The Dragon King's Legacy

The Black Dragon King shot forward like lightning. Little Fatty Niu Ren had no choice but to follow, and Xiao Chen charged in without hesitation.

No sound broke the deathly stillness of the deep forest. An oppressive silence reigned, broken only by the wind of their own passage. No rustle of leaves, no cry of beasts—nothing but the heavy, suffocating weight of gloom pressing down on their hearts, making them want to shout out loud just to hear a human voice.

The sinister woods were saturated with an oppressive power. Xiao Chen knew that if they were trapped here long, it would drive anyone mad.

"Little Black, what's wrong with you?" Niu Ren sensed something amiss and grew anxious.

The Black Dragon King ignored him, rushing straight into the depths of the forest.

After traveling more than a li, the Black Dragon King halted beneath a towering ancient tree. A vast pile of snow-white bones lay there, heaped like a small mountain.

Both Xiao Chen and Niu Ren stared in shock. It was a long dragon skeleton, so like that of an Ancestral Dragon!

The bones coiled around the base of a tree that would take dozens of men to encircle. They stretched like a snow-covered ridge; fully extended, they would have measured at least eighty or ninety meters.

The Ancestral Dragon's head was held high, still unbowed in death. Its skeleton was cracked in many places, and the long spine was snapped into dozens of segments. Clearly, it had suffered severe wounds before dying—cut into dozens of pieces, most likely slain in battle.

Could this be an Ancestral Dragon? Xiao Chen and Niu Ren exchanged solemn glances.

Tears filled the Black Dragon King's eyes. Its forelegs buckled, and it knelt before the dragon skeleton.

A Dragon King was the proudest of beings, bowing neither to heaven nor to any god. Yet now it knelt, weeping.

Xiao Chen and Niu Ren stood silent. They realized that this was not an Ancestral Dragon; it was a supreme Dragon King. It had not fully transformed into an Ancestral Dragon, but it must have been close. Only its rear claws were still imperfect; every other part was identical to an Ancestral Dragon.

The Black Dragon King circled the ancient skeleton once in silence. Then it opened its jaws and spat out a beam of black light, igniting the white bones.

Towering black flames erupted, yet the surrounding ancient trees remained untouched. The dark fire seemed sentient; even when it licked the trunks, it did not burn a single branch.

Then something astonishing happened. The burning dragon skeleton blazed with dazzling light, rapidly shrinking and transforming.

Fractured bones rejoined. Cracks healed. Finally, the eighty-or-ninety-meter-long skeleton shrank to barely over a meter, hovering in the air. No longer snow-white, it now glittered with multicolored brilliance, translucent as carved jade.

What amazed Xiao Chen and Niu Ren even more came next. Twin beams of cold lightning shot from the Black Dragon King's eyes, and two rays of divine light erupted from the horns on its head. In an instant, they enveloped the glowing skeleton.

Clang!

The sound was like a peerless divine sword being drawn from its sheath. Slowly, a radiant light illuminated the entire oasis, and all the holy souls outside the region burst into earth-shaking roars.

Many souls gathered around the perimeter, howling to charge in, but they dared not enter the forest.

A peerless divine sword slowly emerged from within the skeleton.

Its material was impossible to identify—like jade, like bone. The translucent dragon skeleton suddenly turned to dust, scattering on the wind.

Only a dazzling holy sword remained suspended in the air.

With immense reverence, the Black Dragon King prostrated itself on the ground. The half-meter-long holy sword, as if alive, transformed into a beam of divine light and vanished into the King's spine with a sharp clang—the sound of a blade returning to its sheath.

Little Fatty Niu Ren's heart leaped with alarm. He feared the Black Dragon King had been cut in two.

"Little Black, what happened?" Niu Ren asked, bewildered.

The Black Dragon King was silent for a long moment, then gave a low growl.

"You mean this is one of the dragon race's sacred relics, that only a Dragon King can wield... and then you will...?"

The Black Dragon King fell silent again, saying no more.

