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Chapter 389 - 358 Dragon Palace

Chapter 389: Chapter 358 Dragon Palace

Along the winding stone steps, the road ends at a grand and imposing vermillion gate mansion.

Someone whistled and said, "The Dragon Palace is here," the crowd burst into friendly laughter.

"Please don’t mention the Dragon Palace."

Housekeeper Tu’s expression was helpless, due to the legendary origins of the Tu Family, there’s a saying among the people that the Tu ancestor survived a shipwreck, while everyone else drowned. Only he was rescued by the Dragon King for his good deeds, was well treated in the Dragon Palace, and even became the Prince Consort.

But his parents were still in the mortal world, so to fulfill his filial duties, he painfully parted with his wife, bringing a love token, a Dragon Ball, back to shore. From then on, every time he went out to sea, he returned with plentiful catches of fish, jewels, and money.

Because of these rumors, there were always bandits and thieves approaching the island on small boats, attempting to steal the Dragon Ball and other valuables from the "Dragon King’s Prince Consort," causing endless troubles for the Tu Family who then had to raise the courtyard walls.

As dusk fell, the vermillion gates opened, and over a hundred servants were busy hanging lanterns and decorations, preparing for tomorrow’s birthday banquet.

Housekeeper Tu led the group through the threshold, through two courtyards and corridors, arriving at the West Wing. Eight tables of fragrant food were already set up inside.

"Please enjoy, guest rooms are ready. Rest for the night, tomorrow at the crack of dawn, the birthday banquet will officially begin."

Housekeeper Tu excused himself, and the martial artists, weary from the bumpy sea journey and hunger, impolitely sat down to feast.

Li Cheng and Gray Rain found seats. Players abide by the rule of not eating unknown food, so Li Cheng pretended to eat, storing everything in the three-dimensional warehouse.

Gray Rain, with her iron stomach, started eating without hesitation. The special dish in the center of the table, white as snow fish Sashimi, delicate and sweet, made her nod repeatedly.

"Su Konghu, you’ve arrived too?"

The door to the wing opened, and a young man in green clothes cheerfully addressed Su Konghu.

The guests who had arrived earlier on Red Island had finished their meal and came over to greet and socialize upon hearing the noise.

The instinct to flatter and uplift each other, ingrained in social animals, didn’t change due to martial path practice.

For a time, the room was filled with commercial praises.

"Haven’t seen you for half a year, Brother Zhao’s Turtle Breathing Technique Inner Strength is getting deeper."

"Not at all, Young Brother Miao’s Great Strength Bull Demon Technique is progressing fast, almost at the eighth level?"

Gray Rain, nibbling on a chicken leg, suddenly had a thought, whispering to Li Cheng, "With so many martial artists on this island, each one is almost like a martial arts secret manual, isn’t it?"

Li Cheng nodded, "Probably."

"Munch munch, why don’t we use a mix of soft and hard tactics, munch munch, to get some secret manuals back?"

Gray Rain, munching on a chicken leg, looked eager, "The last script world was full of six-base organisms, their cultivation techniques were useless for Earth people. This martial arts world shouldn’t have restrictions, right?"

"You think fast."

Li Cheng patted Gray Rain’s small head, who responded with a simple-minded grin.

Compared to other mainstream power systems, like Original Force requiring high talent, superpowers needing substantial brain computation, uncontrollable non-human bloodlines,

Martial arts have a low entry threshold.

One secret manual, a high-definition diagram of the twelve meridians printed from an ad shop downstairs, along with some herbal bath packages bought online,

In half a year to a year, you can surely train something.

Moreover, martial arts have considerable compatibility, later stages can connect with superpowers and physical modifications, or use mecha, fully leveraging the martial artist’s reflexes and physical advantages.

From what Li Cheng knew, the Special Affairs Bureau liked to collect martial arts secrets from various worlds, the Nine Yang Divine Skill and Dugu Nine Swords were just basic types, above them were the Innate Qiankun Technique and Three Points Return to Essence from Hong Kong comics.

Even the driver for the Mobile Task Force could perform a complete set of Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, with a matching Qiao Feng soundtrack.

In this world, the initial innate experts, just their physical strength matched Captain America, the techniques they practice could surely be exchanged for hundreds of game coins.

"Let’s not rush with the secret manuals, the important thing now is to figure out what on the island poses a threat to us."

Li Cheng waved his hand, the task required surviving a day and a half on the island, and these martial artists didn’t look like they could fly.

Even if they dared to besiege Li Cheng, he could use the hot air balloon in the warehouse to ascend to a kilometer high, ensuring safety.

Unless, the threat isn’t human...

"Hmm?"

Li Cheng sniffed something, raising an eyebrow, looking towards the door.

