Chapter 4.  My move!!! (No more honeydew bubble tea…)

Long Quang’s hoarding instincts activated. He wanted to hide the final six cups away and protect them!

…But he also wanted to drink another one. He couldn’t have his bubble tea and drink it too.

Heart full of conflict, Long Quang inserted a straw into a cup of bubble tea and sucked.

Sweetness, honeydew, and coconut filled his mouth.

When was a good time for him to return to that human’s tearoom without appearing too eager…

As Long Quang drank more honeydew bubble tea, his mind drifted to the morning’s battle.

Aside from the brief initial period when Long Quang was young and had his parents teach him the basics of cultivation, Long Quang had since been struggling by himself to advance, gleaming what he could about battle techniques while spectating the regular cultivation tournaments and reading the handful of mother-of-pearl tablets he could get a hold of.

At this morning’s tournament, he had once again lost—and even worse, he had lost in the first round.

He refused to change to a non-combat cultivation pathway though. That would be giving up.

When a pearl popped in his mouth, he suddenly had an idea—

—What if he made a move based on this pearl?

The more Long Quang thought about it, the more excited he became. A new move, something that had powerful burst potential, something that would surprise other dragons at the crucial moment and allow him to win!

Long Quang put aside his bubble tea and formed a deep-blue water sphere. It had to appear hard yet explode when he wanted it to…

A week later—

“Little Quang.”

Long Quang instinctively growled, uncurling from his sleeping dragon position and glaring at the big dragon head at the cave entrance. “Go away!”

After a week of intense cultivation, he had been resting for only few hours before being interrupted.

“What, have you been sleeping the entire time since the tournament? Aren’t you afraid of losing yet again?” the other dragon taunted.

The other dragon—Long Quyền—was a cousin of a similar age. However, they had much different cultivation trajectories.

When they were young, Long Quyền had shown talent. He was quickly accepted as a disciple of one of the senior dragons and didn’t lack opportunities to increase his strength.

“Go away!” Long Quang said again.

Long Quyền stuck a claw into the cave, forcing Long Quang to transform into human form. Long Quang exited the cave and immediately transformed back into a dragon, pushing Long Quyền away at the same time.

Smirking, Long Quyền pushed him right back, brandishing sharp claws.

Long Quang immediately rolled in the water, narrowly dodging. His tail whipped back.

Rather than dodging, Long Quyền’s tail met him straight on.

CLASH! Scales smashed against scales. A few of Long Quang’s scales dented and cracked.

Both of them pulled back, rising from the sea floor, and then attacked again, claws slashing, tails commanding the water currents to pummel the other.

“Little Quang, Little Quang,” Long Quyền taunted him. “Why are you such a weakling?”

In the tussle, Long Quyền landed a big bite on his flank and sent him crashing onto the ocean floor. Dragon blood dispersed in the water, the scent catching others’ attention.

“Oh, they’re fighting.”

“It should be over soon.”

“Ah! Brother!”

The place where Long Quang lived didn’t have many dragons. The few that were around backed away from the fight.

Long Quang growled and fought back with greater ferocity.

Two dragons, one bigger and shinier than the other, fought in the deep ocean. Each claw swipe sent a razor blade of water to the opponent, each tail swipe accompanied with a tidal wave of power.

However, it was immediately clear that Long Quang was losing. He was getting hit by Long Quyền more times; his blood was clouding the water.

“Grrr!!!” Long Quang was once again thrown to the ocean floor.

Long Quyền growled right back.

Just as Long Quyền was about to land the final blow, seven ice spheres formed around Long Quang. In a flash, they flew towards Long Quyền. Long Quyền’s claws slashed at them. But instead of pushing them back, the ice spheres suddenly exploded!

Ice shrapnel and compressed air burst out, making Long Quyền flinch and jump back. In the gap, Long Quang pushed off from the ocean floor.

With the exploding ice spheres revealed, Long Quang didn’t hold back, generating and smashing as many of them into Long Quyền as he could.

For once, Long Quang had stunned Long Quyền!

“GRRRR!”

The dragon roars shook the water. Long Quang and Long Quyền charged at each other head-on. At the critical moment, Long Quyền hooked his tail and sent them rolling and grappling across the ocean floor.

In the blink of an eye, Long Quang was pinned under Long Quyền, claw at his throat.

