My father is the main character, but the female leads want to kill me.

Isn't that right?

Lin Ran was a little puzzled: "I saw its sharp edges and the dark red horns on its back. Are you sure it's not a Void Evil Clan?"

"It's not the Void Evil Clan, it's the Black Dragon Clan, a branch of the Demon Clan. You can also call it the Demon Dragon Clan, but why... is it sealed here? I remember the Demon Dragon Clan was also a major force in resisting the Void Evil Clan. Qianzhou... that's it... the Demon Dragon Clan used to fight against the Void Evil Clan here back then!"

Fan Hua finally remembered these key details. The battle back then was actually very chaotic. Although a strategy had been discussed beforehand, it was a complete mess when it was implemented. Fan Hua had participated in commanding the defense at that time, so she had a deep understanding of it.

"Dragon race?!"

Lin Ran was taken aback; he had never heard of this in the original novel!

"I never expected... that anyone would know... about... our Demon Dragon Clan!"

Suddenly, a hoarse, ancient voice rang out in Lin Ran and Fan Hua's minds at the same time, and the two of them quickly looked at the demonic dragon in the center.

The dragon, which had been keeping its eyes closed, opened them at this moment, revealing a pair of lantern-like eyes that shone with a dark purple light.

The dragon has awakened!

Fan Hua quickly stepped forward, shielding Lin Ran behind her. Looking at the demonic dragon before her, she calmly said, "May I ask which member of the demonic dragon clan this gentleman is? I am Fan Hua, a protector under the former Holy Emperor Jingyue!"

"We didn't mean to disturb you. We just noticed traces of the Azure Emperor in these ruins and thought we'd explore them!"

"A person of the Mirror Moon Holy Emperor? Now... no, your soul state... you are a spirit of an artifact?!" The demonic dragon's sharp eyes saw through Fan Hua's mindset that she was a spirit of an artifact at a glance.

“Yes, so you are…” Fan Hua asked respectfully.

"Me? Hahaha..."

The dragon's laughter, like thunder, almost made Lin Ran and Fan Hua's ears ring. After a while, the dragon stopped laughing and said, "I am Gu Zige, the patriarch of the dragon clan!"

"Gu Zige...it's you!"

Fan Hua's eyes widened. This name awakened her long-dormant memories, reminding her of an event from years ago—an event from which she came to understand the difference between the Demon Race and the Void Evil Race…

……

124. The Dragon's Lament

Fan Hua herself had participated in an operation against the Void Evil Clan. During that operation, they stumbled upon an "internal strife" among the Void Evil Clan. They waited until both sides were severely weakened before planning to annihilate the other side.

Just as they were about to make their move, the Azure Emperor noticed something amiss on one side. After some investigation, he learned that the other side was actually a demon.

That was the first time the Nine Provinces Continent had come to know about the Demon Race. The Demon Race was not a race originally from the Nine Provinces Continent. They came to the Nine Provinces Continent for some reason and had been staying there for some time. They were not comparable to the Void Evil Race, who plundered everywhere and left nothing but desolation in their wake.

Moreover, the Demon Race and the Void Evil Race are the kind of people who never interact with each other, and they will fight to the death whenever they meet.

That's why the demons joined forces with the Nine Provinces Continent at that time to fight against the Void Evil Clan.

The strongest branch of the Demon Race back then, the Demon Dragon Clan, had a patriarch named Gu Zige, who was also one of the few peak Saint Realm cultivators of that era. With the Demon Dragon Clan's powerful physique and bloodline talent, he could even hold his own against a half-Emperor like the Mirror Moon Saint Emperor.

This is why Fan Hua was so surprised. The patriarch of the Demon Dragon Clan, who was at the peak of the Saint Realm, was actually sealed in such a place for such a long time. What was the reason behind this?

"I originally... thought no one would come here... but in the end, my wait has come!"

Gu Zige looked at Lin Ran behind Fan Hua, his huge pupils filled with doubt. He said, "Qing Di, why would you choose such an old codger with no talent? He's only at the Nirvana Realm. It's too embarrassing!"

Fan Hua turned around and glanced at Lin Ran. Although she agreed wholeheartedly, she still had to maintain her master's dignity to some extent.

She said slowly, "Perhaps... the Azure Emperor saw something in him, or perhaps there are reasons related to the Azure Emperor himself?"

"That's true, I really can't understand that bastard Qingdi!"

Gu Zige shook his head. He slowly moved his body, bringing his enormous head close to the small opening. He stared at Lin Ran for a long time before withdrawing his head, exhaling a breath of dragon's breath, and said strangely, "I didn't see anything special about this old guy either."

