Chentang Pass was a majestic fortress of the realm, garrisoned by three thousand troops, serving as the eastern gateway of Great Shang. That Li Jing was able to become the commander of Chentang Pass and hold such a crucial stronghold meant he was undoubtedly deeply trusted by the King of Shang.
Had Nezha not acted so unreasonably, Li Jing, as a confidant of the King of Shang, would have had no need to fear the Dragon King of the East Sea at all.
This was why the Dragon King of the East Sea had not simply captured Li Jing to threaten Nezha, but had instead gone to the Heavenly Court to lodge a complaint; he simply lacked the standing to take action against Li Jing.
Because of Nezha, Li Jing had suffered snubs and grievances everywhere in front of outsiders. Yet without Nezha, he once again became the military commander of Great Shang, commanding thousands of men. Aside from the feudal lords, who dared give him a hard time?
When Ao Bing arrived at Chentang Pass, Li Jing was drilling his troops.
Thousands of soldiers were gathered together for the drills, their shouts of battle echoing ceaselessly. From afar, Ao Bing saw a surge of dark red baleful aura shooting straight into the sky, tearing the clouds above to shreds.
The sheer might of it made Ao Bing frown. He reckoned that even an ordinary Celestial Immortal, once struck by this soaring baleful aura, would have their body and soul completely destroyed.
"The reason Great Shang can make immortals and gods fearful is not solely due to the protection of the Human Realm; its own strength is formidable as well. If three thousand troops can be like this, what of thirty thousand, three hundred thousand, or three million?"
"I fear even a Daluo Golden Immortal could not withstand it and would be torn to pieces by the baleful aura."
Ao Bing now somewhat understood why someone as formidable as a Chan Sect Golden Immortal would rather avoid offending Great Shang.
If tens of thousands of troops were brought out to practice military exercises in front of a Daoist sanctuary, who could endure it? No matter how fine the grotto-heaven was, once struck by this monstrous baleful aura, its spiritual essence would be utterly ruined and impossible to restore for tens of thousands of years.
Not long after Ao Bing arrived at Chentang Pass, Li Jing seemed to sense something on the drill ground and looked up at the sky.
"The clouds in the sky have suddenly transformed into the shape of a dragon; it is Lord Long. Why has he come here out of the blue? Could that brat Nezha have stirred up some new trouble that implicates me?"
Merely by observing the changing clouds, Li Jing knew Ao Bing had arrived. Yet he could not fathom why, after so many years, Ao Bing had suddenly come to find him.
"Commander Chen, Ao Bing has come this time to ask you for a batch of people."
Descending from the clouds, Ao Bing approached Li Jing and dispensed with the pleasantries, cutting straight to the point.
Toward Li Jing, Ao Bing had no need for courtesy. Whether the two of them would become enemies was hard to say, but because of Nezha, they certainly would not become friends.
Crying favor with him would be, for Ao Bing, an absolute waste of time.
"Lord Long wishes to demand whom from Li?"
Li Jing could sense Ao Bing's coldness, which actually brought a sense of relief to him as he did not quite know how to face Ao Bing. He replied in an equally strictly professional tone.
"Back then, after Nezha stripped my skin and pulled out my tendons, he carved off the greater part of my flesh and distributed it to the nearby commoners to eat. What I am asking you for are those very commoners who once ate my flesh."
said Ao Bing.
"This..."
Li Jing did not reply immediately. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "I wonder what purpose Lord Long has in demanding these commoners?"
His first thought was that Ao Bing intended to devour these commoners in order to reshape his physical body and reclaim his lost flesh.
Such things had happened before, so Li Jing was reluctant to agree. He was the commander of a town, charged with the duty of protecting the commoners.
If Ao Bing truly intended to devour these commoners, then even though Ao Bing was of noble feudal status, Li Jing would resist him to the death; this was his bottom line as a human being.
"Longzhou has newly emerged, and though it possesses countless manifestations of fortune, it lacks living beings to inhabit it. Since those commoners ate my flesh, they are bound to me by fate. I intend to take them to Longzhou so they may multiply and thrive there."
Seeing the expression on Li Jing's face, Ao Bing guessed what he was thinking and offered an explanation.
"So that's how it is!"
Hearing Ao Bing say this, Li Jing could not help but let out a sigh of relief, and then quickly said, "Longzhou is an Innate blessed land; to be able to relocate there is truly the fortune of these commoners. Lord Long is most thoughtful."
Since it was not about slaughtering people, but rather relocating them to Longzhou, Li Jing had no reason to stop him and thus personally led Ao Bing to the village where his dragon meat had once been divided and eaten.
...
By this time, nearly twenty years had passed since the events of those years.
Because they had eaten dragon meat, the former villagers had not aged with the passage of time; instead, they had grown increasingly robust, gradually transforming into Dragon-men.
