After shattering the Blazing Fire Dragon's soul, Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan continued forward.
Perhaps because they had ventured too deep, the number of dragon souls they encountered had significantly decreased, but their strength had greatly increased. Every dragon soul they encountered was undoubtedly a true dragon soul, and as soon as they were discovered, the souls would immediately attack them.
After shattering the tenth true dragon soul, Ye Xinglan finally voiced the doubt in her heart.
"Shaoyu, why do these dragon souls always attack you?" she asked, her face filled with confusion and bewilderment.
Jing Shaoyu also shrugged helplessly and replied, "I don't know either. Could it be because I've absorbed too many dragon clouds? Maybe they've grown resentful of me?"
"I don't think that's it," Ye Xinglan shook her head. "I've absorbed plenty of dragon clouds too, so why don't they attack me? There must be another reason!"
"I really don't know," Jing Shaoyu said. "Maybe if we go further in, we'll find out the answer."
"Should we really keep going?" A trace of hesitation flickered in Ye Xinglan's eyes. "But the dragon souls here are already close to the strength of Soul Douluos. If we go any deeper, I'm afraid you—"
Jing Shaoyu naturally understood what she was worried about. Smiling, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said, "Don't worry! We've already come this far—it'd be a shame to give up now. If we really run into danger, we can just crush the dragon pearls and leave the Dragon Valley. Simple, right?"
"Well… alright." Seeing the determination in Jing Shaoyu's eyes, Ye Xinglan felt a little more at ease. She sighed. "It's a shame I can't use my Martial Soul. Otherwise, our combat power would skyrocket, and we wouldn't have to worry about danger at all! This is so frustrating!"
"Hahaha!" Jing Shaoyu laughed heartily at her words.
The two soon arrived at a valley—or rather, a basin, as the terrain sloped sharply inward and downward.
When Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan reached the edge of the valley and peered down, the sight below sent a shudder through their bodies, their faces filled with shock and horror.
The valley stretched endlessly into the distance, where the horizon blurred into a haze of twilight, making it impossible to distinguish between earth and sky. Closer to them, a thin mist veiled the landscape, obscuring their vision. At the bottom of the nearly thousand-meter-deep chasm, countless enormous dragon bones covered every inch of the ground. A desolate, deathly aura instantly wrapped around their hearts.
"Is… is this the Dragon Graveyard?" Ye Xinglan's voice was subdued. The sight below made it hard to muster any joy. Though humans and dragons were not of the same species, they were both living beings, and the fate of death was something they shared.
"Most likely," Jing Shaoyu nodded. Unlike Ye Xinglan's somber mood, he remained calm. The lingering resentment of the deceased dragons in this place had no effect on him.
On the other side of the Dragon Graveyard, a silver-haired girl stood at the edge of the valley, gazing indifferently at the endless sea of bones below. Her eyes were cold, and a chilling, murderous intent surged within her. An indescribable, inescapable sorrow enveloped her heart.
"Roar—"
She couldn't help but raise her delicate head, and a clear, ethereal dragon's roar echoed through the previously silent valley, filling it with reverberations.
From the depths of the valley, a low, resonant dragon's cry responded in kind. The sound overlapped upon itself, mournful and plaintive, as if pouring out endless grievances, and even more so, as if reproaching a long-awaited loved one for their tardiness.
The silver-haired girl clutched her chest in pain upon hearing the echoes from the valley. On the back of her hand, a silver dragon scale flickered faintly, covered in dense cracks as if it would shatter at the slightest touch.
Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan naturally heard the dragon's roar as well. While Ye Xinglan didn't notice anything unusual, Jing Shaoyu looked into the distance with calm, profound eyes, as if piercing through the layers of mist to see what was happening on the other side.
So she's finally here—Gu Yue!
A smug smile curled at the corner of his lips before he wrapped an arm around Ye Xinglan's waist. "Hold on tight. We're going down."
"Got it!" Ye Xinglan immediately looped her arms around Jing Shaoyu's neck, pressing her body tightly against his, her long legs naturally wrapping around his waist. For a man and a woman, such a position could be considered quite intimate, but for them, it was just right.
Jing Shaoyu supported Ye Xinglan's delicate frame with both hands, his Wings of Origin flapping lightly behind him as he swiftly descended into the valley.
The valley floor was flat, with almost no protrusions other than the dragon bones exposed to the elements. This suggested that these mighty dragons had met with some catastrophic disaster in life, leaving no descendants to bury their remains.
"These really are true dragon bones!" Ye Xinglan exclaimed in amazement, looking at the nearest skeletons.
These skeletal remains were over fifty meters long, some even exceeding a hundred meters. Their bones still emitted faint energy fluctuations, indicating their formidable strength in life.
