Prologue

The sky stretched overhead, a field of murky yellow.

Like a layer of decaying bark stuck to the heavens, it seemed to embody desolation at every moment.

Looking down, countless dragon corpses dotted the vast, sand-blasted land.

The dragon bones varied in size and race, broken and incomplete. One here, another there, scattered close together in a haphazard pattern, forming a vast mural:

The Dragon Tomb!

This was a dead world.

"Wooo—"

The mournful wind drifted through hollow bones, sending out one wail after another.

At the heart of this land lay a "wound."

It was a deep valley, its edges lined with corpses, stretching across the very center of this minor world.

This valley was one of the Douluo Plane's three great treasure troves:

Otherworldly Dragon Valley.

Then, at some point,

a ring of nine-colored ripples suddenly burst forth from the deepest reaches of the secluded Dragon Valley.

The ripples swept across the land and sky, awakening the final thread of life in this dead world...

The clouds overhead, layer upon layer and mass upon mass, stirred to life.

The withered yellow sky gradually turned into a riot of eight colors, as if dragon souls were opening their eyes from a deep, murky slumber...

And deep within the eight-colored clouds,

a vast dragon tongue rang out, distant and majestic.

It echoed through the sky in a long, drawn-out chant, like an old man heaving a sigh: "Ah—"

A phantom platinum azure dragon rode the surging, ceaseless dragon clouds, poking its colossal head out from the eight-colored dragon aura.

White and gold represented light and holiness.

The platinum azure dragon was like a dragon-shaped rising sun, slowly climbing over the Dragon Tomb Minor World and bathing heaven and earth in sacred light.

Its phantom platinum eyes gazed reverently toward the mass of nine-colored light deep within the valley.

Yet they held a lingering trace of regret.

"Father God, even your physical body... was destroyed?" The platinum azure dragon let out a despairing sigh.

Just moments ago, the Dragon God Heart deep in the valley had resonated with the distant Divine Realm, sending out a wave of information.

From that wave, the platinum azure dragon had learned the news: "The Golden Dragon King has fallen."

Its sigh drifted over the whole sky with the platinum light, winding like a dirge for dragons.

"O Dragon Clan!"

"Has my Dragon Clan truly lost all hope of revival...?"

In an instant, the countless eight-colored dragon souls overhead were swept up in the platinum azure dragon's sorrow. They wailed and mourned, lamenting the Dragon Clan's past glory.

Their hoarse, anguished cries sank deep underground, all the way to the deepest depths, and awakened a forbidden being.

A pair of violet-gold slit pupils opened at the very bottom of the Dragon Tomb.

A terrifying will stirred awake, unleashing a magnificent aura of destruction in the deepest reaches of the tomb.

Countless grains of sand were annihilated by the power of destruction, suddenly clearing out a space at the world's core.

As amethyst light flowed through it, a skeleton that nearly filled the entire underground Dragon Tomb appeared in the deepest depths.

No one knew how many ages this colossal corpse had lain buried.

By the time the sand had been cleared to make room, the enormous dragon-shaped skeleton had long since crystallized. The power of destruction coursed through it, lending it the texture of purple crystal.

And the mighty will roused by the cries from above rose from the head of the amethyst dragon skeleton.

Then it slowly ascended, surging toward the surface of the valley...

Above, eight-colored dragon clouds churned.

The sacred platinum light gradually dimmed.

The soul of a platinum azure dragon rode on clouds and mist: the Holy Dragon King.

Like an old man on the verge of death, the once peerless majesty of the strongest Dragon King faded into silence with the King's fall...

"Alas..." The Holy Dragon King knew its time had come.

Its eyes, brimming with despair, took one last look at the Dragon Tomb, then settled on its increasingly faint soul...

The next moment, as though it had made up its mind, it lashed the tail hidden in the clouds toward a spot on the ground, then jerked it upward...

"Shh—!"

With a piercing shriek, the Holy Dragon King's tail swept a dragon horn from the earth.

The horn was entirely black, like a curved blade. Its inner edge gleamed sharp and keen.

