The Sun Moon Federation, East Sea Coast.
Aolai City, outside Red Mountain Primary Academy.
A black-haired little boy thrust his fist at the sky, turning his hurt into stubborn resolve as he let out a tiny "Roar!"
"Even if my Martial Soul isn't any good, I'll still become the greatest Soul Master!"
His clear eyes sparkled brightly in the afternoon sun.
But he couldn't hold the pose for even three seconds. At the sound of a rumbling stomach, he clapped a hand over it, and his whole body wilted.
"Ugh, I'm so hungry~"
Grrr~~
Remembering how he'd just been dubbed the "King of Bottomless Appetites," Tang Wulin could only pout and head home to find his mother.
As he walked along the tree-shaded road, a flash of iridescent silver at the corner ahead caught his eye.
Beneath the trees by the roadside, a little girl was crouching.
She looked even younger than he was, yet she had long silver hair that shimmered in the sunlight.
But the little girl's face was filthy, and her ragged dress made her look every bit like a beggar.
As if drawn by some unseen force, the little girl raised her head and looked left, toward Tang Wulin.
Their eyes met. Tang Wulin noticed that the silver-haired girl's eyes were huge, like two clear crystal balls, and that her long silver lashes curled upward.
The two children stared, stunned by each other's presence.
Just then, three shifty young men in shabby clothes came around the other end of the corner and surrounded the silver-haired girl beneath the trees.
They asked about her situation with ill intent, exchanging glances as they discussed which black market would pay the most for her.
As the little girl shook her head desperately in refusal, the young thug leading them ignored her childish cry and slung her over his shoulder.
Alarmed, Tang Wulin dashed forward, about to shout, "What are you—"
But the moment he took a step, before he could even open his mouth...
A sudden, furious shout rang out through the street. "It's you!"
The three thugs stared in surprise. Following their gaze, Tang Wulin looked down the road they'd come from.
A tall boy with purple hair was striding toward them.
From Tang Wulin's perspective, the boy couldn't have been more than a few years older than him.
But the boy's hair was like purple crystal, its strands bathed in a shimmering purple-crystal radiance beneath the setting sun. It fell to his ears, framing a pair of large purple-gold eyes.
At that moment, the handsome boy wore a distinctly furious expression, his purple-gold eyes fixed on the three young thugs.
Or rather... on the silver-haired girl slung over one of their shoulders.
He looked as if he'd just searched an entire neighborhood and finally caught up with his sworn enemy!
Confusion filled the silver-haired girl's face, but the boy's aura still frightened her pale.
"So it really is you. Finally!"
The purple-haired boy clenched his right hand. An aura far beyond his years burst forth from him.
Brimming with a hatred that would end only with one of them dead, he strode furiously toward the shaded corner.
The three young men, especially the thug carrying the silver-haired girl, recoiled half a step before the boy's overwhelming presence.
When they finally came to their senses, they managed a stammering, forced laugh. "I wondered who it was. You're just a kid yourself."
But the young man on the leader's right elbowed his boss and motioned for him to look around.
Beyond the greenery at the shaded corner, a few passersby had already noticed the commotion after the purple-haired boy's shout. They were turning to look.
"Damn it, how dare you ruin this for me!" The leader's face darkened.
He fished a hand into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade. With a sharp flick, he barked, "Hey! Move it!"
Clearly, they meant to deal with this nuisance before the adults nearby paid any more attention.
But just as they were about to make a move, the man on the gang leader's left suddenly began to panic.
He pointed at the purple-haired boy, his voice trembling. "Boss, boss! His chest—look at his chest!"
Watching from a short distance away, Tang Wulin followed the third thug's pointing finger.
Embroidered on the turned-out collar over the purple-haired boy's right chest was a silver, tower-shaped emblem.
"What's that?" Tang Wulin asked, his little face full of confusion.
At six years old, he didn't know enough to recognize the emblem of the power that had awakened his Martial Soul.
