Chapter 551

Chapter 551: Ancestral Dragon

After plundering for three more days, Taotie led his army out of the immortal domain under Yuqing Palace’s banner, leaving behind wreckage everywhere.

Upon returning to his palace, Taotie rewarded the troops according to their merits, feasting the three armies.

"Celestial Lord," a purple-robed Dao Sovereign reported. "The Dragon Palace sent a message after you departed with the army."

"Suanni?" Taotie sneered.

The purple-robed Dao Sovereign nodded. "Celestial Lord Suanni requests your presence at the Dragon Palace for a confrontation."

"You may withdraw for now," Taotie said. "I have my considerations."

He then turned to the cultivators of Tao Tie Heavenly Palace. "After today, I will depart. Matters great and small concerning Tao Tie Heavenly Palace shall be handed over to Long Li to manage."

"Long Li!"

"Your servant is here."

A man with prominent horn-like features and a heroic bearing stepped forward—a Five Tribulations Dao Sovereign cultivator.

"Safeguard Tao Tie Heavenly Palace. If any difficulty arises, notify me immediately," Taotie instructed.

"Your servant obeys."

"All of you, withdraw."

Taotie flicked his sleeve. The assembled ministers exited the hall.

"Master, let us go," Mu Fanyin said.

"Whoosh!"

Taotie reverted to his true form. Carrying Mu Fanyin and the other two, he soared towards the ancestral dragon’s lair.

The ancestral dragon’s lair was located in the deepest part of the Tianlong Immortal Domain, requiring passage through the Dragon Palace and finally traversing a chaotic forbidden zone to reach it.

The moment Taotie flew into the Dragon Palace, he immediately alerted its powerful residents.

"Fifth Brother, you’ve finally decided to return."

A chilling voice rang out. A man clad in white appeared ahead of him as if from thin air. His eyes gleamed like crimson gold, radiating violent energy as he struggled to contain his fury. "You killed my son. Do you not intend to give me an explanation?" Celestial Lord Suanni demanded coldly.

"It’s just Fourth Brother," Taotie scoffed mockingly. "My little nephew’s flesh was truly delicious, Fourth Brother. You have so many offspring; why not give me two more to satisfy my craving?"

"How dare you!"

Celestial Lord Suanni unleashed his killing intent, activating his divine power. He struck out at Taotie with a palm.

"Swoosh!"

A wisp of shadowy light, as fine as a razor or sword’s edge, streaked through the air. It pierced Celestial Lord Suanni’s palm in an instant. Golden blood streamed forth, unstoppable for the moment.

"Who… who are you?" Celestial Lord Suanni was utterly terrified.

"Fourth Brother, your news was far too outdated," Taotie said expressionlessly. Mu Fanyin, at the front of Yuqing Palace, had suppressed four celestial lords with her power alone, yet Suanni hadn’t heard a whisper of it. He was truly a complete waste.

"Get out of the way."

Taotie couldn’t be bothered to speak more with Suanni. "I’ve returned this time to head to the ancestral dragon’s lair. If you dare block my path again, I’ll devour you too."

Celestial Lord Suanni, still shaken, frantically made a path.

Only after Mu Fanyin and the others had left did he dare notify the ancestral dragon, then he leisurely made his way to the ancestral dragon’s lair.

Passing through the chaotic forbidden zone, everyone finally saw a massive dragon nest, built atop the chaos, glowing brilliantly, chaotic energy surging wildly, and manifestations of a different path appearing all around.

Taotie landed on the dragon nest, and reverted to his human form.

"Divine dragon, Fifth Brother has broken free and comes to pay respects to you," Taotie shouted loudly, his voice echoing throughout the lair, sound waves crushing the chaotic energy, his words brimming with overwhelming resentment.

"Unfilial son, how dare you be insolent before me?"

The next instant, a deafening dragon roar erupted, instantly swallowing Taotie’s voice. A massive nine-clawed divine dragon poked its head out from the nest, eyes like the sun and moon, beard like orderly divine chains, each scale gleaming like armor, exuding fearsome majesty.

His aura was overwhelmingly powerful, his dragon body bathed in chaotic energy, its size beyond reckoning.

"Unfilial son?"

"Pah!"

Taotie spat. "You gave birth to me, but did you ever raise me?"

"I got to the celestial lord realm step by step through my own hard work."

Taotie was ugly, yet the ancestral dragon judged people by appearance, never valuing him.

Even after Taotie attained the celestial lord rank, he received not an ounce of regard from the ancestral dragon.

Had the ancestral dragon cared even a little, would he have ignored how the Taotie lineage was nearly wiped out by Suanni?

"Impudent!"

The ancestral dragon bellowed.

Confronting the ancestral dragon’s fury, Taotie revealed his true form—a goat’s body with a human face—and roared back defiantly, seeming to vent years of pent-up resentment.

"Today, I shall cleanse this household."

Killing intent flashed across the ancestral dragon’s face.

"Old lascivious dragon, the Mu Family of Heavenly Secrets, do you remember?"

