Main Martial Soul: Golden Dragon King

Main Martial Soul: Golden Dragon King

Tang Wulin sat cross-legged right in the center of the teacher's office with his eyes tightly shut and both fists resting on his knees. Gu Yue sat to his left, closing her eyes to regulate her breathing as circles of silver elemental tides spread out from her body to cloak the entire room in a very faint dragon pressure. Lu Menge stood opposite Tang Wulin and slapped the sealing talisman she had spent half an hour drawing by hand onto the floor, causing a very faint white light to emerge across the walls of the office and isolate all internal and external detection. The little white tiger curled up at the door to keep watch, scratching anyone who came close.

"Listen up," Lu Menge rotated her wrists. "Once we enter Wulin's sea of consciousness later, hit whoever you see."

Gu Yue opened one eye. "No need to talk sense first?"

"The premise of talking sense is that the other party speaks human language. Do you think the Golden Dragon King looks like someone who understands human language?"

Gu Yue thought about it and closed her eyes. "OK."

Tang Wulin raised his hand. "Teacher Lu, I—what should I do?"

"Stand behind me and don't get scared crying by the Golden Dragon King inside your body." Lu Menge patted his head. "Ready?"

Tang Wulin and Gu Yue nodded at the same time.

Lu Menge extended her right hand and pressed her index finger against the center of Tang Wulin's brow. The power of the White Tiger Sacred Seal turned into a wisp of extremely fine white light that passed from her fingertips into Tang Wulin's sea of consciousness, followed closely by Gu Yue's Silver Dragon King aura, pulling the consciousnesses of the two people and one tiger into the depths of the seal in an instant.

The sight in the depths of the seal was more magnificent than Tang Wulin had imagined. A annular seal composed of eighteen golden light pillars floated in the void, every one of them engraved with complicated God Realm runes. The further outward the light pillars were, the thinner they became and the brighter the runes—those were the fifteen layers already unlocked. The core still had three light pillars remaining, and the innermost one was already covered in cracks as rolling golden aura surged outward from the fissures like something inside had been clawing at it for over a decade.

When Lu Menge landed, her heels touched down first, her high heels tapping a crisp echo against the flat surface of the sea of consciousness void. She swept a glance at the crack-filled light pillar and tilted her head toward Gu Yue. "The innermost seal is almost shattered. He's been clawing inside for so many years and is just about to make his final push—only to run into us."

Gu Yue did not speak. Her gaze fell upon that fissure, her purple pupils reflecting the churning golden flames. This aura was too familiar—the Golden Dragon King, her other half, the existence of the other half when the Dragon God split. She had been sleeping deep in the Star Dou Great Forest when it was split in half by Asura God's blade on the God Realm battlefield and killed by Tang San, not even leaving time for a single farewell—yet before the Golden Dragon King died, he had poured his divine core into the body of Tang San's newborn son in an attempt to exact revenge. Tang San used eighteen seals to protect his son at the cost of imprisoning the remnant soul of the Golden Dragon King within the seals.

"Di Tian said," Gu Yue's voice was very soft, "when the Golden Dragon King was killed by Tang San, his final consciousness wasn't cursing the God Realm—it was calling my name. Tell him I'm sorry for me."

Lu Menge glanced at her and nodded. "Alright. Then you suppress the array first and scatter the fierce Qi on his periphery. Leave the rest to me."

Gu Yue raised both hands, and the Silver Dragon King's aura turned into a soft silver mist that blanketed the entire sealing space. Those intensely scorching, violent golden flames surrounding the golden light pillars gradually stabilized within this layer of silver mist—as if their identities were recognized by an old acquaintance, softening their fiercest obsessions by quite a bit.

Taking advantage of this, Lu Menge walked up to the innermost seal and raised a hand to press against the crack-filled light pillar. A layer of shallow mental threads probed toward the interior of the seal along her palm.

"Ahahaha—Who is it—! Who dares to invade this king—!"

The core of the seal erupted with a roar so hoarse it was nearly distorted. A huge golden phantom rushed out from the seal fissure with a ferocious dragon head, sky-blocking wings, and a body burning fiercely with golden flames as if it would burn through the entire sea of consciousness. It was the remnant soul of the Golden Dragon King.

