The so-called Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was, in essence, an environment formed after the corpses of the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King fell to the earth, their energies spilling outward and altering the surroundings.
Although it was utterly incomprehensible how the Tang Sect from Tang San's previous life had recorded the three great treasure lands as places like the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the Yin-Yang Love Querying Valley, and the Dragon Graveyard...
But there was no doubt that, at its core, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was a special great mandarin-duck hotpot born from the convergence and intermingling of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' power.
A trace of the energy that leaked out transformed into strands of the power of creation, allowing immortal herbs to grow within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well at ten times their normal speed.
In truth, however, the portion that belonged to the dragon race had not dissipated during this transformation process. It had merely accumulated in an extremely deep place, existing there in a highly inactive state.
Chen Ming's Martial Soul was essentially a hybrid of a Mountain Dragon and an Earth Dragon. It possessed the attributes of an Earth Dragon, as well as the Earth Dragon's characteristic of bearing all things. Later, by fusing with Spirit Ringss, he obtained four additional attributes: darkness, water, light, and fire. All four were attributes possessed by the traditional Nine Great Dragon Clans.
Even if the way Chen Ming obtained them was not particularly orthodox, when this energy combined with his attributes, it gave Chen Ming more than half of the attributes among the Nine Great Dragon Clans.
The energies of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot fused within Chen Ming's body, breaking down every inch of his flesh and bones, reforging his origin, and stimulating the power of his Martial Soul's origin.
At that moment, the dragon qi of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings, which had lain hidden in the waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well for who knew how many tens of thousands of years, finally found an outlet through which it could vent.
Along with two soundless dragon roars that rang out on a spiritual level, one ice and one fire, two streams of energy suddenly surged into Chen Ming's body. In an instant, they devoured the medicinal power of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot, then violently fused with and transformed Chen Ming's body.
As two of the former Nine Great Dragon Kings, the dragon qi of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings was undoubtedly among the purest existences within the dragon race. Though they had fallen an unknown number of years ago and their divine power had already dispersed, the terrifying power hidden within their dragon qi remained something utterly unimaginable and incomprehensible to mortal things.
Immortal herbs? Hundred-thousand-year immortal herbs?
They were not that weak! The dragon qi of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings was absolutely not that weak!
The so-called immortal herbs were merely weeds nourished by the overflow of their energy. Compared to the true origin of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings, they were no different from a single speck of dust by the roadside.
And when the powers of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings converged, it was not as simple as one plus one equaling two.
Ultimate fire and ultimate cold. These two energies generated and restrained one another, nourished and transformed one another, ultimately giving birth to a trace of powerful creation qi. This was genuine power that belonged to gods. In theory, it was a great power capable of creating all things, transforming all things, and allowing life to begin evolving anew.
Chen Ming felt as though his body had been broken down in an instant until only his skeleton remained. Then, in the next instant, even that skeleton was decomposed into the most fundamental particles, before being dissolved and assembled anew with the aid of the power of creation formed from the convergence of ice and fire.
It was just like when Chen Ming absorbed the Spirit Bone of the Blue Silver Empress, Ah Yin—the effect he obtained had not been as powerful as it was for Tang San, who possessed the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline. In the same way, the transformation Chen Ming was receiving within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was something Tang San could never have imagined, much less caught up to.
The powers of water and fire were like countless tiny hammers, forging every detail of Chen Ming's body, tempering every bit of his flesh, and even every drop of his blood. Amidst the pain, Chen Ming's body completed its reforging. His Martial Soul was also dismantled at this moment, then made even stronger under the convergence of the immense dragon qi.
The power of earth had originally been the framework of Chen Ming's Martial Soul. But at this moment, the two energies of ice and fire—or rather, water and fire—also joined the cycle, nourishing Chen Ming's origin. Then, under the effect of the Mountain Dragon's power to bear all things, they fused with Chen Ming's Martial Soul.
The power of water converged with the trace of darkness attribute within Chen Ming's body and gathered in his left eye, while the powers of fire and light gathered in his right eye.
It was equivalent to a miniature Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, reduced by countless times. Chen Ming's left and right eyes were emitting their own energies. The energies of both eyes intersected at every moment, generating and restraining one another, cycling endlessly. Deep within, they constantly nourished one another, undergoing reincarnation while giving birth to strands of the power of creation and a trace of a peculiar rhythm.
If the fusion of water and fire could derive the power of creation, then what would be born from the interweaving and circulation of water, fire, yin, and yang?
The answer was time.
Just like the rising of the sun and moon, and the revolution of all things. Between Chen Ming's brows, an extremely faint special marking appeared, resembling a third eye. This mark seemed to have existed since long ago, yet also seemed as though it had never existed at all.
Chen Ming's left eye, right eye, and the vertical-eye-like mark between his brows formed a cycle between the three. Energy circulated back and forth without end, giving birth to strands of the power of creation and traces of the power of time, which gathered between Chen Ming's brows.
That was not a third eye in the physical sense, but a third eye in the spiritual sense.
At this moment, Chen Ming's vision became blurred. The scene he saw was no longer everything around him, nor the environment within the pool waters, but events from far, far earlier, before all of this had ever happened.
Countless years ago, a giant dragon whose body seemed capable of blotting out the heavens and covering the sun lay prostrate upon the seabed. As its body turned into stone, it expanded without limit. Its flesh and blood fused with the ley lines of the earth, while its heart and meridians transformed into the core and veins of the land.
Thus, a new continent was born, and countless living beings took shelter upon the continent formed from the giant dragon.
Then, after who knew how many more years had passed, the corpses of two giant dragons, one ice and one fire, fell from the sky. Carrying an aura like the descent of a setting sun, they smashed into an ordinary forest.
The dragon blood of the ice dragon and fire dragon splashed outward, nourishing the forest. Amid the ashes of what had originally been destruction, new seeds began to grow rapidly. One ice and one fire, the two dragon corpses merged together and entered a world similar to a half-plane, sinking into the earth and slowly releasing energy outward.
A pitch-black giant dragon arrived above the forest, seemingly searching for something. But because the two dragon corpses were concealed deep within the earth, hidden inside that half-plane-like world, the black giant dragon found nothing.
Over countless years, the two giant dragon corpses slowly released their energy, nourishing this forest. The originally barren land gathered countless Spirit Beasts, and countless Spirit Beasts lived and died here, propagating and multiplying generation after generation, transforming this originally nameless place into one of the three great Spirit Beast gathering grounds of the Douluo Continent, known as Sunset Forest.
As their power gradually fused with the earth, and as the years slowly passed, the two giant dragon corpses were finally squeezed out of that half-plane-like state and into the Douluo Continent.
Their corpses settled beneath the earth, their blood mixed with the water source, and the creation power of ice and fire began to generate and restrain one another, influencing the surrounding environment. Under the evolution of boundless time, the original meteor crater eventually formed the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.