First Encounter with the Silver Dragon King in the Star Dou Deep Core

The dust that filled the sky slowly settled, revealing devastation throughout the deep pit.

Fragments of the shattered Dragon Moon Battle Armor lay scattered across the muddy, blood-soaked ground. The dulled alloy plates were riddled with cracks, no longer able to gather even a trace of battle armor radiance. Tang Wulin lay face down upon the cold earth and stone, more than half the bones and tendons in his body broken. The collapsed wound in his chest sent piercing pain through him; every faint breath tugged at his displaced organs, filling his mouth with the metallic sweetness of blood.

The soul power within him had been completely exhausted, like a dried-up riverbed. He could not even maintain the most basic Golden Dragon Body. The dim dragon scales across his skin peeled away layer by layer, exposing the boy's flesh, covered in bloody wounds and bruises. The supreme Dragon God bloodline that had been able to intimidate Di Tian moments ago had now fallen completely silent, sealed deep within its source by his grievously injured body. Not the slightest trace of dragon might leaked out any longer.

He did not even have the strength to lift his head.

Extreme weakness carried the chill of death through every limb and bone. His consciousness drifted between wakefulness and unconsciousness, and only the sliver of unwilling obsession in his heart kept him from passing out completely.

A shadowy dragon figure slowly descended to the edge of the pit.

Di Tian lowered his eyes and looked down at the dying boy on the ground, his expression neither sorrowful nor joyful. There was no victor's arrogance, nor any pity for the weak—only the cold indifference of one carrying out fate.

He had already held back in that palm strike. He had gravely wounded Tang Wulin and stripped him of all ability to resist, yet he had deliberately spared his life.

He kept him alive not because he cherished talent, but for that one-of-a-kind Golden Dragon King's Origin—the only one in heaven and earth—for the supreme being slumbering at the heart of Star Dou.

"Behave yourself."

The indifferent voice crashed down beside his ear, carrying irresistible pressure. Di Tian flicked a finger, and a strand of pure yet tyrannical Black Dragon Origin Power instantly wrapped around Tang Wulin's ruined body. Like invisible chains, it tightly bound his limbs, bloodline, and the last remnants of his soul power.

His body, which had tried to struggle and tremble, instantly stiffened. Even the slightest movement of his fingertips was completely sealed.

This was not an ordinary soul power restraint. It was the origin seal of a million-year Black Dragon beast. To the severely injured and exhausted Tang Wulin, it was an unsolvable shackle.

The next instant, Di Tian raised a hand and grasped through the air.

Vast, shadowy dragon power wrapped around Tang Wulin's battered body and lifted him off the ground, leaving him suspended in midair. A fierce wind swept past, yet it could not move him in the slightest. It could only tear at his tattered clothes and scatter fine droplets of blood through the air.

Tang Wulin hung helplessly in the air, his entire body wracked by unbearable pain, his vision blurred and hazy. He struggled to raise his heavy eyelids and could see only the rapidly retreating shadows of the forest. The roaring wind filled his ears, along with Di Tian's steady footsteps through the sky, never pausing even once.

The depths of the Star Dou Great Forest grew increasingly quiet.

Far from the winds and beastly roars of the outer regions, the deeper they ventured into the core, the more ethereal, ancient, and vast the aura of heaven and earth became.

There was no violent pressure from fierce beasts here, nor were there berserk energy currents. In their place was an incomparably gentle, pure, boundless life dragon aura. It was elegant, sacred, and compassionate, yet carried a lofty detachment that stood above all living things. It was utterly different from Di Tian's dark and violent Black Dragon aura. One was soft and the other hard, one sacred and the other baleful; together, they upheld the most ancient forbidden ground on Douluo Continent.

After traveling ten thousand li into the core, the dark mist around them gradually transformed into pure milky white, and all heaven and earth became hazy and serene.

Towering ancient spirit trees stood everywhere, their trunks entwined with ten-thousand-year spirit patterns. The ground was covered in spirit grass that never withered, while specks of glowing white starlight drifted through the air. Every breath contained an incomparably rich essence of heaven and earth.

