"Ha ha, how long has it been?"
Ever since the Ancestral Dragon swallowed and suppressed him, he had ceased to be merely himself. He had become an existence mingled with all the other prehistoric giants known as the 'Earth Ancestor Gods, Divine Beasts of the Land,' transformed into divine light that flowed around the Ancestral Dragon.
He no longer had a self. He was a principle of the Dao, the 'Dragon Qi' controlled by the Ancestral Dragon.
But just now—
An Jing's sword had slain True Monarch Chengyu Spirit-Deer.
The Heaven's Condemnation Sword had precisely severed the connection between him and heaven and earth, cutting off the principle of the Dao he controlled.
If the Heaven's Condemnation Sword hadn't severed his connection to the Zhaolin Realm—or, rather, to the Ancestral Dragon Scale—then in that instant, the shattering of his innate Supernatural Ability, the Heaven-Turning Seal, would have grievously wounded him. The secret realm's power, rebounding against him, would then have pulverized him completely, reducing him to a wisp of the Ancestral Dragon's Dragon Qi and sending him back into the endless cycle of reincarnation in the Zhaolin Realm.
So the trial had been passed.
[True Monarch Chengyu Spirit-Deer] had indeed been slain by An Jing's single sword strike of Heavenly Condemnation.
But—
The Heaven's Condemnation Sword had also severed his connection to the Ancestral Dragon Scale.
So he—
Or, rather...
It—
[Prehistoric Ancestral Spirit · Kunyu Spirit-Deer] was free.
It was no longer part of the Ancestral Dragon's Dragon Qi. It was a free, mortal... Ancestor Divine Beast!
The instant it finally understood what this meant, True Monarch Chengyu—no, Kunyu Spirit-Deer—saw an unprecedented brilliance flare in its hazy, clouded eyes.
The divine beast, with a deer's head and a human's body, lifted its head and gazed almost longingly at An