Chen Yi set aside the pollution issue for now. After all, according to Chen Six, the world barrier would block the pollution. Pollution within one plane wouldn't spread to another. Chen Yi needed to deal with the matter at hand first.
Chen Yi, accompanied by Sotuofeiren, climbed level by level in search of the Holy Dragon Realm's Realm Master. From local petty kings, to regional empires, to the Celestial Dragon Pavilion, the ruling council above all the major empires, and finally to the Dragon Sovereign Divine Palace where the Realm Master resided.
The Holy Dragon Clan and the Dragon-Man tribe weren't mortal enemies, but the Holy Dragon Clan harbored an innate disdain for the Dragon-Man tribe. So the moment they saw Chen Yi and Sotuofeiren in their Dragon-Man forms, they refused to cooperate from the start.
That left only fighting.
At first, Sotuofeiren could handle things on his own. But when they ran into the true peak experts of the Holy Dragon Clan, Sotuofeiren couldn't manage anymore. After all, there was only one of him. He could hold out for a while through sheer grit, but sometimes the enemy had several experts at once.
However, with Chen Yi around, no matter how powerful or legendary a figure was to the Holy Dragon Clan, they were nothing more than a slap away.
Sotuofeiren watched himself and Chen Yi sweep through the Holy Dragon Realm with no challengers, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
"We two are just too strong..."
After tracing the trail layer by layer, Chen Yi finally figured out who the Holy Dragon Realm's Realm Master was, as well as who its Young Master was.
This Young Master and the current Realm Master were not father and son.
The Holy Dragon Clan reproduced with great difficulty, and their population was extremely small. Some Holy Dragon people might go their entire lives without producing offspring. The current Realm Master happened to be one of those with fertility troubles.
Not being blood-related didn't necessarily mean there was no bond. Moreover, for both Realm Master and Young Master, this was a certain inheritance, carrying meaning more significant than mere kinship.
The Holy Dragon Realm's Young Master was already dead as a doornail.
Chen Yi carried his corpse into a mountain cave.
Sotuofeiren looked at the deceased Young Master and asked.
"Boss, why did we have to kill him specifically? We could've just wiped out eighty or a hundred late-stage Qi Transformation experts, and the Holy Dragon Realm would definitely declare war on the Dragon-Man Realm."
"That'd be too fake. How would two spies like us have that much impact? Besides, my goal is to get these two planes fighting each other. The Holy Dragon Clan already has few people. If you kill off eighty or a hundred of their top experts, how are they supposed to fight the Dragon-Man tribe?"
"Boss's foresight is truly impeccable!"
"Did you leave all the 'traces'?"
"Don't worry, the Holy Dragon Realm Master will definitely follow the trail."
"Then the rest is up to you and my doppelganger. Put on a good performance."
Chen Yi left Chen Six behind and warned him that he absolutely could not use combat power above the Martial God level. Then he flew off himself.
Before long, the Holy Dragon Realm Master led a group of high-ranking officials from the Dragon Sovereign Divine Palace to the scene where the Young Master's body had been dumped.
From a distance, they spotted two Dragon-Men hastily flying out of a mountain cave.
The Holy Dragon Realm Master roared on the spot.
"Stop those two!"
A fierce battle erupted between both sides. They fought to a standstill, every strike deciding life and death.
In the end, one of them told the other to flee, stayed behind to cover the retreat, and died a heroic death.
The one who stayed was Chen Six. To make his "heroic death" convincing, he spilled an entire ocean of blood.
The one who escaped was naturally Sotuofeiren.
The two of them crafted the illusion of having secretly murdered the Holy Dragon Realm's Young Master, then carelessly getting discovered, and barely managing to escape after one of them died.
All of this was done to make the incident more believable.
The Holy Dragon Realm Master stared at his son, who now lay cold and lifeless in his arms. Bloodshot veins threaded through his dragon eyes, and his body trembled slightly.
He said not a word. The atmosphere in the cave plummeted to freezing.
