Vol. 3 Chapter 87: The Dragon Palace Reappears


    Outside Lotus City, thunder echoed through the air.


    The massive noise immediately alerted the cultivators within the city.


    Inside the city, a woman in palace robes with the highest cultivation level opened her eyes and instantly teleported outside her cave abode.


    Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!


    Moments later, several Nascent Soul cultivators appeared beside her.


    “Elder…”


    If Lin Jing were here, he would surely recognize that these Nascent Soul cultivators were all instructors from the academy.


    Among them, Lin Jing had even taken classes from two.


    As for the woman in palace attire, she was one of the academy’s Nascent Soul Transformation Elders.


    Back when the Nanshan Demon Emperor invaded or during the Autumn Hunt, this elder had made an appearance.


    During the academy''s mass teleportation incident, it wasn''t just Foundation Establishment students who were affected—even Nascent Soul instructors and Soul Transformation Elders had no way to resist the power of the transmission treasure.


    This group of academy experts had happened to land in Qingzhou.


    After arriving in Qingzhou, they didn’t rush back to the Ancient Kingdom.


    First, traversing the Misty Forest was extremely dangerous.


    Second, many students were still scattered across various regions.


    As teachers, their top priority was to gather all the other academy prodigies who had also been displaced to Qingzhou, then return to the Ancient Kingdom together.


    For now, this Tongtian Dao Lotus City served as their temporary base.


    These academy instructors had already spread the word, telling all students who had arrived in Qingzhou to gather here if possible.


    “It’s the little princess of the Thunder Dragon Clan,” one instructor said. “She’s been going around challenging human prodigies of the same realm… and now she’s made it to Lotus City.”


    “She’s accompanied by a Thunder Dragon prince at the Soul Transformation Stage. Just let a few students spar with her. No need for us to intervene…”


    “If I remember right, this Thunder Dragon Clan is part of the Demon Court…” another instructor hesitated. “The Beast Taming Path and the Demon Court are entangled. Could our academy student Lin Jing have already been found by the Demon Court?”


    “Does this Thunder Dragon Princess know anything? Should we question her?”


    “Highly unlikely,” the woman in palace attire said. “The various clans of the Demon Court operate more like a coalition. Each beast clan doesn’t have close ties with the others.


    Although Xu Qingyao from the Beast Taming Path became the Demon Court’s Third Saintess, major clans with Void Mystical Ancestors have little to do with the Saintesses.


    Only beast clans without a ‘Beast Ancestor’ backing them would invest heavily in a Saintess, hoping it would help their clan rise.


    The Thunder Dragon Clan has always remained isolated. It’s extremely unlikely they’d have much interaction with any of the Saintesses.”


    “No need to worry about Lin Jing. Just leave that to the Vice Dean…”


    As she finished speaking, some academy prodigies, under the instructors’ voice transmissions, began heading out of the city to face the Thunder Dragon Princess.


    In Qingzhou, aside from this group of academy experts, there was also a Vice Dean at the Void Mystical Stage who had come to look for Lin Jing.


    Not because of Lin Jing’s identity as an academy student or Ancient Kingdom prodigy, but simply to prevent the Corpse Yin Sect or Gu God Sect from gaining an advantage.


    Since the Corpse Yin Sect valued the Longevity Body so much, they absolutely couldn’t be allowed to get it.


    Searching for and protecting Lin Jing was a way to thwart the enemy’s plans against the Ancient Kingdom and the academy.


    However, Lin Jing was too good at hiding.


    Even with the Vice Dean personally searching Qingzhou, they still couldn’t locate him.


    Even the experts from the Heaven’s Secrets Pavilion could only deduce that Lin Jing was somewhere in Qingzhou at the start.


    The item that Elder Shen Song gave Lin Jing to block divination truly came in handy.


    “They’re here!!!”


    At the same time, outside Lotus City, the Thunder Dragon Princess''s eyes lit up as she saw a group of over ten Ancient Kingdom prodigies flying toward her.


    Meanwhile, those dozen academy students were also studying her with serious expressions.