"The weakest among them had at least ten thousand years of cultivation. The name 'Dragon Graveyard' is well-deserved!" Jing Shaoyu remarked.
His gaze shifted to the center of the valley, where he could sense an overwhelmingly powerful energy fluctuation—one that was dozens of times stronger than Yun Ming and Leng Yaozhu combined! A flicker of shock and realization flashed in his eyes.
The Divine Soul of the Dragon God?!
"Xinglan, let's head inside," Jing Shaoyu said, taking Ye Xinglan's hand.
"Oh, sure!" Ye Xinglan quickly withdrew her hand, which had been about to touch a dragon bone, and nodded.
The two began walking forward, but before they had gone ten meters, they were forced to stop—not because they wanted to, but because something didn't want them to proceed any further.
A swarm of dragon spirits suddenly emerged from the nearby bones, surrounding Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan in an impenetrable formation. Compared to the dragon spirits outside, these were larger, more corporeal, and their eyes brimmed with vivid hostility.
Jing Shaoyu could clearly sense the hatred and fury in their gazes, as if they were demanding why he had disturbed their eternal slumber.
"Shaoyu, what do we do?" Ye Xinglan asked in a low voice, her expression grave as she observed the unfriendly dragon spirits encircling them.
"There's no other way. Let's force our way through. If it really comes down to it, we'll crush the Dragon Pearl and exit the Dragon Valley immediately," Jing Shaoyu said gravely. A flash of light appeared in his hand as the Terminus Godslayer Spear materialized, its tip pointed directly at the massive wind dragon blocking their path.
"Alright!" Ye Xinglan agreed without hesitation, showing no fear in the face of these formidable dragon spirits.
Seeing that Jing Shaoyu not only refused to retreat but instead advanced, the dragon spirits erupted into chaos. The storm dragon spirit, which had undoubtedly been a ferocious beast in life, charged at Jing Shaoyu first, followed closely by the others as they launched their attacks simultaneously.
In an instant, the elemental energy in the northeastern region of the Dragon Graveyard became chaotic. Various elements ran wild, and the energy levels surged continuously. Even the scattered fluctuations made it clear how tumultuous the scene was.
Amidst this chaos, the source of it all was moving slowly.
"Shaoyu, I can't hold on much longer!" Ye Xinglan gasped, leaning against Jing Shaoyu's back. "Why are these dragon spirits so persistent?"
"I don't know," Jing Shaoyu replied grimly. "Hold on a little longer. We're almost there." But as soon as he finished speaking, a black dragon spirit over three hundred meters long appeared. This was unmistakably a Golden-Eyed Black Dragon, its iconic golden pupils filled with disdain and hatred. It opened its massive maw and unleashed an earth-shaking roar.
With the roar, its enormous claw descended upon Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan.
Jing Shaoyu's expression changed drastically. This black dragon's strength in life had been on par with Di Tian's—even if it hadn't achieved godhood, it couldn't have been far off. As a result, its dragon spirit possessed power comparable to a Titled Douluo! A dragon spirit of this level was clearly beyond what the two of them could handle now.
Could it be that their journey to the Dragon Valley would end here? How frustrating!
His face twisted with unwillingness. The Dragon God's Divine Soul was right before him, yet he had to stop here. Anyone would feel regret and sorrow in this situation.
The Crown of Nature on Jing Shaoyu's head emitted a faint green glow, and the five Grand Dao Source Stones shone with dazzling brilliance. He decided to gamble everything—he couldn't let himself be stopped here! If he couldn't see the Dragon God's spirit, if he couldn't stop Gu Yue from fusing both the Dragon God's Creation and Destruction essences, how could he save Na'er?
Moreover, he was the Spirit of the Planet. How could he be blocked by a mere dragon spirit?
Fueled by these convictions, a five-colored pillar of light erupted from the Crown of Nature, piercing straight through the black dragon's descending claw, vaporizing it instantly. The entire black dragon dissolved in the next moment, and the radiant pillar tore through the oppressive aura of death, shining brilliantly within the Dragon Graveyard.
All the dragon spirits surrounding Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan were obliterated.
"That... is him?!" On the other side, a silver-haired maiden caught sight of the five-colored pillar, her beautiful eyes flickering with astonishment and surprise. Her figure shimmered with silver light as she dashed forward.
As the five-colored pillar dissipated, Jing Shaoyu's legs gave way, and he nearly collapsed, but Ye Xinglan caught him just in time.
"Shaoyu, was that a Soul Skill just now?" Ye Xinglan's eyes sparkled with admiration and excitement. It had been so cool—annihilating all the dragon spirits in one move. He truly hadn't disappointed her!