Will what? Xiao Chen's and Niu Ren's hearts pounded. They both thought of the same possibility, but they could never speak it aloud. The Black Dragon King trusted them so deeply that even if they had guessed right, the secret must die with them.

The holy sword vanished. The souls outside the forest dispersed, leaving the area in dead silence once more.

"Eh? Why is blood qi rising there?" Niu Ren pointed ahead in surprise.

Where the dragon skeleton had lain, a pitch-black hole was now visible. With the bones burned away, the hole revealed itself, spewing black mist and blood-colored vapor.

The black mist was eerie, and the blood qi looked like fresh gore, but it carried no sinister aura. Instead, a pure spiritual energy radiated from it.

The Black Dragon King rushed over. Its Ancestral Dragon horn glowed with threads of light, connecting to the blood qi and drawing it closer. Soon it was bathed in crimson radiance.

"This is pure spiritual energy!" Niu Ren suddenly remembered something. "An old shaman told me the earth has veins. This might be the legendary Earth Blood Vessel! If so... this is a grand fortune for us."

Xiao Chen sighed inwardly. Some people in this world truly had amazing luck. This simple, honest little fatty had been extraordinarily fortunate from the start. He too had heard of the Earth Blood Vessel. The scene before them matched the legends. Perhaps the great furnace here had truly connected to the Earth Blood Vessel, after all, this was where the Ancestral God Suiren had refined his furnace.

Little Fatty Niu Ren sat down beside the bottomless hole and began to meditate.

At that moment, the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree hidden within Xiao Chen's body trembled and slowly emerged. Strands of blood qi converged toward it. With a flash of insight, Xiao Chen planted the tree beside the hole and sat down cross-legged to cultivate.

As soon as the Sacred Tree appeared, the blood essence surged forth even more violently. The divine tree seemed to possess an unparalleled power, drawing the Earth Blood Vessel upward continuously. Soon the area was awash in brilliant crimson light.

The radiance pulsed, accelerating the absorption of spiritual energy for Xiao Chen, Niu Ren, and the Black Dragon King.

It was a rare sight. Anyone with the heavenly eye would have seen the Earth Blood Vessel endlessly surging upward, gathering toward the Sacred Tree, while the three beneficiaries beside it were bathed in the blood-colored spiritual energy.

At that moment, time seemed to stand still. Xiao Chen and the others sank into a state of utter forgetfulness, aware of nothing else. All their pores opened wide, and they felt as though they had merged with the blood-colored energy.

Little Fatty Niu Ren was similarly impressive. The freakish beast soul formed by merging five beast souls manifested behind him—a colossal beast shadow towering like a small mountain, standing over ten meters tall. It opened its massive maw to devour the crimson light, a truly fearsome sight.

The greatest beneficiary, of course, was the Sacred Tree. A ceaseless stream of blood light connected it directly to the Earth Blood Vessel, the two now linked in a perfect balance.

After one day, the little tree finally began another transformation. A tiny crimson bud emerged, glittering like a blood-red pearl. The fifth divine leaf was about to grow!

As blood essence swirled thickly, time flowed on unnoticed. Xiao Chen and the others sat motionless as mountains, lost in desireless meditation. But outside, astonishing changes were taking place.

All the ancient trees around them began to glow with green light. The entire region shimmered like a giant emerald. Several approaching souls were ensnared by the branches of the gnarled trees, which coiled around them and devoured them alive!

The trees near Xiao Chen and the others seemed to come to life, stretching out enormous limbs like human arms, reaching for the two humans and the dragon to seize their souls.

But before they could draw close, the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree burst into dazzling radiance. Streams of multicolored light swirled outward, shattering every branch that extended toward them.

For an entire month, Xiao Chen and Niu Ren remained in a state of emptiness. The essence of the Earth Blood Vessel poured continuously into their bodies, transforming their physiques.

During that month, the fifth leaf of the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree finally grew to completion. It was a red jade leaf, blood-bright and translucent, glittering like a red agate, blazing like a divine gem.