    The awe-inspiring divine dragon form stretching dozens of meters long, the gemstone-like scales glowing with lightning—none of them could muster the will to resist.


    “The instructors want us to fight this kind of monster?”


    Even though these academy students had toughened up after being stranded in Qingzhou, fighting the Thunder Dragon Princess still seemed like way too much.


    With her peak imperial-grade bloodline, unless one was ranked among the top few on the Prodigy Rankings of the Ancient Kingdom, they weren’t qualified to fight her.


    And among those top few, the academy had only one student prior to the teleportation event.


    That was Zhao Qingyue of the Zhao Family, who possessed the Supreme Yin Physique—number one on the Prodigy Rankings. If she were here, she could face the Thunder Dragon Princess without issue.


    But Zhao Qingyue hadn’t been teleported to Qingzhou.


    Among the students who were, the highest ranked was only 21st. sea??h thё Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    Even though 21st was still quite high, the gap compared to the top few was astronomical.


    Those at the top could easily crush ten ranked below them.


    All eyes turned to a finely dressed young man at peak Foundation Establishment.


    “I’ll take you on. I am Ji Changge from Ten Thousand Swords City—formerly ranked 21st on the Ancient Kingdom Prodigy Rankings!”


    This dashing youth was a sword cultivator. He flew on his sword, hands behind his back, standing atop a high-quality spiritual sword.


    “Twenty-first? That’s so low?” The Thunder Dragon Princess looked a bit disappointed.


    “That was in the past,” Ji Changge replied.


    Indeed, back then he had only ranked 21st. But since arriving in Qingzhou, he had experienced many fortuitous encounters and was no longer who he once was.


    In the past few years, his gains in Qingzhou far exceeded what he would’ve gotten from training at Sword City or the academy.


    Buzz—


    Powerful sword intent surged from Ji Changge’s body.


    The sharp aura began manifesting into tangible yellow flying swords around him—one, two, three…


    In the blink of an eye, 108 flying swords made entirely from sword intent formed a grand sword formation behind him.


    Each sword radiated a chilling aura, their blades reflecting the imagery of withered autumn leaves...


    “Great Mastery of the Withering Sword Intent. This sword intent can sap the opponent’s spiritual energy...”


    The surrounding academy students were all stunned—Ji Changge had achieved great mastery of his sword intent.


    This level of mastery was no less difficult than fully cultivating certain elemental spiritual physiques.


    However, despite Ji Changge displaying such power, the woman in palace robes and the instructors watching in secret still shook their heads.


    That sword intent alone still likely wouldn’t be enough against the Thunder Dragon Princess.


    After all, she had reportedly subdued other divine bodies with ease.


    Boom!!!


    As expected, despite countless great mastery sword intents falling on her, they didn’t even scratch her thunder scales.


    With one claw swipe, she smashed Ji Changge flying.


    “I told you, you’re too weak. Are you the strongest Foundation Establishment cultivator here? Doesn’t look like it.”


    The Thunder Dragon Princess showed no interest in the sword cultivator.


    Her gaze finally landed on two students in the group who were still calm amidst the shocked crowd.


    “You two… there’s a terrifying power sleeping inside you. Much stronger than that guy… Want to spar a bit?”


    Following her gaze, everyone turned to the pair of siblings.


    “The twin palace lords of the Dragon Palace—Jiang Lin and Jiang Qi? Did the Thunder Dragon just say they’re stronger than Senior Brother Ji?”


    The other students were stunned.


    Back at the academy, these siblings had only been mid-stage Foundation Establishment.


    They weren’t even ranked on the Prodigy List.


    Though now they had reached peak Foundation Establishment, it still didn’t seem like they should be stronger than Ji Changge.


    Many had previously questioned why Lin Jing handed his self-built Dragon Palace over to these two.


    Could it be that these siblings weren’t as simple as they looked?


    “How could it sense the Ice Soul Gu inside us…”


    The Jiang Family Twin Physique siblings exchanged glances—this was getting troublesome.