This Is What a Villain Is Like

The Dragon-Suppressing Seal now hovered in his Sea of Consciousness, wreathed in wisps of Dragon Fortune. However, a strange energy surged around it, forming a cage that kept it sealed.

Jiang Lan was not the Emperor of Great Xia, nor had he practiced the corresponding Cultivation Technique, so he couldn’t activate the Dragon-Suppressing Seal. He could only temporarily seal it away.

Now that Emperor Xia had broken through to the Eighth Realm, she had the power to thoroughly refine the Dragon-Suppressing Seal, even without its consent.

If she were allowed to control the Dragon-Suppressing Seal, it would be like a tiger growing wings.

And for Jiang Lan, this was hardly good news.

If Emperor Xia became too powerful, her key subordinates would become expendable. She could get rid of them without suffering any significant impact.

To control Emperor Xia, he couldn’t allow her to become too powerful. Her cultivation breaking through to the Eighth Realm was already something of a surprise to Jiang Lan.

After taking the Dragon-Suppressing Seal, he had immediately distanced himself from the blood-red altar. But then the Barbarian God’s phantom self-detonated. The powerful aftershock had caught him, knocking him unconscious. His father later sent men to find him and bring him back to the mansion to rest and recover.

This incident taught Jiang Lan a lesson: he couldn’t afford to be too arrogant or overconfident. The unexpected always happened far too suddenly.

Many events in this world were now beyond his expectations, no longer following the plot as he knew it.

From now on, he had to act with the utmost caution, considering multiple approaches and always having an escape plan.

He had taken a great risk this time to acquire the Dragon-Suppressing Seal.

Of course, there was an upside: the Age Dao Fruit had turned green and was faintly beginning to transform into purple.

In other words, the Age Dao Fruit had matured to its second stage.

This not only deepened Jiang Lan’s comprehension and control over the Dao of age and time, but the temporal scope he could influence had also expanded significantly.

He even felt that, in conjunction with the Destiny Dao Fruit, he could now manipulate the lifespans of certain living beings.

For example, he could grant a sudden increase in lifespan to some mortals, but only on the condition that he could extract that lifespan from other living beings.

If a target’s cultivation was powerful, their lifespan would contain more unknown Cause and Effect, making it harder to extend. Extracting it, however, would be easy.

Although this ability was as wondrous as a creator’s, it was of little practical use to Jiang Lan at the moment.

During this time, he had also been attempting to condense his Lifebound Divine Techniques, intending to raise his apparent cultivation level to the Sixth Realm, the Divine Power Realm.

The existence of the Destiny Dao Fruit and the Age Dao Fruit also offered him a new direction for his enlightenment.

In the Divine Power Realm, a cultivator needed to condense their own Lifebound Divine Techniques. The scope of these techniques was vast: one could master a Supreme Skill from Ancient Texts and Scriptures, or one could comprehend and create one’s own through acquired understanding.

Some exceptionally talented Celestial Prides are born with Dao Bones or Treasure Blood, granting them Innate Divine Techniques from the very beginning.

Upon reaching this realm, they have no need to comprehend a Lifebound Divine Technique; they already possess one innately.

Many other cultivators, however, struggle and stagnate for years, unable to condense a Lifebound Divine Technique no matter what they try.

The Daoist Techniques they practice can never be fully mastered or made their own.

In Jiang Lan’s Sea of Consciousness, however, every single leaf on the Ancient Vine could become a Lifebound Divine Technique for him.

There was the sword-shaped leaf, formed by absorbing all of Lin Fan’s talents and memories; the leaf resembling Blood Jade, created after he obtained the legacy of the Blood Immortal Sect; the leaves for the Phoenix Void Primordial Scripture and the Purple Mist Dao Scroll; the four Saint-leaves that appeared after he acquired the Four Saints Ancient Celestial Skill; and the hazy leaves representing three pages of the Wordless Celestial Book...

Each leaf represented an incomparably powerful Lifebound Divine Technique.

And that was to say nothing of the Destiny Dao Fruit and the Age Dao Fruit.

Generally speaking, a Celestial Pride in the Divine Power Realm would choose to master a single path, integrating one Lifebound Divine Technique to serve as their specialized focus for future cultivation.

After all, this choice was tied to their future domain, their Dharma Aspect, and the "Dao" they would need to comprehend to even touch upon the Tribulation Bridge Realm.

Jiang Lan’s father, Jiang Lintian, for instance, had chosen the "Dao" of "Fortune." Therefore, to establish his foundation for Feather Transformation, he had to start with the National Fortune of Great Xia.

Right now, Jiang Lan was faced with a dilemma: should he master a single path or become proficient in a hundred?

With the Ancient Vine, he could fully comprehend and master any Cultivation Technique or legacy, achieving a flawless state, just by looking at it once.

Therefore, he could easily choose to possess over a dozen Lifebound Divine Techniques, as he wouldn’t need to spend time researching and comprehending them.

’Actually, there’s not much of a choice to make.’

’For me, there’s no distinction between mastering a single path or being proficient in a hundred.’

’It’s... mastering ten thousand paths.’

Just as Jiang Lan came to this conclusion in his mind, a handmaiden dispatched by Emperor Xia arrived at the Prime Minister’s Mansion, witnessed by the spies of all the great Noble Families in the Imperial Capital. Under the guidance of the butler, she made her way into the estate.

Instantly, the event caused a stir throughout the Imperial Capital, sparking rampant speculation and debate.

Jiang Lintian, who was in his study attending to some matters, came out to personally accept the rewards sent by Emperor Xia.

Jiang Lan, upon hearing the news, claimed illness as his reason for being unable to personally give thanks for the imperial favor.

After the envoy from the palace had departed, Jiang Lintian placed the items bestowed by Emperor Xia before Jiang Lan. The father and son then dismissed all the servants to discuss their next move.

Everything Emperor Xia was doing now was within Jiang Lan’s expectations. The next step would be for her to reveal that she was a woman, at which point she would undoubtedly face impeachment from high-ranking ministers and the many elders of the Imperial Clan Court. The laws and customs of Great Xia had never permitted a woman to be the Emperor.