The Seal Is Complete

Within the sea of spirit, the situation changed by the instant!

Seeing the Golden Dragon King laugh wildly as it regained control over all the divided power, Huo Yuhao's spiritual phantom's gaze sharpened, and he made a decisive choice!

"Retreat!"

Without the slightest hesitation, his spiritual phantom was erased from Tang Wulin's boiling golden sea of spiritual fire as if by an eraser. He instantly withdrew, severing the deep link and leaving behind only a faint channel of perception. Huo Yuhao's true body in the real world swayed violently, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his lips. The backlash from forcibly interrupting a deep spiritual connection was no easy thing.

"Hahaha! Huo Yuhao, are you afraid? Do you think you can escape? Once I completely devour this brat's soul and seize this perfect body, you'll be next! Your Undead Plane will make the finest nest for me!" The Golden Dragon King's laughter came through that faint channel, brimming with smug certainty and venomous resentment.

Yet before its laughter could fade, the Dark-Gold Dragon King, which had only just taken shape and possessed a slightly weaker aura, suddenly let out an uncertain, startled growl. "Gold... no, this isn't right!"

Circles of immensely ancient, obscure gray runes had somehow silently appeared across the Dark-Gold Dragon King's dark-gold body, forcibly condensed from fragments! The runes slowly moved as though alive. Every flicker brought the Dark-Gold Dragon King a sense of suppression and restraint that arose from the depths of its bloodline and made its soul tremble! Its movements became sluggish, its power unable to circulate smoothly, as if invisible shackles had been placed upon it!

"This is... the Forbidden Dragon Curse?! Impossible!" The Golden Dragon King's wild laughter froze, turning into incredulous terror, as though its very conviction had shattered. The Forbidden Dragon Curse was one of the supreme authority spells bestowed by the ancient Dragon God upon certain dragon clan enforcers, specifically used to punish and suppress powerful dragons that had rebelled or gone out of control! How could Huo Yuhao, a human, possibly possess it? Could it be that, while analyzing the Golden Dragon King's power, he had even deciphered forbidden knowledge from the Dragon God's era?

That was not the case. This curse had not been analyzed by Huo Yuhao from the Golden Dragon King's power—the Golden Dragon King presided over destruction and did not command such laws. Its source was Di Tian! The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King clan had been among the dragon clan's enforcers during the Dragon God's era. They had passed down some knowledge of the Forbidden Dragon Curse through the generations. Though incomplete, retaining only its suppressive effect and requiring an enormous price to invoke, it was at this moment an unexpected move against the Golden Dragon King's unstable, divided consciousness! Over the past three years, Huo Yuhao and Di Tian had exchanged ideas and studied together, quietly laying this contingency in wait for the instant the Golden Dragon King's power divided or became unstable!

"Dark-Gold! Hold this curse back for me! I'll seize the body with all my strength at once. As long as I take control, every form of suppression can be reversed!" The Golden Dragon King quickly calmed down, realizing that every second counted. Ignoring the newborn body's plight, it gathered all its consciousness into a dark-gold torrent and viciously charged toward the fragile point of light deep within Tang Wulin's sea of spirit that represented his true self, intending to devour him and seize his body by force!

However—

"Buzz!"

Its charge was like crashing into an invisible yet incomparably resilient wall. No matter how it drove its divine power, it could not advance even half an inch! It felt as though it had sunk into the thickest swamp—the harder it struggled, the tighter the restraints became.

"What now?!" The Golden Dragon King was nearly driven mad. The chain of sudden reversals made it rage furiously. Just how many layers of backup plans had that damned Huo Yuhao prepared?!

"Gold! Watch above you!" The Dark-Gold Dragon King's cry rang out, carrying even deeper terror.

The Golden Dragon King abruptly looked up. At some point, the sky above the sea of spirit had been enveloped by nine vast, magnificent nine-colored rings that contained the laws of the universe's deepest emotions and truest nature! The rings slowly revolved, scattering endless radiant light. Every beam carried an intent to cleanse, soothe, and ultimately imprison! They were projections of the nine divine rings of Huo Yuhao's source godhood—the God of Emotions!

