'One last step. If I succeed, I will transcend this world and become its very essence.'Bai Long's thoughts echoed calmly within the endless void as he prepared to break through his realm.
Rumble.
Rumble.
Dark clouds surged in the nothingness beyond creation. Bai Long had chosen this place, far from any world or living being, so that the wrath of the heavens would harm none but himself.
Black lightning coiled like serpents of judgment, crashing down upon his golden body. Each strike carried the will of existence itself, a trial that only those destined to ascend could endure.
The first three bolts struck, and silver blood spilled from his lips. By the fifth, his golden scales had dimmed, his breath ragged, and his once-proud figure trembled under the weight of heavenly might. By the seventh, his vision blurred. He knew death was close.
The eighth bolt descended, shattering his core. He felt his essence scatter into the void, unable to breathe, unable to resist.
As his consciousness faded, his final thoughts were not of power or regret, but of his people. The countless souls he had nurtured, the worlds he had guided, the civilizations that called him King. He had ruled the cosmos for nearly a billion years, and in his final moment, even as his heart ceased, he thought only of them.
The ruler of the galaxy… was no more.
***
Crack.
In a dark cave, a faint golden light pulsed within a massive egg. It quivered, then fractured, shards scattering as a radiant figure emerged.
A golden dragon, small and slender, stretched its body within the faint glow. Its scales shimmered like molten sunlight, its eyes a clear and piercing silver — filled with confusion and the faint trace of remembrance.
"Didn't I die? How am I… alive again? And why am I so weak?"
He gazed at his body, once vast enough to eclipse mountains and rivers, now reduced to a mere ten meters in length. Yet the familiar pulse of draconic power lingered within.
"Rebirth…? Heaven truly granted me another chance. Then this time—"
"—I will surpass every mortal boundary and ascend beyond the Boundless Origin itself."
Closing his eyes, Bai Long sank into his consciousness, seeking to uncover this body's talent. What he found left him momentarily speechless.
"Eternal Ember Root… a legend made flesh."
It was the number one spiritual root under the heavens, said to share its throne only with the Eternal Frost Root. A root so rare that even the annals of history spoke of it only once, when a human possessing it reached Realm 19.
"It seems even the heavens mourned my death," he murmured, awe flickering in his silver eyes." Now, let's see what physique accompanies it…"
Probing deeper, his divine sense brushed against a flame that devoured light itself.
"Voidflame Constitution…"A soft, incredulous laugh escaped him."Will I even need effort to cultivate anymore?"
The Voidflame Constitution was one of the two supreme physiques in existence. Once, a human with this body had ascended to the Immortal Emperor Realm without possessing even a spiritual root. Had he any root at all, he would have rivalled the Human Emperor of the Nineteenth Realm.
As Bai Long marvelled at his fortune, the heavens themselves responded.
Across countless worlds, a second sun appeared, a radiant silver sphere blazing beside the
original. In every mortal and divine land, beings looked to the sky in awe and terror.
The universe itself proclaimed:
The Dragon King has returned.