Long Jiuyyao stretched, changed back into his black brocade robe, and gazed at the peak of the distant gorge.
After only a minute, he looked away. His foot slammed into the ground, crushing it like tofu and leaving a deep crater, and Long Jiuyyao shot away from Fierce Hurricane Gorge like an arrow loosed from its string.
Long Jiuyyao hadn't used a trace of Yuan Power. He had relied entirely on the strength of his physical body.
After a year and three months, Long Jiuyyao had finally completed his body tempering and emerged from seclusion.
As soon as Long Jiuyyao left the gorge, the abundant Heaven and Earth Yuan Power surged into his Yin Yang Origin Core, filling him with warmth.
Long Jiuyyao's Black Dragon Wings gave a light beat as he flew over the vast, boundless land.
Before long, he had returned to his Courtyard. The moment he landed, two figures, one gold and one purple, appeared beside him.
"Haha, Jin Ming, stop fooling around!"
Zi Lin circled Long Jiuyyao, while Jin Ming licked his cheek, making him laugh again and again.
Jin Ming and Zi Lin were both different from how they had been a year ago. They had each grown considerably, but Jin Ming had changed the most. His strength now matched Long Jiuyyao's; he was also in the Lesser Origin Core Realm.
Zi Lin had advanced to the Form Creation Realm. In terms of strength, however, even an ordinary Qi Creation Realm cultivator was no match for him. The killing power of his golden fangs was enough to give even Creation Realm experts a headache.
After landing, Zi Lin tugged at Long Jiuyyao's clothes, signaling for him to follow.
"Jin Ming, come along." Long Jiuyyao swung himself onto Jin Ming's back.
The man and his two beasts moved swiftly, soon arriving at a cave.
The entrance was enormous. The ground stretched a hundred zhang in every direction, and it was unlike anywhere else: the soil was pale purple, while the surrounding trees were entirely black, their leaves tinged with a faint purple hue.
Long Jiuyyao walked over to a giant tree, clenched his fist, and punched it.
"Bang!"
Instead, Long Jiuyyao was sent flying several meters back. When his fist struck, it had felt as though he'd hit a block of Mysterious Iron.
Long Jiuyyao stepped closer and saw that the spot he had struck hadn't changed at all. It felt as smooth as a mirror to the touch, without any of the roughness one would expect from a tree.
The corner of Long Jiuyyao's mouth lifted. He suddenly drove his right leg up and brought it down in a powerful kick. The result was the same: the ground showed no sign of the deep crater there should have been. Its toughness was just as astonishing.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk!" Long Jiuyyao stared at the ground in amazement.
That punch and kick had been powerful enough to shatter refined gold, yet they hadn't left the slightest mark here.
"I never expected a place this strange to be so close to my Courtyard," Long Jiuyyao murmured.
Long Jiuyyao didn't linger outside the cave. He led Jin Ming and Zi Lin inside. The cave was as dark as night, without a glimmer of light; he could see no farther than a zhang ahead.
Long Jiuyyao took a head-sized Luminous Pearl out of his Universe Bag. Its brilliant light drove back the surrounding darkness.
Jagged rocks crowded the cave entrance, and no one could tell how deep it went. The man and his two beasts kept walking. As they went farther in, the places they had passed fell back into darkness once the Luminous Pearl's light was no longer upon them.
"Damn it, we've been walking forever. When does this thing end?" Long Jiuyyao couldn't help cursing.
The Dragon Domain stretched for a hundred thousand li. Though it was the Dragon Clan's home, it contained no shortage of dangerous places. With a cave this bizarre, the prolonged darkness naturally made Long Jiuyyao uneasy.
As if sensing his unease, a faint glimmer of dark purple appeared in the distant cave, like a beacon in the night.
The man and his two beasts quickened their pace, gradually approaching the light. When they reached it, they discovered a small vein of ore scattered with crystals that looked like Amethyst Crystal.
Purple crystals glittered all over the rock walls. Long Jiuyyao swept his sleeve, and a gust of wind surged forth, stripping away the layer of soil.
As the soil fell away, a layer of purple light suddenly came into view. It came from a dark purple stratum of rock, somewhat translucent. Looking inside, he could just make out dark purple crystals embedded deep within it, sparkling like gemstones.
"What is this?" Long Jiuyyao wondered.
Long Jiuyyao broke off a purple crystal about the size of his little finger and examined it closely. It felt cool in his hand and contained abundant Heaven and Earth Yuan Power.
"Zi Lin!" Long Jiuyyao called.
He let go of the crystal, and Zi Lin's golden fangs instantly crunched it to pieces. The shattered crystal released a faint purple mist, which seeped into the bodies of Long Jiuyyao, Jin Ming, and Zi Lin without them noticing.
The invisible purple mist flashed across their pupils. A drop of black Blood Essence emerged from between Long Jiuyyao's brows and vanished.
