True Dragon

It had endured the passage of countless ages, witnessed the birth and extinction of innumerable dragon beasts, yet it had never shown the slightest sign of awakening.

Until today.

The instant a certain shackle within Lu Mingfei's body shattered.

The pure dragon might of the Black Dragon King spread like invisible ripples, piercing through every barrier in Dragon Valley and striking directly against that sleeping bone.

The cross sections on the bone's surface flickered faintly at the same time.

The dim gleam was like sparks being kindled, passing in sequence across countless facets. One after another lit up, eventually converging into a complete radiance.

Deep within the bone, a will that had lain dormant for who knew how many tens of thousands of years slowly opened its eyes.

It was an ancient dragon soul, blurry and illusory in form, with only the vague outlines of a dragon's head and body discernible.

Its scales were transparent, as though carved from crystal, each one refracting brilliant, multicolored light.

There were no pupils in its eyes, only two swirling nebulae, as though the entire universe had been contained within those eyes.

It raised its head and gazed beyond the secret realm. A flicker of emotion passed through those twin nebulae...

It was surprise, confusion, and an exceedingly rare... reverence.

It sensed a bloodline aura that made even its soul tremble.

Though that aura was still exceedingly weak, like a sapling that had just broken through the soil, its very essence made it lower its head involuntarily.

It was the supreme aura from the source of dragonkind—an existence older, nobler, and closer to the Dragon God than itself.

The dragon soul remained silent for a long time before speaking.

It spoke in an ancient soul beast language that had nearly been lost, its tone low and distant, like the mournful howl of wind sweeping across a glacier that had stood for ten thousand years.

"Bring the one who released that dragon might back to the secret realm."

A colossal beast guarding the stone platform raised its head.

It was a true Taotie.

Not the Taotie Divine Bull that Lu Mingfei had hunted, but a pure-blooded Taotie with a purer and more ancient bloodline.

Its body was like a small mountain.

Its dark golden fur was more dazzling than sunlight. The eyes beneath its armpits resembled two yellow suns, while the fang-filled maw on its ram-like face seemed capable of devouring all things whenever it opened and closed.

Its limbs ended in sharp human-like claws, every talon glinting with cold metallic light.

Its enormous curved horns hung above its head like two inverted crescent moons. Their surfaces were covered in naturally formed Taotie sigils that contained some mysterious power from the ancient ages.

Its aura was more than ten thousand times stronger than that of the Taotie Divine Bull Lu Mingfei had encountered.

Its pressure was almost tangible. Even the gray mist that never dispersed within the secret realm was forced away in all directions, leaving a vacuum around it.

A pure-blooded Taotie like this would be a terrifying existence capable of ruling an entire region even among the soul beasts of the Douluo Continent.

Yet at this moment, the Taotie was staring in extreme astonishment toward the direction from which the dragon soul had awakened.

It had guarded this dragon soul bone for tens of thousands of years, and throughout that time, it had never seen the dragon soul make any movement.

It had once believed that the dragon soul had completely dissipated, leaving only this hollow bone as a tombstone for the dragon race's ancient glory.

But now, the dragon soul had awakened.

The Taotie lowered its head and replied in a low, deep soul beast language, "As you command, my lord."

It rose to its feet, its enormous body casting a vast shadow over the stone platform. Its thick limbs crossed the ground, producing dull footsteps like thunder.

It strode toward the outside of the secret realm. With every step it took, the entire secret realm trembled faintly.

The instant the Taotie stepped out of the secret realm, an overwhelmingly dense pressure filled the air in the deepest part of Dragon Valley's core.

That pressure differed from the Black Dragon King's absolute dominion originating from the very end of the bloodline.

It was a purer, more primal... natural oppression that an ancient race exerted upon its later descendants.

In the deepest part of Dragon Valley's core, the Tyrannosaurus slumbering at the bottom of the lava lake abruptly opened its eyes.

Its body shook violently, and an almost crazed terror surged into its black vertical pupils.

The Taotie's aura was spreading from the direction of the secret realm. It was like an invisible sledgehammer, crashing heavily into the most vulnerable part of its soul.

It could no longer care about dragon might or anything else.

Its huge body shot out of the lava, all four limbs exerting force as it fled madly toward the outskirts of Dragon Valley.

Behind it, the Horned Dragon also burst out of its nest.

The scales covering that long-bodied, giant-horned dragon beast were trembling all over, and even the horn atop its head shook faintly.

It did not even dare glance back toward the Taotie. It merely lowered its head and charged forward desperately, its sturdy limbs stamping deep pits into the ground.

Farther away, atop a cliff face, a Rainbow Dragon covered entirely in multicolored scales suddenly folded its wings.

Its feathers and scales were as resplendent as a flowing rainbow, making it one of the most feared existences in Dragon Valley's core.

Yet now, it glided down from the cliff like a startled bird, its body shuddering violently in midair as its beautiful colored scales lost their luster.

It was not only these few soul beasts.

Deep within Dragon Valley's core, dozens of dragon-type soul beasts with cultivation exceeding seventy thousand years erupted into turmoil at the same time.

They surged madly toward Dragon Valley's outskirts.

The ancient pressure originating from the Taotie made them unable to retain even their most basic sanity. They only wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible—the farther away, the better.

The disturbance in the inner valley was like a massive boulder dropped into water, spreading outward at an astonishing speed.

The lower-cultivation dragon beasts of the middle valley had initially been utterly confused about what was happening, but when they saw those ten-thousand-year overlords who usually strutted about with their heads held high fleeing with their tails tucked, instinctive fear rapidly spread among them.

They began running as well. Thousands upon thousands of dragon beasts surged toward the outer valley like a flood bursting through a dam.

The earth trembled violently beneath their feet.

The rumbling of hooves and the beating of wings gathered together like the most terrifying omen before an earthquake.

Half an hour later, even the outer valley began to feel the aftershocks of that tremor.

Lu Mingfei was following Huang Fei through the outskirts of the middle valley in search of suitable targets when the ground beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble faintly.

At first, he thought it was an illusion.

But the trembling grew increasingly obvious and violent, until even small stones began to rattle down from the cliff walls.

"Lady Huang Fei..." Lu Mingfei had barely spoken when Huang Fei seized his wrist.

"Run!"

Huang Fei's expression turned more grave than ever in that instant, and a trace of alarm even flashed through her violet eyes.

"A beast tide! The soul beasts deep within Dragon Valley are in upheaval! Move!"

Lu Mingfei's mind buzzed.

He had learned the term "beast tide" in his soul beast knowledge class...