Revealing His True Form, Eight Hundred Thousand Years

Tang San stared at the playful curve at Yu Chen's lips, the last trace of warmth in his eyes freezing over inch by inch.

Having lived two lives and judged countless people, Tang San had never misread anyone. Whoever caught his eye would, in the end, bow obediently before him. Yet this half-grown child had shown not the slightest fear since appearing. It gave him an instinctive sense of discomfort.

An exceedingly clear thought surfaced in his mind—this person could not be tamed.

That faint smile suddenly became piercing in his eyes, as though mocking his earlier charity of "granting him a future." Tang San slowly lowered his gaze, and every thought of winning him over vanished like smoke.

Since he could not have him, then he would destroy him.

The instant that thought arose, the gentle, jade-like mask on Tang San's face receded like the tide, revealing the cold, sharp nature beneath. Within Sea God's Realm, the once-calm ocean suddenly boiled. Blue-gold divine power gathered frantically, transforming into tentacle-like streams of light that spread toward Yu Chen. The air instantly became thick and heavy; every breath felt like swallowing icy air laced with shards of ice.

The pressure of a Half-Step God King crashed down without reservation.

It felt as though an ancient divine mountain had been placed upon his shoulders. Yu Chen's bones groaned under the unbearable weight, while the Soul Power in his meridians collided wildly. He understood perfectly well—standing before him was a Half-Step God King, while he was merely an eleven-year-old Soul Emperor. The gap between them was an insurmountable abyss.

The Icefire Dragon Kings clearly understood this as well. The two dragon souls endured the pressure and stood to Yu Chen's left and right. Their dragon bodies trembled slightly, yet they remained as immovable as boulders.

"Master, we'll hold him back for you. Quickly find an opportunity to tear through space and escape!" the Ice Dragon King transmitted through gritted teeth, her voice resolute.

The Fire Dragon King hesitated even less, directly igniting her remnant soul as crimson dragon flames soared into the sky.

Yet this was only a final flash before extinction. Even giving their all, the two great dragon souls could only briefly unleash the combat strength of third-class gods. Between a third-class god and a Half-Step God King lay a distance even more despairing than that between a Soul Master and a Titled Douluo.

This was not a battle. It was a slaughter born of overwhelming superiority.

Tang San watched coldly, a scornful curve appearing at his lips. "Two wisps of remnant souls, and you dare try to stop me?"

He could not even be bothered to raise his hand. With a slight shift of thought, the laws of Sea God's Realm tightened. Invisible giant hands materialized out of nowhere and pinned the Icefire Dragon Kings down. The glow upon their dragon bodies visibly dimmed, like dying candles in the wind.

"Master... run..."

Yu Chen clenched his fists tightly, his nails piercing his palms until blood streamed down them. Run? Where could he run? This was Tang San's divine domain. A Soul Emperor could not even touch the barriers of space.

Tang San approached slowly. With every step he took, the pressure upon Yu Chen increased by another degree. He stopped three zhang away and looked down at the youth, who could neither kneel nor stand straight.

"I once gave you a way to live. You were the one who refused it." Tang San's voice was calm without the slightest ripple, as though discussing some useless vessel. "Since you chose to give it up, don't blame me for being ruthless."

The Golden Trident slowly rose. Its icy golden tip pointed directly at Yu Chen's brow as a speck of blue-gold light gathered at its tip. Though tiny, it contained enough terrifying power to reduce a Titled Douluo to ashes.

"Today will be the day you die."

Just as that devastating strike was about to fall—"Master!!"

Two shrill roars exploded through the air. The Icefire Dragon Kings actually broke free from the restraints of the laws by force, their two dragon bodies falling like meteors and blocking Yu Chen completely.

"No—!" Yu Chen's pupils contracted sharply. He reached out to grab them, but his hand caught only empty air.

The blue-gold divine power crashed down with devastating force. The Ice Dragon King's body instantly exploded, leaving behind only a wisp of ghostly soul; the Fire Dragon King's scales shattered, and her remnant soul burned away. The two dragons slammed heavily into the sea, becoming two dim points of light before extinguishing.

