Tonight's Mo Pass City is anything but quiet, with primal restlessness everywhere.

It's not just because tomorrow marks the ritual of epoch change, but also because there will be a feast for every brave dragon.

The flesh and blood of the deceased strong are limited; only the brave are qualified to partake.

Those who have qualified can choose to wait quietly for the ritual to end and greet the next epoch in their lives as dragons.

Or they can choose to ascend to the Dragon Fighting Arena, under the gaze of bloodthirsty spectators, to become victors who feast on blood.

Or become part of the feast.

"Are you going?" In the street-side meat shop, a yellow Tyrannosaurus gnaws on a grilled dragon head dish, vaguely asking its companion beside it.

"No, I'm just a scholar, unlike you all who have such strength." The green Stegosaurus shook its head and then ignored its boss, starting to sharpen its sword tail.

The yellow Tyrannosaurus continued speaking to himself, "Then I'll go. I heard that the current Giant achieved today's success by eating the meat of the previous Giant."

"I'll ask Fei and Broken Horn later; they might have ideas. We could form a team."

The green Stegosaurus glanced at the boss.

"You'll be disappointed. Fei is a lazy dragon. It's definitely too much of a hassle for him, so he won't participate.

"As for Broken Horn..." Thinking of that reckless blue-skinned Triceratops, the Stegosaurus sighed.

"It ate something bad; probably won't even make it to the ritual tomorrow."

Tyrannosaurus, "What did it eat?"

The Stegosaurus was about to speak when Fei the red pterosaur conveniently landed from the sky.

Taking advantage of the boss's distraction, it directly snatched away the most delicious roasted eye socket meat left on the plate,

and spoke before the boss could react.

"A new spicy sauce shop opened in Mo Pass City, and that fool Broken Horn ate up half the warehouse's stock. He'll probably be confined to the bathroom tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that."

...

Listening to these dinosaurs' discussions, Zhang Ze stealthily moved toward the Dragon Fighting Arena.

Lord Shang's corpse was placed there, which was also the Legalist School's base in Mo Pass.

Whether out of favor or tradition, security around the Dragon Fighting Arena has been taken over by the Legalist School's dragons.

These big brothers are quite diligent, with eyes glaring like copper bells.

Their long necks sweep every corner without a blind spot, and arrays beneath their feet monitor underground disturbances. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Additionally, dozens of Forbidden Talismans hover around each giant dragon, their runes shining brightly in the dark night, forming various warning signs.

Zhang Ze thought these dragons would be better named Security Family rather than Legalist School, as each seems like an Innate Security Saint Body.

Replacing the beheadings and limb warnings with welcome home signs wouldn't be inappropriate at all.

Unfortunately, these dragons' tight defenses prevent dragons, but not humans.

Wearing a colorful tight outfit, Zhang Ze, in the instant two Forbidden Talismans intersected, squeezed through the fleeting gap with a sideways step.

No dragon noticed.

Passing through the security's blockade, Zhang Ze casually walked toward the center of the Beast Fighting Arena.

As he walked, he suddenly felt something amiss; given the importance of this place, there should be patrols inside apart from the Legalist Security outside.

Yet inside, there's not a single dragon.

Stopping lightly without touching the ground, Zhang Ze listened carefully but heard no sounds.

After confirming truly no one was around, he squeezed sideways through the door gap into the center of the Dragon Fighting Arena.

Looking at the scene before him, Zhang Ze clicked his tongue.

The center of the arena has become a mortuary.

A total of seven giant coffins of varying sizes were arranged in order at the center of the arena.

The Dragon Fighting Arena's center, the sand soaked with blood and broken bones, pulsed as if alive.

Within the swirling array, the lingering vitality of the giant dragon corpses was worn away and released back into this enclosed world.

The ceremony has begun.

And, seemingly out of local custom, each coffin has a sign hung thoughtfully in front.

On it are vivid portraits of these strong figures, with detailed information below belonging to noble family affiliations.

Whether they voluntarily sacrificed or were chopped down and sent here, what good deeds they've done before, achievements, and other miscellaneous information.

Some information is hard to verify; some are outrageously wild, and Zhang Ze feared violating rules reading them.

'Quite grand.' Zhang Ze thought with awe.

Cautiously, Zhang Ze didn't act rashly, circling the coffins three times to confirm no one was around and that there weren't hidden dragons before quietly drifting to Lord Shang's coffin.

He climbed in.

The blood within had been drained by arrays, and the inherent Spiritual Qi and vitality almost entirely dissipated, leaving only a wisp of Lord Shang's Spirit Charm and essence.

This is tomorrow's Dragon Fighting Arena prize.

Zhang Ze wasn't interested in this power; he drifted toward the empty abdomen of Lord Shang.

He felt something was amiss here.

Just outside the city, he felt something unusual. A very familiar, yet very strange aura seeped out from the blood corpse's energy in this coffin.

