After the spiritual energy was restored: Goddess girlfriends came knocking.

East China Sea.

Cang Yao transformed into human form and floated alone on the sea.

She lowered her head, holding the faded blue shirt in both hands, her pupils empty and vacant.

She repeatedly stroked the character "初" (chu) on the inside of her collar with her thumb.

The aura of a true dragon emanating from his body caused the entire sea area to tremble.

The waves surged a foot away from our feet, and all the fish, shrimp, and ferocious beasts within a mile radius kept their distance.

Ao Tianxin stood ten steps behind her, neither stepping forward nor speaking.

After an unknown amount of time, Cang Yao's voice rang out, hoarse as sandpaper scraping against stone: "Teacher, can the essence blood of a true dragon truly extend the lifespan of mortals?"

She paused.

Or perhaps...

Ao Tianxin remained silent for a moment before speaking.

"He came to see me before," Ao Tianxin said softly. "Just before you left for Jiang, he said that with your personality, it would be impossible for you to leave for Jiang with a clear conscience."

"Just as I thought."

Cang Yao lowered her head, her fingers clenching the blue robe tightly.

Everything he did was for me.

After she finished speaking, the spiritual energy around Cang Yao began to fluctuate violently.

The waves seemed to sense her emotions, bursting into rings of white foam around her.

When Cang Yao raised her head again, her eyes had turned pale gold, and a kind of heart-stopping light burned in her vertical pupils.

She transformed into a platinum-gold dragon and shot off in the direction she had come from.

Ao Tianxin immediately sensed something was wrong and quickly followed.

Above the Tribulation Sea, those cultivators had not yet dispersed.

Several elders of the Thunder God Sect stood on the cloud with grim faces. They had suffered heavy losses, including the death of their Supreme Elder, and had gained nothing. They were seething with anger.

Suddenly seeing her return, and the old man they feared no longer by her side, joy immediately appeared in their eyes.

But then he saw the white figure behind Cang Yao, and his smile froze on his face.

Cang Yao did not give them a chance to speak.

She charged into the crowd expressionlessly, and with a swipe of her dragon claw, a Nascent Soul cultivator was caught off guard. His protective aura was torn apart like paper, and he was smashed into a cloud of blood mist.

As the dragon's tail lashed out, another cultivator, who was about to cast a spell, had half of his body instantly blasted apart.

The remaining cultivators were horrified and immediately unleashed their magical weapons to fight back.

The flying sword pierced her body, leaving only a shallow white mark. The lightning pearl exploded beside her, without even shattering a single piece of her scales.

Instead, Cang Yao turned her head and bit a flying sword to pieces, swept her tail and broke a cultivator's spine, and with one claw, she slapped a cultivator who was trying to escape from the air into the sea.

Ao Tianxin stood at a distance, not making a move, but coldly watching those people.

No one dared to move.

Soon, Cang Yao was the only one left in the entire sea area.

She transformed back into human form, stood on the blood-stained sea, and slowly closed her eyes.

The moment he survived the tribulation of lightning, the true dragon bloodline within his body was fully awakened, and the inherited memories of the dragon race came rushing back like a tide.

However, the situation was too urgent to attend to it before.

At this moment, Cang Yao found a formation among those fragmented memories: the Soul Gathering Formation.

For her, it was like grasping at a straw.

Using the life force of cultivators as a guide and the essence of true dragons as a medium, it is possible to condense the souls of mortals who have just died.

Cang Yao began to set up the formation according to her memory.

The residual blood and qi of those cultivators on the sea surface were drawn over by an invisible force, gathering into dark red array patterns under their feet.

She cut her wrist, and golden blood dripped into the array's eye, illuminating the entire array.

A beam of red light shot into the sky.

Then Cang Yao sensed that familiar soul fluctuation.

She trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes.

But what she didn't know was...

Lin Chu's body was originally created by the Book of Myriad Realms.

At the moment of death, his soul became independent and was no longer bound by the laws of this world.

No matter how strong her soul-gathering array is, it cannot gather anything from outside this world.

Therefore, that familiar soul fluctuation only appeared for a few breaths before it began to dissipate again.

Cang Yao was stunned.

Then she raised her eyes, a hint of madness surging in her pale golden pupils.

He began to forcefully activate the formation, sacrificing his own life essence to forcibly retain a trace of Lin Chu's true spirit from the brink of dissipation.

However, this matter goes against the will of Heaven, defying Heaven and stealing souls, which is intolerable by the Heavenly Way.

The sky darkened almost instantly.

Darker and thicker thunderclouds than those during the tribulation pressed down layer upon layer, with lightning surging within the clouds, their oppressive force several times stronger than the previous tribulation.

When the first bolt of lightning struck, Cang Yao did not dodge.

She held that sliver of true spirit close to her chest and took the blow with her back.

A bolt of lightning struck her back, shattering her scales and splattering blood. She shuddered, and half of her body was plunged into the sea.

The second bolt of lightning followed immediately.

Ao Tian was tempted.

She took a step forward, blocking Cang Yao's head, and slashed the sky with the long-handled Guan Dao in her hand, the light of the blade colliding with the lightning.

The lightning pillar was cleaved in two by the blade, scattering into countless bolts of lightning.

With a flick of his wrist, Ao Tianxin pointed his Guan Dao diagonally towards the sky, and a sudden burst of cold, eerie blue light emanated from the blade, cleaving the churning thundercloud in two.

The thunderclouds dispersed.

On the distant clouds, the few reclusive masters who had been watching the whole thing from the beginning gasped in astonishment.

"This Dragon Court Lord has kept a low profile for over two thousand years," someone whispered, "but now he's becoming increasingly formidable."

The person next to him shook his head: "Let's go, this is not a place for us to wade into." Several streaks of light disappeared, and no one dared to stay any longer.

Ao Tianxin coldly withdrew her gaze and looked down at Cang Yao, who was already unconscious in her arms.

Her back was covered in blood and gore, her clothes were soaked in blood, and she was still tightly protecting that faint trace of true spirit in her arms.

Ao Tianxin reached out and gently brushed away the bloodstains and stray hairs on her face. He picked her up, turned around, and fled towards the Dragon Court.

Meanwhile, above the sea.

Lin Chu's soul remained floating there.

He watched as Cang Yao returned to the place of tribulation and killed those cultivators, and watched as she set up the Soul Gathering Array.

Until he saw her struck by lightning, bleeding profusely, yet still desperately protecting that sliver of true spirit, refusing to let go.

He involuntarily took a step forward and reached out to help her.

But it passed straight through her arm and touched nothing.

……

Lin Chu breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Ao Tianxin had made a move.

At this moment, a voice suddenly rang in Lin Chu's mind, cold and familiar, seemingly from a very distant memory.

"Host's first incarnation has been detected as dead. Mission settlement in progress. Return?"

Lin Chu floated in the void, watching Cang Yao being carried away by Ao Tianxin, her figure growing farther and farther away until it finally disappeared where the sea and sky met.

He remained silent for a long time, looking at the land where he had lived his whole life, at the coastline of distant Chuzhou, at the mouth of the Huai River, and in the direction of Qinghe Village.

"return."