Lu Menge stood in place without moving, sizing him up from head to toe before turning to look at Tang Wulin. "Look, that's him. He's been parasitic in your body for all these years, eating and drinking off you, and now that he comes out he still dares to bare his teeth."

Tang Wulin looked at that giant golden dragon, and for some reason, he suddenly wasn't as scared anymore. It was probably because Lu Menge's tone was too casual—like introducing a tenant who had defaulted on rent.

The Golden Dragon King's phantom violently turned its dragon head, its golden vertical pupils locking onto Gu Yue behind Lu Menge. Its roar abruptly cut off mid-air. Gu Yue stood in the center of the silver light mist, her silver hair fluttering without wind and her purple pupils quietly watching him. The Golden Dragon King's golden vertical pupils violently contracted, the flames dimming by quite a bit as his throat seemed choked by something. "...Silver Dragon King? How did you—"

"Catch up on old times later." Lu Menge flashed to stand in front of Gu Yue, stretching her wrists with a flawlessly curved smile on the corner of her lips. "First, pay off the debts you owe. One, you parasitized Tang Wulin, have you paid rent? Two, you forcibly shoved the divine core in back then and almost killed him, how do we settle this score? Three—you just glared at my cousin, I have to vent her anger somehow."

The Golden Dragon King turned his dragon head toward Lu Menge, his violent nature washing away that momentary hesitation as he opened his mouth and roared, "And who are you—!"

"Nine-Headed White Tiger. Your sister."

Lu Menge threw a punch the moment the words "your sister" landed. It wasn't a martial soul skill or a ranged blast, but a tiger claw covered by the White Tiger Sacred Seal that smashed solidly against the lower jaw of the Golden Dragon King. The Golden Dragon King's phantom was hit so hard by this punch that his entire dragon head tilted upward and golden flames splattered everywhere. He roared and swung his claw to retaliate, but the moment his left claw rose Lu Menge used her tiger tail to coil around it and yank it downward. Before his right wing even had time to flap, Tang Wulin suddenly rushed forward to hug his tail and drag it backward. The Golden Dragon King's offensive paused for a beat, Gu Yue raised her hand and a beam of silver light suppressed the roots of his wings, and Lu Menge flashed behind the Golden Dragon King, gripping the void with her right hand as the Golden Dragon Spear condensed into shape in her palm.

"This spear—isn't the one you gave, it's the Golden Dragon Spear Tang Wulin's father left behind. The Golden Dragon King stabbed himself with it once before—" With a single-handed flick, the spear tip traced an arc and stabbed straight into the dead center of the Golden Dragon King's phantom's chest. The Golden Dragon King let out a heaven-shaking roar, the flames around his dragon body churning wildly while the Golden Dragon Spear was pinned right in the middle of his chest and a violent golden aura poured outward from the wound. Without letting go, Lu Menge lowered her voice and uttered words only the Golden Dragon King could hear. "The Silver Dragon King said she owes you an apology."

The Golden Dragon King's struggling movements suddenly stopped. He lowered his head to look at the Golden Dragon Spear in his chest, then looked toward Gu Yue standing in the distance within the silver light mist without stepping forward. Gu Yue slightly nodded toward him, her lips moving silently.

"...Sorry. For making you wait so long."

A low sound, hardly sounding like a beast at all, came from the Golden Dragon King's throat. Then he averted his dragon head, refusing to look at her.

Lu Menge pressed the spear tip down a bit against his lower body. "Good, nostalgia time is over, let's talk business. Tang San sealed you inside Wulin's body, and Old Tang had a hard time fighting you and reinforcing the seal. But a seal will eventually be undone one day—now we're giving you an option where you don't have to keep being sealed: you voluntarily separate your remnant consciousness and attach it to the martial soul system, becoming Tang Wulin's martial soul."

"What makes you think I—"

"Because I won't kill you." Lu Menge smiled very cordially. "Because the Silver Dragon King interceded for you. Because you owe the Tang family father and son. Because this child—"

She sidestepped to reveal Tang Wulin behind her. Little Wulin stood in the void, both hands still clutching the hem of his clothes where he had just hugged the golden dragon's tail. His face was flushed red, but the gaze he cast at the Golden Dragon King held no hatred, only a sort of indescribable stubbornness.

