The Silver Dragon King

"Mother!"

Qian Lingye bounded inside. "I'm back! Is there any food? I'm hungry. I want to eat."

Bibi Dong's tightly furrowed brow relaxed. She gave a servant a look, signaling for the food to be brought in.

Watching Qian Lingye wolf down his food, Bibi Dong smiled. "You run around outside all day. Do you still remember you have a mother?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she instinctively swept her spiritual sense over Qian Lingye's Soul Power cultivation. The next instant, she froze, disbelief filling her eyes.

"Ye'er... y-you're level twenty?!"

After only a single day apart, her son, who had only reached level ten yesterday, had broken straight through to become a Soul Grandmaster?

Qian Lingye lifted his little face, full of pride, and raised a hand to show her his Soul Ring. "Yes, Mother! I didn't just level up—I have a Soul Ring too. Look!"

A pitch-black, lustrous Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath his feet. Its color was deep and restrained, and though it looked unusual, not a trace of its dark, eerie aura leaked out. He had concealed it perfectly.

To an outsider, it was simply a black Soul Ring of exceptionally extraordinary quality.

"A b-black Soul Ring? A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring?!"

Bibi Dong could no longer remain seated. She shot to her feet, her pupils contracting as she stared in utter shock.

A Soul Grandmaster who had only just reached level twenty had a Ten-Thousand-Year First Soul Ring!

In all of Douluo's history, from ancient times to the present, such a thing had never been heard of!

"Ye'er, what on earth happened? Who hunted a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring for you? How could you possibly withstand it?" Bibi Dong pressed urgently.

Qian Lingye blinked and spoke frankly, neither concocting a lie full of holes nor deliberately hiding anything. "I don't know either. When I woke up, my Soul Power had risen on its own, and I suddenly had a Soul Ring too."

It was the clumsiest answer, yet also the most airtight.

To a top expert like Bibi Dong, who had lived half a lifetime and seen much of the world, a deliberately fabricated lie would only be full of holes. A claim that he had somehow undergone a transformation on his own was the best fit for the absurd reality of this miraculous windfall.

"It just appeared..."

Bibi Dong repeated the words under her breath, the shock lingering in her heart.

In all her years, she had seen geniuses, fortuitous encounters, and mutations of the physique, but never anything as strange as Soul Power soaring on its own and a Soul Ring appearing out of thin air.

Let alone a Ten-Thousand-Year First Soul Ring, which defied every principle of cultivation in the world.

Leaving aside the fact that he was too young to hunt a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, even if someone had forcibly given him the ring, its violent power would have burst his body apart long ago.

As her mind reeled, Qian Lingye smiled up at her again and added something even more astonishing. "And Mother, this one Soul Ring of mine came with three Soul Skills."

"Th-three Soul Skills?!"

At that moment, Bibi Dong was completely dumbfounded.

She had led Spirit Hall for many years and seen Soul Masters from across the world. An ordinary Soul Beast's Soul Ring could have at most two Soul Skills, and even that was exceedingly rare.

A single Soul Ring bearing three Soul Skills went entirely beyond the norm.

"Y-you're not joking?"

"You still don't believe me?"

Eager to show her, Qian Lingye raised his hand and demonstrated on the spot.

With Hell Stab, his figure flashed, an afterimage streaking through the air. Netherworld Hundred Claws sent claw shadows flying across the sky, slicing fiercely through the wind. Finally, he unleashed Netherworld Slash, its pitch-black blade of Soul Power cold and domineering.

The three Soul Skills flowed smoothly into one another, each executed with a fierce rush of wind, clean and precise.

Bibi Dong stared blankly, utterly dumbstruck. Her mind was a complete blank, and she could not understand what kind of transformation her son had undergone.

Only after a while did she come back to herself.

Qian Lingye seized the moment to offer the most plausible explanation. "I think it must be because the foundation from those heavenly treasures you and Sister found for me is still there. These past few days, I haven't needed to cultivate deliberately at all. My Soul Power has been rising on its own every moment."

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Bibi Dong concentrated as she took his wrist and carefully examined his meridians, origin, and physique. After checking several times, she found not the slightest abnormality, nor any hidden danger.

Every change was a purely beneficial transformation.

After a long while, she could only sigh softly and accept this heaven-defying fact.

"Good, good. My son is blessed with great fortune."

She gently stroked Qian Lingye's head, her eyes full of relief and doting affection, and solemnly warned him again and again, "You must never tell anyone about this. Your level-twenty cultivation, your Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, your three Soul Skills-hide all of them. No one but me may know, understand?"

It was too shocking to the world. If word got out, it would surely draw covetous eyes from everywhere.

"I know, Mother!"

Qian Lingye nodded obediently, then dashed out of the hall, carefree and unrestrained.

Bibi Dong stood where she was, watching the boy's light-footed figure depart, her eyes full of tender attachment and gratitude.

How wonderful.

