Chapter 1828

On a closer look the dragonman Gu Immortal is not Duke Long, only similar to him, and the clone guesses he is the father of his dream character. The Gu Immortal scolds Wu Shuai for beating Chen Fu and Zhang Shuang again despite many warnings, since both descend from the sect’s supreme elders. The dragonman youths fall silent. He strikes Wu Shuai’s head with his palm and orders him to the study room for punishment. ^{ch. 1828}

Fang Yuan takes the desk’s calligraphy, Long Xing Tian, for the Gu Immortal’s name until he sees room for a fourth word. Told to kneel as an unfilial son, he kneels at once and apologizes perfunctorily but with a sincere look. The Gu Immortal, stunned, smiles coldly, calls it acting obedient with other intentions, and hits his back with a heavy metal paperweight. The blow causes intense pain, and Fang Yuan’s soul foundation falls by a huge amount. Fang Yuan cannot resist in this dream realm. He drops forward, knocks his forehead on the floor, then kneels upright, making a show of enduring the pain. ^{ch. 1828}

The father wonders whether he struck too hard. He sighs deeply and sits, calling Wu Shuai his most outstanding son, whose enslavement path talent is rarely seen in a hundred years. The sect’s higher-ups grow unhappy as the dragonman race strengthens, and even as a supreme elder he is pushed aside. He warns that the win has infuriated the human Gu Immortals behind the two youths, who will turn stricter on the dragonmen. He says he is truly disappointed and asks whether Wu Shuai understands that the beating serves the race and the sect’s peace. ^{ch. 1828}

Fang Yuan senses a cold feeling beneath the gentle gaze and becomes incredibly alert. Failing would cost him the qualification to become the Dragon Palace Lord and might kill him. The main body could intervene, but a fight would bring a huge commotion as it did for Duke Long. Suspecting the question may be the key to this scene, Fang Yuan answers that he disagrees with holding back and enduring for the big picture. ^{ch. 1828}

The father, enraged, grabs the paperweight again. Fang Yuan adds that such subservience harms the whole dragonman race, and the father demands to hear how he is wrong. Fang Yuan answers that dragonmen are born with enslavement path dao marks, tough bodies, sharp claws and teeth, and lifespans tens or hundreds of times longer than humans. He adds that dragonmen are united and trust one another, and asks whether he should really have lost the duel on purpose. He insists that dragonmen deserve greater status and that ordinary humans should rank below them. Fang Yuan then stands with tears in his eyes and refuses to submit, even if beaten to death. ^{ch. 1828}

The father stares at him and does not strike. After he confirms something, he throws the paperweight away, shakes his son by the shoulders and laughs, calling him a precious son. He admits he thinks the same and had been probing earlier, unable to speak the truth for a reason. Fang Yuan feigns stunned delight, while inwardly relieved that his analysis was right. ^{ch. 1828}

He reasons that the conflict between dragonmen and humans is intensifying, as the youngsters show. The school field was an important area with an immortal formation, so the higher-ups must have sensed something, yet the father arrived after it ended. The huge, grand study displays his ambition. He called Wu Shuai by name before the youngsters and unfilial son only in private, to spare his son’s reputation. He wants to nurture him into an assistant and successor. Fang Yuan finally understands how this dream realm works and what Dragon Palace intends with the test. ^{ch. 1828}