Gold Dragon Fish and Silver Dragon Fish

[You did not stop after achieving initial success with the "Breath Concealment Technique."]

[In your original theoretical framework, this technique's potential went far beyond concealing your aura and preserving your life.]

[Once your aura was restrained to its utmost, your entire body would become like a length of dead wood or a stubborn rock, blending seamlessly into the surrounding world. Even enemies with the keenest senses would struggle to detect the slightest trace; paired with light-footed movement techniques to sneak close, it would let you erupt into action the instant your opponent was most off guard.]

[On the offensive, it could catch enemies by surprise and strike where they were unprepared; on the retreat, it could erase all trace of you as you fled a thousand miles. It was a top-tier secret support technique capable of directly determining the course of a battle.]

[However, you soon realized that the requirements for practicing the complete "Breath Concealment Technique" were simply too high.]

[Practitioners not only needed to know the human body's meridians and acupoints like the backs of their hands, but also required exceptionally strong spiritual power and exquisitely precise control over Soul Power. They also needed enough insight to perceive, dissect, and mimic the distinctive auras of different living beings. Only then could they truly pass the false off as genuine without exposing the slightest flaw.]

[Transformed Soul Beasts had spent years deep within the Soul Beast Forest and knew nothing about the structure of human meridians; their powers of comprehension also varied considerably. Moreover, most were innocent and mentally immature when they first transformed, and their control over Soul Power was nowhere near the required precision. They simply could not master such a complicated method.]

[You pondered for a moment, then decided to try simplifying the entire method.]

[You removed the parts requiring excessively delicate control and drastically streamlined the steps for condensing the Soul Power membrane, retaining only its core isolation mechanism. You then added clear, intuitive meridian diagrams and simple, easily followed circulation routes, ultimately refining it into a simplified version tailored specifically for transformed Soul Beasts.]

[Though it lacked the complete version's endless versatility, it was stable, reliable, and easy to learn. Your repeated deductions also showed that, as long as a transformed Soul Beast did not actively draw on its source power, this membrane would not break easily and would be enough to deceive a Titled Douluo's senses.]

[That day, the sunshine was just right.]

[Scattered golden rays passed through layers of Blue Silver Grass leaves, casting dappled light and shadow across the forest clearing. A breeze brushed past, gently swaying the vegetation. The soil gave off a slightly damp scent, and the refreshing fragrance of plants drifted through the air.]

[You leaned against a thick, slanting branch of Ah Yin's true body, teasing a dangling blade of grass with your fingertips as you told her a story for the first time in a while.]

[As usual, Ah Yin manifested her spiritual form. Her pale blue dress trailed along the ground, and her translucent figure looked especially soft in the patches of light.]

[She quietly stayed beside you, a slender vine habitually winding around your wrist as she listened in silence with lowered eyes.]

[Today, you no longer spoke of the extraordinary women in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio." Instead, you slowly recounted an adaptation of "The Legend of the Dragon King"-]

["...Nana, the Silver Dragon Fish and sovereign of the Sea Clan, came to the human world to revive her clan and rebuild the Dragon Gate. There, she met Linlin, a human who had mistakenly consumed the Gold Dragon Fish's source..."]

["...Drawn together by their bloodlines, they fell for each other, yet tormented one another because of the hatred between their races."]

["Nana could not relinquish her responsibility as sovereign of the Sea Clan, yet she could not bear to devour Linlin to rebuild the Dragon Gate. In the end, they chose to die together for love."]

[Ah Yin lowered her eyes, the outline of her spiritual form wavering slightly in the shifting light. Only after a long while did she speak softly. "Did they... really have to go that far?"]

[You shook your head, your gaze settling on the boundless sea of grass in the distance, your voice low and cold. "Love asks no questions of race when choosing where to fall. Yet once it has taken root, race cannot be avoided."]

["They had countless opportunities to avoid such an ending."]

[Your tone was calm, but every word carried weight.]

["If, at the beginning, the Silver Dragon Fish had not recklessly barged into the human world, but had decisively joined forces with the Sea Clan's powerhouses upon discovering the Gold Dragon Fish's source, doing everything they could to extract and devour it before rebuilding the Dragon Gate, then reviving the Sea Clan, however difficult, would not have been entirely beyond reach."]

