The Wind Dragon King's Tomb

The void lay utterly silent, without a whisper of wind.

Holding Xiao Xiao, Xue Yuheng landed on a floating stone stele in front of the dragon skeleton. The Power of Creation enveloped them both.

Xue Yuheng calculated the cost. Six hundred points of the Power of Creation would let them stay here for three hundred hours. If they meditated and cultivated, they could stay even longer.

This was the complete skeleton of an ancient giant dragon.

Each azure scale was as large as a door panel. Despite the passage of countless years, they still gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen, untouched by decay.

Its head was held high, its two empty eye sockets gazing into the void as if it were still watching the enemy it had faced long ago.

The only damage on the entire skeleton was the slash running from its neck to the tip of its tail. The cold divine power lingering there felt familiar to Xue Yuheng.

The Wordless Heavenly Book trembled lightly before him and opened of its own accord. The ancient dragon script on the stele appeared across its pages, translated line by line.

Xue Yuheng swept his gaze over the inscription without the slightest surprise. The Deduction in the Wordless Heavenly Book had already revealed the identity of this place's master.

The inscription was written in the Wind Dragon King's own hand, recording the life of the ancient Dragon King.

He was a child of the Dragon God, a direct descendant who wielded the Law of Wind and the Law of Space.

After the Dragon God War, he was gravely wounded and on the brink of death. He went into hiding on Douluo Continent, hoping to cultivate in seclusion, only to be ambushed.

The culprit was the ancient Ice God, who now hid in the Far North.

Back then, the Ice God had needed a complete elemental origin to perfect his divine core and ascend to the rank of a Third-Class Deity. So he laid a trap, using the lives of a hundred Wind Dragons as bait to lure the Wind Dragon King in.

A fierce battle followed. Already gravely wounded from the war in the Divine Realm, the Wind Dragon King managed to inflict a severe injury on the Ice God, but his opponent also tore away half of his Wind Origin.

His body was slain at Dragon Suppression Cliff, then personally placed in this demiplane, where it had lain for tens of thousands of years.

The Thirty-Three Heavens Storm at Dragon Suppression Cliff was a barrier he had formed with the remnant dragon aura still within him.

He had also created it to wait for a successor who could inherit his origin and settle this old debt.

"I never expected that, after seven thousand years, the ones to pass through the Thirty-Three Heavens Storm would be a few children."

An aged, dignified voice suddenly rang out in the void.

As the words faded, a dragon's might more overwhelming than that of the strongest person Xue Yuheng had ever encountered—Snow Empress—crashed down over them.

A few specks of azure light shone from the Dragon Pearl within the skeleton. They gradually gathered into a towering phantom several zhang tall.

Xue Yuheng shielded Xiao Xiao behind him and held the Wordless Heavenly Book before them. His red Soul Ring lit up.

An ice wall formed in front of them. They stared warily at the green-haired, middle-aged man, five or six meters tall, who had suddenly appeared beside the dragon stele.

The man looked at Xue Yuheng, his gaze settling on the Wordless Heavenly Book before him before moving to Xiao Xiao, protected behind him by the Four Symbols Heaven-Suppressing Cauldron. The killing intent in his eyes suddenly faltered.

"Little girl, what kind of Martial Soul is that of yours?

"It can actually grant you the ability to comprehend laws at the level of a deity.

"How strange. If your soul weren't so pure, I'd have thought you were the illegitimate child of some deity in the Divine Realm."

Xiao Xiao felt the dragon's might, which nearly crushed her to pieces, and instinctively tightened her grip on Xue Yuheng's hand. She looked up at the middle-aged man and spoke softly:

"Senior, we mean no harm. We came here because we want to discuss a deal with you."

Xue Yuheng's expression turned strange. Wasn't that my line?

In the passage, Xue Yuheng hadn't told Xiao Xiao that this was the Wind Dragon King's tomb. He had only said it was a Dragon Tomb.

The Wind Dragon King had been at least a Second-Level God. That was far too astonishing for the continent.

"Heh. You want to make a deal with me? How interesting..." The middle-aged man studied them. "I know what you came here for.

"I have to say, you're greedy... or rather, young man, you're greedy."

Xue Yuheng smiled. "You flatter me, senior."

This brat had some nerve.

The Wind Dragon King's eye twitched. He said coolly, "I can tell that this little girl's Martial Soul has a few flaws.

"Her Martial Soul talent is very high, and this cauldron... I've seen similar ones in other worlds. Its potential is immense.

"Fortunately, I have a Wind Dragon Pearl.

