My starting summon is a small skeleton

To be honest, since the day Lu Wu found out that Old Lu was a playboy,

Lu Wu had been prepared to encounter Old Lu's ex-partners.

He just hadn't expected that one day they would all show up together.

And even less did he expect that one by one, they would bring him benefits.

Yuan Qingqing had sent over two Netherworld Flowers and left Silly to be strengthened.

Liu Qingyuan, on the other hand, directly gave him a Token of the Dragon Palace Secret Realm and also handed over two Netherworld Flowers.

Lu Wu was still in a daze when Liu Qingyuan took him to a place.

By the time he realized what was happening, he had already arrived inside the Dragon Palace Secret Realm.

Looking at his surroundings, Lu Wu was somewhat dazed.

There was neither the grand and majestic palace he had expected nor any environment surrounded by an ethereal aura.

All there was, was a stretch of ruins, ruins that had become overgrown with moss and weeds.

The only thing that somewhat shocked Lu Wu was the sea water held at bay by an invisible force overhead.

"Is this supposed to be the Dragon Palace Secret Realm?"

Lu Wu felt it didn't seem right, but his little goldfish livened up the moment it entered this secret realm.

It started swimming around him energetically.

Its small mouth opening and closing, as if it were doing something.

Lu Wu was puzzled when suddenly a crisp and childlike voice rang out.

"Lu Wu!"

"Who's talking?"

Startled, Lu Wu looked all around, saw no one else, and hadn't noticed the little goldfish, which made the little goldfish quite unhappy.

"Lu Wu! Lu Wu! Lu Wu! Lu Wu! Lu Wu!"

The little goldfish called out tirelessly, the name 'Lu Wu' resounding over and over.

Yet Lu Wu still didn't pay any attention to it, and so the little goldfish became thoroughly unhappy and gave him a Slap. This finally caught Lu Wu's full attention.

"The little goldfish can talk?"

With pride, the little goldfish nodded its head: "Lu Wu! Lu Wu!"

"That's amazing, but say something else!"

The little goldfish appeared confused: "Lu Wu?"

Lu Wu had an ominous hunch: "Don't tell me you can only say 'Lu Wu'?"

"Lu Wu!"

The little goldfish struck a proud pose.

"What's there to be proud of?"

Lu Wu was speechless; this was practically no different from being mute.

However, seeing the little goldfish calling out with such joy, Lu Wu didn't have the heart to crush its spirit and even reached out to tease the little creature a few times.

He made the little goldfish call out 'Lu Wu' in all sorts of ways.

After playing around for a while, Lu Wu finally remembered that he hadn't come here to play with fish.

"Right, what did I come to do?

Oh, I was thrown in here by Liu Qingyuan."

Lu Wu was full of sorrow; his steely resolve as Lu Ritian would not have allowed him to come here.

He couldn't just accept benefits because they were offered; he needed to maintain his dignity.

But now that he had been thrown in, Lu Wu felt he shouldn't waste a token.

"Little goldfish, do you know where in this Dragon Palace there might be a Dragon Gate?"

"Lu Wu?" The little goldfish looked puzzled.

"I mean, do you feel attracted to a particular place?"

"Lu Wu!"

The little goldfish understood, it floated up and hovered, shouting "Lu Wu" endlessly in one direction.

"It seems you truly do feel something, so let's go see this so-called Dragon Gate."

The fish and the man began to make their way through the Dragon Palace Secret Realm.

As they moved, Lu Wu realized that the Dragon Palace Secret Realm wasn't just ruins; it appeared there were no other Summoned Beasts in the secret realm.

Lu Wu's eyes hadn't scanned any attributes of other Summoned Beasts.

But he had scanned quite a few attributes of other things.

Lu Wu found that this Dragon Palace Secret Realm was really filled with treasures; a casual glance revealed that most of the things in view were materials of Black Iron level or higher.

The building ruins, various green plants, and even the roadside weeds turned out to be many materials.

Most of them were of Bronze level, at least Black Iron.

There were also quite a few of Silver and Gold.

"This secret realm is like a treasury!"

However, although the materials in this secret realm were abundant, Lu Wu did not start picking them.

Lu Wu's moral baseline might be low, but he still had some limits.

Although he had entered the Dragon Palace Secret Realm, he was still an outsider; it wouldn't be right to dig up everything, so it was best just to let the little goldfish attempt the Dragon Gate.

"You see, the most important thing in life is to be content, not to be too greedy. I won't take a single thing from this Dragon Palace... Oh damn, Legendary Quality material!!!"

Lu Wu fell into a brief silence before scratching his head: "How about I just take one?"

It was clear that the Legendary Quality material was tempting him.

But he ultimately bit the bullet and refrained.

Mainly because the person who let him in was no ordinary person.

Liu Qingyuan was Old Lu's ex-partner, and the benefits from her felt hot to the touch for Lu Wu.

If it was just a matter of jumping through the Dragon Gate, Lu Wu could still convince himself to go for it.

But if he started looting the place, Lu Wu would later not know how to face Liu Qingyuan.

What if she wanted him to tie up Lu Haikong and deliver him to her? What would Lu Wu do then?

So, Lu Wu felt it was better not to take anything from the secret realm if he could help it.

He felt a bit like wanting to have his cake and eat it too.

But then, people are generally like that; they do things to find peace of mind.