The instant the black horn-blade appeared, the clouds and mist formed from dragon souls swirled away, leaving a great hollow in their midst, as though they all feared its cutting edge.

This was the Dragon Clan's sacred blade: the Dragon-Slaying Blade.

It had been forged from a dragon horn shed by the Dragon God during a complete metamorphosis.

"Dragon-Slaying Blade, oh, Dragon-Slaying Blade..."

The Holy Dragon King brought the blade close and gently stroked the black weapon that had accompanied it for half its life and witnessed the Dragon Clan's rise and fall, using its two platinum whiskers.

In that instant, countless memories flooded back...

Its transformation from the Light Dragon King into the Holy Dragon King, its assumption of the Dragon Clan's duty as law enforcer, its marriage to the Dark Dragon King—those days seemed as if they had only happened yesterday...

The platinum gaze passed over the blade's spine and looked down toward the mass of nine-colored light deep in the valley.

"Father God, that slumber of yours... it truly feels like a lifetime has passed."

Suddenly, the Holy Dragon King spun around to face the sky, its tail hanging low as if gathering strength...

It spoke in a deep, resonant voice: "But you, Dragon-Slaying Blade..."

"You have a spirit of your own. You shouldn't be trapped here in this tomb with me, gathering dust!"

The Holy Dragon King let out a long cry and whipped its tail toward the sky, hurling the Dragon-Slaying Blade with all its might.

The blade pierced space and punched through the Dragon Tomb Boundary Wall, shrieking as it flew away and leaving behind an "wound" that would be difficult to heal.

Having followed fate and sent the Dragon-Slaying Blade out of the Dragon Tomb, planting the seed for the future Blade God Douluo, Sima Jinchi, the Holy Dragon King seemed to let go of its final lingering attachment.

It took out a Dark Crown, pressed its face against the circlet, and slowly closed its eyes.

"Old woman, I don't have much time left either. It's time for me to go... and join you."

The sacred light that illuminated the sky began to draw inward, like a sun sinking late beneath the horizon.

The Holy Dragon King's soul grew ever more faint. It looked down at the enormous brown skeleton in the valley and murmured, "Mountain Dragon, I'm leaving. From now on, the Dragon Tomb is in your hands..."

The Mountain Dragon King's remains made no reply, silent as a distant brown mountain...

Half-rotted yellow bones lay exposed on the earth. A wild, desolate wind swept past now and then, whistling softly through their hollow shafts.

It was as if a million souls were hunched over their own bones, wailing in grief.

They were seeing off the greatest King of their age.

The mournful wind swept up dragon aura and passed over the withered yellow earth.

"Rumble!"

In the blink of an eye, the land changed color.

A mighty will brought with it terrifying dragon might, bursting through the surface of the valley and rampaging across the vast world.

It was a colossal, terrifying dragon soul, stretching across the sky above the valley.

As its Will of Destruction surged, it dyed half the sky a brilliant purple.

A pair of violet-gold slit pupils radiated boundless majesty. They swept over the eight-colored dragon souls fleeing in every direction, then fixed on a platinum azure dragon.

A deep, abyssal dragon roar thundered across the world:

"Di Guangming!"

"Why are you wailing in my tomb with this pack of dead dragons? Hm?!"

The Holy Dragon King, whose form had almost faded away, was so startled by the amethyst dragon soul that it regained another layer of platinum light on the spot.

"Your Majesty?"

The Holy Dragon King put away the Dark Crown.

Then it respectfully bowed its head and replied in a measured voice, "This junior had no intention of disturbing your slumber. It was simply because..."

As it spoke, it looked down toward the valley, another trace of sorrow seeping into its eyes.

"It's dead?" The amethyst dragon soul seemed to sense it, too.

After all, it and the Dragon God's physical body—the Golden Dragon King—had once been twin siblings.

Unexpectedly, the amethyst dragon soul threw back its head and laughed. "Good! Good that it's dead! It's very good that it's dead!"

