Behind Hu Liena stood two Tyrant robots, each over three meters tall. Their red electronic eyes scanned the surroundings, ensuring no living thing could get close.
The air was thick with the smell of charred flesh and blood.
Not long ago, this had been one of the Upper Three Sects, a sacred place countless Soul Masters looked up to.
Now, nothing remained but devastation.
Hu Liena looked at it all, unable to say how she felt.
She had once revered this clan, too.
But now, she was standing atop their corpses.
And she felt no discomfort at all. If anything, it seemed... only natural.
The strong deserved to have everything.
That man was the strongest of all.
"Secretary Hu, thirty meters ahead on your left. Under the stone slab carved with a dragon pattern."
Qin Feng's voice came through the miniature communicator in her ear.
"Yes, Master."
Hu Liena walked up to the slab. The two Tyrant robots stepped forward, wedged their enormous mechanical hands into the crack, and effortlessly lifted the slab, which weighed several tons.
A passage leading downward was revealed.
"Go down."
Hu Liena didn't hesitate. She gathered up her skirt and went inside.
At the end of the passage was a vast treasure vault.
Gold Soul Coins were piled into mounds. Rare ores glittered in the light, and several Soul Bones gave off an alluring glow.
In the past, Hu Liena would have shrieked with excitement at the sight of these treasures.
But now, she merely glanced at them before losing interest.
Compared to what her master made her feel, these things were nothing.
"Don't bother looking at that scrap metal."
Qin Feng's voice sounded again.
"Go to the back. See that dragon-head statue?"
"Inject your Soul Power into its left eye."
Hu Liena did as instructed.
She held out a finger and channeled a wisp of pink Soul Power into the hollow of the dragon's eye.
"Rumble..."
The wall cracked open, revealing an even smaller secret chamber.
An object rested on a stone dais in the center of the chamber.
It wasn't a Soul Bone or a manual.
It was a fist-sized, crystal-clear... heart.
It was still beating—thump, thump—and with each beat, it released a gentle blue halo.
A pressure that came from the depths of her bloodline emanated from the heart.
Hu Liena felt her Martial Soul trembling. It was the instinctive fear of a lesser being before a superior one.
"Master, I... I found it."
Her voice trembled slightly.
On the bridge of the Wolf Castle Ship.
Grey Wolf stared at a huge data screen, practically drooling.
"Boss! We've struck it rich! We're loaded!"
"The bones of these loaches are three times denser than those of ordinary Soul Beasts! They'd be perfect for mech frames!"
"And their Soul Power cores retain some of their vitality even after death! Damn, they're natural biological batteries!"
"And there's more! I scanned Liu Erlong's genes just now. You won't believe it—her Martial Soul is a mutation! She has an incredibly strong affinity for fire. If we combined her genes with our Hellfire incendiary rounds..."
Qin Feng ignored the lunatic, who was already lost in a frenzy of technological enthusiasm.
He watched the live feed Hu Liena had sent back, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.
"Good work, Secretary Hu."
"Bring it back."
"Yes, Master."
Hu Liena carefully picked up the crystal heart and turned to leave.
Grey Wolf leaned over and stared at the "heart" on the screen, asking curiously:
"Boss, isn't that just an energy crystal? It looks pretty, sure, but is there really a need to treat it like a treasure?"
"An energy crystal?"
Qin Feng shook his head.
"Brother Wolf, this isn't energy. It's... source code."
"Source code?" Grey Wolf's eyes lit up.
"That's right."
Qin Feng pointed at the screen. "Why do you think the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan is so powerful? Just because their bloodline is pure?"
"That's all nonsense."
"They, along with every Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul on Douluo Continent today, are nothing but shoddy pirated copies of this 'Dragon God Heart.'"
"Stored inside this heart is the complete genetic sequence of the original Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon—the very first generation, in its purest, most primitive form, with no degradation whatsoever."
A familiar gleam shone in Qin Feng's eyes. Grey Wolf knew it well: the feverish excitement of a scientist looking at perfect experimental material.
"I'm going to use it to recreate the real First Generation Dragon."
"Then I'll equip it with an Antimatter Engine, add curvature-cruise capability, and finish it off with a planet-destroying plasma cannon."
"How many shots do you think those bird-brains in the Divine Realm could take?"
Grey Wolf's jaw dropped into an "O."
"Boss... you're the ruthless one!"
On the deck, Yu Yuanzhen lay on the ground like a dead fish.
He watched Hu Liena come up the airship's lift, holding a crystal box.
The moment he saw what was inside, his once-empty eyes turned bloodshot.
"The Dragon God Heart!"
"You... How dare you lay hands on our clan's sacred relic!"
Yu Yuanzhen didn't know where he found the strength, but he suddenly struggled to his feet and lunged toward her.
"A sacred relic?"
Qin Feng emerged from the cabin, Hu Liena following behind him.
He took the box from Hu Liena and weighed it in his hand.
"To me, it's just a flash drive storing a primitive genetic sequence."
"And it's not even a very good one. After all these years, most of the data's nearly been lost."
"Pfft!"
Yu Yuanzhen spat out a mouthful of blood.
A sacred relic... a flash drive?
It was the most malicious insult he had ever heard—and the one he couldn't refute.
"You... you devil..."
"Thanks for the compliment."
Qin Feng handed the Dragon God Heart to Hu Liena and told her to put it away.
Then he walked over to Yu Yuanzhen and crouched down.
"Old man, do you want your clan members to survive?"
Yu Yuanzhen froze. He looked up at Qin Feng.
"You've raised those loaches for thousands of years. You must know all about feeding them and dealing with their waste, right?"
"I happen to need a 'livestock-breeding consultant' to take charge of my upcoming True Dragon Replication Project."
"If you do a good job, the descendants you have left can work on an assembly line in my factory."
"If you don't..."
Qin Feng pointed down at the dragon bones the robots were gathering below.
"They'll become lunch for your new coworkers."
Yu Yuanzhen stared blankly at Qin Feng. He wanted to rage, to fight back.
But he realized he didn't even have the strength to be angry.
The thousand-year legacy he'd been so proud of had been belittled as nothing more than a "flash drive."
And he, the clan leader, had been reduced to a "caretaker" raising his own ancestors.
This was how you truly destroyed someone—by crushing their spirit.
This was the real meaning of killing a man in the heart.
"Heh... heh-heh... hahahaha!"
Yu Yuanzhen suddenly burst out laughing, tears streaming down his face.
He laughed at himself, at his clan, at this ridiculous world.
"I... I'll do it."
He forced the three words out through clenched teeth.
Just then.
The Wolf Castle Ship's internal communications channel suddenly crackled to life with Orochimaru's hoarse, excited voice.
"Qin Feng."
"The new test subject you sent over is very interesting."
"Under the T-Virus's stimulation, her genes are undergoing a kind of 'emotional mutation' I've never seen before."
"Her anger is becoming tangible."
Qin Feng brought up the laboratory's surveillance feed.
Liu Erlong was strapped to a specially constructed alloy examination table, her body shaking violently.
Wisps of black-red flame, like smoke, seeped from her pores.
The flames gave off no heat, yet the surrounding air twisted and let out a pained wail.
"It seems her Second Martial Soul has been activated, too."
Orochimaru's voice brimmed with the delight of someone who had discovered a new continent.
"And it's not like that brat Tang San's hammer."
"Her Second Martial Soul seems to be... alive."
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