135: Chapter 135 The Wraith Dragon's Plea

Turbid dragon tears the size of a house crashed into the Jingyuan Tributary, kicking up monstrous waves.

The Vengeful Dragon's remaining crimson eye stared fixedly at Lin Chen, surging with the accumulation of endless ages of sorrow, resentment, and an excitement of seeing dawn again after near despair.

"My name is... Ao Jin." The Vengeful Dragon's voice echoed in the depths of everyone's souls, every word carrying the vicissitudes of eternity. "Under the First Generation Underworld Lord, the Dragon General in charge of 'Netherworld Thunderfire', ranked third."

Ao Jin! A Dragon General under the First Generation Underworld Lord!

Zhang Hao and the others were so shocked they were speechless. Lei Xiao (Original) trembled even more violently—the power of thunder and fire he inherited was actually from the same source as this ancient Dragon General?!

"Successor..." Ao Jin's dragon head lowered, approaching the riverbank. That terrifying dragon might, even suppressed by Lin Chen's authority, still made everyone's souls tremble. "What you carry is the orthodox Nether Lord Bloodline. What you hold is the samsara seal of the Underworld's rules. Are you... the current Lord of the Underworld?"

"Not for the time being," Lin Chen responded calmly. "But the Underworld is currently under my management."

These words were spoken as a matter of course, exuding domineering confidence.

A flash of approval passed through Ao Jin's dragon eyes, but it was immediately submerged by deeper sorrow: "Good... good! The Underworld is not extinct; the orthodoxy still remains! Thus, I, this dead dragon, can finally... find release."

"A dead dragon?" Su Qingyu couldn't help but speak up. "Senior, you clearly..."

"The soul remains, but the heart is dead," Ao Jin interrupted her, his voice shrill. "My physical shell was destroyed long ago in that great war. What you see now is merely a remnant soul dragon shadow I forcibly condensed with endless resentment and obsession, lingering on by relying on the origin of this Jingyuan... just to wait for an answer, to keep a promise."

It looked at Lin Chen, blood-tears gushing from its single eye once more: "Successor, are you willing to listen? Listen to the truth of the Underworld's collapse, listen to the secrets of my Lord's fall, listen to... the heinous crimes of those despicable thieves!"

"Speak," Lin Chen said succinctly. This was exactly what he needed.

Ao Jin took a deep breath (though a dragon soul has no need for breath). In that single crimson eye, fragmented light and shadows of memory began to emerge, projected above the river surface along with its sorrowful narration—

Scene One: The Era of Glory.

The Underworld was vast and orderly. A towering black palace stood where ten thousand ghosts worshipped. Inside the hall, a figure with an aura as deep as an abyss or a prison (the First Generation Underworld Lord) sat upon the throne. Below the throne, the nine Great Dragon Generals stood with heads held high; Ao Jin was ranked third, surrounded by thunder and fire, looking majestic. All spirits in the Underworld lived in peace, and reincarnation was orderly.

Scene Two: The First Crack.

In the void at the edge of the Underworld, an unhealable wound tore open without warning. A filthy aura of greed, chaos, and an attempt to assimilate all things (the Void Devourer) flooded in like a plague. It was not a physical entity but a "rule virus"; wherever it passed, the laws of the Underworld were distorted and eroded.

Scene Three: The Bloody Battle Breaks Out.

The First Generation Underworld Lord led the nine Great Dragon Generals and the gods of the Underworld to meet the enemy. The level of combat transcended ordinary slaughter; it was a collision of rule against rule, erosion and counter-erosion at the conceptual level of existence. The Lord of the Underworld's combat power was heaven-shaking, heavily wounding the "Void Devourer," but he himself was also contaminated.

Scene Four: Decision and Sacrifice.

The Lord of the Underworld sensed he was deeply contaminated and about to lose control. He made a decision: shatter his own authority and scatter it across the heavens, leaving it for fated ones of later generations to regroup; at the same time, he used the "Netherworld Saintess" lineage, which was contaminated but still controllable, as a temporary "sealing container."

Scene Five: Betrayal!

At the critical moment when the Lord of the Underworld shattered his authority and was at his weakest—a sudden change occurred!

Among the nine Great Dragon Generals, the second-ranked "Abyssal Dragon General" Dragon Aspect, and the seventh-ranked "Heart-Bewitching Dragon General" Ao Mei, suddenly launched a violent attack! Not at the enemy, but by plunging dragon fangs coated in potent poison deep into the defenseless back of the Lord of the Underworld!

Simultaneously, the most trusted "Samsara Judge" under the Lord (the superior of the Tombstone Guardian) also suddenly defected, using a fragment of the Book of Life and Death to shatter the core of the Lord's samsara seal!

"Why?!" Ao Jin (back then) roared in question, his eyes nearly bursting with rage.

Dragon Aspect (the traitorous Dragon General) sneered: "Because the Lord of the Underworld is too 'merciful'! What future is there in guarding this dilapidated reincarnation? 'That existence' (the Void Devourer) promised to help us transcend this world and become truly eternal!"

In the images, in extreme shock and grief, the Lord of the Underworld took one last look at his betrayed subordinates, the contaminated Saintess, and the Underworld on the brink of collapse. Using his last strength, he sent away Ao Jin and the other loyal Dragon Generals along with some non-traitorous officials, shouting his final command: "Live on... wait for a successor... rebuild the order!"

Scene Six: Birth of the Vengeful Dragon.

Ao Jin was heavily wounded and near death. Carrying endless unwillingness, resentment, and self-blame, he fell into the Jingyuan Tributary. He hated the traitors, the external enemies, and even more, his own inability to protect his Lord. His strong obsession kept his soul from dissipating, merging with the Jingyuan origin to become this shadow of a Vengeful Dragon. He guarded this place bitterly, first to protect this relatively pure stretch of Underworld water from contamination, and second to wait—wait for a successor carrying the orthodox bloodline to entrust the truth.