But Tang Wulin was a clever child, and from the purple-haired boy's expensive clothes and refined bearing, he could tell that the boy came from an important family.
The young gang leader gasped. "The Spirit Pagoda?"
The Spirit Pagoda had existed for ten thousand years and was one of the most powerful organizations of the modern era.
Even an ordinary full member was someone street thugs like them couldn't afford to provoke!
Besides, the boy was so young. He might be one of the Spirit Pagoda's specially cultivated talents.
And there might even be a guardian within a hundred meters of him...
At the thought, the three thugs' knees went weak, and they stumbled backward.
The leader's hand shook, and the switchblade fell to the ground. He dropped the silver-haired girl, shoved the two men behind him aside, and bolted.
As he ran, he covered his face and shouted, "Cover your faces! Don't let anyone recognize you! Go! Move!"
Unfortunately, Tang Wulin was in their way. The leader's elbow knocked him aside, and he landed hard on his bottom.
Though Tang Wulin was small, the adult's collision hadn't hurt him. Rubbing his backside and tailbone, he got up from the ground with an "Ouch!"
But the first thing on his mind was the silver-haired girl.
"She should be safe now, right?"
But when he looked up, he saw something even more heartbreaking.
The handsome, spirited boy strode up to the silver-haired girl, his manner threatening.
His purple-gold eyes narrowed, as if he were trying to confirm something. The next moment...
"Ah!"
As the silver-haired girl cried out, the purple-haired boy seized her slender throat and lifted her to eye level with one hand!
The purple-haired boy's purple-gold eyes met the little girl's purple-crystal ones.
Through clenched teeth, he asked viciously, "Even if you're just one layer of 'clothing' on his body, you inherited his wisdom. That means you inherited his memories too, right?"
Wisdom was intellect; experience was knowledge.
Every word the purple-haired boy spoke was baffling, yet they all seemed to point toward a single event... a "tragedy" buried by history.
"Mm... mm..." Confusion filled the silver-haired girl's eyes, then gave way to shock.
Her shock was even greater than when she'd first seen Tang Wulin.
On the one hand, the boy before her seemed to have uncovered her identity and origins with a single sentence.
On the other, she discovered that the eight torrents of power buried within her alongside her memories were being suppressed by a profound will!
Even the tiniest trickle escaping through the cracks in that suppression was being continually crushed by the purple-haired boy's aura—almost destroyed!
At such close range, the purple-haired boy also saw the confusion in the silver-haired girl's eyes, along with the "surprise" slowly awakening in them.
At last, he let out a small breath. His tone softened, and he nodded in relief. "Good. Good. At least you have your memories."
"If you remember, then repay him..."
"For murdering his own blood brother, for slaughtering his nieces and nephews—
"Pay with your life!"
The purple-haired boy suddenly roared. Terrifying power surged through his left wrist, making even the air around his hand seem to twist!
The girl's tender face turned blue beneath his grip, and the sound of her displaced windpipe grated from her throat.
She could only clutch his left wrist with both hands. Threads of multicolored light, too fine for the naked eye to see, flowed from her palms and burrowed into his wrist.
But it was no use. A web of diamond-shaped patterns suddenly appeared across the boy's skin, shimmering with a phantom purple-crystal glow that easily shrugged off the multicolored threads.
The silver-haired girl was on the verge of having her throat crushed...
At that critical moment,
a childish shout rang out from the direction the three thugs had fled.
"What are you doing?"
"Let her go!"
The purple-haired boy merely glanced sideways. Seeing that his challenger was just a human child, he immediately looked away in contempt.
But Tang Wulin charged ahead through clenched teeth. He had a vague sense that the purple-haired boy was a powerful Soul Master.
But he wasn't afraid!
Because, somehow, he felt that the silver-haired girl was... very important to him!
A wave of courage surged through Tang Wulin's chest. Without a second thought, he lowered his head and slammed into the purple-haired boy's right shoulder.
The impact made the boy stagger.