"It harmed the Phoenix to seize creation, then surrounded me to strip away destruction. This is nothing but retribution! Hahaha—"

"First its wife died, then its own son. It was betrayed by all, its body left incomplete, and its entire clan shattered."

"Did it think it could take the Phoenix's and my Godheads so easily? Hahaha!"

Its shrill laughter echoed through the world, proving once more the desolation of the scene.

The Holy Dragon King could only close its eyes and listen quietly at its side, like a junior.

Even though the other was slandering its Father God and laying bare the Dragon Clan's many shameful, painful memories... as the strongest Dragon King, it could only endure it in silence, because—

This colossal dragon soul held a status equal to the Dragon God's, both in life and in death. Neither the Nine True Dragon Kings nor any other members of the Dragon Clan dared speak ill of this supreme being.

If the Dragon God was the source of the True Dragon Clan among dragons,

then this amethyst dragon soul had been the source of Sub-Dragons in life.

It was the legendary twin of the Dragon God, common ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan.

Long ago, in the Divine Dragon Realm, it had been praised as "above the Nine Kings, standing shoulder to shoulder with the gods."

The Dragon Clan of the Divine Dragon Realm had built this Dragon Tomb for one purpose alone—to bury this "Emperor."

Among the countless members of the Dragon Clan, only this Emperor had the right to point at the Dragon God Heart below and curse it.

The dragon souls, though terrified, waited reverently at the edge of the sky. Not one dared interrupt the Emperor's outburst.

The amethyst dragon soul roared for a long while before gradually drawing the Will of Destruction that had dyed half the sky purple back into itself.

Its violet-gold slit pupils glared at the valley one last time. "If my physical body were still intact, you'd be the first thing I chewed up—Divine Core and all."

Trailing its Will of Destruction, the amethyst dragon soul sank toward the ground, seeming ready to return to its boundless slumber.

The Dragon Emperor fell silent, and the world grew quiet once more...

The Holy Dragon King still held its deceased wife's crown, looking utterly resigned to life and death as it waited for its own soul to fade.

The eight-colored dragon souls overhead, too, turned back into withered yellow clouds.

Just as the Dragon Clan was about to slowly reach its end in this sorrowful fashion...

The amethyst dragon soul suddenly turned its head on the ground and called up to the sky, "Di Guangming."

"I have a way to restore the Dragon Clan's glory and even create another Five-Dimensional Divine Star, where my Dragon Clan and countless other beasts can thrive."

"Will you follow me?"

The Dragon Tomb Minor World fell briefly silent, then erupted into a frenzy.

The clouds overhead stirred awake once more, eight-colored dragon clouds gathering around the Dragon Emperor's soul.

Even the skeletons on the ground began to give rise to one soul after another.

Even the Mountain Dragon King Torso Bone, steady as a mountain, faintly stirred with the pulse of a soul.

They all awoke, waiting to hear what the Dragon Emperor would say next.

There was no other reason. These words had come from an "Emperor" equal in status to the Dragon God. That alone made them authoritative enough.

But the Holy Dragon King, the Dragon God's foremost follower, remained pessimistic. "That's impossible."

"Just on your claim that you can 'create another Five-Dimensional Divine Star,' this junior believes it's impossible."

"After all, back then, our clan had to sacrifice even the Crown Prince's body and soul to shape the Divine Dragon Realm into a Divine Star. Only then could the star begin to take shape."

The subject was far too heavy. It had been the Divine Crown Prince's deception and sacrifice that drove the Dragon God mad and brought the once-prosperous Dragon Clan crashing down in a single day.

That was why the countless dragon souls and the Holy Dragon King had little faith in the Dragon Emperor's far-fetched words.

The Holy Dragon King continued, "Besides, you died long ago, and my Father God stripped you of your Destruction Godhead. What resources do you have to speak of restoring our vast Dragon Clan?"

At this, the dragon souls, some of whom had been getting excited, grew dispirited and prepared to sink back into slumber.

But the Dragon Emperor did not answer the Holy Dragon King directly. Instead, it asked, "You think I can't create a Divine Realm on my own?"

