"This is the miracle nurtured by the origin powers of time and space, a means to change the curse the Dragon God placed on Soul Beasts as he lay dying."
At that moment, the light faded. The fishing rod in Yang Xingchen's hand looked as though it had been made from the Milky Way in the night sky, with motes of time and space elements twinkling like stars from time to time.
But once the Fire Dragon King stopped channeling Dragon King-level power into the Space-Time Fishing Rod, the rod, which had just shone as brilliantly as the Milky Way, reverted to its original appearance.
"In short, you contain the origin powers of two Dragon Kings. According to the rules we Dragon Kings established back then, you are now a descendant of the Dragon Kings."
The moment the Fire Dragon King finished speaking, Yang Xingchen eagerly asked whether his Martial Soul could evolve further.
"Senior Fire Dragon King, can my Martial Soul evolve again? When you poured Soul Power into my Martial Soul just now, I felt it change."
"That was not Martial Soul Evolution. The Fire Dragon King merely forcibly activated the origin powers of time and space contained in your Martial Soul."
The Ice Dragon King, who had said nothing since finishing his earlier introduction, now made a rare effort to explain things to Yang Xingchen.
"The powers of us nine Dragon Kings react with one another, giving you the illusion that your Martial Soul can still evolve."
"However, that does not mean your innate Soul Power cannot increase. The reason your innate Soul Power is at rank six is that you have not mastered the origin power within you."
"If you can master this origin power in the future, you will naturally possess innate full Soul Power. You might even draw the divine position of the Time Dragon King or the Space Dragon King to you."
Learning that the divine positions of the Time Dragon King and Space Dragon King actually still existed, Yang Xingchen could not help interrupting the Ice Dragon King.
"Wait, are you saying those two Dragon Kings' divine positions still exist?"
Logically, after the Dragon God War, the dragon race should have had no divine positions left besides those of the Golden Dragon King and Silver Dragon King!
The divine positions possessed by the first Nine Great Dragon Kings had all been at the God King level. If those divine positions still existed, every one of them could shake the Divine Realm.
"Only those two crafty old dragons managed to preserve their divine positions through some unknown means."
"The authority of divine positions like mine and the Fire Dragon King's was reduced and divided by the present Divine Realm. My divine position as the Dragon King of Ice, for instance, was split into the Ice God and Water God."
"But as far as I know, there's a God of Space among the Divine Realm's Seven Elemental Gods. Where did that divine position come from?"
Learning that the Divine Realm would handle the Dragon Kings' divine positions this way, Yang Xingchen immediately grew wary. The Seven Elemental Gods existed in the Divine Realm now!
"It was split off from the Mountain Dragon King's divine position as the Dragon King of Mountains, one of the Nine Great Dragon Kings. The stability represented by the Mountain Dragon King already included some of the God of Space's authority."
It was precisely because the Time Dragon King's and Space Dragon King's divine positions had been hidden away that the Divine Realm had only created the Seven Elemental Gods' divine positions back then.
However, what had always troubled the Ice Dragon King was that the Ice God Divine Seat, stripped from his own divine position as the Dragon King of Ice, had disappeared.
Because his dragon soul was bound to his divine position, the Ice Dragon King had been able to sense the Divine Realm splitting his divine position back then.
Perhaps the Divine Realm at the time had lacked experience in dividing the authority of divine positions; it had actually just split his divine position in two with brute simplicity.
This had given the Ice Dragon King a way to break the deadlock. Taking advantage of the instant the Water God's divine position separated, he had forcibly sent the Ice God Divine Seat away.
He had thought the Ice God Divine Seat would find a suitable successor and bring him a new opportunity to turn things around.
He had never expected the new Ice God to be someone who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of the earth despite having only just become a god. The God Kings of Good and Evil had soon discovered and killed the new god.
Although the God Kings of Good and Evil had not brought the Ice God Divine Seat back to the Divine Realm, the Ice Dragon King's dragon soul had been too weak by then to continue sensing its whereabouts.
