Mu Tianyi reached out as if possessed and lightly touched the golden sphere with a finger.
The instant his fingertip made contact, a warm, pure power flowed into his body through it.
Like a sleeping river awakened, it flowed joyfully through Mu Tianyi's meridians.
The feeling was one of closeness that came from deep within his bloodline.
Mu En sprang up from his grand chair, two sharp gleams bursting from his clouded old eyes.
"Tianyi... You can actually touch it? You don't feel any discomfort?"
The old man's voice carried obvious surprise and barely suppressed delight.
Mu Tianyi withdrew his hand and nodded. "It feels very familiar, like... it was mine to begin with."
Mu En fell silent for two seconds, then burst into hearty laughter, the sound making even the sphere tremble.
"Good, good, good! Fate—it truly is fate!"
Leaning on his cane, Mu En rose to his feet and pointed at the golden sphere as he slowly said:
"This is called a Dragon Core."
"Xuan Zu found it in an ancient ruin during his youth. There was the corpse of a Light-element giant dragon there. After that dragon died, the essence of its power condensed into this Dragon Core."
Mu Tianyi's pupils contracted slightly.
A Light-element giant dragon's Dragon Core?
Wasn't this the one that helped Huo Yuhao condense his second Soul Core in the original story?
"Xuan Zu reached his current level—a level ninety-nine Limit Douluo—largely thanks to this Dragon Core."
Mu En spoke calmly.
"Over the years, Xuan Zu had many people try to absorb the Dragon Core's power, but without exception, they all failed."
"They couldn't even touch it, let alone absorb it."
The old man paused, his burning gaze fixed on Mu Tianyi.
"But you are different. Your Bright Sacred Dragon martial soul has an astonishingly high compatibility with this Dragon Core."
"It has even surpassed mine."
Mu Tianyi's heart skipped a beat.
Then Mu En took something from his Soul Tool and handed it over.
It was a soul bone in the shape of a right leg bone.
It was dark purple throughout, its texture as warm and smooth as jade. Fine dragon-scale patterns were faintly visible across its surface, while black mist seemed to drift slowly inside it, radiating a suffocating sense of oppression.
Mu Tianyi reached out and took it. It felt heavy in his hands.
He could sense that the power contained within this soul bone was strong enough to take his breath away.
By his estimation, this soul bone was at least over fifty thousand years old.
"This is the Right Leg Bone of the Hell Demon Dragon—eighty thousand years old," Mu En introduced it, a trace of pride in his voice. "I won it from an old friend in a wager back in my younger days."
"But its attributes don't suit me. It spent decades gathering dust in Xuan Zu's Soul Tool, so today, I'm giving it to you."
Holding the soul bone, Mu Tianyi's thoughts raced.
Mu En looked at him, his gaze profound.
"Tianyi, your Bright Sacred Dragon and Dark Sacred Dragon should be opposites in terms of attribute, yet they coexist within your body and even formed Twin Martial Souls. That alone proves these two giant dragons are extraordinary."
"They show signs of martial soul fusion, yet they have never succeeded. Xuan Zu believes what they lack is not skill, but some external stimulus—or rather, a balance."
Mu En pointed at the Dragon Core with one hand and the soul bone with the other.
"The Bright Dragon Core and the Hell Demon Dragon Bone. One light, one dark; one righteous, one evil."
"Absorb this soul bone immediately. At the same time, Xuan Zu will use the Dragon Core's power to assist you, allowing you to achieve yin-yang balance."
"Perhaps the final step you have struggled to find lies right here."
Mu Tianyi's heart shook at Mu En's words.
Using the Dragon Core's supremely pure light power to suppress the dark, violent aura within the soul bone, allowing the two to clash and balance within his body.
This idea of yin-yang balance, as it had been called in his previous life, was entirely viable in theory.
It could even be said to have been tailor-made for him.
Mu Tianyi took a deep breath and suppressed the excitement in his heart.
