The Silver Dragon King's Core
So it remained silent for ten thousand years, like a corner completely forgotten by the world.
Until this day--
"Boom!!!"
A deafening explosion!
The rusty door was forcibly blasted open from the outside in by an irresistible force!
Rust crumbled into a shower of reddish-brown dust, and the iron chain broke into several pieces, clanging and clattering against the stone wall before bouncing to the ground. The entire door frame twisted and deformed, bending inward into a grotesque arc, like a wound bitten through by some monster.
The light pierced through.
Fragments of light pierced through the distorted doorway, like countless golden knives cutting into the deep dungeon passageways, landing on the dusty steps and the dilapidated old cells.
A tall, slender figure stepped into the doorway.
blond.
Golden eyes.
Qian Xunji.
He walked very slowly.
He was as leisurely as if he were taking a stroll after dinner, casually dropping by the home of an acquaintance he hadn't seen in years.
Footsteps echoed in the empty passageway, each step clearly audible, tap, tap, tap, like some kind of countdown.
He passed the first cell. The iron bars were rusted through, and inside there was only a pile of scattered human bones, with skulls lying askew in the corner and empty eye sockets facing the door.
He passed the second cell. The prisoners inside had died even earlier, leaving only half a spine and ashes on the ground.
The third room, the fourth room, the fifth room...
Qian Xunji didn't even glance at it.
His gaze remained fixed at the end of the corridor—the deepest cell.
It's completely different from other places.
When the surrounding stone walls have been eroded and crumbled by thousands of years, and when the ordinary iron bars have long since rotted into fragments, the deepest cell still stands silently in the darkness, like a lurking Ferocious Beast.
It is cast from a single piece of rare metal.
It was an alloy of extraterrestrial meteorite iron and deep-sea silver, with an astonishing density and unparalleled hardness on the continent. Even after tens of thousands of years, the surface only had a very faint layer of oxidation traces.
But what truly sets it apart are the countless Soul Guidance Array inscribed on the metal surface.
This was the work of the first Soul Engineer trained by Qian Xunji.
Qian Xunji narrowed his eyes slightly, took a few steps closer, and looked at the patterns on the magic array.
Every line was carved extremely deeply, filled with solidified Soul Power crystals, spreading throughout the entire cell like blood vessels.
At the energy core, a high-quality Soul Core still emits a faint pulse—the power source that has kept the entire magic array running for millennia.
·······································
When the news of the Spirit Hall capturing the Silver Dragon King spread, the entire Soul Engineer world went crazy.
That's the Silver Dragon King!
It is said to be the other half of the Dragon God, the ultimate being of destruction and creation!
They were both excited and terrified.
They were excited about the opportunity to participate in sealing the legendary creature, but terrified that if she escaped retribution, humanity would face annihilation.
Thus, those first-generation Soul Engineer staked almost all their life's skills on this prison cell.
One designed the structure, the other reinforced it with materials; one set up a blocking array, the other added a countermeasure; one worried that she would use brute force to overcome skill, so the other added three layers of buffer; one feared her mental erosion, so the other was engraved with divine runes to isolate divine thoughts.
They argued, quarreled, and even nearly came to blows, but ultimately, they all reached a consensus on the same goal—
We absolutely must not let her out.
This cell was selected through rigorous screening by nine generations of relatives.
Each magic array corresponds to the future of a Soul Engineer's family; each layer of reinforcement involves the lives of the entire family. They dare not gamble, nor can they afford to gamble.
Qian Xunji reached out, his fingertips brushing over the intricate patterns, feeling the faint yet resilient energy pulses within.
"The Nine Clans' rigorous selection..." Qian Xunji murmured to himself, a cryptic smile playing on his lips.
He chuckled and withdrew his hand.
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Qian Xunji was not one to lament the past.
His gaze pierced through the intricate magic arrays and landed on a huddled figure deep within the cell, almost blending into the darkness.
Silver hair.
Dirty, tangled, and trailing silver hair.
Pale to the point of being transparent, so thin that you could almost see the outline of bones, he huddled motionless in the corner, like a corpse that had long since died but refused to decompose.
She didn't look up.
No response.
Even— Qian Xunji carefully sensed—there was no change in his breathing.
