Surprise Arrives

Feeling conflicted, Miss Gu Yuena wanted to cheer herself up.

"Xinghe," she said, blinking her large, watery purple eyes, "shouldn't you tell me what the surprise regarding my second Martial Soul is by now? I've been looking forward to it for a long time."

Meng Xinghe gave a teasing smile.

He believed Gu Yuena was looking forward to this surprise, but perhaps not as much as she claimed.

Gu Yuena was the Silver Dragon King and half of the Dragon God. The power of her bloodline originated from the Dragon God, a supreme God King. In human terms, she was a being born with truly noble blood and innate divinity.

To Gu Yuena, any bloodline below that of a God King was an impurity. Even a God King Bloodline had to be compatible with her own before she could make use of it.

After taking human form and cultivating anew, Gu Yuena's vacant second Martial Soul was the "Soulless Dragon." For details, one could refer to Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's "Soulless Ice" given to Huo Yuhao in the original work.

If Meng Xinghe's Heavenly God Bloodline fused with the "Soulless Dragon," it would give birth to a Martial Soul possessing the Heavenly God Bloodline: the Sky Dragon.

However, to make the Sky Dragon Martial Soul as powerful as Gu Yuena's own Silver Dragon King Martial Soul would require enough Heavenly God Bloodline to drain Meng Xinghe completely.

Therefore, this idea was fundamentally impossible. Gu Yuena knew that as well. Rather than truly anticipating this surprise, she had simply developed trust in Meng Xinghe over the years.

"Here. The surprise I prepared for you is on him."

Meng Xinghe took out a dossier he had prepared long ago.

"Is that so? Let me see." Gu Yuena reached out to take it and lowered her eyes to examine it.

The photograph showed a fair, delicate-looking child with large eyes, long eyelashes, and skin smooth enough to seem breakable with a breath. If the gender field had not said "male," Gu Yuena would have almost thought he was a girl.

The name listed was Tang Wulin. His Martial Soul was Blue Silver Grass. At only nine years old, he was already a Soul Grandmaster and a Level 3 Mecha Maker. He had even signed a Class A Talent Contract with the Spirit Pagoda and was one of its key trainees.

"You mean... my surprise... is on him?"

Gu Yuena flipped through the dossier again and again, yet could not find anything special about it. She could only look up at Meng Xinghe, her amethyst-like eyes wide open as if asking:

"Where is the surprise? I don't see it!"

Seeing this, Meng Xinghe calmly said, "Here's a little hint. What is Sea God Tang San's daughter called?"

Ten thousand years ago, the Sea God's daughter had rebuilt the fallen Tang Sect, leaving a brilliant mark on history. Her great name had thus been recorded for all eternity.

Naturally, Gu Yuena had learned that name while studying human history.

"Tang San's daughter? Her name is Tang Wutong. Why?"

"Wait..." It was as if enlightenment had suddenly struck her, and countless connections flashed through her mind.

"Tang Wutong, Tang Wulin. They both have the surname Tang, and their middle character is both Wu... I see. Tang Wulin is Tang San's son."

"But what does that have to do with my surprise? I have no interest in the Sea God's bloodline."

That final remark made Meng Xinghe wipe away sweat.

Even if Tang Wulin were drained dry, using the Sea God's bloodline to condense a second Martial Soul would not make the resulting Ocean Dragon Martial Soul as powerful as the Silver Dragon King Martial Soul.

Besides, draining Tang Wulin's blood to form a second Martial Soul with the Sea God's bloodline...

What kind of person did she think I was? A scheming old fox? A ruthless villain? She actually thought I would kill an innocent child.

I have to clear this up. I'm not that kind of person. I would never do something so inhuman.

"No, what are you thinking?" Meng Xinghe was rather speechless, and his tone turned solemn.

"Even if you didn't mind using the Sea God's bloodline to condense a Martial Soul, I'd find it disgusting."

"Let me put it this way. Before the God Realm was swept away by the Temporal Turbulence, a great upheaval occurred there. Your brother took the opportunity to beguile the gods. After breaking free of his seal, he wreaked havoc in the God Realm, only to be slain by the gods with the Sword of Tribunal of Three Realms."

"Before dying, your brother fused his own divine core with the newly born Tang Wulin, intending to use the pain of losing a son to take revenge on Tang San and Xiao Wu."

That Golden Dragon King who only knew brute force and had no brains at all... he really was capable of doing something like that, Gu Yuena thought.

She had inherited the Dragon God's power of creation, elemental power, reason, and wisdom. Her brother, the Golden Dragon King "Gu Riyao," had inherited the Dragon God's power of destruction, strength, and a disposition of madness and ruin.

In terms of rank, they were both First-Level Gods, yet both possessed strength comparable to a God King.

Thus, after the God Realm had already suffered a great upheaval, the Golden Dragon King who broke free of his seal indeed had the power to wreak havoc there.

(The Golden Dragon King silently gave this a like. If the Sword of Tribunal of Three Realms had not instantly killed him, the God Realm would have long been destroyed under the combined assault of him from within and the Temporal Turbulence from without.)

Gu Yuena displayed her wisdom. "I think I understand."

"Tang San sealed the Golden Dragon King Divine Core within Tang Wulin, but the divine power inside the core would be drawn by the God Realm's own divine power. So Tang San sent Tang Wulin to the Douluo Continent. Since there is no divine power here, it would not trigger the power within the divine core."

Her purple eyes continued to gleam with intelligence as she murmured to herself:

"I think I also know why Tang Wulin did not have Innate Full Soul Power. Although the Golden Dragon King Divine Core was sealed, it still suppressed the Sea God's bloodline within him and indirectly affected his talent."

"Only one thing puzzles me. With the Golden Dragon King Divine Core suppressing the Sea God's bloodline, Tang Wulin's awakened Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul should have been ordinary Blue Silver Grass. He should not have awakened with innate seventh-rank Soul Power."

These deductions rested on the premise that Tang Wulin was alive and had appeared in this era.

Gu Yuena trusted her own wisdom. Even if her deductions were not the truth, they were probably very close.

As the intelligent gleam faded from her large eyes, Gu Yuena began to grow excited, though she was also somewhat worried.

The surprise Meng Xinghe had prepared for her was actually the Golden Dragon King Divine Core. It truly was both shocking and delightful.

She was half of the Dragon God. If she could absorb the Golden Dragon King Divine Core and turn it into her second Martial Soul, the day she restored the Dragon God's former glory would not be far off.

However...

The Golden Dragon King had once stood on equal footing with her. Though only a divine core remained now, she had also taken human form and lost the strength she possessed at her peak.

If she absorbed the divine core in her current state, the Golden Dragon King's power of destruction and madness would erode her reason and wisdom. In the end, she would become as insane as the Golden Dragon King, turning into a slaughtering machine that knew only destruction and ruin.

Meng Xinghe saw at a glance what Gu Yuena was worried about. He stepped forward, patted her shoulder, and comforted her.

"Don't worry. Tang San placed eighteen seals inside Tang Wulin's body, so the surprise I prepared for you has been divided into eighteen portions as well."

"You don't need to absorb all the power of the divine core at once. You only need to absorb the essence of the Golden Dragon King's origin power contained within one seal at a time. Once all eighteen seals have been absorbed, you will possess a complete Golden Dragon King Martial Soul and nine Golden Dragon King Bloodline Soul Rings."