Chapter 498: Crossing Time and Space, the Dragon God

Of course not.

Tang Wulin gave a denial without hesitation.

No matter whether you give me your soul bone or not, I will definitely find a way to restore your power and try to revive you.

Now the Space Dragon King looked somewhat surprised.

She raised an eyebrow, curiously asking: "But this way you wouldn't be at a loss, would you? I have no intention of giving you my dragon bone—do you still plan to find a way to repay me?"

Not at all.

Tang Wulin laughed lightly, his smile very sunny.

My strength all comes from the dragon race; without the help of the dragon race's predecessors, I wouldn't be where I am today. So I've long planned that once I have enough strength, I will find a way to repay the entire dragon race. Therefore, in my eyes there is no question of loss or gain—after all, this is a decision I've already made, and whether you help me or not won't change that. Of course, if you can give me a soul bone, my growth speed will increase, which would be even better.

……

After hearing his words, the Space Dragon King fell silent.

She looked at Tang Wulin's eyes with an unprecedentedly serious gaze, as if trying to see the faint traces of lies in them.

However, much to her chagrin, no matter how she examined Tang Wulin, all she saw in his eyes was sincerity.

After a long while, the Space Dragon King seemed unable to persist; after a long sigh, she covered her face with one hand and waved helplessly at Tang Wulin with the other.

"Alright, alright, I admit defeat, so I'll say I'm not good at handling you and that rascal big brother type. No wonder that guy took a liking to you—you two are exactly alike."

Er……

Tang Wulin felt a bit annoyed in his heart.

It seemed the Space Dragon King was willing to give him the dragon bone, which indeed made him very happy.

But thinking back to the Light Dragon King's goofy face, he really wanted to retort: In what way am I like him?

Regardless of what he was thinking, the Space Dragon King suddenly asked him an unexpected question.

"You said you came back from the future, right?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Hmph."

The Space Dragon King gave a cold chuckle, a strange smile appearing on her face.

"Nothing much. Do you want to return to your own time?"

"Really? Can you help me go back?!"

Tang Wulin instantly stepped forward excitedly, suddenly coming right before her eyes.

His speed startled the Space Dragon King; she instinctively stepped back two steps, then nodded somewhat nervously.

"Of course, for me this is just a piece of cake. However, with my power, you can stay there at most ten years; no matter whether you want to or not, when the time is up you'll be sent back immediately. Moreover, while you're there, time here flows almost to a standstill, so no matter how long you stay there, when you return less than five minutes will have passed here. What do you think?"

The more she spoke, the more smug her expression became, and by the end she had reverted to that attitude of 'I'm the best in the world.'

Tang Wulin subconsciously wanted to agree.

After all, his parents are still there; he hasn't seen their faces in ten years, and he truly wants to meet them again.

But just then, he suddenly thought of something, quickly turned his head, and happened to meet Huo Yutong's gaze.

Although she instantly adjusted her expression, Tang Wulin still caught the fleeting loneliness in her eyes.

For her, even if the subjective duration is less than five minutes, missing Tang Wulin for ten years still leaves her feeling somewhat uneasy.

His heart suddenly calmed down.

He took a deep breath and asked in a low voice:

"May I ask if I can bring people over and bring them back?"

He had prepared himself for the Space Dragon King to give a negative answer.

But unexpectedly, the Space Dragon King nodded readily.

"Of course you can—who do you think I am? However, the number can't be too many; at most no more than five."

This answer far exceeded Tang Wulin's expectations, but it also let the stone in his heart fall.

He let out a breath of relief, turned and exchanged a glance with Huo Yutong, showing a relieved smile, then gave the Space Dragon King a firm nod.

"Alright, we're willing. Please send me and Yutong over."

"Sure thing!"

Seeing Tang Wulin give an affirmative answer, the Space Dragon King instantly showed a strange smile, she waved at that huge dragon bone, and a strong silver light burst forth from it.

Then, the silver light slowly separated from it, condensing into an exquisite silver wing.

"What's on you, you must use it well."

Having said that, she snapped her fingers sharply, and that silver wing turned into a stream of light that shot straight into Tang Wulin's body.

"Alright, go! Wishing you a smooth journey!"

A strong burst of silver light instantly erupted from Tang Wulin's body, wrapping both him and Huo Yutong; then a flash of strong light passed, and their figures vanished from the bottom of Hell Valley.

