Forbidden Heart

Ling Yun could hardly wait to enter the world beyond the door.

It truly could be called a world.

Land and mountains, rivers and lakes, ancient trees and forests...

Had Ling Yun not sensed that this small world had an end, he might have thought he had been transported to the outside world.

Yet none of that was the most astonishing sight.

What truly left Ling Yun frozen in place was the enormous black flood dragon at the center of this world!

No one could tell how immense the flood dragon's body was. It coiled across the sky, its long tail hanging all the way down to the earth. It was a terrifying sight.

Amid the clouds and mist, a savage, fearsome flood dragon's head reared back in a roar, a luminous pearl held in jaws vast enough to swallow the heavens. Like the sun and moon, it lit up the world.

"Oh, heavens..."

Ling Yun had never seen anything like it. He froze on the spot. The sight before him left him with an overwhelming sense of suffocation.

Before this colossal flood dragon, he was like a tiny speck of dust, without the slightest dignity to speak of.

This was an indescribable existence!

"What a terrifying presence."

Ling Yun's face was somewhat pale as he gazed up at the flood dragon, unable to tell whether it was dead or alive. He could barely control the fear in his heart and wanted to leave.

Forcing down his discomfort, he walked into the world.

The flood dragon looked all too lifelike. Every one of its scales was the size of a house and gleamed with a cold, forbidding light.

It was hard to imagine what a scene of destruction it would be if this dragon body, as formidable as a divine weapon, were to fight.

A flood dragon resembled a snake, but had four limbs and no horns.

Even so, its appearance already bore some resemblance to the true dragons of legend, and its majestic dragon might poured down from the heavens in vast, surging waves.

To get a closer look at the flood dragon, Ling Yun rose into the air and flew toward the center of the world.

Before long, however, his expression changed slightly. Feeling the crushing force weighing on him, he had no choice but to land.

"The pressure is too strong. I can't get close."

Ling Yun was dumbfounded. He could only abandon the idea and watch the flood dragon from afar.

"Could it be a dragon corpse?"

Speculation swirled in his mind.

He could now be certain that the flood dragon before him showed no sign of life whatsoever. It was unquestionably dead.

Yet the dragon corpse had neither rotted nor decayed and still possessed such terrifying dragon might. It was simply inconceivable, and even Ling Yun felt a pang of fear.

The Great Emperor's inheritance contained a wealth of cultivation experience and introductions to the various realms, including some descriptions of "immortality."

This made Ling Yun suspect that, in life, the dragon corpse had very likely reached the stage of Mortal Transcendence in its cultivation.

Mortal Transcendence was a stage.

In this world's cultivation system, there was a crucial step known as "Transcending the Mortal and Entering the Saint Realm."

One surpassed the Supreme Realm, attained the Saint Realm, and reached a state where the physical body was immortal.

"Could this dragon corpse have belonged to an existence that reached that stage...?"

For a moment, Ling Yun felt that even his imagination was inadequate.

No matter how vividly a scene was described in a book, it could not reproduce the real thing. So Ling Yun could not be certain whether this dragon corpse had belonged to a transcendent existence that had embarked on the path of "Transcending the Mortal and Entering the Saint Realm."

After pondering fruitlessly, Ling Yun turned his attention to the luminous pearl held in the dragon corpse's mouth.

"Perfectly round like a pearl, shining like the sun and moon."

Ling Yun murmured the words.

"According to legend, a dragon can concentrate its entire cultivation in a single 'Dragon Pearl.' It's an extraordinarily rare treasure of a living being. Could what this dragon corpse is holding in its mouth be a flood dragon's pearl?"

Recalling the Pill Scripture's description of Dragon Pearls, Ling Yun compared it carefully with the flood dragon before him and could not help reaching that conclusion.

"That's far too frightening."

Ling Yun shook his head, but he had to admit that his worldview had been reshaped since he was accidentally transported here.

He had learned ahead of time about things that should have been infinitely far beyond his present reach. It was both thrilling and frightening.

Besides, Ling Yun had been a modern man in his previous life. No matter how many fantasy novels he had read, none could compare to the shock of seeing it with his own eyes.

"Wait..."

As time passed, Ling Yun gradually calmed down and finally regained his wits. He suddenly realized there was something he had overlooked.

"The Spirit Flood Dragon among the five giant beasts beneath the golden figure in the mural... could it be the one right in front of me?!"

The moment the conjecture surfaced, Ling Yun became convinced of it.

"If that's true, just how great are the Ling Clan's origins? And how did a Spirit Flood Dragon on the verge of 'Transcending the Mortal and Entering the Saint Realm' end up in a backwater like the Eastern Desolation?"

Ling Yun clutched his head, feeling a splitting headache.

"Wouldn't that mean the owner of the demonic claw and the golden figure fighting in the mural were very likely true 'Saint Realm' existences?"

"And the Ling Clan, descended from a saint, has declined so far that its strongest members are only at the Primordial Spirit Realm?"

At the thought, Ling Yun could not help feeling a sense of absurdity and sorrow.

Though these were only his conjectures, he was certain he was not far from the truth.

Although the Ling Clan had declined, it was still locked in a fated struggle with the evil cultivators, whether a thousand years ago or now.

And in every clash, each side was determined to wipe the other out!

For a moment, Ling Yun was filled with emotion.

"The Ling Clan's deepest secret and foundation are probably the 'Forbidden Heart.' In that case, what exactly is the Forbidden Heart, that the Ling Clan relies on it to destroy the evil cultivators?"

Ling Yun raised his head and gazed into the distant sky, at the Dragon Pearl shining like the sun and moon.

"A Dragon Pearl contains all of a dragon's cultivation..."

Ling Yun spoke to himself. Then his eyes widened as inspiration flashed through his mind.

"The Forbidden Heart-the Dragon Pearl!"

"So this Dragon Pearl is the Forbidden Heart guarded by the Spirit King's Manor!"

In an instant, all of Ling Yun's conjectures fell into place.

"In that case, the evil cultivators are deluding themselves if they think they can steal a Dragon Pearl containing a dragon's cultivation..."

A shudder ran through Ling Yun's very soul. He was profoundly shaken by the Ling Clan's foundation.

Everything he had now learned was completely at odds with his previous impression of the Ling Clan.

The true Ling Clan was far from as simple as it appeared.

"No wonder the kings dared to offend the Moon-Gazing Sect, one of the so-called five great powers of the Eastern Desolation, even going so far as to kill its Primordial Spirit Realm elder."

"No wonder only the evil cultivators can put the Ling Clan on edge."

"So this struggle has always been between the Ling Clan and the evil cultivators. Who else would dare take part? The other five great powers might not know about the Ling Clan's formidable origins, but they must have their suspicions."

"That's why, for the past thousand years, the five great powers have never had much to do with the Ling Clan."

Having understood all this, Ling Yun was shaken to his core as never before.

"And the evil cultivators surely aren't as simple as they appear either. At least according to the records, neither side used its true trump cards in the great battle a thousand years ago."

The dragon corpse was reflected in Ling Yun's eyes, which were unfathomably deep.

"But the present Ling Clan no longer has anyone at the Dao Palace Realm. It's at its weakest."

"One can foresee that the evil cultivators are very likely to go all out when they emerge this time and annihilate the Ling Clan!"