"Haha, this was my masterpiece!"
"Soul Bones alone certainly couldn't balance the power of ice and fire within Yang Xingchen, and his Soul Power Level happened to have reached forty."
"So I simply used the Ice Dragon King's origin power and my own to condense a God-Given Soul Ring for Yang Xingchen."
Learning that the Snow Empress had discovered his masterpiece, the Fire Dragon King explained it to her with a proud expression.
Seeing the Fire Dragon King start chattering incessantly again, the Ice Dragon King quietly shifted a few steps aside, trying to put some distance between them.
Naturally, the Ice Dragon King had noticed the Fire Dragon King's methods long ago, but he had chosen silence because he did not want to listen to his rambling.
The Fire Dragon King had just finished sharing with the Snow Empress how he had used his own origin power to condense a Soul Ring when a sudden change occurred on Yang Xingchen's side.
According to the Fire Dragon King and the others' design, with Yang Xingchen's current body, being able to use even one percent of the origin power injected into the Soul Bones would have been quite good.
But now, a tenth of the origin power contained within the two Soul Bones had vanished in an instant!
Energy of this magnitude was simply not something Yang Xingchen could withstand at his level.
"Fire Dragon King, did you add too much when you catalyzed the fusion of the ice and fire powers just now? Yang Xingchen can't withstand such immense power."
The Ice Dragon King frowned, a rare sight. The situation was still within their control for now.
But he needed to understand why this had happened. Otherwise, the two of them might not necessarily be around the next time Yang Xingchen absorbed the Soul Bones' origin power.
"I didn't do it. I only accelerated the fusion of the ice and fire powers inside Yang Xingchen. I didn't do anything else."
The Fire Dragon King was equally bewildered. He was no fool; he certainly would not meddle too much with Yang Xingchen's cultivation!
"Um, seniors, you seem to have forgotten Cangyuan. Its existence is rather special."
"It can obtain energy from Yang Xingchen to increase its cultivation, or even evolve its bloodline. It may have absorbed a portion of the origin power."
From the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' exchange, the Snow Empress realized that the two of them seemed not to have noticed Cangyuan's existence.
"Cangyuan? That dragonfish? It exists inside Yang Xingchen as a soul, so why can its strength still increase?"
Upon learning that Cangyuan could still grow stronger in soul form, the Fire Dragon King was shocked to his very core.
This completely exceeded the Fire Dragon King's understanding. Shouldn't a soul's strength, at most, remain equal to what it had possessed in life?
"Based on what you're saying, Yang Xingchen absorbing a tenth of the origin power all at once would fall within reasonable bounds."
The Ice Dragon King immediately accepted the Snow Empress's explanation and used it to work things out.
He discovered that, with Cangyuan's cultivation of over ninety thousand years factored in, the origin power Yang Xingchen had just consumed made sense.
Times were changing. It was only natural that old fellows like them, left behind by time, would not understand such new things.
"It seems that little dragonfish wants to use the origin power of us two old fellows to break through both the hundred-thousand-year barrier and its bloodline barrier in one go."
For a lesser dragon to transform into a true dragon, the effort and energy required were no less than those a Soul Beast needed to cross the hundred-thousand-year threshold.
Of course, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts in question specifically referred to those that had successfully survived their lightning tribulations. Inferior specimens that could not even survive a lightning tribulation did not enter the Ice Dragon King's calculations.
Soul Beasts had been undergoing lightning tribulations since the days when the Dragon God was still alive.
It was just that the lightning tribulations back then had not left so little room for survival as they did now. Back then, undergoing a lightning tribulation was more about accepting a trial from heaven and earth than passing through a life-and-death ordeal.
Before the Ice Dragon King and the others could continue chatting, Cangyuan, whom they had been discussing all this time, emerged from Yang Xingchen's body.
Red and blue energy flowed continuously between Cangyuan's previously silvery-white scales.
Under the effects of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' origin power, the two previously dormant bumps atop Cangyuan's head broke through flesh and blood, growing into two dragon horns.