Only one person remained.

The Light Dragon King's body was now faint and almost disappearing; realizing he had been left behind, he wore an expression of disbelief.

"Huh? Huh?! Why didn't I come along too?!"

The Space Dragon King showed a mocking smile.

"Because he said only his little girlfriend was to come along, not you, my good brother."

When saying the last three words, she deliberately emphasized the pronunciation.

The Light Dragon King instantly put on a solemn expression, coughed twice, and changed the subject: "Wait, Xiaobai, you're lying, right?"

"Oh?"

The Space Dragon King seemed not to mind him changing the topic, and raised an eyebrow intriguingly.

"What makes you say that?"

Light Dragon King said seriously: "As far as I know, you can only control space, and you have no time at all, so theoretically, time travel is beyond your abilities; you definitely just lied, am I right?"

"Heh."

Space Dragon King smiled and replied: "You're right; that kid still hasn't realized that what he experienced wasn't time travel but a spatial jump—his original world and our world are two parallel worlds."

"Actually, with my current strength, I also couldn't send someone across parallel worlds, but he's different—he has coordinates, so I can directly send him to the moment he disappeared from his world, and when he returns, our side will hardly experience any time passage because he's coming straight back to this coordinate point of ours."

"Hehe, although the differences between parallel worlds are usually tiny, they do exist; I'm curious what exactly the differences are between his two worlds, and I'm also curious what kind of waves he'll stir up over there without knowing the truth about parallel worlds—just thinking about it is fun, isn't it?"

Looking at the Space Dragon King's face full of a wicked smile, the Light Dragon King couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

"You really have a taste for mischief, huh."

"Huh? You actually have the nerve to say that about me?"

Space Dragon King showed an amused expression.

"Have you forgotten? You're just a wisp of a remnant soul; you have no ability to resist in front of me."

"Um... I was wrong."

The wise adapt to circumstances; the Light Dragon King unhesitatingly admitted his mistake.

But unfortunately, the Space Dragon King still wasn't willing to let him go.

"Hehehe, it's already too late; let's enjoy these few minutes together, my dear elder brother~"

…………

In the instant the silver light conjured by the Space Dragon King's dragon wings struck him, Tang Wulin had actually already lost consciousness.

More precisely, he could no longer perceive what was happening in the real world.

He first felt a heat behind him, as the Space Dragon King's dragon wings fused with his own golden dragon wings at an astonishing speed, promoting each other's evolution, just like the Dark Dragon King's dragon bone, completing the fusion with ease.

But what followed was not so pleasant.

After the Space Dragon King's power merged into his body, he felt the other six soul bones on his body start to heat up together.

This heat wasn't ordinary warmth; it instantly spiked to a level almost enough to melt his body.

Six warm currents emanated from different parts of his body, joining with the dragon wings on his back and successfully merging into one.

Next, his sensations changed again, as the dragon bones in different parts of his body each gave him a different feeling.

Scorching hot left arm, damp and moist right arm, light and free left leg, chilly and dark right leg, warm and comfortable forehead, steadfast torso like a mountain, and ever-changing back—the seven soul bones' differing sensations instantly threw his perception into chaos, almost making him lose himself in this strange feeling.

Fortunately, Tang Wulin, having endured the baptism of multiple Golden Dragon King seals, possesses an extraordinary resistance to pain; he focused his mind and stubbornly resisted the intrusion of these strange sensations.

He knew this couldn't continue, so he tried to get the seven forces to fully converge.

This wasn't easy, but fortunately he had spent over a year cultivating the second yin-yang complementary soul core, so he was quite practiced at it.

Under his command of the golden energy flow, the seven forces were gradually mobilized and slowly gathered together.

However, to his surprise, these eight forces seemed unable to fully merge; after gathering, they quickly became unstable, giving him a feeling that they could explode at any moment.

What's going on? Could this method be wrong?

Tang Wulin was deeply puzzled.

But seeing the eight forces about to explode, he made up his mind, not dispersing them but instead adding his own life force into the mix.

In his view, the disturbance came from the power of the seven Dragon Kings' dragon bones; the instability occurred because his control over the Golden Dragon King's power was still insufficient to fully suppress the combined force of the seven Dragon Kings.

If so, then add a strong dose—don't forget that Tang Wulin's first soul core is of the life attribute, and life force is one of his strongest attributes; with the life attribute, many things become much easier.

