Chapter 246 - 244: Dragonified Remnant Soul

Twelve thousand miles away, in Yanhua, Jianghuai.

In the backyard of Cangwu Garden·Yang Residence.

Due to the time difference, it was nearly dinnertime there.

Tao Ying placed a plate of dumplings, a small cake, and a bottle of white liquor before the ancestral tablet in the family shrine, then lit three sticks of incense.

"Wen, today is your birthday. It’s the first one since you passed. I wasn’t even sure if I should be commemorating it, but I prepared a little something anyway."

The dumplings were still steaming, and the cake was the chocolate flavor that Yang Mo and Yang Man loved most.

Obviously, she would be taking them away in a bit; their father certainly wouldn’t fight his daughters over food.

The liquor was also just a token gesture, as pouring it in the shrine would make the smell too overpowering.

Tao Ying placed the three incense sticks into the censer. "I’m still more used to talking to a grave than a tablet. I’ll come see you again soon."

"You’re right next to Yiming now, so you two brothers can have a good long chat for your birthday. You always had so much to say to each other, enough to last a lifetime..."

From outside the shrine, Yang Mo’s voice called out, "Mom! Dinner’s ready!"

"Coming!"

Shaking off her wistful thoughts, Tao Ying stepped out of the shrine and headed toward the lively dinner table.

---

In the depths of the Vast Sea, on the surface of the pitch-black, bottomless ocean.

A terrifying behemoth seemed to fill every corner between heaven and earth. With only a third of its body breaking the surface, the three-headed Giant Dragon was already enough to strike fear into any living creature.

A figure was bound before it by a terrifying Gang Qi, but the energy grew progressively gentler until it was merely holding him aloft.

Meanwhile, another man stood upon one of its terrifying claws. The claw tightened slightly, its talons like four sky-piercing pillars, preventing his escape.

The three dragon heads, arranged in a triangle, regarded Yang Shen from different angles. The heads on the left and right wore looks of humanlike contemplation, while the one in the center expressed only savagery and animalistic rage.

Luo Sheng wasn’t the only one whose mind was reeling; Yang Shen’s was, too.

’Who’s calling me "Shen"?’

’Growing up, the only people who ever called me that were my uncle, my aunt, and my uncle’s friends.’

’Does this dragon use psychic attacks? Is it trying to disturb my Divine Soul?’

The dragon’s left head opened its terrifying, colossal mouth. For some unknown reason, it could speak human language, but due to its immense size, its voice was as deep and slow as a collapsing mountain range. The reverberations alone shook a person to their very core.

For an ordinary person without any Martial Cultivation, the organ-rupturing vibrations alone would be enough to inflict fatal injuries, causing them to bleed from all seven orifices...

It was like the draconic might of legends.

"Shen... why are you here..."

"Is... the family... doing well..."

Yang Shen’s pupils trembled violently as an impossible possibility flashed through his mind...

"Un... Uncle???"

Although it was difficult to read emotion in eyes several meters in diameter, Yang Shen stared fixedly at the massive orb.

"Shen... it is me... and it is not... You’ve grown so much."

The dragon head seemed to be in a poor state; its thoughts came out in short, fragmented bursts...

Yang Shen still found it hard to believe, but he knew there was one thing he had to deal with first.

"Uncle! Kill him!"

’Once Luo Sheng is dead, there’ll be plenty of time to talk!’

In the palm of the dragon’s claw, Luo Sheng’s brain finally rebooted. He couldn’t make sense of the situation, but he knew he was probably about to die...

The next moment, an immense fire, greater than any he had ever manifested, erupted from his body. His short, iridescent hair shot upward like an ionic blast. The terrifying heat scorched every inch of the surrounding space, and the scales on the dragon’s claw began to crack and dry.

Luo Sheng unleashed his full speed, trying to break free from the dragon’s claw—the very same claw he had viewed as his throne of ascension just a minute earlier.

However... a True Gang, countless times stronger than any Martial Artist could produce and of an utterly inconceivable Power, seized Luo Sheng in mid-air. A mighty force began to relentlessly crush his bones.

The sounds of gushing blood and cracking bones filled the air.

Just moments before, Yang Shen himself had fled for several kilometers, only to be snatched back from a distance by the Three-headed Dragon. Whether it was the Power of True Gang or not, it was on a completely different order of magnitude from anything a Martial Artist could control.

"Impossible! Impossible!!!"

The flames surged as he struggled with the last vestiges of his strength.

But... the difference in size and Power was simply too vast.

The claw, tens of meters long, closed. With a gentle squeeze, Luo Sheng’s body was mangled and twisted... while the claw itself was left with nothing more than faint scorch marks on its outermost layer.

Luo Sheng’s ruined body still muttered, "Impossible..."

’The Giant Dragon I went to such lengths to control... has actually become...’

’My own tomb...’

’He was going to control the Giant Dragon, dominate the oceans of Cyan Blue, and stand above all others...’

’He was a genius, the predator of the Jianghuai Night, a man whose ambition had smoldered for more than a decade...’

