Chapter 459: Little Gifts?!
Translator: Noodletown Translated Editor: Noodletown Translated
There were a few other families around Zhao Yanzi’s home, but the Mercedes all parked around Zhao Yanzi’s home. They were obviously her family’s guests.
“Who are these people…” Both Hao Ran and Zhao Yanzi were confused. Hao Ren parked the car on the side and hurried in to see what was happening.
There was probably no one who was brave enough to pick a fight at the East Ocean Dragon King’s home on land since the East Ocean City was under Hao Ren and Su Han’s jurisdiction.
“Mom! I’m home!” Zhao Yanzi was a bit worried, so she shouted out loud when she opened the main gates.
“Come in!” Zhao Hongyu said from inside.
Zhao Yanzi was relieved, and she took out her keys to open the door. However, she was smart with her actions so that she would be able to act if anything was wrong and give Hao Ren some time to prepare for battle.
The house was filled with tens of strangers.
There were some old people as well as some mid-aged people, and there were also heavy boxes on the living room floor.
“This is my daughter Zhao Yanzi, and this is the Fuma of our dragon clan, Hao Ren.” Zhao Guang introduced them to everyone else.
“He looks brilliant and full of potential… They’re a perfect match…”
Many praises flooded the room.
Hao Ren recognized the person who stood beside Zhao Guang. He was the wood-elemental elder from Yuhuang Mountain who appeared at the Dragon G.o.d Shrine’s general exam, and the person next to this elder was the wood-elemental cultivator who got severely wounded.
The wood-elemental cultivator looked much better after resting but was still a bit pale. It looked like that the First Elder of Yuhuang Mountain hurried here to thank the East Ocean Dragon Clan for everything as soon as his disciple was almost fully healed.
“Ren, let me introduce everyone to you.” Zhao Guang stood in front of Hao Ren and pointed to an elder whose face was full of wrinkles as he said, “This is Yuhuang Mountain’s Wood Dragon Palace’s Dragon King, Ciyun Dragon King. This is the First Elder, Elder Song, and this is Elder Song’s first disciple, Wu Yi.”
Hao Ren put his hands together and gave a slight bow. “Nice to meet you, Dragon King.”
The Dragon Tribe was split into five big clans according to their elemental attributes: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Since there were a large number of water-elemental dragons, and they were scattered around the world, they were further split into four groups; stream, river, lake, and ocean.
Therefore, according to the categorization, the four ocean dragon palaces were only higher-ranked than the stream, river, and lake dragon clans and managed all the water-elemental dragons, but they were equal in ranking compared to the other elemental dragon clans.
It meant that the Wood Dragon Palace at Yuhuang Mountain was on the same level as the East Ocean Dragon Palace in theory. The East Ocean Dragon Palace could a.s.sert pressure on the Dongting Lake Dragon Clan, but it couldn’t issue commands to any of the wood-elemental dragons.
Those stream, river, and lake dragon clans under the East Ocean jurisdiction would come pay tribute at the East Ocean Dragon Clan once a year, and those dragon kings would also come to the East Ocean Dragon Palace’s annual celebrations. However, the wood-elemental dragon kings wouldn’t come unless they were friends with the East Ocean Dragon Palace, or they received grand invitations.
Therefore, how Yuhuang Mountain sent not only the First Elder as well as the Dragon King himself to pay a visit to Zhao Guang was something very special. The scale of the visit was rather significant.
“There’s no need to be so courteous.” Dragon King Ci Yun lightly lifted Hao Ren’s arms and told him he did not need to bow.
“This is Cangye Dragon King from the Wood Dragon Palace at Cangye Lake, and these are Elder Xi and Elder You.” Zhao Guang slowly introduced everyone to Hao Ren.
Hao Ren quickly gave another bow.
“This is Yingtian Dragon King from the Earth Dragon Palace at Longhu Mountain, and this is the First Elder, Elder Ye…”
Hao Ren immediately bowed and greeted them.
The rest of them were the followers of the three dragon kings and the elders, so Zhao Guang didn’t introduce them individually. Hao Ren held his hands together, walked around and bowing to greet them to show his respect.
“Yanzi, show some manners!” Zhao Hongyu lightly said when she saw Zhao Yanzi holding her backpack and looking perplexed.
“h.e.l.lo, Uncles!” Zhao Yanzi said in a crisp voice.
The three dragon kings and elders saw how energetic Zhao Yanzi was and smiled.
“Dragon Kings, please sit down.” Zhao Guang said as he held his hands out to show the way to the sofa.
From the look of it, Hao Ren knew they had just arrived and hadn’t gotten the chance to sit down yet.
“Yanzi, go make some tea! Zhao Guang said with a stern face.
There were no maids around, so it was up to Zhao Yanzi to make the tea. Zhao Yanzi put down her backpack and skittered into the kitchen with a huge smile on her face.
The three dragon kings sat on the sofa, and Zhao Guang and Zhao Hongyu joined them there.
None of the remaining elders and disciples dared to sit down, and Hao Ren looked around and didn’t sit down as well.
“I’ve come from afar this time to thank the East Ocean Dragon Palace for saving Wu Yi, the first disciple of Yuhuang Mountain.”
Ciyun Dragon King faced Zhao Guang and said slowly. This dragon king looked the oldest.
“The five-elemental dragon clans come from the same root, and we should help each other often,” Zhao Guang said politely.
