The golden dragon devoured the dragon soul, and everything in heaven and earth returned to peace.
In his dream, Cheng Xiaofan returned to his true self, sitting cross-legged on the bank of Bai Mang Lake, adjusting his breath. The spiritual power within him had merged with the dragon soul, generating a new kind of power.
This power filtered through Cheng Xiaofan's entire body as if it were cleansing his meridians and bones, as if he had been completely remade.
Waking up, Cheng Xiaofan found his spirit to be exceptionally full, and his entire body felt different from ordinary humans, somewhat not human-like.
Not human, then what?
A dragon?
Cheng Xiaofan opened the mirror function on his phone and looked at himself. He found that apart from feeling a bit more masculine, there were no other changes.
Looking out the window, Bai Mang Lake, bathed in spiritual rain, rippled with green waves. Occasionally, various fish and shrimp would leap out of the water as if showing off.
By estimation, those deep-sea lobsters were about 1.4 to 1.5 meters long.
Lobsters of such size were indeed rare!
Along the lake shore, the grass was lush and the leaves were abundant, with flowers blooming like brocade. Although it was nearing autumn, in the Bai Mang Lake area, it seemed to be the season of full spring.
His gaze swept across the lake surface and then probed the location of the submerged passage leading to the underground river at the bottom of the lake.
The whirlpool was turning slowly, as usual.
Cheng Xiaofan never imagined that a dragon soul would be hidden within this underground river.
He estimated that the spiritual energy gathered here during the descending spiritual rain last night had awakened this dragon soul, thus attracting the attention of the golden dragon.
In fact, Cheng Xiaofan knew very well that the golden dragon was merely a form of spiritual power within him, capable of manifesting as a golden dragon only in dreams.
Now that his spiritual power had merged with the dragon soul, it would naturally bring about fundamental changes.
Cheng Xiaofan felt a little fear towards this unknown change.
He was truly afraid that it might turn him into a monster that was neither human nor dragon.
Ring, ring!
As Cheng Xiaofan was lost in his own fanciful thoughts, a mobile phone ringtone immediately pulled his wandering mind back.
He took out his phone and saw that it was Miao Xiuhua calling.
"Mom, is there something you need so early?" Cheng Xiaofan asked with a smile.
Miao Xiuhua's voice was a little anxious, "Xiaofan, hurry back! Something has happened at Nanshan Lake. Many angelfish have turned belly up!"
"Your Grandpa Luo took people to investigate early this morning, but they couldn't find any reason. Some villagers suspect that someone poisoned it!"
"Mom, I'll be right back!" Cheng Xiaofan frowned upon hearing this and said.
Logically, Nanshan Lake had people on duty every day, and surveillance cameras were installed all around, so no one would dare to poison the lake.
He had to go and investigate personally to see what had happened at Nanshan Lake.
After all, Nanshan Lake brought considerable income to the village, and he could not simply ignore it.
"Screech—"
Less than twenty minutes later, Cheng Xiaofan, riding on the Broken Sky Eagle, appeared above Nanshan Lake.
As the Broken Sky Eagle landed, Luo Changsheng and several villagers quickly gathered around.
"Xiaofan, you've arrived just in time. Look at the angelfish in the lake, why are they all belly up?" Luo Changsheng asked anxiously.
Cheng Xiaofan immediately smelled an unusual aura in the air.
This aura was very familiar... uh, dragon qi?
Huh!
How magical!
How could dragon qi possibly appear here?
He didn't bother to answer Luo Changsheng and quickly walked to the lake shore.
His gaze rapidly swept across the lake, and he saw that the surface was covered with angelfish of various sizes, all floating belly up.
However!
Cheng Xiaofan quickly realized that these angelfish were actually unharmed.
They had fainted from the sudden surge of dragon qi.
In a while, all these fish would recover.
The problem was, why was there such powerful dragon qi here?
"Xiaofan, have you figured out the reason?" Luo Changsheng asked eagerly, noticing Cheng Xiaofan's grim expression.
Cheng Xiaofan immediately smiled and said, "Grandpa Luo, the weather was probably abnormal last night, causing severe oxygen deficiency in the water, which led to these fish suffocating and turning belly up."
"It's nothing, these fish will recover soon!"
Hearing Cheng Xiaofan's words, Luo Changsheng and the other villagers breathed a long sigh of relief, and smiles appeared on their faces.
In their eyes, after all, these angelfish were cultivated by Cheng Xiaofan, and he understood the habits of this fish best.
If he said it was fine, then it must be fine.
Luo Changsheng chuckled, "Xiaofan, hearing you say that puts my mind at ease!"
"The weather last night was indeed abnormal, with lightning and thunder. It just thundered without rain, and the thunder was truly terrifying. Xiao Ma, who was on duty here, was so scared that he ran home!"
"I checked the surveillance footage from the duty room on the lake island, but I couldn't see anything."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan nodded thoughtfully.
He said to Luo Changsheng and the other villagers, "Grandpa Luo, I don't think you've had breakfast yet, have you? Everything is fine here. I'll look around a bit more. You guys can go back!"
"Oh, thank you for your hard work, Xiaofan!"
Luo Changsheng and the others immediately bid farewell to Cheng Xiaofan and left.
As soon as they were gone, Cheng Xiaofan rushed to the lake island.
Below the deep water area of the lake island, there was a whirlpool similar to the one in Bai Mang Lake, also turning slowly there.
The dragon qi was erupting from here.
Could this also lead to an underground river, connecting to the sea?
However, no deep-sea fish or shrimp were emerging from here. Unlike Bai Mang Lake, various freshwater fish were occasionally popping out.
Soon, Cheng Xiaofan discovered that the whirlpools appearing here were undetectable by ordinary people.
A layer of dragon qi covered the whirlpool, and unless one possessed special x-ray vision, it was impossible to see this entrance leading to the underground river.
Clearly, this underground river was actually a dragon vein, and the underground river of Bai Mang Lake and this place were on the same dragon vein.
He wondered if the fish living in the underground river, like humans, were divided into two factions: one faction of freshwater fish and shrimp, and another faction of deep-sea fish and shrimp.
The two factions were clearly distinct.
One appeared in Bai Mang Lake, and the other appeared in Nanshan Lake.
Last night, the dragon soul that appeared in Bai Mang Lake was devoured by the golden dragon in his dream.
Unexpectedly, powerful dragon qi erupted here.
This phenomenon was truly bizarre!
Furthermore, Cheng Xiaofan discovered that the dragon qi here seemed to be suppressed in the underground river beneath the lake by an unknown mystical force, not fully erupting.
The dragon qi that did erupt was actually not much.
Bang bang bang!
At this moment, Cheng Xiaofan felt something foreign throbbing rapidly in his chest.
He was startled and quickly parted his upper clothes, only to see a golden bead faintly hidden in his chest.
A dragon pearl?
Immediately, Cheng Xiaofan learned from the information fed back to his mind that it was a dragon pearl formed after he obtained the dragon soul.
This was also a golden core condensed by the dragon soul.
The sudden throbbing of the dragon pearl was telling Cheng Xiaofan that it needed to absorb the dragon qi from the lake.
Upon receiving this information, Cheng Xiaofan immediately extended his hand into the lake water and began to absorb the dragon qi contained within it.