Chapter 9: The Spiritual Theft
Huo Wujiu's foot slamming down onto the central node of the **Soul-Draining Array** was the sound of a cosmic theft in progress. The ground on the cliff edge erupted in blinding **red-gold light**, focusing all its magnetic force onto the small, exhausted figure of **Tang Wulin**.
The boy screamed—a primal, soundless cry of pure violation. His clothes billowed around him as a dense, chaotic **gold aura** began to rip itself free from his body. This wasn't merely spirit power; it was the raw, sealed essence of the **Golden Dragon King**, pulled violently toward Wujiu's own purified core. The fragment already within Wujiu's abdomen surged in response, acting as the perfect celestial receiver.
"Wujiu, stop this madness!" the Headmaster shrieked, scrambling backward in terror, his low-level Spirit Power unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure of the clashing divine auras.
**Gu Yue** did not shriek. Her face remained a mask of devastating cold, but her lavender eyes narrowed into lethal slits. She instantly recognized the nature of the array—it was not a destructive attack, but a spiritual siphon, and it was working with terrifying efficiency. The air around her fractured, and she unleashed her first, absolute response.
"You will not violate the Dragon!" she roared, her voice laced with primordial frost.
She didn't use fire or ice. She unleashed **Space**. The area directly around Tang Wulin shimmered, and Wujiu felt his meticulously crafted spiritual focusing array ripple as if hit by a hammer of pure gravity. Gu Yue was attempting to **spatially distort** the energy transfer, creating a vacuum that would sever the magnetic link between Wujiu and the Golden Dragon essence.
Wujiu didn't look at her; he was entirely focused on managing the immense, chaotic flow of energy rushing toward him. He knew Gu Yue's spatial power was the only thing that could stop a purely spiritual technique.
"Too late, Gu Yue!" Wujiu yelled, channeling his newly refined **Rank 20** power. "You are slow! This is destiny!"
He reinforced his connection, pouring his **Primordial Phoenix Divine Flame** into the quartz sigils. The red-gold light intensified tenfold, momentarily overpowering Gu Yue's spatial distortion. The chaotic gold energy tearing out of Tang Wulin's chest accelerated its rush toward Wujiu.
*In! Now!* Wujiu commanded mentally.
The energy that poured into Wujiu's core was not pure power; it was primal chaos. It felt like swallowing a collapsing star. Wujiu's body convulsed violently, and his eyes momentarily flashed a terrifying, uncontrolled gold. The **Omni-Source System** shrieked in his mind, confirming the dangerous success:
**[Golden Dragon King Bloodline Fragment (Tier 2) Acquired. Host Integrity Stable. Chaotic Energy Level: EXTREME.]**
Wujiu grit his teeth, forcing the new, immense gold chaos downward, sealing it alongside the first fragment in his abdomen using the supreme authority of the Phoenix. He barely maintained control.
Gu Yue saw the raw golden light consume his eyes, a flicker of true divinity that confirmed the scale of his ambition. She also saw Tang Wulin collapse, the immense golden aura vanishing, leaving the boy pale but alive—the Dragon's core essence gone. The spiritual theft was complete.
Gu Yue's fury reached an absolute apex. She abandoned her complicated elemental controls. With a terrifying cry, she lunged at Wujiu, her right hand condensing pure, silver-white **ice**. She wasn't aiming to hurt him physically; she was aiming for his abdomen—the source of the sealed Dragon power.
Wujiu reacted instantly, relying purely on the physical speed granted by the first Golden Dragon fragment. He couldn't unleash any fire—the mixing of the unstable Tier 2 fragment and the Divine Flame would incinerate him. He had to rely on pure defense.
He threw his arms up, activating the passive defense of the Gold Dragon's physical resilience. Gu Yue's ice-clad fist struck his forearm with the speed and force of a meteor.
*CRACK!*
The sound was the collision of two divine metals. Wujiu was thrown backward with devastating force, skidding across the cliff edge, narrowly avoiding falling into the turbulent East Sea. His arm was agonizingly numb, but the skin was merely bruised; the bone, thanks to the physical defense, held firm.
Gu Yue stood over the array, breathing heavily, her clothes still shimmering with frost. She looked down at the unconscious Tang Wulin, then back at Wujiu, her eyes blazing with absolute, cold certainty.
"You stole it," she stated, her voice shaking with controlled power. "You stole the essence of my mission, the future of the Dragon God. You will pay for this, Huo Wujiu."
Wujiu slowly rose, spitting blood onto the cliff face. He managed a shaky, triumphant smile, the heat of the Phoenix quickly working to suppress the chaotic gold energy.
"The rules of the continent are changing, Gu Yue," he stated, his voice raspy. "I'm not interested in the future of the Dragon God. I'm building my own destiny. Consider this a declaration of war."
He didn't wait for her next move. The Headmaster, still trembling, was running towards them, and the attention would soon be overwhelming. Wujiu leaped into the air, activating a low-level burst of **Phoenix Divine Might** in his legs, propelling him away from the cliff and back toward the isolation of his apartment.
Gu Yue did not pursue. Her priority had shifted: securing the now-inert host, Tang Wulin, and calculating her strategy against the horrifying anomaly Wujiu had become—a hybrid of Phoenix and Dragon, armed with both creation and absolute chaos. She knelt beside Tang Wulin, her silver aura washing over the boy, stabilizing his human consciousness, preparing him for the life he would now lead, fundamentally changed and diminished, but unknowingly setting him on a path that would lead him directly back to his thief.
The plot was entirely broken. Wujiu was a **Rank 20 Spirit Elder** possessing the core of the Golden Dragon's power, Gu Yue was his dedicated, enraged rival, and Tang Wulin was an anomaly—a weak physical genius now stripped of the essence that defined his fate.
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