Playing Dead

"Ah? Chen Ge, you actually have Twin Martial Souls?"

Tang Wulin stared with his mouth wide open in disbelief. Once the shock passed, he was delighted for his good friend.

There was no jealousy. He did not grow envious just because a gap had opened between him and his friend.

Facing Tang Wulin's fixed gaze, Gu Chen still decided to tell a well-intentioned lie. "I didn't actually have this Martial Soul at first. After joining the Butian Sect, I used one of its secret methods to manifest my bloodline as a Martial Soul. Maybe you can try it too."

"Really?" Tang Wulin was briefly dazed by Gu Chen's words.

"Gu Yue, you don't seem surprised at all."

"No, I was too surprised to say anything. You actually have the Purple Desolation Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon, known as the Ancestor of Sub-Dragons, as your Martial Soul!" Gu Yue tried hard to widen her eyes, making her expression look as astonished and incredulous as possible.

Her control over her emotions and management of her facial expressions had reached perfection. Tang Wulin, seated beside her, could not see the slightest trace of pretense or falsehood.

However, if Gu Chen had not known her true circumstances so well, even he might have been fooled by her convincing performance.

"Hmph, keep playing dead, then!" Gu Chen shot her a meaningful sidelong glance. Though it seemed casual, that gaze appeared to pierce straight through her heart, making Gu Yue instantly feel as though thorns were pressed against her back and needles beneath her seat.

Gu Yue groaned inwardly, yet she still maintained a calm exterior. She merely clenched her fists slightly to hide her nervousness.

At that moment, countless thoughts ran through the Silver Dragon King's mind. Did he really notice something? Impossible! That shouldn't be possible!

I clearly hid it well. I don't resemble her in the slightest. How could he possibly have noticed?

Maybe... he was just saying it casually and didn't mean anything special. Yes, that must be it! I'm definitely overthinking this!

Gu Chen did not press the matter further. He looked at Tang Wulin. "As the saying goes, thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—never mock a poor young man. Your cultivation speed may be slow now, but if you can awaken the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, combined with that unknown bloodline in your body, your future achievements definitely won't stop at Title Douluo."

After that bowl of encouragement, Tang Wulin's eyes lit up.

"It's getting late. Let's split up for now."

"Good night, Chen Ge."

"Bye-bye."

Only after the two gradually walked away and vanished from sight did Gu Chen slowly withdraw his gaze.

He took a deep breath, then mobilized the abundant Soul Power within him and carefully released it, spreading it evenly throughout the room.

That way, no matter what he did or what sounds he made inside, nothing would carry outside, ensuring the privacy and safety of this space.

Gu Chen's hands continuously changed through seals while he muttered obscure, incomprehensible incantations.

As his movements grew faster and faster, a mysterious layer of Chaos Qi gradually emerged within his eyes.

The Chaos Qi drifted like mist, seemingly drawn by some force as it slowly condensed into a clearly visible yin-yang diagram.

The diagram emitted a faint yet profoundly mysterious glow, reflecting deep within Gu Chen's pupils and making him seem increasingly unfathomable.

Had anyone happened to be present at that moment, they would surely have been struck dumb by the sight before them.

For this seemingly ordinary room concealed a shocking secret—there were no elaborate furnishings or decorations inside, only an incomparably luxurious bed.

Yet two people were sitting on that bed! What was even more unbelievable was that not only did the two have different hair colors, their faces and features were identical. Even their expressions and mannerisms were exactly the same, as though they were copies of one another. The eerie scene was enough to make one's scalp tingle.

One of them possessed long, glossy black hair cascading over his shoulders like a waterfall. His pupils were a unique violet-gold, and whenever he blinked, his eyes gleamed like dazzling stars, as though they contained endless mysteries and profound wisdom.

The other was the complete opposite. His head was covered in snow-white hair, every strand shining with a silvery sheen.

Correspondingly, his pupils were a brilliant gold, like the blazing sun hanging high in the sky. They radiated incomparable majesty and solemnity, making others fear to meet his gaze.

The technique Gu Chen had used was called the Yin-Yang Dharma Body, an exceptionally profound clone-forming method within the Butian Technique.

Legend had it that this technique drew inspiration from the Kunpeng Method, one of the Ten Ancient Fiends. By skillfully manipulating the relationship and transformations between the primary and secondary bodies, it produced such miraculous and lifelike clones.

