Chapter 222: Ming Lao and the Hidden White Dragon

Leng Yueyue's eyes turned red, "Thank you, everyone!"

"Make a wish quickly, we'll light the candles for you!"

Jiang Fanshin swiftly placed the cake on the table and took out the candles to light them.

Leng Yueyue pressed her palms together, closed her eyes and made a wish, her expression very devout.

Huh—

Her red lips part slightly, and all the candles went out.

"Yueyue, what wish did you make?"

Jiang Fanshin asked curiously.

"I won't tell you; saying it out loud makes it ineffective......"

Leng Yueyue glanced at Lu Jing, saw him staring at her, and a flush of red instantly spread across her face.

The wish she just made was indeed related to Lu Jing.

After the cake was divided, the group ordered a table full of fine dishes and a few bottles of red wine.

Ma Houshi was about to uncork the wine when Jiang Fanshin stopped him, "Wait, this red wine hasn't been aerated; it won't taste good."

"You city folks have so many affairs; I usually just blow on the bottle."

Ma Houshi muttered helplessly.

Lu Jing took the red wine from Ma Houshi's hand and lightly flicked the bottle with his fingertip.

Ding—

A crisp sound rang out, and the wine inside the bottle began to vibrate at a subtle frequency.

"Alright, you can drink now."

Lu Jing returned the red wine to Ma Houshi.

"Brother Lu, what did you just do, the wine is already aerated?!"

Ma Houshi, a bit skeptical, first grabbed another bottle, poured a glass, and took a sip.

A sour, astringent taste made him furrow his brows.

Then he tasted the wine that Lu Jing had tapped.

The next second, his eyes widened dramatically, almost shouting, "Whoa, Brother Lu, what did you do? This is amazing, teach me quickly, I want to use it to flirt with women!"

"It's not difficult; the principle of aerating wine is to let it fully contact air, softening the astringent tannins, and the flick I gave achieved the same effect."

Lu Jing explained with a smile.

"So simple?"

Ma Houshi's eyes lit up, and he picked up the sour red wine, giving it a proper flick.

Crack—

The wine bottle shattered with the sound, drenching Ma Houshi.

"Haha, are you serious!"

"You made me laugh to death!"

Jiang Fanshin and Leng Yueyue looked at Ma Houshi's disheveled state and burst into laughter.

Lu Jing shrugged; although his maneuver seemed simple, actually using hidden force to vibrate the wine without breaking the bottle required extremely subtle control of the force.

Obviously Ma Houshi only learned the form, not the essential principle.

But none of that mattered; after Ma Houshi's comical performance, the atmosphere in the private room instantly warmed, and the previously restrained Leng Yueyue fully joined in.

Inside a lavish palace-like building.

The four walls were covered with abstract dark-colored paintings, and the massive columns the group surrounded bore bizarre hybrid reliefs.

There were strange deities with angry, wide-open eyes, and headless humanoid monsters sprouting tentacles, vivid and lifelike.

In the hall, two gaunt elders with eyes tightly shut sat around a black granite table, expressionless, mirroring the nearby reliefs.

Strangely, one elder's body was covered with tattoos, and a faint, deadened Black Aura lingered on him.

The other, however, radiated vitality, and even the green plants behind him grew a richer emerald.

"The two elders arrived quite early!"

The space in the hall warped, and a middle-aged man stepped out from the distorted portal.

"Is there anything to report?"

The elder shrouded in Black Aura opened his eyes; chillingly, his pupils were entirely black, with no whites.

The young man nodded, activated the projector he carried, and said, "Regarding Huaguo's Dragon Imperial New Star, our arranged Dark Disciple has sent a letter."

Sizzle—

The projected image appeared on the pristine white wall, very clear.

It was the image of Lu Jing emerging after reaching the pinnacle of the Zaoji Tower, with strange anomalies sprouting behind him, dazzling like the sun.

"It really exceeded my expectations..."

The Black Aura elder's mouth twitched, "The Martial Lord's will's prototype was condensed by a kid not even at the Master Realm, doesn't that mean the path to the Martial Lord Realm has already been opened?"

The middle-aged man shut off the projector, "Ming Lao, I was also shocked; this kid's growth rate has exceeded our predictions, our plan may need to be advanced."

"Exceeding predictions isn't the issue; this kid hasn't yet opened the Heaven-and-Earth Twin Bridges, even if his Blood Qi reaches the Master Realm he'll hit a bottleneck, we still have time, especially since Huaguo's old thing is still barely surviving; rushing in now might be..."

A vibrant, angry elder opened his eyes, a soft white light shining from within, his gaze brimming with boundless vitality, and as he spoke, the green plants behind him blossomed.

"That old thing is on the brink of death every day, yet it never dies; we can't just watch it grow like this, this kid's will will solidify, and in the future become a great calamity!"

Ming Lao frowned anxiously as he spoke.

"Who said we should let him grow? You, this guy, after all these years still haven't shown any growth."

The enraged elder stared at Ming Lao, "This kid has already drawn the attention of Huaguo's higher-ups; killing him within the realm isn't simple. We can first crush his will; as long as the Martial Lord's will doesn't form, there's nothing to worry about!"

"Cang Bailong, you old undead who's always looking ahead and behind, do you still have the nerve to say I haven't grown? If it weren't for you last time saying that sending three Masters would be enough, this kid would have already been killed in the Cave!"

Ming Lao glared with his pitch-black eyes and said angrily: "When the Divine Lord finally laid blame, you were still there shirking responsibility—you really have some nerve!"

"What do you know? The Master Realm is already the limit—do you think the Huaguo military is just for show? If a powerhouse above the Master Realm entered the Realm, would they not know?!"

Seeing the two elders about to start arguing, the middle-aged man hurriedly stepped forward.

"Two elders, let's discuss the arrangements for the next steps, shall we?"

"After that kid reaches the summit of the Magistrate's Martial University's Tower of Ultimate Extremes, he will surely obtain the inheritance left by Magistrate Zhang, and his strength will surge again."

"Dragon Emperor's inheritance?"

The two elders, whose mutual tension was growing like gunpowder, both froze.

"Yes, when Magistrate Zhang founded the school, he once said that any student who reaches the summit can freely choose one of the inheritance techniques he left behind,"

"There's actually something like this......"

Ming Lao and Cang Bailong both fell into contemplation.

After a moment.

Cang Bailong looked at the middle-aged man and asked: "What plans does that kid have next? Given his personality, he'll probably go try his hand at other martial universities."

The middle-aged man nodded: "Yes, a junior under Lu Jing posted on the forum, saying that after Lu Jing recuperates for a while, he will seize the Towers of Ultimate Extremes from other martial universities."

"That makes it easy—he's now at his peak, unrivaled in glory. When he goes to other martial universities to assault their Towers, we'll crush his prestige; even if we can't strike his Martial Lord's will, we can at least stall his progress."