"You... have you gone mad?! You're using divine rings as the foundation to lay down a godly seal?! Don't you care about your god core anymore?!" For the first time, the Golden Dragon King's voice held genuine horror and incomprehension. Divine rings were the tangible manifestation of a god's authority and power, storing the core laws and divine abilities of a godhood. Stripping them away to serve as the core of a seal could indeed produce unimaginable sealing power, but it was no different from cutting off one's own arm! Without the divine rings' balance and protection, Huo Yuhao's already shattered god core, eroded by the Golden Dragon King's residual power, would be completely exposed to the Golden Dragon King's direct assault and placed in grave danger! This was practically a strategy of mutual destruction!

Huo Yuhao did not answer. In the quiet room of the real world, the temperature plunged as the chill of Ultimate Ice erupted without restraint! Pale white frost spread outward from Huo Yuhao in an instant, climbing across the walls, floor, and ceiling, transforming the entire room into an ice cellar. This cold did not merely affect reality. It also seeped through the spiritual link into Tang Wulin's sea of spirit, assisting the Nine-Colored Divine Rings in freezing the boiling golden sea of fire inch by inch! During ten thousand years in the Divine Realm, Huo Yuhao had never ceased honing Ultimate Ice. Combined with the divine power of emotions, what it froze was not only energy, but the activity of consciousness itself!

At the same time, in the corner of the quiet room, a strange-looking soul conduit that had long since been activated emitted a low hum. It transformed the faint yet pure power of faith generated by the sincere affection and gratitude of the diners Rain Spirit Grilled Fish Shop had accumulated over the years into the most basic divine power, continuously pouring it into Huo Yuhao's nearly exhausted body and sustaining this mad endeavor.

Within the sea of spirit, the nine-colored rings suddenly contracted. Like nine sacred shackles, they layered atop one another and tightly bound the Golden Dragon King's massive phantom! The light of the divine rings intertwined with the extreme cold, forming an absolute seal. The Golden Dragon King roared unwillingly and struggled frantically, its dragon body twisting hard enough to crack the frozen sea of fire. Yet the nine-colored shackles did not budge. Instead, they tightened further, their radiance seeping into its phantom and beginning to suppress its source consciousness.

"No! Why?! Why go this far?!" it roared from within the shackles.

As the main body was sealed and suppressed by the Nine-Colored Divine Rings, the pressure of the Forbidden Dragon Curse upon the Dark-Gold Dragon King surged! The gray runes blazed brightly, contracting and tightening like a net steadily being drawn closed. The Dark-Gold Dragon King shrieked in agony. It had been forcibly condensed from fragments and was inherently unstable; under the dual pressure of the Forbidden Dragon Curse and the external cold, its power began to leak away uncontrollably.

The battle entered its cruelest, most primitive phase—a war of attrition! It was now a question of whether Huo Yuhao's divine power, soul power, and spiritual power would be exhausted first, leaving him unable to maintain the divine-ring seal and the Forbidden Dragon Curse despite the Faith Soul Conduit's replenishment being little more than a drop in the bucket; or whether the Dark-Gold Dragon King would be completely sealed and crushed by the Forbidden Dragon Curse first!

Time passed amid the suffocating standoff. A quarter hour, then another... Huo Yuhao's body in reality trembled more and more violently, his face turning as pale as paper as thin streams of blood began to seep from his seven orifices. These were signs that both his divine power and soul power had been overdrawn. The room remained icy, but the Faith Soul Conduit's light had dimmed to the point of nearly extinguishing.

Within the sea of spirit, the Nine-Colored Divine Rings' light also began to flicker, yet the shackles remained firm. The Golden Dragon King's roars had turned into weak whimpers, and its struggles grew increasingly feeble. Gray runes had embedded themselves deeply into its phantom, and its form began to blur and fall apart.

Finally, after nearly two hours of deadlock—

"Roar—!" A mournful cry filled with unwillingness and weakness rang out. The Dark-Gold Dragon King was the first to fail, completely suppressed and compressed by the Forbidden Dragon Curse into a dark-gold orb wrapped in gray runes, losing all ability to resist.

Almost at the same moment, a fierce glint flashed through Huo Yuhao's eyes as he barked, "Now! Golden Dragon Spear, suppress it!"

