The space deep within the Crabapple Shadow Star Palace trembled once more in silence. It wasn't a roar of outward power, but rather the lingering echo of a long era being gently closed. The previously empty void in the center of the palace suddenly emanated a warm and restrained light. The light wasn't intense, but as steady as the predetermined trajectory of stars.
The next instant, a small yet extremely clear dragon shadow slowly emerged from the light, as if drawn back from the far reaches of primordial chaos. Tangyi's figure reformed; she was no longer the ten-thousand-foot-tall dragon traversing the void, but had reverted to the petite and agile young dragon, her scales still bearing the incompletely faded patterns of gray and dark gold.
It was as if she had gathered both endless Annihilation and the primordial light into her exquisite body. Her aura was completely different from before. It was no longer outward or sharp, but calm and restrained, like a star nucleus that was being nurtured, wrapped in the gentlest shell.
A phantom image of a marrow crystal materialized in front of her chest; this was the first true form of the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal. It was no longer a blurry reflection, but rather floated stably.
Inside the crystal, extremely fine golden-black light streams slowly rotated. Each rotation seemed to recalibrate Tangyi's own dragon origin. At this moment, the dome of the palace automatically sank out layers of star patterns, as if making way for the return of this marrow crystal. The core network of the entire Crabapple Shadow Star Palace lit up at the same time, responding to its existence.
Almost at the same instant the marrow crystal stabilized, Azure Ring disappeared from Qin Yu's right shoulder, reappearing firmly on Tangyi's dragon back. Her small figure was still petite compared to the young dragon, yet she possessed a natural familiarity. She lowered her head and patted Tangyi's dragon scales, causing her azure flames to sway.
She laughed triumphantly, "Congratulations, little dragon! You actually swallowed the legendary Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal! I thought you were going to hesitate for hundreds of years at the last minute." Her tone was light and cheerful, as if she were teasing, but also as if she genuinely felt relieved for Tangyi.
Qin Yu had also stood up. Looking at the scene before him, the composure in his eyes was finally replaced by undisguised joy. "Congratulations, Tangyi, you have successfully passed the test of the inheritance treasure that powerful being left especially for you."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a resolute warmth, as if this outcome was inevitable. Tangyi understood, and she let out a clear and cheerful dragon roar. The young dragon's body spun in the air, circling Qin Yu lightly. Where its tail swept, it created faint ripples of stardust, as if sharing its joy in the most straightforward way.
Azure Ring watched this scene, first clicking her tongue, then waving her hand as if afraid that this joy would interfere with important matters. She stood up from Tangyi's back and landed steadily next to her dragon head, her tone suddenly becoming more serious, "Stay calm, stay calm, alright, alright, being happy is fine, but don't forget about important matters."
She reached out and tapped the floating phantom of the Primordial Dragon Marrow Crystal, a flash of cyan light appearing at her fingertip. "Strike while the iron is hot, Tangyi. Right now, immediately, begin to thoroughly refine the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal. Perhaps you can truly cross that threshold and directly transform into human form."
Upon hearing this, Tangyi's dragon eyes visibly brightened, a light tinged with both anticipation and caution. She didn't act immediately, but instead solemnly nodded her dragon head.
As if confirming her decision with Qin Yu, Azure Ring, and herself, she then suppressed all her previous lighthearted emotions. Her small dragon body slowly coiled up in the center of the palace, her tail circling around, her head slightly lowered, and the illusory image of the marrow crystal slowly sinking down in front of her chest.
As it gradually merged with her primordial aura, the light of the Crabapple Shadow Star Palace fell completely still at this moment, leaving only the low and constant pulsation inside the marrow crystal, like a heart, beginning to beat in sync with her presence.
At this moment, the core space of the Crabapple Shadow Star Palace sank into a silent depth, as if the breath of all the heavens was being held down by an invisible hand, and time lost its meaning of flow, leaving only "existence" itself slowly echoing.
Tangyi sat in the center of the palace, her petite dragon body suspended in mid-air. The Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal was no longer a phantom, but had fully revealed its true form. The dragon-shaped crystal core, the size of a fist, hung in front of her chest. The crystal was transparent yet profound, with dark golden Primordial light slowly rotating inside, like a sealed primordial universe.
