Only one Divine Craftsman could emerge in each generation. This was practically an unassailable iron law on the Douluo Continent.
Then there was Tang Wulin. His Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul offered no advantage no matter how one looked at it. To put it bluntly, it was no different from a trash Martial Soul.
It was questionable whether the kid could even last until he became a Soul Sage, let alone achieve anything great in forging.
Without Lu Chen, the Blacksmith's Association might really have been willing to pour in vast quantities of heavenly treasures, forcibly building up Tang Wulin's talent.
But things were different now. With a prospect like Lu Chen here, possessing a superior Martial Soul and even more explosive talent, all those good things naturally went straight to him. What share would be left for Tang Wulin?
The fulfilling day passed just like that. Lu Chen was so exhausted that he fell fast asleep the moment his head touched the pillow, too tired to move even a finger.
But just as he sank into deep sleep, an overwhelmingly domineering devouring force slowly spread from his body like an invisible net.
Silently, it enveloped Tang Wulin in the neighboring dorm room, frantically eating away at the Golden Dragon King Bloodline within him that he had yet to fully control.
The disturbance instantly alerted Old Tang, who lay hidden within Tang Wulin's sea of consciousness!
Old Tang's divine consciousness abruptly darted out. He was just about to investigate when the devouring force, seemingly prepared for him, suddenly swept around him and dragged his divine consciousness straight into the depths of Lu Chen's sea of consciousness.
Into that half-withered, half-flourishing World Tree Domain where Nidhogg dwelled!
The moment Old Tang's divine consciousness entered, a pair of enormous golden dragon eyes fixed him in their stare.
Towering fury surged within those dragon eyes, and deep within their pupils, an ink-black dragon crouched upon the World Tree's branches, its scales cold and its draconic might boundless. It was none other than Nidhogg!
Before Old Tang could react, Nidhogg abruptly raised a dragon claw and slapped it down with the might to destroy heaven and earth!
"Thud!"
With a dull impact, Old Tang's divine consciousness was sent flying as though struck by a meteor. Even his soul body began to faintly unravel, while a tearing agony shot through the very source of his divine consciousness.
Before he could recover, Nidhogg's will flooded into Old Tang's mental world like a tide, carrying endless loneliness, despair, and madness.
Those negative emotions were so concentrated they could not be dissolved. Even a divine consciousness as powerful as Old Tang's began to grow uncontrollably agitated and chaotic, nearly collapsing on the spot!
Shocked and furious, Old Tang was just about to struggle free and flee when the World Tree's branches shot out like phantoms, glimmering faintly as they instantly wrapped around his divine consciousness.
The branches tightened further and further, binding Old Tang so securely that he could not move in the slightest.
The once-lofty Sea God Tang San could now only writhe futilely like a maggot within the branches' restraints, without the slightest room to resist!
Old Tang's divine consciousness was trussed up like a rice dumpling. The more he struggled, the tighter the World Tree's branches constricted, sharp pain spreading through his soul body until he could not even cry out.
He could clearly feel his divine consciousness being eaten away bit by bit-not through crude devouring, but through erosion as silent as rain nourishing all things. The World Tree's branches and leaves seemed to possess some strange suction. With every contraction, they tore a wisp of Spiritual Power from him, then sent it along the branches in an unending stream to Nidhogg, perched at the top of the tree.
The black dragon merely let its eyelids droop lazily, its golden slit pupils filled with indifference, as though it were looking at an insignificant ant.
"Y-you... what exactly are you?" Old Tang gritted his teeth, and even the voice he squeezed out was trembling. He had lived for who knew how many years and encountered, if not a thousand powerful beings, then at least eight hundred, yet he had never felt such terrifying pressure-a suppression originating from the deepest reaches of his bloodline, as though Nidhogg had been born at the very top of the food chain.
Nidhogg could not be bothered to acknowledge him and merely flicked its tail.
The next second, Old Tang felt an even denser wave of despair pour into him.
Within those emotions lay the loneliness of watching the world pass from prosperity into extinction, the resentment of being abandoned by all living beings, and the madness to destroy heaven and earth.
Those emotions clung to his divine consciousness like festering sores eating into bone, causing cracks to appear even in his original will.
He remembered the task his original self had entrusted to him, remembered that he wanted his son to obtain the Golden Dragon King Bloodline. Yet the more he thought, the more violently those negative emotions surged.
What terrified him even more was his discovery that Nidhogg was severing his faint mental connection to Tang Wulin's body!
"You dare!" Old Tang's eyes nearly split with fury. "The Golden Dragon King's power is not yours to lay a finger on!"
Nidhogg finally lifted its eyelids slightly, a trace of mockery flashing through its golden pupils.
It slowly opened its mouth without making a sound, yet an ancient, majestic dragon's roar rang through Old Tang's sea of consciousness.
With that roar, the World Tree shook violently. Densely packed black patterns lit up along the branches entwined around him-Nidhogg's devouring runes!
The instant the runes lit up, Old Tang felt even the source of his divine consciousness begin to tremble violently.
To his horror, he discovered that the power of the divine consciousness he took such pride in was dissipating at a rate visible to the naked eye. More terrifying still, he did not even have a chance to detonate his divine consciousness-the World Tree's restraints had precisely choked off every means of resistance.
Just as Old Tang's awareness was about to blur completely, Nidhogg finally moved.
It extended a claw and gently pressed it against Old Tang's divine consciousness.
An icy force poured in, instantly freezing all his struggles.
"Noisy."
An indifferent voice resounded directly in the depths of Old Tang's sea of consciousness.
Immediately afterward, an immense force violently dragged Old Tang's divine consciousness out and tossed him back into Tang Wulin's body like garbage.
But he was now a far cry from his former strength. More than half the source of his divine consciousness had been depleted, and he had difficulty even maintaining his own form, let alone monitoring Lu Chen or guiding Tang Wulin.
Meanwhile, within Lu Chen's sea of consciousness, Nidhogg slowly closed its eyes, the black mist surrounding its body growing somewhat denser.
It licked its claw, a trace of satisfaction flashing through its golden pupils-
This Golden Dragon King Bloodline tasted rather good.
As for that one called Tang Wulin...
Prey had to be raised slowly to develop enough flavor.
Meanwhile, far away in the girls' dormitory, Gu Yue seemed to sense a strange presence, and a glint of purple light flashed through her eyes.
At that moment, without Lu Chen realizing it, his bloodline power crossed the major threshold of rank fifteen.
The stone slab beneath the tree shone with a different light, slowly pouring power into the ground before it merged into Lu Chen's body.
Tang San's divine consciousness had now been scrunched up and stuffed back into Tang Wulin's body. Through Nidhogg's carelessness, it seemed to have been tossed into the Golden Dragon King Seal.
The Golden Dragon King's final, deeply unwilling resentment surged ceaselessly toward Old Tang, who, now bound into a maggot, had no ability to resist.