Chapter Forty-One: Three Thunderstrikes Shatter the Dragon Transformation Dream

With a complex frame of mind, Chen Ming accepted the invitation from Crown Prince Xue Qinghe. Upon entering his room, he hurriedly opened the box, cradled the fragment within it in his arms, and began to thoroughly grope and examine it from top to bottom.

However, after a thorough exploration, Chen Ming was dumbfounded.

When he slowly injected his soul power, the stone absorbed it but provided no feedback. When he gently probed it with his spiritual power, the stone absorbed that as well, yet still gave no response.

If one were to call it a lifeless object, Chen Ming could still faintly perceive an inestimable vitality hidden deep within the stone.

Yet if one were to claim it was a living creature, Chen Ming could not sense "spirituality"—the most crucial attribute of any living being.

The internal spirituality of this object was roughly on par with a roadside Blue Silver Grass, far lower than the ornamental plants in his courtyard. Some metal ores Chen Ming had encountered in the past possessed higher inherent spirituality than this lump of debris.

After pondering for a moment and scanning his surroundings to ensure there were no other issues, Chen Ming returned to his quiet chamber. Cradling the fragment, he pressed his forehead against it and began attempting to mobilize his spirituality, wishing to observe the essence of the fragment through a method different from that of soul masters on the Douluo Continent.

Once, twice, thrice...

Five times, ten times, twenty times...

The mobilization of spirituality did not succeed every time, and even when it did, the fragment showed no special reaction. It was not until Chen Ming's concentration broke from exhaustion and a sense of impatience began to taint his previously calm mood that the fragment, which had hitherto resembled a lifeless object, finally stirred.

At that very moment, Chen Ming was suddenly struck by a realization.

"When it comes to spirituality, absolute tranquility is not strictly necessary. Perhaps emotion is also a valid direction for development."

No sooner had Chen Ming thought this than his entire being seemed to be dragged into another world. Unfolding before his eyes was a story that had once taken place on this continent.

Aeons ago, the firmament collapsed, and dragons originally residing in the Divine Realm plummeted down onto the Douluo Continent.

The giant dragons' bodies shattered, and their divine blood soaked the earth. While nourishing the land, it also gave birth to countless dragon-blood subspecies.

A dragon's physical body was a supreme treasure; a single scale or a shred of flesh could allow a low-level soul beast to undergo a complete rebirth.

After the deaths of certain giant dragons, their dragon souls could attach themselves to their dragon pearls. Despite their shattered bodies, these pearls—the most vital essence of the dragon race—were protected from harm. Yet for a tiny fraction of giant dragons, for reasons unknown, not even a trace of their dragon soul remained, and their inner dragon pearls, the most crucial core of their being, shattered upon impact.

In that era, a cyan giant dragon fell upon the land, its body fracturing and its dragon pearl breaking apart. The dispersing dragon aura and dragon blood remade all things, endowing a nest of centipedes, which originally possessed only a sliver of dragon lineage, with traits belonging to the Azure Dragon.

This brood of centipedes became the very first generation of Azure Jade Dragons.

After a brief period—brief at least by the time standards of soul beasts—the bodies of the giant dragons scattered across the continent were gathered by an unknown force, leaving behind only scattered remains, with very few intact skeletons left behind in the open world.

When a dragon falls, all things flourish. The descent of countless divine dragons upon the Douluo Continent was an immense stroke of fortune for ordinary soul beasts.

At that time, the Azure Jade Dragon clan, having inherited a portion of the Azure Dragon's blood and aura, completely transformed their race by devouring other soul beasts altered by dragon blood and the lingering remnants of the dragon race across the continent. This evolution brought them infinitely close to the state of pure-blooded true dragons.

Later, however, something occurred that no soul beast could have anticipated.

At some unknown point in time, a restriction was imposed upon the world of soul beasts. Once a soul beast's soul power broke through to a certain stage, heavenly tribulations filled with destructive power would descend from the skies, reducing the beast to ashes, with only a lucky few managing to survive.

