Chapter 390 — The Giant Dragon Returns to Its Nest, Its Power Revealed

"My family's most ancient Nine Dragons Sovereign Art is written in the dragon tongue, and I have indeed seen it. My father had me commit it to memory before he taught me his own Nine Dragons Sovereign Art. "

Shen Mu laughed.

"Recite the most ancient Nine Dragons Sovereign Art in the dragon tongue, and I will give you a great benefit in return.

"

Ling Yuxiu shook her head.

"I cannot say it aloud, but I can write it out.

"

Shen Mu fetched brush and paper. Ling Yuxiu wrote out several grotesque dragon characters and said, "This is how it goes.

Our Ling family's Nine Dragons Sovereign Art was recorded upon the Heaven Emperor Jade Tablet, but alas, the tablet vanished without a trace, stolen away by some hateful thief.

"

Shen Mu's face reddened slightly. He did not take up the thread, but bent his eyes to the dragon characters she had written. "So that is it.

The Nine Dragons Sovereign Art is in truth the opening chapter of the art that surfaces upon the True Dragon Nest and the True Dragon Lord. "

He read through the original Nine Dragons Sovereign Art, then looked again at the characters flickering ceaselessly upon the nest, and at last found the thread of the True Dragon Lord's art.

With that thread in hand, Shen Mu read on, and a magnificent, exquisite art gradually grew richer before him, gradually more complete.

The Ling family's Nine Dragons Sovereign Art possessed only the opening stance, and in truth it was no miraculous art in itself; yet relying on that opening stance, the Ling family had perfected it into one of the finest arts under heaven, able to hold its own against the sect-guarding arts of the Three Great Holy Lands. What did that say of the art recorded upon the True Dragon Nest, and how terrifying it must be!

Little by little he deciphered it, and the more he deciphered, the more alarmed he grew.

This was the fortune-seizing art the Dragon-Rearing Lord had spoken of, though not wholly a seizing of fortune.

Cultivate this art, draw in the dragon qi of the True Dragon Lord, and one became the True Dragon Lord oneself! Its strength lay in this: the cultivator's dharma power was immensely deep and vigorous, his strength like that of a true dragon. Of all the arts Shen Mu had ever seen, the only one that could match such attainment at the same realm was likely the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art.

But in strength and in the attainments of the fleshly body, this art was beyond anything the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art could rival!

Though Shen Mu's own attainments in the body were no small matter, the Mystic Body Three-Elixir Art demanded a powerful body-refining method to supplement it, and he possessed no such method.

The body-refining methods in the Great Yu Dark Demon Scripture could hardly be called peerless. The art upon the True Dragon Nest, by contrast, could refine the fleshly body until it was as a dragon king's!

"A fine art, truly a fine art.

. . Emperor Yanfeng was remarkable as well!

"

Shen Mu marveled again and again. He had deciphered more than half the art when he ran up against many characters he did not know; only then did he raise his head, let out a turbid breath, and exclaim, "His Majesty was truly remarkable!

From a single opening stance he forged a peerless martial art; such brilliance is scarcely inferior to that of Imperial Preceptor Jingping! Yuxiu, when did your Ling family come by this art? "

"Some seven hundred years ago, I think.

"

Ling Yuxiu recalled what Emperor Yanfeng had said.

"My father said that in those days an ancestor of the Ling family met a deity, who bestowed the Heaven Emperor Jade Tablet upon him and taught him the dragon tongue. But our ancestor was of a flighty temper and never took the learning of the dragon tongue to heart.

At that time he loved a woman, and all his thoughts were upon her, and that woman was our founding ancestress.

When at last he thought to learn, he found the deity already gone, and eight or nine parts in ten of the dragon tongue the deity had taught him had slipped from his memory; in the end he could grasp only the earliest Nine Dragons Sovereign Art from the Heaven Emperor Jade Tablet.

"

"Deaf Grandpa spoke no word of a lie! "

Shen Mu thought to himself, "No wonder Deaf Grandpa always says women are a hindrance. It is just so! Grandpa Tu says taking a woman is too much trouble, and Grandpa Huo keeps his distance from women too.

So there was a reason behind it all!

I must never be like that old ancestor of the Ling family and let my cultivation be held back. Still, Yuxiu is quite lovely, and Sister Yunxiang may be a little thin, but she is lovely too. . . "

He caught himself, hastily stamping out the stray thoughts in his heart, and plucked the True Dragon Lord out of the nest; the dragon-shaped dragon vein became once more a jade pendant, head joined to tail. Ling Yuxiu saw it and grew a little suspicious. "This jade ring is somewhat like our Ling family's Heaven Emperor Jade Tablet.

.

. though not the same. I have heard the Heaven Emperor Jade Tablet is a jade pendant, while this is a jade ring, with a gap in it. "

Shen Mu smiled.

"I said I would give you a great benefit, so now I shall teach you the Nine Dragons Sovereign Art as I have comprehended it. "

Ling Yuxiu burst out laughing.

"I have the Nine Dragons Sovereign Art my father taught me. Can what you have comprehended be greater than my father's?

"

Shen Mu slowly expounded the "Nine Dragons Sovereign Art" he had fathomed.

Gradually Ling Yuxiu's expression grew more and more grave, for she found that at the first the art was still the Ling family's original scroll, but afterward it grew ever deeper and more profound, deeper and more powerful even than the Nine Dragons Sovereign Art Emperor Yanfeng had perfected!