The pain she had endured, the suffering she had borne, and the darkness she had lived through all those years had finally been repaid by heaven's compensation to her child.

Every unbelievable good thing that happened to her son was only right.

Heaven blessed her son.

But one thing had always puzzled her: Qian Lingye's Martial Soul.

Even now, she had yet to figure out what type of Martial Soul it was. It looked like a mass of black mist, and she could not discern its attributes.

Perhaps it was a Mutated Martial Soul.

There was no shortage of Mutated Martial Souls on the continent; all sorts of bizarre Martial Souls existed.

But Mutated Martial Souls shared one trait: they generally mutated for the worse, like Yu Xiaogang's fart cannon. Far, far too few mutated for the better.

But he felt that Qian Lingye's Martial Soul had probably mutated for the better, and could even form Soul Rings on its own.

Bibi Dong thought that once she had finished the matters at hand, she would have to take a good look into Qian Lingye's situation.

Heaven Dou Imperial City, a side hall of the imperial bedchamber.

The survivors of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the entire Shrek group were recuperating from their injuries here.

The destruction of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Xuanyuan's fall, the revelation of heaven's secrets about the apocalypse, and the sudden emergence of an unknown Dark Sovereign... this string of earth-shaking events had long since spread across the entire continent.

Now panic gripped all of Douluo. Commoners, sects, and nobles alike feared for their lives, and the dread of a world-ending calamity hung over everyone's hearts.

The atmosphere in the room was oppressive in the extreme.

Tang San's brows were tightly knitted as he spoke in a low voice, his tone full of concern. "The vision revealed by heaven's secrets was no lie. That future shrouded in darkness, with ten thousand beasts running rampant and the land laid waste, was too real. The continent's balance has been thrown into complete chaos. No one knows when the next disaster will strike."

Ma Hongjun, Oscar, and the others also wore grave expressions, their hearts full of uncertainty and unease.

Seeing his disciples' low spirits, Flender forced down his own worries and spoke solemnly to bolster their confidence. "Don't hang your heads! Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing's soul jade tokens are still bright; their light hasn't gone out. That means their lives are definitely in no danger. We've only lost contact with them for now. Sooner or later, they'll return safely!"

Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back and spoke slowly. "The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has fallen, the apocalypse revealed by heaven's secrets has appeared, and an unknown dark expert is pulling the strings from behind the scenes... From this day forward, Douluo's old order has completely collapsed. An age of turmoil is upon us. There's no need for us to cling to that little Shrek Academy and remain content in our corner."

Flender nodded decisively and made up his mind. "Right! In an age of turmoil, staying where we are is just waiting for death. I have an old friend in Heaven Dou Imperial City with considerable resources. We'll stay in Heaven Dou, seek him out, put down roots in the imperial city, and wait for our chance!"

His gaze suddenly hardened. "And before long, the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament will begin. In this year of great upheaval, that tournament is our only chance for Shrek to turn things around, rise, and establish a foothold in this troubled age!"

At his words, a faint glimmer finally appeared in everyone's eyes.

An age of turmoil brought danger, but opportunity as well.

The Star Dou Great Forest, the core forbidden grounds, a silent abyss sealed in ice for ten thousand years.

Chill winds rustled through the forest, the beasts lay dormant, and the atmosphere was solemn and still.

Di Tian stood alone outside the forbidden grounds, his posture respectful and his expression solemn, all his usual pride and sharpness gone.

Having just returned from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, he was already filled with grave concern.

The dark hand that had pressed down upon heaven and earth from afar, the two terrifying exotic beasts that had bowed before it, and that apocalyptic future of overturned mountains and rivers and the extinction of all life echoed constantly in his mind.

A Dark Sovereign capable of destroying the entire plane had quietly appeared.

If left unchecked, not only would humanity be destroyed, but the entire Soul Beast Clan would ultimately be wiped out as well.

Di Tian lowered his head and bowed, respectfully transmitting his report toward the deepest reaches of the dark, silent forbidden grounds.

"My lord."

"A dark power has descended upon the continent, and an unknown sovereign has appeared. The sovereign can control beasts from afar, crush Titled Douluo, and affect the destiny of heaven and earth. A human prophet burned his divine soul to reveal a vision of the world's destruction at the apocalypse. Humanity's momentum has already collapsed."

"Also, I observed the heavens last night. The nine stars have aligned as one. I'm afraid it won't be long before the thing you have been waiting for appears, my lord."

Deep within the forbidden grounds, silence reigned for a long time.

After an unknown length of time, a cool, ethereal woman's voice slowly drifted out from the depths of the endless darkness, as though it had pierced through the ages.

"I shall emerge from seclusion at once."

There was only a voice, no figure to be seen. Ethereal and mysterious, her true form was beyond anyone's sight.

The last echoes slowly faded.

The spiritual Qi throughout the Star Dou Great Forest suddenly began to surge in a frenzy.

The Silver Dragon King, silent for tens of thousands of years, was about to appear!