"Then let me ask you: if I combined the True Dragon Origin with the Sub-Dragon Origin, could I open up a Five-Dimensional Divine Realm all by myself?"

The Holy Dragon King was confused. "What do you mean?"

The Dragon Emperor's soul shook its head and sighed. "It seems you True Dragons have never considered this..."

"If I joined with your Father God, then no matter which of us devoured the other, an unimaginable supreme being would be born."

"By bloodline alone, that being would surely grow to a level beyond that of a Supreme God!"

"For a being like that, how difficult could it be to create a Five-Dimensional Divine Realm?"

"If he had devoured my corpse after killing me back then, blending my Sub-Dragon Origin bloodline into his True Dragon Origin body, he could at least have kept his wife alive, kept his son safe, and kept our countless Dragon Clan members in glory to this day!"

"Alas, with his 'astonishing wisdom,' he never considered it."

As it spoke, the Dragon Emperor looked deep into the valley, as if staring at a spineless, good-for-nothing coward.

"But now it's all too late." The Holy Dragon King remained pessimistic.

It listed the reasons one by one. "To begin with, Father God's physical body is dead. Even if it weren't and still existed in the Divine Realm..."

"The laws of the Divine Realm have long since changed. Beasts can no longer enter. The Divine Realm is no longer a 'home' that either of us can break into. Even if every one of the Dragon Tomb's countless dragon souls joined forces, we still couldn't rescue the Golden Dragon King."

"No!" The Dragon Emperor flatly denied it. "We don't need to enter the Divine Realm."

Then it explained why. "Through the bond between us as twins, I can clearly sense that although its physical body was destroyed, its Divine Core and bloodline still exist in this world—and they're here on the very plane the Dragon Tomb is attached to."

"As long as I descend to this Douluo Plane, find and devour this 'it' that's barely clinging to life, I can unite the True Dragon Origin and Sub-Dragon Origin, surpass the Supreme God realm, and create a Five-Dimensional Divine Star!"

"It's that simple. It's what I intend to do."

"Is that really true?" The Holy Dragon King immediately grew excited.

Even its platinum light brightened, as if it had been granted a second spring.

In that moment, a platinum sun rose once more among the eight-colored dragon clouds. Sacred light reappeared, shining out to every corner of the universe.

The Holy Dragon King reverently answered the question it had first been asked: "My Emperor! This junior is willing to follow you and restore the Dragon Clan!"

In the Dragon Tomb Minor World, countless dragon souls surged and seethed.

Countless dragon souls gathered, forming an eight-colored torrent that swirled around the Dragon Emperor. They only wished to strengthen his soul body by the slightest degree, laying the foundations for the Dragon Clan's restoration.

The Dragon Emperor paid no heed to the dragon energy fawning over him—or rather, he did not want to absorb the soul clouds of the True Dragon Clan.

After all, he had to preserve the purity of the progenitor of the Sub-Dragons.

The Amethyst Dragon Soul sank back beneath the earth and left them with a final message: "Without the bones underground to anchor me, my soul body won't be able to drift through the Douluo Plane for long, so I'll quickly reincarnate into a new body."

"For this moment, I've been laying plans across the planes beyond the tomb for tens of thousands of years."

"I even took the name 'Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon' and projected my image in the form of a Martial Soul, cultivating it within the bloodline of a human family surnamed Xu, all so I could fully descend today."

"Go, Di Guangming. Leave this Dragon Clan's grave in your own way and find my new body in its next life."

"With my rebirth, I will pry open the entire Dragon Clan's future—and make it shine once more!"

The Holy Dragon King coiled through the sky. He bowed his head toward the Amethyst Dragon Soul sinking underground and let out a long cry: "May all go smoothly for you. I bid you farewell, my Emperor."

As the platinum dragon head lifted,

the Holy Dragon King did not linger for even a moment. After gazing once more at Dragon Valley, he turned to face the sky and transformed into a platinum dragon, charging headlong toward the very top of the firmament.

