“A dragon nest?” Qing Han looked around incredulously.

A dragon nest was an ancestral land for dragons. Both ancestral lands and ancestral tombs imparted blessings to their descendents, but the former embodied life while the latter embodied death. If the two were combined, unshakable bad fortune would plague the entire clan, and its destruction wouldn’t be too far off.

Lu Yun could tell there was a curse on the dragon nest, similar to the one on the Skandha Extinction Tomb.

Aoxue had been able to sense the skydragon tomb because it was a dragon nest as well. In fact, all dragons would be able to sense it upon entering the North Sea.

“It seems that the destruction of the North Sea dragons ten thousand years ago didn’t come wholly out of the blue.”

Ten thousand years ago, the Aos had ruled the North Sea. The Ao surname belonged to the draconic imperial clan, signifying their legitimacy. Apart from Aoxue, there were very likely no more Ao-named dragons in the world of immortals. The surviving dragons were the Fëng Clan of the Unmeant Sea, Jing Clan of the Unsullied Sea, and Qi Clan of the Untroubled Sea.

The Unselfish Sea was ruled by dragons as well, but not pureblooded descendents of the old dragons. Their rulers were immortal beasts, or monster spirits of draconic bloodlines, who’d then transformed into dragons after discarding their original bloodline.

The Scaled-Dragon King was from the Unselfish Sea himself, but he’d left home because he refused to give up his crocodile bloodline.

The ancient dragons had once possessed a sprawling network of descendants across the entire world, but now, they weren’t even in control of the four seas of the world. And this was all a result of the skydragon tomb in the North Sea.

“Come on, let’s see for ourselves what’s so different about this dragon nest. We survived the Skandha Extinction Tomb, this will be easy.” Excitement thickened on Qing Han’s face.

Lu Yun held his forehead. His friend had developed a blind trust in his abilities, believing him to be invincible in ancient tombs.

Well, his enemies truly would be doing nothing but courting death if they made a move against him in a tomb. Here, he could kill dao immortals in ten thousand different ways. He hadn’t disguised himself or Qing Han before entering the tomb, precisely so they could lure in those who wanted them dead and teach those would-be villains a painful lesson.

Moreover, Lu Yun had a specific goal in mind. He wanted to show the world his ability to navigate ancient tombs with trivial ease.

Among his followers were two arcane dao immortals, three peak aether dao immortals, and... almost all of the elites of the North Sea court. Lu Daoling, the Lu ancestor, would also come out of hiding to protect Lu Yun when circumstances called for it. The young man now possessed enough power to rival any top faction in the world.

The only thing that was lacking was his cultivation, and he needed goodwill to bolster that. For that, the best way to gain goodwill was to voluntarily help others, thus garnering their gratitude, and in turn, their goodwill.

……

The formations at the entrance had been broken long ago. They weren’t from the ancient times, but had been set up ten thousand years ago by the North Sea dragons to protect the tomb.

This tomb was in essence a dragon nest. Although its layout didn’t match that of a dragon nest, Lu Yun could see it for what it was. The real nest existed elsewhere in the tomb. Layout upon layout had formed to conceal and protect the true core of the dragon nest.

“Strange. How did Xiaoxiao and Diexi find their way here in the first place?” After entering the tomb, Qing Han followed closely behind Lu Yun with a hand on his shoulder, while the expert tomb raider looked around thoughtfully.

The skydragon tomb had emerged because Diexi had accidentally torn down the coiled mountains outside the tomb, but she didn’t know how to enter it. In the end, Su Xiaoxiao and she had miraculously shown up on Levitating Island and led a two-headed zombie from this tomb to a giant corpse coffin in the inner sea.

There were a good number of two-headed zombies in the skydragon tomb. According to information from Canghai Chengkong, an arcane dao immortal of the Dark North Sword Sect had been torn to pieces by one such zombie, their arcane dao fruits consumed as well.

Neither Lu Yun’s envoy nor the zombie king had entered the tomb with the two young explorers, but had instead headed to the Dark North Sword Sect and Ingress Island, respectively, to keep an eye on the two factions. Lu Yun could deal with the North Sea court, but if the two other marine factions made a move against Dusk Province, he’d be in real danger.

Although Su Xiaoxiao and Diexi hadn’t ascended to the dao immortal realm, they each had their own set of unique skills. Equipped with Size Manipulation and Shapeshifting Talismans, they could absolutely create enough mayhem to keep the two factions busy.

Meanwhile, Aoxue entered the tomb from another side with Beigong Yu, the Scaled-Dragon King, and Xue Daozi.

……

With the dragon nest as a foundation, the dragon tomb expanded from it as an isolated patch of space, paths crisscrossing it like a giant maze. Among the paths were smaller burial chambers; not annex rooms, but standalone tombs.

The skydragon tomb was a gargantuan mausoleum, burying not only draconic elites, but also immortals from other races. Over the past month, the tombs on the fringe had been thoroughly emptied, leaving not even a floor or wall tile behind.

Lu Yun and Qing Han followed Canghai Chengkong’s guidance and cautiously made their way to the heart of the tomb.

“It’s been a while, Lu Yun. I didn’t expect to run into you here,” a chilling voice suddenly sounded at Lu Yun’s ear. Heart pounding, Lu Yun whirled around and found Jin Heyi and Jiangchen Wushang emerging out of the blue with a large group of zombies. He hadn’t noticed their presence at all.

“So it’s senior brother Jin and senior brother Jiangchen. It has indeed been a while.” Lu Yun took a closer look at Jiangchen Wushang; he’d ascended to the void realm as well. The fact that the Corpse Refiners had gifted him with a skeletal fortress ship and Bag of Corpse Refinement made it apparent that he was no regular genius.

Stirring up trouble in the tomb, the two had taken advantage of the confusion to refine a good number of elites into zombies. Even some of the zombies that’d originally been in the tomb had come under their command.

Jin Heyi stared at Lu Yun with a delighted expression. He’d suffered quite a few defeats at Lu Yun’s hands, and even his Celestial Mistfield Banners had been taken away.

“Fate has guided us to meet here.” Jin Heyi smiled. “The tomb is dangerous, but the knowledge of the Corpse Refiners enables me to safely navigate the tomb with no need to fear any zombies. Why don’t we team up?”

“Sure.” Lu Yun beamed widely as well. “Qing Han and I were just worrying how we were going to make it through. Now that senior brother Jin is here, we have nothing to be afraid of.”

Qing Han could tell from Lu Yun’s smile that he was plotting against Jin Heyi.

Jiangchen Wushang didn’t say anything, since he wasn’t in a position to. He’d refined a good number of zombies and acquired many treasures along the way, thanks in great part to Jin Heyi’s protection.

“Strange, why is my sleeve always sopping wet?” Jiangchen Wushang shook his left arm and dried his sleeve with inner energy.

Despite being underwater, the dragon tomb existed in an isolated space with no water around them. However, he’d noticed that, upon entering the tomb, his left sleeve would become dripping wet every once in a while.

Lu Yun subconsciously turned to him and froze.