Golden Dragon

By noon the next day, a full day and night had passed since it began.

Suddenly, a dazzling beam of golden light shot out of the spring, soaring straight into the sky!

The pillar of light lingered in midair for about three seconds, then swiftly contracted.

Immediately afterward, the spring's surface exploded.

The phantom of a massive golden dragon burst out from the depths of the spring, raised its head toward the heavens, and let out a long roar.

The dragon's cry was clear and majestic, echoing between the four walls of the mountain hollow.

Then the dragon phantom contracted and sank back into the water, and everything grew still.

A few breaths later, Zhang Fei emerged from the spring.

He gripped the rocks at the edge with both hands, pushed half his body out of the water, and climbed ashore to get dressed.

The moment She Long's gaze fell on Zhang Fei, he froze.

Zhang Fei's skin gleamed like jade, its surface faintly suffused with a pale golden sheen.

His features were more sharply defined than before he entered the water, his brow and nose taking on clearer, more rugged lines.

Most intimidating of all were his eyes.

An extremely faint trace of gold flickered deep within his pupils, radiating the majesty of a superior being.

The instant She Long met his gaze, his back inexplicably tensed, as though he were facing a creature of a higher order than himself. It was an instinctive fear etched deep into his bloodline.

That was... a dragon's might!

She Long rushed over and looked him up and down. "Little Fei, are you all right?"

Zhang Fei shook his head and finished dressing. "Grandpa, I'm fine. In fact, I feel very, very good."

He clenched his fists, feeling a tremendous surge of strength rise within him, many times greater than before. His meridians were clear and unobstructed, his bones strong, and even the speed at which his soul power circulated had doubled.

Seeing that he truly was unharmed, She Long asked another question. "What were that golden light and that Golden Giant Dragon just now?"

Zhang Fei grinned and summoned his martial soul with a thought.

The Golden Python was gone, replaced by a majestic, solemn Golden Giant Dragon.

The dragon's body was long and powerfully built, covered in gilded scales. Twin horns crowned his head, his four legs were sturdy, and his five claws were razor-sharp.

The dragon coiled behind Zhang Fei with his head lowered, his pale golden slit pupils looking down at the space ahead. A heavy pressure spread outward, making even She Long involuntarily retreat half a step.

"My Golden Python martial soul absorbed the dragon qi at the bottom of this spring like mad, and now he's completely evolved."

Zhang Fei looked at the Golden Giant Dragon behind him, unable to suppress the excitement in his voice. "From now on, he's no longer called Golden Python. He's Golden Dragon."

Zhang Fei knew that, by bloodline rank, the Dragon Clan was divided from highest to lowest into the Dragon God, Dragon Kings, holy dragons, true dragons, and dragonkin.

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, currently proclaimed the world's greatest beast martial soul, belonged to the true dragon rank, while Unicorn Fire Dragons and White-Armored Earth Dragons were dragonkin. His own Golden Python martial soul had also been dragonkin.

Once a true dragon broke through to godhood, it became a holy dragon.

The Ice and Fire Dragon Kings who had fallen here belonged to the even higher Dragon King rank.

Absorbing the lingering dragon qi of two Dragon Kings had allowed Zhang Fei's dragonkin-ranked Golden Python to leap two ranks at once, evolving into a holy dragon-ranked Golden Dragon.

The Golden Dragon's bloodline originated from the Golden Dragon King. The Golden Dragon King was one half of the Dragon God after he split, inheriting the Dragon God's ultimate strength.

In Douluo II, Wang Qiu'er had relied on her Golden Dragon martial soul to wield combat power far beyond others at her level, to the point that she was considered invincible among her peers.

She Long stared at the Golden Giant Dragon, his mouth hanging open, unable to utter a single word.

Only after a long while did he exclaim, "Little Fei, this... this is incredible. How on earth did you do it?"

Zhang Fei withdrew his martial soul and answered with a cheeky grin, "Read more books and newspapers, play more... er, sleep more."

At that, She Long's face instantly darkened with exasperation.

He glanced at the sky and asked, "We're about done, aren't we? Shouldn't we head back? We've been away for a long time. The young master must be getting worried."

Zhang Fei nodded. By his reckoning, it had been nearly half a month since they left the Crown Prince's Residence.

"All right. Just give me a moment to pick some medicinal herbs to take back."

Zhang Fei removed the emerald-green gourd Storage Soul Tool from his waist, his gaze sweeping over each immortal herb as he rapidly matched them against what he remembered.

He crouched and began harvesting. The first was the king of immortal herbs, the Lovesick Heartbreak Red.

Although the conditions for earning its recognition were stringent, there was always a chance. He was so handsome, after all.

Next came the singular velvet sky chrysanthemum, its overlapping petals resembling a lotus throne and giving off a faint, warm fragrance.

Then came the ink jade divine bamboo. The entire stalk was as black as ink jade, with faint streams of light flowing between its joints.

Zhang Fei grew more practiced with each herb he dug up. Next, he harvested the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, aromatic silk beauty, aromatic silk beauty, cockscomb phoenix sunflower, nine-grade purple ganoderma, eight-petal immortal orchid, narcissus jade muscle bone, Blood Swan Kiss, earth dragon golden melon... picking them all, one after another.

Anything he could name and knew how to harvest, he took without exception.

Besides those, he also swept up more than a dozen medicinal herbs just below the highest grade, some eighth-grade and some seventh-grade. Though they could not be considered immortal-grade beside the immortal herbs, any single one of them would have auction houses fighting tooth and nail over it on the soul masters' market outside.

Zhang Fei turned nothing down, filling most of the gourd's dozen-odd cubic meters of space.

He stood, dusted the dirt from his hands, and looked back at the spring where red and blue intertwined, his heart brimming with emotion.

The title of owner of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was now his. He could develop it gradually in the future.

After finishing his harvest, he fastened the gourd back at his waist, approached She Long, and asked, "Grandpa, has Dugu Bo come back at all?"

She Long shook his head. "No. That old poisoner hasn't returned since he left. Why?"

Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Grandpa, I just picked some medicinal herbs, and there's one I chose especially for you. Dugu Bo is unpredictable and could return at any moment. This place isn't very safe. Let's find somewhere secluded and secure first."

She Long blinked. "There's one for me too? At my age, wouldn't eating it be a waste? Keep something this good for yourself. Why bother fussing over an old man like me?"

Zhang Fei immediately waved his hand. "It wouldn't be a waste at all. Grandpa, these herbs are all immortal-grade. They can reshape your bones and sinews and increase your potential. How many years has your soul power been stuck at rank ninety-two? Haven't you ever thought of climbing higher?"

She Long opened his mouth, but swallowed the words before they came out.

He had indeed been stuck at rank ninety-two for nearly ten years. Of course he had tried during that time, but his poorly laid foundation had kept him from breaking through, and gradually he had given up.

For a Titled Douluo, advancing even one rank was as difficult as ascending to heaven. Although rank ninety-two and rank ninety-three were only one rank apart, the gulf between them was even greater than the entire major rank separating a Soul Emperor from a Soul Saint.

Looking at Zhang Fei's earnest expression, She Long finally sighed. "All right, all right. Whatever you say."

Zhang Fei grinned and wasted no more time.

She Long scooped him up again, and the two shot up from the mountain hollow, swept over the poison miasma, and flew toward the outer reaches of the Sunset Forest.

About an incense stick's worth of time later, She Long set Zhang Fei down at the entrance to a secluded cave.

They entered the cave, and She Long sat cross-legged on a flat stone surface.

"This should be secluded enough, right?"

Zhang Fei nodded and took the ink jade divine bamboo out of the gourd.