The Icefire Dragon Kings' remnant souls had fallen.

Yu Chen stared blankly at the fading light, his hand trembling. Not from fear, but from towering rage. It was fury enough to burn away reason, erupting from the depths of his chest.

They were his people. Ever since his Auspicious Body awakened, they had honored him as their master and entrusted their lives to him. Yet all he could do was watch them take a fatal blow in his place.

"You..." Yu Chen's voice was hoarse and broken, thick with the smell of blood.

The next instant, he suddenly raised his head.

Those eyes changed.

His once-clear pupils were consumed by wildly spreading gold. Ancient dragon patterns spread from the corners of his eyes to his cheeks. Tang San's brow furrowed slightly as an instinctive sense of danger surged through him.

"This is..."

Yu Chen's body rapidly expanded. His clothes burst apart, and golden dragon scales densely covered his skin, each one engraved with ancient runes. His spine reformed and extended amid bone-chilling cracking sounds, while his limbs transformed into massive dragon claws.

A savage dragon tail burst from his body. With a casual sweep, it split a ten-thousand-zhang abyss across the sea.

A dragon's roar rose.

It was no ordinary dragon roar, but the supreme sound born from primordial antiquity, echoing through heaven and earth. The rolling sound waves shook all of Sea God's Realm violently. Spiderweb-like cracks even appeared across the blue-gold canopy overhead.

A gigantic dragon stood in the sky.

Its entire body shone like brilliant gold, its scales seeming forged from divine iron, its twin horns like coral piercing the heavens. Its golden dragon eyes reflected the entire God Realm, radiating majesty that could not be looked upon directly. Between its horns, a golden dragon pearl flickered in and out of sight. A mere wisp of its aura was enough to change the color of heaven and earth.

Boundless golden dragon might pressed down from above, forcing the waters of Sea God's Realm down by dozens of zhang.

The Golden Dragon King?

No—purer and more ancient than the Golden Dragon King!

Tang San's pupils suddenly shrank, and at last a crack appeared in his expression. "Your true form... is actually a Golden Dragon?!"

He subconsciously retreated half a step, then stared fixedly at the golden dragon body. The gravity in his eyes faded, replaced by almost maddened greed.

"No, not an ordinary Golden Dragon. It has reverted to its ancestors..." Tang San muttered, the calculating gleam in his eyes growing stronger. "Its bloodline is infinitely close to the Golden Dragon King's true body? No wonder its fortune is so immense... If such a bloodline could be brought under the Tang Family..."

Yet he did not know that his judgment had been wrong from the very foundation.

Yu Chen's bloodline was not merely "close to" the Golden Dragon King's—it stood above it. It was the one and only Dragon God-level bloodline nurtured by the laws of the universe, the ancestor of all dragons! The Golden Dragon King was merely the incomplete half-body left behind after the Dragon God fell.

Tang San was immersed in the ecstasy of monopolizing this treasure. As he looked at the golden dragon, his eyes held only the desire for an enormous mineral vein.

"An Eight Hundred Thousand-Year Soul Beast?" Tang San raised a brow slightly and slowly circled Yu Chen as though admiring an interesting prey. "No wonder you have such confidence. Still, I am curious. Since you have already taken human form, how can you freely switch back to your true body?"

He shook his head, the smile on his face growing colder. "Unfortunately, it is meaningless."

He raised the trident and casually pointed it at Yu Chen, as though pointing at an ant he could crush at any time.

"The difference between an Eight Hundred Thousand-Year Soul Beast and a Half-Step God King is like that between the deep sea and the heavens. This is an insurmountable abyss."

Yu Chen said nothing. He merely slowly spread his wings.

Their span blotted out the sky, ancient star-like patterns flowing across the golden wing membranes. In those golden vertical pupils, fury erupted like lava—the unyielding pride of a dragon from the depths of his bloodline.