Light streamed in, the door opened, someone came in, and she curled up there, muttering something to herself, completely absorbed in her own world.
"... It's all fake... it's all fake..."
"... No one is coming... No one will come..."
"... I've been forgotten... left here..."
Qian Xunji stood in front of the cell selected by the Nine Clans, looking at the crazed Silver Dragon King inside, but did not open the door immediately.
He stood there, listening quietly to the broken murmurs, watching the figure that once represented half the power of the Dragon God and was enough to make the entire continent tremble, now shrunken into a small ball, repeatedly chewing on its forgotten fate in a corner.
Light streamed in from behind, casting his long shadow on the metal wall of the cell.
His face was half-hidden in the shadows, making his expression impossible to discern.
for a long time.
He reached out and placed his hand on the prison door that hadn't been opened for millennia.
The magic circle flickered slightly, as if hesitantly trying to discern the presence of the newcomer.
"Click."
The lock is open.
Chapter 363 The Silver Dragon King Core
The prolonged isolation had completely shattered Gu Yuena's sanity.
Ten thousand years. Perhaps twenty thousand years. She could no longer tell. In this eternal darkness and deathly silence, time had lost all meaning, leaving only a simple, cruel fact—she had been forgotten.
Forgotten in this prison of Nine Clans Selection.
At that moment, Qian Xunji stood right in front of her, his golden figure almost blinding, but Gu Yuena did not react. She remained curled up in the corner, her silver hair trailing on the ground, her thin body huddled into a small ball, like a young animal abandoned in the cold winter, having long since ceased its struggle for survival.
Her pupils were unfocused; those eyes, once as bright as sparkling amethyst, were now nothing but a lifeless gray.
Qian Xunji looked down at her from his high position, his golden eyes showing no pity, no disgust, and not even any other emotion.
He simply gazed calmly at this "collection"—a collection he had personally sealed away and then forgotten here for tens of thousands of years.
Life is so fragile.
He sighed, his tone tinged with genuine bewilderment, as if he didn't see anything wrong with what he had said.
A person who imprisoned the Silver Dragon King in a dark and sunless dungeon for tens of thousands of years lamented the fragility of life.
This utterly absurd display of self-awareness might have been laughed at by others. Unfortunately, there were no others here, only the completely insane Silver Dragon King and a madman who was completely oblivious to the fact that he had no problems whatsoever.
Qian Xunji out her hand.
That hand was long and fair, with distinct knuckles, and looked even somewhat elegant, not at all like a hand about to do something.
He reached straight for Gu Yuena's chest—or more precisely, for the core of the Silver Dragon King deep within her chest. It was the source of all the Silver Dragon King's power, the foundation of her being a half -Dragon God, and the most brilliant treasure in the entire Dragon Clan's heritage.
Make a claw shape with your hand.
Gently probe in.
With an extremely faint, almost inaudible sound, Qian Xunji's hand pierced through Gu Yuena's skin, flesh, and bones as easily as piercing tofu, probing straight into her chest.
Blood did not gush out immediately. The wound was so clean and so swift that the blood didn't even have time to react. Only below Qian Xunji's wrist did he completely disappear into her chest cavity, as if it were not a living body, but a lump of clay that he could mold at will.
Gu Yuena finally reacted.
"Aaaaaah--!!!"
That scream shattered the millennia-long silence of the dungeon.
It wasn't just an ordinary cry of pain, but a scream from the deepest part of her soul. It was the excruciating pain of her body being pierced, and even more so, the most instinctive fear of a living being facing death—the moment she felt that hand probe into her chest and grasp her core, the icy touch of her life essence being controlled by another exploded from the depths of her soul, and her crushed mind was finally forcibly awakened by the instinct for survival, bringing back a sliver of clarity.
No... no...
She uttered broken syllables in a hoarse voice, and her unfocused pupils finally regained some focus, landing on the golden figure standing in front of her.
Qian Xunji.
She recognized him.
The person who locked her up here.
The person who forgot her here.
That person... who is currently reaching into her chest, about to take her life.
Gu Yuena raised her pale, thin hand and grabbed Qian Xunji's arm that was reaching into her chest with all her might. Her nails, which had long since grown long and curled out of shape, were now digging desperately into his flesh, trying to pull that hand out, trying to stop the ongoing process of death.
But it was completely useless.