The Investiture: Unlimited Blade Works Nezha
Chapter 362 - 361: Searching for Ancestor Dragon

Chapter 362: Chapter 361: Searching for Ancestor Dragon

The Ancestor Qilin was the weakest among the Three Divine Beasts. If Yuan Feng still had a single breath left, the Ancestor Qilin had only a third of that. Forget about exerting any strength—he frequently needed the earth vein to sustain his life, pleading with the heavens not to perish.

The Ancestor Dragon was a completely different story. The Dragon Clan was incredibly strong. To put it bluntly, if it weren’t for Yuan Feng and a group of troublemakers, the Ancestor Dragon’s attainment of Chaos Origin would have been a foregone conclusion.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as "if." However, his current state was undeniably the best among the three.

Recently, the Dragon Clan has been following Nezha to repair the Returning Ruins, contributing both money and effort, which earned them a decent amount of Merit. Additionally, they invested a significant amount of treasure and manpower into Buddhism, becoming the Dragon Group of the Heavenly Dragon Eight Divisions in Buddhism, thus mitigating the karmic debts tied to their lineage.

With both approaches working together, the effects were remarkable.

Although Meng Zhang God had studied Fu Xi’s notes for an entire half-day without deriving definitive insights, the Dragon Clan’s overall Qi Fortune had still reached a small peak.

It couldn’t compare to their zenith in the past, of course. But since the Dragon Clan’s decline, they had never been better off than now.

After consulting with the Ancestor Dragon, Meng Zhang God decided to take action.

This resulted in the Ancient Dragon stirring quite the upheaval, slowly expanding its presence. Instead of holding back, the two decided to go all in and simply made a complete escape!

Now, the Eastern Azure Dragon, one of the Four Spirits, had gone missing, and the Ancestor Dragon couldn’t be found either. This dealt a devastating blow to the authority of the reigning Heavenly Emperor, Hao Tian.

Hao Tian feared nothing more than the Daoist Ancestor suddenly appearing and saying, "If you can’t manage this Primordial world, let someone else handle it."

Hao Tian also realized that the four Dragon Kings truly had no idea where the Ancestor Dragon had gone. But then, neither did Hao Tian—after all, even after scouring the Three Realms with the Hao Tian Mirror, he came up empty.

The Ancestor Dragon was definitely still within the Primordial world. Unlike the Azure Dragon, who carried no debts and could afford to slip away after years of tireless "996" hardship, the Ancestor Dragon’s heavy karmic baggage would never permit the Heavenly Dao of the Primordial world to simply let him flee into Chaos with a pat on the backside.

Yet, Hao Tian just couldn’t find him!

After much contemplation, Hao Tian realized he couldn’t shoulder this alone. He couldn’t rely on the Saints for support, but there was someone else he could turn to.

Smoothing his beard with a deliberate composure, he asked, "Emperor Ziwei, what are your thoughts?"

Nezha, who had been mentally wandering the Void, was completely dumbfounded by Hao Tian’s sudden question. **What do I think?** Well, I’m sitting here thinking, obviously!

Just as he was about to utter a few perfunctory lines, a faint dragon shadow emerged on the hidden edge of the Treasure Dividing Rock within his Divine Soul. Pretending to ponder, Nezha carefully examined it twice more to confirm it wasn’t a hallucination.

"So Old Deng’s gifts come with strings attached?"

No matter how many times he had tried before, there’d been no response. So it turns out no free labor, huh?

Feigning deep thought for a while longer, Nezha finally said, "Your Majesty, I have a friend who might know something about the Ancestor Dragon’s whereabouts."

Hao Tian felt a twinge of speechlessness upon hearing this. By now, he was thoroughly familiar with Nezha’s conversational tactics—every other line seemed to start with "I have a friend," followed by "That’s a dear old companion of mine." It all boiled down to one thing: asking for more benefits.

Already crowned Lord of the Starry Skies, how could he still love taking advantage so much?

"Ahem, ahem. If your... ’friend’ can provide solid information, the Heavenly Court certainly won’t shortchange them."

Upon hearing this, Nezha immediately understood Hao Tian’s misunderstanding. The "friend" he had referred to was actually Yuan Feng. Nezha was confident no one in the Primordial world understood the Ancestor Dragon better than Yuan Feng!