For reasons unknown, although the Azure Jade Dragons were numerous in number, not a single one managed to successfully overcome the heavenly tribulation. The Azure Jade Dragon clan, born in the wake of the fallen dragons, was almost entirely wiped out by lightning, leaving behind only a handful of second- and third-generation dragons.

The surviving Azure Jade Dragons multiplied slowly, yet whenever they broke through to a certain threshold, they would be obliterated by the thunder.

After an unknown duration, when the Azure Jade Dragons were on the brink of extinction, a special newborn came into being within the tribe.

As Azure Jade Dragons grew in age, the enhancement and purification of the dragon aura within their bodies would bring them progressively closer to the Azure Dragon, taking ninety thousand years to completely transform their heads into dragon heads. Yet this newborn was born with a dragon head already formed, and possessed intelligence well beyond its peers from birth.

As this Azure Jade Dragon grew older, unwilling to perish under the thunder tribulation, it traveled to the Star Dou Great Forest to seek a method from the legendary Beast God, Di Tian.

After creating a massive uproar, it found the legendary Beast God, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King Di Tian, deep within the Star Dou Great Forest. However, faced with its inquiry, the legendary beast god refused to give an answer, merely telling it to wait, saying a solution might present itself before long.

In that Azure Jade Dragon's mind, this must have been because the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King looked down upon wretches like itself who had merely stumbled upon true dragon blood. Harboring deep resentment, it once again secretly sneaked into the Star Dou Great Forest to search for a way out.

During its search, it discovered a species of soul beast known as Emerald Swans. These soul beasts possessed formidable vitality within their bodies, which might just become the catalyst it needed to break through the hundred-thousand-year bottleneck.

Seizing the moment when all beast-tier soul beasts had gathered beneath the Lake of Life for unknown purposes, it ambushed and killed several nearly hundred-thousand-year-old Emerald Swans that had inexplicably gathered together. Escaping the Star Dou Great Forest amidst the encirclement of numerous soul beasts, it hid in an utterly unremarkable, humble little place.

Through its refinement, the life force of those several nearly-hundred-thousand-year-old Emerald Swans transformed into a piece of metal about the size of a human child's pinky finger. This metal was incomparably mysterious, brimming with seemingly endless vitality.

Leveraging this surge of life force, it reversed the death attribute within its body into life. Yet even as it drew closer to the Azure Dragon, it found itself stepping closer to the hundred-thousand-year bottleneck, seemingly able to sense that aura of destruction at any moment.

Deciding to go all out, it returned to the place of its birth, devoured all of its kin and soul beasts bearing kindred bloodlines, and then headed back to that small sanctuary, preparing to brave the hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation.

Only...

The hundred-thousand-year tribulation it faced was unlike that encountered by ordinary soul beasts. It was a tempest of lightning that was nearly endless, devoid of any vitality, devoid of any bottom line, existing solely to obliterate everything in its path.

The tribulation for ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beasts lasted only a few hours, with a rare few approaching a full day. It had prepared itself to be battered by the heavenly tribulation for three days and three nights, yet in truth, the descending tribulation consisted of merely three bolts of lightning.

Space shattered, heaven and earth wept, and all things lost their color—that was the power of divine rank.

This was not the kind of heavenly tribulation a soul beast should ever encounter; it left behind not even a shred of life, representing pure, unadulterated destruction.

The first bolt of lightning shattered its entire reservoir of soul power and scales, smashing apart the near-ultimate attributes of life and death within its body, alongside its virulent venom.

The second bolt of lightning reduced its physical body—which was practically indistinguishable from that of an Azure Dragon—to flying ashes, gouging a massive scar upon the earth.

When the third bolt of lightning descended, it crashed down upon its dragon core. Despite the vitality provided by the Essence of Life, its dragon soul completely dissipated, and the dragon core fused into one with the Essence of Life, plummeting to the ground like a meteorite.

Three bolts of lightning shattered the Azure Jade Dragon's dream of ascending to become a divine beast. At the moment death descended, it finally understood that it was merely one among tens of thousands of mortal ants.

This era did not belong to any soul beast.