["Partway through, if she had held firm to her position rather than letting personal feelings shake her people's grand plans, then even if she could not truly revive the Sea Clan, she could at least have won them a place to live and establish themselves."]

["Even at the end, when she was already mired too deeply to pull herself free, as long as she had not chosen to run away, but shouldered her responsibility as sovereign, made her choices, and fought, she would still have counted as a worthy ruler, even if she had been defeated and killed."]

[Ah Yin fell silent.]

[She was the empress of the Blue Silver Clan and bore some resemblance to Nana in the story-she, too, carried the heavy responsibility of her people's survival. Perhaps, in the future, she would face the same dilemma between her identity and her feelings.]

Reading this, Su Yi fell silent outside the simulator as well.

When he had first read the ending in which Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena died together for love, he had lost his composure-

One was the leader of humanity, the other the sovereign of the Soul Beasts, yet faced with irreconcilable conflicts between their races, they had actually chosen to die together for love.

Given the situation at the time, humanity could have done without Tang Wulin, but the Soul Beasts could not have done without Gu Yuena.

Even conceding every possible point, if Gu Yuena truly could not bear to hurt Tang Wulin or take his life, she could simply have merged her bloodline into his body and helped him attain the position of Dragon God.

That would at least have broken the shackles preventing Soul Beasts from becoming gods and opened a path out of the impasse for her people, fulfilling the Silver Dragon King's most basic duty.

Besides, given Tang Wulin's character, it was not necessarily beyond him to balance relations between the two races and treat Soul Beasts well.

[You sighed.]

["Everyone mourns their love, yet I alone pity the peoples they abandoned."]

["After the Gold Dragon Fish and Silver Dragon Fish both sacrificed themselves, the Sea Clan could no longer rebuild the Dragon Gate or open the dragon transformation stage. In the end, humans hunted and penned them until-they vanished entirely."]

[At this, Ah Yin's pretty face abruptly turned pale.]

[She seemed to put herself in the Sea Clan's place-their rulers dead for love, their people left without anyone to rely on, at the mercy of slaughter, their path forward severed. All they could do was wait in despair for extinction amid day after day of hunting and captivity.]

[The forest fell quiet for a moment.]

[Only the rustling of wind through the Blue Silver Grass leaves remained, sound after sound, like sighs weighing upon the heart.]

[You did not rush to speak. Only when her emotions had settled a little, the alarm in her eyes had slowly faded, and some color had returned to her face did you ask softly, "Your cultivation... should be nearing a hundred thousand years, shouldn't it?"]

[Ah Yin paused slightly, then nodded.]

["With your Heavenly Tribulation approaching, are you planning to undergo transformation and cultivation?"]

[She hesitated for a moment and unconsciously bit her lip. In the end, she nodded, her voice carrying some bewilderment and apprehension. "With my current foundation, I'm afraid it will be difficult to survive this Heavenly Tribulation. If I want to live, transformation is my only choice."]

[You took a booklet you had bound by hand from your Storage Soul Tool and held it out to her.]

["This is an early gift for your transformation."]

[A flicker of surprise crossed Ah Yin's eyes at your words. Two slender vines reached out from her true body and carefully accepted the booklet.]

[She looked down and saw several large words written neatly on the title page-"Transformation Breath Concealment Technique."]

["What is this?" She raised her head, her clear eyes filled with confusion.]

["It's a secret technique I've spent this time creating especially for you."]

[Seeing that she still did not understand, you explained patiently, "The human body a Soul Beast forms during transformation may look almost identical to an ordinary person's, but a closer examination reveals two differences-"]

["First, its bloodline aura far exceeds that of an ordinary person. Soul Beast cultivation inherently relies on one's own bloodline. Any Soul Beast capable of cultivating for a hundred thousand years has already tempered its bloodline to the utmost."]

["During transformation, that bloodline can be preserved almost in its entirety, making the bloodline aura given off by a transformed Soul Beast far purer than that of an ordinary human."]

