The Legend of the Dragon King

Darkness, endless darkness!

It seemed like a giant black hole which devoured anything and everything.

The edge of the darkness was blood-red.

The blood-curdling calls were filled with misery and destruction.

Everything was destroyed. At the end of the destruction, there seemed to be a hint of the radiance of dawn.

“Child… Wake up, child…”

The voice reached him from afar. Its sound vibrated and fluctuated in the faraway future.

He wanted to grab hold of it, but he could not.

He wanted to make it stay, but all he could manage was watch it leaving him.

“Lub-dub! Lub-dub! Lub-dub!” There were strong heartbeat sounds. Something wanted to break free.

An icy cold aura invaded his consciousness and suppressed the strong heartbeat.

Time seemed to cycle and alternate endlessly. Everything seemed both real and illusory at the same time.

Everything seemed to be leaving him. On the other hand, everything seemed to be closing in on him as well.

“Father…”

“Mother…”

“Father’s telling you, the only person you can trust and rely on is yourself. You must stay strong and be brave at all times. Only when you’re strong, the things that you have will be truly yours. Nothing in the world outside is to be trusted.”

“Linlin, eat up. Mother will make more for you.”

“Son, you have Father’s support.”

“Son, Mother’s heart hurts. Can you not forge anymore?”

…

A faint golden color lingered around him. When Tang Wulin regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes, his spiritual state had changed as well.

Everything before him seemed to be disappearing. Everything in the world outside was fading away.

His surroundings seemed real and illusory at the same time, as a golden radiance lingered around him.

“Child.”

The soft voice called out to him time and time again.

Tang Wulin raised his head to look in the voice’s direction with some effort. He felt as though there was something inside of him that was going to explode…

Before him, a beam of golden light suddenly increased in intensity. A figure was walking out slowly from the golden light.

The golden silhouette appeared unreal, but it seemed familiar.

“Old Tang?” Tang Wulin’s voice was slightly hoarse. In this illusory world, his spirits seemed to be under a great deal of influence.

However, he immediately noticed that Old Tang seemed different than before.

Today, Old Tang appeared younger than he was before. He had a golden armor on him, and his long, blue hair fell freely behind him. Two locks of hair rested on his chest. On his head was a triangular golden helmet with a bright gemstone in the center, which glowed with dazzling radiance. In his right hand, he held a golden trident which symbolized boundless might.

Everything around them turned into a dark, starry sky, not the golden hall in which they used to meet. His expression was gentle and calm. His clear, blue eyes were like the azure ocean and the boundless starry sky. They were so deep that there seemed to be no end to their depths.

“Old Tang?” Tang Wulin was in a daze. If it were not for the starkly different Old Tang before him affecting his emotions, he would have exploded from the sadness he felt within.

“You even called me ‘Father’,” Old Tang straightened the golden trident in his hands. He looked at Tang Wulin with a gentle gaze.

“Father?” Tang Wulin was stunned. The mere mention of the term brought him a sense of loss and misery.

“Yes, I am your father. As what Tang Ziran said, ‘You have biological parents.’ He and his wife mentioned that they were reluctant to part with you. Similarly, we were reluctant to part with you as well. We felt helpless, but we had no choice but to leave you. We had to leave you behind.”

When Tang Wulin who was on the verge of an emotional breakdown listened to Old Tang, he was totally confused. ‘Father? Old Tang said that he’s my father?’

Old Tang sighed softly. “I assure you that they won’t die. They won’t actually die. We’ll have to pay a great price and cut off all means of communication with you, although they can’t bear to see you in such sorrow. I’ll take them with me to another world. Now, you must remember everything I’m about to tell you. The sacrifice I’ve to make is that I can no longer stay by your side to protect you. We can only wait for you to come find us.”

Tang Wulin calmed down. When Old Tang said that they would not die, his heart was filled with a sense of peace that was difficult to describe.

“Linlin, did you know? When I had you and your sister, I took pride in all the hard work I’d done in the past. All the hard work that I’d put in was so that both of you would feel proud whenever you mentioned my name.” Old Tang was standing before Tang Wulin when he said this. His eyes suddenly turned blurry. He was the only one who understood just how much hardship and pain he had gone through.

“My name is not Old Tang. Old Tang is a strand of my consciousness which I left by your side to help and support you so that you’ll develop without any obstruction. Now that you’ve grown up, I can finally contact you through the Boundless Universe Shield. My summons were heeded by my strand of consciousness and that’s how I sensed your presence. Do you know? Your mother and I were so happy on that day.”

“Now, we should tell you who your biological father is.”

“I am Tang San!”

“Tang Sect’s founder, Tang San!”

“One of the Five Great God Kings of the Divine Realm Committee, Tang San.”

“Sea God Tang San.”

“Xiu Luo God Tang San!”

“I’m your father.”

Tang San!

The two humble words seemed to pound heavily on Tang Wulin’s heart as if they were a pair of heavy hammers. He stared with his mouth agape at the person clad in a magnificent golden armor before him. The person before him looked just like a heavenly god. In fact, he was a heavenly god in the first place!

When he saw a trace of pride in his eyes, he recalled everything he had said in his mind.

Tang San? He was the Tang Sect’s progenitor, Tang San. Tang Sect’s founder, the one who was known to have become a god. It was he who had led the Heaven Dou and the Star Luo Empires to overturn the Martial Soul Hall. It was he who created the Tang Sect which had been around for a few hundred thousand years. He was the one who led the first generation of the Shrek Seven Monsters in accomplishing the glorious task of creating Shrek Academy.

At this very moment, it was he who was standing before him. He told him that he was his father, and he was Tang San.

“No matter how unbelievable it is, it’s true. I’m the one who thought of your name. Your mother is called Xiao Wu. You’re called Tang Wulin, which means Tang San’s and Xiao Wu’s little kylin. You have an elder sister called Tang Wutong, which means Tang San’s and Xiao Wu’s little phoenix. The four of us should’ve been leading happy lives in the Divine Realm. However, a great disaster left us no choice but to part with each other. The Divine Realm drifted to a faraway place due to the space-time turbulence. We spent all our resources and even sacrificed two Great God Kings to keep the Divine Realm from being destroyed.”

“During the process, the Golden Dragon King, which had been sealed in the depths of the Divine Realm, broke the seal and wreaked havoc in the Divine Realm in its endeavor to destroy everything. It took all we had to subdue it. However, that despicable creature infused you, a newborn, with its destructive essence in an attempt to kill you. The eighteen seals within your body were placed by me. I divided its essence into eighteen parts. The Divine Realm is filled with a divine aura and your body will naturally absorb it as long as you’re there. That would’ve accelerated the breaking of the seals. If your body couldn’t withstand the breaking of the seals, you’d certainly have died. Even I was powerless to save you. That’s why, with great reluctance and helplessness, we left you on the Douluo Continent. The rate of the unsealing of the seals would be slowed down in the human realm. As long as we’re able to return in due time, provided you’ve attained a certain degree of strength, we’ll have a chance of overcoming the Golden Dragon King’s violent streak.”