[Ding! Host Refuses to Repay Dragon Race Karma, Reward: One Drop of Ancestral Dragon Essence Blood!]

When Yang Chen's declaration, "I'll die for you to see right now," transformed into the purest will of destruction, spreading from the origin of his divine sense.

The entire churning Sea of Karmic Force was put on pause.

Time and space lost all meaning in this abyss of curses.

The black shockwave, condensed from the Ancestral Dragon's lifelong resentment and carrying the mournful cries of billions of dragon souls, stopped abruptly less than an inch from Yang Chen's divine sense body.

It wasn't blocked.

It was frozen.

Every strand of resentment, every remnant soul that formed the shockwave, was suspended mid-air, as if their throats were being choked by an invisible yet supreme force.

The Ancestral Dragon's vast, boundless remnant soul also froze.

Its two hollow eye sockets, ignited by ghastly green ghost fire, stared fixedly at Yang Chen. The flames no longer flickered or burned; they were simply fixed there, reflecting an unprecedented, ancient bewilderment.

He... was stunned.

A pure, fundamental stun that permeated his entire existence from its origin.

Dead?

He's going to die?

No... that's impossible.

The desire for life is the foundation of the Great Dao, an ironclad rule set since the beginning of Chaos.

This scoundrel... what nonsense is he spouting?

Is this a new divine ability? Or... has he gone mad?

Within his frame of reference, within his long memories spanning the Primordial and Ancient eras, "life" was the sole objective of all beings struggling to survive.

To live, one could resort to any means.

To live, one could grovel and beg.

To live, one could betray everything.

This was an ironclad rule etched into the True Spirits of every being in the Primordial World, the fundamental driving force that propelled the entire world.

But this junior before him...

This one who inherited Rahula's Karma, who should have been the most lowly debtor in his eyes, was actually using "death" as a weapon.

A weapon... potent enough to threaten him, the creditor!

What kind of tactic was this?

It overturned his entire understanding of struggle, of Karma, of life and death.

How long had he lived? He himself couldn't recall.

He had been the first dragon in existence, the supreme ruler of the four seas and eight directions.

He had experienced the brutal, blood-soaked era of the Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation, an age so savage it shattered heaven and earth.

He had witnessed the unfathomable depths of the Dao Ancestor and experienced the Demon Ancestor's insidious cunning.

He had vied with the Phoenix Ancestor and the First Qilin for the supreme position of the protagonists of heaven and earth, and he had battled the descendants of countless Chaos Demon Gods and the ferocious beasts of antiquity.

I, the Ancestral Dragon!

To fight for a sliver of survival, I led billions of my kin to drench the Primordial World in blood.

The Phoenix Ancestor, the First Qilin, who among them didn't fight to their last drop of blood for the continuation of their clans?

Even a devil like Rahula sought to prove his Dao and survive!

Death?

Death is failure, is the end, is nothingness!

How could... how could it be used as a weapon?!

He had seen more ambitious figures than the mountains of the Primordial World.

He had trampled more powerful beings than the flowing waters of the four seas.

But he had never seen, nor ever imagined, that there could be such a... an unpredictable being in this world!

Using his own life to threaten his enemy?

Using mutual destruction to repay Karma?

Was this a duel?

No.

This was kidnapping!

Moreover, it was the hostage who kidnapped himself, then threatened to kill himself unless the kidnapper guaranteed his well-being!

How preposterous!

How... unsolvable!

This isn't the conquest of an emperor, nor the duel of the mighty.

This is... these are the tricks of a cockroach crawling from a gutter!

Using his own life to threaten me?

How despicable!

How base!

But... damn it all... it's effective!

The Ancestral Dragon's will, that grand, overbearing will capable of making even a Quasi-Saint tremble, showed a logical break for the first time.

What does he want?

He wants revenge.

He wants this junior to suffer the endless pain of the dragon race's demise for all eternity, using his lowly True Spirit to quell the vengeful rage of countless dragon sons and grandsons.

