi can't be considered a top-notch skill. If you want to practice Tianzi Dragon Qi to perfection, you must practice out nine golden dragons, only then can Tianzi Dragon Qi be truly practiced.

  According to Liu Xuan's initial estimate, if the Heavenly Dragon Qi could be cultivated to the realm of eight golden dragons, it would already surpass his cultivation back then. If it could be cultivated to nine golden dragons, those enemies would basically have no one who could be his opponent. However, these things are still very far away, and there is no need to think so much now.

  Now his dragon energy is only slightly yellowish, far from golden, let alone the nine golden dragons.

  Logically speaking, although the dragon energy is thin at the end of the dynasty, it's not like he can't even complete the first step after more than a decade. It's just that he used a considerable amount of dragon energy for his own purposes. The current Liu Xuan is over eight feet tall, and he estimates that he is slightly shorter than Guan Yu, but he won't be at a disadvantage when facing Zhang Fei.

  Because of the previous sneak attack, the weakness of his physical body also made him vigilant - in the previous cultivation, he thought that with a companion by his side, the weakness of his physical body was nothing to worry about, but unexpectedly, someone caught this weakness and stabbed him in the back, causing him to almost lose his life.

  This time he was reborn, he wanted to avenge his past grievances again, and he was alone again. He couldn't make the same mistake again, so after absorbing the dragon's energy into his body, his primary goal was to refine his physical body.

  Especially after learning that he was in the late Han Dynasty, he understood more clearly in his heart. First, he would temper his body to make it strong and powerful, then combine some means to protect himself, which wouldn't be a problem. After that, he could slowly cultivate, and at that time, he could roam freely without any worries. Moreover, he also had to consider the fact that he couldn't use the dragon energy inside his body during the Dragon Egg period, so it was safer to make his body stronger first.

  So this physical body of his, combined with his originally not bad looks, can be considered as having a dignified appearance, and it matches the name he has in this life.

  Surname Liu, name Xuan, courtesy name Zi Ang——soon after birth, the then Grand Servant Cao Teng helped to give him a courtesy name, taking the meaning of being majestic and proud. Originally, Liu Xuan had hoped to establish some connection with this old eunuch, but unfortunately Cao Teng had already left the imperial palace to retire, leaving his original plan empty.

  He had been thinking too much, Liu Xuan re-collected his mind and focused on refining the dragon energy within his body.

  According to his estimation, the physical body has basically been tempered and refined by now. From then on, as long as he focuses on absorbing and refining the dragon energy, it will be fine. It won't take too long for all the cloud energy to turn golden yellow. If he can ascend to the throne himself, the speed of his cultivation will be even faster.

  Because of the Dragon Qi of the Son of Heaven, this technique is extremely special. It can even be said that it was precisely because of this technique that he chose to rebuild his physical body in the Imperial Family.

  Liu Xuan wanted to avenge, but his last cultivation consumed an unknown amount of time. This time, he wants the fastest way to recover his original strength by borrowing external forces. The Tianzi Longqi's cultivation method is a special skill that he inadvertently obtained and completed after modifying it himself.

  Alas, at that time his own cultivation was already extremely high, and this technique required him to disperse his energy and start over, so he didn't practice it, just leaving it aside.

  At present, this situation is actually very suitable for cultivating the Dragon Qi of the Son of Heaven. Moreover, if the cultivation of the Dragon Qi of the Son of Heaven goes smoothly, he can recover his original strength in a very short period of time, because this technique can borrow the power of a country to enhance its strength.

  As the name of this kung fu suggests, the Dragon's Breath is a symbol of the Son of Heaven, corresponding to the emperor of a country. The stronger and more prosperous the dynasty or country, the stronger the dragon's breath will be. If the person practicing this kung fu is the Son of Heaven himself, it would be equivalent to using the entire flourishing dynasty as the foundation for his practice, making his progress naturally extremely rapid.

  Everything has its pros and cons, if this country is already in the late stage of the dynasty, then the dragon energy will be scarce, not only is it extremely difficult to cultivate, but there is also a possibility of backsliding.

  To put it another way, if Liu Xuan were to enter a powerful dynasty, then even if he didn't ascend to the throne, as long as he was just a close relative of the imperial family, he could possess the dragon's aura foundation and use it to cultivate and become stronger.

  If it were the end of the dynasty, even if he was the emperor, due to the gradual decline of national power, he would not be able to gather strong dragon energy even if he sat on the throne. In the late dynasty, almost all the royal family members did not have dragon energy in their bodies. This can be seen from Liu Xuan's birth as a prince without dragon energy and having to rely on seizing his younger brother's dragon energy to lay the foundation.

  Of course, this situation is not irreversible. Liu Xuan's constant tempering of the dragon energy is to prevent it from dissipating easily, but this method is not a fundamental solution. The best way to solve this problem is for Liu Xuan to ascend to the throne and become emperor, standing at the pinnacle of the dynasty, then using his cultivated dragon energy to protect the dynasty, and subsequently using the stable environment created by this dragon energy to nurture even more powerful dragon energy, thus forming a virtuous cycle.

  That is to say, Liu Xuan not only had to ascend the throne but also had to save this dynasty that was on the verge of collapse and turn it into a prosperous era. Only then would his dragon energy have a chance to fully develop.

  Perhaps someone who knows Liu Xuan's situation would say, since the Dragon Qi of the Son of Heaven is so cautious, why bother cultivating? Liu Xuan is also a fairy person, can't he just use another technique?

  In fact, apart from the Dragon's aura of the Son of Heaven, which can be cultivated relatively quickly in a suitable environment, there is another reason. That is, Liu Xuan's enemy is not just one or two people, but a huge Xiuzhen Empire. This empire was originally co-founded by Liu Xuan and some partners, but now it has become a protective umbrella for those enemies.

  If he wanted to avenge himself, he would have to confront that powerful nation. Even if Liu Xuan was extremely strong, he couldn't withstand the siege of tens of thousands of experts. Moreover, when he had been messing around earlier, he had accidentally created many powerful purely military artifacts. If he were to charge in recklessly like this, even with his high cultivation level, it's likely that he would still be unable to escape a fate of having his soul scattered and his body destroyed.

  "To avenge, apart from becoming stronger myself, I must also establish my own powerful force!" Clenching his fist, Liu Xuan didn't think this goal was difficult at all: "Since I could build a powerful empire back then, this time I can definitely do it again!"

  Although he was alone this time, he came to the end of the Han Dynasty. What this era lacked most was top talent. As long as he could gather a portion of it, establishing a prosperous dynasty would not be difficult. Moreover, he still bore the name of the legitimate Han Dynasty.