Awakening Conditions

How far had he swum downstream?

Li Chang'an gradually noticed faint crimson and Ice Blue glimmers appearing before his eyes.

Moreover, the surroundings suddenly became extremely spacious, changing from a narrow vertical shaft into a vast, empty cavern.

He continued diving for a while before finally making out the true source of the light.

"Is that... a dragon?"

The source of the light was two dragon-shaped phantoms composed entirely of energy. They were less than a zhang long, yet their overlapping scales, crystalline dragon horns, and imposing majesty... every defining trait a dragon ought to possess was present in both of them.

The two dragon phantoms drifted slowly through the dark, sunless cavern like fish. Only where they passed was there the faintest hazy glow of red or blue...

By that light, Li Chang'an vaguely made out part of the scene at the cavern floor—an endless expanse of towering rocks, shaped like a mountain ridge layered upon ridge.

But upon closer inspection, one would realize that this was no mountain ridge at all. It was clearly the spine of some colossal beast, its surface bristling with ferocious, saw-like bone spurs!

As the two dragon phantoms continued swimming, their light illuminated the surroundings, allowing him to clearly see the overlapping scales covering the beast's entire body. Between their undulations, he could even glimpse the explosive curves of its muscles.

Li Chang'an looked closely and discovered that they were actually two enormous dragons, each over several hundred zhang long!

These two giant dragons appeared to have been dead for a long time. Their bodies were as withered and still as ancient stone statues, yet they still retained an almost suffocating aura of majesty!

"So these are two of the Dragon God's Nine Sons, the Water Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King..." Li Chang'an stared at the massive corpses below. After a moment of dazed silence, his eyes gradually grew fervent. Though the two Dragon Corpses had been dead for many years, their flesh and bones were still intact.

That meant that, barring any surprises, he could eat dragon meat today.

Li Chang'an cautiously approached the two Dragon King corpses, occasionally glancing at the two Dragon Souls wandering aimlessly in the distance, afraid that they might attack him.

After all, according to the Original Work, each of those Dragon Souls possessed Demigod-level power. They were absolutely not something he could contend with in his current state.

Fortunately, perhaps because he had eaten the Ice Fire Immortal Herb and his aura had merged with the surrounding springwater, Li Chang'an's approach to the Dragon Corpses did not attract the attention of the two Dragon Souls.

He landed lightly atop the scales.

He discovered that even after all these years, the scales beneath his bare feet remained incomparably hard. If these scales could be used to forge a set of armor... perhaps it would turn out surprisingly well.

Li Chang'an circulated his Soul Power to stabilize himself in the water, his bare feet firmly adhering to the scales. Then he bent down to examine them and found that a single scale alone was over a meter wide in diameter. Who knew how many scales covered the bodies of these two dragons?

Such massive scales clearly could not be forged into armor that people could wear using this world's primitive smithing methods. They were simply too large.

To make use of these scales, he would likely need the methods Cultivation World cultivators used to refine Magic Artifacts in order to turn such excellent materials into usable equipment.

But Li Chang'an did not possess that ability. In the end, he could only shake his head helplessly and abandon that impractical idea.

Next, he grabbed hold of a scale with one hand, planted his bare feet against the surrounding scales, drew strength from the ground, and pulled hard!

Though the corpse had not decayed, it had still endured the passage of time, leaving its scales especially loose. With one savage tug, he tore off a scale.

Smooth, pale skin was revealed underneath.

Li Chang'an casually tossed the scale aside, then summoned his Azure Scale Sword and began cutting into the flesh.

But he quickly discovered that even with the sharpness of the sword in his hand, cutting through the Dragon Corpse's flesh was extraordinarily difficult. The physical strength of such an ancient Divine Beast was simply monstrous!

Left with no choice, he could only light up his Soul Rings and successively use his soul skills to enhance the sword's sharpness. Only then did he barely manage to cut through the skin. After spending quite some time, he painstakingly carved out a chunk of dragon meat.

No blood flowed from the Dragon Corpse. The flesh he dug out had a gemstone-like translucence, and Li Chang'an doubted whether his teeth could grind it apart. He did not want to chip all his teeth later.

Carefully, he sliced off a thin shred of meat.

He placed it in his mouth and ate it raw.

He found that the dragon meat had no fishy taste, but it was dry and tough, somewhat like chewing rawhide.

After silently chewing for a moment, Li Chang'an spat, ejecting the shred of dragon meat from his mouth. He then threw away the remaining large chunk in his hand and cursed inwardly, Damn it! This dragon meat doesn't contain any energy at all!

He understood now. Although the two Dragon Corpses had not decayed, after hundreds of thousands of years—and after being immersed in the springwater day after day—the energy contained within their bodies had long since dissolved into the water and scattered into the surrounding natural environment.

The principle was like soaking a snake in liquor. The essence would dissolve into the alcohol, leaving behind nothing but a shriveled, useless husk.

He should have realized it earlier. How enormous an amount of energy was needed to create a treasured place like the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well? How could the energy within these two Dragon Corpses possibly have remained untouched?

"What am I supposed to do now?"

Li Chang'an scratched his head. Obtaining energy by eating dragon meat was no longer possible. Where else could he find high-quality energy now?

"Forget it. I'll look around and see if any Inner Cores remain." Clinging to a sliver of hope, he began searching around the two Dragon Corpses.

As for the Water and Fire Dragon Kings' Soul Bones... they were two great Dragon Kings, Divine Beasts! How could they possibly possess something like Soul Bones?

In ancient times, Soul Beasts did not have things like Soul Bones. They did not even produce Soul Rings after death.

The so-called Soul Rings and Soul Bones of today were merely products of the God Realm's distortion of the rules of the Douluo Continent.

After searching for a while, Li Chang'an did not find even the slightest trace of an Inner Core. He suspected that the Inner Cores might be inside the corpses of the two Dragon Kings, but with bodies so immense and tough, how long would he have to dig?

Besides, even if there truly were Inner Cores, would they not have dissolved along with the corpses? Or perhaps only empty shells remained?

"Ah, forget it."

Li Chang'an shook his head and ultimately gave up on the idea of searching for the Dragon Kings' Inner Cores.

Just as he was about to swim upstream and leave this bottomless cavern, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of the two dragon phantoms wandering aimlessly in the distance. His gaze instantly sharpened as a bold idea arose in his heart.

Dragon Souls... could they be eaten?

"Should I take a gamble?"

"If I let this chance pass, I might never get another."

Li Chang'an stood there, looking somewhat hesitant. After his bloodline had been initially stimulated, even though it had not fully awakened, he could already sense the enormous changes within himself. It was hard to imagine what kind of divine abilities he would possess if it truly awakened completely...