"Heh, you could say that." Jing Shaoyu smiled, his face somewhat pale. But as the heaven and earth origin energy from the destroyed dragon souls flowed into his body, his cheeks quickly regained color, and his strength returned to his exhausted body that had overused its source power.
He stood up, his gaze burning as he looked toward the center of Dragon Valley. "Let's go. No dragon souls will trouble us now."
Jing Shaoyu retracted his Apocalyptic Godslayer Spear Martial Soul and fully unleashed his Origin Sprite Martial Soul, allowing his natural aura to envelop both himself and Ye Xinglan. Sensing this pure aura belonging to Douluo Star, the dragon souls would no longer harbor hostility toward him.
Thus, the two advanced much faster.
"Is that the skeleton of an Earth Holy Dragon?"
"This is the dragon bone of a Hell Demon Dragon."
"And there's even a skeleton of a Radiant Holy Dragon!"
"Flame Holy Dragon, Dark Holy Dragon, Storm Hurricane Holy Dragon... Good heavens, this dragon bone is enormous—must be the Mountain Dragon King's, right? If all these true dragons were still alive, it's hard to imagine what the world would be like! Our human living space would probably shrink drastically!"
As they walked, Ye Xinglan examined the dragon bones they passed, naming them and then sighing in awe.
Listening beside her, Jing Shaoyu chuckled. "After all, they were once the rulers of the world. If they weren't powerful enough, they couldn't have held that position."
"That's true," Ye Xinglan nodded in agreement before adding, "There should be quite a few Soul Bones among these true dragon skeletons, right?"
It was clear the girl really wanted Soul Bones, but that wasn't surprising—no soul master could resist them. Even Jing Shaoyu himself was partly obsessed with the Dragon Tomb because of them. The Mountain Dragon King's Soul Bone—would they be able to obtain it? It was likely the highest-quality Soul Bone in Douluo's history.
Circling around the colossal skeleton of the Mountain Dragon King, Jing Shaoyu and Ye Xinglan discovered another enormous depression ahead—a giant pit over ten thousand meters in diameter, its depth unknown. An unknown energy obscured their view of the pit's bottom.
A valley within the valley!
Attempting to approach the massive chasm, they walked along its edge and immediately felt an immense pressure, accompanied by an overwhelmingly dense dragon aura!
"Xinglan, grab my hand. Let's go down!" Jing Shaoyu reached out to Ye Xinglan and called.
"Alright!" Ye Xinglan took his hand and followed his lead as they descended into the deep pit.
At the bottom of the pit, nearly a thousand meters down, they saw what appeared to be a massive flickering light—like a searchlight, it occasionally shot out beams of rainbow-colored radiance, dyeing the mist gathered above in vibrant hues. It was this mist that had blocked Jing Shaoyu's view from the valley's edge.
The two quickly approached the rainbow halo and plunged straight into it. The halo rippled slightly, as if brewing something—a terrifying aura slowly rose, only to vanish completely the next second.
After passing through the colorful halo, the two finally saw the scene at the bottom of the deep pit and involuntarily gaped in awe. Ye Xinglan was naturally shocked, while Jing Shaoyu was more overjoyed.
At the bottom of the pit lay a colossal dragon soul, its entire body radiating a seven-colored glow. Its scales, also multicolored, appeared irregular yet harmoniously natural, exuding an effortless beauty, as though countless naturally formed gemstones were embedded into the earth.
It held its head high with pride, emanating an indescribable aura. If Jing Shaoyu had to put it into words, he felt as though he had encountered a kindred spirit. For some reason, an inexplicable joy welled up in his heart.
"Heavens, what kind of dragon is this?" Ye Xinglan exclaimed, her mouth agape and eyes wide with shock and awe. But the next moment, she fell silent as an overwhelming pressure enveloped her, instantly suffocating her. Her pupils dilated, and her body stiffened.
"Xinglan!" Jing Shaoyu swiftly pulled her into his embrace, shielding her from the dragon god's oppressive aura.
"Huff! Huff! Huff!" Ye Xinglan gasped heavily, her eyes filled with terror as she stared at the serene dragon soul, her voice trembling. "Shaoyu, what in the world is this?"
"If I'm not mistaken, this must be the legendary dragon god's soul!" Jing Shaoyu replied.
With that, he leaped down, landing with Ye Xinglan on the ground below, bringing them closer to the massive dragon soul.
The nearer they got, the more they felt the terrifying pressure of the dragon god's aura and the horrifying resentment of countless dragonkind. Were it not for Jing Shaoyu's natural protective energy, he would have been crushed long ago. Even shielded in his arms, Ye Xinglan struggled to breathe, her face flushed with an unnatural hue.
She didn't ask to leave, so Jing Shaoyu wouldn't force her to retreat.
Standing beside the dragon god's soul, both were solemn and silent, unsure of what to do next.