On the surface of the crystal core, three layers of patterns lit up one by one— the Primordial Annihilation Pattern was like the dark tide of the deep sea, the Concept-Splitting Pattern was like the sharp marks of stars, and the Causality-Reversal Pattern was like a river of light flowing backward. They did not release any pressure, but they caused the structure of the entire space to begin to twist silently. The star patterned dome of the palace bent slightly, as if bowing to some irreversible origin.
As Tangyi slowly closed her dragon eyes, the first true fusion began to occur. The Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal did not erupt or roar; it simply gently approached her dragon body, as if it had found its home.
In the next instant, the dark golden light within the crystal core suddenly split, and countless fine, dust-like fragments of law light seeped into Tangyi's dragon scales, bloodline, and soul. It was not an infusion of energy, but the return of the "imprint." All the dragon dao essence sacrificed before the fall of the Innate Primordial Dragon was reawakened at this moment. Tangyi's body trembled violently, and extremely faint star-like veins appeared beneath her dragon scales, as if the dragon dao laws of the primordial era had been directly engraved into the foundation of her existence.
The space was suddenly pulled back to the scene of the primordial chaos. The illusion was not a hallucination, but a primordial retrospection forcibly unfolded by the marrow crystal - the Sea of Qi churned, boundless and limitless, the innate dragon qi and the laws of Annihilation myriad annihilation devoured, entangled and tore each other apart, and billions of years of gestation were compressed into a single moment.
Tangyi felt as if she had witnessed the birth of that marrow crystal. She sensed that it was not an accumulation of power, but a choice of "Dao" destined to lead to Ultimate slaughter. Her dragon soul was repeatedly washed away in this retrospection, and any impure thoughts were directly erased, leaving only the most original and sharpest dragon Dao heart.
As the fusion entered the second stage, Tangyi's dragon body began to change. Her body did not immediately grow larger, but instead collapsed inward, with all power and all aura being forcibly compressed into the core origin point.
The dragon scales lit up with a dark golden light, then fell silent in the next instant, as if undergoing a process of self-reconstruction through repeated failures and restarts. Her consciousness was being dismantled by three laws simultaneously—existence was being traced back, concepts were being stripped away, and cause and effect were being reversed. Each dismantling felt like approaching the edge of true death.
But at that very moment, her own dragon origin steadily withstood the storm. She was neither swallowed up nor lost. Instead, with the will of "I am the dragon," she gradually incorporated these Ultimate laws that did not originally belong to her into herself.
As the third stage began, the physical form of the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal finally disintegrated. The crystal core did not shatter into fragments, but instead transformed into a complete and pure stream of dark golden light, which flowed directly into the deepest part of the dragon soul through Tangyi's chest.
In an instant, all the light in the entire Crabapple Shadow Star Palace went out, leaving only her and her dragon suspended in absolute darkness. Then, the darkness was torn apart—not illuminated by light, but "erased." Three extremely brief echoes appeared in the space.
The first echo was a silent breath sweeping across the void, erasing even the traces of "having existed" wherever it passed, as if the world had been reset to an earlier, blank state. That was the manifestation of the origin of the Vast Sea Dragon Breath - Primordial Zero.
The second echo was an invisible claw mark that swept across the conceptual level, directly erasing an abstract structure that had not yet taken shape. There was no collapse process; only a void that had been forcibly erased remained. That was the rudimentary form of the Primordial Dragon Claw – Conceptual Erasure.
The third echo was a streak of light flowing backwards across the place where time and cause and effect intertwined. Countless possibilities were crushed into bubbles before they could unfold. The past causes disappeared, and the present was weightless. That was the true foundation of the Primordial Dragon Tail - the Silence of Cause and Effect.
The triple echo returned to Tangyi's body, her dragon form trembled violently, and then slowly unfolded in the center of the palace. Her petite figure was enveloped in dark golden dragon light, her aura stable and profound, no longer outwardly emanating, yet impossible to ignore.
She succeeded— the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal was no longer an external object, but had completely transformed into a part of her Dragon Dao Origin. There was no other one like it in the world, and no one could interfere with this fusion.
As the last ray of light faded, the star patterns of the Crabapple Shadow Star Palace lit up again, and Qin Yu and Azure Ring clearly sensed the completion of that moment. Tangyi slowly opened her dragon eyes, which were no longer the clear eyes of a young dragon, but had a deep, dark golden luster that seemed to reflect the rise and fall of all things.
