Peace can also be an option!

Thousands of kilometers away from New York City, a towering mountain rose majestically above the landscape, standing thousands of meters tall and dominating the surrounding region for hundreds of kilometers.

This mountain was renowned for its freezing temperatures, as it remained blanketed in snow year-round. And that's how it earned the name of the people across the region"The White Mountain."

Above the mountain, if you venture closer and look carefully, you might catch a glimpse of two shadowy figures. A man lies napping atop a slumbering dragon.

The dragon's scales gleam a deep, dark red and cover most of its massive body. Certain areas, like its belly and head, are protected by even thicker, reinforced scales, so anyone could tell at a glance that they had no way of destroying them, no matter what or how they attacked.

The dragon's body spanned hundreds of meters, so immense that nearby towns would think night had fallen if it flew overhead.

On the dragon's back, a man could be seen chilling with both hands behind his head, napping carelessly as if he owned the skies. His relaxed demeanor made it seem like nothing around him was a threat to him.

The man had long black hair and dark eyes, and his face was so handsome that even some men might be unable to resist trying their luck with him.

He wore what appeared to be a crimson robe, intricately adorned with patterns of dragon bodies and heads. Above the shoulders, the design extended into what looked like dragon claws, which even emperors and kings in the past would envy.

Such a majestic robe was their dream!

The wind howled, and snow fell relentlessly as if the world were ending. Yet, the man remained undisturbed, calmly napping as though the biting cold and raging storm were nothing more than a gentle breeze.

However, the man suddenly opened his eyes, displaying a look of interest and killing intent.

" Interesting, this is really interesting. How long has it been, a few centuries? Someone actually dares to challenge my hex family and sneak into our territory without asking for permission?" the man muttered to himself while slowly but surely standing up.

The man kept speculating about this sudden change.

" It seems like the feeling comes from that little island in America. Is it someone from the eastern continent?'.

" Well, it doesn't matter anyway; let's see who will want to stop me if I want to kill someone in my territory."

After his master spoke, the dragon seemed to sense his thoughts. Suddenly, it opened its eyes, spread its massive wings—spanning tens of meters—and took flight, soaring toward a distant, secluded island.

***

"The elders have told me to wait here after I get the treasure back, and the four guardians will show up and bring me home. But why are they talking so long." Luke paced back and forth on a secluded island, feeling a bit uneasy.

It had been one hour since he laid his hands on the Holy Land door of cultivators and signaled for the four guardians, yet they still hadn't shown up.

"Did they get caught?" Luke couldn't help but have such thoughts.

He was in the enemy's territory after all, and if not for the deducer giving him a detailed route and destination with the tool and pointing him to the man the treasure was supposed to be hidden with, Luke would have never been able to find it without causing a disturbance and alerting 'them'.

"No, there is no way they are caught. Even if they were, I would have heard a fight break out. It sh..." As Luke mumbled to himself, calming himself down, a crack sounded above him.

Crack!

Immediately afterward, the world started to crack, and a spatial tear that measured a few meters in length formed in the space on top of the young man.

Noticing the fact that the space itself cracked and a young man was coming out of it, Luke immediately knelt on the ground, not daring to even take a glimpse at who came out of the spatial tear.

'The four guardians are using the spatial tear talisman? Something bad must have happened if that's the case!' those were the red-haired young man's thoughts.

Above the island. A young man walked out of the spatial tear as if he were just having a walk in the park, not traveling in the void.

The moment he emerged, the qi in the tens of meters surrounding him seemed turbulent and unstable. It started to circle the young man like they had just found their lost master or something.

"I got rusty after not fighting for decades of years, but well, it is what it is."

"This isn't the time for a chitchat third guardian; they must have felt the qi fluctuations in this space; we should get the kid and leave."

Right after those words came out, three similar spatial tears from three different directions appeared out of nowhere, and two women plus a man walked out of them.

"Fourth guardian, your tone is a bit..."

Before the man called the third guardian could even finish his words, the woman cut him off as she said, her tone a bit heavy," Stop, we have company, from the aura he is radiating. It seems like our luck isn't so good this time around."

Hearing the woman's words, the third guardian looked at a particular place in the sky, his lips curling into a smile. "Seems like it's time to warm up, comrades. Can I go first?"

He was about to go meet their visitor when a thick black chain soundlessly and effortlessly bound his every fiber of body, not letting him make any movements in the slightest.

"Second guardian, what is the meaning of this?" The third guardian kept smiling as he looked at the girl with grey hair that just bound him.

"Relax old three, I'm saving your life. If I'm not mistaken, the one coming our way is Slumbering Dragon Fang; we have no way of leaving this place without starting a war, so let's just cooperate with him and explain everything."

Hearing her words, the third guardian's smile deepened even further, but he didn't dare to resist the chains and accepted his fate to be chained for the rest of this interaction,' What a pity, I wanted to try the new martial arts I just perfected.'