The Dragon Emperor finally realized something was amiss and took it seriously.
The Third Dragon Prince was his own son, and his words were unlikely to be lies.
This was completely different from a few insignificant subordinates.
The credibility of the Third Dragon Prince's words was naturally extremely high, and if even an expert at the Taiyi Golden Immortal level had fallen victim to an illusion, it was very peculiar.
Upon realizing this, the Dragon Emperor quickly summoned the elders of the various dragon clans, Da Luo Golden Immortals, to an assembly.
He also secretly dispatched another Da Luo Golden Immortal, the Flying Dragon Venerable, to investigate outside the human territory.
Now, not only had the elders of the various dragon clans discussed and reached a conclusion, confirming that the human race was by no means as weak as they were two thousand years ago, but the situations reported by his subordinates were also likely to be true.
Even the Flying Dragon Venerable, a cultivator at the Da Luo Golden Immortal level, whom the Dragon Emperor had personally sent to investigate near the human territory, had completed his inspection and returned.
He personally reported to the Dragon Emperor that, according to his observations, the human race indeed exhibited significant anomalies, and the situations reported by the subordinates were basically all true.
This undoubtedly enraged the Dragon Emperor.
In the Dragon Emperor's view, the Dragon race was a dominant force during the ancient Dragon-Phoenix tribulation. Compared to the other two dominant forces – the Phoenix race and the Qilin race – the Dragon race had retained the most strength and was the strongest among the three after the ancient era.
Not only did they have numerous Da Luo Golden Immortal dragons, but they also possessed a final trump card – Zhuolong, who was sealed and suppressed, or rather, lived in seclusion at the bottom of the East Sea's sea eye!
Although Zhuolong was limited by his suppressed, or rather, secluded state and could not act too frequently, he could still risk coming out to fight in an emergency.
What was Zhuolong?
Zhuolong was a Hunyuan Golden Immortal from the glorious ancient Dragon-Phoenix era!
The Quasi-Saints of the current era were merely beings who cultivated the Heavenly Dao method passed down by Dao Ancestor Hongjun, relying on the severing of three corpses to reach the Quasi-Saint realm.
In the Dragon Emperor's opinion, such Quasi-Saints were merely incomplete versions of Hunyuan Golden Immortals and could not compare to true Hunyuan Golden Immortals cultivated through ancient methods!
The older, the stronger!
The more ancient the method, the stronger it was!
In the ancient era, powerful beings like Ancestral Dragon and Yuan Feng cultivated the Hunyuan Golden Immortal method, pursuing the Hunyuan Da Luo Golden Immortal fruit. Such ancient methods were definitely hundreds, even thousands, of times stronger than the new methods of the present!
Hunyuan Golden Immortals cultivated the rules of the Great Dao! Whereas so-called Quasi-Saints, at most, cultivated the rules of the Heavenly Dao!
This was the difference between the two!
The combat power of a Hunyuan Golden Immortal far surpassed that of a Quasi-Saint in the current era.
Although the Dragon race did not have Quasi-Saint experts who could sever three corpses, they had Zhuolong, a more powerful Hunyuan Golden Immortal!
Even when Di Jun and Tai Yi came to turn the entire Dragon race into subordinates of the Demon Court, after fighting Zhuolong in the depths of the sea, they retreated and no longer pursued the matter.
The Dragon race still did not join the Demon Court.
Their ability to remain independent under the pressure of the Demon Court, not becoming demons, demonstrated the Dragon race's strength.
Although the now-declined Dragon race could only occupy a corner and lacked the capital to contend for dominance of heaven and earth with the Wu and Demon races.
Yet, the Dragon Emperor remained proud, especially when facing the weakest race in the Great Desolation, the human race.
The human race, which was incredibly weak two thousand years ago, had, by today, developed such a vast power under the Dragon race's watch.
They had used methods to obscure the heavenly secrets, deceiving them, the Dragon race, for two thousand years, deceiving the Dragon Emperor for two thousand years.