But when the life attribute entered the fray, something Tang Wulin never expected happened.

Upon seeing the life attribute, the power of the seven Dragon Kings rushed forward like servants seeing their master, surrounding it; immediately, each of those seven forces split off a small portion and merged with Tang Wulin's life force.

Subsequently, the life attribute that Tang Wulin originally used to control the seven Dragon Kings' power completely fused with them, turning silver.

The moment the silver appeared, Tang Wulin's body shuddered violently, and blood began to seep from all seven orifices.

Yet he felt no pain; on the contrary, his whole body felt extraordinarily light, and his spirit and energy reached near the best state of his life.

The silver formed from the fusion of the eight forces, Tang Wulin's gold, and the remaining power of the seven Dragon Kings—altogether nine colors—gathered together, achieving a wondrous balance.

Subsequently, Tang Wulin felt a strong white light flare up from his mind, blinding him and causing him to lose consciousness.

When he came to, he found himself in a vast white space.

Here there was no one else; only he himself.

Having endured countless storms, he wasn't panicked; instead, he stayed alert and carefully observed his surroundings.

The pure white stretched boundlessly; he couldn't even tell whether what he stood on was ground—Tang Wulin felt only white, endless in every direction.

Fortunately, this white wasn't glaring, and Tang Wulin felt no discomfort.

Just then, a voice sounded.

"I see, that's how you met the condition."

Tang Wulin's whole body jolted, and he warily looked around.

"Who?"

The voice gave him a strange feeling, as if he'd heard it somewhere but couldn't quite recall.

"Hehehe."

The mysterious voice laughed happily.

"Who am I? Well, that's a good question, but for convenience, you can call me Dragon God."

"!"

Tang Wulin's eyes widened instantly.

The term "Dragon God" he had heard many times before, but he actually knew little about it; basically he only knew it was the most powerful beast god, and most of that information came from Shuangling Bian.

Summarizing the information from Shuangling Bian's mouth: countless years ago, the God Realm suddenly erupted in a great war; after that war, the Dragon God mysteriously fell, though nobody knows the cause, process, or result—because Shuangling Bian was besieged to death by multiple first‑level god‑rank enemies right at the war's outset.

And the Light Dragon King, who actually knew the full story of those events, inexplicably kept silent about them, so Tang Wulin still has no concrete image of the Dragon God to this day.

He actually saw the legendary Dragon God—so he wasn't dead? Before Tang Wulin could sort out his thoughts, a person suddenly appeared not far ahead of him.

Seeing that person, Tang Wulin couldn't help but widen his eyes.

Because this person looked exactly like him.

Tall posture, handsome features, jet-black hair; if one had to point out a difference, it would be that this "Tang Wulin" had a wildly unrestrained expression, his demeanor completely unlike Tang Wulin's.

The Dragon God laughed and said:

"I've looked through your memories; for convenience, I borrowed your appearance. What's wrong? Don't you like it?"

Seeing the Dragon God now like this, Tang Wulin suddenly realized why he had just felt the other's voice was so familiar.

Because this was his voice.

According to the knowledge taught at Shilake Academy, the sound one hears of one's own voice differs from what others hear, because the transmission medium is different.

That's also why Tang Wulin didn't immediately realize the source of the voice.

He asked somewhat nervously:

"Your Excellency Dragon God, why did you summon me here?"

The Dragon God stared for a moment, then sighed helplessly.

"Ah, you still haven't realized? It wasn't I who summoned you; you came here on your own to find me."

"?"

Seeing Tang Wulin still not reacting, the Dragon God gave a wry smile.

"Well, think about it—you've never encountered the concept of a 'divine trial' before, so it's only natural you don't understand."

He spread his hands and explained: "Put it this way, generally speaking, to inherit a god's position one must pass the corresponding examination; you, by gathering life force and the power of the seven elemental Dragon Kings, have met the basic condition for inheriting the Dragon God's godhood, which is why you've come to this space—after all, this space was prepared by me in life so that one day I could pass on the godhood."

Tang Wulin asked doubtfully:

"And what about you? You haven't completely died, have you?"

"No, I really did die."

The Dragon God, a little embarrassed, scratched the back of his head and laughed:

"This isn't the remnant soul of the Dragon God you imagine; it's a set of data, a record of my behavior when I was young. Whenever someone opens the Dragon God's trial, I appear, and aside from sharing the Dragon God's true self's personality and memories from his youth, I basically have no relation to him."

