Accompanied by the nine drakes, Long Chen slowly approached the core of the hourglass. It was where the hourglass was at its thinnest, its center.

Through Dragon One’s introduction, Long Chen learned that this Morning Dao Lightning Field was its own minor world.

It was the result of a supreme expert separating part of a major world, leaving only the purest thunderforce inside.

However, no energy could exist on its own, including thunderforce.

Thunderforce itself was also split into different kinds. The greatest attribute that differentiated them was actually Yin and Yang. This was something that Long Chen had never encountered before.

He had always thought that lightning was the most supreme Yang existence in the world. He had never heard of lightning also being Yin.

Amongst the Yin and Yang lightnings, there were over ten thousand different kinds of thunderforce, each one with its own specialties.

The lightning sources of the hourglass were one Yin and one Yang. The two energies were constantly mixing. This place was the root of this minor world.

Long Chen couldn’t help being shocked. Just what kind of existence had been capable of creating such a world?

From Dragon One, he learned that they had been living for hundreds of thousands of years. They had had eight masters before, and after the last master died, they gained their full freedom. No one else had come to the Morning Dao Lightning Field.

They had been peacefully living here, but unfortunately, their cultivation bases had already reached their limits. They couldn’t grow any stronger. It seemed that this world’s laws were restricting them.

When Long Chen asked who the master of this world had been, they shook their heads. The master of this world was the master of the paragon art, but this world had no master now. They had a contractual rune in their heads that connected them to the paragon art rune. Even the silver lightning drake had that contractual rune and was under its effects.

After the contract had been dispelled, the effect of those contractual runes had faded, allowing them to grow stronger beyond the contract.

Hearing all this, Long Chen cursed inside. How unlucky had he been? It was only in his generation that these lightning drakes had become so wild.

Originally, the reason why he had dared to challenge the lightning paragon art was because he had some confidence in Lei Long. Compared to other experts on the same level as him, he would definitely have an advantage.

However, when he got here, he found that these drakes were no longer restricted by the contractual runes and had grown far stronger than they had been meant to be. The difficulty had multiplied by many times from when the last people had attempted to inherit this paragon art.

That silver drake in particular was something that Long Chen estimated not even Netherpassage experts would necessarily be a match for. How was he, a Soul Transformation expert, supposed to subdue it?

“Brother Long, there are three parts to this paragon art rune. The gate part refers to the gate of the Morning Dao Lightning Field. As long as you place your spiritual seal on it, you can control it. When you return to your world, you can open the channel to the Morning Dao Lightning Field,” said Dragon One.

So this was the essence of a paragon art. Long Chen thought of how Xiang Yunfei had also connected himself to another world with his paragon art.

“This is the Sundering Lightning Heavenly Wings and the Wild Lightning Soul Battle Spear. Both of them are for use in combat and extremely powerful. However, controlling them is very difficult,” said Dragon One.

“Many thanks. I’ll try it.”

Long Chen reached out and pressed his palm against the paragon art rune. The thunderforce inside his body circulated.

Rumbling rang out, and the entire Morning Dao Lightning Field shook. The gate image lit up.

Long Chen’s Yuan Spirit suddenly came out of his head. It was forming hand seals. That wasn’t something that he was controlling. It was the paragon art rune that was transmitting information to him, and he was simply following it.

As he formed hand seals, a giant gate appeared behind him. The gate grew larger and larger, and lightning runes flowed around it. It was both sacred and wild.

“How is the gate so big?! This is just your first time!” exclaimed Dragon One.

According to reason, the first time someone opened this spatial gate, it would be very small and unstable. It would be unusable. But Long Chen had summoned such a giant gate on his first try.

What the drakes didn’t know was that this spatial gate’s scale was based on the strength of the user’s Yuan Spirit.

When Xiang Yunfei had used his paragon art, it had taken him a long time to activate it. However, as Long Chen’s Yuan Spirit was far stronger, his activation time was much shorter.

Opening this gate wasn’t very difficult. As long as his Yuan Spirit still had energy, it would be easy.

The void cracked. The huge gate began to slowly open.

“Brother Long! You can’t open the gate here!” shouted the drakes.

“Why not?”

