Tang San's Choice

"Ah..."

Zhao Song let out a heavy sigh, and the room's atmosphere suddenly became incomparably stifling.

Zhao Song raised his eyelids and looked at Tang Wulin's curled-up figure on the bed, his face full of helplessness. "Innate bloodlines naturally won't cause backlash, but..."

Zhao Song paused, his gaze flickering. "What if this bloodline was forcibly implanted later in life?"

Wu Zhangkong's eyes abruptly widened, his voice trembling with shock. "Elder Zhao, you mean... Wulin's bloodline was transplanted later?"

"Correct!"

Zhao Song nodded, unable to hide the gravity on his face.

Afraid that Wu Zhangkong would not believe him, Zhao Song lowered his voice and explained, "Back in that Dark Age, when mechas were all the rage, Battle Armor had yet to be developed, and Soul Masters' status had become precarious, the Tang Sect and Spirit Pagoda rarely set aside their grievances and joined forces to seek out a completely new path for Soul Masters."

"They first set their sights on Soul Beasts, attempting to transplant the bloodlines of powerful Soul Beasts into Soul Masters in hopes of using those bloodlines to strengthen Soul Masters."

"Unfortunately, even after paying a tremendous price, the Tang Sect and Spirit Pagoda gained nothing. In the end, the bloodline transplantation experiments came to nothing."

"However, although the bloodline transplantation experiments failed, the research records were preserved in their entirety."

"Tang Wulin's current condition is exactly the same as what was recorded in the archives back then. He's suffering backlash from a Soul Beast bloodline, and his body is beginning to transform into something half-human, half-beast."

"How have I never heard of something like this?"

Wu Zhangkong was somewhat puzzled. He had never even heard of the secret Zhao Song was describing.

Seeing that Wu Zhangkong still did not believe him, Zhao Song became so angry that his beard bristled. "Isn't that obvious? That research was conducted more than five thousand years ago. Even I only stumbled upon it while browsing the Tang Sect archives in my spare time."

"Did the archives record any way to deal with it?"

Wu Zhangkong pressed urgently.

Zhao Song rolled his eyes speechlessly and scolded him irritably, "You're usually such a wise man. Why are you acting like some inexperienced brat now that you're anxious?"

"If the archives had contained countermeasures, the bloodline transplantation experiments would not have ended in failure."

Wu Zhangkong was left speechless by the reprimand, but because Tang Wulin was involved, he still refused to give up. "Is there really no way to alleviate it?"

"No!" Looking at Tang Wulin, whose body was constantly mutating, Zhao Song spoke heavily. "If he wants to survive this, it can only depend on his own fate."

Zhao Song was very fond of Tang Wulin, that polite child, but neither he nor Wu Zhangkong could help Tang Wulin now.

Wu Zhangkong fell silent for a moment. Then, as if he had made some sort of decision, he resolutely said, "What if Her Holiness Holy Spirit intervenes?"

"That... I'm afraid there isn't enough time. According to the records in the archives, the longest any Soul Master suffering bloodline backlash ever lasted was only an hour."

"One hour? Even Yun Ming could not travel from Shrek City to Heaven Dou City in that time."

Hearing Zhao Song's answer, Wu Zhangkong's heart instantly turned to ashes, and an unprecedented sense of defeat rose within him.

Back then, he had failed to protect Long Bing. Now, he had also failed to protect his student.

"Zhangkong, look on the bright side. What if Wulin manages to hold on?"

Zhao Song patted Wu Zhangkong's shoulder and comforted him. "Although the bloodline transplantation experiments ultimately failed, not every participant died. Some survived after enduring the bloodline backlash."

Tang Wulin's Spiritual World

An ancient altar radiating an archaic, weathered aura hung silently in the depths of Tang Wulin's sea of consciousness, its steps engraved with countless Ant Runes.

At the very center of the altar, a translucent, rugby-ball-shaped object containing a tiny golden dragon constantly swimming within it continuously radiated golden energy.

The golden energy it released crashed against the light barrier above the altar like tidal waves.

Under the relentless impact of the golden energy, a faint crack had already appeared in the light barrier above the altar.

"Damn it, damn it!"

Looking at the loosening seal on the altar and the Golden Dragon King's aura continuously leaking out, Tang San showed a solemn expression for the first time.

Not even when he had been schemed against by Destruction back then had he shown such an expression.

Because he had been away from the God Realm for too long, Tang San had actually forgotten that the Golden Dragon King Divine Core could not sense divine power when he asked Tang Wulin for control of his body.

Back then, although his true body had used his own blood as a medium and drawn upon the Reward Good and Punish Evil Power of Kindness and Evil to place a full eighteen seals upon the Golden Dragon King Divine Core, completely suppressing the restless core within Tang Wulin's body.

There was one prerequisite: the Golden Dragon King Divine Core could not be allowed to sense the existence of divine power.

Whenever Tang San had drawn upon power within Tang Wulin's body in the past, he had always been extremely careful, afraid of affecting Tang Wulin.

Otherwise, once the Golden Dragon King Divine Core sensed the presence of divine power, it would awaken from its dormancy as it had now and release its incomparably terrifying divine power inside Tang Wulin's body.

Although the Golden Dragon King Divine Core contained only one-tenth of the Golden Dragon King's divine power, it was the purest portion of the Golden Dragon King's strength.

Moreover, as a supreme god, even one percent of the Golden Dragon King's divine power was far beyond what Tang Wulin could withstand, let alone one-tenth.

Tang San had sent Tang Wulin to Douluo Continent, where no divine power existed, in hopes that Tang Wulin could gradually absorb the Golden Dragon King Divine Core's power by unsealing its seals one by one.

But all of that had been ruined by his instinctive action just now.

After obtaining control of Tang Wulin's body, he had instinctively circulated divine power throughout his entire body while drawing upon it. The Golden Dragon King Divine Core had detected it, creating the current situation.

Of course, the fault was definitely not his.

He was Tang San. He could not possibly be wrong.

In Tang San's eyes, all of this was Wu Zhangkong's fault.

If Wu Zhangkong had not insisted on bringing Tang Wulin to Heaven Dou City for training, how could Tang Wulin have encountered danger?

If Tang Wulin had not encountered danger, Tang San would not have asked him for control of his body.

If he had not asked Tang Wulin for control, how could the Golden Dragon King Divine Core, which had been dormant for so long within Tang Wulin's body, have become active again?

Of course, Tang San was not incapable of repairing the now-precarious Golden Dragon King's Seal, but the problem was that doing so would consume a tremendous amount of his divine power.

The divine power he had left inside Tang Wulin's body was not merely meant to protect Tang Wulin's safety. It also had to be used against the Abyssal Sage King.

If he used up a great deal of divine power here, he could forget about using Boundless Sea Ripples to control the Abyssal Sage King.

Without his assistance from the sidelines, Tang Hao and Ah Yin alone would absolutely be unable to stop the Abyssal Sage King.

But if he did not repair the seal, Tang Wulin would undoubtedly die.

Once the Golden Dragon King Divine Core erupted, it would not stop on its own. Outside intervention was necessary.

"Forget it. At worst, I'll guide Wulin to devour that Silver Dragon in the future."

Seeing Tang Wulin's Dragon Transformation growing increasingly severe, Tang San gritted his teeth and made his choice.