"Although we developed the so-called Thirty-Six Strange Meridians, the Black Dragon's mother suffered greatly as an experimental subject. We made many mistakes along the way, and in the end, her body was severely damaged," the elder in the blue robe sighed. "The current Black Dragon King was raised by us. Everything it does is under our direction."
"Why did you want the Black Dragon to rule this world? I don’t really understand," Xu Zimo shook his head.
"You know that humans have always looked down on our lizard race. The Lizard Heart can fetch a high price in the outside world. Even worse, some humans bribed our kind, and some lizards even betrayed us and provided intelligence to the humans," the blue-robed elder said angrily.
"The Heaven-Earth God-Stone has always been a great secret within our race. It concerns our future. Aside from the four elders and the Black Dragon, no other racesmen know about it. Thousands of years ago, a traitorous lizard came here secretly and stole the cultivation technique we created, namely, the Strange Meridian Sutra, and eventually escaped. That’s how you humans obtained it. Otherwise, the technique would never have been leaked. That incident enraged us greatly, and we decided to seal off this Particle World until we could decipher the Heaven-Earth God-Stone."
"That's right," the red-robed elder continued. "But the order to seal off the Particle World was met with opposition from many lizards. They didn’t want to live like frogs in a well, cut off from the outside world. We feared that those lizards might leak the existence of the Heaven-Earth God-Stone to the humans. That would bring serious trouble. But as Patriarchs, we couldn't just kill the dissenters. That would have caused public outrage and panic. So we came up with the Black Dragon King plan. It would rule this world on the surface, while we remained in control from the shadows."
Hearing this, Green Yun looked incredulous.
The pain and suffering of the lizard race over a thousand years had actually been orchestrated by the race elders themselves.
"Do you know how the lizards have lived all these years?" Green Yun shouted angrily.
"I know. It’s true the Black Dragon sometimes forced you to gather purple wisteria flowers for its appetite. And some Black Dragon Guards abused their power for personal gain. But we’ve tried to restrain those behaviors. Overall, as long as you obeyed the Black Dragon's orders, you would not be harmed," the green-robed elder shook his head and replied.
"For the future of the race, this was the only path. Once the Heaven-Earth God-Stone is unlocked, our race will rise. Every one of you can transform into dragons. All the suffering will eventually be worth it."
At this point, the green-robed elder looked a bit downcast.
He looked at Xu Zimo. Everything had been going according to plan, but it was all ruined by Xu Zimo's arrival.
The race had poured immense effort into the Heaven-Earth God-Stone, but in the end, it might become someone else’s prize.
"What about Big Brother Wrathful? What did you do to him?" Green Yun asked loudly.
"The man from a thousand years ago?" the green-robed elder replied.
"He was an anomaly. Of course we couldn’t let him leave. He’s imprisoned in the Human Tower. You can go see him. We haven’t really kept track of whether he’s alive or dead."
Then the green-robed elder looked at Xu Zimo and said, "Godly Monarch, we’ve told you everything truthfully and without hiding anything. Can you spare our lives?"
"I might spare the lizard race, since they didn’t offend me. But you four old bastards, I still have to kill," Xu Zimo said lightly, waving his hand.
"You’re going back on your word!" the yellow-robed elder shouted with a change of expression.
"As a Godly Monarch, your words should be law. Your promises should be binding. How can you go back on them?" the blue-robed elder said anxiously.
"When did I promise anything? I only said I’d consider it," Xu Zimo shook his head.
He dropped his right hand, and divine might surged forth like a tidal wave, crushing everything beneath it.
"Wait! We know how to unlock the Heaven-Earth God-Stone! If you kill us, you’ll never obtain it," the blue-robed elder shouted quickly.
"A bunch of useless trash. You’ve had ten thousand years and still haven’t figured it out. Even without you, I can do it myself," Xu Zimo said coldly.
As his giant hand fell, the entire snow mountain was almost flattened.
With Xu Zimo’s power, he could have completely annihilated the four elders, leaving not even ashes.
But since he needed to fuse with the Lizard Hearts, he couldn’t kill them too cleanly.
He held back a bit, simply pinning the four of them to the ground, unable to move.
All the yellow lizards on the ground knelt in fear when they saw this, trembling as they looked at Xu Zimo.
At this moment, the Black Panther and Black Python had already been killed, and the Black Dragon King lay badly injured on the side of the snow mountain.
Xu Zimo walked over slowly, looked at the yellow-robed elder, and directly dug out his heart.
"Devil! You’re a devil!" the yellow-robed elder shouted in agony.
After extracting the Yellow Lizard Heart, Xu Zimo approached the blue-robed elder.
The blue-robed elder was clearly calmer. He looked at Xu Zimo and said, "We admit defeat. But before I die, could you tell me your name, so I can die knowing who defeated me?"
"My name?" Xu Zimo shook his head and said, "I have no name. Just a Godly Monarch. If I’m not an Emperor, why would I need a name?"
"Emperor? Is that a higher existence?" the blue-robed elder asked longingly.
As Xu Zimo dug out his heart, he nodded.
...
He placed the two hearts together with the previously fused Fire Lizard Heart and came before the Heaven-Earth God-Stone.
Unlocking the Thirty-Six Strange Meridians had been incredibly difficult, but the appearance of the Heaven-Earth God-Stone gave him hope.
But first, he had to completely break through the outer stone layer.
With a wave of his right hand, the Power of Creation surged through his body like a rushing river, carrying the Heaven-Earth God-Stone into his God World.
At first, the divine stone resisted, but in the face of overwhelming power, it gradually began to move, flying into Xu Zimo’s Divine Continent.
As the Heaven-Earth God-Stone entered, Xu Zimo summoned the Primordial Chaos Bead.
The Primordial Chaos Bead flew slowly from the depths of the endless void, traversing countless ages.
It circled around the Heaven-Earth God-Stone once, then a beam of colorless, void-like light shone from it.
The light fell upon the Heaven-Earth God-Stone.
Sensing this power, the once dormant divine stone finally stirred.
It began to tremble.
A low rumbling came from within as the outer stone layer started to flake off.
As the layers peeled away, the entire stone shook more violently.
Brilliant light began to seep out from within.