Douluo Continent: Tonight, a Fairy Tale Descends

Deep within the Dragon Realm, after sensing Godo's crisp "Yes," Xisu severed the connection.

She snapped out of her daze, her gaze falling on the enormous golden figure before her, a complex emotion flickering in its amber dragon eyes.

The Golden Dragon King was lying quietly beside the Dragon God's skull, his massive body curled up in a ball, as if he had finally found a place to rest after a long journey.

He had been there for a long time, but his condition upon arrival far exceeded Hissu's expectations.

He is not stable.

His aura was violent and chaotic, and his mental fluctuations were mixed with too many chaotic and fragmented thoughts, which was a sign that his soul was not complete.

He inherited most of the Dragon God's power, but not enough wisdom.

It's like a sac stuffed with too many things but lacking a skeleton for support; although it looks huge, the inside is a mess.

Hissus never imagined he would turn out this way.

She originally thought that the Golden Dragon King, being half of the Dragon God, should at least be able to maintain a certain level of stability.

But his condition upon arrival made her realize that the problem was far more serious than she had expected.

The Golden Dragon King's mental state was extremely unstable. His mind was filled with chaotic fragments, a mixture of anger, urgency, longing, and a sense of belonging that had been sealed away for countless years, causing his soul to churn like the sea in a storm.

This kind of Golden Dragon King is not of much help to her next plan; on the contrary, she will need to spend a lot of energy to stabilize his condition.

Xisu took a deep breath, stepped forward, and came to the front of the Golden Dragon King.

She didn't speak, but simply raised her right claw and gently pressed the palm of her claw onto the largest golden scale on the Golden Dragon King's forehead.

Xisu closed his eyes and summoned the power of hope that he was born with.

That warm, seven-colored light slowly emanated from her claws, seeping into the Golden Dragon King's body like a warm spring breeze.

Where the light passed, the chaotic mental fluctuations began to slowly subside.

Those fragmented thoughts, enveloped by the power of hope, seemed to have gained a tangible outline, no longer rushing aimlessly, but beginning to slowly converge in the same direction.

Xisu could sense that the Golden Dragon King's soul was being repaired little by little. It was an extremely slow process, but she was not in a hurry.

Chapter 558 The Accelerated Divine Test

After a while, Xisu finally slowly withdrew his claws.

She looked at the Golden Dragon King's gradually clearing golden vertical pupils, and only after confirming that his condition had stabilized somewhat did she gently exhale.

She has more to do.

The Dragon Realm is home to the slumbering corpses and remnants of countless dragons; it was the sole purpose for which this space was created.

After countless years of silence, those dragon souls and dragon bones have finally reached the moment when they can be awakened again.

If he had only inherited the power of the Dragon God, Xisu would not have been able to do this.

To revive a life that has vanished is a realm that even the most powerful gods dare not easily touch.

But Xisu is not only a dragon god; she also possesses her own unique power of hope.

The power of hope can turn the impossible into reality, can reunite things that have vanished, and can reconnect broken links.

Xisu stood before the massive dragon skeleton, seven-colored light slowly flowing around her, illuminating this eternally dim space for a moment.

She will be here, using the power of hope to bring back the dragon race of yesteryear.

……

As dusk slowly descended over the mountains, the waters of the low-lying wetlands were bathed in a soft, dark golden light.

Cinderella sat on a smooth, rounded rock by the stream, her bare feet immersed in the cool water, her long golden hair fluttering slightly in the evening breeze.

She has just completed a divine test.

The process went much more smoothly than she had expected, so smoothly that when she sat by the stream sorting out her thoughts, it even felt somewhat unreal.

Based on her experience with the previous assessments, she would have a short respite after each assessment to adjust her condition, recover her soul power, and prepare for the next assessment.

But this time is different.

She could clearly sense that the threshold for the next assessment was not far ahead, appearing almost the instant she completed the previous assessment.

Moreover, the strength of that threshold was much lower than she had expected, so much so that she almost doubted whether her perception was flawed.

Cinderella frowned slightly, looked down at her reflection in the stream, and unconsciously stirred the water with her fingertips, creating ripples in circles.

She was silent for a moment, then turned her head to look at Levin, who was arranging herbs not far away.

"Has there been any change in your progress in the God Exam recently?"

Levin was carefully storing a freshly harvested herb, roots and all, into his personal storage device when he heard Cinderella's voice. He looked up, his short golden hair gleaming warmly in the twilight.

He thought for a moment, then spoke in a steady tone: "Yes. The completion time for the previous assessment was almost halved compared to my expectations, and the trigger for the next assessment came earlier than anticipated."

Cinderella nodded slightly, then turned her gaze to the other side.

Pinocchio was squatting at the edge of the marsh, seemingly studying the clump of purple aquatic plants half-submerged in the water. She raised her voice and asked, "And you?"

Pinocchio raised his head from the water's edge, a few tiny seaweed leaves clinging to his short brown hair, his eyes holding a look of realization as if he had just processed some information.

"Hey, you guys felt it too? I thought it was just me. When I was finishing up the last assessment, I always felt that the barrier had thinned a lot, but I didn't pay much attention to it at the time. Now that I hear what you guys are saying, it seems that it wasn't just my imagination."

The three remained silent for a moment, their gazes meeting briefly in the twilight.

Cinderella withdrew her gaze and looked again at her reflection in the stream. She carefully processed the sensations she had just experienced in her mind, and spoke in a soft but clear voice: "I think it must be related to Xisu."