Without another word, he sat cross-legged and laid the dark-purple right leg bone flat across his knees.
"Xuan Zu, I'm ready."
Mu En nodded, a rare gravity appearing on his aged face.
He raised his right hand and placed a fingertip against the floating golden Dragon Core.
A strand of incomparably pure light power was drawn out by him and drifted toward Mu Tianyi in wisps.
At the same time, Mu Tianyi activated his Soul Power and enveloped the Hell Demon Dragon Bone on his knees.
Dark-purple light suddenly erupted!
The two powers surged into his body almost simultaneously.
One was warm and pure, like the spring sun, pouring in through the crown of his head and flowing slowly through his meridians. Everywhere it passed felt warm and soothing, indescribably comfortable.
The other was cold and violent, like an abyssal tide, entering through his right leg and climbing upward through the meridians in his leg. Everywhere it passed was piercingly cold, as if his meridians were about to be torn apart.
One hot, one cold.
One light, one dark.
The two utterly opposing powers met inside Mu Tianyi's body, neither willing to yield.
Mu Tianyi's face instantly flushed red, then turned pale again.
Veins bulged across his forehead, while bead-sized drops of sweat rolled down his cheeks.
Pain.
Not ordinary pain.
It was the pain of his body being torn, crushed, and fought over by two different powers.
As though someone had turned him into a lump of dough and was pulling him with all their strength in two opposite directions.
Mu Tianyi gritted his teeth, a muffled groan escaping his throat.
Mu En stood beside him, his gaze locked tightly on his great-grandson's changes. His right hand steadily guided the Dragon Core's power, not daring to relax in the slightest.
"Guard your mind!" the old man said in a steady, forceful voice. "Do not resist either power, and do not try to suppress either side. Let them clash naturally within your body!"
Mu Tianyi heard him, but he could no longer spare the attention to respond.
The two powers rampaged through his body, from his meridians to his organs, from his organs to his bones. Every corner was being scoured over and over again.
The Bright Dragon Core's power repaired him, while the Hell Demon Dragon Bone's power tore him apart.
Repair, tear apart.
Repair again, tear apart again.
The cycle repeated, endless and unceasing.
Mu Tianyi's consciousness began to blur.
He felt as though he had been thrown into a furnace, where flames of light and darkness alternately scorched him, melting and remolding him, then melting and remolding him again.
Just as he was on the verge of being unable to endure any longer.
Suddenly.
One black and one white, two rays of light exploded from within him!
They were not the Dragon Core's power, nor were they the soul bone's power.
They were his own.
They were his martial souls.
The Bright Sacred Dragon and Dark Sacred Dragon.
The two rays intertwined as they rose, condensing behind him into the phantoms of two giant dragons.
One was pale gold, sacred and majestic; the other was black as ink, deep and shadowy.
The two dragon phantoms were more solid than they had ever been before.
Their dragon eyes opened at the same time and looked at each other.
Then...
They suddenly moved.
Instead, like two magnets, they drew one another in and slowly approached.
Mu Tianyi's consciousness instantly sank into chaos.
In his daze, he "saw" the space inside his own body.
It was a boundless dark void.
And at the very center of that void, the two giant dragons lay coiled in silence.
One was pale gold, radiating brilliant light that illuminated half the void.
The other was black as ink, deep and shadowy, blending into the darkness of the other half.
They seemed to sense something and turned their heads at the same time.
Four dragon eyes looked directly at Mu Tianyi.
There was no hostility in their gazes, no scrutiny.
Only something... something Mu Tianyi could neither explain nor name.
Like old friends who had waited a long time and had finally seen someone return.
Then.
The two giant dragons leaped forward at the same time, flying toward Mu Tianyi and transforming into one black and one white streak of light before crashing into his body with a thunderous boom!
Mu Tianyi's entire body shook violently!
A deafening roar sounded in his mind, as though something had exploded inside him.
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