At this point, the images shattered and vanished.

Above the river surface, there was a silence like death.

Everyone was so shocked by these ancient secrets that they were speechless.

Traitors! Betrayal from within! And it was the Lord of the Underworld's most trusted Dragon Generals and Judge!

"So..." Lin Chen spoke slowly, his eyes bone-chillingly cold, "The 'God of a Thousand Faces' worshipped by the Thousand Faces Cult is likely a derivative entity formed after that traitorous Dragon General Dragon Aspect, or the Samsara Judge, gained power by defecting to the 'Void Devourer'?"

"More than that." Heavenly hatred filled Ao Jin's dragon eyes. "According to my sensing and deduction over the long ages, that 'God of a Thousand Faces' is likely a deformed monster formed from the fusion and distortion of the traitorous Dragon General, the traitorous Judge, and a portion of the contaminated 'Void' power! It inherited the traitors' greed and familiarity with the Underworld, while possessing the 'Void's' contamination and assimilation characteristics. That is why it could layout its plans in the Underworld so precisely, hunting the Nether Lord Bloodline!"

Su Qingyu covered her mouth. She remembered the fragment forced down her throat in the Saintess's memories—that was likely the "bait" containing the Lord of the Underworld's power characteristics given to the "Void Devourer" by the traitors!

All the clues were now linked into a spine-chilling giant web of conspiracy!

"Successor." Ao Jin's massive dragon head approached Lin Chen again, his single eye filled with the determination of entrusting everything. "My remnant soul is already at its end, supported only by a breath of resentment and obsession. Now that I have seen the orthodoxy, I am willing to dissipate my last dragon soul to lend you a hand!"

Without waiting for Lin Chen's answer, it suddenly threw back its head and let out a long roar!

"Roar—!!!"

The dragon roar shook the Underworld! Ao Jin's massive dragon soul body began to burn, turning into the purest source of Netherworld Thunderfire! That fire was not destruction, but a gift!

"I shall condense my final dragon soul into three gifts!" Ao Jin's voice became grand and solemn amidst the burning:

"First, to the current Lord of the Underworld—a 'dragon might reverse scale' of mine! Holding this scale, you can briefly summon the power of a single strike from my peak period, and even more, suppress the bloodline aura of all dragon-type traitors!"

A palm-sized, dark-gold reverse scale with thunderfire burning on its edges peeled away from the burning dragon soul and floated toward Lin Chen.

"Second, to the descendant of thunder and fire—my 'Thunderfire Inheritance'!" A condensed pillar of thunderfire shot toward Lei Xiao (Original), entering his brow. Lei Xiao's whole body shook violently, the power of thunder and earth-fire around him surging, his aura instantly breaking through the bottleneck to officially step into the peak of the Ghost General rank!

"Third, to the waters of Jingyuan—to help you refine the key!"

The burning dragon soul finally exploded, turning into infinite points of light that merged into the entire Jingyuan Tributary! The originally deep blue transparent river water suddenly became golden and brilliant, containing the most yang and pure power of Ao Jin's final soul power and pure dragon breath!

"Use this water to refine the 'key of suffering,' and you can completely wash away the filth, restoring its essence as a 'Rule Token'!"

Having done all this, Ao Jin's dragon soul was now as transparent as a phantom.

It looked at Lin Chen one last time, no longer with resentment in its single eye, only release and expectation: "Successor... revitalize the Underworld, clear out the traitors... for my Lord, for us... take revenge!"

As the words fell, the dragon soul completely dissipated.

Above the Jingyuan Tributary, only scattered golden dust remained falling.

Lin Chen gripped the still-warm "dragon might reverse scale" in his hand, looked at the golden brilliant river water before him, and remained silent for a moment.

"Rest assured." He said word by word toward the direction where Ao Jin had dissipated: "The traitors, I will hunt them down one by one."

"Whether they are dragons or gods."

"The debts owed must be repaid with their lives."

He delayed no further, taking out the [ten thousand souls wailing pearl] (the original carrier of the key of suffering) refined from the Wailing Canyon and throwing it into the golden brilliant Jingyuan water.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

As the pearl entered the water, it immediately emitted a large amount of black-red filthy smoke; that was the impurities and painful resentment being refined out. The pearl itself slowly melted and reshaped in the golden light, finally turning into a palm-sized token shaped like a distorted heart, dark red yet crystal clear—[Key of Suffering: Rule Token]!

The first key, refining complete!

However, at the very moment Lin Chen prepared to collect the key—

A sudden change occurred!

From the deepest part of the Jingyuan Tributary, at the bottom of the riverbed where Ao Jin's dragon soul light points had merged, a violent spatial tremor suddenly came! A tiny rift, hidden for untold tens of thousands of years and sealed by Ao Jin's residual obsession, was exposed because the dragon soul had dissipated!

From within the rift came a hungry dragon roar that seemed to come from the depths of the endless void! Immediately after, a massive, rotting dragon claw covered in decaying scales and dripping with pus lunged out of the rift, grabbing for the newly formed [key of suffering]!

Ao Jin's last remnant warning sounded like thunder in everyone's minds:

"Careful... Dragon Tomb Void... the traitor Dragon Aspect... is refining the remains of all fallen dragon clans... breeding... Abyssal Dragon Demons!"

(Hook: The moment the rotting dragon claw grabbed for the key, the "dragon might reverse scale" in Lin Chen's hand erupted, turning into a golden thunderfire barrier to block the claw! But in the depths of the rift, more rotting dragon shadows were emerging! Their target was not just the key, but Lin Chen, the "Nether Lord Bloodline"!)