“This gate connects to the Morning Dao Lightning Field. We’re already here. Opening this gate will break the laws here. You can only open this gate in your world,” explained Dragon One.

“These hand seals are what connects you to the Morning Dao Lightning Field. Try reversing the hand seals, and you’ll find that your gate will allow us to come out to your world,” explained another drake.

Long Chen nodded. This paragon art was really interesting, but it wasn’t too difficult. It was easy to control.

Dragon One seemed to see what he was thinking and said, “Opening the gate isn’t difficult. The difficult part is the speed at which you can open it and the scale. My guess is the reason you can activate it so quickly is due to the divine lightning and your Yuan Spirit. The previous humans found it much harder to open this gate. Another reason it was more difficult was because at that time, the gate was connected to our contractual runes, and we would naturally resist as we wouldn’t want a weak master. Many humans died like that because their Yuan Spirits were unable to suppress us. But now our contractual runes have faded, so it’s naturally easier to just open the gate. You should try the Sundering Lightning Heavenly Wings and the Wild Lightning Soul Battle Spear. Those are the true attacking paragon arts. Cultivating them is very difficult.”

“Then what do I do?” asked Long Chen.

“Merge your Yuan Spirit with the paragon art rune. Your Yuan Spirit should enter a special space where you can comprehend how to use the paragon arts. It will take you time to fully understand their profundities,” said Dragon One.

“How much time does it take?”

“Quite a bit. If you’re fast, two to three years. If you’re slow, five or six years. That bit of time is nothing to us, but we know it’s longer to humans,” said Dragon One.

These nine drakes were all very intelligent. They had followed multiple generations of human masters along with their silver drake king. They had some understanding of humans.

“That’s too long. I can’t wait that long.” Long Chen shook his head. No matter how strong the paragon art was, he couldn’t use two years on it. “I have another method.”

Long Chen pressed his hand against the paragon art rune, and the lightning dragon mark on his arm lit up. Lei Long flowed down his arm and into the rune.

“Hahaha, I really am a genius!” laughed Long Chen, extremely pleased with himself.

“You… you’re having your lightning beast learn the paragon art?” The drakes were stunned.

“Yup. It’s an innate lightning spirit, so cultivating lightning arts is easy for it. For it to learn it is the same as me learning it, so won’t that be much simpler?” Long Chen smiled brightly.

“Are you not afraid of it one day growing stronger than you and betraying you? It might even kill you,” said Dragon One.

“Betray me? No, that’s absolutely impossible. There will be no betrayal between us. It won’t betray me, and I won’t betray it. When your king wanted to devour it, to tell the truth, I wouldn’t allow it even if I died here. Lei Long can die for me, and I can die for it. It’s not a lightning beast, and it’s not a tool. It’s a comrade I can trust with my life,” said Long Chen.

The nine drakes didn’t say anything, but there were large waves in their hearts. They were tools created by experts, and they were born to be used. In fact, this entire Morning Dao Lightning Field existed to be used.

The successive generations of masters they had had also only viewed them as tools, so they naturally disliked the human race. However, they couldn’t help feeling that Long Chen was different.

Suddenly, space trembled, and light came from the paragon art rune. Long Chen’s expression changed as he received a message from Lei Long.

Within the rune was a terrifying divine pressure that Lei Long couldn’t resist. Long Chen hastily pressed his hands against the rune, and his Yuan Spirit charged into it.

Within the lightning sea, the silver drake slowly opened its eyes and watched as Long Chen’s Yuan Spirit left his body, leaving behind an empty body. It muttered to himself.

“Either he’s a genius, or he’s a remarkably alike idiot.”

With his Yuan Spirit gone, any of those lightning drakes could kill his physical body without the slightest effort. Then they could kill his Yuan Spirit as well.

What they didn’t know was that Long Chen had the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art and its sharp senses toward malice. He had the confidence to do something like this. Moreover, these drakes had no reason to kill him.

He also did this on purpose to show the drakes that he trusted them. Would they still not help him upon seeing this trust?

Three days later, the paragon art rune suddenly dimmed. Long Chen’s eyes opened, and there was lightning in his eyes.

“Hahahaha, the paragon art is mine!” laughed Long Chen.