[Note: Since the Nine Great Dragon Kings, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and the deaths of the Water (Ice) Dragon King and Fire Dragon King contradict one another in Douluo 1, 2, 3, and 4, many details here are made up. In this story, human Limit Douluo have a maximum lifespan of 300 years, mainly because in chapter 207 of Douluo 2, Huo Yuhao explicitly said that Long Xiaoyao was two hundred years older than him.]
"So, during your early years, besides your mother, you also had a protector with a hundred-thousand-year cultivation—a Sun-Passing Ginkgo?"
"Yes. Thanks to our ancestors' efforts to protect plant-type Soul Beasts, young dragons like me usually grow up by their side."
After resting for a while, Rus Wang and Ximing set off. However, considering the various outposts occupied by Indigenous People Soul Masters and Star Luo people under the pretext of conducting scientific surveys, they temporarily chose human forms to avoid detection and stay out of sight of the powerful inhabitants of the kingdoms in the southern part of the continent. They headed toward the Dragon Valley Forest in the continent's central region.
As a light-attribute dragon, the Heavenly Sun Dragon was the direct descendant species of the Light Dragon King to live on Douluo Planet. After the Dragon God fell and the Dragon Race was cast down onto Douluo Planet with him, the Light Dragon King also died, becoming a dragon soul in the Dragon Valley World.
Unlike some Dragon Kings who had died and become dragon souls, the Light Dragon King had been in charge of punishment and used the Dragon-Slaying Blade to execute guilty dragons. It had sensed the abnormal behavior of the Time Dragon King and Space Dragon King in advance, but it hadn't learned of or been able to stop them from killing the Dragon Race's Crown Prince at the God Star Ceremony.
During the Dragon God's madness, it had been one of the few Dragon Kings within the Dragon Race to remain rational. As the fury of the entire race swept it into battle with the Divine Realm, it had left contingency plans on several planets for the descendants of its bloodline and that of its wife, the Dark Dragon King, hoping they could use them to rise again if they lost the war.
Unfortunately, even the Light Dragon King itself hadn't anticipated how insane the Dragon God's final measure would be. Unless the Dragon Race was revived and the Dragon God returned, the Divine Realm's ban on the Beast Race attaining godhood would render many of the plans it had arranged for its descendants useless.
Its descendants outside the Dragon Valley World, the Heavenly Sun Dragons, had even worse news: they were also subjected to the Heaven's Tribulation along with the Beast Race. The Light Dragon King, now a dragon soul, was utterly at a loss.
For the Beast Race to become gods, two conditions had to be met: the Dragon Race had to be revived, and the Dragon God had to return. But for the Dragon Race to be revived, it had to survive the Heaven's Tribulation. Under the tribulation, even staying alive was a problem for the dragons, let alone reviving their race. As for the Dragon God's return... well, as far as Rus Wang knew, the Silver Dragon King was still fast asleep, while the Golden Dragon King, who seemed to have a better head on her shoulders, had been imprisoned by the Divine Realm and had no chance of getting out.
So for tens of thousands of years, Heavenly Sun Dragons whose cultivation reached the hundred-thousand-year level had received instructions from the Light Dragon King's dragon soul in the Dragon Valley World to build good relations with hundred-thousand-year-old plants. That way, if they were wiped out by a Heaven's Tribulation, the Heavenly Sun Dragons wouldn't be left without a pillar of support and fall prey to the Beast Race's hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beasts. (At this point, the Dragon Valley World was still drifting through the universe and hadn't fully descended onto Douluo Planet. However, the stable spatial rift in the core region of the Dragon Valley Forest allowed the Heavenly Sun Dragons to enter the Dragon Valley World and communicate with the Light Dragon King's dragon soul.)
"But somehow, our clan leader died in the Heaven's Tribulation more than four hundred years ago, long before his time. It threw our way of life in the core region of the Dragon Valley Forest into chaos."
The Light Dragon King's dragon soul had tried every possible measure to help its descendants, the Heavenly Sun Dragons. But after tens of thousands of years of Heaven's Tribulations and human hunting, their population had slowly declined. They had once had a highest-ranked individual with a cultivation of over eight hundred thousand years, with powerful members at every level below that. Now, as the Light Dragon King's dragon soul had predicted, their strongest had a cultivation of only over five hundred thousand years, there were no powerful individuals in the middle ranks, and even those with cultivations of over a hundred thousand years were scarce. Their population below the hundred-thousand-year level teetered on the brink of extinction.
And after their clan leader's inexplicable death, how could the Heavenly Sun Dragons with cultivations of over a hundred thousand years—or the species as a whole—possibly fare any better?
Ximing had been only fifty thousand years old at the time. It was during this period that he had begun fleeing south to escape the humans' blades.
"If you've built good relations with them, then logically, you should also be on good terms with the powerful beings in the Dragon Valley Forest. Why aren't they doing anything?"
"Ah, they also..."
Ximing was about to say more, but Rus Wang's sudden stop cut him off.
Below the mountain where the two transformed dragons stood, countless humans were felling trees and driving away Soul Beasts. They were more than ten kilometers away, but the two could still see them clearly without needing a pair of binoculars. The sheer scale of the destruction and the number of Soul Beasts being hunted—an endless sea of activity—was still shocking.
"What do humans think Soul Beasts are? Wheat crops for them to harvest?"
Even Ximing, known for his good temper, couldn't help feeling anger burn inside him.
"Judging by the powered armor those humans are wearing, they're most likely from the Star Luo Empire, not among the Indigenous People."
Rus Wang stared at them. From the equipment they wore, he could rule out the possibility that they were Indigenous People.
"This isn't the Outer Circle of the Dragon Valley Forest! What are those apes and our Dragon Race kin doing about it?"
