'I've arrived… at the dragon clan's resting place.'
Gu You moved swiftly. It wasn't until he seemed to sense something ahead that he finally stopped in his tracks.
After passing through the hilly terrain, he reached a wide-open plain. There, just a hundred meters above ground, floated clouds — not ordinary clouds, but drifting layers of mist.
What truly caught his attention was their strange coloration. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and violet — each cloud shimmered with a distinct hue, forming a vibrant arc across the sky.
'Dragon clouds?'
Gu You's eyes narrowed. Each misty cloud seemed to contain some form of unique energy. What was even more bizarre was the sensation welling up inside him — a warm, deeply rooted sense of familiarity. His entire body resonated with these drifting clouds.
Even though the divine dragon within him had once been slain by the true Dragon God… still…
As he stood in thought, the red-colored cloud suddenly began to churn violently. It spiraled into a vortex in mid-air, forming a funnel shape before plunging downward like a ray of light, heading straight toward Gu You.
Rather than resist, Gu You opened his arms and released the full extent of his dragon bloodline.
As if that was the signal they were waiting for, the other colored clouds, which had been hovering quietly in the distance, suddenly began to stir. They surged violently and began pouring toward him from every direction.
The red cloud had been the first to move, and thus reached him first. It descended like fire, instantly enveloping Gu You in a dense mist of heat and energy.
He didn't feel pain or impact. Rather, he felt heat. An intense heat that surged through his limbs, flooding every inch of his body.
It wasn't an uncomfortable feeling. The red cloud, dense with fire elemental energy, passed through him like a tidal wave. And with it, came strange undercurrents of some other form — perhaps will, perhaps memory.
The red cloud rose again, now laced with a faint hint of purple, and returned to its place in the sky where it began to distort and twist as if processing something.
Next came the green cloud, light and airy, like a breeze passing through his soul. Then came blue, full of flowing water energy that soothed his bones and blood.
One by one, the nearby clouds plunged toward him, passed through his body, and returned to the sky tinged with faint purple. As they moved, Gu You could feel their power — each one nourishing him with pure elemental essence, fusing into his bloodline.
Even though he wasn't an elemental soul master, his body accepted these elements with astounding affinity, just as the plants of the forest once responded to his presence.
After the final cloud passed through him, Gu You felt an overwhelming fullness spread through his limbs.
He immediately retreated to the hiding spot he had used earlier and sat down cross-legged.
Within moments, he entered meditation.
Inside his body, motes of light flickered and danced. Red, blue, yellow, green, purple — a spectrum of elements flowed through his meridians like streams of life. They weren't just random energies — they were refined elemental particles, laden with the power of the heavens.
Water, fire, earth, wind, light, darkness, space — seven elemental types all danced together in harmony within him.
'These dragon clouds aren't sentient. Otherwise, they'd never mistake me for a true dragon god.'
Gu You grinned. 'Still, a free meal is a free meal.'
Time passed unnoticed. He remained immersed in his cultivation, soaking in the elemental tides.
Eventually, he awoke.
The first sensation was clarity — a lightness of mind, as if the world had grown brighter and more vivid. His senses were keener, sharper. With just a hint of focus, he could see elemental particles drifting in the air.
'Even my spiritual perception improved? Not bad at all.'
He stretched, but frowned as he checked his soul communicator — it hadn't moved an inch. Time, it seemed, didn't flow normally in this realm. Or perhaps the place he stood was detached from standard spacetime.
Looking up, he saw the clouds were still tinged with faint purple — slightly different from the distant untouched clouds.
'Still not enough. I need more.'
Gu You set off again.
He ventured deeper and repeated the process, drawing in another round of dragon clouds. This time, he absorbed even more than before. Only when that familiar full sensation returned did he stop and resume meditation.
Again and again, he repeated the cycle.
By the time he had absorbed the dragon clouds nine full times, his soul power had broken through — astonishingly — to Rank 77.
'This speed… if anyone saw this, they'd think I was cheating.'
And indeed, Gu You could feel it now. The clouds no longer needed to be digested slowly. When they passed through him, his body instantly absorbed the essence without resistance. There was no longer any need to meditate afterward.
He pressed on, collecting the soul fragments left behind deeper within the Dragon Valley. Those too, he absorbed without hesitation, adding them to the vast ocean of his mind.
At the very core of the valley, something shifted.
A low hum began to rise in the air. The floating dragon clouds began to quiver and swirl.
Suddenly, a powerful resonance echoed across the sky. A vast section of the heavens trembled, and then—split.
A jagged rift tore open the air above the Dragon Valley.
From that rift, a massive claw extended. Black as night, covered in dense, hardened scales. It reached out and gripped the sky itself.
The sheer size of the claw dwarfed anything Gu You had seen before. Slowly, it pulled apart the rift, and a deep, primal growl followed.
All across the Dragon Valley, the colored clouds dropped. As if recognizing something far older, far more sacred, they condensed into long serpentine forms — and bowed.
'What… is this…?'
Gu You's pupils shrank.
That claw — its presence was suffocating.
An ancient will surged through the air. The sky rippled violently as if rejecting the rift. Space distorted around the black claw, resisting it, trying to force it closed.
The crack didn't expand, but it didn't vanish either.
The claw remained.
(End of Chapter)
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