At the bottom of the Yin-Yang Icefire Well, deep within the frozen spring.
Zhu Ziyang sat cross-legged upon the corpse of the Ice Dragon King. His expression was grave, tinged with anticipation. In his hand, the jade-like soul bone gleamed with divine radiance. Without further hesitation, he pressed it against his back, aligning it with his spine.
A surge of violent, majestic soul power erupted from the Ice Dragon King's torso bone, crashing straight into Zhu Ziyang's spine. His face contorted in agony. A searing pain, as though countless blades bored into his marrow, engulfed his mind and tore away control of his body. He could only endure, helpless, beneath the unbearable torment.
The sight alarmed his four soul spirits. They rushed to him immediately. Snow Empress, her face filled with distress, reached out to touch him, but was sternly stopped by Di Shuang.
"Stop!" Di Shuang barked. As a true dragon herself, she understood exactly what Zhu Ziyang was undergoing. Though her eyes betrayed concern, they shone with joy as well. "The Ice Dragon King's torso bone is reshaping his blood. We cannot interfere—he must withstand this ordeal himself!"
"Reshaping blood?" Snow Empress, Ice Empress, and Lu'er were all puzzled.
"Yes," Di Shuang explained solemnly. "Ziyang's second martial soul is the Holy White Frost Dragon. Though it belongs to the royal lineage of true dragons, compared with the Ice Dragon King—a Dragon King—it is like a child before an adult. The disparity in bloodline is immense. To fuse this bone, his dragon blood must rise in rank, climbing to the level of a Dragon King's lineage.
"The spine, for both humans and soul beasts, is the very root of bloodlines. This torso bone is replacing Ziyang's draconic blood in his spine with the Dragon King's blood marrow. It is unimaginably painful… but if he succeeds, his gains will be beyond measure."
"I believe in Father!" Snow Empress declared firmly, her small face glowing with conviction.
"Us too!" Ice Empress and Lu'er nodded resolutely.
By now, Zhu Ziyang was entirely encased within a white, gold-lit dragon egg. His body slumbered, while his consciousness drifted elsewhere.
He found himself in a boundless starry sky. Infinite stars glimmered across the dark void. And there, coiling amidst them, was a dragon.
The dragon's body stretched endlessly, long and slender, with four claws, each paw bearing five talons. Platinum scales covered its frame, traced with blue runes. Its wings spanned the heavens, its head majestic and noble, its crystal horns gleaming like jade. Compared to the lizard-like dragons of Douluo Continent, this being was a true sovereign of its kind.
The Ice Dragon King.
Zhu Ziyang stood frozen in awe. The Dragon King's golden eyes locked upon him, filled with an unfathomable meaning. Then, a deafening dragon's roar shook the cosmos. The Ice Dragon King surged forward, ramming straight into Zhu Ziyang.
Caught utterly unprepared, he had no chance to resist. The colossal dragon passed through his body, vanishing within him.
Zhu Ziyang's consciousness collapsed into darkness.
Outside the dragon egg, his four soul spirits also drifted into slumber. At the fiery spring, Qian Lingyi still sat in cultivation, unaware.
Far away—thousands of miles from the Icefire Well—at the core of Star Dou Forest, in the Lake of Life, a colossal creature stirred. Its golden vertical pupils opened, revealing its dragon heritage. In their depths flashed grief… and overwhelming hatred.
"…Farewell, forever." It whispered in sorrow, before closing its eyes once more, sinking back into sleep.
——
When Zhu Ziyang awoke, he was startled to find four dragon eggs lying beside him. Only after a dazed moment did he realize these eggs were his soul spirits, transformed.
Before he could check on them, a tremendous force pulled him away—dragging him once more into the Godhood Inheritance Grounds.
"I hardly know what to say. In any case, congratulations—you've completed the Fifth Trial of the Death God." Xiaobai's voice carried a trace of melancholy as it spoke.
"Hm?" Zhu Ziyang blinked in confusion, his mind blank. "That's it? I've finished? So easily?"
"Ah… I hadn't expected this either," Xiaobai admitted, sighing. "That you could earn the approval of Bingyi… her power has saved you a great deal of struggle."
"Bingyi?" Zhu Ziyang looked up at the divine palace overhead, bewildered.
"She is the Ice Dragon King," Xiaobai explained. "One of the Nine Dragon Kings under the Dragon God's throne. Once a colleague of the Death God, she too fell in that ancient catastrophe. The torso bone you fused was left behind by her, imbued with her bloodline and divine might. You risked much, fusing with it unbidden. Luckily, she accepted you. Had she not… the Death God would have needed to find another heir."
"…So dangerous?" Zhu Ziyang muttered, his heart pounding with belated fear and relief.
"Enough. Reflect well on the gifts Bingyi has bestowed upon you. Then, prepare to face the Sixth Trial of the Death God!" Xiaobai's voice faded into silence.
Zhu Ziyang wasted no time. He turned inward eagerly, examining the changes within.
His body brimmed with strength unlike anything he had ever known. Even without circulating soul power, he felt he could lift a mountain barehanded.
Then he looked at his soul bones. The discovery nearly left him speechless.
All six of his soul bones had transformed. The Ice Dragon King's torso bone now gleamed within him. And the other five—previously incomplete—had all expanded. His right arm bone, once only a forearm, now extended to cover the whole arm. His left leg bone, once limited to the calf, now spanned the full leg.
What stunned him most was the leap in quality. His Starlight Soaring Right Leg Bone and Death Puppet Left Arm Bone, once at fifty thousand years, had ascended to five hundred thousand. A tenfold increase! Their surfaces bore golden rings—five each—the unmistakable sign of five-hundred-thousand-year bones.
The rest—his Illusory Purple Dragon Skull, Silver Wolf Right Arm Bone, and Octagonal Mysterious Ice Left Leg Bone—had all risen by five hundred thousand years as well, each now bearing six golden rings.
Finally, his gaze fell upon his spine. His entire vertebrae, from cervical to lumbar to tailbone, had become jade-like, radiating a sacred glow. Across it shimmered ten golden rings. A divine torso bone—the legacy of a god.
He could not fathom what rank this equated to among soul beasts—at least three million years, he guessed.
Through this, he finally understood the meaning of a Soul Bone Set. Only when all six were gathered did they fully belong to him. They could no longer be taken, not even upon death.
When he opened his eyes again, his expression was calm, unreadable. At his will, a pair of blue-white wings burst from his back—not from his martial soul, but from the torso bone itself. The Ice Dragon King's Wings, an external soul bone.
Six complete soul bones, plus one external bone. This was his Soul Bone Set. Though it bore the name of the Death God's inheritance, in truth it was more an Ice Dragon Soul Bone Set.
He lifted his left hand. A frosted white spear materialized, its shaft engraved with the form of the Ice Dragon King. It exuded both searing cold and boundless dragon might. The Ice Dragon Spear—one of the soul skills carried by the torso bone.
Now, with the spear in his left and the Scythe of Rest in his right, Zhu Ziyang could wield both light and ice simultaneously.
The torso bone's second ability was even more terrifying. Ice Cang Emperor Dragon. Zhu Ziyang could summon the remnant spirit of the Ice Dragon King, imbue it with boundless ultimate ice, and form a colossal dragon stretching thousands of meters. Its very breath froze everything it touched—even the air. It could strike with overwhelming force, or serve as a towering shield to block any assault.
The sheer might of the ability was unmatched.
Zhu Ziyang smiled in satisfaction. Though some of these techniques overlapped with his own, he did not care. For what mattered most was the soul bone itself. The soul skills were merely splendid gifts appended to it.
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