"—The child who has been parasitized by you for so many years, almost crushed to death within his own consciousness by that power of yours. He has never blamed you. What you owe him, you pay back now."

The Golden Dragon King fell silent for a long time. His remnant soul slowly shrank under the Golden Dragon Spear. The outline of the dragon body blurred and cleared, cleared and blurred.

"...Main Martial Soul."

Lu Menge raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I said—I want to be the main martial soul." The Golden Dragon King's voice suddenly changed from the previous violent hoarseness to a sort of less-than-confident mutter. "Sister Lu—can I call you Sister, alright?—you want me to be second to that kind of thing like Blue Silver Grass? Above me? I am after all the Dragon God's half, how can I mix in the martial soul circle in the future if word gets out?"

Lu Menge fell silent for a moment and turned to look at Tang Wulin. Tang Wulin scratched the back of his head and whispered, "Main martial soul or auxiliary martial soul... either is fine by me. If he wants to be the main one, Blue Silver Grass can still be the auxiliary martial soul anyway."

The Golden Dragon King immediately climbed up the pole. "See, he said it! Main martial soul!"

Lu Menge sighed, pulling the Golden Dragon Spear back by a bit as the spear tip drew a circle dead center on the Golden Dragon King's chest. "Fine. But you have to promise me a few things. First, the martial soul system is you voluntarily separating your consciousness and fusing into it; backlashes are forbidden, not even once. Second, your remnant soul must be regularly tended to—every time Wulin breaks through in cultivation, Gu Yue will come to help you stabilize it. Third—" She bent down, her fox eyes staring straight into the Golden Dragon King's vertical pupils. "If you dare disobey commands in battle, I will drag you out of the martial soul and beat you up all over again. Understand?"

The Golden Dragon King was silent for a moment, and his dragon head gave a firm nod.

The Golden Dragon Spear turned into a beam of golden light that merged into Tang Wulin's palm. The Golden Dragon King's phantom also disintegrated at the same instant into a vast torrent of golden light that gushed out from the sealing core, passed through the sixteenth to eighteenth layers of sealing light pillars that hadn't had time to vibrate yet, passed through the silver light mist laid down by Gu Yue, passed through the Tiger Soul Barrier set up by Lu Menge, and surged layer by layer toward the palms of Tang Wulin's hands—golden flames condensed into a dragon-head ancient rune on his left palm, Blue Silver Grass unfurled as usual on his right palm, and two rings of light, one golden and one blue, blossomed. The golden halo represented the Golden Dragon King's dragon-type main martial soul, and the blue halo represented the Blue Silver Grass auxiliary martial soul. The Golden Dragon King's consciousness successfully separated voluntarily, becoming Tang Wulin's main martial soul. The Blue Silver Grass was automatically demoted to an auxiliary martial soul.

Deep inside the sealing core, only an empty stone platform remained. The violent remnant soul originally locked there had dissipated, and only the gradually subsiding sealing runes still circulated. The final two light pillars left behind by Tang San also turned into soft light at the same instant, slowly sinking into Tang Wulin's bloodline—the eighteen seals had completely vanished. From then on, the Golden Dragon King was no longer a ticking time bomb parasitic inside Tang Wulin's body, but a power fused into his own martial soul system. With the divine core returning to its place, the seals naturally no longer needed to exist.

Lu Menge stamped out the last wisp of residual golden flames by her foot and clapped her hands. "Main martial soul it is, look at that lack of ambition of yours. Done, wrap up."

The consciousnesses of the three people and one tiger returned simultaneously.

The first thing Tang Wulin did upon opening his eyes was to lower his head to look at his hand. The golden dragon rune on his left palm was still slightly warm, Blue Silver Grass emerged from his fingertips, and a small pale blue halo had appeared around the tip at some unknown time. He raised his hand in a grip, and a miniature golden dragon shadow manifested on the outside of his fist, opening its mouth to emit a hearty dragon roar—much more brisk than that roar in the seal just now. Pfft—I have a dragon too! Gu Yue! No, Teacher Lu—

Gu Yue withdrew the silver light mist that blanketed the entire room, confirmed there were no elemental residues remaining around, and nodded slightly to Lu Menge. Lu Menge casually dismissed the sealing talisman on the ground and nudged the little white tiger curled at the door with her toe. "Let's go, we still have class tomorrow."