"All right, we didn't seek you out just to chat about these things. Since you're a descendant of the Dragon Kings, we naturally can't be stingy as your elders!"
"The Heavenly Snow Woman's power within you is too strong. The Fire Dragon King and I will use our own origin powers to transform your body."
The Ice Dragon King crooked a finger. A fist-sized, two-colored ball of water instantly condensed from the puddle Yang Xingchen had seen earlier and flew before him.
"However, your current body certainly cannot absorb a Dragon King's origin power all at once. I will store the excess power in Soul Bones."
The Ice Dragon King glanced at the Fire Dragon King, signaling for him to retrieve a Soul Bone from each of their corpses.
Although they had fallen long ago, their corpses had not completely disappeared. This was also the fundamental reason their dragon souls could still endure.
The Fire Dragon King understood. Turning, he waved a hand toward his and the Ice Dragon King's corpses, and the Fire Dragon King's Left Arm Soul Bone and the Ice Dragon King's Right Arm Soul Bone appeared in his hand.
They had, after all, been God King-level Soul Beasts in life. They could condense whatever kind of Soul Bone they wanted from the bones of their corpses according to their wishes.
The Ice Dragon King moved his index finger, and the water ball automatically divided into two spheres, one large and one small. At the same time, the two Soul Bones flew from the Fire Dragon King's hand and were enveloped by the larger sphere.
"However, you entered this space in soul form. To absorb the Soul Bones, you must enter here with your physical body."
"The entrance to this space is at the bottom of the spring. Take this smaller mass of origin power with you. The instant your soul returns to your body, this origin power will help you forge an Ice and Fire Body."
"Then, diving to the bottom of the spring will only temper your body and will not cause any actual harm."
With that, as though flicking away a grain of rice, the Ice Dragon King sent Yang Xingchen's soul and Cangyuan, who surrounded him, out of the space together.
Once Yang Xingchen left, the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King hurriedly reverted to their soul-flame forms, floating silently between the two corpses.
Compared to the beginning, however, the two soul flames were now noticeably fainter.
"Fire Dragon King, do you think it's truly worth risking never being able to recover again to help a human child grow stronger?"
The Ice Dragon King's words carried unconcealed worry and doubt. The Time Dragon King and Space Dragon King certainly bore responsibility for the outbreak of the Dragon God War back then.
Now, faced with the arrangements the Time Dragon King and Space Dragon King had left behind, the Ice Dragon King naturally felt somewhat worried.
"Are you afraid that our helping him today is also part of the Time Dragon King's and Space Dragon King's calculations? Stop overthinking it. If those two were really that capable, how could the Dragon God War have broken out?"
"Anyway, I think that rather than slowly waiting in this space for time to wear away our dragon souls, we might as well take a gamble while we still have strength."
"If we win, both of us have a chance to live on; if we lose, we'll merely disappear a little sooner!"
The Fire Dragon King's tone was full of indifference. Restless by nature, he had no desire to spend his final years trapped in this cramped space.
"As long as that kid can obtain a divine position, we can use these two Soul Bones to condense our now-incomplete dragon souls into complete dragon souls again."
"When that time comes, I, the Fire Dragon King, will be able to escape this damned dungeon and live freely!"
As he spoke, the Fire Dragon King shifted his attention to the two Soul Bones, which had already fully absorbed both their origin powers.
After absorbing the origin powers, the two Soul Bones automatically placed multiple layers of seals on the two powers they had absorbed.
As long as Yang Xingchen's physical body met the requirements for breaking the seals, the two Soul Bones would release the origin powers they had absorbed to transform his body.
The instant Yang Xingchen's soul returned to his body, the origin powers of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings carried by his soul gained the upper hand.
The three powers that had still been fighting one another were immediately suppressed, and under the supervision of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' origin powers, they obediently strengthened Yang Xingchen's body.