Through this unique Supernatural Ability, he had successfully created two Dharma Bodies with equal strength but completely different personalities.

Though both Dharma Bodies originated from him in essence, they could not simply be considered him.

Among them, the Yin Body Dharma Body was deep and reserved.

It was no exaggeration to say that all the killing intent and negative emotions contained within the main body—the Yin Yang Body—had been condensed into this Yin Body.

By ordinary reasoning, such intense and concentrated negative emotions would have been enough to drive any normal person mad or even cause them to collapse.

Yet, astonishingly, the Yin Body had not fallen into madness. Instead, it displayed an extraordinary calmness and an extremely restrained disposition.

It was like a fierce tiger that had sheathed its claws and fangs, quietly lying beneath a tree. On the surface, it looked simple and honest, making it difficult for anyone to detect the lethal killing intent hidden within.

At the same time, the Yang Body Dharma Body stood in stark contrast to it.

The Yang Body radiated a warmth and brightness like sunlight. Its personality was cheerful and open-minded, brimming with vitality and passion.

It was worth noting that when necessary, the Yin Body and Yang Body could merge into one, perfectly fusing together like true yin and yang intertwining in symbiosis.

Once the two became one, the power they unleashed would be far more than a simple one plus one equals two. It would produce a might that vastly surpassed their current state.

As for exactly how powerful it could become, even Gu Chen had never personally tested it.

If the two Dharma Bodies improved in sync, their strength after merging would only become more outrageous. However, with his current cultivation, he could not exceed Soul Emperor at most.

His plan could officially begin.

Bringing Xie Xie and Tang Wulin into the Butian Sect was merely something he could do along the way.

Gu Yuena intended to climb into the upper ranks of the Spirit Pagoda in order to replace humanity as the ruler of the world, enslave humanity, and avenge the blood feud of the Soul Beasts. He had a similar, yet completely different, plan of his own.

However, his plan was still premature. Several necessary conditions had not been fulfilled, and some things had yet to arrive, so he could only set it aside for now and improve his strength as much as possible.

The Yin-Yang Dharma Body did not have any major drawbacks.

If he had to name one, it was that if either the Yin Body or Yang Body was injured, the other would also be affected to a certain extent and would require a long period of recovery to heal.

If both the Yin and Yang Bodies were injured, the impact during their merger would likely be even greater. At best, their injuries would worsen and require a long recovery. At worst, their foundation would become unstable and their cultivation would fall.

An unstable foundation?

That brought up a certain thing. (Blood Skull Gu: Don't be sad if your aptitude is poor. Think more about your relatives.)

Gu Chen silently stared at the white-haired youth before him. For a moment, he did not know how to speak, and the entire room fell silent.

The youth's face was identical to his own, as though they had been carved from the same mold, making the resemblance impossible to ignore.

Yet what Gu Chen felt more than anything at that moment was conflict and frustration.

According to his original plan, he had intended to place the more cheerful and lively Yang Body beside Tang Wulin, the protagonist, so that he could gradually deepen his relationship with Gu Yue.

Meanwhile, his Yin Body would quietly return to the Butian Sect to carry out its tasks.

But now, the Yang Body gave him a bit of trouble.

Not only had the youth's hair color changed, even his eye color had become distinctly different.

Such a drastic transformation would be difficult to explain convincingly, even if he used a second awakening of the Martial Soul as an excuse.

But it was not something he could leave unexplained. If anything seemed off, Wu Changkong would spot it at a glance.

After all, even someone like Tang San, after awakening the Blue Silver Emperor Martial Soul, had only changed in temperament and appearance. His inner character remained unchanged.

The Yang Body's situation was clearly far more complicated than that.

Faced with such a thorny situation, Gu Chen could not think of any good solution. Still, he could not be bothered to worry about it and decided to dye the hair back.

As for the eye color, there was nothing he could do. If that really caused some trouble—

When the Yin and Yang Bodies merged, he would be the one getting hurt, so he would not mess around.

What he did not know was that the instant he split off the Yin-Yang Dharma Bodies, their initial appearances had already been set. No matter how they changed in the future, it would not affect either of them.

Trying to change the hair color would only be pointless, wasting a little dye.