Dragon God Sacred Realm

"Now then, where do we begin… First, we already know who you are, so spare us the details.", Zhang Baichi said lightly.

He was still squatting in front of Gu Liang, the leader of the Broad Wisdom Sect's disciples and last survivor of their group.

A few words and some light torture was all that was needed to make the prideful young man willing to talk, and to sell out the powers behind him.

With a small smile on his face, Zhang Baichi looked at him and continued. "Why don't you tell us what you know about this Mystic Realm, and what your mission here is."

"Ah, yes, yes…", the young man muttered. "The Beastwilds Mystic Realm is not a normal Mystic Realm. It's an ancient ritual site from the Ancient Era. Historically, people called it the Dragon God Sacred Realm."

Zhang Baichi and the others frowned. Just this piece of information alone was already more than their sects knew about the Mystic Realm; They had never even heard its real name before! "Continue."

"During the Ancient Era, humanity would send their most beautiful woman and their strongest men to the Sacred Realm to serve the Dragon God. In return, the Dragon God would bless humanity and grant them prosperity.", the young man continued.

In the ancient times, humans really did worship dragons, that much was common knowledge. Even today, dragons were generally associated with those of power and royalty.

However, Zhang Baichi had never heard of the Ancient Era, nor of the so-called Dragon God. Judging by the confused expressions of his friends, neither had they.

"Back then, humanity was weak, so they could only seek out the Dragon God for protection to survive. However, when the Ancient Era ended, the Dragon God vanished, as did the Dragon God Sacred Realm.", Gu Liang said.

He looked at Zhang Baichi with fervour in his eyes. "An ancestor of my clan has only recently found out that the Dragon God Sacred Realm has reappeared in this remote Grand Mo Kingdom. To reclaim our clan's glory, the ancestor sent us to liberate the Dragon God Sacred Realm again!"

'This guy; Is he a religious fanatic?', Zhang Baichi looked Gu Liang in the eye and the fervour he saw surprised him. 'His Gu Clan's glory, huh? Are they an ancient clan? But nothing he did or said before had anything to do with dragons or this Dragon God.'

"So, in order to enter the Beastwilds Mystic Realm, or Dragon God Sacred Realm, you made a deal with the Broad Wisdom Sect?", Lu Zheng asked from the side.

Gu Liang sneered. "The Broad Wisdom Sect begged us to assist them when they heard that we wanted to enter the Sacred Realm. They would hide our identities, give us all the glory, and serve our Gu Clan in the future. In return, we will help them unite the Grand Mo Kingdom under their rule."

"…They're not just breaking the code between sects but are also rebelling against the Mo Royal Family?", Zhang Baichi's frown deepened. If that was true, then it wouldn't end with just a few disciples sneaking into the Mystic Realm.

'There might be war. Once we leave, I have to inform Master about this. The whole kingdom might be in danger.' All of the disciples of the two sects had the same thought.

They had to report their findings as soon as possible, but it was impossible to leave the Beastwilds Mystic Realm before the time was up; Every year, there the Mystic Realm would be open for one month, no longer and no shorter.

For now, Zhang Baichi concluded that the best way to help would be to gather even more information. However, even as the young master of the Gu Clan, Gu Liang was not privy to any concrete information about the planned attacks on the Grand Mo Kingdom; He was merely responsible for the 'liberation' of the Mystic Realm.

"Then, how did you plan to 'liberate' this Dragon God Sacred Realm? Why were you going to the Dragon Peak?", Zhang Baichi questioned.

"The liberation is not hard; We only have to wake the Dragon God again. Our preparations were already complete, so we wanted to worship the ancient murals, and kill all of you.", Gu Liang grew more quiet the more he spoke, but Zhang Baichi didn't react.

"What preparations?", he asked, stressing on the important points.

Gu Liang flinched and answered just as fast. "We have already found one of the ancient altars deep under the ground. From there, we can ascend to the ritual site and bring our offerings before the Dragon God."