This was the true forbidden ground of the Star Dou Great Forest—the Source of Myriad Dragons, where the Silver Dragon slept.

The closer he came to this place, the more Di Tian restrained the wild and violent aura around him. The pride of a supreme million-year beast faded away completely, replaced by reverence and humility from the depths of his soul.

His footsteps slowed, and his expression became solemn. There was no trace of the indifference from before. Like a subject on pilgrimage, he led his captive into this sacred domain step by step.

Tang Wulin's vision gradually cleared somewhat.

At that very moment, his gaze pierced through layers of milky-white mist and landed upon a stone platform at the heart of the forest, surrounded by spirit trees.

In an instant.

Heaven and earth fell silent.

The wind stopped. The currents stilled. All things became soundless.

The pain wracking Tang Wulin's body, the weakness of impending death, and the despair of defeat were all swallowed at that moment by overwhelming shock and trembling.

A young girl in white stood quietly atop the stone platform.

She appeared to be only sixteen or seventeen, with a slender, graceful figure. A pure white gown trailed upon the ground, its sleeves flowing with a faint silver glow and moving without wind, untouched by the slightest dust. Her snow-white skin was almost translucent. Her long hair seemed woven from moonlight, falling casually over her shoulders. Her features were so exquisite that she resembled a celestial goddess, every line of her face flawless beyond reproach.

Most captivating of all were her eyes.

Clear, cold, and indifferent, they seemed to hold the moonlight of eternity and the emptiness of countless ages. There was gentleness within them, yet also an inborn detachment. They were so pure that not even the faintest trace of worldly warmth could stain them.

She simply stood there in silence, neither moving nor speaking. A faint silver-blue dragon aura curled around her, countless stars falling upon her while the spiritual energy of all things gathered toward her, as though the entire world revolved around her.

The moment Tang Wulin's gaze fell upon her face, his heart gave a violent shudder!

A longing and concern that had been buried in his heart for years, spanning countless days and nights, instantly broke through all pain and despair and crashed through his chest!

It was her!

It really was her!

Na'er!

She was the little girl who had gone missing in his childhood, leaving behind endless obsession. The little sister he thought of day and night, whom he had searched for countless times in his dreams—the sister who had disappeared alongside Gu Yue after Sea God's Fate.

The girl's brows, features, temperament, and spirit before him were exactly the same as the soft, obedient little Na'er from his memories, who had nestled against him and called him big brother!

Only, she had grown up.

The childishness and smallness of her youth had faded away. She had become a peerless beauty, cold and untouched by the mortal world—the image he had imagined countless times: gentle, cool, breathtakingly beautiful, and free of all dust.

In that instant, all exhaustion, pain, humiliation from defeat, and despair at being captured vanished completely.

Tang Wulin's broken body trembled slightly as bitterness and wild joy intertwined, crashing against his soul.

He had searched for so long, missed her for so long, waited for so long...

So Na'er was here! She was safe, and she had grown into someone so beautiful!

"Na... Na'er..."

His voice was hoarse and broken, carrying blood foam and extreme trembling as he unconsciously whispered her name.

The faint voice was especially clear within the silent core region.

Yet the next second, a cold and indifferent gaze descended upon him from afar.

Those eyes were beautiful and pure, yet they held not a shred of familiarity, not a hint of intimacy, and even less of the joy of reunion after long separation.

There was only unfamiliarity, only scrutiny, only a faint response and indifference originating from the roots of their bloodlines.

Gu Yue Na slowly raised her eyes atop the stone platform.

At this time, she existed in the era of the Peerless Tang Clan. Her consciousness had only recently awakened from slumber, and her soul was whole. She possessed only the origin memories belonging to the Silver Dragon Lord. She had not the slightest memory of Tang Wulin, no companionship in Eastsea Town, no warmth of siblings relying on each other, no obsession born of separation.

She was not the future Gu Yue who had endured parting, division, and deep obsession. She was Gu Yue Na, the one and only Silver Dragon King who had awakened from ancient times and looked down upon all living beings.

