Chapter 3711 - Reason for Staying

The dragonoids impatiently watched as the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb's door opened. Such a powerful ship that had managed to beat back the Blazestar and Scorchmoon doubtless belonged to an elite that they should respect—one that was incredibly likely to be the same race as them as well. Anyone able to become so powerful despite the cruel suppression of heavenly shackles was someone to be respected, even if they weren't a cosmic god. It wasn't that they weren't talented enough to reach that level; they had simply been artificially prevented from reaching that point!

"Who could it be?" The overflowers who were tens of meters tall all held their breaths.

"Why haven't they come out yet?" Everyone was feeling a bit sore in the neck from sticking them out for so long.

Hearing that, Tianming grimaced. He had come out, along with Qingyu, Moran, and the young Long Chen! However, the overflower dragonoids looked deeper into the Ninedragon Imperial Tomb, expecting a towering, magnificent figure to emerge from it.

"Little Chen? Why were you in there?" asked the girl in the middle when she finally spotted her younger brother.

"Sis! What’re you all looking at?! We've all come out!" Long Chen excitedly yelled.

"Were you the one who brought the mighty senior here? Where’s the senior?" Long Qian asked, somewhat taken aback.

"Senior?" Long Chen snapped with realization at what they were looking at before excitedly pointing at Tianming. "Everyone! This is the senior! He was the one who piloted this nine-headed dragon and chased away the Blazestar and Scorchmoon!"

The ten thousand dragonoids immediately broke into a loud murmur as they looked at Tianming. Long Qian whispered to his brother, "Are you serious?"

"Of course! He's my big bro, Li Tianming!" Long Chen said.

Long Qian exchanged glances with the dragonoids around her and bowed to Tianming. "Thank you, great benefactor, for saving our kind!"

"Thank you!" Many other dragonoids also followed suit and bowed. At the same time, they were quite curious as to who their tiny savior was and kept trying to get a closer look at him.

"He's still so young, yet he already possesses such a divine astralship. He must have a pretty impressive background."

"That's right! The Blazestar and Scorchmoon Cults are both backed by the Eightpart Pantheons, so the fact that he dares to go up against them shows that he isn’t afraid of them."

"The question is, what race is he from? He seems rather odd. There's even a wonderian next to him, but her bloodline is somewhat different."

It was clear that the Upper Star Ruin was a place that put heavy emphasis on one's bloodline. Odd-looking humans like Tianming and Moran were rare, and nobody could tell what faction they hailed from.

"However, there's something about them that makes me feel close to them," Long Qian murmured.

"That's true!" Quite a few others were inclined to agree.

Tianming could tell that they were unlike the aurumites, so all he needed to do was honestly talk to them. "Everyone, the Dragonsburrow’s been discovered, so I advise you to move somewhere else! The loss they suffered just now was a temporary setback, only measured in the form of damaged ships. However, they'll be back soon."

"Senior, what’re you suggesting?" Long Qian said, still surprised.

"Just call me Tianming. I'm only a little older than your younger brother," Tianming said.

"Okay!" Long Qian happily agreed.

Tianming turned to the crowd and said, "Everyone, please enter my ship!"

The ten thousand dragonoids seemed rather taken aback and talked among themselves.

"He seems too eager about this. Could it be a trap?"

"We have nothing worth taking, so it makes no sense for him to risk the ire of two cults to entrap us." Long Qian looked at Tianming and said, "If I'm not mistaken, in his veins flows a similar bloodline to ours, perhaps diluted. He doesn't seem to be hampered by heavenly shackles, either. Perhaps he's from the Lower Star Ruins...." At that point, Long Qian no longer hesitated and hollered for everyone to enter the ship.

"Sister Qianqian, do we take the middlekin stars with us?" someone asked.

"We can't stay here anymore, so we'll take everything we can," she said.

"Alright!"

So everyone got busy, some moving the middlekin stars and others helping the old, young, and weak into the ship. Tianming watched as hundreds of deific-class middlekin stars around a hundred meters across were brought to the ship. Ostensibly, larger middlekin stars were harder to steal and transport away. Everyone there had been relying on the nova source from those middlekin stars to cultivate.

If the Blazestar and Scorchmoon had taken

away

those middlekin stars, the dragonoids would've suffered a loss they couldn't recover from. They don't even have any access to the Middlekin Star Ruin to harvest more.

Tianming had indeed solved a huge problem for them.

The middlekin stars were quickly moved. The fortuna-class Ninedragon Imperial Tomb was large enough to even keep the Suishenean within, so there was more than enough room for everyone. There was no need for the overflower dragonoids to squeeze at all; even their lifebound beasts were free to roam about.

As they moved, Long Chen told the dragonoids about his encounter with Tianming. They were rather taken aback when he finished his tale. One bald, elderly, sixth-level overflower was shocked and asked, "Did that young hero really come from a Lower Star Ruin?!"

"Yes, Great Elder," Tianming said with a nod.

The old man was at a higher level than Long Qian, but had weakened due to his age and was a worse fighter as a result. However, he commanded a lot of respect from the dragonoids, who called him their 'great elder'. Needless to say, he was the most prestigious person among the dragonoids.

His name was Long Kui, which spoke of an affinity with Lan Huang, who had kui mountains and seas on its body. Lan Huang had in fact been walking around for the dragonoids to see. Even though the two-headed dragon-tortoise looked rather odd, one could see its pure dragon bloodline from up close. It was clear that Lan Huang wasn't a cosmic crest beast, but they didn't look down on it in the slightest. In fact, being people who had been looked down upon for their lifebound beasts, they felt a certain closeness to Tianming and his beasts.

"Big Bro said that he’d give us a home!" Long Chen excitedly proclaimed.

"A home? In the Lower Star Ruins?" Long Qian asked.

"Are you willing to go there?" Tianming asked.

"What's the catch?"

"None!" Tianming straightforwardly said.

Long Qian furrowed her brows and said, "I thank you for your good will, but... we cannot go."

"Are you looking down on the Lower Star Ruins?" Tianming said, raising a brow.

"No! The Lower Star Ruins are like a promised land for us. However, five million of our kind are suffering within this Middlekin Star Ruin. Those of us that’ve managed to escape aspire to grow stronger until we can free the rest from their plight.

"Nowadays, the Three Great Cults are wary about us launching an attack on them, so they treat the rest of us who are in their service with more kindness. But if we leave for the Lower Star Ruins, everyone else who’s still enslaved—including their descendants—will lose all hope!" Long Qian's voice was deep, but in her eyes burned flames of hatred.