Dragon-men were not the Human-Dragon lineage, but rather the descendants of the Dragon Clan and the Human race. Though they possessed human bodies, their skin grew dragon scales, their heads bore dragon horns, and dragon tails trailed behind them. The purer their bloodline, the more prominent their dragon traits.
The assimilation ability of the Dragon Clan was exceptionally strong; if a puddle of dragon urine fell and fish or shrimp consumed it, it could open up the path of Dragon Transformation, let alone dragon meat.
It was because he had foreseen their changes that Ao Bing had taken the initiative to seek them out and bring them to Longzhou.
Having eaten his dragon meat, they were already different from ordinary people. Coupled with the environment of Longzhou, if they embarked on the path of cultivation, the probability of them becoming Celestial Immortals might not be high, but cultivating to the Void Refinement Realm would be an effortless task.
Do not underestimate the Void Refinement Realm. This was no longer the primeval era, when every single Heavenly Soldier was a Celestial Immortal. Nowadays, the Heavenly Court recruited Heavenly Soldiers starting from the Void Refinement Realm, and Celestial Immortals could already serve as minor leaders.
Placed in the even weaker Dragon Palaces of the Four Seas, Void Refinement experts were considered junior commanders; many of the shrimp soldiers and crab generals were merely at the Innate stage.
This group of commoners all possessed the aptitude for Void Refinement, making them well worth nurturing. To say the least, using them to prop up the facade was absolute overkill.
Of course, Ao Bing was certainly not seeking them out just to prop up a facade, but rather in connection with the creation of the Human-Dragon lineage.
Though Dragon-men and the Human-Dragon lineage had little to do with each other, the Human-Dragon lineage after all bore the word "Dragon." Therefore, when it came to the transformation into a Human-Dragon, humans possessing the dragon bloodline undoubtedly held a greater advantage than ordinary people.
People without dragon blood were not necessarily geniuses, but people with dragon blood were certainly geniuses. And if geniuses cultivated the Human-Dragon Scripture, it would naturally be easier for them to transform into Human-Dragons compared to ordinary people.
Since Ao Bing could not create Innate Human-Dragons, he had no choice but to find a way to make ordinary people transform into Human-Dragons postnatally. Innate or postnatal—the Heavenly Dao did not care either way, as long as they were Human-Dragons.
The probability of a genius transforming into a Human-Dragon was already higher than that of an ordinary person. And because this group of commoners had eaten Ao Bing's dragon meat, they had formed a bond with Ao Bing, the ancestor of the Human-Dragons, making the probability of their transformation into Human-Dragons even greater.
Furthermore, because of this bond, even if they achieved success in their future cultivation, they would never be able to betray Ao Bing. From whichever angle one looked at it, if Ao Bing wanted to create postnatal Human-Dragons, they were the absolute best choice.
"In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed, and what was once a small village of several hundred people has now grown to over a thousand."
"And because of intermarriage, several nearby villages also have many villagers possessing dragon blood. Taken all together, it amounts to no less than two or three thousand people."
"Very good!"
Arriving at the original village, Ao Bing swept it with his divine sense, and the changes of the past twenty years were completely reflected in his mind.
Then, after a brief word with Li Jing, he executed a divine ability, stirring up a violent gale that swept away nearly ten thousand people from the surrounding area all at once.
Only two or three thousand people possessed dragon blood. Though the rest lacked dragon blood, they were their relatives, and Ao Bing could not bear to leave them behind to fend for themselves, so he simply took them all along.
Anyway, Longzhou was large enough; a mere ten thousand people was nothing, and even if there were ten thousand times more, it would still be insignificant.
"I am Lord Long of Great Shang. You and I share a bond of fate, and today I have specially manifested my sacred presence to take you all to Longzhou and impart the Great Dao to you."
Along the way, Ao Bing offered a brief explanation of the relationship between them to the panicked commoners.
In this era, immortals and gods frequently haunted the Mortal Realm, and the commoners were long accustomed to it. Thus, upon hearing Ao Bing's explanation, far from feeling the panic of leaving their homeland, they were filled with anticipation for the future.
Given the opportunity, who would not want to achieve Immortal Ascension?
...
Just as Ao Bing was leading the people back to Longzhou, deep within the East Sea, a gigantic golden turtle suddenly emerged from the void, slowly sinking into the water and transforming into a massive island.
This island was called Jinao Island, the Daoist sanctuary of Master Tongtian and the mountain gate of Jiejiao.
In an instant, all the disciples of Jiejiao felt a sympathetic resonance in their hearts and looked in the direction of Jinao Island.
"Hmm? It is still a thousand years away from Teacher's lecture on the Dao; why has Jinao Island appeared ahead of schedule?"
Master Tongtian lectured on the Dao once every ten thousand years. During this period, Jinao Island, which usually remained hidden in the void, would appear in the East Sea, and anyone so inclined could go and listen to the Dao.
Yet at this moment, a mere nine thousand years had passed since Master Tongtian's last lecture. Logically speaking, Jinao Island should not have appeared until a thousand years later.
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