"Is that so?"

Tang Wulin listened, half-understanding, but he came to grasp that this Dragon God was not the true self.

He took a deep breath and asked:

"So, if I pass your trial, I will be able to inherit the Dragon God's godhood, right?"

"Exactly."

The Dragon God lightly nodded, affirming his question.

Tang Wulin immediately asked: "How many trials are there? What is the first trial? I will surely complete it."

His eyes were extremely resolute.

Now the gap between him and Huo Yutong has become very large; although it's not apparent on the surface, his heart is actually filled with a craving for power.

Huo Yutong's body actually contains the two great deities Shuangling Bian and Ilex.

Shuangling Bian is himself the Ice God, and he also bears a complete Ice God's godhood; if he and Huo Yutong are willing, he can now transfer the Ice God's godhood to Huo Yutong.

Ilex, though lacking a godhood, was in life only a step away from becoming a true god, and he also taught Huo Yutong the Death God Descent divine descent skill; even if a Death God's godhood were actually forged in the future, Tang Wulin would not be surprised at all.

In contrast, he sees no hope of attaining godhood himself, which makes him now urgently crave power.

As long as it enables him to inherit the Dragon God's godhood, no matter how arduous the so-called Dragon God's trial may be, he will stake his life to complete it.

The Dragon God smiled helplessly: "All right, don't get so worked up—you've already completed the first trial."

"Huh?"

Tang Wulin's eyes instantly turned doubtful.

When did he finish it? He himself had no memory; after thinking it over carefully, he still couldn't figure out exactly when he had passed the Dragon God's trial's first test, so he asked the Dragon God: "Um... what is the content of the first trial?"

The Dragon God smiled: "It's very simple—just coming to this space."

"... Ah?"

Tang Wulin found it somewhat hard to comprehend.

"Is the order reversed?"

"Isn't it that only by entering this space can one qualify to take the divine trial? Why is entering the space itself the first trial of the divine trial?"

The Dragon God said somewhat helplessly: "Because obtaining the Dragon God's godhood's recognition is not an easy matter; basically there are only two paths: either the gold and silver Dragon Kings' powers unite and re-form a pure Dragon God bloodline, or like you, gathering the powers of all the Dragon Kings, collecting the abilities I scattered among my various offspring and combining them to assemble a complete set of abilities worthy of the Dragon God's godhood—since this process is truly extremely difficult, I set it as the content of the first trial; you can think of it as a reward for your hard work during this period, though I suggest you not let your guard down, for there are still a full eight trials ahead."

"... I see."

Tang Wulin finally understood.

In other words, gathering the seven Dragon Kings' dragon bones and life force constitutes the content of the first trial.

And after that there are still a full eight trials of greater difficulty.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them and asked:

"What is the content of the second trial?"

The Dragon God did not answer immediately, but raised his eyebrows.

"I'll naturally tell you later, but before that, don't you want to know the reward for passing the first trial?"

"Is there still a reward?"

"Of course."

The Dragon God stroked his chin, gazing at Tang Wulin for a while, then finally nodded as if he had suddenly thought of a good idea.

"Got it—you're not preparing to break through to Honored Douluo, are you? I'll give you a soul core."

"?"

Before Tang Wulin could react, the Dragon God, at a speed he couldn't follow, jabbed a finger and struck his chest at the heart.

Immediately, Tang Wulin felt a sharp pain surge from his heart, and his consciousness began to blur.

In this blurred state of consciousness, only the Dragon God's words remained crystal clear, echoing in his mind.

"Since the reward for the first trial has already been given, let me now explain the content of the second trial."

"From your memory, you are currently on your way to that era of yours, right?"

"That's perfect; aside from the Golden Dragon King, your strength as the other Dragon Kings is still too weak, making it somewhat difficult to inherit my divine position in the end. The content of your second trial is to collect the soul bones of the seven Dragon Kings once more and fuse them with the soul bones you already possess."

"Given that the soul bones are completely identical, I believe fusing them together is not a difficult task."

"Then let it be so; our next meeting will be when you have completed the second trial. I wish you smooth sailing and encourage you to keep going."

Hearing this, the almost brain‑tearing, heaven‑upending pain completely overwhelmed Tang Wulin's consciousness, plunging him into deep darkness.

(End of chapter)