"Even if I cannot defeat you, so what? Even if I die, so what?"

Yu Chen's voice was low and hoarse, rumbling like thunder. His enormous dragon body leaned slightly forward, his golden eyes locked tightly onto Tang San.

"I—will—never—be—a—slave."

The four words fell, shaking the universe. Golden dragon might surged to its peak, and another dragon roar erupted, causing the cracks in the canopy to spread wildly.

Tang San froze for a moment, then laughed. There was no anger in that smile, only lofty mockery—as if watching a child charge into an army of thousands while waving a wooden sword.

"Good, good, good. You have spirit. But your end can only be—falling here."

Before his words had faded, wind and thunder erupted.

Yu Chen moved first. The golden dragon became a streak of light, its wings beating fiercely as it lunged forward at the ultimate speed of an Eight Hundred Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Its right claw rose, five Golden Dragon Claws carving five black spatial rifts through the air—

"Soul skill—Space-Rending Claw!"

Amid his furious roar, the dragon claw crashed down with destructive force. Countless fragments of space carried an aura of annihilation as they howled toward Tang San like a storm.

Yet Tang San did not move in the slightest.

He merely lifted the trident casually and held it crosswise before him.

"Clang—!"

A dull, heart-shaking boom rang out. Terrifying shockwaves ground outward from the two of them, instantly crushing the sea for several miles around into a deep crater as seawater surged backward into the sky.

Then—

Yu Chen's dragon claw was knocked aside.

It was like striking divine iron with all his strength. The rebounding force surged wildly back through his arm. Cracks covered the five Golden Dragon Claws, and golden dragon blood seeped out.

"Is that all?" Tang San's voice remained calm behind the curtain of water. "An Eight Hundred Thousand-Year Soul Beast's full-power strike is only this much? It is not even enough to scratch an itch."

He casually flicked the dragon blood from the trident. "A mortal is still a mortal."

Yu Chen's dragon body trembled violently, and his claw bones cracked. The agony pierced his heart, but he gritted his teeth. He refused to believe in fate!

His dragon wings beat again, his body wheeling back as he launched a second charge with even more violent force.

Space-Rending Claw! Again!

"Clang—!" At the second collision, the cracks on his claw widened, and golden blood sprayed through the air.

The third time. "Clang—!" The scales on his left claw flew apart, leaving flesh and blood mangled.

The fourth time. "Clang—!" One claw on his right forelimb snapped off entirely, golden blood pouring like a waterfall.

The fifth time.

Before Yu Chen's attack could land, Tang San finally moved.

He merely swept his arm backward.

Just one strike of the trident.

The Golden Trident swept across with blue-gold divine radiance, casual and effortless. Fast—far too fast. So fast that Yu Chen had no time to dodge, feeling only a chill across his chest and abdomen—

"Pfft—!"

A horrifying wound suddenly appeared across the golden dragon's chest, cutting through its entire torso. Dragon scales shattered, and dragon blood gushed out. The enormous body was blasted away like a kite with its string cut, tumbling across the sea for dozens of miles and plowing a shocking trench through the water.

Yu Chen lay sprawled over the sea, gasping heavily, his chest wound deep enough to expose bone. He tried to push himself up, but his broken dragon claws slipped over and over across the slick surface.

Three claws on his right forelimb had broken, and the scales on his left claw were completely shattered. His dragon wings were riddled with holes, while the bone in his left wing was bent at an unnatural break.

The sight was utterly miserable.

Since the battle began, only a dozen breaths had passed. An Eight Hundred Thousand-Year Soul Beast had not even managed to make his opponent take a single step.

Tang San hovered in the sky, looking down indifferently at the giant dragon barely clinging to life upon the sea.

"Do you see it now? This is the abyss between us. No matter how you struggle or rage, it is all futile."

Yu Chen lay in the water, golden dragon blood constantly spilling from the corners of his mouth. The light in his dragon eyes flickered between brightness and dimness.

But the fire in those eyes had not gone out.