This is his only lingering obsession.

What I want is not for him to die!

I want him alive, wailing in the endless karmic fire!

I want his True Spirit to be gnawed at day and night by the souls of our departed kin, letting him taste but one ten-thousandth of the suffering we endured!

I want him to regret, to regret inheriting this heaven-shattering Karma!

But the prerequisite for this "revenge" is that he himself, and the souls of the dragon race, still exist in this sea of Karmic Force.

If this junior truly detonates the immeasurable Karmic Force, blowing the entire Primordial World back into Chaos...

Then what meaning would his revenge hold?

This final wisp of his inextinguishable obsession, along with the residual souls of the Phoenix Ancestor and the First Qilin, would likely be utterly erased without a trace in that all-encompassing explosion.

Vanished into smoke.

Never to return.

No... even our final obsessions will be taken into oblivion with him.

My hatred, my resentment, will have nowhere to rest.

In an instant, the Ancestral Dragon's mind, frozen for countless Aeons, fell into a fierce, unprecedented dilemma.

Fight?

The opponent dies immediately, dragging the entire Primordial World down with him as an unwilling sacrifice, and everyone perishes together.

Don't fight?

He can only watch helplessly as this culprit, who inherited the deep-seated hatred of the Sea of Blood, flaunts his power right before his eyes, even... looking at him as if he were an idiot.

He felt his Divine Soul twitching.

That feeling was more stifling than being schemed against by the Heavenly Dao back then, leading to the destruction of his race and his own demise.

It was a sense of powerlessness, containing infinite strength, yet unable to move due to a single straw.

It was a sense of absurdity, of having all the reason on one's side, only to have the opponent flip the chessboard with the most shameless method.

Stifling!

How incredibly stifling!

When I died back then, my heart still held unwillingness and fighting spirit.

But today, facing this junior, a Grand Unity Golden Immortal, I... I've actually lost the qualification to even make a move?

He, the dignified Ancestral Dragon, the first overlord of heaven and earth.

He, the greatest creditor, is being completely controlled by a deadbeat who owes a mountain of debt!

That boundless rage, unable to be vented, began to backlash against himself as it couldn't be directed at Yang Chen.

Boom!

The dark karmic fire burning on his broken dragon body suddenly surged a thousand feet high, making his two hollow eye sockets glow an even more ghastly green.

His divine sense roared, but no sound came out.

Because he didn't know what to say.

Call him shameless?

He would only laugh harder.

Reason with him?

He would counter by talking about "public morality."

This was no longer a battle of techniques, but a dimensional attack.

It was a complete spiritual crushing, using a new logic he had never understood.

The next moment, the black dragon-shaped shockwave that had solidified in mid-air began to show signs of disintegration.

It is dissipating.

It wasn't that the Ancestral Dragon actively recalled it, but the "killing intent" driving it had collapsed due to the confusion in its master's mind.

Strands of pure resentment transformed back into masterless black energy, drifting apart and returning to the silent sea of Karmic Force.

A long-planned lightning strike, infused with the final resentment of the entire Dragon race, concluded in such an anticlimactic and silent manner.

How ironic.

How... frustrating!

The Ancestral Dragon's Divine Soul trembled violently in the deathly silent abyss.

He realized he was trapped in a vicious cycle.

He hated Yang Chen, so he wanted to kill him.

But he was also afraid of Yang Chen dying, so he couldn't kill him.

Not only could he not kill him, but he also had to find a way to keep him alive and well, at least ensuring he wouldn't have thoughts of "I might as well die."

This realization brought an indescribable sorrow and brutality to the Ancestral Dragon's already dead heart.

I, the dignified Ancestral Dragon, must beg a scoundrel... to live?

Absurd... utterly absurd!

This Karma, this world, had all gone topsy-turvy!

He discovered that he, the creditor, was so humble before the debtor.

Just as the Ancestral Dragon's remnant soul was plunged into a daze of frustration, unable to advance or retreat.