Fearing that Lin Ran's expression would darken further, Fan Hua quickly said, "Gu Zige, why were you sealed here? With your strength and our past relationship against the Void Evil Clan, how could you possibly end up being sealed here by the Azure Emperor and the Azure Dragon Clan?"

After hearing Fan Hua's words, Gu Zige remained silent for a long while before saying in a heavy voice, "Back then, because of my carelessness, the Demon Dragon Clan was reduced to only me, their chieftain. No matter what, I must strive for the continuation of the Demon Dragon Clan. I cannot let the Demon Dragon Clan simply become the bottom sediment of history... forever forgotten..."

Fan Hua and Lin Ran both fell silent. Gu Zige's few words contained the endless loneliness of many years and the deep guilt he felt towards his clan.

This reminded Lin Ran of Ou Yunjin's Heavenly Fox Clan. Their clan was no different. In the fight against the Void Evil Clan, only the clan leader survived, barely clinging to life, just so that the Heavenly Fox Clan could continue to exist.

Fan Hua stared intently at Gu Zige and couldn't help but ask, "What exactly happened on the front lines of Qianzhou back then?"

Although it's been a long time, Fan Hua remembers that back then, Qianzhou was the most tragic battlefield against the Void Evil Clan. A big reason for this was that a certain defensive line was lost, or there was a traitor within the ranks, which dragged on until human lives had to be exchanged with the Void Evil Clan.

"then…"

Gu Zige paused, and suddenly a powerful aura, so thick it was hard to breathe, emanated from his body. In just an instant, Lin Ran couldn't help but groan and fall to the ground.

Unlike the time he struggled to survive, this time he had no chance to even breathe, let alone struggle.

"Oh, sorry, old man!"

Gu Zige quickly noticed the anomaly and hurriedly concealed his aura. His massive, winding body coiled around him as he continued, "Back then, there was a traitor in your human race's defenses. The entire defense line collapsed. The remaining human powerhouses joined forces with me to resist and hold out around here until the Azure Emperor arrived. But I was the only one left."

"I was already at my last gasp, so I begged the Azure Emperor to seal me away so I could hold on, and to find me a junior from the Demon Clan to carry on the Demon Dragon bloodline..."

"After the magic array was set up in this place and the Azure Emperor sealed me away, he also encountered trouble. He told me he would return after resolving the matter, but I... have waited until today..."

“I know… the Azure Emperor is already exhausted, both physically and mentally, facing the invasion of the Void Evil Clan, and he has been kept alive until today for the sake of me, a guy who should have died long ago…”

"So today, let me repay the kindness that the Azure Emperor bestowed upon me back then!"

The words had barely left his lips when Gu Zige's massive body emitted an incredibly dazzling dark red light, and a powerful, resounding heartbeat could be faintly heard, like a drum beating in one's ear, deafeningly loud...

Soon, the dark red light rapidly condensed, transforming into a crystal-clear, dark red crystal, like a drop of water. The crystal was filled with a vast and wild aura, and also carried a surging life force like a tide.

Gu Zhige stretched out his dragon claw and gently touched the dark red crystal. The sharp dragon claw touched the crystal and instantly turned into a dark red light, which pierced into Lin Ran's chest with lightning speed.

But the next moment, an incredibly dense cyan light erupted from Lin Ran's left chest. The cyan light subtly transformed into a barrier, blocking the dark red light that had intruded without cause, as if it were the master of the house.

"Hey!"

Seeing this, Gu Zige thought to himself, "I never expected... that the Azure Emperor would leave such a treasure to his successor..."

If Gu Zige had previously held a degree of disbelief and contempt for Lin Ran as the successor of the Azure Emperor, then now…

He was completely convinced. To be so highly regarded by that person meant that perhaps their dragon race, following him, could rise again in the future…

With that in mind, Gu Zige decided to increase his stakes and treat it as a high-stakes gamble!

Gu Zige withdrew the dark red light, and a dazzling dark red light once again erupted from his body, but this time it seemed to be somewhat different.

As the dark red light gradually receded and condensed, a crystal-clear dark red heart began to beat in the empty space.

Gu Zige's eyes were already filled with death. He inserted the dark red heart into Lin Ran's right chest, and at this moment, the cyan light did not come out to stop him.

When the dark red light entered Lin Ran's body, an extremely intense pain surged through her nerves, followed by a profound sense of drowsiness.

"damn it!"

Lin Ran cursed under his breath, then collapsed to the ground once more, his eyelids unable to hold back the drowsiness, and he fell into a deep sleep.