Still, he played along. If Hao Tian was being so generous, there was no reason to turn down the spoils.

"Your Majesty is truly magnanimous. Then leave it to me—I’ll go make the visit."

"Excellent."

Stocking up on a hoard of treasures from Hao Tian, Nezha left the Heavenly Court and traveled south to the Undying Volcano. The locale remained unchanged, still poisoned by fire and harsh beyond belief.

Tossing a few Peaches to the gatekeeper, Da Feng, Nezha casually gained passage. After all, in Da Feng’s eyes, Nezha wasn’t exactly an outsider.

Standing at the volcano’s mouth, Nezha shouted, "Senior Yuan Feng? Senior Yuan Feng, are you here?"

After yelling for a few moments without a response, Nezha turned away and shouted, "Senior Yuan Feng, breakfast is ready!"

Suddenly, the volcano trembled. Moments later, a breathtaking beauty dressed in a flamboyant red robe ascended with reckless vigor.

"Brat, where’s my Xuanxuan? Did she beat you up again, and now you’ve come to beg me to lecture her? For just a thousand of those fruits like last time, I’ll handle her for you. So, how about it?"

Nezha: ...

Yuan Feng’s words always managed to catch him off guard. He and Kong Xuan had barely made any progress in their relationship, but here she was, already making scenarios about domestic disputes?

Interacting with Yuan Feng required ignoring her logic entirely. Otherwise, ten more minutes of conversation and she might start coming up with names for his hypothetical kids with Kong Xuan.

"Senior Yuan Feng, this is serious—Ancestor Dragon has broken out!"

Yuan Feng’s previously carefree expression instantly stiffened into alarm. "What?! That Old Loach escaped?"

She immediately dove back into the volcano’s depths, her consciousness returning to her original body. Activating the exclusive channel shared amongst the three beasts, she frantically bombarded the Ancestor Dragon with accusations but received no response, cursing him out in the process.

Even the ever-apathetic Ancestor Qilin, who typically lurked in silence, noticed something was off this time.

Originally, their shared misery eased their collective burdens. But with the Ancestor Dragon’s escape, Yuan Feng and the Ancestor Qilin were both more devastated than Hao Tian himself!

"Where do you think the Ancestor Dragon might have gone?"

Knowing that the Ancestor Qilin was always silently monitoring, Yuan Feng directly addressed him.

This time, the Ancestor Qilin didn’t remain silent. "He’s probably gone to find that thing."

Yuan Feng nodded furiously in aggravation. "Exactly what I thought. Just wait—I’ll have my son-in-law drag him back by the tail!"

...

Leaving the chat, Yuan Feng emerged from the volcano’s summit and bombarded Nezha with a torrent of words. Although most of it involved her recounting how she had ruthlessly defeated Ancestor Dragon and trampled on the Ancestor Qilin in their past, Nezha managed to extract a wealth of valuable insights.

The Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans were pure Chaos Divine Beasts. After Pangu’s Heavenly Creation, they became what could be considered the second wave of newcomers to the Primordial world. As for the first wave, everyone already knew who they were.

Back in Chaos, their primitive spiritual wisdom couldn’t compare to that of the Daoist Ancestor and his group of Demon Gods, so even after the Primordial transformation, their essence remained unchanged as Dragons, Phoenixes, and Qilins.

Instinctively, they still followed the Chaos-originated path of devouring and evolving.

This path, compared to the Daoist Ancestor’s path of exploring profound truths and enlightenment, was undoubtedly easier. After all, it required no deep thought—just endless devouring. This was why the three clans eventually caught up to the Ancestors born from the Demon Gods.

But there were obvious pros and cons. The constant devouring that characterized their development ultimately led to one outcome: only by consuming the other two could one achieve Chaos Origin.

This was the fundamental cause of the Three Clans’ great war. There was no complex explanation—they simply wanted to eat each other to evolve.

Even the clans themselves were structured for war.

From the outset, the ultimate winner of this war was destined to be the Ancestor Dragon. His plan had been meticulous: eliminate the weakest Qilin Clan first and devour them; with that, the remaining Phoenix Clan would pose no challenge. He had even considered working with the Phoenix Clan, achieving Chaos Origin himself first, and then helping Yuan Feng afterwards—it wasn’t off the table.