"This dragonfish's evolved form is so strange. Ice Dragon King, can you tell which dragon clan this little dragonfish's bloodline belongs to?"
Because the Fire Dragon King had been engrossed in cultivation, he had little recollection of any dragon clans besides those ranked near the top in population and strength.
Yet the Ice Dragon King was somewhat bewildered at this moment as well. The Time Dragon King and the Space Dragon King had left no bloodlines in the world.
Thus, no matter how lesser dragons with time or space attributes evolved, they could never approach those two Dragon Kings.
Yet now, Cangyuan, a dragonfish of unknown origins, had actually manifested characteristics of the Time Dragon King and the Space Dragon King while transforming into a true dragon.
"Could those two fellows have had illegitimate children out there? I don't think contingency plans alone can explain what's right in front of us."
The Fire Dragon King could still understand Yang Xingchen being a contingency left by the Time Dragon King and the Space Dragon King. After all, Yang Xingchen's uniqueness came from those two dragons' origin power.
But for Cangyuan's situation, there was one and only one path: reproduction through descendants, concealing their bloodlines within their offspring.
"The Snow Empress said Yang Xingchen fished Cangyuan out of the river of time. It seems something we don't know about must have happened in the future."
Naturally, the Ice Dragon King would not believe that the Time Dragon King and the Space Dragon King had illegitimate children.
When the Dragon God had still been alive, this Father God had been able to sense the existence of every member of the dragon race.
Thus, there was simply no possibility that the Time Dragon King and the Space Dragon King had left behind their own bloodlines without the Dragon God knowing.
Just then, a piercing dragon roar rang throughout the entire Ice and Fire Space.
The toes on the four claws that had grown from Cangyuan's belly changed from four to five. Dragon horns stood atop its head, and its whiskers drifted freely through the air.
Only now, Cangyuan's body length could no longer be estimated with the naked eye.
Possessing both time and space attributes, it had already concealed its entire body within space the instant it transformed into a true dragon bloodline.
Looking with the naked eye alone, one would only feel that Cangyuan's body was sometimes longer than a great river, and sometimes shorter than one's own palm.
The bloodline power erupting from Cangyuan already surpassed that of the vast majority of dragons with a hundred thousand years of cultivation that the Fire Dragon King and the Ice Dragon King had seen during their lives.
"Ice Dragon King, do you think a soul can regain a physical body?"
Looking at Cangyuan, now a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the Fire Dragon King had to admit that he had entertained the idea of separating Cangyuan from Yang Xingchen's body.
There was no helping it. Cangyuan, possessing both time and space attributes, was simply that enticing to the Fire Dragon King.
Ordinarily, the Ice Dragon King would certainly have thought the Fire Dragon King had lost his mind.
In Cangyuan's situation, it was essentially bound to Yang Xingchen for good. How could they possibly separate it and reconstruct its physical body?
But after witnessing Cangyuan's attributes and bloodline strength with his own eyes, even the Ice Dragon King could not help wavering a little.
However, none of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' discussion had anything to do with Cangyuan, whose intelligence had now fully awakened.
At that moment, Cangyuan was spitting out its dragon pearl while circling Yang Xingchen, who was still absorbing the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' origin power.
Daddy, how much longer do you have to absorb it? Playing all by myself is so boring!
Cangyuan had followed Yang Xingchen since it first gained intelligence, and had naturally come to regard him as its father.
Even now that Cangyuan understood it was a dragon while Yang Xingchen was a human Soul Master, it still regarded him as its daddy.
"Cangyuan, stop circling Xingchen. Come here for a moment. I have something to ask you."
The Snow Empress and the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings had, of course, noticed that Cangyuan had gained intelligence and could communicate with them.
It was just that the two Dragon Kings were not familiar with Cangyuan, so the task of questioning it naturally fell to the Snow Empress, whom it knew.
"Ah, it's Big Sister Snow Empress! What do you need me for, Big Sister Snow Empress?"
Cangyuan regarded the Snow Empress, who also stayed within Yang Xingchen's Spiritual Sea and was stronger than itself, as its older sister.