In Yang Chen's mind, the System's prompt sound arrived as scheduled.

The voice was cold and mechanical, yet in this deathly silent abyss of Karmic Force, it was like heavenly music.

[Ding! Detected that the host has successfully suppressed the debt-collecting intent of the Dragon race's vengeful soul, and has completely disintegrated the opponent's fighting spirit with the rogue tactic of "mutual destruction!"]

[Choice mission complete! Rewards are now being distributed!]

Yang Chen's heart rejoiced, but outwardly, he maintained the indifferent expression of someone ready to die at any moment, while internally, he continued to pressure the Ancestral Dragon.

The Karmic Force black flames on his spiritual body did not recede; instead, they burned even more fiercely, as if they would completely lose control at any moment.

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Dragon race special reward: One drop of 'Ancestral Dragon Essence Blood'!]

The moment the System's prompt sound faded.

Within a void-like System space, a drop of blood materialized out of thin air.

It was not the red of the mortal world, but a brilliant, profound, and supremely noble gilded color.

It was only the size of a fingernail, yet as it floated there, it distorted the entire System space, as if it carried not its own weight, but an entire primeval ocean, the rise and fall of an entire epoch.

Inside the blood, it was not liquid.

A visible, shrunken-by-billions-of-times golden dragon phantom was slowly swimming and coiling within. Every time it stretched its dragon body, it exuded a sense of world-creating, majestic power.

Formless dragon roars, crossing the spatial barrier, exploded directly in the depths of Yang Chen's Primordial Spirit.

Buzz--

Far away in the outside world, within that simple cave dwelling.

Yang Chen's physical body, sitting cross-legged, trembled violently without warning!

His limbs, his every inch of bone and muscle, every single particle, let out thunderous roars at this moment.

It was desire!

It was the most fundamental, extreme desire of life itself for a higher existence!

This was no ordinary dragon essence blood.

This was the Ancestral Dragon! The first dragon in the world, condensed from its life source at the peak of its life and the most powerful period of its physical body!

It contained the purest, most primitive power of the Dragon race's origin, and even bore traces of vague, yet incomparably domineering... comprehension of the Law of Strength!

The foremost of the Three Thousand Great Daos, wielded by Great God Pangu!

By obtaining it and refining it, his physical body's strength would undergo more than a simple transformation.

It would be a complete reshaping!

He might even gain a portion of the Ancestral Dragon's innate divine abilities, long lost in the Primordial World!

Yang Chen forcibly suppressed the urge to immediately return to his physical body and begin the fusion.

His divine sense merely cast a faint glance.

A glance at the Ancestral Dragon's remnant soul, still in a state of self-doubt and logical collapse, as vast as a mountain range, yet appearing somewhat pathetic at this moment.

On the level of his divine sense, the corners of his mouth curled into a silent, cold smile.

"Old man, thank you for your generosity."

"I won't repay a single cent of your debt."

"I will flay the flesh from your creditor's body, piece by piece, and draw every last drop of blood!"

"This is only the beginning!"

His divine sense, like the most acute radar, swept across the silent abyss of Karmic Force.

He could clearly sense.

Not far away, two other equally grand, equally ancient, yet distinctly different wills were observing everything.

One, blazing like an immortal divine flame, proud, sharp, with the resolve to burn through all eight directions.

Phoenix Ancestor.

The other, heavy like boundless earth, steady, firm, carrying the benevolence and majesty of bearing all things.

First Qilin.

They had seen everything that had just transpired.

They saw how the Ancestral Dragon's thunderous, enraged strike had vanished into nothingness before his casually spoken threat.

They saw how the supreme overlord who once vied with them for the protagonists of heaven and earth was now cornered by him to the point of not even daring to attack.

Very good.

This saves me the trouble of wasting more words explaining the rules of the game again.

Today, right here.

He would, in one go, squeeze out the last bit of "inheritance" from these three ancient, powerful families until there was not a single drop left!

Not a single drop!