Chapter 85
Instead of a yard full of flowers as Hao Ren had expected, the Hundred-Flower Palace was a large hill. Premier Xia followed Hao Ren anxiously, afraid that he would touch something he shouldn't.
Keeping Premier Xia's warning in mind, Hao Ren just looked around and was careful not to touch anything without permission.
The Palace was enormous, and it was impossible for him to see everything there in a short time. Premier Xia gave him a small tour before leading him out.
When they were on their way out of the Hundred-Flower Palace, Premier Xia plucked two small red fruits and handed them to Hao Ren.
"These are…" Hao Ren asked.
"These are the most common fruits in the Hundred-Flower Palace," Premier Xia said with an ingratiating smile, "They aren't special except for the good taste. You may eat them for fun."
There was no reason for Premier Xia to trick him, so Hao Ren put the two cherry-sized fruits into his mouth. Chewing tentatively, he found that they were coreless, and he swallowed them right away.
A super cool sensation spread from his stomach outward to the acupoints all over his body. It felt like all his acupoints were purged and refreshed.
A surging strength instantly filled Hao Ren's body, and even the Mount Tai Bracelets on his wrists felt much lighter.
"These fruits really don't have anything special to them?" Hao Ren asked suspiciously when they walked out of the Hundred-Flower Palace.
Premier Xia nodded and confirmed, "They are just sweet fruits. Their power is very weak; one fruit would only give you five-years of cultivation progress of a mortal martial art master."
He spoke casually, but Hao Ren was stunned.
"One of these common roadside fruits in the Hundred-Flower Palace was equivalent to five-years of cultivation of a martial arts master? What about the rare herbs?" Hao Ren thought.
Premier Xia didn't give him much time to digest this information. He continued excitedly, "Next to the Hundred-Flower Palace is the Mystic Creature Palace. There live many ancient beasts that are extinct in the mortal world. However, we don't have any unique creatures such as Kirin or Phoenix there."
Listening to Premier Xia's introduction, Hao Ren felt like he was in a wildlife preserve where different animals had their own territories and followed the natural food chain. Premier Xia didn't dare to venture too deep in there with Hao Ren. After he pointed out several beautiful animals for Hao Ren to look at, he led him out of there quickly.
Next, they went to the Profound Cultivation Palace which had more guards than the previous two palaces. This palace was an exquisite seven-level paG.o.da with each level in a color of the rainbow; from the red bottom level to the purple top level with orange, yellow, green, indigo, and blue in between. Soldiers in gold armors were patrolling the outer fences around each level.
With Premier Xia as his guide, no one questioned Hao Ren when he entered the paG.o.dshaped Profound Cultivation Palace. The guards were informed of Hao Ren's ident.i.ty, and they all greeted him deferentially.
Embarra.s.sed by their formal greetings, Hao Ren followed Premier Xia into the palace in a hurry.
Spa.r.s.ely decorated, the palace had bookshelves built around the circular walls. In each of the compartments on the bookshelves. there were radiant books which were protected by array formations.
In the rare occasion that outsiders sneaked into the palace, they couldn't take the cultivation techniques with them if they couldn't break the array formations.
Seeing the confusion on Hao Ren's face, Premier Xia explained, "Fuma, the strength of our dragons is divided into the levels of Qian, Kun, Xun, Dui, Gen, Zhen, Li, and Kan. After breaking through the basic Spirit Concentration Scroll and entering Kan-level, one can cultivate more advanced techniques. The grade of the techniques is divided into the grades of red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, and purple. The cultivation techniques are respectively placed on the seven levels of the Profound Cultivation Palace.
He led Hao Ren to the second level and said, "The second level is for the Orange-Grade Techniques."
Hao Ren followed him up the levels one by one. The higher the level, the array formations for the protection of the books were more complicated and more powerful, undoubtedly with stronger defense and offense abilities. Of course, the higher the level, the smaller the area got, and the fewer the books.
When they got up to the fourth level, Premier Xia stopped. "Fuma, we have to stop here. I only have the authority to the first four levels. It means that the Green-Grade Techniques are the best techniques I have access to. Without Dragon King's permission, we can't go up any further," he said.
Hao Ren didn't want to cause trouble for Premier Xia, so he nodded and cast a glance at the fourth level before going downstairs. After all, he was on the second level of the Spirit Concentration Scroll and had a long way from Kan-level; these cultivation techniques were useless to him anyway.
Seeing the Fuma was so reasonable, Premier Xia felt a growing fondness for him.
When he was walking down the stairs, Hao Ren suddenly wondered what kind of cultivation technique Su Han, who had reached Qian-level, was using.
"Premier Xia, in theory, I can reach Qian-level with the most basic Red-Grade Techniques as long as I work hard, right?" Hao Ren asked when they were out of the Profound Cultivation Palace.
"In theory?" Premier Xia froze for a moment before answering, "I suppose so, but no one has ever reached Qian-level by practicing only Red-Grade Techniques. The better the techniques, the greater the power they contain, and faster the cultivation will be."
Looking back at the towering seven-level paG.o.da, Hao Ren was amazed at the large collection of techniques the East Ocean Dragon Clan had gotten in the past thousands of years. An ordinary sect would be proud to have three to four cultivation techniques, but this Dragon Palace had a collection of hundreds of them. No wonder smaller Dragon Clans had to come here to borrow cultivation techniques.