Fan Hua, standing to the side, calmly watched the scene unfold before her. When she looked into Gu Zige's lifeless eyes, she asked with some confusion, "Why are you going to such great lengths? Are you trying to bind the Azure Emperor's successor?"

"Besides repaying the favor to the Azure Emperor... I also want the Azure Emperor to owe me a favor!"

Gu Zige felt his power, body, and soul rapidly draining away. He looked at the guardian under the Mirror Moon Holy Emperor, now the artifact spirit, and couldn't help but ask, "I'm leaving soon. Can you tell me... does the fact that the Azure Emperor left such a contingency plan mean that the Void Evil Clan will not only make a comeback, but will be even more ferocious than we were back then?"

Upon hearing Gu Zige's question, Fan Hua fell silent.

Fan Hua sensed that Qing Di and Jing Yue, along with their group, had been plotting many things back then, some of which she was unaware of. What exactly did they want to do? Was it really as Gu Zige said, that the Void Evil Clan would make a comeback and descend upon the Nine Provinces Continent with even greater power than before?

Back then, the Nine Provinces Continent paid an extremely heavy price to deal with the Void Evil Clan. Given their current situation, could they possibly deal with an even more powerful Void Evil Clan?

After a long while, Fan Hua shook her head and said, "I don't know!"

"Is that so? Yes, perhaps only someone like the Azure Emperor, who seizes the creation of heaven and earth, can see what the future will be like."

Gu Zige sighed. His enormous body had turned to ashes, almost half of it had disappeared. He raised his head and looked up, as if he could see the outside world through the thick layer of soil.

"Please tell this old bastard to cultivate diligently and find an outstanding demon successor to carry on my demon dragon clan!"

After Gu Zige finished speaking, he closed his eyes tightly, bared his ferocious fangs, and let out a long, mournful dragon roar.

"Roar!"

The dragon's roar lacked any sense of power or grandeur; instead, it evoked only a poignant sadness. As the roar faded, Gu Zige's massive body turned to ashes and vanished completely. The last member of the demon dragon race was gone.

The light of hope that would allow the Demon Dragon Clan to appear in the future transformed into a dark red beam of light, which slowly drifted from mid-air to Lin Ran and Fan Hua. It was a curved horn that seemed to breathe, occasionally emitting a dark red light.

"The horns of the demon dragon?"

When Fan Hua saw the horn floating in front of her, and then glanced at it again, she realized that it had returned to the dark, sealed land, and a sense of sorrow welled up in her heart.

Seeing her contemporaries enduring loneliness and solitude to this day in order to pass on their bloodline, she understood that feeling. Wasn't she the same? She had endured countless days and nights for the sake of Jingyue's inheritance, and was even willing to become a spirit of the artifact.

They may have had their own selfish motives for doing this, but it was all for the sake of the next generation, so that the next generation would have enough strength to deal with the Void Evil Clan and enough strength to protect the Nine Provinces Continent.

"Gu Zige, may you rest in peace!"

The flowers murmured softly.

Immediately afterwards, she pulled the dark red horn along with Lin Ran into the space of the Flowing Tassel Palace, transforming it into a golden light that tore open a spatial rift and left the place…

……

125. An Undying Heart

Rewinding to the beginning, after that earth-shattering roar, Mu Shishuang and her group were also affected. The ground shook a few times, startling some of the warhorses. Fortunately, several students from Songling Academy who had not gone there managed to control the warhorses.

Mu Shishuang did not go into the main hall with them. She stayed behind and sensed something was wrong in the main hall. It felt like an invisible hand was gripping her heart. She thought about getting out of the car to find Lin Ran.

But just as she took a step, she remembered what Lin Ran had told her, and silently withdrew her foot. She sat in the driver's seat, her eyes fixed on the way Lin Ran and the others had gone.

After the strange incident, Yue Lei from Songling Academy went there as well. Not long after, Fu Yuemei and the others returned, but Mu Shishuang did not see the figure she was looking forward to seeing.

She stepped down from the carriage and strode up to Fu Yuemei. Looking at the disheveled Fu Yuemei, she sharpened her gaze and said in a cold voice, "Why are only you two back? Where is Lin Ran? What exactly happened inside?"

"Master, she..."

Fu Yuemei couldn't help but lower her head.

Others, such as Chi Sinian, Xiao Qian, and Xiao Zhuang, were in the same boat; they didn't know how to tell Mu Shishuang what had happened inside.

"say!"

Mu Shishuang suddenly snapped, "Can't you speak properly?"

This shout silenced Fu Yuemei and the others. A group of skilled martial artists were rendered speechless by Mu Shishuang, who had no real strength.