Soon, the person who could decipher the ancient texts was brought before Xiao.
When Xiao saw that the person standing before him was a young boy barely ten years old, he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.
Looking at the distinctive mushroom-cut hairstyle and traditional attire, he immediately recognized the young boy's identity—Kuro of the Hirata Estate, the Divine Heir of this era, as Genichiro had mentioned.
The boy looked at the tall Xiao, his eyes filled with fear and nervousness.
He carefully knelt on the ground, his voice trembling as he said,
"Kuro of the Hirata Estate greets the noble one!"
Although Kuro appeared to be just an ordinary child, he actually possessed the Divine Heir's immortal power, which could sway the tide of battle.
Because of this, for a long time, Kuro had been held under house arrest by Genichiro, who tried to obtain the Divine Heir's power from him.
However, Kuro always stood his ground, preferring death to surrender, and never bestowed the Divine Heir's power upon Genichiro.
This left Genichiro extremely dissatisfied but also helpless, because the bestowal of the Divine Heir's power was entirely voluntary and could not be forced.
Xiao gazed at Kuro, who was kneeling on the ground, and felt that a special kind of energy seemed to be contained within the boy's body.
This energy felt somewhat familiar to him.
Xiao frowned, pondering in confusion.
Immediately, Xiao raised his hand and beckoned to Kuro with his fingers, and a golden-red lightning glow instantly surged out from Kuro's body.
At the same time, the Law of Heaven within his own body also began to resonate, establishing some kind of connection with the power within Kuro's body.
"The Divine Heir's power? Heh, it's the Dragon's Curse!"
Xiao looked at the cherry-red power in his hand, which shimmered with a faint light, as if countless tiny laws flowed within it.
These traces of law were clearly visible, proving that this power truly came from The Lands Between.
This made Xiao think of the Ancient Dragon deity who had mysteriously disappeared from The Lands Between, and a guess arose in his heart:
Could it be that the Dragon God had been severely wounded for some reason, forced to flee The Lands Between, and was recuperating in this Land of Reeds?
The Dragon God chose this place precisely because of the numerous supernatural beings present here, using their abundant power to help recover from its injuries.
It was precisely this wisp of the Divine Heir's power that allowed Xiao to see through its true nature.
On the surface, it seemed to possess the miraculous effect of bringing the dead back to life, but in reality, this power required the massive absorption of surrounding creatures' life force to function.
The so-called "resurrection" was actually just an illusion; its true function was to use others' life force to replenish one's own life, and it could only revive those on the verge of death.
If someone had been dead for a long time, the Divine Heir's power would be completely useless.
Moreover, treating a person on the brink of death did not require such an enormous amount of life force to be extracted in the first place.
The holder of the Divine Heir's power could actually obtain only a small amount of life force, and it was life force mixed with a large number of impurities.
As for the pure life force, it was absorbed by the Sakura Dragon through the Divine Heir into its main body, leaving nothing for the Divine Heir.
"This is getting interesting. The Dragon God is actually hidden in such an inconspicuous little place. It seems there are still many secrets in this world worth exploring and discovering!"
Through his contact with Kuro, Xiao confirmed that the power contained within him was the power of law, and a surge of excitement welled up in his heart.
If his guess was correct, then the Dragon God was in an extremely weakened state, perhaps even needing to merge with a cherry blossom tree just to barely sustain its life.
A deity that could be defeated by mortals, was extremely weak, and still possessed a Ring of Law—these words combined were truly wonderful.
If he could slay it, Xiao believed he could at least obtain several precious Great Runes, and each additional Great Rune would allow Xiao to condense his own Ring of Law one day sooner.
...
...
After his power was extracted, Kuro of the Hirata Estate felt extremely weak and empty.
He struggled to crawl up from the ground, but there was no change in his expression.
He simply picked up a scroll and began concentrating on translating and interpreting the ancient and mysterious script written upon it.
The long period of imprisonment had made this child unusually mature, so mature that it was heartbreaking.
After two full hours of effort, Xiao finally completely understood all the ancient texts and found a way to reach Fountainhead Palace.
According to the records in the ancient texts, the Sakura Dragon descended from the East to this land, and humans, out of reverence for it, built Fountainhead Palace atop the mountain.
Humans who received the Sakura Dragon's blessing gained eternal life and power, transforming that place into a paradise of this world and becoming immortal beings who resided within it.
And the Sakura Dragon was hidden within a strange space at the summit of the mountain where Fountainhead Palace stood.
For mortals of the lower realm to meet the deity, they could only offer the most beautiful maidens and, through specific methods, become the deity's bride. Only then would they be qualified to enter Fountainhead Palace.
This ritual required lighting a special incense called the Fragrant Tribute and placing it upon the bridal palanquin altar.
Then envoys from the immortal realm would arrive and guide the bride to Fountainhead Palace.
However, the method of creating the Fragrant Tribute was extremely complex, and the required raw materials were scattered throughout Ashina.
Many people were needed to collect them, and some materials had even gone extinct and could no longer be found.
In other words, the Fragrant Tribute could no longer be produced, and naturally, the gate to Fountainhead Palace could not be opened.
"Ancient Dragons possess the ability to control time and space. Since its power has flowed into the human world, then there should also be some similar power in the human world capable of traveling to the past!"
Hearing that the materials had been exhausted, Xiao immediately narrowed his eyes.
Then his mechanical memory quickly helped him find a solution.
That solution was the mysterious Sculptor's Idol from the game.
The existence of the Sculptor's Idol was very similar to the Sites of Grace in The Lands Between.
The Sculptor's Idol could not only transport the Divine Heir to various marked locations, but also replenish the power consumed through resurrection and even send people into the past through memories and prayer.
If one did not understand the essence of the Sakura Dragon, the power of the Sculptor's Idol would seem miraculous.
But if one understood that it was essentially a Site of Grace operating under the Dragon God's law, then everything became easy to explain.
The Ancient Dragon race naturally mastered the powers of lightning, storms, and space-time.
The Ancient Dragon Lord of The Lands Between had even used his own power to sever Crumbling Farum Azula from The Lands Between and completely isolate its space-time from the outside world.
That chaotic space-time power even caused Maliketh to split into two existences.
His future self, burdened by guilt, became the vessel of Destined Death and remained forever trapped within Crumbling Farum Azula.
Meanwhile, the version of him that had just lost Destined Death drifted to Caelid and became Gurranq, Beast Clergyman, gathering followers to collect Deathroot and consuming large quantities of it to compensate for his loss of law and for the mistake of failing to prevent the death of Godwyn the Golden.
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