Divine Light Refines Mortal Body, Merit Bestows Cleansing

"...I acknowledge your oath."

Shenron's grand voice echoed through heaven and earth one final time.

Acknowledge?

Acknowledge what?

Bulma's mind had stopped working. She could not understand what this man and the dragon god were talking about at all.

Oolong, Pilaf, and the others were even more bewildered. They only felt that this man named Lin Xuan was even more mysterious than Shenron.

Just as everyone was still stunned, Shenron in the sky moved.

Its enormous dragon head lowered slightly, and its scarlet eyes gazed deeply at Lin Xuan below one last time.

The coldness had vanished from its gaze, replaced by a measure of approval and expectation.

Then, red light flashed in Shenron's eyes.

Strands of golden light drifted down from its body, each one brimming with rich life force.

They fluttered down soundlessly, carrying a sacred majesty.

This golden rain did not fall upon the earth, nor did it touch anyone else in the ruins.

It seemed to possess a will of its own, all of it converging purposefully upon Lin Xuan alone.

"Wh... what is that?"

Bulma stared upward blankly at the scene.

As a genius scientist, this was the first time she did not know what words to use to describe something.

She could not analyze it. She could only watch helplessly as the golden light gently merged into Lin Xuan's body, little by little.

Lin Xuan did not evade it.

The instant the first strand of golden light touched his skin, he sat cross-legged on the spot, palms facing heaven, his expression grave.

He knew it had worked.

As the golden light continued pouring into him, a faint radiance began to emanate from Lin Xuan's body.

He was enveloped in golden light, appearing sacred and inviolable.

Bulma and the others even had the illusion that taking another look would be disrespectful to a god.

Yet beneath that sacred exterior, Lin Xuan was enduring unimaginable agony.

Marrow cleansing and meridian reforging.

This was true rebirth.

The golden divine light seeped into every cell of his body, tyrannical yet gentle.

It purged the impurities and filth from his body, then reshaped him with the most primordial life energy.

Every inch of skin, every meridian, every bone was forcibly shattered, then reassembled in a more perfect form.

It felt as though his entire body had been thrown into a furnace, his flesh and bones melted away before being molded anew by a pair of hands.

Excruciating pain crashed into his mind.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans instantly formed on Lin Xuan's forehead. His face turned pale, and his body trembled uncontrollably.

But he clenched his teeth tightly, desperately holding on to the last shred of clarity in his mind.

He knew this was only the beginning.

Just as the divine light reshaped his body from the outside, an even greater power erupted from the deepest reaches of his divine soul.

It was the power he had gained earlier by using merit after the Great Ape disaster.

Now, assaulted from within and without by Shenron's light, that power could no longer be suppressed. It launched a fierce assault against the final barrier preventing his advancement into the [Dust-Cleansing Realm]!

Boom!

An attack from both inside and out!

Lin Xuan's body jolted violently, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

Before the agony of his physical reconstruction had passed, the impact of his divine soul's breakthrough came crashing down.

His consciousness struggled to hold on amid the two kinds of pain.

Any ordinary person would likely have had their soul scattered under such double torment.

"So... so terrifying..."

Bulma clenched her fists nervously. Though she did not know what Lin Xuan was going through, the painful yet sacred expression on his face made her heart leap into her throat.

She wanted to step forward, but an invisible aura blocked her three meters away, leaving her unable to approach.

"Guard your true heart. Keep your spiritual platform clear!"

Within Lin Xuan's mind, the core cultivation mantra of Nine Tribulations of the Divine Soul echoed.

The more pain he endured, the calmer he became.

He no longer passively endured it, but actively guided it.

He settled his mind and observed how the two forces within his body operated.

He guided the golden divine radiance to temper his limbs and bones even more thoroughly, drawing out his physical body's potential to the utmost limit.

At the same time, he controlled that spiritual power, launching attack after attack at the spiritual barrier regardless of the cost.

Once, twice, ten times, a hundred times...

Fine cracks began to appear in that barrier.

There was hope!

Lin Xuan's spirit surged as he gathered all his will and conviction.

"Break for me!"

He let out a furious roar from the depths of his soul.

That force, gathered from every ounce of his essence, energy, and spirit, struck fiercely against the cracked barrier!

Crack—

A crisp shattering sound rang clearly through Lin Xuan's mind.

The bottleneck that had troubled him for so long, separating mortal from immortal, shattered.

Completely shattered.

Then the first mental tribulation descended, but he easily resolved it with his current spiritual strength.

Boom!!!

A sensation of transformation instantly flooded every part of Lin Xuan's awareness.

At that moment, his soul broke free of its shackles and leaped toward a higher level!

At the same time, his physical body, tempered to its utmost by divine radiance, began to hum.

The two forces merged perfectly at that instant, completing their final transformation.

The golden light around Lin Xuan suddenly contracted inward, all of it withdrawing into his body.

In its place, a clear and tranquil aura slowly spread from him.

That aura smoothed over the devastation of the ruins, soothed everyone's terror, and made the entire chaotic scene peaceful and serene.

All traces of pain faded from Lin Xuan's face. His complexion regained its rosy color, and his skin became even more crystalline and translucent than before.

[First Tribulation · Dust-Cleansing Realm]

Success!

In the sky, a trace of relief flashed through Shenron's enormous eyes.

Its mission was complete.

Its massive dragon body began to slowly dissipate from the tail, turning into specks of light that melted into the night.

"Your wish has been fulfilled... The fate of this world is now yours to write..."

That majestic voice echoed through everyone's minds one final time, filled with expectation and release.

Then Shenron's head, too, completely turned into countless motes of light and vanished.

With Shenron's disappearance, the darkness swiftly receded, and the moonlight and stars returned.

The seven Dragon Balls on the ground lost all their luster after fulfilling their purpose, becoming seven ordinary gray stones.

The next second, the seven stones shot into the sky, turning into seven streaks of light that flew toward every corner of Earth, vanishing beyond the horizon in an instant.

Everything returned to calm.

As though the world-ending scene from moments ago had been nothing more than a dream.

Amid the ruins, Lin Xuan slowly opened his eyes.

The world looked completely different to him now.

He could clearly "see" the intense emotions within Bulma not far away—a mixture of fervent worship and worry.

He could "hear" the immense fighting spirit stirring eagerly inside the unconscious Son Goku.

He could even "feel" the weak, rapid heartbeat of a trembling rabbit beneath a pile of rubble a hundred meters away.

This was the Dust-Cleansing Realm.

With a single thought, he could perceive the karma of all things.