“Remember,” Seranox’s voice suddenly rang in Starlight’s ear, “what you must do is not oppose, but guide. Lord Versolion’s power will recognize you as being of the same origin...”
As the Dragon King’s words fell, Starlight felt a warm power envelop him.
He opened his eyes to find the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale floating before him at some point, emitting a soft golden light.
Deep within the lava lake, that magnificent figure seemed to move slightly.
“Then, let us begin.”
Starlight took a deep breath and slowly reached his hands toward the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale. The moment his fingertips touched the scale, the entire lava lake suddenly boiled!
A piercing golden light erupted from the Dragon Ancestor's Legacy Scale, piercing into the boiling lava lake like countless sharp swords.
In an instant, the entire underground space began to shake violently. Debris fell from the rock walls, turning into smoke the moment they touched the magma.
Starlight’s vision went dark, and he felt himself pulled into a strange space. Here, there was no sense of direction—up, down, left, or right—only countless intersecting elemental torrents rushing about.
In the distant elemental waves, a giant figure drifted slowly. He tried to see it clearly but couldn't quite make it out.
At that moment, the previously chaotic elemental power seemed to discover Starlight's presence and began rushing toward his body.
When the first elemental torrent struck Starlight’s chest, the piercing pain almost made him scream out.
It felt as if someone was pouring boiling lava directly into his body, as if he were about to burn up from the inside out.
“Don’t resist!” Seranox’s voice came from far away. “Let them pass through you!”
Starlight could only grit his teeth, forcing himself to relax and accept the baptism of this power.
Then, something wonderful happened. After passing through his body, those violent energies became as docile as tamed beasts and began to flow according to some profound trajectory.
Starlight suddenly realized something. Following the trajectory of these elemental flows, a giant network woven from multicolored light slowly unfolded before him, with countless nodes flickering like a galaxy.
This was the core of the magic formation that supported the operation of the entire Dragon Valley.
But now, this network that should have been perfect was covered in hideous black cracks, twisting the original harmony like decaying blood vessels.
“I see...” Starlight whispered, finally understanding what he needed to do.
He carefully guided the purified elemental power and began to repair the contaminated nodes.
Every time he repaired a crack, hundreds of runes would reorganize before his eyes, revealing a brand-new arrangement.
...
While Starlight was modifying the formation in the consciousness space, a change occurred in the outside world.
Large patches of dark grey mist began to surface on the lava lake. Wherever it passed, even the boiling magma became incredibly dim, taking on an eerie, withered appearance.
“The death energy is starting to leak!” Moen’s eyes narrowed as she reached out and took Xia Duo’s hand.
Under her guidance, the Power of Nature within their bodies intertwined in the air into a semi-transparent emerald light curtain, gently covering the lava lake like new leaves in early spring.
The escaping death energy hissed upon contact with the light curtain and was then neutralized.
Meanwhile, Seranox was not idle. He pressed a hand to the center of his brow, and a slit suddenly opened on his forehead.
A sharp horn, seemingly forged from molten gold, burst from his forehead. As the ancient runes carved on the horn lit up one by one, a heart-palpitating pressure immediately radiated outward.
This was another of the Dragon Race's great treasures—the Crown of Gold Horn.
“Quiet!”
With a dragon's roar from Seranox, carrying an undeniable royal authority that seemed to transcend ancient times.
A visible golden ripple spread from the tip of the Crown of Gold Horn. Wherever it passed, the boiling magma instantly solidified, and even the splashing sparks were frozen in mid-air.
In an instant, the entire lava lake seemed as if someone had pressed the pause button, leaving only those lead-grey wisps of death energy still writhing unwillingly.
“Hold on, everyone,” Seranox growled.
At the same time, the center of the lava lake suddenly caved in, forming a massive vortex. At the bottom of the vortex, Versolion’s divine body drifted slowly.
“Um... Little Gold, don’t you think your ancestor’s corp—er, body, looks a bit strange in color?”
While the others were busy with their tasks, Po Kong and Little Gold found themselves with nothing to do.
He squinted his eyes, subconsciously pacing along the shore, trying to get a clear look at the legendary remains of the Dragon God.
“What nonsense are you talking about, Po Kong? That is our ancestor! The Dragon God! How could an ordinary person like you understand!” Little Gold bared his teeth and protested in a low voice.
“But... look at the scales on your body, aren't they gold? And your old man—even if he’s not pure gold, he’s at least a mix of red and gold! This one down there, why does he look all dull and grey?” Po Kong gestured persistently, pointing to Little Gold’s chest and then toward the bottom of the lake.
Hearing Po Kong’s question, Little Gold also blinked thoughtfully. He too could feel something was off, but he couldn't quite put it into words.
As time passed minute by minute, under the suppression of Seranox and the two sisters, the death energy rising from the lava lake gradually thinned and no longer churned as violently as before.
But for Starlight, the real task had only just begun.
Fine beads of sweat had already broken out on his forehead, sliding down his cheeks and evaporating from the high temperature before they could even hit the ground.
Repairing such a massive magic formation was by no means an easy feat. Every adjustment of a rune node required hundreds of associated structures to be recalibrated.
Starlight’s consciousness traveled through the vast elemental network, like repairing a fragmented map of the starry sky.
He could feel the contaminated black cracks stubbornly resisting his power; one wrong move could trigger a chain collapse.
Under these circumstances, Starlight’s nerves were stretched to the limit. His consciousness was like walking a tightrope over a bottomless abyss; every ripple of mental power had to be precise to the millimeter.
This meticulous operation was not only rapidly consuming the elemental energy within Starlight but also draining his mental power like fine sand in an hourglass.
And what gave him the biggest headache was that, perhaps because he did not possess Dragon Race blood, not only the tampered areas but even the corrected regions were producing a subtle rejection response toward him.
With every layer deeper Starlight went, the mental pressure increased, as if the magic formation were slowly weighing down on his body.
“Focus... focus!” Starlight muttered in his heart while forcing himself to ignore his blurring vision and throbbing brain.
“You’re not doing it quite right! You can’t force it~”
Just as Starlight’s consciousness was starting to blur, a slightly playful voice suddenly rang in his mind.
This sudden voice gave him a jolt, instantly clearing his mind quite a bit.
Starlight was certain this was definitely not the voice of his companions or Seranox, but why was it echoing in his head?
And most importantly, this voice felt extraordinarily familiar...
“Who is it?”
Starlight subconsciously clenched his hands and asked within his consciousness.
The voice only gave a light chuckle, as crisp as wind chimes swaying in the morning light. “It’s not time yet. Focus on what’s in front of you! Look closely—”
In the next instant, Starlight’s vision was forcibly switched to the other side of the magic formation, where the previously intricate structure suddenly revealed a brand-new network of pathways from this direction.
Looking from this angle, Starlight could see those stubborn black areas pulsating according to a specific set of rules.
“To successfully modify this, you can’t rely on personal strength alone. What’s needed is guidance~”
“Guidance...?”
Starlight nodded thoughtfully and began to try changing his strategy.
Rate on N.U.
