Two Golden Dragons?

"What exactly is the Golden Dragon King's power?" Tang Wulin lowered his head to look at his right hand. "Why can my Clear Sky Hammer change shape at will?"

He could feel that it was more than mere pressure on the level of strength.

When the hammer changed shape, he could touch something deeper, more fundamental—something like the laws themselves resting in his hand.

"My power astonishes you just by doing this?"

The Golden Dragon King reclined on his throne, his crimson eyes half-lidded.

"If you weren't so weak right now, and if my power had returned, I could take you and slaughter our way through every enemy."

"Damn," Tang Wulin blurted out. "How come I never realized you were this amazing in my previous life?"

"What you inherited in your previous life was only power, not authority." The Golden Dragon King tapped a finger against the armrest, his voice unhurried. "Do you understand?"

Tang Wulin considered it for a while. "...I think so."

"There is one more thing. My return was unaffected by time and space. When I returned, I was not one with you."

Tang Wulin froze. "What do you mean?"

"Look here."

The golden palace vanished.

In its place was a pitch-black void. Layer upon layer of shackles hung down from the emptiness. The chains were as thick as giant pythons, each one carved with golden sealing patterns. Deep within the chains, a colossal dragon lay curled up, its scales dim, its wings folded, its body bound from every direction by those shackles, unable to move.

Tang Wulin's pupils contracted. He knew that aura far too well—ferocious, domineering, bloody. It shared the same origin and essence as the Golden Dragon King within him.

"Why is there another one?"

"Didn't I tell you? We were sent back to the past. Your body is still your body. Nothing will be added to it, and nothing will be taken away from it. But I am different. My divine consciousness and power are not affected by the laws. So even though I returned, the Golden Dragon King within you still exists."

Tang Wulin stared at the bound dragon for a while. "Wouldn't that... become a paradox?"

"No one can escape the power of the laws of time." The Golden Dragon King's voice fell from beside him as though he were discussing something ordinary. "But I am a god. Don't forget how we came back."

Tang Wulin fell silent for a moment, then gave a bitter laugh. "Powerful enough to be unreasonable."

"It is still too early to talk about that." The Golden Dragon King's voice returned to its usual tone. "You only need to know that if I wish to go back on my word, I have a trump card at any time. You are different—you must remain valuable to me if you want to be worthy of wielding my authority."

"So heartless." Tang Wulin forced out a smile and blinked his big eyes. "I thought that after going through life and death together so many times, we were already partners." He tried to move the Golden Dragon King with an act he did not even believe in himself.

The Golden Dragon King glanced at him. That look seemed to say, "What are you doing?"

Tang Wulin understood as well. He was looking at an idiot.

"You are not in the form of a child right now," the Golden Dragon King said.

Tang Wulin lowered his head and looked at himself—slender arms, distinct knuckles—before remembering that he was still using the body of a man in his twenties within the Sea of Spirit. "Ah... right."

The Golden Dragon King looked away.

He reclined on his throne without looking at Tang Wulin. Thinking of the Silver Dragon's carefully arranged plan, he spoke only after several breaths, his voice softer than before, as though talking to himself. "Dragon God, did we truly inherit wisdom?"

Tang Wulin did not hear him clearly. "What did you say?"

The Golden Dragon King did not answer. The golden palace reappeared around them, and the coiling dragon patterns on the walls lit up inch by inch.

"Do you remember Dragon Valley?" the Golden Dragon King asked.

Tang Wulin paused. Of course he remembered. After returning from Dragon Valley, he had lost Gu Yue.

The Golden Dragon King sensed his emotions, and his crimson eyes suddenly swept toward him. "Bastard! What are you mourning for?"

He was so angry that he stopped speaking. Yet Tang Wulin noticed that the Golden Dragon King did not seem to intend to finish what he had been saying.

He sat quietly on the throne, neither looking at Tang Wulin nor speaking again. What appeared before his eyes was that canyon buried with the remains of countless people—I'm sorry.

From the very beginning, he had never intended to break apart.

Nor had he expected Tang Wulin to subdue every ferocious beast. What he intended was to do it himself.