The platinum dragon soared skyward and flew into the rift cleaved open by the Dragon-Slaying Blade, vanishing beyond the shimmering stars...

Clarifications on the original work's setting, to prevent disagreements later on.

1. Why call the Dragon God's twin dragon the Dragon Emperor?

There were only two beings with the highest bloodline in the Dragon Clan:

the Dragon God and his twin dragon.

Because of these two beings, the Dragon Clan was divided into two branches:

the True Dragon branch and the Sub-Dragon branch.

The Dragon God was the progenitor of the True Dragon branch and the adoptive father of the Nine True Dragon Kings;

the Dragon God's twin dragon was the progenitor of the Sub-Dragon branch—in other words, the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan (as established in Peerless Tang Sect).

The Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan was the true progenitor of the Sub-Dragons. The twin dragon gave birth to the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan, and the clan in turn created the Sub-Dragon branch.

The reason this twin dragon was called the Dragon Emperor rather than the Dragon King was that, according to the settings of the four Douluo series, the Nine True Dragon Kings were the Dragon God's adopted sons. By seniority, that made them the nephews and nieces of his twin dragon.

So the idea that the Dragon God's adopted sons were the brothers of the Dragon God contradicts itself. That means the twin dragon's title in the Dragon Clan definitely wasn't King, but something of a higher rank: Emperor. (For the paired titles of God and Emperor, you can look to the Dragon God Douluo and Dragon Emperor Douluo pairing in Douluo 2. After all, many plotlines in Douluo 3 were copied and pasted from Douluo 2, and readers have pointed this out in many of the original work's chapter comments.)

2. If the True Dragons had Dragon Kings, did the Sub-Dragon Clan have Dragon Kings too?

Yes. The Tyrant Dragon was explicitly the King of the Sub-Dragons in the original work. The ancestor of the Tyrant Dragon buried in the Dragon Tomb, the one with dragon wings, was one of the Sub-Dragon Clan's kings in the Divine Dragon Realm.

However, since the Dragon God and the Nine True Dragon Kings joined forces to kill the twin dragon, the Sub-Dragon kings were most likely purged in that slaughter as well, and buried alongside the twin dragon in the Dragon Tomb.

That Tyrant Dragon ancestor buried alongside him is proof.

3. From the very beginning, the Dragon Tomb was built to bury the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan.

The Dragon Tomb Minor World had existed for a very long time before the Dragon Clan's extinction, and came in handy when the Dragon Clan fell;

the Dragon God's twin dragon, the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan, had already been killed by his twin brother before the God Star was founded. So we can be certain his corpse was buried in the Dragon Tomb Minor World.

We could even say outright that the Dragon God created the Dragon Tomb Minor World to lay his twin dragon to rest, so he could mourn him more easily.

4. Why was the Holy Dragon King called Di Guangming?

Because his son was named Di Tian.

Di Tian's master was the Dragon God, and his parents were the Holy Dragon King and the Dark Dragon King. So it stands to reason that Di Tian's father, the Holy Dragon King, was also surnamed Di.

And since the Holy Dragon King had evolved from the Light Dragon King, it makes the most sense for his name to have been Di Guangming. (After all, the God of Asura was simply called Asura, and the Light Dragon King was simply called Guangming. That fits the original work's naming conventions too.)

5. The Holy Dragon King wasn't called the Light Dragon King because he followed the example of his father god's old comrade-in-arms, the Progenitor Tiger King—a giant tiger with black and gold stripes. By seniority, the Progenitor Tiger King was the uncle of the Nine True Dragon Kings, on the same level as the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan and the Phoenix God King. His only surviving bloodline was the Tiger King Blue Butterfly of Douluo 4's Elven Star.

He elevated his light attribute, transforming it into the holy attribute.

The white Light Dragon King thus leapt forward in rank, evolving into the golden Holy Dragon King and becoming the strongest of the Nine Great Dragon Kings. He married the Dark Dragon King, inherited the Dragon-Slaying Blade, took charge of order within the True Dragon Clan, and reached the pinnacle of dragonhood...