The reason she had been drawn to this human boy, and the reason she had ordered Di Tian to bring him here, had always been because of bloodline alone.

The incomparably pure, one-of-a-kind Golden Dragon King bloodline—one that shared her origin, existed in mutual generation with her, and was bound to her by fate.

The Golden Dragon King's Origin dormant within Tang Wulin's body had instinctively resonated with her Silver Dragon Origin the moment he entered this Silver Dragon territory.

One gold, one silver; one dragon divided in two; yin and yang matched, their fates linked.

This was the origin bond created by the Dragon God's division. It had nothing to do with human feelings or the passage of time. It was merely the pull of fate carved into the laws of heaven and earth.

Gu Yue Na's cold eyes quietly examined the boy bound in midair.

She looked at his body covered in wounds, his blood-soaked clothes, his shattered battle armor, and his battered, dying state. She looked at the unfamiliar emotions surging from his eyes, burning hot and intense.

Her brows furrowed almost imperceptibly. A faint trace of confusion flashed through her clear eyes, yet she remained cold and distant.

She did not know him.

She had never seen him before.

Still less did she understand where the nearly overwhelming longing and emotion in his eyes came from.

In her eyes, the person before her was merely a vessel carrying the complete Golden Dragon King's Origin. He was the other half destined to oppose and depend upon her, the only existence capable of stirring a resonance in her origin after her awakening.

Nothing more.

Di Tian bowed his head and respectfully saluted. His voice was exceedingly humble. "My Lord, this subordinate has brought the bearer of the Golden Dragon King's Origin."

Gu Yue Na did not look at Di Tian. Her gaze remained fixed on Tang Wulin as her cold, gentle voice slowly rang out, ethereal as falling snow and devoid of emotion.

"Was it his bloodline that shook the origin of my dragon race just now?"

"It was." Di Tian answered respectfully. "This child possesses an incomparably pure Golden Dragon King bloodline. Though his cultivation is weak, his bloodline is noble and faintly suppresses even the collateral branches of our dragon race. He is truly an anomaly born of heaven and earth."

Gu Yue Na gave a slight nod, her silver-blue eyes quietly watching Tang Wulin as he trembled all over, his expression complicated.

She could clearly sense the restless, scorching, incomparably tyrannical golden origin within him. It was connected to her Silver Dragon Origin strand by strand, mutually generating and restraining one another, their fate entangled for hundreds of millions of years.

Yet in her eyes, this vast bond of fate was cold and objective, devoid of any warmth.

But Tang Wulin, suspended in the air, felt his heart suddenly constrict at that moment.

He clearly saw the unfamiliarity in her eyes.

It was complete failure to recognize him, detachment without any bond between them, scrutiny as though he were a stranger on the road.

The burning hope that had just ignited within him was instantly doused by a basin of bone-piercing ice.

Something was wrong...

This was not right.

Even if she had grown up and changed in appearance, even if many years had passed, she should not have looked at him with such complete unfamiliarity.

The little Na'er in his memories had soft, gentle eyes. She had relied on him, stayed close to him, and always looked at him with boundless intimacy and trust.

Yet the girl before him was cold, proud, and high above all others. Like a Silver Dragon deity in the heavens, she looked down upon the insignificant him with calm indifference, neither joy nor sorrow.

She had Na'er's appearance, but... she did not seem to be his Na'er.

Tang Wulin's throat moved as the metallic sweetness of blood surged in his mouth. Waves of cold passed through his heavily injured body.

He could not distinguish whether his heart held wild joy or bitterness. He could only stare blankly at the face he had dreamed of day and night and murmur, his voice as faint as a sigh.

"You... grew up... Na'er..."

No one answered.

Only silver radiance fell from the sky. The cold Silver Dragon girl stood atop the divine platform. She did not recognize an old companion, did not understand deep affection, and merely watched this boy who had crossed time and space, fallen here alone, and carried a heart full of obsession—in the name of fate.

The Star Dou core remained silent for eternity. Thus began a meeting that spanned the years, a mistaken recognition that would last half a lifetime.