X-Dragon Era

In the midst of the sea of clouds, a blue Yinglong glided silently. On the dragon's head, Xin Yun comfortably sat, leaning against three Dragon Spines, his arms crossed in front of his chest, holding the soft-as-cotton Yi Luo Xiang, inhaling her sweet scent, completely oblivious of the years gone by.

Although Yi Luo Xiang also had her own dragon, flying through the sea of clouds was necessary to avoid danger. Hidden by the fog, they were usually undetectable.

It could be said that other dragons simply couldn't make it flying through Yunhai like this. The clouds were dense, like thick fog, allowing visibility of only about ten meters. In such conditions, orienting oneself was impossible.

Typically, flying relied on referencing objects on the ground... after all, this world didn't have things like satellite navigation. That was the only method.

Any other dragon, without the ability to cross such vast areas, would find this dangerous maneuver impossible. Yi Luo Xiang's Flash Butterfly Dragon was no exception; once in the fog zone, its vision would be blocked by the mist, unable to discern direction.

If one were to fly above or below the clouds, it would be far too perilous. At any moment, one could encounter higher-order dragons, and if not killed, at least severely injured. If outnumbered, escape might not be an option.

But now it was different for Xin Yun, moving only through the layers of clouds, which served as his best cover. Few dragons could navigate the sea of clouds. In this way, as long as there were clouds, Xin Yun could reach any destination silently and unnoticed.

Of course, with millions of dragon species capable of flying within the clouds, encounters were still many. However, with the vastness of the sky and the thickness of the clouds, the chances were incredibly slim. Even on the rare occasion of an encounter, Xin Yun had the means to quickly flee, a skill honed in the Desert of Death.

To travel via cloud-tops or cloud-bases, at least a small team of Crystal Order for protection was needed to have a chance of success, but there was still a risk of total annihilation.

Snuggled sweetly in Xin Yun's embrace, Yi Luo Xiang was too lazy to move. Neither spoke a word, yet they were incredibly comfortable. In Xin Yun's words, it was "Silence now speaks louder than words."

If Lord Chu's pleasure was to seek joy with different women continually, then her joy was to comfortably lie in these warm arms; it was indeed too comfortable.

Two months had passed since her separation from Lord Chu, and during this time, aside from occasional stops for supplies and trading, the two had been flying at full speed. As for the destination, Yi Luo Xiang was unclear. As long as she nestled in these warm arms, she could go anywhere in the vast world.

After an indeterminate time, Yi Luo Xiang couldn't suppress her curiosity any longer and slightly turned to look at Xin Yun, asking, "Where are we heading? How long until we arrive?"

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Hearing Yi Luo Xiang's question, Xin Yun smiled indulgently and gently lowered his head to give her delicate, rosy lips a light kiss. A mix of joy and shyness washed over her. Although Xin Yun had been regularly kissing her small mouth during this time, she couldn't shake off the bashful feelings.

Yi Luo Xiang knew Xin Yun didn't mean to be frivolous. She could see it clearly in his eyes, his expressions; his kisses were simply because he didn't know how else to express his joy. These kisses made her both embarrassed and sweetly fluttered.

Originally, Xin Yun planned to head directly to the location of that mysterious future Divine Artifact and retrieve it. But now, with the possession of this set of flying axes, he had abandoned that idea.

According to memories from his previous life, this ultimate Divine Artifact wasn't supposed to appear for another sixty years or so. Although it would be ideal to retrieve it now, it was far too dangerous, with a success rate of less than fifty percent.

If it were merely a risk, perhaps Xin Yun wouldn't have cared. After all... one couldn't make leaps in strength without a brush with death a few times. But upon reflection, even if he did retrieve that treasure now, it likely wouldn't serve any purpose.

The Divine Artifact was merely an inferior product, it could repair itself, but it required a large quantity of base metals. These base metals referred to gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin.

Copper, iron, and tin were not too much of an issue since they were relatively cheap, but gold and silver were a different story, their prices were incredibly high. Therefore... even if Xin Yun retrieved that treasure now, he wouldn't be able to unleash the power of the Divine Artifact.

According to his memories from his previous life, when this Divine Artifact first appeared, it could only exert a feeble power. Although it wasn't unusable, its effect was only on par with that of a bronze artifact. It required a large quantity of base metals to slowly repair and restore its power.

In the end, it combined offense and defense in perfect harmony, with its attack being unstoppable and its defense impenetrable— it was truly the foremost Divine Weapon!

Faced with these considerations, Xin Yun decided to hold off on retrieving it for the time being. Otherwise, not only would he be unable to utilize its strength, but it could also be stolen or snatched away. There's wisdom in the saying, "An innocent man can fall into trouble simply because of his possessions."

There was a reason Xin Yun was now abstaining; the amount of base metals needed to repair that treasure was immense. It was said that just to repair the first layer and elevate its power to the bronze level, it would require a ton of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and tin each!

Some might think that's a bit much, but in reality, it's not excessive at all. A ton of gold equates to a thousand kilograms, and from a thousand kilograms of gold, only one kilogram of Gold Marrow could be extracted, which is precisely what was needed to repair that axe. The axe's total weight would also be around five kilograms.

With every Order the artifact ascended, the required amount of base metals increased tenfold—add another zero in subsequent levels.

To rise to the Silver Order would need ten tons of each of the five metals, the Gold Order a hundred tons, the Crystal Order a thousand tons, the Amethyst Order ten thousand tons, the Diamond Order a hundred thousand tons, and for the Dragon King Order, a million tons! How much would a million tons of gold cost?

In his previous life, Xin Yun had already been a wealthy man, but even adding up all his wealth, it would only be enough to enhance the axe to the Dragon King Order, which was incredibly exaggerated.

Of course, such consumption wasn't much for those large families, who, after millions of years of accumulation, could easily gather such materials.

Given such a huge cost, why bother repairing the Divine Artifact? In truth... what made Divine Artifacts most precious weren't the materials themselves, but the Artifact Spirit within!

Every Divine Artifact held an Artifact Spirit, not a living entity but a representation of a rule, or rather, a principle. Through this spirit, one could manipulate the principle and cast Divine Techniques that only gods could execute!

Simply piling up a hundred tons of gold is just that— a pile of gold. Even though valuable, that's all it would be. But Divine Artifacts were different; one Divine Artifact was equivalent to an atomic bomb on Earth. If one were willing to sell, its price would absolutely surpass gold, and once activated, its power could destroy the world.

It must be mentioned that the Dragon King Order was the highest standard Xin Yun had knowledge of. In reality, reaching the Dragon King Order would mean it was only a King Order weapon, still far from a Divine Artifact. Before Xin Yun's rebirth, the treasure had only escalated to the King Order.

Judging from that, fixing it further would require even more base metals, possibly measured in tens or even hundreds of millions of tons.

Currently, the Artifact Spirit of that treasure lay waiting in a hidden corner. To reach that place, one needed to slip past a multitude of Diamond Order giant dragons, with Xin Yun's current strength, no matter how cautious, it would be fraught with extreme danger.

Originally, Xin Yun wanted to retrieve the axe out of fear of being bullied at the academy and being unable to maintain his dignity. He thought of first taking a while to earn money to upgrade his strength to the Silver Order and repair the Divine Artifact to the Silver Order before attending. After all...

a Divine Artifact, even only repaired to the Silver Order, would have untouchable power compared to ordinary equipment.

But now, with the power of the Flying Seven Axes, which reached the Crystal Order, retrieving that so-called Divine Artifact was no longer necessary. After all, it would be 60 years before he revealed himself to the world. There was no rush, nor any point in hurrying...Nôv(el)B\\jnn