“I win again!!!” Long Quyền crowed.

Long Quang growled. He struggled but couldn’t shake off Long Quyền.

“Okay, get off him now. Do you enjoy bullying weaker dragon?” an older dragon who had come to inspect the source of the ocean-water ripples said.

“It’s not bullying!” Long Quang retorted.

“It’s not bullying,” Long Quyền smirked. He pulled back his claws and swam towards the older dragon. “Senior Uncle Long Duy, what are you doing here?”

“You, go back. Your master wants me to teach you new moves. You should be able to advance soon.”

Long Quyền’s eyes light up. “Right away, senior uncle!” After bowing, he swam off towards the Imperial Palace.

Long Quang grunted, shaking his body to get rid of all the sand and broken shells. His body ached from being thrown to the ground so many times. He swallowed a healing pill, barely closing up the bleeding wounds.

The older dragon, Long Duy, gave him an unreadable look. “Those ice spheres, how did you form them?”

Long Quang snorted. “Not telling.”

“I’ve never seen them before. It’s not in the the Imperial Dragon Cultivation Manual.”

“Well, lucky you, you got to see them today,” Long Quang said.

“The ice spheres have promise. If you show it to me, there may be a chance of it being recorded as a new technique,” Long Duy said.

Long Quang’s stomach fluttered. Recorded as a new technique? But the brief sense of joy was quickly suppressed by suspicion. “No.”

“If it can increase the kingdom’s strength, then it should be shared.”

Long Quang snorted. “You think my weak move can increase the kingdom’s strength?”

Long Duy started turning away, too impatient to deal with him. “Think quickly, or someone else will recreate it.”

Long Quang gritted his teeth as Long Duy swam away.

“Brother, brother!” Long Quang’s little brother finally approached now that the other big scary dragons had left. “Ouchy!”

“Did you get hit by something?” Long Quang looked over his little brother in concern.

His little brother tumbled in the water. “While you were fighting!”

Oh, the waters had been so turbulent that his little brother had been sent rolling.

Long Quang swam closer, letting his brother rest on his scales. “Feel better now?”

“Hmm, brother, do you still have that sweet drink?”

Long Quang: “…” So that was his little brother’s true reason for snuggling up to him like that.

“Please? Please?”

Long Quang reluctantly took out his last (last!!) bubble tea. “Drink and go and cultivate well.”

His little brother’s eyes lit up. “Okay!”

While his brother was happily drinking, Long Quang’s eyes wandered upwards…

The town markets were loud and noisy. Phương would’ve preferred to go shopping somewhere more quiet, but the produce at the market really was a lot fresher and cheaper than at the grocery stores on the wealthy streets, even if he didn’t haggle.

(The automatic irrigation system was working but growing vegetables was so slow!)

After storing everything away into his spatial storage, Phương left the farmers’ market area and headed to the cultivator market. The cultivator market was even more lively, full with all kinds of people dressed in all manner of ways. There was even someone dressed in modern-day jeans with a floating ball of light next to him.

Phương avoided that person—either they were a protagonist, a villain, or they might ask him to make a smart phone for them. Some people didn’t understand that he wasn’t a programmer!

Phương took a close look at stalls selling refining materials. He bought a few ores he needed to improve his dishwasher and a whole load of other miscellaneous materials because they looked shiny and the price was good and what if he needed them later? Anyway, he still had space for more materials in his workshop. If he ran of out space, he could just refine more spatial storage.

While he was at the market, Phương also glanced over various finished artefacts on sale in the market—it was a professional habit to scope out other refiners’ works. The most unique, rare and powerful artefacts could only be found in distinguished cultivators’ storage and major auction houses. In contrast, the items at the market were usually mediocre, either common consumables or basic goods such as flying talismans, lighting talismans, simple weapons and spatial storage pouches. Occasionally though, one could find something more unique. Phương had such experiences in the past, leading him to find new refiner cultivator talent.

Unfortunately, Phương didn’t find anything interesting today.

He visited a few more places in town and had lunch before heading home, zooming down the road on his trusty flying scooter.

Transmigrator: Wow, this place is so old-school! I want to be a sword cultivator and ascend to the heavens!

System: Don’t worry, with me, the Wives Are All Bigshots System, you’ll be carried up the peak!

Phương: *whistles as he looks the other direction* I heard nothing, I saw nothing…