Crabapple Shadow Star Palace, Qin Yu sat cross-legged on the central steps that seemed to be formed from the sediment of countless stardust. The surrounding glass-like walls sometimes reflected fragments of the endless river of fate, and sometimes seemed to be swept by something more ancient and Annihilation.
Suddenly, everything darkened into a silent void, yet Azure Ring sat comfortably amidst this oppressive atmosphere. She nestled against Qin Yu's right shoulder, her legs swinging back and forth. Strands of blue flame rose and fell from the ends of her long, dark blue hair, and the thin chain at her ankle, dragging the cracked, broken bell, swayed gently, a soft "clang" echoing in the emptiness of the palace.
Like plucking a thin thread from the tense silence, she squinted at the last word floating on the dome of the palace, lazily yawned, but her voice unusually serious, "The final hurdle. I wonder if she can make it through and obtain the true heirloom." Qin Yu's eyelashes drooped slightly, and the Void Divine Tree in his sea of consciousness quietly stretched out, with a drop of residual primordial light slowly flowing among its branches and leaves.
His mind, however, remained as steady as the deep sea. "It should be fine. Tangyi has come this far, she won't fall at the end." Azure Ring snorted, as if laughing at his overconfidence, or perhaps encouraging the little dragon. She lightly tapped Qin Yu's shoulder with her finger, as if casting some unseen hope into the void. "It had better, otherwise I'll laugh at her for the rest of my life. Hahaha."
Just as the two finished speaking, a very soft "crack" suddenly came from the center of the palace. It was not a crack in the rock, nor a snap in the metal, but rather the sound of a Fate Soul being extracted. The last word, suspended high in the air, was "Tang".
It began to flicker, initially only the edges of the characters glowed faintly, like starlight breathing in the ink. Then the entire character flickered, like a dying star making its final struggle. At the same time, all the light walls in the hall lost their refraction.
Thousands of glass mirrors were covered by an invisible hand, instantly turning into complete darkness. In the center of that absolute darkness, the character "Tang" suddenly shattered into billions of tiny golden-white light particles. As they fell silently, the "weight" of the entire Crabapple Shadow Star Palace suddenly sank, as if a final latch had been pulled out. At this moment, the entire palace officially announced—the final stage of inheritance has begun.
At the same time, Tangyi's consciousness was held captive by an even colder and purer gravitational force in the deepest part of nothingness. Her original true self, which she had just reconstructed in the third layer of Punishment of Flaying, was like a spark ignited in Annihilation, being dragged into a void even clearer than "nothingness."
There were no dragon remains, no palaces, only a vast, eternal river of nothingness, its surface as smooth as a mirror. Yet, this mirror did not reflect heaven and earth, but only "possibilities." Her primordial self floated upon this mirror.
The next instant, a narrow rift suddenly tore open in the void ahead, and a marrow crystal slowly rose from the depths of the rift— the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal. It was not large, but it resembled a source core compressed over billions of epochs. Primordial Chaos Qi surged within the crystal like a thin mist.
There was also a power of Annihilation lurking like a black tide. The two coexisted without conflict in the same crystal core, sometimes emitting a faint golden light, and sometimes sinking into the deepest ink, like an eye blinking.
As the marrow crystal rose, the mirror suddenly came to life. An outline materialized above the mirror, first dragon horns, then a dragon spine, then dragon claws, finally solidifying into a dragon shadow of the same origin as Tangyi, yet breathtakingly perfect—"Perfect Self."
Its scales were no longer the grayish-white remnants of its former self, but instead possessed an almost divine quality, a luminous quality like a blend of glass and starlight. The patterns of the three laws within its dragon eyes rotated clearly; existence, concept, and causality appeared like three ancient wheels running parallel within its gaze. Its aura needed no outward projection.
Yet it made nothingness yield, as if it could rewrite this empty space into whatever it wanted if it so desired. When it opened its mouth, there was no sound, but its intent went straight into Tangyi's origin, "Come, unite."
You will possess everything— the Ultimate power you crave, every Ultimate supernatural ability you can imagine, all the possibilities you have never realized, I have fulfilled for you. You only need to accept that I will become one with you, and you can directly inherit the Marrow Crystal, becoming the pinnacle of the Dragon Path."
In that instant, temptation, like an invisible tsunami, crashed directly onto Tangyi's true self. Without needing any memory, her "instinct" understood what it meant.
No longer needing to be washed away by the Annihilation Sea, no longer needing to be torn apart and wounded in the Battle Shadow Tribulation, no longer needing to gradually lose herself in the Punishment of Flaying, as long as she nods, as long as she "becomes one," she can become a true being who transcends all paths, becoming the successor of the Primordial Dragon who can even trample the Severed Thought Realm underfoot.
