Douluo Continent: My Martial Soul is the Black Dragon, I am the Lord of the Gods

……

Forbidden Land of the Gods.

Time flows silently, and several more years have slipped through our fingers like sand.

Gu Yuena remained outside the Nine-Colored Dragon Cocoon, as if she had become an eternal sculpture. Her mind had long since settled down during the long wait, calm as still water, without a ripple.

She knew that Xuanming needed this "rest," and she was willing to give him this peace.

However, on that very day, something unexpected happened.

The nine-colored dragon cocoon, which had been suspended in the void for years without any movement, suddenly burst forth with a dazzling radiance.

The nine-colored divine light surged like a tide, illuminating the entire forbidden land of gods in a dreamlike manner.

Gu Yuena suddenly stood up, a hint of surprise flashing in her silver eyes.

Before she could react, a gentle yet irresistible suction force emanated from the dragon cocoon and instantly enveloped her body.

She did not resist, letting that force gently pull her, and her whole body transformed into a silver light, disappearing into the dazzling nine-colored dragon cocoon.

As the light faded, the forbidden land returned to silence, as if nothing had ever happened.

……

Inside the dragon cocoon is a vast and boundless starry sky.

Gu Yuena found herself in a warm embrace, the familiar scent instantly washing away her weariness and loneliness. She slowly raised her head, and what came into view was the face she had longed for countless days and nights.

Xuanming woke up.

His eyes were clear and deep, no longer showing the weariness and aloofness of before, but instead a calmness and gentleness that came with the experience of life's vicissitudes.

He didn't speak, but simply held her tightly, as if he wanted to pour all the longing and guilt he had felt over the years into that embrace.

Gu Yuena's eyes reddened slightly as she buried her face in his chest, greedily inhaling his breath. No words were needed; this embrace spoke volumes.

After an unknown amount of time, Xuanming gently stroked her long silver hair and whispered, "Thank you for your hard work."

Gu Yuena shook her head, her voice slightly choked with emotion: "It's good that you're awake."

"Yes, you're awake." Xuanming's lips curved into a gentle smile. "The things that need to be dealt with should be dealt with now."

He released Gu Yuena, took her hand, and gazed at the vast nine-colored primordial energy. He calmly said, "I have completed the inheritance of the Dragon God's position. However, I am not interested in this power. Now, I intend to give it to you."

Gu Yuena was startled, then her expression changed drastically. She said urgently, "No! Xuanming, are you crazy? You have only just inherited the divine position and your foundation is not yet stable. Forcibly stripping away the power of the Dragon God at this time will severely damage your soul and may even cause you to fall from the divine realm!"

She could feel the vast power within Xuanming's body, as immense as the universe itself. It was precisely because of this that she understood even more clearly how terrifying the price of stripping away this power would be.

Xuanming shook his head, his face showing no worry, but rather a relaxed smile: "Don't worry. Things aren't quite what you imagine."

He pointed to the space between his eyebrows, where a pure white divine mark was faintly visible, radiating a transcendent aura that negated and dominated everything.

“From the very beginning, I never chose to completely merge with the power of the Dragon God,” Xuanming explained. “My divine essence completely analyzed and reconstructed it. Moreover, at the very last moment before I inherited the divine position, the remnant soul of the Dragon God descended and gave me guidance. He approved of my path.”

"So," he said slowly, looking at Gu Yuena's shocked eyes, "my divine status has been completely stabilized at the God-King level. The power of the Dragon God is more like a guide for me, allowing me to master the various power laws possessed by the Dragon God in advance. I don't need this 'divine position'; I only need enough energy to break through to the same realm as the Dragon God with my own divine status."

Gu Yuena was completely dumbfounded.

Analysis? Reconstruction? Her own divine status had stabilized at the God-King level? All of this was completely beyond her comprehension. This meant that Xuanming was walking a path unprecedented in history, a path that even the gods of the divine realm could not understand. He was not an inheritor, but a creator.

Seeing her dazed expression, Xuanming chuckled and offered no further explanation. He took Gu Yuena's hand and led her to sit cross-legged amidst the starry sky, his tone leaving no room for doubt: "Get ready. It might be painful, but trust me, I can help you endure everything."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xuanming pressed his forehead against Gu Yuena's forehead.

In an instant, the boundless power of the dragon god's origin within the nine-colored dragon cocoon seemed to have found an outlet, transforming into a dazzling torrent that surged wildly into Gu Yuena's body!

……

The High Temple.

The once peaceful central hub of the divine realm was instantly shattered by a sudden and violent energy fluctuation.

The figures of the five god-kings appeared in the center of the temple almost at the same time, their gazes all turned toward the forbidden land of gods.

“This fluctuation…” Asura God frowned, a hint of solemnity flashing in his blood-red eyes.

"It's a forbidden land!" the Goddess of Life exclaimed. In her divine sense, Gu Yuena, who had been quietly guarding outside the dragon cocoon, had vanished into thin air!
The nine-colored dragon cocoon that had been suspended for several years was now like a cosmic core about to erupt, radiating a heart-pounding, chaotic, and powerful energy fluctuation.

Without further ado, five divine lights pierced the sky and instantly reached the edge of the forbidden land.

An invisible barrier of laws separates the inside from the outside. Although it is only a thin line separating them, the flow of time on both sides of the barrier is vastly different.

They could clearly feel that the most primordial divine power of the divine realm was being frantically pulled by an invisible vortex and continuously injected into the nine-colored dragon cocoon.

"Here we go again! He's still absorbing the primordial divine power!" The God of Destruction's expression turned grim, and a violent aura of destruction surged around him. "No, we must stop him! The primordial divine power of the God Realm is the foundation for maintaining its stability. If this continues, and it attracts those dangerous things from the void of the universe, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Just as he was about to intervene forcefully, a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Calm down." The God of Evil shook his head, his deep eyes fixed on the dragon cocoon that was constantly devouring divine power. "Don't be impulsive. If nothing unexpected happens, he will wake up soon."

He paused, a meaningful smile curving his lips: "A supreme god-king who is willing to abide by the rules and is about to complete his final transformation... as long as he is willing to fulfill the agreement to expand the divine realm, what is this bit of primordial divine power? It's just a drop in the ocean."

The goddess of life and the god of goodness nodded in agreement with the god of evil's view.

The God of Destruction snorted heavily, ultimately suppressing his impulse, but the worry in his eyes did not diminish.

Time slipped away little by little in this tense wait.

The five God-Kings silently guarded the Forbidden Land for seven days and seven nights. To them, it was only a brief moment, but they knew that according to the flow of time within the Forbidden Land, a full seven years had passed inside.

However, what they didn't know was that, in order to find an absolutely safe and foolproof way for Gu Yuena to obtain this power, Xuanming once again used his incredible divine power to distort and accelerate the microscopic time within the dragon cocoon.

Even he himself couldn't accurately explain the terrifying time difference between the inside and outside of the dragon cocoon.

Seven days later.

"Click..."

A crisp sound, like crystal shattering, clearly reached the ears of the five god-kings.

Their spirits lifted as they noticed a tiny crack appearing on the surface of the enormous, nine-colored dragon cocoon.

Immediately afterwards, the cracks spread rapidly like a spider web, and dazzling divine light burst out from the cracks, illuminating the entire forbidden land as bright as day!
"boom--!"

With a deafening roar that shook the entire divine realm, the nine-colored dragon cocoon burst open!
Two completely different, yet terrifying powers, both surpassing the level of ordinary God-Kings, erupted forth, sweeping across the entire Forbidden Land of Gods! (End of Chapter)