"Damn it..."
Zhao Song let out a heavy sigh, and the mood in the room turned stifling.
He looked at Tang Wulin, curled up in pain on the bed, and said helplessly, "An inborn bloodline wouldn't cause a backlash, but—"
Zhao Song paused, his eyes flickering. "What if that bloodline was forcibly implanted later?"
Wu Zhangkong's eyes widened. Even his voice trembled with shock. "Elder Zhao, are you saying... Wulin's bloodline was transplanted into him?"
"That's right!"
Zhao Song nodded, unable to hide the weight of it.
Seeing Wu Zhangkong's disbelief, he explained in a low voice, "During the Dark Age, when mechas were everywhere, Battle Armor had yet to be developed, and the standing of Soul Masters was under threat, the Tang Sect and the Spirit Pagoda set aside their differences for once. They joined forces to find a new path for Soul Masters."
"They turned first to Soul Beasts. They tried transplanting the bloodlines of powerful Soul Beasts into Soul Masters, hoping to use them to increase a Soul Master's strength."
"Unfortunately, despite paying an enormous price, the Tang Sect and the Spirit Pagoda gained nothing. In the end, the bloodline-transplant experiments were abandoned."
"The experiments failed, but the research records were preserved in full."
"What's happening to Tang Wulin matches the records in the database exactly. His Soul Beast bloodline is turning against him, and his body is beginning to change into something half human, half beast."
"How have I never heard of this?"
Wu Zhangkong looked puzzled. He had never heard a word of the secret Zhao Song had described.
Seeing that Wu Zhangkong still doubted him, Zhao Song bristled. "Of course you haven't! That research was conducted more than five thousand years ago. I only stumbled across it myself while browsing the Tang Sect Database in my spare time."
"Did the database record any way to deal with it?"
Wu Zhangkong pressed him at once.
Zhao Song rolled his eyes and scolded him. "You're usually so sharp. Why are you acting like a rash youngster now?"
"If the database had a solution, the bloodline-transplant experiments wouldn't have ended in failure."
Wu Zhangkong had no answer, but he couldn't give up where Tang Wulin was concerned. "Is there really no way to ease it?"
"No." Watching Tang Wulin's body continue to change, Zhao Song spoke gravely. "Whether he gets through this depends on his own luck."
Zhao Song was fond of Tang Wulin, a polite child, but neither he nor Wu Zhangkong could help him now.
Wu Zhangkong fell silent for a moment. Then, as though he had made up his mind, he asked, "What if Her Holiness Holy Spirit intervened?"
"Well... I'm afraid there isn't enough time. According to the database, the longest any Soul Master survived after a bloodline backlash began was one hour."
"Even His Holiness Yun Ming couldn't get from Shrek City to Heaven Dou City in an hour."
At Zhao Song's answer, Wu Zhangkong's heart sank. He felt a crushing sense of failure unlike anything he had known before.
He had failed to protect Long Bing back then. Now he had failed to protect his student.
"Zhangkong, try to look on the bright side. What if Wulin pulls through?"
Zhao Song patted his shoulder. "The bloodline-transplant experiments failed, but not every subject died. Some survived the backlash."
"..."
Wu Zhangkong said nothing, though his expression eased somewhat.
Inside Tang Wulin's mind
An ancient altar hung silently in the depths of Tang Wulin's sea of consciousness. It radiated an air of ages past, and countless Ant Runes were carved into its steps.
At the altar's center was a translucent object shaped like a rugby ball. A tiny golden dragon swam ceaselessly inside it as it released streams of golden energy.
That energy battered the barrier over the altar like a rising tide.
Under the relentless assault, a faint crack had appeared in the barrier.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Looking at the loosening seal and the Golden Dragon King's aura leaking out, Tang San wore a grave expression for the first time.
He hadn't looked like this even when Destruction had plotted against him.
He had been away from the Divine Realm for too long. When he asked Tang Wulin for control of his body, Tang San had forgotten that the Golden Dragon King Divine Core must not sense Divine Power.
Back then, Tang San's true body had used his own blood as a catalyst and drawn on the Reward Good and Punish Evil Power of Good and Evil to place eighteen seals on the Golden Dragon King Divine Core. They had completely suppressed the restless core inside Tang Wulin.
But that depended on one condition: the Golden Dragon King Divine Core could not be allowed to sense Divine Power.
Whenever Tang San had drawn on his power inside Tang Wulin before, he had been careful, afraid of affecting him.
If the Golden Dragon King Divine Core sensed Divine Power, it would wake from its slumber, just as it had now, and unleash its terrifying Divine Power inside Tang Wulin.
The core held only a tenth of the Golden Dragon King's Divine Power, but it was the purest portion of his power.
And the Golden Dragon King was a supreme god. Let alone a tenth of his Divine Power—Tang Wulin could not withstand even a hundredth of it now.
Tang San had sent Tang Wulin to the Douluo Continent, where there was no Divine Power, so that he could break the seals one by one and gradually absorb the Golden Dragon King Divine Core's power.
But his thoughtless action just now had ruined all of that.
After taking control of Tang Wulin's body, he had instinctively circulated Divine Power throughout it. The Golden Dragon King Divine Core had sensed it, creating the crisis before him.
Of course, the fault couldn't possibly be his.
He was Tang San. He could not be wrong.
As Tang San saw it, Wu Zhangkong was to blame for everything.
If Wu Zhangkong hadn't insisted on bringing Tang Wulin to Heaven Dou City for training, Tang Wulin would never have faced danger.
If Tang Wulin hadn't faced danger, Tang San would never have asked him for control of his body.
And if he hadn't asked for control, how could the Golden Dragon King Divine Core, dormant for so long inside Tang Wulin, have stirred?
Tang San could repair the now-precarious Golden Dragon King's Seal. The problem was that doing so would consume a great deal of his Divine Power.
The Divine Power he had left inside Tang Wulin was not only for protecting him. He also needed it to oppose the Abyssal Sage King.
If he used too much of it here, he could forget about restraining the Abyssal Sage King with Boundless Sea Ripples.
Without Tang San's support, Tang Hao and Ah Yin could never stop the Abyssal Sage King on their own.
But if he did not repair the seal, Tang Wulin would certainly die.
Once the Golden Dragon King Divine Core ran wild, it would not stop on its own. An outside force had to intervene.
"Forget it. If it comes to that, I'll guide Wulin into devouring that Silver Dragon someday."
Tang Wulin's Dragon Transformation was growing more severe. Tang San gritted his teeth and made his choice.
Before you continue