[Vol. 8] Chapter 339: Xiao Guang’s Background
The power of [Radiance] formed a solid barrier between the two worlds. It wasn’t just hundreds or thousands of kilometers wide. It spread across the Origin Realm from south to north, east to west, endlessly far, protecting the whole world.
It repaired, even replaced, the shattered world barrier, turning into a golden curtain visible to the naked eye. As the dazzling glow slowly faded, the grand canopy turned half-transparent, yet still clear to see. Standing in the Origin Realm and looking upward, one could still see the upside-down world on the other side of the curtain, and the massive shadow of the Serpent coiled above it.
But the living beings there, the invaders from the other world, were once again blocked outside, unable to take even half a step into this realm.
This was the power of [Ultimate Art].
As the aftershocks faded, the darkness formed by extreme gathering of light elements turned back to brightness. The sun, once blocked by the Serpent’s shadow, rose high in the sky again. The combined attack of the four furious Lords, losing their source of power, also collapsed one after another. Looking up at the results she had created with her own hands, even the calm Miss Priestess couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction.
“This should solve the problem.”
In fact, back when Violet first learned the world barrier was breaking, she already had a similar idea. She still didn’t know who created that thing, but in the end, it was nothing more than an extremely powerful barrier.
The [Seal of Heaven and Earth] that covered the Ancient Spirit Realm worked in almost the same way. By that logic, it wasn’t impossible to recreate something similar.
The [Ultimate Art: Radiance] was originally a purely destructive skill. But skills are dead, people are alive, Violet had improved the Spirit Fox Shrine Maiden’s [Ultimate Art] before, so naturally she could also adapt [Radiance]. She was no longer the clueless person she had been when she first crossed over.
So, from long ago, the priestess had already started researching this in secret. She couldn’t figure out exactly what the World Sustainer was planning, but she was sure it required breaking through the world barrier. If the time came when things couldn’t be undone, this move would surely help.
If the world barrier was destroyed, so what? Simple, she could just make another one.
At some point, a certain White Dragon Queen had spread her wings and flown to the two women’s side. She had long wanted to help, but the beings fighting earlier were all too terrifying, almost none of them below the Main God level. Even as a Dragon Queen, she could only stand aside, frustrated.
But after seeing the entire process from beginning to end, especially the moment when [Ultimate Art: Radiance] forced the Serpent’s [Ring of Heaven and Earth] out of the world and rebuilt the barrier, the White Dragon Queen now looked at Violet with eyes full of admiration, almost like a fangirl.
“What an awe-inspiring power… this… this is true power, true divinity! That a single individual’s strength could reach such a level, it’s simply unbelievable!”
Only now did she finally understand what Violet meant earlier when she said, “Make sure they cannot keep coming endlessly.”
The World Sustainer had spent so much effort to break open the world barrier, so that they could launch a full invasion of the Origin Realm. That was the foundation and first step of their plan. By contrast, if a new barrier could be built that fully separated the two worlds again, then even though some enemies had already entered, without reinforcements their threat would be much weaker.
With the help of the Origin Realm’s native mythical beings, the coming war looked far more hopeful than at the start.
Though her heart was full of excitement, the White Dragon Queen wisely did not press with more questions. Having been completely won over by Violet’s strength, she now became proactive.
“In that case, there’s no time to waste. I’ll contact the other Dragon Kings immediately and have them personally arrange troop deployments!”
“Mm, thank you. Also… please don’t spread word about what happened here too much.”
Violet gave her a meaningful look. Cielru understood, nodded lightly, and quickly turned to leave.
Looking around at the now-quiet surroundings, Violet let out a soft breath.
Although many things still remained unfinished, anyone with eyes could see. With [Ultimate Art: Radiance] once again protecting the Origin Realm, this multi-faction struggle surrounding the Serpent, both in open and secret ways, had basically reached its end.
The World Sustainer still underestimated the strength of the priestess, or maybe it was because she hid it too well. She stayed silent, then shocked everyone with one strike, so fast that those monsters didn’t even have time to react. That was why she succeeded in one move.
If the World Sustainer or the Twilight Council had known Violet could even do something like this, their plans would have been very different. They wouldn’t have attacked just now with only four long-range strikes.
But there’s no “if” for things that already happened. And this also proved that keeping a few hidden trump cards really was useful, wasn’t it?
Violet didn’t hurry to switch her mind back to her real body in the [Iron-Blood Arena]. Instead, she turned to look at a certain dragon who had taken part in the fight but had hardly spoken, only sneaking cautious glances at her. Violet smiled faintly.
“What? You’re not going to say anything?”
Xiao Guang’s delicate body trembled. She lowered her head honestly, and after a long silence, finally spoke as if gritting her teeth.
“I did something wrong on my own. That’s the truth. Master, please punish me…”
The priestess smiled softly.
“Punishment can wait. But since you knew I wouldn’t be happy and still insisted on doing it, then either my Xiao Guang doesn’t take me seriously as her master anymore… or you had some especially important reason. Which one is it?”
“How could I not take Master seriously! I—I just…”
The dragon girl suddenly grew nervous, then lowered her head again, silent, as if she had something she couldn’t say. Violet sighed helplessly and patted her shoulder.
“Alright, alright, don’t be so nervous. If we didn’t have at least this much trust, then all this time we spent together would be wasted… I don’t blame you for acting on your own. In fact, having your own thoughts is a good thing. I just want to know the reason why you did it.”
“Now that the situation has mostly settled, there’s no need to keep secrets anymore, right?”
“…Fine. I understand. I’ll tell you everything.”
With a soft sigh, as if she had made up her mind, the dragon girl finally raised her head. She thought for a moment, then slowly began.