’How could it...’

’...end so ironically?’

To make absolutely sure he was dead, Yang Shen broke free from the True Gang restraining him, strode forward, and twisted off Luo Sheng’s head. Only then did he let out a long sigh of relief.

As he always said, investigating the conspiracy behind it all was the officials’ job.

His only responsibility was to send Luo Sheng to hell.

In the short time this had taken, several figures had appeared in the far distance, rapidly approaching over the water. The moonlight revealed their faint silhouettes. Judging by their flight altitude, they were at least in the Jade Viscera Realm—clearly, they were the people from Harmony Island who had been chasing Yang Shen and Luo Sheng.

The left dragon head opened its massive maw. "Shen... come with me... we leave... first..."

’It actually wants me to jump inside...’

Yang Shen looked at the abyssal maw, his expression turning grim.

"Uncle, do you remember the throne of the head of the family?"

The left dragon head replied, "Is it... the recliner...?"

Without further hesitation, Yang Shen jumped inside.

The next instant, the terrifying behemoth plunged into the endless deep, heading straight for the ten-thousand-meter abyss and kicking up a colossal wave.

The Martial Artists from Harmony Island arrived just in time to see a terrifying, indistinct shape vanish beneath the surface, leaving behind roiling waves.

A chill ran down their spines.

"What was that?"

"A Sea Beast? What kind of Sea Beast could be that big??"

"It’s terrifying... Does Cyan Blue even have a creature like that? What do we do now?"

"The speedboat wreckage is in this direction. Keep searching, but let’s gain some altitude..."

It felt as if that indescribable behemoth could leap right out of the water and devour them whole...

...

An hour later, the three-headed Giant Dragon had already traveled more than a hundred kilometers away, surfacing near a small sea reef.

Its massive body remained hidden; only its three heads broke the surface. But the sight was still terrifying... each head was nearly a hundred meters long.

The left head’s mouth opened, and Yang Shen leaped out.

He looked as tiny as a sesame seed being spat out by a person.

Turning to face the three dragon heads again, Yang Shen was still overwhelmed by shock and disbelief.

"Uncle... what in the world is going on... You’re not dead...?"

’The Ancestral Lineage Spiritual Record shouldn’t be wrong. It clearly listed Uncle as deceased...’

The left dragon head murmured...

"I should... be dead... This is... a remnant of my soul..."

It was clear that the Three-headed Dragon—or at least its left head—possessed his uncle’s consciousness and memories, but its thoughts were incomplete. It even seemed to have great difficulty thinking.

And yet, its first concern was still for its little family, thousands of miles away.

"The family... are they... doing well..."

Yang Shen looked at the dragon head, which bore no resemblance whatsoever to his uncle, yet his eyes filled with warmth and nostalgia...

Ah...

He had never imagined he would have the chance to speak with his uncle again in this lifetime.

The man who had raised him, who had playfully fought with him over a worn-out recliner—no matter what form he had taken, whether he was alive or just a remnant soul.

Just to be able to exchange even a single sentence with him... Yang Shen felt his eyes moisten uncontrollably.

Yang Shen suddenly felt a lump in his throat. He stood up straighter, as if to prove to someone that he was tall and strong now, no longer the boy of just over 1.7 meters he had been a year ago.

"The family’s doing great. Auntie, Mo, Man... everyone’s fine."

Yang Shen glanced at the right head, which was looking on with anticipation, and a theory formed in his mind. "Lei Lv and Lei Yi are with the Yang Family now, too. They’re part of the family, and they’re very talented."

"Auntie said that the Yang Family always keeps its promises. It was incredibly difficult for a while, but we pulled through."

’Now I finally understand,’ Yang Shen thought, ’why it’s called the "Trapped Reef Young Dragon"...’

Sure enough, the right head grew visibly excited, tilting back to let out a long, triumphant roar.

The sheer force of the sound pierced the clouds above.

Only the middle head retained its eternally bestial gaze.

Yang Shen paid it no mind, turning his attention back to the left head.

"I got into Jiangti and became the Champion Scholar of Jianghuai City."

"I’ve earned a lot of money and moved the whole family to the prosperous city of Jianghuai. We’ve even made a name for ourselves as the Jianghuai Yang Family."

"Oh, right, I’ve already reached the Middle Stage of Innate. I came here to take part in an exploration of the Exotic Realm..."

Bit by bit, Yang Shen recounted all the changes that had happened back home.

He sounded just like the boy he used to be, proudly showing off his accomplishments.

The left dragon head listened intently, but because of the vast difference in size, Yang Shen couldn’t discern any further emotion.

He couldn’t even tell if there was a hint of a smile.

’He really... he really wanted to see his uncle smile, pat his shoulder, and say, "You did good, kid."’

’Or maybe...’

’I’m proud of you.’

’Still, this was enough for now.’

"Uncle... what exactly happened to you and Uncle Yiming...?"

The dragon head’s enormous golden pupil seemed to cloud over, lost in a painful memory...

"We... died..."