As soon as the drop of Blood Essence disappeared, the three of them returned to their senses. Long Jiuyyao looked a little pale. He clenched his fist and found his body utterly weak, without a shred of strength.
"What's going on? Why am I so weak?" Long Jiuyyao muttered feebly.
"Crack, crack, crack!" The sound of rocks falling rang out. The darkness in the distance gradually brightened, and as the light drove away the shadows, the cave finally revealed its true appearance.
Countless purple crystals covered the entire passage, which stretched a hundred zhang across.
Weak and leaning against Jin Ming, Long Jiuyyao looked at the transformed interior of the cave. The Amethyst Ore vein beneath the ground had also been revealed by the change, and countless crystals embedded in it bore various patterns.
Instead of leaving, Long Jiuyyao rode Jin Ming farther along the vein. His lost strength was gradually returning, and his complexion was no longer as pale as before; a faint flush had come to his cheeks.
The farther they went, the denser and more visible the purple mist became. As they pressed on, Long Jiuyyao and the others inevitably breathed in some of it. It did them no harm; instead, it quietly restored their stamina and the Yuan Power they had lost.
That made Long Jiuyyao realize that the purple mist released by the crystals hadn't been the reason for his earlier weakness.
He had no idea that he had become weak because he had lost a drop of Blood Essence. At the time, he hadn't been conscious at all, as if he'd fainted.
Though Long Jiuyyao didn't know what else the crystals produced by the vein could be used for, he knew one thing: they could improve one's Yuan Power cultivation and replenish lost Yuan Power.
Long Jiuyyao reached the end of the vein, where an enormous purple crystal several meters across stood out. He spotted it at a glance.
With Long Jiuyyao's keen eyesight, he could make out an unknown object three meters tall inside the purple crystal.
Long Jiuyyao touched the Amethyst Crystal, but a powerful wave of Yuan Power sent him flying dozens of zhang away.
Staring in astonishment at the Amethyst Crystal ahead, Long Jiuyyao wondered what was inside. He also noticed that all the energy in the vein was flowing into that enormous crystal.
Long Jiuyyao couldn't make out exactly what the thing inside was. He only knew the general shape: it was a person—or, more precisely, a human-shaped Talisman Puppet.
After looking it over for a while, Long Jiuyyao left. Since this was a place where some powerful figure had crafted and nurtured a Talisman Puppet, he had no need to linger.
As he turned away, a streak of black light flashed across the silent eyes of the towering Talisman Puppet as it watched him go. Long Jiuyyao didn't notice.
He retraced his steps. Of course, he wasn't about to leave empty-handed; he took three head-sized chunks of Amethyst Ore.
After Long Jiuyyao left, everything inside the cave returned to how it had been at first. The light vanished, and darkness reclaimed the place.
Long Jiuyyao went to the mountaintop where he often spent time, because he could see most of the Dragon Domain from there.
But he hadn't forgotten the inheritance Six-Fingered Sacred Dragon Emperor had given him. The first art could only be comprehended once he reached the Origin Core Realm.
He sat cross-legged and calmed his mind. A sentence appeared in Long Jiuyyao's mind.
Condense the Natal Dragon Soul; all under Heaven lies within a single thought.
As Long Jiuyyao sat cross-legged, a soul-stirring dragon eye opened behind him. Then the dragon's body gradually took shape, and Heaven and Earth Yuan Power poured ceaselessly into the indistinct Dragon Soul.
Long Jiuyyao used his spiritual power to stabilize the Dragon Soul's body. Condensing a Natal Dragon Soul was also a way of tempering his spiritual power through a different method.
The dragon's body solidified, and black scales appeared across it, as though armor had been fitted over its frame.
As the Dragon Soul took shape, a fierce, murderous aura surged outward. Condensing a Natal Dragon Soul consumed an enormous amount of Heaven and Earth Yuan Power, and few places beyond the Dragon Domain could meet its requirements.
As time passed, the condensation of the Natal Dragon Soul reached its final stage. Heaven and Earth Yuan Power intertwined with spiritual power, and a pair of Black Dragon Wings gradually appeared.
Long Jiuyяo used his Natal Celestial Talisman as the foundation to stabilize the newly formed Dragon Soul.
"Roar!" The Natal Dragon Soul lifted its head and cried out to the sky, as joyful as a newborn child.
The Natal Dragon Soul seemed to have a life of its own and showed affection for Long Jiuyяo. When he stroked it, it felt like he was touching a living creature.
Long Jiuyяo's gaze went blank, and he lost all awareness of the world around him. His consciousness had arrived at the Dragon Clan Forbidden Ground, Bone Burial Hall.
"Jiuyяo, you've condensed your own Natal Dragon Soul. I'll now tell you about its power." Six-Fingered Sacred Dragon Emperor lightly tapped Long Jiuyяo between the brows.
Long Jiuyяo returned to his senses, and information about the Natal Dragon Soul appeared in his mind.
A Natal Dragon Soul is like life, like a soul.
It can devour all things under Heaven and return their essence to its host.
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