Ye Ling walked out of the mansion and saw the Crown Prince, dressed in plain green robes, his face wrapped in bandages, still bruised and swollen, kneeling in front of the mansion.
The guards at the gate were terrified by the Crown Prince's action.
Seeing Ye Ling emerge, the Crown Prince's eyes lit up. He immediately kowtowed three times to Ye Ling and said loudly, "Disciple Long Yu pays respects to Master!"
Tian Xing, who had just come out, looked at Long Yu kneeling outside the gate and asked Ye Ling, "Who is this impulsive fellow?"
"He is the Crown Prince of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect," Ye Ling replied.
"He's the son of the Dragon Emperor?" Tian Xing looked at Long Yu with surprise. "Isn't the Dragon Emperor a supreme expert? Why is his son so weak in cultivation?"
"Perhaps he's been slacking off," Ye Ling sighed slightly. He then said to Long Yu, who was kneeling at the door, "Starting tomorrow, I will be your teacher. For today, go back and rest well, and recover from your injuries."
"No, I've already decided you are my master. From now on, I will live in this residence and cultivate with you!" Long Yu stared intently at Ye Ling, his voice firm.
"I don't have any extra rooms for you. Go back." Ye Ling raised his hand, creating a gust of wind that blew Long Yu away.
However, Long Yu quickly ran back and, in front of everyone, knelt before Ye Ling once more, nearly scaring the household servants outside the gate unconscious! That was the Crown Prince! How could he kneel so easily? If this reached the Dragon Emperor's ears, wouldn't it lead to the extermination of his entire clan?
Long Yu looked directly into Ye Ling's eyes and said resolutely, "If you don't accept me as your disciple today, I will kneel until tomorrow!"
"You brat..." Seeing that Long Yu was utterly stubborn, Ye Ling sighed, feeling quite speechless. However, he owed the Dragon Emperor a favor and couldn't easily expel Long Yu. He could only sigh, "Alright, come inside. Don't kneel at the main entrance; it looks bad."
"Yes!" Hearing Ye Ling's words, Long Yu's face lit up with joy. He quickly got up and thanked Ye Ling.
Ye Ling led Long Yu inside and asked, "Tell me, your father is a supreme expert, and you have a national preceptor no weaker than me teaching you cultivation. Why do you insist on me teaching you?"
Long Yu replied, "My father is busy with state affairs and has never paid attention to me. As for the national preceptor, he dotes on me and is unwilling to let me suffer. Moreover, his curses are too profound, and I can't learn them. But Master, you are different. Your methods are violent and direct, and you can be harsh with me. By following you, I'm sure I can learn something."
Hearing Long Yu's words, Ye Ling looked at him with a hint of sympathy. Long Yu, who had been talking incessantly, was stunned by Ye Ling's sudden sympathetic gaze and asked, "Master, why are you looking at me like that?"
Ye Ling asked, "How old are you?"
"Uh... I should be almost a thousand years old," Long Yu replied, counting on his fingers.
Tian Xing sidled up to Ye Ling and whispered, "A descendant of a supreme expert, and after a thousand years, he's only reached the Heavenly Void Emperor realm... his talent is probably a bit..."
"Mm, he is a bit pitiful," Ye Ling nodded in agreement with Tian Xing, his brow furrowed slightly. Logically speaking, with the resources of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, if Long Yu had cultivated diligently, even without any cultivation talent, the sect could have showered him with resources to become a Chaos Dominator or an Great Dao Immortal Lord, and further advancement wouldn't be impossible. But now, Long Yu's cultivation was inexplicably low.
Suddenly, Ye Ling understood why the Dragon Emperor was willing to offer the Source Sustaining Jade Paste to have him become Long Yu's master. The situation was likely far more complex than he imagined!
After analyzing the situation, Ye Ling instructed Long Yu, "Go to the spiritual energy spring. I'll check your bone structure."
"Okay!" Long Yu didn't hesitate and quickly walked to the spiritual energy spring in the courtyard, sitting down cross-legged!
Ye Ling released his divine soul to envelop Long Yu. The moment it penetrated Long Yu's body, he discovered that Long Yu's bones were covered in black curse seals, which were devouring the spiritual energy within him!
"What is this!" Ye Ling's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing the black curse seals on Long Yu's bones! Those seals had blocked all possibilities of Long Yu cultivating! The reason Long Yu was still a Heavenly Void Emperor was likely because the Dragon Emperor had forcibly inserted a Seed of Origin into Long Yu's body, using his supreme expert power to suppress those curse seals and allow Long Yu to use a small portion of his power.
"It seems my brother has discovered it," the National Preceptor, clad in flowing white robes, appeared before Ye Ling and said softly.
Ye Ling looked at the National Preceptor and asked, "What's with the curse seals in his body?"
The National Preceptor glanced at Long Yu, flicked his horsetail whisk, causing Long Yu to fall asleep, and then said to Ye Ling, "To be honest, brother, the curse seals in that child's body were inflicted by my master, Heavenly Monarch Zhouye."
"Your master did it?" Ye Ling asked in surprise.
The National Preceptor sighed slightly and continued, "I know what you're thinking, brother. This involves a past grievance between the Dragon Emperor, myself, and my master."
"In short, because I offended Heavenly Monarch Zhouye and sought the Dragon Emperor's protection, Heavenly Monarch Zhouye became enraged and cursed the Dragon Emperor's unborn son, Long Yu."
"Long Yu was supposed to die in the womb, but the Dragon Emperor, with his great divine power, managed to save him."
"However, no one in the world can surpass Heavenly Monarch Zhouye's curse techniques. Even with all his efforts, the Dragon Emperor could only suppress the dense curse script within Long Yu, but he couldn't remove it."
Ye Ling raised an eyebrow, "Don't you have the Source Sustaining Jade Paste? Can't that remove curses?"
"No," the National Preceptor shook his head slightly. "Those curse scripts accompanied Long Yu's birth; they aren't considered injuries, but rather a part of Long Yu himself."
"If those curse scripts were forcibly removed, Long Yu's life would also come to an end."
"Since that's the case, what do you mean by asking me to be his master?" Ye Ling asked curiously. "Something even the Dragon Emperor couldn't solve, you don't expect me to be able to, do you?"
The National Preceptor said, "We naturally don't expect you, brother, to solve the curse seals. We only hope that you can find Heavenly Monarch Zhouye and have him lift the curse."
"You want me to find Heavenly Monarch Zhouye?" Ye Ling's mouth twitched. "You think too highly of me!"
"Brother, don't be modest. I've witnessed your battles with Jian Shisan and Ji Ning..."
"The domain you used to devour others' cultivation and the runes that can transform all things... they are inherited from top supreme experts. And you, though not a supreme expert, possess a Seed of Origin."
At this point, the National Preceptor glanced at Tian Xing beside them and continued, "Not to mention that you, brother, have supreme experts as guards..."
"Your backing, brother, must be an extremely terrifying lineage. If you were to let your master intervene and have Heavenly Monarch Zhouye lift the curse, it would be a mere word."