Ximing didn't understand. Even if the forty-some-thousand-year-old Giant Mountain Golden Ape was holding the fort, he'd only come to Folded Ear Continent two hundred years ago to take refuge. How had the humans' Soul Hunting Squads already begun roaming the Dragon Valley Forest with impunity?
"There's a Level 97 Super Douluo and a Level 96 Super Douluo among them. If the Giant Mountain Golden Ape, with its cultivation of over four hundred thousand years, joins the fight, it'll only be throwing its life away. They've done all they can, Ximing."
Rus Wang rubbed his eyes as he spoke. Then she shed her human form, revealing her full, enormous body as Blade Ruse King atop the mountain. Rus Wang had considered using a Level 9 Fixed Soul Guidance Cannon and various powerful rockets, but the Soul Beasts and humans were mixed together, making it too easy to hit the wrong targets.
"I'll go suppress the Star Luo people. You find a way to contact the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts in the Dragon Valley World. Even in the worst-case scenario, I can still drive the humans out."
"Got it."
With practiced coordination, Rus Wang and Ximing split up.
Because the Sun Moon Empire was too powerful, the Star Luo Empire had been forced to cross the sea and set foot on this newly discovered continent. Now that the empire's main forces had defeated most of the local Indigenous kingdoms, they had begun moving the country's population to this New Continent in increasing numbers.
However, the Star Luo Empire's territory on Douluo Continent was still considered its heartland. So on this land, which the Star Luo people themselves called Star Luo Continent, the empire's army was led by a Level 97 Super Douluo, rather than the kingdom's sole Level 98 powerhouse.
So when Rus Wang stopped concealing her cultivation and charged toward them, the Star Luo people were caught completely off guard. The Giant Mountain Golden Ape and the other Soul Beasts in the Dragon Valley Forest, on the other hand, were thrilled and filled with hope.
"Star Luo curse! It couldn't have come earlier or later; it had to show up now—a Ferocious Beast!"
The head of the Soul Hunting Squad, Prince Dai Zuoheng of the Star Luo Empire, was nearly two hundred years old and had a cultivation of Level 97. Faced with the situation, he gritted his teeth so hard they nearly cracked.
Perhaps years of dealing with the weak Ferocious Beasts in the Dragon Valley Forest, whose cultivations peaked at a little over four hundred thousand years, had made them careless. When a Soul Beast with a cultivation of over six hundred thousand years suddenly attacked, the Star Luo Empire's army in the Mixed Circle of the Dragon Valley Forest had failed to establish a proper defensive line with multiple layers of Soul Tools, as military regulations required.
So when Rus Wang unleashed [Skill: Overturning Seas], the multilayered waves crashed down with a pressure of thirty to fifty tons per square meter. Every Star Luo soldier and officer below the Soul Saint level was swept up in the currents, along with the captured Soul Beasts.
ROOOAR—
After checking the damage from her skill in the air and confirming that most of the Soul Beasts had only been knocked unconscious by the rushing water, Blade Ruse King turned her gaze toward the Star Luo people who had dodged her attack in midair.
Now Rus Wang could use her Soul Tools and missiles without holding back.
The Star Luo people weren't fools, either. Seeing the water-attribute dragon Soul Beast with a cultivation of six hundred thousand years launch an attack on them, they immediately retaliated with a barrage of Soul Tools.
But when their soul power dispersed the smoke from the explosions, Dai Zuoheng and the other human powerhouses rushed in with their Martial Souls possessed—and stared in horror. This dragon... was using Soul Tools!
Under Rus Wang's control, numerous Soul Tools and rocket launchers lined up on either side of her like the treasures in a king's vault, forming a crossfire aimed at Dai Zuoheng and the others.
Rus Wang wasn't stupid. She immediately hit the firing button, then spoke to Dai Zuoheng and his men in the Indigenous People's language. "Humans, it's your turn to feel what it's like when we're hunted with these things!"
The core region of the Dragon Valley Forest immediately sensed the fierce battle between Rus Wang and the human powerhouses, as well as the soul-power fluctuations of Ximing approaching.
"One of those two familiar and unfamiliar auras belongs to a Heavenly Sun Dragon. What's the other?"
The woman who had taken human form from the Sun-Passing Ginkgo was extremely surprised. Ever since the Heavenly Sun Dragon clan leader had died in the Heaven's Tribulation, the handful of Heavenly Sun Dragons with hundred-thousand-year cultivations had all been killed by humans over the past four hundred years. Even she had lost track of the species.
"Who cares? Yin Ji, damn it, we've been bottling up our anger for so long. Now that another powerful Soul Beast has finally come to fight, we should use this chance to make the humans pay. Otherwise, things will only get worse."
When the Turquoise Dragon sensed that a powerful Soul Beast had arrived, it was overjoyed. It still wasn't clear whether the newcomer was an ally, but that dragon's roar confirmed it was one of their Dragon Race kin. That was good enough. Once they passed the hundred-thousand-year mark, members of the Dragon Race could still communicate rationally. Besides, with their sworn enemy, the humans, right there, nothing would help the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts sit down and talk things out more peacefully than beating the humans together first.
"We need to support that giant dragon's attack at once. Yin Ji, you're in charge of meeting that Heavenly Sun Dragon. All hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts, follow me into battle! Let's unleash all the anger we've been holding back!"
The Giant Mountain Golden Ape knew that the appearance of an unknown dragon with a cultivation of six hundred thousand years would inevitably change the balance between Soul Beasts and humans on the Dragon Valley Continent. The balance of power, which had favored humans, could return to an even footing. They had to seize this opportunity. As for who would be the Soul Beast King, if that dragon wanted the title, the Giant Mountain Golden Ape would gladly hand it over. It would rather die than be king again.
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