In reality, the Golden Dragon Spear that he had been holding suddenly flew into the air, its tip bursting with an unprecedented suction force! That pull did not merely target ownerless power. At this moment, it was aimed directly at the Golden Dragon King's sealed and suppressed consciousness! The orb formed from the Dark-Gold Dragon King was drawn in first, helplessly flying toward the Golden Dragon Spear. Immediately afterward, the Golden Dragon King phantom bound by the Nine-Colored Divine Rings let out a terrified shriek. Its power and fragments of consciousness also began to be slowly torn away and absorbed by the Golden Dragon Spear!

This was a terrifying vicious cycle! The Golden Dragon Spear's attraction to the Golden Dragon King's power now reinforced the seal's effect in reverse—because in order to resist the pull, the Golden Dragon King's consciousness had to become more concentrated, more tangible, which gave the divine-ring seal and the Forbidden Dragon Curse a clearer point to exert force upon and made the seal firmer! The stronger the seal became, the weaker the Golden Dragon King's control over external power grew, making it easier for the Golden Dragon Spear to draw it in... A vicious cycle with no solution!

Had the one being sealed been the complete Golden Dragon King, the Golden Dragon Spear might ultimately have returned to its original owner and fallen under its control. But at this moment, it was in a divided and suppressed state!

In reality, the golden scales covering Tang Wulin's body had long since peeled away and dissipated amid the freezing and extraction of power. His temperature had returned to normal, though he remained unconscious. Only two faintly flickering light clusters of differing strength could vaguely be seen at his abdomen.

Huo Yuhao forcefully drew one last breath, extending both hands toward Tang Wulin from afar. "Separate!"

Two dark-gold god cores, one large and one small, dim in radiance and covered in cracks, slowly emerged from Tang Wulin's chest. The larger one accounted for roughly seventy percent and was wrapped in a nine-colored halo; the smaller one accounted for roughly thirty percent and was enveloped in gray runes. Both emitted a weak yet heart-palpitating aura.

"To be safe... one more layer of sealing!" Huo Yuhao's voice was hoarse. He mobilized his own shattered emotion god core, which had been heavily locked down by undead magic and the Sword of Life. He spat out a mouthful of source blood, mixing it with his remaining undead magic power and the Sword of Life's protective sword aura. Together, they formed a complex triangular sealing formation that enveloped the two Golden Dragon King's God Cores along with the phantom of his own emotion god core!

"Threefold Seal: Suppress!"

With a flash of light, the two Golden Dragon King's God Cores were forcibly drawn into Huo Yuhao's body, forming an immensely unstable yet temporarily balanced triangular sealing structure with his emotion god core. Together, they were suppressed deep within his soul. At last, the Golden Dragon King's god-core source had been temporarily stripped from Tang Wulin's body!

"Pfft!" Huo Yuhao could no longer hold on and violently spat out a mouthful of blood, flecked with golden light. He collapsed to the floor, drenched in blood with his clothes torn to shreds, his aura weak to the extreme. His divine power and soul power had been utterly depleted, and his spirit was overdrawn. Everything he had done had merely been a seal. He could feel that the triangular seal within him was fragile and unstable, while the external Nine-Colored Divine Rings had already returned but were dim and lusterless. These seals could probably last no more than fifteen years.

"Luckily... your father... prepared thoroughly enough..." With trembling hands, Huo Yuhao took a deep-blue diamond-shaped mark from his robes, as though it had been condensed from the purest seawater—the Sea God's Mark left behind by Tang San. With difficulty, he pressed it against Tang Wulin's forehead.

The instant the mark fused into him, the vast, ownerless Golden Dragon King power that had remained within Tang Wulin's body after the fierce struggle, raging unchecked, seemed to find a home. Eighteen azure, ripple-shaped sealing patterns emerged beneath Tang Wulin's skin. Like the gentlest embrace and the strongest embankment, they layered atop one another, gently yet firmly sealing, compressing, and storing that violent power within Tang Wulin's limbs, bones, and the depths of his dantian, leaving behind only the faintest traces to slowly nourish his body.

The crisis was temporarily resolved.

"It's finally... over..." The moment Huo Yuhao finished speaking, his vision went black and he nearly fainted, held upright only by sheer will.

