When Zi Ji activated the protective runes the Light Dragon King had found and followed Rus Wang into the spatial rift, an unbearable pressure instantly engulfed her.
"The kings of the Dragon Valley Forest throughout the ages must be at least five hundred thousand years old to open a spatial rift and safely cross it to the Dragon Valley World. Miss Zi Ji, the Light Dragon King wishes to meet you in person this time and hear about the state of Douluo Continent, so he gave me these protective runes for you. If you still feel unwell even with the protection Senior Light Dragon King provided, I can take you to the Dragon Valley World."
After reverting from her human form, Zi Ji gasped for breath with difficulty. When she heard this, she looked at Rus Wang, who seemed perfectly fine, and did not force herself to keep going. She nodded and said frankly:
"Then I'll trouble you to take me the rest of the way. This really feels awful."
"Take human form, sit on my back, and hold on tight. We're leaving."
Zi Ji promptly took human form. Rus Wang came closer, and once he had confirmed that she was seated on his back, he flew toward the only point of light in the darkness.
From Zi Ji's perspective, the point of light grew larger and larger, until it became a spatial rift much like the one they had entered earlier. When Rus Wang flew out through the rift with Zi Ji on his back, blue skies, white clouds, and a lush green forest appeared before her once more. In an instant, she could clearly sense the deathly aura of countless True Dragons.
As Rus Wang flew on, the aura grew stronger, and Zi Ji's mood grew heavier.
From Rus Wang's back, Zi Ji looked down and saw a vast basin come into view. Rus Wang began to descend. The basin was bare of trees, with countless stone tablets standing across it. The surrounding soil had clearly been turned over repeatedly to keep weeds from growing back.
Once Rus Wang had landed, he spoke again. He had said little beyond a few words when they first entered. "This is the Dragon Clan Graveyard of the Dragon Valley World. When the Dragon God fell, the remains of many Dragon Race elders who perished alongside him piled up here."
"Though Senior Light Dragon King perished, he still lives on as a Dragon Soul. Every year, as long as they are old enough, the kings of the Dragon Valley Forest pay their respects and report on the outside world, then hear his advice. I told him you were coming, and he chose this place for the meeting. He wants to see you, an envoy from Douluo Continent, with his own eyes and hear about your continent. In particular, he wants to know about the Silver Dragon King torn from the Dragon God, the situation of her wife's Dark Dragon King clan, and the details of all the major events that have taken place there."
"Oh no!"
Zi Ji sat stiffly on Rus Wang's back. She had secretly come as an envoy from the Star Dou Forest, originally hoping only to make contact with the Dragon Race on this other continent and see how they were doing. Instead, she had learned not only of this second continent's Dragon King but also a third continent, home to a group of Elves with astonishing racial traits.
And now the Dragon King here had taken her envoy status seriously, immediately reporting her arrival to one of the Nine Great Dragon Kings, an ancestor-level figure, the Light Dragon King, and had laid out a complete process for the meeting.
"Can I still come clean about who I am?"
Zi Ji suddenly wanted to burst into tears and hide from reality.
Normally, she would have been ashamed of acting in a way that damaged her image. But everything depended on the situation. Who was the Light Dragon King? He was also known as the Holy Dragon King among the Dragon Race, controlling light and prayer, and overseeing the creation of life and the reproduction of the Dragon Race. He also governed punishment, using the Dragon-Slaying Blade to execute sinful dragons. What standing did a Hell Demon Dragon King like her, barely over two hundred thousand years old, have in the Dragon Race? She wasn't qualified to meet him! Di Tian should have been the one to come!
Seeing that Zi Ji made no move to climb down, Rus Wang used Soul Power to lower her to the ground and reassured her. "It's all right, Miss Zi Ji. The old senior has spent tens of thousands of years accompanying the young dragons born in the Dragon Valley World after the Dragon God's fall. He's learned to keep his temper in check. When the old ancestor asks questions, just tell him honestly what you know. I went through this myself when I first came here."
Rus Wang shrank down and patted Zi Ji on the shoulder with his foreleg to comfort her.
"Y-yes... all right."
Zi Ji nodded stiffly.
Before Rus Wang and Zi Ji, milky-white mist rose from the ground and gathered into a single, complete cloud. The cloud then transformed into a white Western-style dragon.
Seeing this, Zi Ji hurriedly dropped to one knee. She tried to keep her voice from trembling and left out the word "King" when she addressed him.
"This junior, Zi Ji of the Hell Demon Dragon clan, pays her respects to the Light Dragon King."
Rus Wang, standing beside her, gave a slight nod in respect. The Light Dragon King had once told him that he ruled over the Dragon Valley Forest and all of the Folded Ear Continent. His realm was small compared with those ruled by the ancient Dragon Race, but their titles and status were on a par. He needn't show excessive deference; treating him as an elder was enough.
"An offspring of the Shadow Demon Dragon, from Douluo Continent, of the Dark and Water attributes?"
"Yes, Lord Light Dragon King."
"Just call me Senior. I'm only a Dragon Soul now. I have no body and no means to act. All I can do is hear your news and offer advice."
"Yes, Senior Light Dragon King."