She exhaled softly, without storm or oppressive force, yet the entire structure of the space fell silent—a silent declaration of the Ultimate slaughter of the Dragon Path.
Deep within the Crabapple Shadow Star Palace, the star-like dome slowly darkened, and countless rays of starlight seemed to be gently gathered by an invisible hand. Only an almost still light remained in the palace, soft and solemn, as if the entire space was holding its breath, waiting for the birth of a destiny.
Tangyi floated in the center of the palace.
Her originally petite dragon body slowly stretched out at this moment, the primordial luster on her scales no longer sharp, but transformed into a warm, watery dark golden light, and the patterns on her dragon horns gradually faded away.
The ancient majesty surging deep within the dragon's eyes was replaced by an unprecedented calm. She did not struggle, nor did she release any outward aura; she simply hovered there quietly, like a star core about to hatch.
The next moment, change began quietly. It wasn't an explosion, but a fading away.
The dragon's massive body began to glow from its tail. Its scales disintegrated one by one, but instead of shattering, they transformed into countless tiny specks of light, like a starry sea flowing backward, spiraling upward along an invisible trajectory.
The outline of the dragon skeleton gradually softened in the light, and its massive form was gradually "retracted," not compressed, but replaced by a higher-level form.
The dragon claws disappeared first, replaced by slender and long knuckles that slowly took shape in the light. The fingertips were as white as jade, yet faintly glowed with a layer of dark gold, as if the lingering warmth of the dragon's origin had not yet completely faded.
Next comes the wrist, arm, and shoulder line. Every inch of the contour is meticulously sculpted in the interplay of light and shadow, without the slightest abruptness, as if heaven and earth had repeatedly deduced it countless times before allowing this form to appear.
The primordial light paused slightly in the chest cavity of the dragon's body.
In that instant, it was as if time itself in the entire Star Palace had been gently pressed down.
Then, a soft yet profound heartbeat resounded, not loud, but so clear it seemed to strike directly into the very structure of space itself. Light and dust surged, and the woman's body was fully revealed in the light, its lines smooth and elegant, possessing both the innate nobility and power of the Dragon Clan race, and a softness and agility unique to human form.
Her long hair fell down at that moment.
It wasn't a single color, but a complex hue between deep green, dark gold, and starlight. Her hair was extremely long, flowing down her back, creating subtle ripples in the light, like the flow of the world before it solidified at the beginning of time.
Each strand of hair carried a very faint halo, yet it was not dazzling, giving one the illusion that "she was meant to exist this way."
Her face was finally revealed.
Her eyebrows and eyes were delicate and clear, yet not fragile. Her eyebrows were soft yet sharp, and the moment she opened her eyes, a fleeting glimpse of the most primal and ancient will of the Dragon Clan appeared, which was then gently subdued, leaving only a light as clear as a starry lake.
With a straight and elegant nose and natural lip color, she possesses neither ostentatious sharpness nor vulgar fragility, but rather a balanced beauty that lies between divinity and life.
Her skin wasn't pure white, but rather possessed a very faint sheen, as if primordial energy still slowly flowed within her, though it no longer exerted any outward pressure. Her clothes hadn't appeared out of thin air.
Instead, the light dust that had previously scattered in the air naturally condensed and transformed into a simple yet form-fitting star-patterned long dress. The patterns were understated and ancient, like the original veins of the Dragon Path, quietly resting upon it.
Finally, the position of the dragon's tail.
There was no pain, no tearing.
A gentle light rose from below, completely dissolving the last part of the dragon's form. Her feet took shape in the light and gently stepped into the void, as if an invisible star staircase had always supported her.
The dust settled. Tangyi stood there.
She is no longer a dragon-like, imposing presence, nor a creature that deliberately imitates humans, but a form that has truly completed its transition—she is both a dragon and a human, yet transcends any definition in between.
The entire Crabapple Shadow Star Palace returned to its original flow of starlight, as if nothing had happened, yet it was also as if it had just witnessed the birth of a new era.
She looked down at her hands, a moment of blankness in her eyes, followed by a very light and faint smile.
The smile was small, yet so bright that it sent a shiver through the entire star field.