Ling Xuqing!

"Kid, kid, little guy!!"

An aged, hoarse voice, laced with a terrifying pressure that seemed to come from the primordial past, boomed in Ling Xuqing's mind like muffled thunder.

The voice seemed to pierce endless space and time, carrying an indescribable weariness and urgency. It dragged Ling Xuqing bodily from the depths of darkness.

Ling Xuqing snapped his eyes open. After a brief blur and double vision, his sight gradually focused.

What met his eyes wasn't the ceiling of his familiar bedroom on Blue Star, nor the harsh fluorescent lights of a hospital. Instead, he found himself in a strange space—chaotic and dim, yet filled with countless currents of violent energy.

Staring at this utterly unfamiliar place, he fell into deep thought.

He didn't panic and scream, nor did he leap up and run around. Ling Xuqing simply lay where he was, his mind racing.

He clearly remembered that just a moment ago, he'd been in his apartment on Blue Star. He'd just finished a busy day at work and was about to make himself a cup of coffee and unwind when everything went black. When he opened his eyes again, he was in this godforsaken place.

A transmigration?

As a modern man raised on online novels on Blue Star, the word surfaced in his mind almost instantly.

But what followed was an overwhelming sense of absurdity and disbelief.

How could something that only existed in fantasy actually happen to an ordinary wage-earner like him?

Ling Xuqing took a deep breath, trying to calm his heart as it thrashed in his chest.

He slowly lifted his heavy eyelids and peered through the faint golden mist ahead. At last, he made out the scene before him.

The instant he saw it, his pupils contracted, and his breath caught.

Not far in front of him, a man hovered silently in the void.

No—perhaps "man" wasn't quite the right word. He was a towering figure, his face indistinct beneath a golden radiance.

He wore a long robe that seemed woven from pure light. Most striking of all was the pair of brilliant golden dragon horns atop his head, radiating boundless majesty.

The horns curled and twisted like two slumbering true dragons. Ancient, mysterious runes shimmered across them. Just one glance made Ling Xuqing feel as though his soul might be torn apart and crushed beneath their weight.

"Who are you? And where is this?"

Ling Xuqing forced himself to stay calm. He swallowed, his voice dry and trembling slightly, but he managed to remain composed.

He knew that in an entirely unfamiliar and dangerous place like this, panic would only bring death sooner.

At his question, the golden-horned man, his face veiled in divine light, slowly lowered his head.

Though Ling Xuqing couldn't make out his features, he could clearly feel an extraordinarily complicated, profound gaze piercing the void and fixing on him.

"Who... am I?"

The man's voice sounded again. This time, it wasn't transmitted into Ling Xuqing's mind; it rumbled through the space right before him.

"It's been so long since I last heard that question. So long that... even I have nearly forgotten my own name."

The man gave a faint sigh. At the sound, the violent currents of energy around them miraculously calmed a little.

"You may call me the Dragon God."

"The Dragon God?!"

"To be precise, you're now at the edge of the Douluo God Realm: the Forbidden God Land!"

Ling Xuqing drew in a sharp breath.

Until now, he'd still clung to a faint hope that this was some kind of high-tech hologram or a dream. But the moment the words "Dragon God" came from the other man's mouth, that final sliver of hope shattered.

"Douluo God Realm, Forbidden God Land, edge of the Divine Realm, Dragon God, Golden Dragon King..."

The words flashed and collided in Ling Xuqing's mind like a barrage of cannon fire.

He was completely numb. His brain seemed to have crashed, leaving only those few terms circling endlessly.

He, Ling Xuqing, an ordinary man from Blue Star, had actually transmigrated into the world of Douluo Continent?

And he hadn't landed in one of the bustling empires of Douluo Continent, or at a Martial Soul Awakening ceremony. He'd transmigrated bodily straight into the law-twisted wasteland at the edge of the Douluo God Realm—the Forbidden God Land!

What made his scalp prickle and his blood nearly freeze was that he finally saw what he was lying on.

It wasn't a stone bed, or even the ground. It was a gigantic scale, far too enormous to describe, glowing with a dark golden light!

Each scale was the size of a house, covered in ancient, savage-looking cracks, as if it might shatter at any moment.

From deep within those scales poured an unsettling Bloodline Power, along with a boundless resentment and grief suppressed for untold ages.

"You... you've seen it."

The Dragon God's voice broke into Ling Xuqing's thoughts.

His gaze followed Ling Xuqing's to the enormous dark-gold dragon form. A pain and sorrow he could barely hide flashed in his eyes.

