The Disappearing Tang Wulin

The Golden Dragon Claw tore open the metal casing before it could be transferred.

A pillar of fire exploded into the night, illuminating half the sky as brightly as day.

Tang Wulin stood between the two soul-guided shells, as if suspended at the center of a splitting sun. The fingertips of the Golden Dragon Claw dug deep into the shells' metal casings. The dark-golden scales had been heated red, their edges shedding fine points of light.

The shells' surfaces began to swell, the metal bulging from the middle as though something inside were forcing its way out. Space warped around them, and the air stretched into layers of transparent ripples that spread outward from the shells' outlines.

"Is he insane?" Qiangu Dieting's voice came from deep within the corridor, trembling with fear for the first time. Two fixed-installation soul-guided shells—forget rank ninety-nine, even a god... He could not finish the sentence. Something seemed to catch in his throat.

Tang Wulin's body seemed to be split apart by the pull from both sides. The opposing forces dragged him left and right, bending his body into a dangerous arc in midair. His shoulders nearly dislocated in that instant, his bones pulled to their limit and his tendons standing out beneath his skin in clear lines.

His jaws were clenched tight, his lips pale, and veins bulged at his temples. The shells' metal casings had already begun to glow red, the color shining through from within like two hearts on the verge of melting.

"Time... Reversal!"

The voice burst from his chest, forced out from the last trace of origin power the Golden Dragon King had left him.

Dark-golden light surged from his body, spreading outward from his chest and covering the entire hall, the whole sky, everything moving and collapsing. Everything was