Under One Person, Golden Light Transforms into God

With the ownership of the stone bead settled, the two returned the way they came and stood once again in front of the hundred-foot-high gate.

Two more steps and we'll be leaving this grotto.

"Given the rate at which the cave is collapsing, there may not be a next time we leave. Is there anything else you wish to do, such as to pay homage to the Dragon Lord?"

Hengyue remained silent, gazing at the thousand-foot-long dragon head, which resembled a single piece of white jade. After a moment, a faint voice drifted out: "If I offer sacrifices, will Grandpa Ao come back to life?"

"of course not."

"Let's go."

Hengyue lowered her head and stepped out of the door first, her resolute determination deeply moving Zhang Huaidan.

No matter how childish Hengyue's behavior was, she was ultimately a born saint, a demon immortal, and her resoluteness at this moment earned his admiration.

Putting myself in her shoes, I realized that my own master certainly couldn't have done what she did.

He took a step out of the hundred-foot gate, casually scooped her up, and amidst Hengyue's screams, lifted her small body and placed her on his shoulder.

Hengyue's expression was somewhat unnatural.

She thought Zhang Huaidan was going to play a trick on her again, but that wasn't the case.

I stole a glance at his profile; his features were sharp and defined, and his eyes were fixed straight ahead. My heartstrings trembled inexplicably.

“We are fellow Daoists. As long as you don’t cause trouble, I will stay with you for a long time to come.”

Among the memories left behind by the Dragon Lord was the entrustment he was given to take care of Heng Yue.

As the Dragon King's last relic, the stone bead must be something extraordinary. Taking it meant taking on an added responsibility.

Furthermore, Hengyue is not some little brat who holds everyone back; she is a pure fox who has reached the realm of a demon immortal!

Even without the Dragon Lord's entrustment, Shi Zhu's responsibility remains.

Having Hengyue by your side is a huge help in itself.

Moreover, they're so easy to fool, you couldn't find one even with a lantern!
Hengyue felt a warmth in her heart, but said aloud, "Zhang Huaidan, it must be hard to say such things all of a sudden. You must feel terrible to have attained the status of a True Person in this Dharma-ending Age. There isn't even one person in the whole world who can discuss the Dao with you. Out of pity, I'll take pity on you and reluctantly consider you a fellow Daoist!"

Zhang Huaidan said sarcastically, "Thank you so much, Goddess Hengyue!"

Hengyue pretended not to notice the sarcasm: "Thank you isn't just something you say; you have to show it with actions, like..."

The sound stopped abruptly, and the two who had been laughing and joking changed their expressions simultaneously, their relaxed atmosphere vanishing completely.

He turned around abruptly.

Hengyue's voice was shrill: "Zhang Huaidan!"

Zhang Huaidan seemed to be deep in thought, sighed softly, and took out the stone bead to look at it. Hengyue also understood and grabbed his ear tightly: "Think of a way, can't we even preserve Grandpa Ao's last remains? I don't want to, I don't want to see it..."

Zhang Huaidan remained silent as her ears ached.

In layman's terms, although we don't know exactly how it works, there is no doubt that the stone bead is the energy source of the cave heaven, barely supporting its existence. Once it is taken away, the cave heaven, which is already on its last legs, will collapse even faster and be swallowed and assimilated by the main world!

Hengyue didn't speak again; things had come to this point and there was no going back.

Zhang Huaidan felt the pain in her ear and the trembling of her small body on her shoulder. She had thought she was very determined, but it turned out she wasn't so determined after all.

In the silence, through the slowly closing hundred-zhang gate, Zhang Huaidan saw the dragon corpse, stretching for thousands of meters, disintegrate inch by inch, turning into fragments. The vines and withered trees clinging to the dragon bones also turned to ashes.

It fuses with bone fragments.

Although the True Lord is dead, how precious his bones are, while the ashes of grass and trees are so insignificant.

At this moment, it is impossible to distinguish between nobility and humility.

My chest suddenly felt wet.

Those were Hengyue's tears.

Zhang Huaidan sighed inwardly, covered her eyes, and held her in his arms. Hengyue did not resist, nestled obediently against his chest. At that moment, the thousand-foot dragon head also shattered.

Within the grotto, only emptiness remained. Who once said that all that remained was a vast expanse of white, utterly clean?

Is it possible that even someone as unbelievable as Zhenjun could one day find himself unable to preserve even his physical form?

Watching this scene, Zhang Huaidan was filled with many thoughts and insights.

The hundred-zhang gate, which was slowly closing, also froze, as if frozen in time. The intricate cloud and water divine patterns, which were engraved with the rules of the Great Dao, which Zhang Huaidan could not understand in depth, lost their divine brilliance in the blink of an eye and became ordinary patterns.

'Click~~'

A crack quietly climbed up, and in an instant, thousands of cracks spread. The hundred-foot-long gate was on the verge of collapse, and the secret realm outside the gate also trembled slightly.

Zhang Huaidan then understood.

Dragon Lord's Grotto.

It's going to end.

With a flash of light, the two arrived at the valley of the main world.

Looking down, he saw Hengyue being dragged along by her little bottom. Her delicate, porcelain-like face had her eyes tightly closed, still bearing traces of tears, as if she had fallen asleep.

Zhang Huaidan smiled slightly and made no move to wake her. This trip to the cave had come to an end. Although it had brought more confusion, it was not a complete loss.

Witnessing the demise of a True Lord's Grotto-heaven firsthand, as the saying goes, "one can know the autumn of the world by observing the falling of a single leaf," the insights gained significantly improved his mental cultivation.

That stone bead is something that can maintain the existence of the cave, and it is extremely mysterious. It may hold an incredible secret.

Of course, most importantly...

Zhang Huaidan smiled as he gazed at Hengyue.

It was still this naive little fox spirit who could only fool him, a powerful demon immortal who was second only to him and perhaps even equal to him!
My thoughts shifted in an instant, and just as I was about to leave this place, a scorching sensation suddenly arose.

Zhang Huaidan was startled: 'A stone bead!'

Belatedly, they realized that the stone bead had been heating up ever since they left the cave, but since it was no longer afraid of heat or cold, a little heat was nothing to it.

However, the stone bead became increasingly hot, to the point that even his Bright Yang Body could not withstand it!

The stone bead trembled, and Zhang Huaidan was filled with doubt and surprise. He opened his palm, and it slowly floated up, hovering in mid-air in front of the two of them.

A faint cracking sound was heard, and the bluish-gray shell was falling off.

Zhang Huaidan's pupils shrank sharply. He didn't know if it was a hallucination, but what he saw was not an ordinary stone bead cracking open, but rather the sun in the sky melting!

After an unknown amount of time, the outer shell of the stone bead completely disappeared.

A golden bead floated in mid-air.

Zhang Huaidan was even more alarmed. The golden light he had cultivated was a color that was even purer and clearer than sunlight.

Compared to this golden bead, it looked like a jumble of colors picked out from a large dye vat!

The golden bead floated silently, without any unusual phenomena or emitting a single ray of light.

Zhang Huaidan hesitated for a moment before reaching out to grab the golden bead.

The moment they made contact, the golden bead trembled, and a beam of clear light suddenly appeared, enveloping him and Hengyue.

Hazy.

Vaguely.

Chaos.

Zhang Huaidan, struck by a sudden inspiration, immediately recognized the name of the stone pearl: "Dragon Pearl!" (End of Chapter)