"This is the Forbidden God Land at the edge of the Douluo God Realm. And the one you're lying on is the Golden Dragon King."

The Dragon God slowly raised a hand. A gentle sphere of golden light gathered at his fingertip, and he lightly touched it to Ling Xuqing's brow.

In an instant, a vast yet gentle stream of information flooded Ling Xuqing's mind.

"Back then, I, the Dragon God, fell in the great battle in the Divine Realm. My divine soul and body split in two. The Silver Dragon King fled to Douluo Continent with my wisdom and control over the elements, while the Golden Dragon King bore all my power and Bloodline Power. The gods of the God Realm Committee joined forces to seal him here."

"A wisp of my remnant soul clung to the Golden Dragon King's body. For all these endless ages, I slept within this seal, waiting for my strength to run dry and for me to vanish from the world completely."

The Dragon God's voice was low and even, as though he were recounting something that had nothing to do with him. "But your arrival disturbed this seal and awakened the remnant soul that's been clinging to life."

Ling Xuqing stared blankly, trying to absorb the information in his mind. The world seemed to spin around him.

He'd transmigrated bodily! He'd brought his entire physical body with him!

What did that mean? It meant he hadn't undergone this world's laws' tempering. He had no identity here, no Soul Power, not even a legal "temporary residence permit" in the Divine Realm!

"I... I'm just an ordinary person from Blue Star..."

Ling Xuqing murmured, his voice full of bitterness and helplessness.

He thought back to his life on Blue Star.

He hadn't been rich, but he'd had a steady career, a life he loved, parents, and friends.

How could he have known he'd somehow get dragged into this grand tale of gods fighting gods?

"How do I get back to Blue Star?"

Ling Xuqing jerked his head up, looking at the Dragon God with urgency and hope.

The Dragon God didn't answer right away. He only gazed at him in silence.

Ling Xuqing's heart sank.

He looked around. The laws of this Forbidden God Land were in chaos, space itself twisted. One careless move could tear him to shreds.

Even if he somehow escaped, the Douluo God Realm lay beyond!

How could those lofty Deities, who controlled the laws of the universe, ever allow an unknown "interworld stowaway" to run wild in their domain?

His mortal body, without the slightest trace of divine power, would probably be slapped into a puddle of flesh by the God Realm's enforcers the moment he stepped outside the Forbidden God Land—or crushed outright by this world's laws of rejection!

"It's over. I'm really done for this time."

Ling Xuqing gave a bitter laugh and plopped down on the Golden Dragon King's cold, hard scales.

He'd thought that even if he transmigrated, he'd at least awaken some heaven-defying Martial Soul, take a Titled Douluo as his master, then climb step by step to the peak of life and marry a beautiful, rich wife.

But what about now?

He'd started on hell difficulty, trapped in an absolute forbidden zone at the edge of the Divine Realm, with a Golden Dragon King beside him who could go berserk at any moment and a creation god with only a remnant soul above him.

How was he supposed to play this? This was a world-ending start!

Ling Xuqing sighed, his gaze dull as he stared into the chaotic void before him.

Images of everything he'd left behind on Blue Star flickered through his mind: soy milk and fried dough sticks at the street corner in the morning, the packed subway after work, lines of code flickering across his computer screen, and the pothos on his balcony that he'd just watered...

Those ordinary, vivid details of everyday life now seemed impossibly far away, and dearer than ever.

"Blue Star... my career..."

He murmured, his voice heavy with a sorrow he couldn't shake.

Just then, the Dragon God, who'd been silent all this while, finally moved.

He slowly drew his gaze away from Ling Xuqing. His face, shrouded in divine light, tilted up a little, as if he were examining the cage that had imprisoned him for endless ages.

Then he lowered his head again. His eyes, which seemed to hold the birth and death of countless stars, studied Ling Xuqing carefully.

That gaze seemed to pierce the soul. It swept over Ling Xuqing from head to toe, examining him from flesh to spirit.

The stare made Ling Xuqing's skin crawl, and he tensed instinctively.

He didn't know what this supreme creator god's remnant soul had seen—or what he was plotting.

Time seemed to stand still.

After an unknown length of time, the Dragon God finally withdrew his gaze.

He gave a slight nod. For the first time, his hoarse, low voice held a faint trace of amusement and certainty.

"Kid," the Dragon God said, looking at him and enunciating each word,

"If you want to go to Blue Star, I can help you!"