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Chapter 142 - The Epic of Lac Long Quan

Listen, oh people, to the ancient tale of Viet,

In the primordial age, when mountains had no name,

When rivers had not yet drawn the maps of the realm,

A sacred dragon parted the waves to found a nation...

The story begins in ancient times, when heaven and earth were still chaotic, and all things were in their infancy. The sacred qi of the heavens and earth, the spiritual qi of the rivers and mountains, after tens of thousands of years of condensation, transformed into a king, who was considered the Progenitor of the Viet people – Kinh Duong Vuong. He was the first king, who used his power to pacify the four corners of the land, establishing the vast country of Xich Quy and ushering in a new era.

King Kinh Duong Vuong, with the power of a god, descended to the Dong Dinh Lake region, where the water-element spiritual qi was most abundant. There, he met the Dragon Maiden, daughter of the Dragon God, a deity who ruled over the entire lake and sea region. Love blossomed between the king and the Dragon Maiden, and the fruit of that love was a son who carried the blood of both, being both human and dragon. That son was named Sung Lam.

Sung Lam, from the moment of his birth, was destined for an extraordinary fate. He was born from the sea, carrying the essence of water—powerful, vast, and full of tolerance. He inherited his father's strength and his mother's noble bloodline. Later generations, with reverence, would call him Lac Long Quan – the Dragon King of the Lac Viet land.

Lac Long Quan was not his original name; it was given to him by the people. He grew up by the ocean, but his heart always turned towards the North – where his father once reigned.

Lac Long Quan left the sea for the North and found the people suffering from rampant monsters and demons. He vanquished the Wood Goblins and Fox Spirits, saving humanity. The people bowed in gratitude, calling him the Dragon Father, the one who restored order to the mortal realm, teaching the people how to plow, plant, build dikes against floods, and use fire to ward off wild beasts.

From a young age, Lac Long Quan showed his uniqueness. While other children were learning to walk and talk, he could already swim in raging waves and converse with aquatic species. With vast divine powers, he could command wind and rain and transform at will. His cultivation progressed at an unimaginable speed. It could be said that Lac Long Quan was the one who opened the first epic of cultivation for humanity on this land, the first to understand how to absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, circulating it through his meridians to strengthen himself.

Meanwhile, in a distant high mountain region, where the wood-element spiritual qi was pure, there was a fairy of the Shennong lineage named Au Co. She was not only breathtakingly beautiful, enough to topple cities, but also had a kind heart, skilled in medicine, and traveled everywhere to heal the common people.

Fate brought them together, the Dragon from the sea and the Fairy from the mountains.

On one occasion when Lac Long Quan went to the high mountains to exterminate demons, he met Au Co while she was gathering herbs. Love between the two, one strong and domineering, the other gentle and kind, blossomed amidst the winds of the great forest, the songs of birds, the blood and fire of battle, and the rebirth of life.

Witnessed by heaven and earth, they became husband and wife. Dragon and Fairy united, a perfect harmony between the sea and the mountains, between Yin and Yang.

One day, Au Co gave birth. But strangely, she did not give birth to children, but to a sac containing one hundred eggs. From those one hundred eggs hatched one hundred sons, all handsome, extraordinarily strong, and born with latent power. Those one hundred sons were the perfect crystallization of the Dragon and Fairy bloodlines, of the strength of the mountains and the sea, the origin of the later Baiyue peoples.

But all good things must come to an end.

The sea could not forever be one with the high mountains. Lac Long Quan was of the dragon kind; his heart always yearned for the vast ocean, where the white-capped waves crashed, where he could roam freely. Au Co was a fairy; her heart was always bound to the verdant mountains, where there were trees and flowers, where she could heal and save people.

They loved each other, but their paths were not the same.

They had to make a painful decision, parting in tears for the future of an entire people.

On the seashore, Lac Long Quan looked at Au Co and their one hundred sons, his farewell echoing through the ages:

"I am of the dragon kind, living in the water; you are of the fairy kind, living on land. Though our love is deep, water and fire are incompatible, and it is difficult for us to be together. Parting today is not because our love has ended, but to expand this brocaded land. I will take fifty sons to the sea, teaching them fishing and water management. You will take fifty sons to the mountains, teaching them farming and hunting. Whether in the high mountains or the vast sea, we are still one family. If there is ever any trouble, call for each other, and we will never abandon one another."

From then on, Lac Long Quan led fifty sons to the sea, establishing coastal nations and conquering the oceans. Au Co led fifty sons to the mountains, establishing villages in the highlands and clearing the forests. The descendants of Lac Hong spread throughout the rivers and mountains, founding the nation of Van Lang and beginning a heroic epic of the Viet people.

As time passed, Lac Long Quan's cultivation became increasingly profound and unfathomable.

Then one day, disaster struck.

From the deep seas, a ferocious race appeared. They had human forms but bore the characteristics of aquatic species, calling themselves the Ngu Tinh (Fish Goblins). They were brutal, warlike, and capable of cultivation, absorbing spiritual qi in the water to increase their strength.

The invasion of the Ngu Tinh erupted. Humanity at that time, despite Lac Long Quan's teachings, was still weak and unable to resist.