Several other sensitive innate martial artists also sensed something unusual, simultaneously turning their heads towards the door.

A faint scent of blood wafted with the wind, they saw a well-dressed older man around fifty, expression dazed, stepping out of the forest, stopping in the middle of the courtyard.

He was covered in blood, his arms and hands full of fine cuts from blades, especially the sides of his head, the scalp was cut.

"Isn’t that Tu Qiaohua from the second branch of the Tu Family?"

Someone at the table hesitated, "What... What happened to him?"

"Don’t eat,"

Tu Qiaohua suddenly turned his head, staring fiercely at the people near the table, eyes terrifying, voice shrill, "Don’t eat!"

Gray Rain, with the fish sashimi between her chopsticks, hesitated for a moment, then put the fish back into the bowl.

"..."

The young Taoist from Dragon Tiger Mountain, Zhang Fulu, and the Kuyu Monk from Xiangguo Temple silently stood up, putting down their bowls in sync, swiftly rushed into the courtyard, arriving beside Tu Qiaohua, quickly checking his condition.

The Tu Family had five branches, Tu Qiaohua being a fourth-generation member of the second branch, he used to handle commercial affairs for the Tu Family in the Central Plains. He had close ties with Buddhist and Taoist figures, and some martial arts training.

A few years ago, due to health issues, he announced a return to the old family home by the sea, passing all social interactions to his son, Tu Qiouru.

"Stop the bleeding first."

Zhang Fulu used acupoints to stop the bleeding from Tu Qiaohua’s shoulder, then checked the wounds, "The cuts are dense but not fatal, judging by the direction, it looks like... he cut himself."

"Indeed, Tu Qiaohua did this to himself."

Kuyu Monk retrieved a blood-stained blade piece from Tu Qiaohua’s palm, slightly frowned while skillfully using a water bag, golden sore medicine, and white cloth to clean and bandage the wounds.

"Second Master? Second Master?"

The servants’ anxious calls came closer, a group rushed into the courtyard with lanterns, visibly relieved seeing Tu Qiaohua.

"Father, why are you here?"

The leading handsome middle-aged man was Tu Qiouru from the fifth generation of the second branch. Seeing his injured father, a mix of pain, struggle, and relief flashed in his eyes.

"Mr. Qiouru,"

Zhang Fulu bowed, he didn’t know Kuyu but was familiar with Tu Qiouru, "Your father is..."

"Delirium," Tu Qiouru regained some spirit, signaled the servants to carefully take the golden sore medicine from Kuyu and applied it to his father.

At the table, the Temple Master of Qingtao sighed and said, "For the descendants of the Tu Family, apart from the ninety-year-old Lady Tu from the second generation, members of each subsequent generation fall ill around the age of forty-five.

Chest pain, tuberculosis, stroke, delirium, rarely live past sixty. Even if they marry people from different places, it’s the same.

This clearly shows that the dragon palace stories circulating among the common folk are mere jealous and foolish rumors."

Li Cheng rubbed his chin; typical genetic diseases like coronary heart disease, juvenile diabetes, hemophilia, Huntington’s disease, usually one family inherits one,

but the Tu Family has it all—heart disease, stroke, mental illness—are they collecting all the Pocket Monsters?

"Second Uncle, you can’t even take care of Second Master,"

A somewhat greasy voice came from the other end of the courtyard, a young man in green clothes about twenty approached, addressing Tu Qiouru in a mocking tone, "Don’t scare Great-Grandmother again like last time."

"That’s Tu Dongcong from the third branch’s sixth generation,"

Temple Master Qingtao whispered, "He manages the business in South Ocean, a good person but has a sharp tongue."

"Thanks for the reminder, dear nephew."

Embarrassed by the nephew’s taunting in front of familiar faces, Tu Qiouru’s expression changed slightly, stiffly ordering the servants to take his father away for good care.

Unexpectedly, as the servant’s hand touched Tu Qiaohua, the elder wrapped in bandages shivered violently, swinging his arms to throw the servant against the courtyard wall.

He then roared and went berserk, "Ahhhhh!"

Servants tried to restrain Tu Qiaohua’s limbs but barely managed, being dragged along instead.

Kuyu and Zhang Fulu, skilled in martial arts, attempted to help but couldn’t get through the crowd, watching Tu Qiaohua stride across the courtyard towards the pale-faced Tu Dongcong.

All this happened in mere seconds, before anyone could react, the frenzied Tu Qiaohua struck towards Tu Dongcong’s forehead.

At the critical moment, two figures with sunglasses dashed out from the bamboo grove, the older man grabbed Tu Dongcong’s collar, dragging him away,

while the young woman used three silver needles to pierce Tu Qiaohua’s neck, halting his actions.