Now that the spiritual energy and mana were exhausted, it was instead a good thing for Zhang Ze, leaving him undisturbed.

After entering, he walked around and finally extended his hand to touch the base of a broken rib, extracting something from the bone crevice.

Like the spiritual energy in this corpse, this object had also lost most of its power. However, Zhang Ze was one hundred percent sure that this was the source of his familiar yet strange feeling.

A grain of rice-sized, nearly flesh-colored 'cloud fog.'

A lump of cloudy fog solidified, akin to aerogel.

Zhang Ze carefully placed this solidified cloud fog into the right pocket of his colorful tight suit.

Then he left Lord Shang's corpse and entered another coffin.

The Gongsun Noble Family, a thorny dragon, the body was intact. According to the plaque outside the coffin, it had died of natural causes due to lifespan exhaustion and was sent to Mo Pass yesterday.

Zhang Ze circled the corpse of Gongsun twice and finally found a lump of identical solidified cloud fog at the corner of its eye.

He slipped this solidified cloud fog into his left pocket.

The remaining five coffins were naturally checked by Zhang Ze as well, but this time he did not find such a strange object again.

'This object was only found on Lord Shang and Gongsun... Is it related to time?'

According to the life history recorded on the plaques before their coffins, there was no intersection between the two, the only connection being the timing of their deaths.

These coffins were not sent to Mo Pass at the same time.

Besides the Gongsun Noble Family and Lord Shang of the Legalist School, the others were sent here by their clans a week or even a half-month ago.

The timing of Gongsun and Lord Shang's deaths was somewhat close to when Brother Feng and Li entered this Secret Realm...

The aerogel-like thing seemed somewhat similar to what Brother Feng described, a malicious entity that entered here with him.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ze summoned the Cyan Lotus Dust and once again penetrated it.

He dissolved the Innate Dao Body and simultaneously used a quick-change spell to replace that colorful tight suit.

Holding the two solidified cloud fogs in his hand, he stepped up to the dragontail thief.

This creature, now satiated, was playing the arcade Zhang Ze left to keep it from boredom, all the while burping with a rounded belly.

Seeing Zhang Ze approaching, it quickly paused and turned back with a flattering look, rubbing its hands as it asked.

"Saint, what are your commands?"

The dragontail thief had seen much, including the saints' statues in the Horror Temple and visited the Ancestral Cemetery of the Strategist School, having seen the paintings there. Although the features were unclear, the saint appeared to be of the same kind as Zhang Ze.

It had no scales, with long claws and legs, a round head, and five fingers.

Most importantly, it wasn't killed and was given tasty and fun things.

To that extent, he was more than a saint in the eyes of the dragontail thief.

"Have you seen this?"

Zhang Ze placed the peculiar cloud fog he just retrieved in front of the dragontail thief and cast a spell of detailed observation, allowing the dragontail thief to see these two things clearly.

"I don't recognize it, never seen it!" After looking for a long time, almost cross-eyed, the dragontail thief shook its head, indicating it hadn't stolen or seen such a thing.

Finding no clue here, Zhang Ze waved his hand, signaling it could continue playing.

Then Zhang Ze took the two grain-sized solidified cloud fogs to another petal of the lotus.

Subsequently, he began rummaging through his Hundred Treasures Bag.

He was preparing to find some magical artifacts with identification capabilities.

However, before long, when Zhang Ze casually took out a Taisui and tossed it aside, the two inert solidified cloud fogs suddenly moved.

As if coming alive, they swiftly floated onto the Taisui and immediately rooted.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the two solidified cloud fogs merged into one, beginning to grow and transform.

Under Zhang Ze's watchful eyes, the cloud fog gained substance, turning into a black tentacle.

The tentacle instinctively lashed towards Zhang Ze.

"Wall of White Frost," Zhang Ze shouted.

This spell was developed by his senior brother Shi Xiu from the Celestial Sect in his youth when he had a case of 'chūnibyō' and had to invoke his breath to maximize the power of any spell by shouting.

Heavenly Fire, Extreme Ice Freeze, Wall of White Frost, Ghostly Step, Agile and Swift, Chaotic Meteorite, this was a set.

Despite being 'chūnibyō,' it was indeed practical.

Like speaking the spell into existence, the black tentacle was instantly frozen, and the interior blue of the tentacle became exceptionally crystal clear after being frozen.

Looking at the blue hue, Zhang Ze frowned slightly.

He remembered where this peculiar familiar sensation came from.

It was Fuji.

Fuji once mentioned she had a nightmare before, but she had separated this nightmare long ago.

Few knew the connection between them; this 'nightmare' that Fuji discarded, known for its many tentacles and frequent appearances near swamps, was called the Nine Huis.

Zhang Ze had encountered it twice before, once during the Ten Kingdoms Chaos, and once in the Northern Territory of early Dongqi.

Now, it was the third time.