Outside the forging room.
Holy Dragon King: Di Guangming.
He maintained his usual respectful posture, like an otherworldly nobleman's butler, quietly standing outside the door until he had watched the Dragon Emperor complete the Deep Silver's Tenfold Tempering and comprehend creation.
Whenever he was free, he always held a Dark Dragon Coronet in his hands. It was the crown his late wife had worn in life.
"You're here?" The Dragon Emperor seemed to sense something and turned his pure-gold gaze toward a distant point outside.
A few seconds later, he walked to the forging room's entrance and, right in front of the Holy Dragon King, snatched the Dark Crown from his hands.
But the Holy Dragon King only dared to part his lips... looking as though he wanted to say something but couldn't.
The instant the Dragon Emperor held the Dark Dragon Coronet in his palms and touched it with his Will of Destruction...
A power that surpassed destruction and could annihilate all suddenly appeared and ebbed within the Dark Crown.
It was the Power of Annihilation the Dark Dragon King had mastered, in addition to ultimate darkness.
This Power of Annihilation didn't erode the Dragon Emperor's hands. Instead, soothed by his Will of Destruction, it fluttered and swirled between his palms, like a fledgling returning to its nest.
In an instant, the Dragon Emperor's gaze turned profound, and memories surged through his mind like a tide...
"Back then, I sublimated destruction into this spark of annihilation. I never thought that after all these countless years, it would still amount to so little."
"None of the Nine True Dragon Kings have grown, with the exception of you."
The Power of Annihilation returned to the Dark Crown, and the Dragon Emperor tossed it back into the Holy Dragon King's hands.
He reminded him, in an ill-tempered tone, "That lapdog son of yours is here. He's not coming in peace, so get ready to receive him."
"Huh?" The usually meek Holy Dragon King froze.
He reflexively asked, "My... son?"
After all, the Dragon Clan had fallen millions of years ago. Every Dragon King had perished in the catastrophe that destroyed their race. How could he possibly have any descendants left in the world?
"Yes, the dark, ugly one who got his looks from your wife, but his eyes from you. Little Blackie." The Dragon Emperor quietly put away the Deep Silver components and strode out of the forging room.
"Or did you think when I said 'You're here?' I was just greeting you?"
He bumped the Holy Dragon King aside, jolting him out of his confusion, then motioned for him to follow.
"Interesting. Now that's interesting."
At an open-air tea table on the top floor,
a black-haired, golden-eyed man in his prime clamped a hand around the purple-haired Xu Family youth called "Tianyi."
He turned his golden eyes and twisted his neck from side to side, carefully examining the human he held aloft.
He clicked his tongue in amazement. "No wonder my lord told me to investigate this place. The Dragon Clan's aura is so powerful."
"I've only just arrived, and I've already found someone who awakened the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul. What a rarity."
Xu Tianyi gripped the wrist that was squeezing his throat, his breath coming in fits and starts, his voice full of disbelief. "Cough... you... you're the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon from the Forbidden Land in the Star Dou Forest Reserve."
"King Di Tian?!"
"Hm?!" The black-haired, golden-eyed man furrowed his brows. His grip tightened slightly.
His face darkened. "Hah! If you didn't have the bloodline of the Ancestor of Sub-Dragons in you..."
"Just for that erroneous title, I should've crushed you to death a hundred times over!"
Just then, the sound of a teacup and its jade lid clinking together came from behind Di Tian.
Bi Ji, with green hair braided into a long scorpion-tail plait and a curvaceous figure, knelt and presented a cup of Oolong Tea. "Give it a try. These tea leaves contain an exceptionally rich dragon aura. They seem to have grown and been harvested in a place where dragon corpses gathered."
"Humans who live here certainly know how to enjoy themselves."
"A place where dragon corpses gathered?" Di Tian took the Oolong Tea in his left hand.
Combining that with the purple-haired youth in his right, Di Tian suddenly understood. "I see. Your family found a Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon burial ground, and after generations of exposure to its influence, you awakened the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon Martial Soul."
"Could this encounter be the chance I need to overcome my ninth tribulation?"
He released his right hand, dropping the young man to his knees, then bluntly demanded, "Tell me, what family are you from?"
"Tell me, and for the sake of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, I'll spare you and your family."
Xu Tianyi had already died once, so he naturally wasn't afraid of death.
He sneered disdainfully. "Hmph! Di Tian, you dare trespass into human territory and lay hands on one of the Spirit Pagoda's people. Does your Star Dou Forbidden Land no longer wish to exist?"
"Spirit Pagoda?" Di Tian pictured the towering wall that had penned them in within the Star Dou Great Forest. A murderous glint flashed in his eyes.
"Looks like I'll have to use more drastic measures to make you reveal where those tea leaves grow!"
He flung the cup of Oolong Tea away and slashed down with his clawed hand, dragging along a darkness that refused to fade.
But as the teacup fell, a calm voice spoke from the direction where it was headed. "Is that water brewed with the grass on your mother's grave, or a keepsake leaf your father specially brought back?"
Di Tian froze. Fury blazed in his eyes, as if someone had pried open his reverse scale.
Even Bi Ji looked anxiously toward the source of the voice...
There sat a purple-haired kid, accompanied by a golden-haired, white-clad butler. He had settled leisurely into the seat directly opposite them.
While the two across from him were stunned, the purple-haired kid snatched the freshly brewed Oolong Tea from Bi Ji's hands, took a sip, then turned back to say, "Old Di, this is such good tea, and your son's gone and wasted it. Aren't you going to draw your blade and give him a good hiding?"
"Are you the target my lord assigned to this mission?" Di Tian had instead calmed down, paying no mind to the purple-haired brat's nonsense.
He had noticed that his golden eyes, inherited from the Holy Dragon King's bloodline, couldn't quite see through the other's soul.
Bi Ji spoke up at that moment, too.
She gestured toward the purple-haired, golden-eyed boy and asked, brows furrowed in confusion, "You really are a Soul Beast? And one that reincarnated, cultivated anew, and completely transformed into human form."
"Could you have come from that poisonous miasma in Sunset Forest?"
"A plant-type being with the aura of the Dragon Clan mixed in. How curious." Di Tian sat down with his legs spread wide, then shoved the tea table in front of his knees aside. It slammed into the glass railing on the right with a dull thud.
"But even if you're qualified to inherit the Goddess of Love's divine position, I won't allow you to disrupt my lord's plans!"
"I'll take you back and have the King of Myriad Monsters discipline you properly!"
Having made his decision, Di Tian raised his gaze to the man standing behind and to the right of the little brat.
Di Tian froze for an instant.
He realized the golden-haired, white-clad man had been watching him the entire time.
Those platinum eyes were filled with affection and longing, as if he were looking at his only child.
As the master of the Star Dou Great Forest and self-proclaimed Beast God, Di Tian wasn't repelled by that gaze. Instead, he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Just as the atmosphere turned strange, the purple-haired brat suddenly said, "Di Guangming, I'm talking to you."
Di Guangming?
Di Tian shot to his feet!
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