Now the palm-high little tree had five divine leaves: ink jade, white jade, emerald jade, golden jade, and red jade. The light that flowed from them was soft, sacred, and awe-inspiring.

With the fifth red jade leaf fully formed, the Sacred Tree gradually lost its connection to the Earth Blood Vessel. The blood essence ceased to rise, and the region slowly returned to its former deathly stillness.

Little Fatty Niu Ren's beast soul had grown from over ten meters tall to nearly twenty meters, standing like a mountain, exuding an intimidating pressure. A month of intense cultivation had propelled Niu Ren straight from the First Heaven of the Spirit-Treasury Realm to the Third Heaven—a leap of two heavens in just one month!

As for the Black Dragon King, it had grown a full half-meter, its body now two and a half meters long. Its strength had undoubtedly surged.

Xiao Chen awoke a day later than Niu Ren. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a round, chubby face grinning to itself.

"Niu Ren, what's wrong with you?"

"I... hehe... haha... I've reached the Spirit-Treasury Third Heaven!" The little fatty laughed stupidly, looking simple and earnest, almost adorable. "Xiao Chen, what level did you break through to?"

"I... seem to be in a strange state." Xiao Chen had already sensed his own condition. "I keep fluctuating between the First and Third Heavens of the Spirit-Treasury Realm. It's very unstable."

"How can that happen? The power is fluctuating?" Niu Ren was puzzled. "Isn't that something only Nirvana Realm experts experience—when their cultivation is hard to stabilize and keeps rising and falling?"

"I don't know either. It really is just going back and forth."

But Xiao Chen was not discouraged. Given his cultivation method, channeling the essence of the Earth Blood Vessel into his body for a month and reaching Spirit-Treasury Third Heaven at his peak was already a miracle.

The reason was simple: most of the blood essence had been claimed by the acupoints in his body.

In that month, seven major acupoints had been divinized!

The Tianjing acupoints on both elbows, the Xiyangguan acupoints on both knees, the Huantiao acupoints at both hip joints, and the Huiyin acupoint between the legs had all crystallized into brilliant light points.

This was an unimaginably bountiful harvest.

Now, sixteen acupoints in his entire body had been divinized, concentrated mainly at the major joints. Connected as they were, they effectively linked his whole body.

In fact, golden threads already stretched between the divine acupoints, forming an independent divine meridian network—a new circulatory system, not yet fully perfected, but nevertheless a beginning.

Though he had not soared directly into the Spirit-Treasury Third Heaven like Niu Ren, Xiao Chen knew that his gains might be greater. The formation of this divine meridian was true accumulation over time. He sensed that one day, the boundless power within his body would all come alive.

When that day came, the transformation would be beyond imagination.

The Sacred Tree trembled, wreathed in colorful mist. Xiao Chen carefully lifted it and saw that the fifth jade leaf had indeed grown. Seeing this made him happier than knowing he had divinized seven acupoints. One jade leaf was worth more than a mountain of gold. That the sacred tree had produced a fifth leaf here was a stroke of incredible fortune.

Only now did Xiao Chen and Niu Ren realize how dangerous this oasis truly was. Periodically, a green light would surge out, specifically to capture souls. Without the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree beside them, they would have died long ago.

As they left the oasis, Xiao Chen said to Niu Ren, "I really don't want you to take this risk with me."

"Don't say that. Didn't you see I took a risk and jumped two heavens in cultivation? It was totally worth it." The little fatty grinned naively and patted his chest. "You only know a rough method of summoning souls passed down by the barbarian shamans. I'm far more skilled. Even if you find an altar, you might not be able to summon the little white beast's soul successfully."

There was no need for more words. They set off again, dodging several regions with powerful soul fluctuations. Climbing another thousand meters or so, they finally discovered a desolate altar.

Once there, words were unnecessary. They quickly set to work, for time was life—who knew when a terrifying holy soul might come charging through?

Intricate patterns were carved by the little fatty onto the blood-colored altar.

Standing in the center of the altar, as white as snow, Xiao Chen held the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree aloft and began to pray silently, summoning the little white beast.