["That part is easy enough to handle. You need only tell others that you're exceptionally gifted and have a special constitution, and you can usually bluff your way through."]

["Second, a mass of Soul Beast source remains inside the body. A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's source is extremely substantial. Most of it is consumed during transformation, while the remainder lies dormant within the new body."]

["It can help you gradually condense the first six Soul Rings best suited to you, but it also constantly leaks a faint Soul Beast aura. Once you encounter a high-ranking Soul Master or an opponent with exceptionally keen perception, your true identity can easily be exposed."]

[Ah Yin frowned slightly, clearly troubled by this problem as well.]

[You pointed at the booklet resting on the tips of her vines. "This secret technique happens to resolve that hidden danger."]

[Ah Yin paused at your words, a trace of surprise she could not conceal flashing through her eyes.]

[She lowered her head toward the booklet supported by her vine tips. Slender leaves gently flipped open the cover, and she skimmed a couple of lines.]

[On the page was the outline of a human figure, densely covered with acupoint symbols and cultivation annotations completely unfamiliar to her.]

[She turned the pages with her slender leaves, looking back and forth for quite some time without making any sense of them. They left her lost in the clouds, and the confusion in her eyes only deepened.]

[Seeing her bewildered expression, you did not rush to explain the meridian and acupoint diagrams. Instead, you introduced it directly. "I've named this secret technique the 'Transformation Breath Concealment Technique.'"]

["After practicing it, you can mobilize your Soul Power to condense a special Soul Power membrane around your source. This membrane can not only prevent the source's aura from leaking out, but also mimic the Soul Power fluctuations of a human Soul Master."]

["As long as you don't use your source power, even a Titled Douluo standing before you would find it virtually impossible to determine your true identity from your aura."]

[After a pause, you added another crucial detail. "If you need to condense your own Soul Rings in the future, you need only temporarily disperse this Soul Power membrane to draw upon your source and form a Soul Ring. Once the Soul Ring has fully solidified and your aura has stabilized, circulate the technique for one full cycle, and the membrane will condense again without exposing the slightest flaw."]

[As soon as you finished speaking, Ah Yin's spiritual form suddenly froze, and the vines holding the thin booklet trembled slightly.]

[Though she had yet to examine the secret technique closely, after traveling alongside you all this time, she already trusted your judgment completely-since you had personally declared that it could deceive a Titled Douluo, there could be nothing false about it.]

[With this, once she transformed and entered the world, she would no longer have to fear someone seeing through her true form or remain on guard day and night against Soul Masters hunting and coveting her.]

[The great stone that had weighed on her heart for so long crashed to the ground, and immense joy spread through her entire body along her veins.]

[Her branches and leaves unfurled slightly. The golden markings on her leaves glowed with a lustrous, gentle light, and even the aura of life surrounding her grew a little lighter.]

[Yet before that joy had lasted long, a thought quietly arose in her gentle, kind heart-]

[If this secret technique could be spread, would other Soul Beasts no longer have to tremble with fear as she had when they transformed?]

[No sooner had the thought arisen than another concern in her heart forcibly pressed it down.]

[Transformed Soul Beasts were already blessed by nature, possessing supreme cultivation talent far beyond ordinary humans.]

[With this aura-concealing secret technique at their disposal as well, they could devote themselves wholeheartedly to cultivation without worrying about their identities being exposed.]

[Given time, almost every one of them could grow into one of the world's greatest powerhouses.]

[As she understood it, for tens of thousands of years, humans had hunted Soul Beasts for their Soul Rings and Soul Bones, while Soul Beasts regarded humans as food and hated enemies. The accumulated resentment between the races ran deep; they had long since become mortal foes who would not rest until the other was dead.]

[You often spoke to her of the continuation of one's people, of duty to one's race, of bonds of blood, and of sharing both glory and loss.]

[If this secret technique truly spread, the Soul Beast Clan would inevitably grow far stronger, while humanity would inevitably be greatly weakened.]

[Yet you were human. As one side waned and the other waxed, would that not place you in the unrighteous position of betraying your own people?]