It might be slightly hypocritical, but it's okay as long as it brings them comfort.

To avoid further discomfort, Lu Wu decided not to let his eyes wander aimlessly any longer and simply followed the little goldfish as it led the way through the Dragon Palace.

This ruin of the Dragon Palace was truly vast.

After walking for a full three hours, Lu Wu finally reached the destination following the little goldfish.

About 300 meters ahead of Lu Wu, there was a pond, and behind the pond, a waterfall flowed. Above that waterfall hovered an ethereal gate.

When Lu Wu saw that gate, a special attribute panel appeared before him.

...

Name: Dragon Gate

Grade: ???

Effect: Dragon Transformation, ???

Description: If your little goldfish can pass through that gate, it will shed its divine fish form and have the opportunity to transform into a dragon.

P.S.: Prepare yourself mentally, this gate isn't so easy to leap through.

...

After glancing at the attribute panel, Lu Wu grabbed the little goldfish beside him.

"You're it, my little goldfish! Go for it!"

With that, Lu Wu tossed the little goldfish into the air.

The little goldfish seemed to understand even better than Lu Wu what that Dragon Gate meant for it.

Its big eyes brimmed with excitement.

Crying out "Lu Wu," it headed straight for the Dragon Gate.

However, before the little goldfish could get anywhere near the Dragon Gate, it dropped straight into the pond as soon as it entered the domain of the pond.

Leaping through the Dragon Gate required a sense of ritual.

It wasn't as simple as just charging in.

One needed to swim from the pond to the waterfall, then leap upward from the waterfall and finally smash through the gate.

The process sounded simple enough, but performing it was far from easy.

Usually, for the little goldfish, swimming in water was instinctive and it could cross the 300-meter-long pond in a blink.

But now when the little goldfish fell into the water, it dashed out in a flash, shooting straight into Lu Wu's arms.

"Lu Wu! Lu Wu! Lu Wu! Lu Wu!"

The little goldfish's cries were filled with shock, resentment, and pain.

Although Lu Wu couldn't understand the meaning of the little goldfish's cries for Lu Wu, he could still see the state of the little goldfish.

Helpless (This water is poisonous, it hurts so much!)

"Does it hurt?"

Lu Wu was startled and quickly checked the body of the little goldfish.

He saw no injuries.

Lu Wu then glanced at the pond, and the attributes of the pond appeared before him.

...

Name: Transcendence Pond

Description: Part of the same system as the Dragon Gate, used for Transcendence, can fully activate one's bloodline but the downside is the pain.

...

Having seen these attributes, Lu Wu understood what was happening.

He then looked at the little goldfish in his arms, who was frantically refusing to enter the water again, and felt even more helpless.

If only he could replace the little goldfish with Silly; that creature would probably not want to leave once it entered the Transcendence Pond.

Unfortunately, the little goldfish wasn't Silly; it was particularly averse to pain.

But now, it had no choice but to brave the pain and go into the pond, for how else would it leap through the Dragon Gate?

Lu Wu had no other choice but to hold the little goldfish and try to prepare it mentally.

The little goldfish turned out to be fairly easy to trick.

Soon enough, it was swayed by Lu Wu to go into the water once more.

However, as easily as it was convinced to go in, it was just as easily pained enough to come back out.

Just as the little goldfish had managed to submerge, it emerged again, leaving Lu Wu bewildered.

"How about this, I'll share the pain with you, okay?"

With no other options, Lu Wu had to play his trump card.

Once the pain was shared, the little goldfish's ordeal in the water was halved. Lu Wu also felt the agony of the Transcendence Pond.

It was painful, but not nearly as much as Silly had experienced, and Lu Wu could bear it.

This time, the little goldfish endured longer than before, but it still failed to leap through the Dragon Gate, getting washed down by the waterfall.

Then it popped out of the water again to complain to Lu Wu.

"Lu Wu! Lu Wu! Lu Wu!"

(It hurts so much being battered by that nasty water.)

Lu Wu felt helpless as no amount of persuasion could convince the little goldfish to keep trying.

Eventually, Lu Wu got a bit impatient.

"Is leaping through the Dragon Gate really so difficult? Come on, I'll take you through it myself."

With those words, Lu Wu stripped off his clothes and dove headfirst into the pond.

"Lu Wu! Lu Wu!"

Seeing Lu Wu jump in, the little goldfish panicked. With a splash, it dived in too, intending to pull Lu Wu back out of the painful water.

But Lu Wu ignored it completely, and upon plunging into the water, he began racing toward the Dragon Gate.

Lu Wu had no other option.

The Summoned Beasts he raised were all spoiled.

Everything seemed to require a Lu Wu.

To help the little goldfish leap through the Dragon Gate, Lu Wu had to push ahead with all his might.

Seeing Lu Wu forging ahead, the little goldfish forgot its own pain and hurriedly followed, trying to pull Lu Wu out of the bad water that caused pain to fish.

However, because of the Transcendence Pond, the little goldfish actually couldn't catch up with Lu Wu.

It could only bite at Lu Wu's heels, following him through the Transcendence Pond, leaping up the waterfall, and then one after the other, they passed through the Dragon Gate.

"Done!"

Watching the little goldfish pass through the Dragon Gate, Lu Wu's mouth curled into a smile of accomplishment. Just then, he suddenly felt an indescribable force acting on him and the little goldfish...