Long Time No See
At the heart of the pillar of light, however, there was utter silence.
Yun Jingheng hovered directly above the ruins, his feet about three meters off the ground, his body completely relaxed, his arms hanging naturally at his sides.
His eyes were closed, and his expression was calm, a stark contrast to the smug boy who had stood on the dragon's chest just minutes before.
Zi JI's dragon body has begun to decompose.
Starting from the end of the dragon's tail, the dark purple dragon scales transformed into tiny specks of light, each speck a purplish-gold color. Each speckle resembled a miniature star, slowly floating and rotating in the air, then seemingly drawn by some invisible force, drifting towards Yun Jingheng.
This process is very slow.
The body of the Hell Demon Dragon King was too large; it was not something that could be completely decomposed into the purest primordial energy in an instant.
After the dragon's tail disappears, there are the lower legs, then the thighs, then the pelvis and tailbone, followed by the abdominal cavity, thoracic cavity, wings, forelimbs, neck, and finally the dragon's head.
Zi JI did not make a sound.
Everything that needed to be said has been said after the battle, and everything that needed to be acknowledged has been acknowledged.
Zi JI never wastes words, especially after making a decision.
When the last purplish-gold light detached from the tip of the dragon horn, Zi JI's true form completely vanished from this world.
Instead, there was a slowly rotating energy vortex composed of countless points of light.
The vortex was over thirty meters in diameter, hovering above the ruins, with a dense, almost liquid, purple-gold light at its core.
That was the complete essence of the Hell Demon Dragon King, the essence of every bit of power, every inch of bone, and every drop of dragon blood she had accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years of her long life.
The vortex began to shrink.
From thirty meters to twenty meters, from twenty meters to ten meters, from ten meters to five meters.
With each contraction, the density of the purplish-gold light doubled. When it finally shrank to the size of a fist, the light at its core was so bright that even Di Tian had to squint his eyes slightly.
Then, the fist-sized ball of primordial essence gently touched Yun Jingheng's chest.
The moment they touched, Yun Jingheng's body jolted violently.
An indescribable surge of energy flowed into his chest, spreading along his meridians, blood vessels, and bones to every corner of his body.
At the same time, another force is awakening within him.
That was the divine consciousness of the Lunar Primordial Sovereign, which activated itself the moment Zi JI's power surged in.
He unleashed a ray of Moonlight.
The silvery Moonlight shone from deep within his bones, meeting the purplish-gold dragon power surging through his meridians.
The moment the two forces met in his meridians, Yun Jingheng's body transformed into a battlefield.
The chilling Moonlight and the scorching heat of the dragon's power collide head-on in every meridian, devouring, repelling, and merging with each other.
His meridians were stretched so much that fine cracks appeared, but they were quickly repaired by the restorative power of the Moonlight, making them wider and stronger than before.
Then it was torn apart by qi and blood, and repaired by the Moonlight.
This process was happening simultaneously within his body thousands of times, each time a miniature Destruction and rebirth.
He gritted his teeth and remained silent.
Then he felt his right arm start to burn.
A layer of dark purple lines appeared on the skin of my right arm. The lines started from my fingertips, spread up my fingers, the back of my hand, my wrist, my forearm, and finally stopped at my upper arm.
The shapes of those patterns were exactly the same as the magic patterns on the Zi JI Scales, only countless times smaller, as if they were directly branded under the skin.
The seventh Soul Ring is taking shape.
Yun Jingheng's original six Soul Ring —black, black, black, black, red, red—lighted up around his body on their own, slowly Soul Ring around him, each ring radiating its own unique light.
The deep black and fiery red stood out strikingly against the backdrop of the torrent of purple-gold energy.
Then, outside those six Soul Ring, a new halo began to condense.
At first, it was just a blurry outline of a halo, its color somewhere between gold and orange, with a warm, sunset-like hue.
But as more and more purplish-gold blood and energy were injected into it, the color of that halo began to change.
The gold faded, the orange deepened, and it eventually became an extremely pure and transparent orange-gold.
Orange-gold represents an extremely special level in the Soul Ring system— Ferocious Beast- level Soul Ring with over two hundred thousand years of cultivation.
The probability of Soul Ring of this color appearing among human Soul Master is so low as to be almost negligible, because obtaining such a Soul Ring requires more than just a large amount of resources to upgrade the Soul Spirit, or to kill or capture Ferocious Beast.
The seventh Soul Ring, orange-gold, is complete.
The moment the Soul Ring was fully formed, Yun Jingheng opened his eyes, which had been tightly closed.
He looked down at his right hand.
On the tip of the middle finger of his right hand, a phantom image of a purple-gold dragon scale slowly emerged.
