Under the furious storm, a merchant’s vessel was sinking in the wavy sea.

A woman in luxurious traditional Chinese clothing was praying in the cabin, with her palms together and kneeling on the floor.

She was Yang Yuhuan.

The view was still and silent.

Ning Tao’s eyesight moved to a table next to the woman, on top of which was a sea map made of animal skin, with an area particularly circled out.

He briefly scanned the map and a thought crossed his mind. “Could it be the location of the Time-suspending Tower? Is that magic tool still sleeping at the bottom of the sea or has it been found?”

His eyes fixed on the map, memorizing every detail of it.

The still image moved, changing to another scene where a woman in red replaced the ravishing Yang Yuhuan.

It was her again.

The woman in red wore a smile on her lips.

A whispering sound appeared in Ning Tao’s mind, “Come… Come…”

The woman in red made a step and images from the past broke into fragments instantly.

Ning Tao picked up the Ancestor-seeking Elixir that remained and inhaled deeply. Allergic to the core, images and scenes of the past reappeared before his eyes under the allergic reaction to the elixir.

It was in the same cabin but this time Yang Yuhuan was lying on the bed while water kept flooding into the room. Opening up her mouth, she tried to take in the Ancestor-seeking Elixir. That was her last movement.

The image disappeared after a few seconds.

Ning Tao dare not have another allergic reaction. Holding his breath, he put the Ancestor-seeking Elixir back in its little porcelain bottle and placed it inside a small medicine chest. An idea came to him, “Could it be the Ancestor-seeking Elixir that made me see Yang Yuhuan twice, which had been impossible in the past?”

Whether it was really because of the Ancestor-seeking Elixir, he needed more proof.

After a short adjustment, Ning Tao opened up Yang Yuhuan’s mouth and took out the Spirit Gathering Pearl.

As soon as the Spirit Gathering Pearl left her mouth, Yang Yuhuan’s body turned into a black corpse and collapsed into a skeleton.

A gorgeous gold hairpin and a pair of gemstone earrings fell on the bed. Lying around the skeleton’s neck was a fabulous jade gold necklace. Ning Tao took nothing but deeply bowed to her. “I’ll bury you another time. I have to use the Spirit Gathering Pearl so I’ll take it with me.”

Before he left, Ning Tao left a normal prescription with a blood lock on it in the cabin. As soon as he stepped backward, water flooded up and the prescription was fully submerged. Disappearing little by little, the blood lock was diluted in water.

This was not the way.

Ning Tao had an idea. He took out the crumpled plucking talisman and flapped it out. Faded away, all there was left was faint handwriting on the paper, the talisman couldn’t be used again. He bit through his fingers and drew a blood lock on the medium paper. Blood slowing soaking through the paper, a fresh blood lock appeared on it. He dried it with spirit fire and placed it beside Yang Yuhuan’s skeleton.

Seawater flooded into the cabin again and the medium paper floated on the surface, but this time, his blood wasn’t diluted by water and stayed bright red.

Ning Tao deeply bowed to Yang Yuhuan’s skeleton one more time before he left the sinking ship. Arriving at the tomb-shaped mountain at the bottom of the sea, he found the cave Yang Sheng had told him about. Judging by the wisps of spiritual energy escaping from the bottomless cave, it wasn’t hard to tell that this cave was unusual.

Switching on his flashlight, Ning Tao walked inside and water split itself when he moved forward.

Actually, if it wasn’t for the power of the Heavenly Gem Magic Garment, Ning Tao wouldn’t have been able to dive so deep to search for treasure. Tremendous ocean pressure would be unbearable, not to mention the danger of suffocation. He might stand for a while in the deep sea, but walking on the bottom like this definitely would have been impossible.

After about 200 meters, a natural grotto came into Ning Tao’s sight.

In the middle of the cavern, an enormous skeleton lied on the ground, at least 100 meters long. It seemed to be bigger than a Seismosaurus, the largest dinosaur humans have discovered. Known as the “earthquake lizard”, a grown Seismosaurus measured about 30 meters high and was roughly between 10 to 20 meters long, weighing more than 100 tons.

“Could it be real….. that dragons did exist?” With the solid evidence in front of his eyes, Ning Tao still couldn’t make himself believe that it was real.

Dragons, the mythological animal that nobody alive had encountered with before.

Ning Tao couldn’t help picturing a magnificent sight of a dragon soaring in the sky, only to find his imagination too weak.

Each bone was clear as crystal with a shimmering metal glow. The flesh was long decayed so one couldn’t tell how long the skeleton had been buried here, it could have been hundreds of thousands of years or maybe even longer. The well-preserved skeleton looked as if it were still alive, with blood still running in its veins.

The real skeleton of a dragon was a world treasure.

Ning Tao put down the tactical flashlight and bowed three times to the skeleton.

The Chinese had long described themselves as Descendants of Dragon. The belief ran deep in the nation, so seeing a dragon was like seeing an ancestor. How could he not make a gesture?

After taking bows, Ning Tao evoked his eyes and nose to the state of looking and smelling to search The Authentic Ambergris. Soon his eyes fixed onto the skeleton’s lower abdomen where a grey “rock” lie. Two inches wide, the rough oval rock appeared to be common. It was attached to a bone, sending out a strange odor similar to 100-year-old wine.

