Chapter 656: A Fruitful Collaboration

The ninth prince asked, "Master, should we save the third prince?"

Zhang Lie hmmed. "It's up to you. Both choices will benefit us."

If they didn't save the third prince and allowed the fifth prince to kill him, the ninth prince would have one fewer competitor. On the other hand, if the third prince were to survive, he surely would strike back against the fifth prince and the Wang clan, miring the princes in conflict.

The ninth prince smiled. "In that case, I'll choose to wait and see what happens."

"Very well."

Zhang Lie gave him a meaningful smile. "The third prince might not need your support, after all. Look at his expression."

Despite being surrounded by the Wang clan and the ?fifth prince's troops, the third prince's expression was placid. He drew a sword from his back, a black, scaled sword whose hilt was engraved with a dragon's head. The sword let out the cries of a dragon, as though it were truly alive.

"This blade is called Zhanlong," the third prince introduced.

As though he had suddenly noticed something, the fifth prince called out, "Retreat!"

The third prince waved his sword in a graceful arc. Sword energy erupted in the form of a gigantic dragon, sweeping over the men who surrounded him.

The fifth prince hurriedly defended with a strike of his own. As the draconic aura swept toward him, several guards strode forward and blocked the killing blow.

The fifth prince shuddered, his forehead beading with sweat. "I hadn't expected you would have such a technique, third brother. I'm truly impressed."

The third prince sighed. "I'd intended on using it against our eldest and second brothers—but you forced me to show my hand, fifth brother."

The fifth prince's eyes narrowed. "Even the Wang clan were unaware of this blade and this technique. Third brother, you're truly skilled at subterfuge."

"Ha! There's no one we can trust around here besides ourselves, is there? We're brothers by blood—but that hasn't stopped us from targeting each other."

"Everyone thought that you were developing a king's aura, but you were developing a draconic one instead! A masterful blow indeed—and one that almost lost me my life."

"The Wang clan had suggested the path of kingship—and solely the path of kingship. In other words, either I grew up to become king, or my life's cultivation would be worthless.

This was the source of perennial conflict between me and the Wang clan. Everyone believed that I didn't get along with my uncle, but the truth is more fundamental: I don't believe in the Wang clan's philosophy. Their path is too narrow and inflexible, and they would only have dragged me down. Fifth brother, I hope my experiences serve as a warning to you."

Cultivating a king's aura sounded impressive, but it was a far more difficult path than it sounded on the surface. Before truly becoming king, the third prince's cultivation would be significantly weaker than those of his generation.

Only when he had truly become king would his authority and strength soar without limit—but he needed that strength to become king in the first place.

"Stuck in this quandary, I decided to travel down a different path—I would cultivate two different auras simultaneously, focusing on the other one to give me temporary strength. Once I grew strong enough to claim the throne, I would return to cultivating the king's aura."

The third prince drew his blade of kings with his left hand, and his draconic blade with his right. The two auras melded into one, forming the visage of the dragon king.

"Thus, my approach. I have to say, I'm rather pleased with my decision. Cultivating two auras at once gives me roughly double the strength, after all."

Given the third prince's resources, it was straightforward for him to cultivate two auras simultaneously. For his draconic aura, all he needed to do was to kill draconian or half-draconian lifeforms and collect their blood, which he would use to nourish his blade.

For the third prince, the difficulty lay not in finding these lifeforms, but rather in doing so without being discovered by the Wang clan and the other princes.

In the end, the third prince had succeeded.

The fifth prince stepped back, thinking to retreat. The reason he had dared to fight against the third prince was because he thought that the third prince's cultivation was lacking—a king's aura was eminently unsuited to one who wasn't a king.

However, if the third prince had a draconic aura, matters were different. As the third prince had claimed, the fifth prince's swordplay was fundamentally flawed, whereas the third prince had all but reached mastery. In that case, there was no way the fifth prince could win against the third.

Zhang Lie turned to the ninth prince. "It's time for us to make a move."

The ninth prince continued staring at the confrontation.

"The fifth prince doesn't dare to fight with the third prince now that the third prince's secrets have been revealed. He'll have his guards delay the third prince with their lives while he sneaks away. In the end, the third prince will win this battle—but to what end?"

The Wang clan had betrayed him; the third prince no longer had a backer.

Zhang Lie struck.

[Fists of the Silent Sea]! Ripples of energy circled Zhang Lie's fists and arms. What seemed like a tornado crashed down where the two princes stood.

"Who is it?!" Neither prince had expected the presence of a third, stealthed party, especially not one who would launch a sneak attack.

Spatial fluctuations combined with water-attuned genetic energy in a humongous explosion that cracked stone and split the ground.

Their guards were blown away into the distance; the two princes were barely able to stand where they stood. Against such a frightening attack, all they could do was hunker down and shield themselves.

By the time the two princes reacted, the peak-grade lifeform between them was gone.

Considering the strength of that blow, however, the two princes only gulped, swallowed their saliva, and pretended not to notice a thing. All they had lost was a peak-grade lifeform, after all; if they were to give chase, they might lose their lives as well.

That said, it wasn't as if Zhang Lie would give them the chance to catch up. He had long since run off with the ninth prince.

"Did you get the peak-grade lifeform?" the ninth prince asked.

"When have I ever failed?" Zhang Lie replied cockily.

He chopped off the peak-grade lifeform's head and stored it inside his superior-grade potbellied-toad pouch.

On the other side of the forest, the second prince and members of the Jindao clan were currently meeting with a mysterious figure.

The second prince asked, "Are the preparations ready?"

The mysterious figure was draped in a large cloak that covered his entire body. "Don't you trust us by now? We've gathered all the peak-grade lifeforms together already. It's why we've snuck so many superior-grade lifeforms into the hunting grounds to begin with."

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The second prince replied seriously, "We only have this one chance. I'll only accept success—not failure."

The mysterious figure turned to the Jindao bodyguard by the second prince's side. "The martial god of the Jindao, aren't you? #93 on the combat leaderboards of the third realm, supposedly with the power to destroy a galaxy—with him around, there's nothing to fear."

The Jindao raised his head proudly and countered, "You're one of the hundred strongest races too, aren't you? I'm rather surprised that you'd participate in this world's battle for succession, myself."

The Jindao clearly knew the cloaked figure's identity; unlike the Jindao, however, that representative was likely in the upper echelons of strength, perhaps in the top twenty strongest fighters on the leaderboard.

The mysterious figure smiled. "Lucky that we have different objectives, then—you the primordial starflower, and I the resources that this world possesses."

1. Zhanlong (斩龙), lit. slash/strike/behead/kill-dragon.