The war began, and the outcome was quickly decided. The Ngu Tinh, with their strength and brutality, pushed back humanity.

In the most critical moment, Lac Long Quan took action.

Alone, with one Dragon Soul Spear, he faced an entire army of Ngu Tinh. He delivered a spear thrust that pierced heaven and earth, parting the sea itself, routing the Ngu Tinh and staining a vast expanse of the sea red with their blood, causing them to flee in terror, never daring to return and invade again.

However, his action alerted an even higher entity.

A force that existed outside the solar system.

The Maka Legion.

They, the rulers of the universe, for some reason, some "law," could not directly invade Earth. They sent their descendants, weaker clans, who would later become the ancestors of the Madakaros, to seize resources.

And when those vanguards were crushed by Lac Long Quan, they were truly enraged.

A confrontation on a higher level had been destined thousands of years ago...

...

The peace after Lac Long Quan drove away the Ngu Tinh did not last long. The seeds of enmity had been sown. And those behind the scenes, those who truly coveted Earth, had lost their patience.

Then one day, about 4000 years ago, under the supreme directive of the Maka Legion, a true large-scale invasion began.

No longer were they weak vanguards. This time, they were true Madakaros warriors, direct descendants of the legion.

The sky of Earth was torn open by thousands of spatial portals. From them, giant warships and vast armies poured out. They were ruthless, warlike, and their goal was clear: to exterminate all native life and seize the planet as a stepping stone.

Their landing alerted Lac Long Quan. He knew that a life-or-death battle was inevitable.

But this time, he was no longer alone.

His fifty sons, whom he had taught, had grown into mighty warriors and brilliant generals. They stood with their father, shouldering the mission to protect humanity.

A long, bloody war broke out, lasting for 300 years.

Those were the darkest 300 years in human history. The ground was soaked with blood. The sky was shrouded in smoke and fire. Cities were continuously destroyed and rebuilt. Humans and Madakaros, two races, fought to the point of exhaustion.

During those 300 years, Lac Long Quan and his sons were the lighthouses, the spiritual anchor for an entire people. They fought on the most brutal fronts, annihilating countless powerful enemies. They taught humanity how to fight, how to survive, how to unite.

And then, the turning point came.

After 300 years of fighting and accumulation, Lac Long Quan broke through. From Late-stage Nascent Soul, he officially stepped into the Peak Nascent Soul Realm.

His power at this time had reached a new height. He alone could sweep through an entire legion.

The Madakaros horde, after losing their strongest commanders, was completely wiped out from Earth, forced to flee in a pathetic retreat.

The 300-year war ended. Humanity had won.

But they did not give up.

This defeat only made the Maka Legion even angrier. They saw Earth as a disgrace. They could not act directly, but they used an even more cruel method.

They treated Earth as a training ground, a life-and-death arena for their descendants.

Time and time again, they continuously sent their descendants, young clans, and warlike individuals to invade Earth. They wanted to use the blood and bones of humanity to sharpen their next generation.

Earth, having just found peace, had to constantly endure countless small but persistent invasions that never ended.

Lac Long Quan, though very strong, could not possibly eliminate all these bandits. He killed one wave, and another would come. He realized that passive defense would never solve the root of the problem.

He needed to become stronger. So strong that the enemy would be terrified, would completely give up the idea of invasion.

And so, after hundreds of years of arduous cultivation and fighting, he broke through once more.

The Void Piercing Realm.

A realm beyond the comprehension of humanity at that time. His power could now match that of the elders of the Maka Legion.

He knew it was time to end it all.

He stood before the sea, bidding farewell to humanity, to his kind. He alone, with one Dragon Soul Spear. He tore open space and advanced towards the vast universe, where the Maka Legion was stationed.

He carried an iron-clad determination: he would wipe out the invading horde, he would beat them so badly that they would never again have the courage to approach Earth.

And the story after that became an enigma.

No one knew what happened in the universe. No one knew the outcome of that battle. No one knew how he managed to return.

People only knew that after he left, the invasions of the Madakaros completely ceased.

The peace he had exchanged his life for had finally arrived. A peace that lasted for thousands of years of history.

Humanity, at last, had thousands of years to breathe, to recover, to develop.

But what did they do in those thousands of years?

They forgot.

They forgot a dark history, forgot the bloody wars. They forgot the Dragon King who had endured everything to protect them.

Instead of continuing the path of cultivation to strengthen themselves, they developed science and technology.

Instead of always being on guard against foreign invaders, they created nuclear weapons, and then used those very weapons to cause civil wars, to fight over resources, to slaughter each other.

The world wars escalated. Greed and selfishness clouded everything.

They had forgotten what they needed to do. They had forgotten the words of their ancestor.

And so now, when history repeated itself, when the Madakaros returned on an even larger scale, humanity once again stood on the brink of extinction.

And Lac Long Quan had to appear once more.

He appeared because he discovered that his pure bloodline still existed, still flowed in an outstanding descendant.

He appeared, still youthful in appearance, but his eyes carried the traces of thousands of years of time.

He, a living epic, a legend, was now being restrained by an entity even more terrifying than the Maka Legion.

The true story of 4000 years ago, no one knew.

And that was the burden, the hidden secret that he carried alone.

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