Behind the "Perfect Self," images began to appear in the mirror—her future glory, her overlooking all realms, her Annihilation billions of enemies in an instant, her sweeping away the river of Sever Karma with a single tail.
She stood atop the primordial chaos, and all life trembled beneath her shadow. The scene was incredibly real, so real that even the void was ignited with sparks, as if the path had been paved for her, waiting only for her to step onto it.
But just as this perfect illusion reached its zenith, deep within Tangyi's true self, that vestige of "primal dragon nature" that had survived three rounds of selection suddenly trembled—not out of fear, but out of an almost instinctive aversion.
She loathed being told what to do, loathed being fed, loathed living in a "perfect" life written for her by others. Suddenly, she remembered something not just a memory, but a "soul echo" deep within her being that hadn't yet been stripped away—
When Qin Yu used the Coexistence Fate Soul Anchor to pull her out of the scarlet brand, he didn't want her to become anyone's pawn, nor did he arrange a ready-made path for her. He simply sacrificed his own Fate Soul to give her a chance to "choose for herself."
Tangyi understood.
The "Perfect Self" before her was not a gift, but the embodiment of the final tribulation of the marrow crystal, the gentlest yet cruelest devouring: if she accepted the fusion, her original true self would be assimilated and digested by this perfect phantom, becoming nourishment for it to perfect itself, and she would forever lose the right to be "me", becoming a perfect puppet wearing her shell.
The Sea of Nothingness surged silently, its surface rippling with fine lines. The "Perfect Self" drew ever closer, its radiance nearly obscuring Tangyi's very essence. Its thoughts were as gentle as a whispered promise, "Are you still hesitating? Don't you yearn for power? Don't you want to transcend everything? Don't you want to become a true dragon? Accept me, and you will no longer suffer."
Tangyi's true self suddenly calmed down at that moment.
She did not respond to "want" or "don't want," because this was no longer at the level of "want," but at the level of "Tao"—her Tao did not allow her to surrender herself to any preconceived perfection. Her Tao could only be walked out by herself, little by little, even if it was rough, even if it was incomplete, even if it required scars.
So she made the most arrogant yet most clear-headed choice.
Instead of merging with the illusory image, she turned to face the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal, and her ten-thousand-foot-tall dragon body suddenly manifested in the void—this time, the manifestation was without light or sound, yet it was like an invisible mountain suddenly pressing into the void.
In the silence, the gray-white scales peeled off and regenerated in Sever Thought. Fragments of thoughts emanated from the broken surface of the Horn of Severance, only to be extinguished in an instant. The dragon's eyes were clear as an abyss, reflecting the golden-black core of the marrow crystal that had been compressed for eternity. She slowly raised her dragon claws, not to unleash supernatural powers, but to touch the marrow crystal with the most primal "devouring force"—actively devouring and refining it.
The instant the dragon claw touched the marrow crystal, it unleashed an indescribable backlash, as if the entire surface of the Realm of the Severed Thought Realm had been instantly ripped open, and a cold sea of "Void of Thought Severance" surged forth from the crystal's core.
The essence of Tangyi's true self was directly poured into her, freezing the surrounding mirrors into a white expanse. Then Primordial Chaos Qi within the marrow crystal transformed into countless golden chains, extending from the void and binding her dragon horns, spine, and tail. Every rune on the chains questioned—why didn't you choose perfection? Why didn't you accept the shortcut? Why did you use your incomplete self to devour the "source"?
That wasn't a sound; it was the judgment of the entire world upon her.
Tangyi's dragon soul was once again pulled to the brink of collapse. The cracks in her very essence were forcibly torn open at this moment. Pain burned within her dragon soul like a silent fire. She almost instinctively released "Mind-Consciousness Self-Slaughter" to end the suffering.
She almost instinctively retreated into the "Void of Thought Severance" to escape, but in that instant, she suddenly did something no one expected—she put away her "Absolute Thoughtlessness," suppressed all the sharpness of her supernatural powers into the deepest part of her origin, and no longer used Absolute Thoughtlessness to fight against the Marrow Crystal, but instead used the existence of her "True Self" to bear the judgment of the Marrow Crystal.
She didn't say "I'm not afraid," she simply said "I won't back down."
Within the void, the ten-thousand-foot-tall dragon's body began to be eroded by golden-black flames. The edges of its scales turned to dust, the ripples of its tail were torn apart, its claws were almost transparent, and even its "dragon form" began to falter. The backlash from the marrow crystal grew stronger and stronger.