It was a scale no bigger than a fingernail, made entirely of energy, with magical patterns flowing across its surface identical to those on the Zi JI Scale.
These are not real dragon scales, but a kind of sensory mark. As long as he activates this mark, he can borrow a portion of the dragon's might from the Hell Demon Dragon King.
This was the first gift Zi JI gave him.
Then he felt another energy gathering in the bones of his right hand.
That was a piece of Soul Bone.
Yun Jingheng looked down and saw a fist-sized ball of purplish-gold light floating out from his chest, moving slowly along his right arm, and finally stopping above the back of his right hand.
The shape of the light cluster kept changing, as if it was searching for the most suitable form.
Then the ball of light fell onto the back of his right hand.
The process of fusing Soul Bone is much faster than fusing primordial essence, but the pain is also much more concentrated.
Yun Jingheng felt as if his right hand had been shoved into a pot of boiling oil, and every bone in it was screaming.
But instead of pulling his hand back, he urged Moonlight to accelerate the fusion process.
The silvery moonlight enveloped the purplish-gold radiance, pressing it gently but irresistibly toward the bones on the back of the hand.
The Soul Bone sank inch by inch into the skin, merging with the right arm.
Three seconds later, the fusion was complete.
A thin, purplish-gold pattern appeared on the back of Yun Jingheng's right hand. The pattern was shaped like an elongated dragon claw, extending from his elbow to the second knuckle of his middle finger.
The patterns flickered twice, then slowly disappeared beneath the skin.
This is the Right Arm Soul Bone of the Hell Demon Dragon King, the second and most important gift left to him by Zi JI.
He flexed his right hand, each finger joint making a crisp cracking sound.
The feeling was strange. The hand looked no different from before, but he could clearly feel that the bone density and strength limit of his right hand were completely different.
Then, Yun Jingheng looked down at the seven slowly rotating Soul Ring surrounding his body.
Black, black, black, black, red, red, orange-gold.
Level 78 Soul Saint.
He raised his right hand to his eyes, spread his fingers, and then slowly clenched them.
A flash of purplish-gold light streaked across the surface of his fist, disappearing in an instant. The power remained dormant deep within his bones, quietly waiting to be awakened.
Di Tian stood at the edge of the ruins, watching him.
From beginning to end, Di Tian did not utter a single word or make any expression.
But the moment Yun Jingheng opened his eyes and the seven Soul Ring fully unfolded around his body, a very faint, almost imperceptible emotion flashed in Di Tian's golden vertical pupils.
He said, "How do you feel?"
His tone was calm, not like he was asking a question, but more like he was confirming a fact that he already knew the answer to.
Yun Jingheng hovered in mid-air, looked down at his right hand, then turned his head to look at the seven Soul Ring around his body, before looking back at Di Tian.
"Feel..."
He thought for a moment and found the most suitable word.
"It's very impressive."
Zi JI looked up at Yun Jingheng's Sea of Spirit.
A Full Moon hangs in the very center.
The moon was abnormally large, occupying almost a third of the entire sky, and the patterns of every crater on its surface were clearly visible.
Moonlight streamed down from the moon's surface, and below the moon stood a Moon Laurel Tree.
The tree was so large that for the first time in her spiritual world Zi JI felt a sense of insignificance.
The trunk is so thick that it would take hundreds of people to encircle it, and the bark is covered with silvery-white patterns, within which flows a rich, almost liquid Moonlight.
The tree canopy blocked out the sun, and every leaf was glowing, the color of the light changing from silvery white to light gold to moon white, layer upon layer, intertwined together.
Around the Moon Laurel Tree, nine pillars of light reached to the heavens.
Nine beams of light were evenly distributed around the Moon Laurel Tree, each piercing straight into the sky, and each beam was a different color.
Zi JI's gaze swept over the nine pillars of light, finally settling back on the moon.
"... Is this his Sea of Spirit?"
Her voice was low, and her tone lacked the usual languor and arrogance of the Hell Demon Dragon King, replaced by an undisguised shock.
Nine beams of light, a Moon Laurel, and a moon this big.
This is not the mental world of a normal human Soul Master at all.
"Isn't it beautiful?"
A voice came from behind her.
Zi JI turned around.
A silver-white fox was crouching not far from her, its nine tails swaying slowly behind it.
It was not large in size; compared to Zi JI's true form, it was practically negligible.
Nine-Tailed Frost Moon Fox, Xiao Jiu.
Zi JI looked down at her, a hint of tenderness flashing in her eyes.
Jiu'er looked up at her, her eyes showing no fear, but rather a hint of a smile.
"Long time no see, Sister Zi JI."