Strongest Guard

During the past few hours, the Grand Elder sat cross-legged on the prayer mat at the altar. His eyes were closed the entire time and he remained as still as a statue.    

    

However, King Xuanyuan was sure that the Great Elder knew she was here while she was standing here silently.    

    

After she stood there, she had also turned into a statue. She did not let out any breath as she quietly waited for the Great Clan Elder to ask about this.    

    

Under the prayer mat, in front of the altar, there was a copper brazier. Under the butter candle flame, it shone with a cold and blue luster.    

    

There was something burning inside that looked like charcoal and had already turned white. Blue flames rose up from within it, moving about even though there was no wind. It was as if there were many little snakes mixed within, trying their best to pounce out.    

    

On full moon nights, as long as they were not in seclusion, the Great Elder of the Raging Flames of the Moon would sit in front of the Xuan-Yuan God Sculpture and hold a silver tray in his hands while facing the brazier, trying to figure out whether or not the person who had reverted to his youth had entered society, and where he was.    

    

This was a common practice, as it had always been for thousands of years, never ceasing.    

    

It was also according to the usual practice that King Xuanyuan would appear where she stood on the full moon night. He would slightly lower his head to look at the silver plate in the Great Elder's hand and silently wait for the eastern light to appear before quietly leaving, as if he had quietly arrived.    

    

Her shawl of hair had begun to turn translucent, which proved that it was almost dawn, that the monthly routine was coming to an end, and that it was time for her to go back to bed.    

    

But at this moment, the silver tray in the Great Elder's hands fell to the ground, producing a crisp clank.    

    

The loud sound made by the silver platter on the ground was quite ear-piercing in the spacious hall, making King Xuanyuan, who was caught off guard, shudder.    

    

When the routine was about to end, how could the Great Elder have made such a big mistake by dropping the silver plate into the dust?    

    

A silver platter that had existed for thousands of years was not allowed to touch the mortal world.    

    

Completely out of instinct, King Xuanyuan's figure flashed as he transformed into a phantom image that the naked eye could not catch. He bent over and picked up the compass from the ground, then handed it over to the Great Elder with both hands.    

    

The Grand Elder did not pick up. It was as if he had been sleeping all year round and had never even opened his eyes. His eyes were filled with an unfathomable blankness. His mouth was covered by a white beard as he murmured something.    

    

King Xuanyuan did not disturb him. He kept his hands on the compass and listened attentively.    

    

"Cough, cough — how can this be?"    

    

After coughing a few times, the First Elder's words were finally understood by the people around him.    

    

"How can this be?"    

    

The Great Elder repeated these words and turned to look at her.    

    

Her cold, emotionless voice came out from under the golden mask. "What? How is it?"    

    

"I could clearly feel it roaring in anger, spiraling up and down, trying to break through the white mist that covered my eyes, my consciousness. "It looks like I'm about to see it, see it … but it suddenly disappeared, disappearing without a trace. No matter how I take out my consciousness, I won't be able to feel it again."    

    

The Great Elder slowly closed his eyes and said dreamily, "Once again, it was hidden in an unfathomable white mist. There was no sign of life, as if it had never appeared. How can this be? "    

    

King Xuanyuan asked softly, "Will it come out again?"    

    

"I don't know. I can't feel it, much less see it."    

    

The Great Elder stretched out his hand and took the silver plate. With an exhausted voice, he said, "There's someone here. Someone must have forcefully suppressed it before I can see it. Don't let it come out, and don't let me discover it."    

    

King Xuanyuan's eyes, which were hidden under the golden mask, slowly shrank. "You're saying that the people in the outside world already knew that we were looking for that person, but just when they saw the Black Dragon about to break out of the fog, they managed to hold it down in time?"    

    

"Even so, it can only be so. Otherwise, just based on the host's current control over the Black Dragon, it's far from being able to be freely released and retracted. "    

    

The Great Clan Elder nodded his head, the white beard on the corner of his mouth trembling, "An expert, an absolute expert. "Only the most extraordinary of experts …"    

    

What he said sounded incoherent, but King Xuanyuan knew very well what he was saying.    

    

The man whom Raging Flames had been searching for for over a thousand years, had finally appeared. The Great Elder had been trying his best to sense its existence almost every day, hoping to use the most ancient divination to pinpoint his exact location.    

    

However, he had never succeeded. After the Black Dragon entered society, it was like diving into the ocean, not moving at all for several months.    

    

But on this full moon night, the Great Elder clearly sensed the existence of the Black Dragon. He immediately summoned all of his attention and allowed his hand to hold the magnetic needle in the silver tray.    

    

The Head Elder felt the Black Dragon and he also felt how angry it was right now. He desperately hoped that it would be able to charge out of the fog in a fit of rage.    

    

The long-cherished wish of the past thousand years was about to be fulfilled at this moment!    

    

The Great Elder, who looked like he was sitting on a pile of dead wood, was incomparably excited in his heart. He even crazily called out to it, "Come out, come out!"    

    

He could already clearly sense that in the next moment, the Black Dragon, which was about to rush out of the white mist, had suddenly dove down.    

    

The wind was calm.    

    

The Great Elder, who was extremely disappointed, was unwilling to lose its trail. He immediately willed his soul to enter the white mist, risking his life to see the bottom, not to mention the edge, in hopes of finding any traces of the Black Dragon.    

    

Then, he saw a pair of eyes.    

    

A pair of evil, devilish eyes.    