Simply judging by the smell, Ning Tao was sure that the “rock” was The Authentic Ambergris he was looking for. He went over and bowed three times before separating The Authentic Ambergris apart from the skeleton by the Blade of the Solar Eclipse.

About two feet wide, The Authentic Ambergris was bigger than a few footballs combined but weighed only about 10 pounds. Common ambergris produced by sperm whales at the same weight cost a few billion at the market.

With The Authentic Ambergris in his palm, Ning Tao walked around the skeleton to observe the surroundings. Gold, gemstones, plus some spiritual material were scattered around. It was hard to say if the dragon was a piece of the collection or burial treasure. Ning Tao left the cave with nothing more but The Authentic Ambergris.

The colorful gemstones, large gold nuggets, and precious spiritual material were tempting, but the dragon was depicted as the ancestor of the Chinese nation. How could Ning Tao take the dragon’s burial treasure? He managed to hold back his desires.

If he took everything he wanted, there would be no difference between him, a practitioner of ways of Heaven, and common people.

Ning Tao returned to the point where he separated from Yang Sheng. Yang Sheng was eagerly waiting for him to come back.

Yang Sheng saw the huge The Authentic Ambergris at Yang Sheng’s hands and cried out in surprise, “This size?”

Ning Tao replied, “The dragon’s skeleton was 100 meters long. I suspect The Authentic Ambergris would be bigger had it not been damaged by weathering. It’s a good thing that I found it now, otherwise, it would disappear in another hundred years.”

Taking everything away, Ning Tao had to explain it to Yang Sheng.

Yang Sheng nodded, “Master will make the best use of The Authentic Ambergris by owning it. It’s a pity to see it weathered. This vase…?” He saw the porcelain vase in Ning Tao’s other hand and paused, “This is?”

Ning Tao replied, “Don’t worry. It’s a vase made in the Tang Dynasty, found in a sunken ship on the way, not the grave goods of dragon. I only took The Authentic Ambergris from the tomb, nothing else.”

Hearing this, Yang Sheng was relieved. He was worried that the vase was taken from the dragon’s tomb.

Ning Tao took out the herb-collecting rope and passed one end to Yang Sheng, “I can’t float on water with the Heavenly Gem Magic Garment. I need you to pull this rope and drag me to shore.”

Yang Sheng pulled the rope obediently. Just before he floated to the surface, he thought of something and turned back with a curious look on his face, “Master, the underwear you gave me can also separate water. How can I swim with it?”

Ning Tao said, “You can’t bring out its full power. You can probably only keep your underwear dry. Don’t think too much about separating water.”

Yang Sheng was silent.

Red clouds in the west at sunset, fishermen were lying on the dock in the village.

“Sister Bao, why haven’t the chief and Doctor Ning returned?” Ruan Tianyin asked Bao Zhimei for the 32nd time.

Bao Zhimei rolled her eyes, “My man is still at sea and I’m not impatient. Why are you so eager?”

“I…” Ruan Tianyin replied wittily, “I care about my village chief.”

Bao Zhimei waved her off, “Bullshit. You care about the handsome cultivating doctor. Tell you what, my man has probably eaten him by now.”

“By Doctor Ning’s size, can the chief eat for so long? Even if Doctor Ning’s body was made of iron, the head should be finished by now,” Ruan Tianyin said.

Bao Zhimei stared at Ruan Tianyin, “Do you think I can take your pearls and make them into earrings?”

Ruan Tianyin shut up immediately as well as closed her legs.

At that moment, a mermaid pointed at the sea and cried out, “They are back! They are back!”

Mermaids lying around strived to the edge of the dock, looking out to the sea. Ruan Tianyin stood in front, black eyes beaming with excitement and worry.

A vortex suddenly appeared at the ocean surface, spinning around at high speed and moving forward.

Wahhh!

Two silhouettes burst out of the vortex and dashed to the dock in a parabolic track.

“It’s the village head!”

“He caught the cultivating doctor!”

“Haha! Caught him with rope!”

“We can roast him!”

A jumbled mix of sounds came from the rollicking crowd on the dock

Boom!

Yang Sheng landed on the beach next to the dock, spattering a cloud of dust and sand.

Ning Tao flew off the track and fell to the dock. He overlooked the crowd of mermaids and shouted, “Move! Move!”

Nobody moved. Some opened their mouth, waiting.

To make an army out of these beasts would take some training.

Ning Tao wasn’t worrying about hurting someone if he crashed but about the Tang Dynasty vase in his hands. He could be holding billions in his hands. If the vase was smashed, these impoverished mermaids had nothing to compensate!

Crashing into the crowd, Ning Tao kicked the air in a hurry to decrease the inertia and slow down. Yang Sheng tried to show off his speed so he pulled Ning Tao like the taking-off speed of aircraft, at least six or seven hundred kilometers per hour. Ning Tao’s efforts were wasted.

Suddenly, a silhouette rose above the ground and grabbed Ning Tao.

Boom!

They fell on the beach behind the dock.

The weird thing was Ning Tao felt like hitting on jelly when crashing on the ground. His body was squeezed so tight that he felt embedded in the person holding him. The feeling was amazing, like surrounded by slippery and soft meat, so warm, comfortable. He was then pushed out slowly. It was then he realized that Ruan Tianyin was the person holding him.

She was really, really soft.