Two Generations of Kings, Light and Dark, Father and Son Reunited

The Holy Dragon King's eyes welled with aged tears, and he called out with profound relief, "It has been a long time, Xiao Tian."

Di Tian, who had just stood up, stiffened.

He looked at the man in disbelief and probed, "Fa-Father?"

"It is I, child, it is I," Di Guangming replied repeatedly.

A white and gold radiance ignited above his head, and a Platinum Dragon Crown, forged from light and divinity, materialized out of thin air to rest upon his brow.

Seeing this platinum crown, combined with that familiar, affectionate face, the warm memories buried deep within Di Tian's mind were lit up one by one.

He took a step forward and knelt with a heavy thud.

"Father!"

"Xiao Tian." Di Guangming could no longer maintain his composure, and he embraced the kneeling Di Tian.

"Oh, Father!"

Large, heavy dragon tears streamed down from Di Tian's golden eyes.

As father and son reunited, the Dragon Emperor did not speak to disturb this touching scene.

He waved his hand to signal the stunned Tianyi to leave, then handed the empty jade cup to Bi Ji, lowering his voice to urge her, "Quick, brew all of it."

"Di Guangming is usually stingy with these leaves; take advantage of him being distracted and brew them quickly, hurry!"

"Back then, during that perilous hunt by the gods, although I managed to salvage a few royal dragon eggs, ever since we fell to the Douluo Plane, they lacked the nourishment of immortal spiritual energy. Without exception... those royal dragon eggs all failed to hatch."

"However, there was one ordinary Water Dragon tribe egg that, through my careful nourishment with my own essence blood, luckily hatched into a female True Dragon. I named her Zi Ji."

"The strange thing is, although Zi Ji lacks the royal qualifications of the Water Dragon tribe, she is capable of harmonizing both darkness and water attributes. The synergy of the two is even greater than a single element, and after the Lord evaluated her growth potential repeatedly, it turned out to be even higher than my own."

"Now, she can be considered a rising star in this era of our dragon race's decline."

Di Tian poured his heart out to his father, recounting the hardships and encounters he had faced since surviving.

On the rooftop glass terrace, the white-clad and black-clad father and son stood, separated by the passage of time, talking toward the traffic and the myriad lights of the city below.

Di Guangming listened intently. He no longer toyed with his late wife's crown, but responded with a sigh, "I never imagined it had fallen into such ruin. However, seeing that you have survived and grown, I am deeply comforted."

He raised a hand to stroke the black hair on the back of his son's head, unable to hide the worries of a dragon father: "But once that Dark Water True Dragon... Zi Ji, was it? Once she is fully grown, you must remember to breed heirs of our True Dragon race with her."

"Try your best to do so before the ninth heavenly tribulation, do you understand? Xiao Tian."

Even the mighty Di Tian, who styled himself as the Beast God, could not escape the pressure to reproduce from his God King father.

Thus, he simply avoided a direct answer and changed the subject: "Father, now that the Lord has awakened, as the rational side of our dragon race's divinity, she will surely lead us to restore the glory of the dragon race!"

"Instead of staying here waiting for this plant-type spirit beast to one day inherit the second-tier Goddess of Love position, why not serve the Lord with me to help her complete the great cause of reviving our race?"

Di Guangming frowned at his son's risky plan, as expected: "The Silver Dragon King? That girl who sealed her own cultivation and memories this afternoon?"

"Yes," Di Tian tilted his head slightly, looking toward the purple-haired boy who was drinking tea and eavesdropping, and explained: "According to the Lord's speculation, that boy is highly likely to be the Lovesick Heartbreak Red spirit beast from the Sunset Forest that inherited the legacy of Uncle Fire and Aunt Water."

"He must have been consumed by greed, taking advantage of the Lord while she sealed her cultivation and memories to steal the heaven-reaching path of our dragon race to accelerate his own path to godhood. That is why the Lord sent me to purge..."

"Stop, stop," Di Guangming interrupted his son's delusions in time.

He glanced at the Dragon Emperor with some trepidation and quickly changed the subject: "He did not come from Fire and Water, but we are about to set off for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to retrieve..."

Di Tian interrupted his father again, insisting: "Father, instead of relying on him to break the curse that prevents spirit beasts from becoming gods, it would be better to solve the problem at the root: let the Lord complete herself and become the new Dragon God!"

Di Guangming shook his head while covering his forehead: "Xiao Tian, that Silver Dragon King girl, she is unreliable."

"If she were the Golden Dragon King, she could directly ascend to the realm of the Father God's physical body after regaining the forty-ninth rib, and then rely on the legacies of our Nine True Dragon Kings, such as the nine great laws..."

"Finally, returning to the Dragon Tomb to retrieve the Father God's nine-law god core, reaching the half-step God King realm would be no issue, and taking over the Douluo Plane would be a simple matter."

"But she is only the Silver Dragon King. She possesses no Golden Dragon bloodline, which means she must not only repeat the steps above but also consume the Golden Dragon King to become a new god."

"You know that the current host of the Golden Dragon King has eighteen seals..."

"But even if she becomes the new Dragon God, what then? Even with the Father God's peerless talent, he still lost his sanity under the influence of the dual godheads. Can she, the Silver Dragon King, withstand the dual godheads of Creation and Destruction?"

"If she forces it without the help of the Dragon Ascension Pillar, she will likely go mad and kill all our remaining dragon kin before she even opens a new God Realm!"

"But if she does not bear the dual godheads, she cannot recreate the God Realm or lift the curse, and we beasts will continue to die under the weight of heavenly tribulations on our path of cultivation."

"Retracing the Father God's old path is equivalent to repeating the same mistakes, but not doing so means accomplishing nothing. The path of the Dragon God is a dead end regardless; neither the Golden Dragon King nor the Silver Dragon King can succeed!"

"Child, wake up."

The Holy Dragon King spoke with earnest sincerity, hoping his son, who had gone astray, would return to the right path.

Di Tian, however, still wanted to argue: "But... if we don't try, how do you know that path is impassable?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the rooftop under the night sky fell into silence.

The Holy Dragon King blinked, thinking he had misheard.

He subconsciously reached for his lower back, and only after realizing the Dragon-Slaying Blade was missing did he calm his mind to recall the ways of parenting, asking with extreme sharpness: "Xiao Tian, tell your father honestly, do you have feelings for that Silver Dragon King?"

"Huh?" Di Tian waved his hands repeatedly: "How could I? Father, you have misunderstood me."

"The Lord is the object of my loyalty; how could I harbor ulterior motives? Moreover, the Lord was my former teacher in her previous life; how could I dare to commit an act of disrespect toward a mentor?"

"Besides..."

Di Tian suddenly turned dejected, saying, "Father, apart from this path, do we Dragonkind have any other choice?"

Di Guangming blurted out, "Yes!"

Di Tian's golden eyes brightened, and he hurriedly pressed, "Where?"

Di Guangming, however, seemed to have received some sort of warning; he suddenly stopped mid-sentence, falling into a silence before evasively changing the subject. "Father cannot say... at least, not right now."

"Tsk, in any case, you won't go wrong listening to your father. Father would never harm you."

"Sigh..." The words stuck in Di Tian's throat, eventually dissolving into a shake of his head and a sigh.

He simply took this as a lie his father had hastily concocted to persuade him.

Silence fell between father and son, as heavy and thick as the night itself.