“A book and a rusty sword?”

Zhang Dong looked inside of the old coffin that was mostly empty. In it, he could see a somewhat rusted sword that might have been some kind of powerful weapon but had degraded over time. Next to it was a really old book that looked like it could crumble at any moment.

“These items… I’m not sure they are usable anymore…”

He looked back to the man that was with him, Long Qing his supposed brother was looking over his shoulder.

“The second ancestor tomb has never been touched before… I thought it would preserve the treasures inside…”

The answer seemed to be obvious, the heritage for the Azure Dragon part had been taken out many thousands of years before, thus it had survived and conserved all these years. The ones for the golden dragon on the other hand were not.

Even then he decided to give the book and sword a scan with the help of his system, maybe there was still something that he could gain from this.

Celestial Sword of the Ancient Dragon [ Degraded] Heaven middle grade

Probably before it was placed into this coffin the sword was somewhat usable but it couldn’t fight against the passage of time. Even heaven grade weapons didn’t last forever and need to be reforged or repaired from time to time.

“Maybe I can reforge it to something good…”

Even though it was rusty, it was still a heaven grade weapon. The materials that it was made from were still rare, with his crafting expertise he might be able to fashion a new sword. He just needed to use it as the core for the new weapon.

“Oh, are you perhaps a talented blacksmith my brother?”

“Ah, I guess I know a thing or two about these, I might be able to strip this sword for parts and reshape it to its former glory, but I won’t know until I take it to my forge.”

If this weapon could be built up again depended on what it was made of on the inside. Powerful weapons in this world tended to have their own cores while the metals around it were more of a shell.

The core mineral inside would produce a powerful Qi radiance that would keep the metals intact during combat. Only when these invisible barriers were shattered would the weapon break. Thus even when a blade from a sword like this broke, if the core inside remained undamaged it could be remade.

“Your forge? Why don’t you use our Long Clan forge instead? I bet you’ll find everything you need there!”

“You have a forge?”

“Of course we do! Blacksmithing, pill making, formation creation, there is nothing that our Long Clan doesn’t excel at, we have vast quantities of knowledge in our grand library, as the ancestors' descendant you will naturally have access to it all!”

This actually sounded quite interesting as he could always use more knowledge. He was still mostly depending on the things he had gained from that expedition all those years ago. With the help of this Long Clan, he would probably be able to fill some of the holes in his knowledge, maybe even gain some resources for his current cultivation.

What he needed to do was to gain more strength and knowledge for the coming days. His biggest enemy Wang Long at this very moment could be killing some unsuspecting villagers or beasts for more spirit points.

With the help of the system shop that he had, he had access to many immortal grade techniques. The only edge that Zhang Dong had over his opponent was that he mostly specialized in certain things.

When he fought against Wang Long the man seemed to use various random techniques that he probably didn’t put much thought into buying. Probably the only thing that person was interested in was if the skill or technique was high level enough.

He didn’t worry if it meshed well with his current cultivation nor did he train himself in these techniques. This was something even his old system failed at, teaching him how to properly use the techniques he bought.

For that he needed to slowly train them and only with time would they reach the next level. A lower ranked technique could overtake a higher ranked one if it was trained to perfection with ease. He did not think Wang Long would bother with something like that and he wouldn’t have enough time at this point.

Even though both of them had been here for a while, Zhang Dong used some time to train himself. He and Huo Qiang sparred quite a lot. The other elders that were at the nascent soul level were also forced to participate so that he could progress further.

“How about the cultivation manuals, can I see those?”

“Why wouldn’t you? Your authority is not less than my own, you have been accepted as the honorable ancestor's descendant, I am the Azure Dragon and you are the Aurulent Dragon!”

“Aurulent?... how about we just go with Golden instead?”

“If you so wish but first we need to get the elders approval, those old farts can be fussy about things like that.”

