Shed Snake Skin, Ascend into Dragon (Not)

Back home.

Following the usual procedure, Soul Masters who obtained Soul Spirits would immediately enter seclusion to fuse with them. The Tang couple had long instructed the two of them to return to their rooms and calmly fuse with their respective Soul Spirits.

Tang Wulin returned to her room early and focused on fusing with that Ten-Year Bluesilver Grass Soul Spirit.

Meanwhile, Chen An sat alone in his room, the door tightly shut.

He raised his hand and took out the Century Spirit Fish Soul Spirit, which floated quietly in the air with a warm, gentle glow, but made no move to fuse with it.

"Come out, Brother Demon Spirit."

As his words fell softly, an invisible ripple spread faintly through the void.

The air around him seemed to turn several degrees colder. A deep, chilling aura of the void flashed past, and a slender, transparent phantom silently condensed.

Demon Spirit's figure remained concealed within the light and shadows. His indifferent face bore no emotion, and his black eyes were still as water as he silently watched Chen An.

From beginning to end, he had remained hidden in the void, silently following, protecting, and watching Chen An, never once straying far.

Chen An raised his hand and gently offered him the Century Spirit Fish Soul Spirit.

"Take it. You can secretly throw it away if you want."

Demon Spirit silently raised his hand and accepted the Century Soul Spirit, saying nothing and making no unnecessary movements throughout.

To him, whether it was his master's orders or Chen An's instructions, he only needed to carry them out. There was no need for further words.

The instant his fingertips touched the Soul Spirit, its glow was quietly sealed away by the power of the void, completely concealing every trace of its aura.

The next second, Demon Spirit's form turned ethereal once more and merged into the void, leaving without a sound. The room returned to normal, as though no one had ever appeared.

Chen An let out a soft breath, sat cross-legged on the bed, and assumed the posture of someone calmly fusing with a Soul Spirit, his disguise flawless.

Time slowly passed, and half an hour went by in a flash.

Under normal circumstances, fusing with a Soul Spirit took as little as three to five minutes, and never more than a quarter of an hour.

The room next door, Tang Wulin's room, remained utterly quiet. She had clearly completed the fusion long ago, yet she still had not opened the door and come out.

Just then, a light knock sounded outside, accompanied by Lang Yue's gentle but worried voice.

"Xiao An? Are you done?"

Chen An opened his eyes and replied softly, "I'm here, Mom. I was only meditating."

The door was gently pushed open a crack, and Lang Yue leaned inside, obvious concern written across her face.

Tang Ziran had not returned from outside yet, and she did not understand much about this either, so she could only ask Chen An for help.

"Xiao An, Wulin has been in her room for too long. Something isn't right. Fusing with a Soul Spirit shouldn't take this long, should it? She's been in there for nearly half an hour, and there hasn't been a single sound."

She looked at Chen An and gently urged, "Go check on your sister next door. Don't let something have gone wrong with her fusion."

"Alright." Chen An rose at once, his expression calm and steady.

He had already vaguely guessed the reason, but he said nothing. He quietly left his room and lightly stepped up to the door next door.

He gently pressed his fingertips against the door and slowly pushed it open a crack.

The curtains inside were half-drawn, and the light was soft. A faint, deeply concealed golden aura, domineering and majestic, lingered in the air.

On the bed, the girl lay quietly on her side. Her entire body was already drenched in cold sweat, her thin clothes clinging tightly to her skin. Beads of sweat continuously slid down from her forehead, her face pale as paper, her eyes tightly shut. She had completely lost consciousness.

Her brows were tightly furrowed, as if she were enduring unimaginable pain. Even while unconscious, her body still trembled faintly.

Seeing her like this, Chen An understood.

It was not that something had gone wrong with the Soul Spirit fusion. Rather, the Golden Dragon King Origin hidden within Tang Wulin's body had begun to quietly awaken, stirred into turbulent unrest by the fusion.

Ordinary people could never trigger such a phenomenon. Only the supreme Golden Dragon King Bloodline could produce such violent bloodline backlash and awakening pains during its first Soul Spirit fusion.

Chen An did not make a fuss. He quietly closed the door, blocking the sight inside.

Lang Yue immediately stepped forward outside the door and anxiously asked in a low voice, "How is it? Is Wulin alright?"

Chen An turned to her, his expression composed and unhurried, his voice steady as he deliberately reassured the uninformed Lang Yue.

"Mom, don't worry. Sis is fine."

After a brief moment of thought, he came up with a reasonable explanation without a single flaw.

"Her fusion is different from ordinary people's. Most likely, her Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul is about to undergo a Martial Soul Mutation, so it will take a long time. This is a good thing. There's no need to worry."

Upon hearing this, Lang Yue's suspended heart instantly settled. She nodded repeatedly and sighed in relief. "So that's how it is. That's good, that's good."

"Don't go in and disturb her. I'll keep watch outside the door. If anything happens, I'll tell you immediately."

Chen An said softly.

"Alright, alright. Thank you for your hard work, Xiao An."

Lang Yue completely relaxed. After repeatedly reminding him of a few things, she turned and left, no longer disturbing the siblings.

Once Lang Yue's figure had gone far away, Chen An slowly walked to Tang Wulin's bedside.

The closer he got to the unconscious girl, the hotter the faintly translucent Dragon Scale hidden beneath the skin of his chest became.

Buzz—

A subtle tremor spread from his chest throughout his body. A vast, domineering, incomparably majestic golden dragon aura rushed toward him, far denser and purer than any sensation he had felt before.

This was a sign that the sleeping Golden Dragon King Origin was stirring. It was the resonance and trembling of supreme dragon bloodlines.

Chen An sat down cross-legged beside the bed and quietly stood guard, allowing the Dragon Scale to continuously resonate with the Golden Dragon King's power within Tang Wulin.

As time passed, the Dragon Scale's reaction grew increasingly intense. Warm bloodline resonance flowed through his limbs and bones, and all the soul power in his body began to boil and surge with it.

Just then, the exclusive event was refreshed—[Obtain a Special Growth Experience?].

There were only two sections, and the probabilities were clearly displayed:

Yes (90%)

No (10%)

A ninety percent chance!

A glimmer of excitement flashed through Chen An's eyes.

Sure enough, being close to the supreme opportunity of the Golden Dragon King Bloodline awakening was enough to influence the Roulette's rules and raise the probability of obtaining a Special Growth Experience to nearly the maximum.

The slight boosts from forging and cultivation before could not compare to the supreme opportunity before him.

He did not hesitate in the slightest. He only had one draw remaining—if he did not use it now, when would he?

With a thought, Chen An decisively pressed the activation button at the center of the Roulette.

The sections spun at high speed. The indicator flashed past the few negative sections in an instant before coming to a steady stop on [Yes].

The next second, the interface changed and entered the Special Growth resource pool.

Three major sections spread out clearly, each with equal odds and accounting for one-third:

—Bloodline Evolution (33%)

—Martial Soul Mutation (33%)

—Evolution Failed, Fixed Soul Power +5 Levels (33%)

No matter which of the three outcomes he got, it would be a profitable opportunity.

Chen An remained calm as he quietly watched the rapidly spinning Roulette, waiting for the final result.

But at the very instant the Roulette spun at high speed, an inexplicable feeling of discomfort suddenly swept through his body.

His meridians felt faintly sore and swollen, his bloodline stirred slightly, and that familiar, extreme fluctuation—the sensation of transforming his body and origin—suddenly emerged.

It was exactly the same as when he had first fused with the Silver Dragon King Scale in the river outside the Star Dou Great Forest.