Chapter 91: The Truth of the Past
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Di Tian’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears.
At this moment, his voice carried the choked, trembling cadence of a young boy.
"Uncle Fire Dragon King... Auntie Ice Dragon King... is it really you? How... how are you here?"
The Fire Dragon King let out a heavy sigh, his tone laden with the weight of ages and profound sorrow: "Alas... it is a long story, my child. Back then... I was personally struck down by the Dragon God himself. My dragon soul was meant to be consigned to the Dragon Tomb... but fortunately, your Aunt was there..."
"What?!"
Di Tian felt as if he had been struck by lightning; his towering frame shuddered violently, the color drained completely from his face, and his eyes were filled with incredulous horror.
"You... you were... killed by... Lord Dragon God?!"
He instinctively took half a step back, as if unable to bear the shock of this revelation, his voice sounding incredibly strained: "How is that possible? Was it not those greedy, despicable human deities—coveting the Dragon God Realm ruled by our Dragon Clan—who banded together in rebellion, thereby triggering... that great catastrophe?"
The Ice Dragon King slowly shook her head; upon that ethereal yet still-beautiful dragon head, there seemed to surface a trace of sorrow and weariness that even the passage of endless ages could not erase.
"It was not like that, little Di Tian. The truth of what happened back then is far more tragic—and far more... ironic—than the so-called rebellion you perceive."
She paused for a moment, then continued:
"The root of it all lay in a mad ritual the Dragon God attempted—one intended to evolve the Dragon God Realm into a higher plane of existence. The Time Dragon King foresaw that this act would violate the fundamental laws of the universe, triggering an unpredictable and terrifying backlash—one that even carried the risk of causing the entire realm to collapse."
"The Time Dragon King attempted to join forces with the Space Dragon King to dissuade Lord Dragon God. But..." a note of helplessness crept into the Ice Dragon King’s voice, "that tyrant’s mind and senses had long since been blinded by his ambition for eternal dominion and his insatiable lust for greater power. He would heed no counsel, stubbornly pressing forward with his own agenda."
"The ritual commenced. Just as the Time Dragon King had foreseen, the energy required for this evolution far exceeded all expectations; it even began to drain the very foundational essence of the Dragon God Realm itself, causing the entire realm to destabilize and begin to fracture."
"It was at this critical juncture..."
The Ice Dragon King’s ethereal form trembled slightly: "To aid his father in completing his evolution—and to save our realm—the Dragon Prince... voluntarily sacrificed his entire life force and divine soul."
"Yet, tragedy struck. Whether due to a distortion within the ritual itself or a backlash from the cosmic laws, the Prince’s sacrifice... failed. Not only did he fail to bridge the energy void, but right before the Dragon God’s very eyes... he was utterly annihilated, his soul scattered into oblivion."
The Ice Dragon King’s voice dropped to a whisper, as if that horrific scene were still unfolding before his eyes.
"Having witnessed his beloved son perish so brutally—a death born of his own ambition—the Dragon God’s mind... completely shattered. Overwhelmed by extreme grief, remorse, and rage—compounded by the backlash from his failed evolution—he descended into a state of absolute, indiscriminate murderous frenzy."
"The first to fall victim was the Time-Space Dragon King, who had attempted to reason with him."
The Ice Dragon King turned his gaze toward the crimson apparition.
"Immediately thereafter, the Wind Dragon King, the Earth Dragon King, the Fire Dragon King... save for myself, and the Dragons of Light and Darkness, the remaining five Great Dragon Kings all perished beneath the claws of the maddened Dragon God."
Di Tian felt as though his heart were being squeezed by an invisible hand, threatening to cease beating altogether.
He envisioned the scene: the Dragon God—once the benevolent and majestic ruler of all races—transformed into a demonic god of destruction, knowing nothing but slaughter.
The Dragon Kings—who had once fought side-by-side, bound by ties closer than brotherhood—shedding their blood within the very Divine Court... what a hellish nightmare of despair and terror that must have been!
"The shattered remains of the Wind and Earth Dragon Kings were gathered and laid to rest by the few Dragonkin who miraculously survived that day. As for those two—Time and Space..."
The Ice Dragon King gave a cold snort, his mental fluctuations carrying a trace of both disdain and complex emotion.
"They were the most cunning and self-preserving of the lot; in the instant before their demise, they apparently mustered their final reserves of power to tear open a dimensional rift, fleeing with their surviving dragon souls to some unknown refuge—there to cling to a wretched, lingering existence."
Di Tian’s voice was hoarse: "Then, Auntie... how... how did you...?"
The Ice Dragon King fell silent for a moment, as if dredging up the very memories she least wished to touch upon.
"We paid... a price that was almost unimaginable." Her voice was ethereal yet heavy with sorrow.
"The Light Dragon King, the Dark Dragon King, and I—we gathered nearly every shred of top-tier power remaining in the Divine Dragon Realm at that time, and barely managed to temporarily subdue the Dragon God."
"That brief moment of control allowed him to regain a flicker of lucidity."
The Ice Dragon King’s voice was filled with pain and inner turmoil.
"But... he is the Dragon God! He is the supreme Divine King of our Dragon Clan—the very source of all our bloodlines and faith! Standing before him—even after he had just slaughtered our closest kin and comrades—the mere thought of slaying our Lord was, to us, even more unbearable than death itself. Moreover, he had long since ascended to the rank of Supreme Divine King; he had become all but assimilated with the very laws of the universe. In this star domain... he was virtually immortal."
"We... had no choice."
The Ice Dragon King’s voice was resolute, yet laced with boundless desolation.
"To stop him from utterly destroying everything, we were left with only one option: to cleave the Dragon God... in two."
"However, we were equally unable to face the reality of having personally sundered the Dragon God—of witnessing the total collapse of the Dragon Clan’s glorious legacy. It was not merely the dissipation of power; it was the absolute end of our faith and our honor."
"And so, the Light Dragon King... struck me down." The Ice Dragon King recounted this calmly, as if speaking of an event that had nothing to do with her.
"He killed me, and then... he and the Dark Dragon King took their own lives together."
Di Tian was rendered speechless; the sheer magnitude of grief and shock left him all but suffocating.
The Ice Dragon King continued: "Before my Dragon Soul could completely dissipate, I managed—by clinging to that final thread of connection—to carry the remnants of the Fire Dragon King’s soul back to this small world. It was a sanctuary we had established together in our early years, intended as a nursery for our descendants."
"We buried our shattered dragon bones deep within the earth veins, ten thousand fathoms beneath the spring. Nurtured by the essence of our combined Ice and Fire origins, that spring eventually transformed into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well."
"And our dragon souls, too, fell into an almost eternal slumber here, barely managing to stay afloat."
"Until... Jiang Bai appeared. His martial soul was extremely special, capable of completely devouring the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, along with its smaller world. The independent and stable rules here, and the energy far richer and purer than outside, nourished our remnant souls far more effectively than before. Thus... we slowly awoke in this new world."
Di Tian opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to ask something, but the Ice Dragon King seemed to see through his thoughts.
"After the Light Dragon King killed me, he must have discussed with the Dark Dragon King, entrusting the final task of sealing and guarding the fragmented Dragon God to the Asura God, who was the most powerful and relatively trustworthy among the human gods at the time."
The Ice Dragon King’s voice carried a hint of cold mockery.
"After all, having outsiders handle the Dragon God’s remains is far more appropriate than having us, the traitors and rebellious sons, continue to do it, isn’t it?"
Perhaps they even hoped to use this to gain a sliver of... mercy from the human deities towards the remaining dragons?