Zhao Guang was also a bit shocked when the three dragon kings suddenly appeared at his door. Zhao Guang had been dealing with some business matters at the Mingri Group. If it weren’t for the intelligence network of the East Ocean Dragon Clan, he wouldn’t have known that the three dragon kings and the elders had entered the East Ocean City.
“We were planning to visit the East Ocean Dragon Palace but were afraid that Dragon King Zhao would throw a huge banquet for us. After some discussion, we decided to visit your home.” Ciyun Dragon King looked at the other two dragon kings and said, “Cangye Dragon King and Yingtian Dragon King are old friends of mine, and I invited them to join me.”
“Tea’s here!” Zhao Yanzi let out another crisp shout.
She was holding a large tray with five to six cups of tieguanyin 1 tea. She walked toward the center of the living room and put the tea cups down one by one on the tea table in front of the sofa.
“Please drink!” Zhao Guang said politely.
The three dragon kings grabbed the cups and sipped. Then, they nodded and put the tea back on the gla.s.s tea table.
“It’s such a great honor for us to have you three dragon kings gather at East Ocean. The East Ocean, Yuhuang Mountain, Cangye Lake, and Longhu Mountain should take advantage of this opportunity and communicate well,” Zhao Guang said with a big smile on his face.
He wasn’t as old as the other three dragon kings, but his communication skills were on par with them. The three dragon kings had come all the way here with so many people. It could be a good sign or a bad sign, so Zhao Guang didn’t speak too fast or too direct.
Yuhuang Mountain was the most influential dragon clan in the southwestern territories. Although one couldn’t really say that Cangye Lake and Longhu Mountain relied on Yuhuang Mountain, they did follow Yuhuang Mountain since their interests were aligned.
In reality, Cangye Lake and Longhu Mountain were quite influential in the southwestern region themselves. They were at least as powerful as Dongting Lake in East Ocean’s territory, and they had at least tens of thousands of cultivators. There was little water in the southwestern region, so it was basically controlled by wood-elemental and earth-elemental dragons. Therefore, they could not be underestimated.
That was also why Zhao Guang was cautious with his words.
“Hehehe…” Ciyun Dragon King saw that Zhao Guang was still reserved, so he waved his hands.
The disciples standing behind the sofa immediately started to open all the boxes on the floor.
One box was full of 10,000-year-old agarwood, one box was full of Purple Gold Sand, one box was full of black truffles, and the last box contained an ancient tree stem that was saturated with strong nature essence…
“These are just small gifts from us to thank the East Ocean Dragon Clan for helping us,” Ciyun Dragon King said as he stroked his beard, “Yuhuang Mountain had spent a lot of effort in training Wu Yi these few hundred years, and he is extremely valuable to us. If he were to lose his life at the Dragon G.o.d Shrine’s general exams, Yuhuang Mountain would have suffered a tremendous loss.”
Zhao Guang didn’t know what were in those boxes, so he was still on the look-out. Now seeing that they were all valuable gifts, he was relieved.
He now knew that Ciyun Dragon King came with the other two dragon kings to thank them, so he said immediately, “These gifts are too valuable; the East Ocean cannot accept!”
Agarwood and Purple Gold Sand were great material for making dharma treasures and elixir pills, especially 10,000-year-old agarwood because it cannot be penetrated by fire or water. Even a small piece could be made into a pendant. If one carved an array formation in it, it could become a strong defense dharma treasure. Now, there was a full box of agarwood!
The black truffles were also a great material for making elixir pills. However, even if it weren’t used for elixirs, one could put it in hot water and drink it. It had positive effects such as improving energy flow and strength. These were very useful things to cultivators, and it was very generous for Ciyun Dragon King to gift them a whole box!
That ancient tree stem was for sure something valuable.
Zhao Yanzi quietly went to Hao Ren’s side. She turned to him, and he could see her eyes filled with excitement. She had never experienced something like this; three dragon kings came to her home just to thank them!
The tributes that the stream, river, and lake dragon clans gifted to the East Ocean Dragon Palace were usually given to them by Premiers of the dragon palaces or elders. Dragon Kings would normally not visit in person, so it was extremely rare for three dragon kings to visit.
In reality, Zhao Hongyu and Zhao Guang had never experienced such an event as well!
Both the valuable gifts and the appearance of the three dragon kings were strong signs that these three dragon clans wanted to establish friends.h.i.+ps with East Ocean!
The East Ocean Dragon Clan was on the rise!
“This is just a small gift. Dragan King Zhao, you don’t need to be so polite.” Ciyun Dragon King looked up and saw Hao Ren behind Zhao Guang. “Dragon King Zhao’s Fuma is really a talented person. He is very good!”
It was obvious they were impressed by Hao Ren’s performance at the Dragon G.o.d Shrines’ general exams. They probably also knew that Hao Ren had been promoted to a level 3 inspector.
Zhao Guang smiled pleasantly as he turned around and looked at Hao Ren. The look on his face was filled with more affection and fatherly love.
“I still have another request, but I don’t know if Dragon King Zhao will accept it.” Ciyun Dragon King asked.
“Please do say!” Zhao Guang said very directly.
“I want to see the elixir master of East Ocean. That was such a valuable pill, so I wanted to return a small gift in person,” Ciyun Dragon King said sincerely.