“Master, you’ve already met White, right? Her identity is complicated, but I think you could guess. That one wanted to use me for her goals. But since we are both of dragon blood, she actually didn’t mean me much harm. After some contact and understanding, she told me some ancient secrets of the dragon race. And those… are related to my background.”
“Your background?”
The priestess was slightly surprised. This answer really was unexpected.
This girl also had a mysterious origin?
She remembered when she first met Xiao Guang in Illusory World. Back then, Xiao Guang was still just an unhatched egg. Violet and Hen had found it in the final hidden chamber of a secret dungeon.
After some discussion, the egg was given to the priestess. But for some reason, Information Scan couldn’t detect anything about it. Later, Violet had to bring the egg to the main city for identification. That was when they finally learned it was most likely a dragon egg that could hatch into a pet.
Even so, the egg’s mystery was too high. Before it hatched, even the best professional appraisers in the main city couldn’t tell its exact type or species. Violet became very curious, and after gathering many materials and going through countless hardships, she finally managed to hatch the dragon egg.
Xiao Guang turned out to be a Holy Crystal Dragon, the highest SSS-rank rare beast in the game.
This “SSS-rank” might not sound clear, but in truth it meant something shocking. Even Violet herself was startled when she first learned it.
To explain simply, in Illusory World, although there wasn’t really a strict level cap like Lv.80, the difference between monsters was huge depending on their talent and race. Even pure-blood dragon pets were usually judged to be only about S-rank at best, and that was already the highest level a normal player could reach through regular means.
Only in official world tournaments or massive limited-time events could SS-rank pet eggs appear as final champion rewards. Once hatched, such pets had stats at least two to three times higher than same-level S-rank pets. They also came with unique “bug-like” talent skills, making them extremely powerful.
Even up until the time Violet crossed into this world, there were probably fewer than ten SS-rank pets across the whole server. As for pets higher than SS… they were basically unheard of. Which meant Xiao Guang might have been the only SSS-rank pet in Illusory World at that time.
Even so, Violet had never really understood how the system decided those ratings. The dragon girl was the pet she personally hatched and raised. From birth to level 100, until she reached the max level and couldn’t grow anymore, the priestess knew Xiao Guang’s true strength better than anyone.
To be honest, Xiao Guang was indeed no weaker than other SS-rank pets. But if we’re talking about SSS-rank, a grade that only existed in legends, she still seemed to be missing something. Even if that didn’t stop Violet from sweeping through enemies with her dragon, the doubt was still there. That strange point never disappeared.
Later, when Violet and her dragon crossed into this world, she thought she would never have the chance to solve the mystery of that rating. But after their short separation in the Ancient Spirit Realm, she was shocked to discover that her dragon, who had already reached max level, broke through again and awakened a godlike power called Primordial Flame. At that moment, she finally understood something.
If Xiao Guang’s awakening of Primordial Flame was not an accident, but rather something she had the potential for all along, then maybe it was only limited by the conditions of Illusory World, or missing the right chance to show it. In that case, her SSS-rank rating suddenly made sense.
Even so, the priestess had never really thought about her dragon’s origin in real-world terms. She knew Xiao Guang’s background must be unusual, but she always assumed it was only part of the game’s story setting.
Since Illusory World was so closely tied to the Spirit Fox Shrine Maiden, it was a world that felt both real and unreal. Because of that, strange creations appearing there wasn’t unusual at all. Perhaps Xiao Guang was just one of those creations, later turned into reality by some other power.
Even if a being came from the game, no matter how impressive their background was inside Illusory World, it didn’t mean much in this world. Violet had even studied the history of mythical creatures and found that Holy Crystal Dragons had never once appeared in tens of thousands of years of records. That only made her more certain of her original belief.
But now… could it be that she was wrong?
At that thought, curiosity flashed across the priestess’s face.
“And your background… what exactly did she say?”
The dragon girl didn’t seem to notice her master’s doubts. She only nodded slightly and spoke.
“According to White, dragon history is much older than what is recorded in this world today. It is said that even before the Primordial Light descended, our race had already become rulers, with a position much higher than now. At that time, the leader of the dragons was not called the Dragon God, but there was only one, the Dragon Emperor.”
“The Ancient Dragon Emperor, Jiuyu. They were the true founder of the dragon race. As for where they came from, even White didn’t know clearly, maybe because the information was marked as Forbidden and couldn’t be passed down. But all later dragons actually came from the nine heads of Jiuyu, each head representing a different power.”
“In ancient times, the dragons had nine bloodlines. Aside from the seven attributes that are known today, there were two other, more mysterious dragon types. They were called Upper Two. The two upper ones carried the true power and essence of Jiuyu. The seven types of dragons today are only side branches, born later from those powers.”
“Nine bloodlines of dragons…”
Violet had already heard hints of this before, when she spoke with White, so she asked curiously.
“So the two dragon types that carried the true essence of the Dragon Emperor… did they go extinct? What powers did they represent?”
At this, the Dragon God’s golden eyes showed a strange look, and she nodded seriously.
“In fact, Master, you’ve already come into contact with both of them. Even though they have changed a lot in the present, their true nature has not. They are… the [Dragon of Fate], who rules over cause and effect, and the [Dragon of Time], who represents Time itself.”
“…?”
As if realizing something, Violet frowned slightly, but she didn’t interrupt. She just nodded and signaled Xiao Guang to continue.
“Mhm. Unlike the other seven types of dragons, the [Dragon of Fate] and the [Dragon of Time] each passed down a single bloodline. In truth, they were not just branches of the race, but incarnations of the Dragon Emperor Jiuyu themself. After Jiuyu split into many dragons, these two inherited their authority. They were the closest to the Dragon Emperor’s true self, bearing the duty of managing and protecting the dragon race.”