It wasn't because six-year-old Tang Wulin, with his Level Three Soul Power, had enough strength to shake him. It was because...
"How is this possible?" The purple-haired boy's purple-gold eyes widened, disbelief flickering within them.
At the spot where their bodies had collided,
the purple-haired boy clearly felt an electric tingle spread from his right shoulder throughout his entire body.
The sensation seemed to come from deep within his bloodline... perhaps even his soul. It made the phantom purple-crystal scales across his skin grow more distinct.
The purple-haired boy stiffened. His left hand slackened, loosening its grip enough for the silver-haired girl to gasp for breath.
At the instant they collided, Tang Wulin's "I'll risk everything" expression froze.
A warm sensation spread from the point where his right shoulder struck the purple-haired boy's.
A golden pattern flashed across Tang Wulin's forehead, then spread over his entire body like a web, as if he'd been scanned by a Soul Tool.
He jerked his head up and met a pair of purple-gold eyes.
At that moment, Tang Wulin could clearly sense something inside him slowly affecting him.
That "something" seemed to fear the person before him, yet it also felt an involuntary closeness toward him.
This wasn't the fear of meeting a natural enemy. It was an instinctive, blood-related dread, like the way an older child in a family held power over his younger siblings.
The physical closeness and psychological fear made Tang Wulin shudder. Goosebumps rose across his tender skin.
"It's you?"
The boy snapped out of his daze, as if waking from a memory.
His surprised, faintly confused gaze suddenly turned entirely to hatred, fixing viciously on Tang Wulin's little face.
At that moment, Tang Wulin's face went deathly pale. The feeling of being stared down by a vengeful ghost demanding his life filled him with terror.
The next moment—
"Ugh!"
The flesh between his jaw and neck hurt. Then Tang Wulin was lifted into the air with one hand.
His tender little face reddened, then turned purple as he choked.
The purple-haired boy examined Tang Wulin, especially the faint golden web of scales on his body.
Hatred and delight shone in his eyes. "It really is you. It really is!"
"I thought you were hiding away on one of the other two continents, barely staying alive. What a pleasant surprise..."
"Or maybe..."
He looked at the silver-haired girl in his left hand, as if suddenly understanding. "You were waiting for him, and that indirectly helped me... find him."
Tang Wulin couldn't hear what the purple-haired boy was saying. The pain and suffocating pressure made him kick helplessly.
As he spoke, the purple-haired boy tightened his grip. He clearly had no intention of crushing his "prey" all at once, instead increasing the pressure slowly.
He seemed to be savoring the moment. As he watched the golden and silver figures struggle in his hands, he felt the hatred that had accumulated within him for millions of years gradually dissolve and weaken with the fading of their lives.
The silver-haired girl's eight-colored light was suppressed, but under the purple-haired boy's tightening grip, eight-colored veins bulged across her body, making her look as if she were about to burst.
"Bad guy, you're a bad—"
Between life and death, Tang Wulin's eyes suddenly turned pure gold. Blue light flashed in his right palm, and strands of Blue Silver Grass twined with golden threads sprouted from the gap between his palm and the purple-haired boy's wrist.
As his emotions surged, a fresh, clear aura spread faintly from his body, carrying the fragrance of grass after rain. (Reference: the Goddess of Life's Kiss in The Legend of the Divine Realm.)
The Blue Silver Grass leaves, threaded with golden veins, curled around the purple-haired boy's wrist. Their toughness made him frown slightly.
"Hm? Wait..."
The purple-haired boy suddenly loosened his grip with his right hand.
He pressed his nose close to Tang Wulin's collarbone and sniffed down his body, until he reached the area below his chest. Then he frowned and clicked his tongue. "Tsk. No, that's not right."
Tang Wulin had just managed to breathe again. He was gulping down fresh air, his vision blurred from lack of oxygen. He had no time to worry about the bad guy's inappropriate behavior.
Suddenly, the purple-haired boy sighed. His voice carried a note of melancholy. "You're not him."
