In the Water-Fire Wonderland, everything fell still.
Li Yun stood with his hands behind his back as the golden radiance around him slowly faded.
At his feet, a little black snake lay coiled, its tail swishing ingratiatingly. It was a world apart from the colossal creature that had blotted out the sky moments ago.
He Pingtian remained frozen at the entrance. His mouth opened and closed, then closed and opened, but no sound came out.
He had lived half his life and weathered countless storms. He had thought his heart was as still as an ancient well. But what he had seen tonight shattered everything he thought he knew—
A Xiantian Martial Artist had subdued a Dragon Soul?
If he told anyone, even a three-year-old would think he was boasting.
Yet it had happened, right before his eyes.
"Get up."
Li Yun spoke calmly, as though he had subdued an ordinary snake rather than a thousand-year-old Dragon Soul.
The little black snake raised its head, a dark light flickering in its eyes. At his command, it lifted the front half of its body until it was eye to eye with him.
Li Yun studied it closely.
Now that it had shrunk, the Dragon Soul was black as ink from head to tail. Its scales were fine and intricate, each one glimmering faintly.
Its head was small, but already bore the shape of a True Dragon. Two tiny horns rose from its brow, translucent as carved Black Jade.
Most striking of all were its eyes—
Those same two points of dark light, deep and vast as though they held a starry sky.
"Do you have a name?" Li Yun asked.
The Dragon Soul paused, then shook its head. "I have no name. I was born of the Crouching Dragon Mountains and