Yu Hao looked at Zhang Baichi and frowned. This sounded very similar to what Zhang Baichi had allegedly seen on the murals at the foot of the Dragon Peak. On another hand, the ancient altars deep under the ground also left him thinking about a certain place.

"Brother Zhang, could the cave we first saw lead to one of those ancient altars?", he spoke out loud, not bothering to hide the information from anyone.

Zhang Baichi nodded at him and turned to Gu Liang. "Where are those ancient altars? And how do we use them to 'ascend'?"

"The altars are spread around the Mystic Realm; One in the north-west, one in the north-east, the south-west, and south-east.", Gu Liang said.

Zhang Baichi cut him off after that. "And a tunnel leads deep under the ground towards each of them?"

This was what they had seen when they first entered the Mystic Realm; A cave leading infinitely deep underground, completely devoid of any Demonbeasts. Gu Liang looked surprised at his conjunction but nodded his head. "Yes, that's right."

With his confirmation, the disciples behind him grew slightly restless. They had already found a distinct clue to solving the mysteries surrounding the Beastwilds Mystic Realm and might actually be able to find the true core of the Mystic Realm.

Compared to them, Zang Baichi was still level-headed and calmly continued to interrogate Gu Liang. "What about the other altars? You said your preparations were already complete?"

"We've found the two altars in the north-east and south-east, and sealed them to prevent anyone else from entering the Sacred Grounds. After sealing the third in the north-west, we would have dealt with your groups.", Gu Liang admitted.

Zhang Baichi was surprised to see just how cooperative Gu Liang was. Knowing that Gu Liang was a fervent believer of this Dragon God, he would expect him to be more hostile, but he was even smiling despite his injuries.

Something felt very off to him; It felt as if Gu Liang suddenly thought that he had the upper hand in this situation. It even felt like… 'He's leading us…? Does he want us to find the altars? But why?'

For a moment, Zhang Baichi mustered Gu Liang; His injuries had stagnated, but they were far, far from healing. He also did not have any treasures on him that could save him, so why would he be so confident.

'…System, give me throughout scan of Gu Liang. Is there anything special about him?'

[Ding! Performing a throughout scan on cultivator Gu Liang. One minute remaining.]

He had to wait for the system, so Zhang Baichi once again concentrated on his interrogation. Gu Liang had been explaining their 'preparations' while Zhang Baichi was lost in thought. In essence, their preparations were simply a blood sacrifice: One of their clan members would offer themselves to activate the altar.

"Why would human blood be the key to ascension?", Zhang Baichi frowned. This did not make sense to him at all.

In response, Gu Liang simply smiled at him with a toothy grin. "That's where we of the Gu Clan are superior to you humans. Our Clan has existed since the Ancient Era and the ancestor of our Clan was once blessed by the Dragon God! We are the descendants of the Dragon God!"

He fell into a fervent laughter, though quickly began to cough blood in between his laughs, making for an insane sight.

[Ding! Analysis completed. Cultivator Gu Liang's bloodline contains a very faint trace of dragon blood.]

The system confirmed Gu Liang's claims about his Clan, but Zhang Baichi quickly noticed a small, but very important difference: 'He doesn't have True Dragon Blood? Only regular 'dragon blood'?'

[Ding! Host is correct. Cultivator Gu Liang's bloodline does not stem from a True Dragon, but rather a mixed-blooded dragonkin. The trace is too faint to give conclusive information about what kind of dragonkin the bloodline stems from.]

'What a joke… This guy's whole clan is a joke. Descendants of the Dragon God? Blessed beings?', Zhang Baichi couldn't help but sneer. Not to mention Yu Hao, who refined a drop of pure True Dragon Blood, even the random Demonbeasts in this Mystic Realm had superior bloodlines compared to Gu Liang!

'When making a blood offering, I would guess that the quality is more important than the quality…', Zhang Baichi mused. 'Hey system, how does Yu Hao's bloodline compare to Gu Liang's?'

[Ding! A single drop of blood of cultivator Yu Hao is superior to all of the blood in the bodies of hundreds of cultivators like cultivator Gu Liang combined.]