A fun fact: the evolution of light into holiness also exists in the angel system. For example, two-winged angels wield the light attribute. When they evolve into Four-Winged Holy Angels, they gain the holy attribute. With the addition of wings of fire, they become Six-Winged Seraphim, also known as Solar Angels. (Qian Renxue used this form at the end of Douluo 1.)

If light can evolve into holiness, what can darkness evolve into?

Darkness can naturally evolve into the evil attribute. In the original work, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger is an example of darkness evolving into evil.

However, the Dark Dragon King (Di Tian's birth mother) did not evolve the evil attribute on the basis of ultimate darkness. Instead, the Dragon God bestowed the Power of Annihilation upon her.

In summary, the Holy Dragon King wielded ultimate light and ultimate holiness, while the Dark Dragon King wielded ultimate darkness and the Power of Annihilation.

Di Tian inherited his father's golden eyes and his mother's ultimate darkness and royal title.

At the time, the couple belonged to the most powerful faction among the Dragon Kings of the Divine Dragon Realm. Their influence was so great that they could send their own son into the Dragon God Palace to learn one of the Dragon God Transformation's secret techniques: the Dragon God Claw.

6. After the Dragon God was reborn and remade, one of his horns fell off. It was forged into the Dragon-Slaying Blade and bestowed upon the strongest Dragon King of that era, the Holy Dragon King. The Dragon God ordered him to serve as the enforcer of the entire Divine Dragon Realm and lead the Nine True Dragon Kings in maintaining order throughout the realm.

7. At the height of the Divine Dragon Realm:

the Dragon God, the Nine Great Dragon Kings, and the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan

together maintained a balanced triangle:

Creation, Order, and Destruction.

But later, the Dragon God led the Nine True Dragon Kings in killing the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan, breaking that balance and indirectly leading the entire Dragon Clan to extinction.

(This balanced triangle was probably written by Sanshao with reference to the Hindu Trimurti. After all, gods like Asura and Rakshasa were also inspired by Hindu mythology.)

8. The Dragon God wasn't a benevolent figure.

The Dragon God reached the Supreme God realm by fusing the dual Godhoods of Creation and Annihilation.

But the Creation Godhead came from the Phoenix God King, and the Annihilation Godhead most likely came from the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan.

After all, we can be certain that the ancestor of the Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan was a peak God King in life, wielding one of the universe's fundamental laws: destruction. (The other law was creation: creating life and spirit. After reaching level five and completing Spirit Forging, one could produce a trace of creation power, which was in the hands of the Phoenix God King.)

So please don't paint the Dragon God as some paragon of virtue. His predatory cultivation method, by human standards, makes him a thoroughly evil cultivator—an Evil Soul Master, a fallen one.

Moreover, the entire Purple Radiance Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Clan was made up of the Dragon God's own nieces and nephews. They were the only dragons of that era related to him by blood. (The Dragon Crown Prince hadn't been born yet.)

Yet he slaughtered every last one of them. His goal was most likely to refine their destruction power and repair his Annihilation Godhead. (The twin dragon may have overexerted himself while resisting and suffered a shattered Godhood—just like Qian Renxue, the last Angel God.)

Of course, the Dragon God received his due punishment. The Creation Godhead and the Annihilation Godhead repelled each other—as happens to Evil Soul Masters in Peerless Tang Sect, who rely on predatory cultivation and eventually develop internal rejection. This led him to develop a split personality, and after his son sacrificed himself, he flew into a mad frenzy. (You can refer to Douluo IV, where the Dragon God's remnant soul warned Lan Yuxuan to beware that the Creation and Annihilation Godhoods would repel each other. In the end, the little Dragon God also went mad because of this problem, which is enough to show that the root of the Dragon God's madness was the mutual rejection of the dual Godhoods that did not belong to him...)

All right, now that I've finished clarifying the setting, dear readers, please enjoy this grand production!

(Remember to read the latest chapter every Tuesday. It affects whether the author can receive this month's salary.)

"Lastly, I hope my attentiveness can bring you a better reading experience."