In the Dragon Emperor's eyes, this was an absolutely unforgivable offense.
Moreover, according to the report of the Flying Dragon Venerable, the human race possessed so many spiritual herbs…
There were more than ten spiritual herbs comparable to the Ten Great Spiritual Roots!
This was too terrifying!
This was too astonishing!
And it also, too, caused the Dragon Emperor and several Dragon elders to harbor thoughts of killing and seizing treasures!
"So many spiritual herbs are enough to cultivate numerous Golden Immortals and Taiyi Golden Immortals for my Dragon race!"
"The human race was able to cultivate so many powerful beings with the help of these spiritual herbs; if it were my Dragon race, we would do even better!"
"The Dragon Emperor is right! This human race's inherited legacy from the outer world is comparable to, or even surpasses, the combination of the Great Desolation's Ten Great Spiritual Roots… such a vast spiritual herb garden!"
"If we could seize this spiritual herb garden…"
Greed flickered in the eyes of many Da Luo Golden Immortals of the Dragon race.
Although the Dragon race possessed the power to protect themselves, they had ultimately declined.
If they could seize that spiritual herb garden, with those more than ten terrifying spiritual roots and tens of millions of ordinary spiritual roots, their Dragon race might be able to flourish again.
Once they cultivated numerous Da Luo Golden Immortals and Hunyuan Golden Immortals, perhaps they could contend for dominance of heaven and earth again, fight against the Wu and Demon races, and restore, or even surpass, the Dragon race's peak in the ancient era!
"The human race has only accepted legacies from outside the domain for two thousand years; what is there to fear?"
"Possessing wealth invites disaster. The human race is weak and possesses so many spiritual herbs; this is a grave sin, and they must be judged!"
"I see they are also developing their racial strength by relying on these legacies. We cannot wait any longer; we must nip it in the bud now."
Many Da Luo Golden Immortals of the Dragon race either believed that the human race, having only developed for two thousand years after accepting the legacies, should not have significantly increased their racial strength and thus could not resist the Dragon race's invasion.
Or, like the Flying Dragon Venerable, they had personally gone near the human territory and seen the extremely powerful human race with their robust vital energy, knowing that the human race had immense potential and could not be allowed to continue developing.
Therefore, they proposed to directly extinguish the human civilization and seize all the legacies from the outer domain.
In short, regardless of whether the various Da Luo Golden Immortals of the Dragon race had differing opinions on the human race.
They were unanimous in their decision to launch a war against the human race.
That is, they agreed with the Dragon Emperor's decision to invade the human race.
"Since the decision to invade the human race has been made, let us muster the entire Dragon race army."
"Summon all races with Dragon race bloodlines, whether they are true dragons, flood dragons, or other sea races."
"All sea races with Dragon race bloodlines are to be gathered."
"Then, all the elders will personally lead the expedition to the human race, exterminate them, and seize the spiritual herbs."
The Dragon Emperor commanded.
Although the Dragon race was only one race, during the ancient Dragon-Phoenix tribulation, all aquatic races were subordinate to the Dragon race.
Although the Demon Court was now established, and many sea races had been wooed by the Demon Court, no longer being subordinate races of the Dragon race.
However, following the nature of dragons, many sea races with Dragon race bloodlines had still proliferated. These races, despite their vastly different appearances, shared the Dragon race bloodline.
Naturally, they had become affiliated with the Dragon race.
Now that the Dragon race intended to attack the human race and muster a large army, they naturally had to summon these subordinate races to participate in the war.
The Dragon Emperor had no intention of underestimating the human race.
Just the fact that the human race could obscure the heavenly secrets for two thousand years, making him run around like a fool, deceiving him so thoroughly, was enough for the Dragon Emperor not to dare to underestimate them.
Therefore, although the Dragon Emperor believed that the human race's strength should be inferior to the Dragon race's and that the Dragon race would undoubtedly win this war, he did not take the human race lightly.