Ling Xiao had once encountered a Mighty Divine Ape here, chased until he had to flee for his life and hide in the Dragon Palace.
It was only thanks to a woman in blue that he safely returned to Tianfeng City.
This time, however, he met another Mighty Divine Ape, but it was as docile as a kitten.
Needing to go into seclusion and wary of interruptions, Ling Xiao simply had the ape guard him.
The Dragon Palace was the same as before, untouched by time.
Back then, lacking experience, Ling Xiao hadn’t realised what it was.
Now he saw it for what it truly was: the corpse of an ancient Golden Dragon!
The entrance was its mouth.
The corpse was so massive he hadn’t recognised it before.
Entering the Dragon Palace, he felt his Golden Dragon Bloodline form a unique connection with the corpse.
The Mighty Divine Ape stayed outside, not to kill him this time, but to protect him.
Finding his old cultivation spot in the Dragon Palace, Ling Xiao didn’t dare release his aura recklessly. He entered a soul state, scanning a dozens-of-miles radius around him.
No powerful martial artists were nearby.
Only a few in “Divine Sword Sect” attire were hunting.
As the Supreme Elder of the Divine Sword Sect, Ling Xiao felt a pang of familiarity, but this wasn’t the time for reunions. Confirming no one could disturb him, he closed his eyes.
About a quarter-hour later, the Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul stirred again.
The glaciers began melting rapidly, turning vast areas into oceans.
This time, the anticipated pain didn’t come. Though the changes were swift and intense, they were painless, but the martial soul felt unstable, as if it could collapse at any moment.
Ling Xiao had to expend vast amounts of true essence to stabilise it.
He knew how crucial the Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul was to him. No matter what, he had to protect it until the transformation ended.
Once it did, it would be like clouds parting to reveal the moon.
The drastic changes lasted a full hour before gradually stabilising.
The Mountains and Rivers World was no longer a vast glacier but now featured diverse terrains and climates.
Glaciers, oceans, and land.
Golden snow lotuses, herbs, and demonic beasts appeared.
Ling Xiao recognised them as things he’d previously planted in the Mountains and Rivers World, but no other plants or animals remained.
Most astonishingly, his Dark Cloud, Thunder Bear, Giant Sword, Blood Shadow, and Ghost Ship Martial Souls had been forcibly pulled into the Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul, becoming physical entities within it.
Dark clouds drifted in the sky, thunder bears roamed the land.
A sword-wielding spirit practiced martial arts.
A blood-red shadow rested in the darkness.
The ghost ship sailed through a dark sea of clouds.
It was all remarkably harmonious.
Ling Xiao suddenly understood.
The Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul he’d awakened before belonged to someone else, so its fusion was limited and served only a supportive role.
Now, with perfect ten percent fusion, it was entirely his.
His Mountains and Rivers World was a blank canvas, its development wholly dependent on him.
The nine special abilities he’d gained hadn’t vanished but had grown stronger, usable with a mere thought, no longer requiring the martial soul’s activation.
This was the benefit of full soul fusion.
The Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul was him, and he was it!
Even the soul state no longer needed activation; it was now instinctive, costing no true essence.
“Too powerful!”
Ling Xiao was thrilled.
Opening his eyes to leave, he thought of something intriguing.
Stepping out of the Dragon Palace, he summoned a thought, and a vast world’s shadow appeared behind him.
That was the external manifestation of the Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul—a world and a martial soul in one.
“Collect!”
With a single word, the massive Golden Dragon corpse began to rise, entering the Mountains and Rivers World.
The process was excruciating.
It was just a corpse, yet absorbing it consumed nearly ninety percent of his true essence.
Success!
The moment it succeeded, Ling Xiao nearly collapsed.
But his face beamed with excitement.
The Golden Dragon in the Mountains and Rivers World exuded a terrifying, ancient aura. There was no doubt it was an ancient Golden Dragon.
Curiosity drove him to experiment further. He infused his blood into the corpse.
Instantly, pain surged again.
His blood felt like it was being drained, pouring frantically into the corpse.
The agony lasted twenty breaths before ending.
Ling Xiao sighed. An ordinary person would’ve died from such blood loss.
But his efforts weren’t in vain.
Inspecting the Mountains and Rivers World, he saw his blood flowing through the Golden Dragon’s corpse, its once-rigid form gaining lustre and suppleness.
He was surprised and intrigued.
Outside, countless demonic beasts gathered, prostrating around him as if worshipping their king.
“Live! Come alive!”
Ling Xiao was eager to see what a revived ancient beast would be like. Since it was integrated into his Mountains and Rivers Martial Soul, a resurrected Golden Dragon would, in a sense, be part of his soul.
“What’s wrong?”
Ling Xiao frowned.
Though the Golden Dragon’s body seemed fully functional, indistinguishable from a living creature, it lay still, devoid of life’s aura.
Disappointed and puzzled, he knew something was off.
He furrowed his brow, pondering his mistake.
Got it!
His face lit up with joy.
Life required more than a body—it needed a soul.
The Golden Dragon’s corpse had a trace of ancient consciousness, but that wasn’t a soul, so even with a restored body, it couldn’t live.
If a soul was needed, that was manageable!
All martial souls were derived from souls.
They could naturally be converted back.
With five martial souls available, combined with part of his own soul, he could infuse a soul into the Golden Dragon.