The Light Dragon King sighed. Then, to Zi Ji's shock, he pulled out a notebook after taking it from the storage Soul Tool Rus Wang had given him.
"What? Is it strange to see me, an elder, using something invented by humans? It's an external tool. If it's useful, then use it. Just because humans invented it to kill the Dragon Race doesn't mean we should ban it."
The Light Dragon King began searching through the notes he had copied from the stone tablets over the past few years. He planned to pick out the important points and ask Zi Ji what she had been doing when those things happened in Douluo Continent—or whether she had witnessed them herself.
Rus Wang sat nearby, his face calm. But as the Light Dragon King slowly questioned Zi Ji about events from tens of thousands of years ago all the way to the Douluo I era, following the notes, he was already struggling not to laugh.
"Humans became gods in Douluo Continent, and you did nothing?"
The Light Dragon King stared at Zi Ji as she stammered, his face darkening. The ascension to godhood two thousand years ago had caused a great stir in the Dragon Valley Forest. They had sent Tianyang, who was five hundred thousand years old, along with three powerful dragons of over two hundred thousand years from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, Fear Demon Dragon, and Crimson Fire Dragon clans to investigate. Though they kept going the wrong way and ended up in what was now Douling Continent, at least they had taken action and made contact with the Dragon Race there.
After a thousand years of contact and four hundred years of sudden turmoil, when his junior Rus arrived, the Light Dragon King had sent him over to bring the surviving dragons to Folded Ear Continent. Their top Dragon Kings had also been struck down by the Heavenly Tribulation, and the humans' Soul Hunting Squads had ravaged them.
"Back then, I and Di Tian, the Black Dragon clan leader, were both asleep alongside the badly wounded Silver Dragon King. We only gradually learned what was happening outside after that upheaval woke us."
"So, two thousand years ago, when you had such a good opportunity amid all that infighting, you not only failed to seize it, you slept through it? And you only woke up after the infighting was over?"
"Yes."
"I can understand why you couldn't deal with those four Soul Beast traitors who sided with humans and the gods. For now, I can consider them protected by human gods. But in the nearly ten thousand years between that ascension and the next human ascension, more than three hundred years ago, you didn't reflect on yourselves or make any progress. Instead, you even helped the humans—sending another human named Huo Yuhao to godhood, and bringing along seven more traitors who willingly became Soul Spirits just to become divine officials under the gods' leniency?!"
"No, Senior, that's not it. We did react to the suspicious sacrifice of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. We launched a beast tide to take revenge on the humans."
Zi Ji hurriedly explained. At least the Soul Beasts of the Star Dou Forest hadn't done nothing this time. She just couldn't understand why things had ended the way they did.
"Then why are the humans of Douluo Continent still able to cross the sea and invade the Dragon Valley Forest and Douling Forest?"
"That human who ascended to godhood, Huo Yuhao, somehow managed to temporarily stop the beast tide we launched. Then he brought out something called Soul Spirits and persuaded Di Tian. He agreed to return to the Star Dou Forest with Di Tian and continue researching Soul Spirits. Then Di Tian stopped the beast tide. I couldn't understand it at the time either, but given Di Tian's strength, I could only keep it to myself."
Is this the Black Dragon Di Tian I know? And he's from my wife's clan? Was he really taught personally by the Dragon God? Why is he suddenly so stupid, like he's had his brains scrambled? The Light Dragon King's once-white face darkened.
"So the temporary ruler of your Star Dou Forest, Black Dragon Di Tian, knew full well that the life and death of the Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, directly affected the fate of the Soul Beasts of the Star Dou Forest. Yet he not only failed to protect her, he didn't even raise her properly. He let her fall in love with a teenage human named Huo Yuhao, whom she'd never even met before. And then, to save that human's life, she willingly sacrificed herself and gave him the fate of the Star Dou Forest as well?"
The Light Dragon King took a deep breath as he finished his summary, then looked over at Rus Wang, who was reading a newspaper and pretending not to hear.
"You're involved in this too, Rus! Keep a better eye on your son from now on! Don't let him do something stupid for love like the Three-Eyed Golden Lion!"
"Yes!"
Only then did Rus Wang remember his own little rascal's taste in partners. In essence, he was just like Three-Eyed Golden Lion Wang Qiu'er: both had fallen in love with someone from another race. The only difference was that Huo Yuhao had been nothing in the end, while his own Barus had "made it bloom and bear fruit."
Thoroughly astonished by the actions of the Dragon Race and Soul Beasts of Douluo Continent, the Light Dragon King let out a long sigh.
"Alas, I hope that after the Silver Dragon King—the power the Dragon God split off—recovers, she'll be able to set you all straight."
The Light Dragon King glanced at Rus Wang and thought to himself:
This junior Rus is actually quite good. All of his children reached ten thousand years of age within two hundred years, and their bloodlines are very strong. Only one of them went astray, but at least he's a genius. His talent for learning the Dragon Race's rune formations ranks among the top ten juniors I've ever seen. I just wonder whether, with his Dual Soul Cores, he has any chance of reaching a million years and overcoming the obstacle the Dragon God set in place.
Before you continue