"With it, I think the quality of the little girl's Martial Soul might improve even further."

Xiao Xiao considered his words, while Xue Yuheng's expression changed.

Xiao Xiao might not understand the value of a Dragon Pearl, but he knew it all too well.

The Wind Dragon King's Dragon Pearl...

They couldn't take it.

Could there really be such a windfall?

Xue Yuheng didn't believe it.

"What's the price?" Xue Yuheng asked, watching him warily.

There was no such thing as a free lunch. The Wind Dragon King couldn't possibly give them his Dragon Pearl for nothing.

"It's simple. You'll become my disciples," the Wind Dragon King replied. Though he could see how wary Xue Yuheng was, he had genuinely taken a liking to their talents.

The one the Wind Dragon King truly wanted as a disciple was Xiao Xiao. But he could also tell that without Xue Yuheng's consent, the little girl would probably put up a desperate fight to the death.

As someone who had lived for millions of years, he had no need to force a deal on them. He could consider Xue Yuheng an added bonus.

He was going to die.

This wisp of remnant soul had only a few tens of thousands of years left.

The Wind Dragon King didn't think he would be lucky enough to meet another human capable of perfectly inheriting his legacy.

At the Dragon King's level, one's race didn't matter all that much.

As the master of wind and space, the Wind Dragon King had witnessed the rise and fall of countless races while traveling through the myriad heavens.

Of all the races, he was most satisfied with humans. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used his own dragon corpse as the foundation to create the Thirty-Three Heavens Storm and this place of trial.

Compared to the Nine Trials of the Gods, the trials here were somewhat easier.

For a remnant soul like the Wind Dragon King, accomplishing even this much had been no easy feat.

Xiao Xiao looked at Xue Yuheng. Only after he nodded slightly did she turn to the old man. With resolute expressions, they said in unison, "This disciple, Xiao Xiao (Xue Yuheng), pays respect to Master."

The Wind Dragon King laughed heartily. He raised a hand and pointed. A streak of azure light flowed into the Wordless Heavenly Book, and the complete General Outline of Wind Origin appeared on its pages.

The Wind Dragon King looked at them both. "Come. I'll show you the true power of the Wind Origin."

He waved a hand, and a spatial passage slowly opened beside the dragon skeleton. Before them appeared an Inheritance Hall built from azure dragon crystal.

Countless radiant inheritance crystals floated inside the hall. Each was engraved with intricate dragon characters and radiated immense dragon might.

But as the two approached, the crystals shimmered with a faint light of rejection. Clearly, these were inheritances exclusive to dragons, and humans couldn't receive them.

Seeing this, the Wind Dragon King gathered two soft streaks of azure light behind him. They became two jade slips inscribed with wind patterns and drifted toward the pair.

"These are the dragons' innate inheritances, and they aren't meant for you. These jade slips record basic analyses of the Law of Wind Origin. Start with them."

As his voice faded, ripples suddenly spread through the space around the hall. More than a dozen mirrors wreathed in blue-gold light appeared in midair.

Each mirror reflected a completely different world.

In a desert, fierce winds swept up yellow sand, gathering into a Wind Dragon that blotted out the sky as it roared over the dunes.

Across a snowy plain, sharp winds shattered the ice. Countless ice blades danced through the storm, leaving the world a sheet of white.

In the ocean, a hurricane raised towering waves and slammed them down against the sea.

Inside a volcano, hot winds swept up molten rock, becoming scarlet firestorms that spiraled skyward...

Each mirror displayed the many forms of wind in vivid detail—sometimes violent, sometimes gentle, sometimes bitterly cold, sometimes mighty—revealing the countless changes of the Wind Origin.

The Wind Dragon King glanced at Xue Yuheng's shadow and chuckled.

A faint light shimmered in Xue Yuheng's shadow, and several slender figures slowly appeared.

"Since you came with him, you may count as my disciples in name. Cultivate here alongside them, and don't slack off," the Wind Dragon King said coolly.

The figures nodded slightly in acknowledgment, then stood beside the two of them.

"Cultivate here without worry. Time here passes at a ratio of one to a hundred compared to the outside.

"Given your Martial Souls' ability to comprehend laws, you should be able to grasp a trace of the Law of Wind Origin within a year.

"The Law of Wind in the Thirty-Three Heavens Storm outside is nothing but a superficial fragment.

"Once you comprehend even a trace of the Law of Wind Origin, your Martial Souls will possess divine wind attributes," the Wind Dragon King said solemnly.

Xue Yuheng and Xiao Xiao exchanged a glance. It seemed another arduous cultivation lay ahead.