"Brother Yuhao!" Demon Spirit, who had been anxiously sensing the situation outside the door and heard the sounds within gradually subside, could no longer endure it. She pushed open the door and rushed inside. When she saw Huo Yuhao collapsed on the ground, covered in blood and barely breathing, her amber eyes instantly filled with tears and boundless heartache. "Brother Yuhao! How are you?!" Completely ignoring the unconscious Tang Wulin nearby, she threw herself to Huo Yuhao's side, fumbling in panic yet remaining incomparably careful as she tried to help him up. She took out the healing herbs specially made by the Myriad Demon King and the gentle restorative potion prepared by Bi Ji, intending to feed them to Huo Yuhao.

"Son... son!" Tang Ziran and Lang Yue rushed in right after her, first throwing themselves toward Tang Wulin, who lay quietly on the floor as though merely asleep. Seeing that their son's breathing was steady and the terrifying scales had vanished from his body, the weight in their hearts finally lifted by more than half, and they wept with joy. But then they saw Huo Yuhao lying in a pool of blood and Demon Spirit's frantic expression, and overwhelming guilt and worry flooded their hearts.

"Mr. Huo... You... this..." Tang Ziran's voice trembled. Seeing Huo Yuhao in such a miserable state, he did not know what to do. They had never imagined that, to save Wulin, Mr. Huo would pay such a terrible price!

Na'er was the last to enter. Her gaze first swept rapidly over Tang Wulin, confirming that he was unharmed. Even the Golden Dragon King source aura that had made her heart tremble had vanished from within him, leaving only a vast power that had been gently sealed. Then her violet eyes settled on Huo Yuhao, especially the faint, lingering nine-colored radiance of divine rings around him, as well as the residual divine fluctuations and the aura of a dragon clan enforcement curse that she could vaguely sense in the air.

A god? He was a deity? And he recognized me?! Na'er's heart churned with stormy waves. Huo Yuhao had concealed such an identity! The calm yet unfathomable look he had cast toward her before seemingly closing his eyes in exhaustion had clearly been both a warning and a declaration—Tang Wulin was under his protection. The Silver Dragon King, including her avatar, had better not harbor any crooked intentions.

I must notify Gu Yue immediately! The situation has changed. An unexpected god has intervened! And he stands on the side of the Golden Dragon King's inheritor!

"Ah... it's fine... I won't die for now." With Demon Spirit's help, Huo Yuhao swallowed the potion and caught his breath. His voice was weak but clear. Looking at Tang Ziran and Lang Yue, whose faces were filled with guilt and fear, he managed a reassuring smile. "Don't be afraid... Tang Wulin is fine now. The power of... that golden dragon within him has been sealed... for the most part. This time... it was a responsibility entrusted to me by his biological parents... long ago. I have deep ties... to them."

"You mean... Wulin's... biological parents?" Tang Ziran and Lang Yue exchanged a glance, understanding dawning upon them alongside complicated emotions. So Mr. Huo had fought so desperately for the son of old friends.

"Rest assured..." Huo Yuhao took a breath. "Tang Wulin... will always be your child. I won't... take him away. His biological parents... are facing even greater trouble. It isn't safe for him... to return to them now, so don't tell him the truth for the time being. I need to... rest first..." He gestured for Demon Spirit to carry Tang Wulin onto the simple bed nearby.

Then, trembling, Huo Yuhao took a sheet of paper covered in writing from his robes—actually from his storage soul conduit—and handed it to Tang Ziran. "This... give it to him when he wakes up. It lists... some heavenly treasures that can help him gradually absorb and control the remaining power in his body... along with precautions. The things he should know... someone will naturally tell him... at the proper time." His meaning was clear as his gaze once again swept, seemingly casually, toward Na'er standing quietly to one side.

"Enough... I... need to meditate in seclusion." Having said that, Huo Yuhao seemed to have exhausted his last shred of strength. Supported by Demon Spirit, he slowly closed his eyes and entered a state of deep self-regulation. Only the faint sound of melting frost and the heavy, complicated breathing of several people remained in the room.

Na'er clenched her small hands. Her violet eyes lingered deeply on the unconscious Tang Wulin, then on Huo Yuhao, who seemed utterly spent yet still radiated a lingering might that made her heart tremble. One thought became incomparably clear in her mind: I must contact Gu Yue immediately! The situation has completely spiraled out of control!