"Hissu?" Pinocchio blinked. "The one from the Dragon Realm?"

"Mmm," Cinderella replied.

"After she became the Dragon God, the order of the divine realm must have been greatly impacted. Those gods were in such a hurry to pass on their divine positions, which was, to put it bluntly, to escape before the Dragon God returned."

Now that the Dragon God has truly returned, and is at his peak, having inherited the complete authority of the Dragon God, the other gods will only be more eager than before.

Levin's voice came from the side, calm and resolute: "They want to get rid of the burden of godhood as soon as possible."

Cinderella nodded: "So the difficulty of the assessment has been lowered. They no longer have the patience to slowly select successors."

The night wind blew from the distant mountain ridge, pressing down the water plants by the stream.

Cinderella withdrew her gaze and looked again at her reflection in the stream. The ripples on the water had subsided, and her delicate face was bathed in a soft, dark golden glow from the twilight.

She was silent for a moment, as if silently confirming something in her mind, and then said softly, "Then we need to hurry up too."

A sense of urgency began to creep into her heart. It wasn't a definite countdown, but more like an invisible curtain being slowly drawn closer by some force, reminding her that time was running out.

Cinderella sat by the creek for a while longer, letting the evening breeze caress her cheeks, then she stood up, brushed the grass clippings off her skirt, and put her boots back on.

“Let’s set off early tomorrow,” she said, her tone regaining its calm. “I sensed that there’s an area to the west with unusual energy fluctuations; there might be something worth checking out.”

Pinocchio stood up from the water's edge, patted the mud off his hands, and said, "Well, it's nothing particularly important anyway."

He turned to look at Levin, as if waiting for his response. Levin put away the last herb, stood up, and brushed the dirt off his robes: "Let's go."

The three of them walked along the stream, heading deeper into the twilight.

……

Meanwhile, in the Starry Sky Forest thousands of miles away, an invisible ripple was spreading in an extremely slow but unstoppable manner.

The Lake of Life still lies peacefully in the core area, its surface shimmering with tiny silver ripples under the moonlight.

On that dark green boulder, the nine-colored deer lay quietly, its nine-colored radiance pulsating slowly with its breath, like a heart beating with its own unique rhythm.

Unlike usual, the rhythm of those flowing lights is getting faster and faster, and the range of each halo is slowly expanding, like a riverbed that is gradually widening.

The nine-colored deer slowly opened its eyes, its clear, glass-like eyes reflecting the shimmering waves of the Lake of Life, the starry sky fragmented by the tree canopy above, and the horizon that was being slowly bathed in its radiance.

She could feel that the constraint had disappeared.

The instant she sensed it, it was as if the shackles that had always stood between heaven and earth had suddenly shattered, and the rules that had been isolated from her surged into her senses like a tide.

The Nine-Colored Deer is a divine beast born from the auspiciousness of heaven and earth. From the moment of its birth, it has been closely connected with the rules of the world.

Mastering the rules and utilizing energy are innate instincts for her, as natural as breathing.

In the world of fairy tales, she was an existence that existed between the mundane and the sacred.

If Lin Wan hadn't summoned her to the Douluo Continent, where the laws of this world imposed strict restrictions on soul beasts, she would have naturally stepped into the realm of gods after appearing in this world.

Now, that restriction has been lifted.

She doesn't need to inherit a divine position, doesn't need to collect faith, and doesn't need to find any shortcuts.

All she needed to do was let the power accumulated within her flow naturally onto the path that was rightfully hers.

The nine-colored deer raised its head slightly and let out a clear and melodious cry.

The sound wasn't loud, yet it pierced through the layers of tree canopy, through the surface of the Lake of Life, and through every corner of the Starry Sky Forest.

It was as if some extremely subtle and faint sound was spreading in all directions in an invisible way.

Immediately afterwards, the nine-colored radiance that had been merely circulating around her began to slowly rise upwards.

First it was red, like the warm light at the very edge of the rising sun.

Then comes orange, like the moment when leaves turn over in the autumn forest when the wind blows through them.

Then came yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, black, and white, each color rising in turn, like a slowly elongating rainbow unfolding around her.

The shapes of those rays of light gradually became clearer. Initially, they were just a blurry halo, but then they began to condense and take shape, transforming into nine clearly visible arcs of light.

Nine arcs of light, each a different color, circled the nine-colored deer, slowly rotating around her. They did not merge with each other, but maintained a perfect distance, as if some ancient totem had been reactivated.

The nine-colored deer did not move, but lay quietly on the dark green boulder, letting the nine arcs of light slowly rotate around her as the axis.

She could feel that the thin wall separating her from a higher realm was continuously thinning.

Like a layer of ice about to melt, it was slowly shattering under the impact of the power that had been accumulating within her for who knows how long.

This process is not fast, but it is extremely stable.

Those fragments of rules that had been dormant deep within her soul were awakening. They were like ancient knowledge that had been sealed away for a long time, now being turned page by page, presenting her with the mission and abilities she had carried since birth.

The wind on the shore of Lake of Life was gentler than usual, and the ancient trees growing by the lake drooped their branches slightly, as if expressing some kind of instinctive respect for the nine-colored arc of light that was taking shape.

Deep within the Lake of Life, in that tranquil body of water shrouded in a deep blue light, another pair of eyes is slowly opening.

Gu Yuena's senses were awakened the moment the ethereal deer cry came. Her gaze pierced through the layers of water and saw the figure on the lake shore surrounded by nine arcs of light.