His purple-gold eyes rested on Tang Wulin's chest and abdomen, seeming to see through layers of skin and bone to a golden core, the Eighteen-Layer Seal, and a faint, hidden, transparent figure.
At that moment, the purple-haired boy seemed to understand something. He stopped tightening his right hand.
"No wonder I could sense her but not you. You were isolated layer by layer by the seal and divine will..."
"And you're, at most, someone caught in the crossfire. A poor wretch who could lose himself at any moment."
For once, a trace of pity seeped into his purple-gold eyes. Then he opened his hand.
Tang Wulin dropped to the ground with a rustle of grass leaves, landing hard on his bottom. His little face was red as he gasped for breath.
But the purple-haired boy kept staring at Tang Wulin's chest, murmuring in a low voice, "What a pity. With my strength as it is, I still can't break through the Eighteen-Layer Seal or that wisp of... divine will."
"Hah. I'll just leave it with you for now."
With that, he paid Tang Wulin no more attention and focused on the girl in his left hand.
But while he'd been distracted by his own muttering, a strand of Blue Silver Grass had wound itself around his left wrist without his noticing.
"Bad guy! I'll make you..." Tang Wulin lifted his head, his golden eyes blazing.
"Let her go!"
Author's Note:
1. The silver-haired girl, Na'er, is the complete Silver Dragon King.
At this point in time, Gu Yuena hadn't split into Gu Yue and Na'er. Her strength had most likely not reached its peak either, but she was still far more powerful than most Hundredth-Level Gods.
It was only because she had sealed her cultivation and part of her memories during this period that the Dragon Emperor found an opportunity to capture her.
2. The purple-haired boy was the Dragon Emperor reincarnated.
There was no doubt that the Dragon Emperor had possessed the power of a peak God King in life. (It had taken the Dragon God and the Nine True Dragon Kings working together to surround and kill him; even the Progenitor Tiger King might have joined them.) After his death, even as a dragon soul, he far surpassed a Hundredth-Level God. And it was only because he now had a physical body to support him that he could "suppress" Gu Yuena's sealed cultivation, forcibly keeping the Silver Dragon King from unleashing her true strength.
However, this ability to "suppress" her was limited by his body's current level of cultivation. Once the period of enhancement wore off, the side effect of "body and soul falling out of sync" would appear—the dragon soul was too powerful for the body to adapt to.
So when the Dragon Emperor throttled the Silver Dragon King, he was truly using his cultivation to suppress hers, using the power of destruction to counter the erosion of the eight elements. That was how the scene of "holding gold and silver in his hands" came about. So long as he could keep the Silver Dragon King's sealed cultivation pinned down, he really could crush her with one hand before the side effect of body and soul falling out of sync erupted, absorb Gu Yuena, and obtain the Creation Godhead.
Tang Wulin's "golden-scale collision," both times, accelerated the onset of the side effect of body and soul falling out of sync. He did it through the twin bond between the Dragon God and the Dragon Emperor, which also amounted to saving the Silver Dragon King's life. (The Golden Dragon King was the Dragon God's physical body, so the Dragon Emperor was its twin—not the Silver Dragon King, that "colorful garment.")
As for what level of physical body could bear the Dragon Emperor's soul, the power of destruction, and the Will of Destruction—
I think I'll give you all a big surprise two chapters from now.
And why Tang San's divine sense didn't step in to save her is also a key plot foreshadowing—one could even call it a core part of the setting, not a plot hole.
3. The Purple-Gold Eyes concept originated from the Martial Soul Avatar of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon in Peerless Tang Sect.
The Martial Soul Avatar of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon had a pair of golden vertical pupils. The original text explicitly used this detail to prove that the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon had an extraordinary origin.
So, as the source of the bloodline, the ancestor of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon should logically have a stronger bloodline, and therefore Purple-Gold Eyes. (For example, among the divine beasts of the same era, the higher form of the Golden Behemoth was the Purple Gold Behemoth.)
Before you continue