Premier Xia then took Hao Ren to the G.o.dly Treasure Palace which had three levels, and each level was crammed with all kinds of Dharma treasures. The s.h.i.+ning Dharma treasures were protected by their respective array formations.
The Dharma treasures were roughly divided into three grades: upper grade, intermediate grade, and lower grade; this grading system was much simpler compared to the cultivation techniques. According to Premier Xia, the best Dharma treasure for a cultivator was the one most fitting for him or her. Since the East Ocean Dragon Clan only collected the good ones, Premier Xia offered, "Fuma, if you like something, you can pick one. Access to the Dharma treasures is not strictly off limits as with the cultivation techniques. The East Ocean Dragon Clan has the best forge master who could make any Dharma treasures as long as you could provide the materials."
Premier Xia stood taller with pride when he said that.
Hao Ren was tempted since it was the only palace he had seen by now that was not off limits.
He spotted a pretty heart-shaped silver pendant.
"Won't it reflect badly on me if I give Zhao Yanzi this Dharma treasure as her birthday gift? It is technically from her home," Hao Ren thought.
Noticing Hao Ren's interest in the pendant, Premier Xia took a step forward and suggested, "This is a small-scale spatial Dharma treasure which could store objects smaller than two meters tall. However, I don't think the shape will look good on you."
"Is it difficult to make?" Hao Ren asked.
"It's a simple Dharma treasure that has little combat power. It gives you the convenience of carrying things around. This item here would be a better choice for you," Premier Xia explained patiently as he pointed at another Dharma treasure.
"Shall I give this to Su Han as a gift?" Hao Ren hesitated and thought, "She has done me many favors and tutored me with my cultivation. I will just tell her that this is a gift from the Dragon King."
He made the decision and took two steps forward to pick up the pendant.
Bing!
A white flash of light bounced Hao Ren's hands away.
"Mount Tai Bracelets!" Premier Xia was startled, "You are wearing Inspector's Mountain Tai Bracelets? You can't take this pendant then since Mount Tai Bracelets rejects all Dharma treasures."
"Is the Water Repellent Bead a Dharma treasure?" Hao Ren asked.
"It's a bead with a special power. However, it is not good enough to be a Dharma treasure. Only those that could be controlled by Dharma spells are Dharma treasures. The pendant which caught your eyes needs a Dharma spell to open the small storage s.p.a.ce inside," Premier Xia explained.
"Got it," Hao Ren replied.
"Su Han, Su Han, I meant to be nice and wanted to give you a gift. Well, I'd better work hard to reach Kan-level as soon as possible so I could get rid of the chains on my wrists," he thought.
Rubbing his sore wrists, Hao Ren had to give up on the Dharma treasure and walked out of the G.o.dly Treasure Palace.
Hurriedly, Premier Xia followed him out and asked, "Fuma, where do you want to go next? Shall I take you to the G.o.dly Elixir Palace for a tour?"
"Let's go to the Ice Palace you just mentioned. Is it off limits?" not wanting to dampen Premier Xia's spirit, Hao Ren asked after some consideration.
"No, it is not. However, it's quite cold in there. You must activate your cultivation technique to keep warm," Premier Xia said.
"Ok," Hao Ren nodded and followed Premier Xia in another direction.
On the way, Premier Xia said, "Fuma…"
"Call me Hao Ren. I'm uncomfortable being called Fuma," Hao Ren interrupted him.
"I don't dare to cross the line. Then I…" Premier Xia thought for a moment and asked, "…will call you Gongzi Hao. Can I?"
"Alright," Hao Ren was exasperated. Anyway, it was better than being called Fuma.
"Gongzi Hao," Premier Xia said cautiously. Seeing Hao Ren was not displeased with it, he continued carefully, "I heard that the mortal world is now full of houses built with stones, and they are hundreds of meters tall. Is that true?"
Hao Ren was puzzled for a moment before it dawned on him that Premier Xia was referring to the skysc.r.a.pers. He chuckled and replied, "Yeah, people all live in the stone buildings now."
"And I heard that the mortals don't use carriages and horses anymore. Instead, they use iron and steel boxes which can move by themselves. Is that true?" after some consideration, Premier Xia asked again cautiously.
This time, Hao Ren couldn't help but laugh, "Right, people are swallowed in there, and they are spat out when they reach their destination."
Premier Xia raised his head and thought hard for a second. "That must be some kinds of Demon Beast that have weak stomachs," he murmured.
Hao Ren choked up with laughter.
On a second thought, Premier Xia handled businesses all day long in the Dragon Palace and got all of his news from Elder Lu and Elder Sun. It was a pitiful life.
"If Uncle Zhao, I mean the Dragon King, agrees, I will take you to the mortal world for a tour," Hao Ren said sympathetically.
"No! No! I have my duties here!" Premier Xia waved his hand, but he was grateful to the young Fuma for the offer.
"After touring the Ice Palace, Fuma will go back. He is kind and amiable, very unusual…" Premier Xia lamented silently and felt a bit reluctant about Hao Ren leaving.