It seemed to be forcing her back to the only "safe answer" of "perfect fusion," and at that moment, the phantom of the "Perfect Self" spread its wings like a dragon's shadow and pounced, its will turning into a torrent, "See? You can't hold on, you will fail in the end. Come, accept me—"
At that moment, Tangyi raised the dragon's head.
Her dragon eyes held no crimson, no blazing intensity, only a clarity bordering on cruelty. Suddenly, she uttered a soft response from the very essence of her dragon soul—not to the phantom, but to the marrow crystal: she acknowledged her imperfections, her wounds, her inadequacies, but she would use them to refine you, for she was not there to receive a ready-made gift, but to reclaim the right to the "source."
As this thought arose, the Primordial Chaos Qi within the marrow crystal suddenly stagnated. The golden chains seemed to be gently pulled by some ancient rule, their patterns beginning to crack. At the cracks, a faint grayish-white light seeped from Tangyi's true self—
That was the initial breath of her self-generated spirit as "Void of Thought Severance," neither good nor evil, neither thought nor idea, simply "existing." This ray of light, like a needle, precisely pierced the deepest part of the crystal core, forcefully opening a crack in the crystal's backlash that could be refined.
The next instant, Tangyi's dragon mouth opened.
It wasn't dragon breath, nor a roar, but a pure "devouring resonance." Using her primordial self as a furnace and the dragon's body as a vessel, she directly swallowed the golden-black core of the marrow crystal into her belly. The Sea of Nothingness instantly exploded with a silent stellar tide.
Billions of rays of light emanated from within her dragon body, like a star palace ablaze. The light contained primordial gold, the black of Annihilation, and the greyish-white of her very origin; these three colors intertwined to form veins of light that coiled around her dragon bones.
Surge along the dragon's spine, soar into the sky along its horns, and plunge into nothingness along its tail. The entire void is reflected as a grand and eerie "silent firework," each bloom stripping away a bit of its old constraints and rebuilding a bit of its new foundation.
The phantom of "Perfect Self" trembled for the first time; cracks appeared in its luminous scales, and its consciousness began to falter. It suddenly approached, attempting to forcibly interrupt Tangyi's devouring process.
But the marrow crystal had already been swallowed into Tangyi's origin. Every time the phantom approached, it was like approaching a "source" that was taking shape. Its perfection began to be polluted and diluted. Its triple law patterns faded rapidly in the dragon's eyes, as if "perfection" had lost its foothold when facing the real "self".
Finally, the phantom uttered a thought bordering on despair: Why don't you want perfection?
Tangyi did not answer.
She slowly retracted her dragon claws into the void, as if crushing the last wisp of illusion that did not belong to her. The phantom disintegrated inch by inch in the storm of resonance with her origin. There was no cry of pain, no blood, only the transformation into fragments of glass-like light.
It fell into Tangyi's body and became the first "usable light" after the marrow crystal was refined. At that moment, the marrow crystal truly surrendered, the mirror of the Sea of Nothingness shattered completely, and the fragments turned into countless star pieces that spun and rose, like a crown for the new dragon.
Tangyi's ten-thousand-foot-tall dragon body slowly stretched out amidst the stardust storm. Her minor injuries remained; the primordial rift hadn't fully healed, but had instead been torn deeper during the refining of the marrow crystal.
Deep within her bloodline, a purer dragon primordial pattern condensed, like a golden-black seal branded onto a wound. Her dragon eyes became completely clear, so clear that even the void could reflect a sliver of light within them, and her aura was no longer violent.
Instead, she was as serene as a deep-sea spring, rising and falling gently with each breath, restoring "meaning" to the entire empty space in her presence.
In the final challenge, "The Choice of Devouring Oneself to Prove the Way," she overcame it by "rejecting perfection and devouring the source."
The moment she completed the refining, a Sea of Nothingness. Within the pillar of light, the outline of a truly clear marrow crystal emerged, emanating from her body, as if proclaiming: The Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal has recognized its master.
Meanwhile, in the Crabapple Shadow Star Palace, where Qin Yu and Azure Ring were, the central dome of the hall suddenly lit up softly, as if some extremely distant echo had pierced through layers of nothingness. Qin Yu opened his eyes, and Azure Ring also raised her chin.
At the same time, the two saw that in the empty space left after the three characters "Tang Yingxing" in the center of the palace had completely disappeared, a clear, no longer blurry, crystalline phantom finally appeared. Its light was faint, yet reassuringly stable.
Azure Ring's lips curled into a smile, as if she had finally waited for this show. "It's done. The final hurdle has been overcome." Qin Yu simply exhaled softly, his eyes deep and gentle. "I knew she could do it."