Mu Fanyin said with a ghost of a smile.

"I don’t recall."

The ancestral dragon shook his head, avoiding her gaze. "Venerable one, you look awfully familiar—could you be that one from the Taihuang Abyss?"

"Feigning madness and foolishness."

Mu Fanyin sneered.

The ancestral dragon widened his enormous eyes, putting on an innocent look. "Venerable one, this old dragon has been cultivating in the ancestral dragon’s lair the whole time—not stepped out for an entire eon."

"If I lie, may lightning and thunder strike me down."

"It seems you are not only lewd and dissolute, but also very thick-skinned." Mu Fanyin flashed by, grabbed the dangling beard of the ancestral dragon with one hand, and pulled forcefully.

Bang!

The ancestral dragon’s billion-zhang body was forcibly dragged out from the ancestral dragon’s lair. Like a long worm, he was thrown by Mu Fanyin into the chaos, smashing it open, with the sky shattered and the earth quaked.

"Hiss…"

Celestial Lord Suanni, who had just arrived at the ancestral dragon’s lair, witnessed this scene, said nothing more than a word, and turned around to leave.

"Why didn’t he fight back?" Su Mu asked, confused.

"What if he fought back?" Taotie said. "Although he is the ancestral dragon, he has been lecherous all his life, at best merely reaching the Great Celestial Sovereign level. How could he oppose our master?"

Thud thud thud!

Mu Fanyin held the dragon’s beard, and like a toy, the ancestral dragon was toyed with.

"Senior, stop!"

The ancestral dragon’s skin was thick and tough, undamaged, and he sneered, "The matter of the Mu Family of Heavenly Secrets, this old dragon has a slight impression, but this old dragon definitely did not participate in plotting against you, senior."

"Know it so clearly?"

Mu Fanyin smiled faintly, "Even if you did not participate, you knew about it and did not report it, so you deserve to die a thousand deaths."

"…"

The ancestral dragon was horrified.

Mu Fanyin was serious.

Roar!

The ancestral dragon roared, unleashing the Eight Notes of the Heavenly Dragon divine art. Eight different syllables erupted with eight streams of power, destroying heaven and earth, and blowing the entire chaotic area apart.

The eight sounds blasted into Mu Fanyin’s mind, as if to shatter her Purple Palace, causing the great Dao to cease.

Mu Fanyin’s expression was calm.

"Change of the World."

She used the same skill again, employing the magical power of the Dao Ancestor. Time suddenly stood still, the sound stopped in mid-air, and the ancestral dragon’s billion-zhang body became motionless.

Time was elusive.

Mu Fanyin stepped into the past time, arriving at the end of the era, the beginning of the creation of the heavens and earth, where a thousand-zhang dragon was still nestled in an egg, about to hatch.

If she could destroy the dragon egg, the ancestral dragon would have no burial place.

"Trying to kill my subordinate right under my eyes? You’re not qualified."

A domineering voice came.

Right at that moment,

The chaos suddenly churned, and the chaotic energy condensed into a gigantic palm that blotted out the sky. In the palm, chaos continuously evolved into layer after layer of mysterious divine powers.

Boom!

The giant palm descended, with creation evolving, time advancing continuously, attacking Mu Fanyin.

Mu Fanyin had anticipated this.

She flicked her fingers, and thrust her palm towards the chaotic giant palm.

Clash!

The two peak existences’ divine powers clashed, instantly causing a terrifying storm in the Time and Space domain. Heaven and earth twisted, and chaos reversed itself.

Mu Fanyin frowned slightly and had to temporarily avoid its force, exiting the Time and Space domain.

She waved her sleeve, and a divine power enshrouded Taotie and the other two, protecting them from being affected by the time power.

"Daoist brother."

Freed from the temporal confinement, the ancestral dragon transformed into human form—a dashing middle-aged man with a handsome beard, frivolous in demeanor—hardly looking like the patriarch of its clan.

The chaos surged, condensing into a face without eyes, nose, eyebrows, or ears, only a mouth.

"Dao Ancestor Mu, you trespassed into the yang realm. We have not taken action against you— that is already magnanimous." The mouth opened and closed, spitting out words. "Do not mistake this."

"Hahaha…"

Mu Fanyin laughed heartily.

"If you could kill me, why would you have left me in this world?"

"However, you should not have harmed my birth mother in this life."

Mu Fanyin’s tone grew heavier.

In the chaos, the mysterious Dao Ancestor was silent.

They already stood at the peak of the Hongmeng Dao Realm. It was difficult for them to hide their actions from each other.

If Mu Fanyin were not sure, she would not have come to the ancestral dragon’s lair.

The ancestral dragon’s eyeballs rolled.

He gradually came to realize.

Mu Fanyin’s target in this trip was not him, but this mysterious Dao Ancestor who had appeared. That was why she had not gone for the kill, to wait for the mysterious Dao Ancestor to descend.

"Stop talking— not even the current you, even if you were at your peak, could kill me." The mouth uttered another sentence. "Say, what is your purpose in forcing me to appear?""