While the emperor was making it out to be somewhat simple, he wasn’t so sure about it. Zhang Dong didn’t believe that there wouldn’t be some pushback against him becoming some kind of Golden Dragon descendant. This put the whole Azure Emperor in a tough spot as there was someone at the same level as him, at least in theory.

Normally there would be some kind of war for succession as there was no way for two kings to coexist with each other. Long Qing seemed a bit too nonchalant about it, it was as if he didn’t really care but this could also just have been an act.

With the looming war over their heads, he could have just been acting friendly as he still needed the Golden Dragon’s power. This something had probably something to do with that Goliath thing they previously mentioned. It might have been some superweapon that required both of them to use it.

Zhang Dong wouldn’t be surprised that at the end of this war, this Long Qing could turn out to have been the real villain from the start. Maybe that was how the previous Golden Dragon died, killed by his own brother after the war was won.

“Yes, that makes sense.”

He nodded while placing the sword that was in his hand into his spatial ring. What now remained was the old-looking book that was still in the coffin. While it was still holding out, he wasn’t sure if the pages wouldn’t crumble to dust if he tried opening it up.

Luckily Zhang Dong was still in possession of his system and scanning books was something that he was good at. Thus he gently placed his index finger on the book with applying a minimal amount of pressure to initiate the scanning function.

Divine Celestial Dragon Manual Immortal Grade Middle

His system was quick to examine the book and just as he had thought the pages started to turn to dust almost at the exact moment when he interacted with this book. This manual was probably not really meant for anyone to read, only someone with a system’s scanning feature would be able to gain its knowledge.

‘Interesting… it describes the golden flames in more detail… it also has various other techniques that implement those golden flames…’

The old book was quite thick and there was a lot of knowledge in it. The bloodline technique that he created previously was of a lesser grade than this one. This manual would be a great addition to his current holy cultivation method, maybe with its help, he could even go further than before.

‘Celestial huh? Got me hoping that it was above the immortal grade…’

“No… the sacred text from the ancestor… now we will never know…”

Long Qing shouted out in horror as he saw the manual crumbling into dust after Zhang Dong poked it with his finger. It was clear that even though this man acted a bit goofy, he was still a cultivator at heart. Seeing a precious cultivation resource just vanish into thin air was not something that he could even bear.

“Oh, it’s fine… I uh… I heard the voice of the ancestor, I think he had blessed me with a vision of this manual…”

While he didn’t really need to mention the fact that he had received the ancestor's treasure, the fact that it was in his brain could keep him safe. Even if the others betrayed him, they would probably try to get the information out of him first which could later give him an opportunity to escape.

“You did? But how… I don’t ever remember my ancestors ever reaching out to me like that…”

“Uh… maybe it was some kind of safety for when the manual was too damaged to be of use?”

Long Qing pondered this question while Zhang Dong tried to go over the manual in his head. Thanks to it being scanned with his system he was able to go through it much faster than by just reading it manually.

“Oh… are those… they seem more radiant than before…”

He decided to show off by manifesting a tiny golden flame orb in front of his index finger. These flames were a lot purer than the ones he previously produced and they had a kind of buffing function.

“This feels rather refreshing!”

Long Qing felt energy rushing into his body when standing in front of this golden light. Zhang Dong could also feel it, this technique seemed similar to the divine spells in the other world he was in. This was quite well suited for large-scale battles if he could buff his side by just giving off some of his aura.

‘Hm, maybe the Golden Dragon was the healer while the Azure Dragon was the attacker?’

As he looked through this Celestial Dragon manual he noticed that most of these techniques that were described in it were used to aid others. Other ones were meant for dispelling demonic corruption and battling evil energies.

‘This will be useful against Wang Long for sure…’

With a new manual in his brain and a potential new strong weapon in his spatial ring, Zhang Dong felt like this was a useful journey. Now, what remained was to gain even more by using the resources that this clan could offer him. If what the Azure Emperor was telling him, the other elders would not have the right to stop him, even if he went slightly overboard…

“Well then my brother… you said that you have a big library… could you show it to me?”