    

When his thoughts fiercely collided with those eyes, the soul immediately cried out miserably, as if it was surrounded by fire.    

    

Luckily, Grand Elder had managed to withdraw his willpower in time and escape from the white fog. If he had delayed it any longer, it would not have been a matter of dropping the silver plate into the mortal world.    

    

According to the growth cycle of the black dragon, Great Elder did not believe that its host would be able to control it with ease. When he felt that someone was spying on him with their will, he immediately detected the danger that he should not expose.    

    

The Black Dragon had coincidentally hidden itself at the most critical moment.    

    

What did this mean?    

    

This could only mean that someone realized the danger of the Black Dragon's imminent exposure and immediately helped its host hide it.    

    

After being possessed by the evil nature of the Black Dragon, how powerful would the host be? Great Elder felt that only King Xuanyuan could deal with him.    

    

However, King Xuanyuan was in the Xuan Yuan Temple!    

    

Then, who could do what King Xuanyuan did?    

    

Expert.    

    

An unprecedented expert!    

    

Would there be such an expert in the mortal world?    

    

Impossible!    

    

However, he just had to exist.    

    

Furthermore, Great Elder was now certain that the experts who had helped the host hide the Black Dragon should clearly know how important it was to the raging flames.    

    

Who was this expert?    

    

How did he know all this?    

    

Since he knew all this, why did he let the Black Dragon play with him?    

    

Thinking of the last question, cold sweat broke out from the head elder's forehead.    

    

He suddenly understood why that expert did this.    

    

This was a trap set up for him.    

    

That expert probably knew that on the night of the full moon, Great Elder used all of his consciousness to search for the existence of the Black Dragon, which was why he risked the Black Dragon being exposed in its specific location, intentionally angering the Black Dragon's left and right hosts to let Great Elder detect it.    

    

When the Great Elder was about to lock onto the Black Dragon, the expert had the Black Dragon hide in time to attract the Great Elder who seemed to be hoping that he would not let go.    

    

When he dove into the fog, he would devour all the Black Dragons that invaded his territory, and he would devour the Grand Elder.    

    

After the Grand Elder had fully transformed, there was no one left within the raging flames. They were able to use their consciousness to search for the Black Dragon from thousands of kilometers away.    

    

That way, the Black Dragon would never come to Flame Valley, and King Xuanyuan would never be able to be reborn.    

    

After coming to this conclusion, the Great Elder's heavy clothes were drenched in cold sweat. A sickly bright red glow appeared on his wrinkled face.    

    

He didn't say any of this, but King Xuanyuan could feel it. He stared at the calm burning holy fire and asked softly: "Since there's someone outside and they know how important the Black Dragon is to my Flame Valley, why did they destroy the host before it becomes stronger?"    

    

King Xuanyuan had asked this question many times before, but the Head Elder had never answered her.    

    

She didn't expect the Great Elder to answer her question. Instead, she turned and walked quickly towards the entrance of the great hall.    

    

The sky had already brightened, and her beautiful hair had turned pitch black. Her voice also carried the soft and tender tone that only girls would have, and her thoughts had also begun to flow like a woman's.    

    

Aren't girls who love beauty especially concerned with their own appearance?    

    

Having not slept the entire night was the greatest enemy for a woman's beauty. Thus, every night, on the second day of the full moon, she would be in a deep sleep until the next morning.    

    

When King Xuanyuan, who loved beauty, quickly walked out of the shrine's entrance, the Great Elder's old voice came from behind him, "Black Dragon can revive you and similarly destroy you."    

    

Her delicate body trembled as she suddenly turned her head to stare at the Great Elder. After a long time, she slowly said, "I tried to borrow the Black Dragon's rebirth, but they tried to use the Black Dragon to destroy me."    

    

The Head Elder who had his back facing the door of the shrine didn't speak.    

    

Silence is sometimes a tacit agreement.    

    

King Xuanyuan waited for a moment before asking, "So, whether it is to us or them, before the Black Dragon becomes fully mature, it will not kill the host without permission."    

    

The Great Elder said, "It's useless to pick the peaches before they're ripe."    

    

King Xuanyuan seemed to chuckle, "Then, do you think that if I could wait for the peach blossoming personally, our chances of success would be many times higher?"    

    

The Great Elder turned around and looked at the woman bathing in the morning golden sunlight and said slowly, "According to the ancestor system, King Xuanyuan is not allowed to leave the Flame Valley until the eyes of Emperor Xuanyuan's Divine Statue has turned red."    

    

Bathed in the golden morning sun, the woman lifted her hand and stroked her hair as she lightly said, "The ancestral system was set by the people. Since people can be sure, then they can also be overthrown. "    

    

The Head Elder did not say a word as he turned around.    

    

"I hope that you can do the thinking of the other elders and allow me to break through the ancestor system and step out of the Flame Valley."    

    

King Xuanyuan also turned around, and just like how he didn't bend his knees, he floated down the ninety-nine steps like the floating clouds and flowing water, but his voice could be compressed into a line and transmitted into the ears of the Head Elder, "Suddenly, I am filled with an unprecedented eagerness for this day to come. They always say that the outside world is wonderful, and I want to go take a look."    

    

A formless sound, like a long, tangible dragon, continuously reverberated around the wide beams of the shrine.    

    

The golden light shone down from the skylight, illuminating the eyes of Emperor Xuanyuan, which were painted with a faint layer of red.