The fusion process was easy, at least for Tang Wulin as he was now.
The Blood-Exploding Snake had long since been scared witless by Long Yuan's Dragon Might, and Tang Wulin's physical constitution was far superior to what it had been before. As a result, the process took only half an hour.
Tang Wulin stood up in the room and breathed in the air, feeling the strength growing inside him. He could sense that his blood was flowing faster, too.
His Soul Power had clearly grown much stronger. With just the slightest movement of his mind, a wave of Soul Power rippled around him.
He swung his arm with all his might.
"Smack—"
A faint crack rang out in the air.
"This kind of strength, teacher! I did it!"
[Well done. Congratulations. Let's see your Soul Skill.]
"Oh, right!" Tang Wulin held out his right hand and released his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul.
Slender Blue Silver Grass vines sprouted from his palm, but rather than spreading out, they stood straight up like swords.
Look closely, and one could see scarlet-red patterns crawling over them, just like the Blood-Exploding Snake's scales.
A white Soul Ring appeared beside him.
Right after that, a little snake poked its head out as well.
Its scarlet scales were now covered in fine golden patterns, making it look even more imposing.
Clearly, the little fellow had been thoroughly marinated in the Golden Dragon King's power.
[Go on, show me your Soul Skill.]
"Mm. First Soul Skill, Blood Explosion!"
The Soul Ring beside Tang Wulin lit up. The vines in his palm curled back with a flick of his wrist, winding around his arm in a crisscross pattern.
The Blue Silver Grass leaves weren't very thick, so they slipped neatly beneath his sleeve.
A blood-red glow encircled Tang Wulin, and even his eyes had taken on a tinge of red.
He looked a little like he was going berserk.
"Teacher, my first Soul Skill is a boost-type Soul Skill. It raises my physical strength in every way by twenty percent, and every ten levels, the boost increases by another five percent."
[Not bad. That's a very well-rounded boost-type skill.]
With Long Yuan's insight, he could tell that the Soul Skill's effects went beyond that. Aside from the boost it provided, the Blue Silver Grass itself had also become much tougher. Combined with the snake's innate ability to coil around things, the Blue Silver Grass vines could even restrain an opponent if Tang Wulin got close.
[So, what do you think? Give this little one a name.]
At that, Tang Wulin looked down at the little snake in his palm.
It lifted its head slightly and flicked its tongue at him.
The light in the room fell on its scales, making them glimmer gold.
"I'll call you Golden Light!"
After tidying up, Tang Wulin shared the good news with Tang Ziran, and they went home together.
Tang Ziran was delighted by his son's breakthrough, too.
"You've reached level ten, so you're officially a Soul Master now. But you still need to pay attention in class every day, especially with your teacher Mang Tian. Don't even think about slacking off, understand?"
"Mm, I'll work hard." Tang Wulin nodded firmly.
The next day, Tang Wulin told Mang Tian that he had absorbed a Soul Spirit. Mang Tian wasn't surprised. He simply told him to finish the work at hand as soon as possible, then officially began teaching him Thousand Refinement.
"Thousand Refinement isn't simply striking metal with a hammer a thousand times. You have to keep hammering until every impurity inside the metal has been removed. What makes Thousand Refinement special is its ascension effect: as you hammer the metal, it undergoes an extraordinary transformation."
"It's like a person. A Soul Master's cultivation is also a process of improving oneself. The two have something in common."
By the time he got home, Tang Wulin was utterly exhausted. He had expected Thousand Refinement to be tiring, but not this tiring.
He flung himself onto the bed. He didn't even want to move a finger.
[Wulin, based on what I've observed over the past few days, my first seal has begun to loosen.]
Long Yuan spoke up suddenly.
"Huh? Teacher, won't that have a bad effect on you?"
At his words, Tang Wulin sat bolt upright, forgetting even his aching body as he asked anxiously.
Long Yuan nodded with satisfaction. Under his subtle influence over the past two years, Tang Wulin had developed in every way—intellectually, morally, physically, aesthetically, and through hard work. In his previous life, he would have been the perfect model student.
[The seal breaking won't affect me, of course. The problem is you.]
"Me?" Tang Wulin pointed at himself.
[Yes, you.]
[It happened a long time ago. I wasn't originally from the Douluo Continent. After I lost a great war, I was sealed away. It was a long, long time—so long that my memories grew hazy, until all that remained in my heart was rage.]
Long Yuan spoke with a sigh.
Tang Wulin listened closely. This was the first time his teacher had told him about his past.
As far as he was concerned, his teacher was a mysterious and powerful being.
But hearing this now, he wasn't even from this world?
[You seem a little doubtful. Haven't you heard the legends of Sea God Tang San and Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao ascending to the Divine Realm? That's another world, too. There are countless planets in the universe, and the Douluo Continent isn't the only place with intelligent life.]
Tang Wulin was deeply shaken, but he said he still wanted to hear what came next.
"Then why were you sealed inside me, teacher?"
[After who knows how long, an unprecedented disaster struck that world. I seized the chance to escape and chose to take revenge.]
[There's no doubt about it: I failed once again. And then I regained consciousness once more—when you awakened your Martial Soul.]
Though he had gone around in a big circle, the gist was simple: "I don't know."
He really had only awakened two years ago. As for the Golden Dragon King's former consciousness, it was long gone, leaving only instinct behind.
And over the years, he had completely assimilated those instincts.
[In any case, you can't withstand my power as you are now. You must strengthen your body as much as possible before my seal is broken.]
[At the same time, you must find three rare treasures: a Century Ice Crystal Fruit, a Century Red Flame Fruit, and ten drops of blood from a Hundred-Year Soul Beast with dragon blood.]
That was right. Long Yuan had decided to break the seal himself.
Being bound by the seal made everything he wanted to do inconvenient.
If he could break the seal, even just one layer, he could use the Golden Dragon King's essence to condense a new body directly, just like the Silver Dragon King.
The only difference was that the Silver Dragon King had become Na'er from the origin of her spiritual power, while he would split off an incarnation from his bloodline power.
No—his newly reborn true body!