Someone roared in fury.
"They're Dragon-Man spies! Both of them were late-stage Qi Transformation!"
"Damn those false dragons! They really spared no expense to probe the secrets of our Holy Dragon Realm!"
"They must have been trying to extract information about our world war deployment from the Young Master. But the Young Master stood firm as iron and refused to yield, so they butchered him!"
"Young Master! Your subordinate came too late! Alas!"
"We must take revenge! Our glorious Holy Dragon Clan's Young Master, murdered by two spies, this is an utter humiliation!"
Voices calling for an expedition against the Dragon-Man Realm rose one after another.
But some cooler heads remained. They pointed out that the Dragon-Man tribe's current strength ranked among the very top of the leading planes. Moreover, their power developed with remarkable stability, their world war efforts advancing steadily with almost no defeats.
In the past, the Dragon-Man Realm had always been the last option on the Holy Dragon Realm's expedition list. Now, it had been designated as an opponent to be fought only in the final rounds. Would launching an early expedition be unwise?
When two powerhouses clash, a third party might reap the spoils.
The Holy Dragon Realm Master understood this logic perfectly well.
He had invested centuries into training and mentoring his successor, and now that successor was dead. The moment he'd stepped into that cave, rage had already set his heart ablaze.
If it had been an ordinary enemy, he would have declared war on the spot and crushed them utterly. But because the enemy was the Dragon-Man tribe, he'd held himself back until now.
In the end, the Holy Dragon Realm Master still made his decision.
"Fight!"
"Realm Master, please reconsider!"
"We fight, we absolutely must fight, but it doesn't have to escalate to the level of a full world war. At the very least, the Dragon-Man tribe must give us an explanation!"
This decision received everyone's support.
One month later.
The Holy Dragon Realm Master met with the human Guardian, Chen Yi, in the Dragon Sovereign Divine Palace.
This elegant, refined, and handsome human was an extremely powerful cultivator. If he so wished, the entire Holy Dragon Realm would collapse. So even though he had just suffered the grief of losing a son, the Holy Dragon Realm Master still had to serve him well with a smiling face.
"Senior, our Guardian has arrived."
The Dragon Sovereign Divine Palace was a stone palace. Its construction and craftsmanship were extremely crude, after all, it was built by the uncultured Holy Dragon Clan. The only thing worth mentioning was its immense interior space, presumably to accommodate the Holy Dragon Clan experts who worked there when they used Dragon Transformation.
Seeing that the Holy Dragon Clan's Guardian had arrived, Chen Yi formally stated his purpose.
Just like in the Winged Realm.
He needed the Holy Dragon Realm's Earth Spirit to nurture a Five Element Root Vessel, and he also required the Holy Dragon Realm to dispatch experts to protect it.
"No problem, right?"
The Holy Dragon Realm Master conferred quietly with the Guardian, then spoke to Chen Yi.
"Of course, no problem. But would you mind waiting a few days? In the coming days, I need to dispatch a group of Qi Transformation realm cultivators to accompany me on a trip to the Dragon-Man Realm. It may cause some delay."
"Oh? What business does the Realm Master have in the Dragon-Man Realm?"
Chen Yi asked knowingly.
The moment the Realm Master mentioned it, grief flooded back.
"Those accursed Dragon-Men harmed my beloved son. Until this matter is fully investigated and an explanation is demanded, I cannot face my entire clan!"
"Oh... my condolences. But no, I need you to protect the Earth Spirit and the root vessel of my realm right now. After all, no one knows when the Black Hand might strike."
The Holy Dragon Realm Master had no choice but to say he could only recall the Qi Transformation cultivators on expedition abroad, otherwise there wouldn't be enough manpower.
The Five Element Root Vessel placed in the Holy Dragon Realm was the Qiankun Mirror.
The Qiankun Mirror had suffered the most severe damage, and the Holy Dragon Realm's Earth Spirit was among the strongest across all the planes of the Void Realm, making it the most suitable place to restore the Qiankun Mirror.

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