Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Divine Emperor Dragon Aura

In the City of the Gods, the Altar of Apotheosis.

A piercing dragon cry suddenly rang out from the altar, proud, stern, domineering, and supreme, rising above the cheers of countless deities and sweeping across the world.

In an instant, heaven and earth changed color, sun and moon lost their light, and even the sacred radiance of the City of the Gods dimmed before it.

At the first sound of that sovereign dragon cry, the millions of deities beneath the altar were thrown into panic, each one stricken with awe and fear by that overwhelming roar.

As the sovereign dragon cry swept in all directions, a vast and heaven-reaching imperial might of dragonkind, sacred beyond measure and supreme above all, descended like a holy revelation and surged toward the multitude below.

The dragon cry shook the heavens; the dragon might trembled the cosmos. All who heard it could do nothing but submit.

With a series of dull impacts, the countless deities beneath the altar, even mighty beings like Xuantian Wu, were all compelled to face southward, kneeling in midair as they lowered their heads in reverence.

On the altar, the twelve primordial gods widened their golden eyes at the transformation in Nanluo, staring in utter disbelief.

“How can this be?!”

The Devouring Beginning God Lord could not help murmuring, eyes bulging as he looked at Nanluo in shock.

After Nanluo proclaimed the birth of the divine race, the immense fortune gathered upon him manifested of its own accord, swelling from a six-hundred-foot golden canopy into a nine-hundred-foot sacred radiance.

In terms of fortune alone, Nanluo now stood at the summit of all living beings in the primordial world.

Unless Nanluo became a divine emperor, the nine-hundred-foot sacred canopy above him would no longer change.

If the change in his fortune merely startled the gods, the next transformation left them completely shaken, their faces paling as they stared at him in disbelief.

“The Child of Fate, gathering the fortune of an entire era into a single body—how utterly beloved by heaven and earth.”

The gods looked at Nanluo with complicated eyes, unable to tell whether they felt envy or resentment.

“Ah!”

Nanluo threw back his head and roared. Cracks of gold suddenly split across the nine-hundred-foot sacred canopy above him, as though a divine embryo were being nurtured within.

“Ang!”

A purple dragon, ten thousand feet long, opened eyes of solemn majesty and cold indifference. Radiating supreme dragon might, it tore through the sacred canopy with a thunderous roar and burst out, soaring straight toward the highest heavens.

When the purple dragon appeared, all beings bowed in submission.

Freed at last, the dragon roamed the skies, its immense body undulating in the air as it exuded an aura of supreme majesty.

The millions of deities beneath the altar were all shaken by its overwhelming presence and could not help but kneel in worship before it.

Nanluo looked at the purple dragon born from his own canopy of fortune, and a flash of gold crossed his eyes. He wondered: why would the dragon aura of the Heavenly Emperor arise from my canopy of fortune?

The purple dragon, soaring freely above, paid no heed to the thoughts of the beings below. After playing for a while, as though having had its fill, it opened its mouth and spewed forth boundless golden fortune, instantly forming a sea of golden clouds a million miles across.

After creating that sea of fortune, the purple dragon nodded in satisfaction and plunged directly into it, disappearing from sight.

Having witnessed all of the dragon’s actions, Nanluo finally understood why it had been born from his canopy of fortune.

“So the reason the celestial fortune never descended after the establishment of the divine court was that it was devoured by your dragon aura of the Heavenly Emperor.”

Only after receiving the purple dragon’s message did Nanluo fully grasp the cause and effect behind its descent.

Nanluo, the Child of Fate, possessed the rank of a Heavenly Emperor and was protected by the dragon aura of the Heavenly Emperor.

It was precisely by relying on that dragon aura that Nanluo had survived when struck by Hongjun atop Mount Buzhou.

However, though the dragon aura of the Heavenly Emperor was mightier even than a divine emperor, only a true Heavenly Emperor could fully command it.

Nanluo, though bearing the rank of a Heavenly Emperor, was not one in truth and could neither command nor summon the dragon aura.

Only when Nanluo was attacked by an almighty being such as a divine emperor could the dragon aura appear to defend its lord.

This was clearly disadvantageous to both Nanluo and the dragon aura itself.

For Nanluo, it was a tremendous pity to possess such a supreme divine treasure yet be unable to use it.

As for the dragon aura, if Nanluo were slain by another divine lord before he could become the Heavenly Emperor, it too would vanish into nothingness.

The dragon aura of the Heavenly Emperor was a divine treasure endowed with spiritual wisdom, yet it could follow only one Heavenly Emperor.

If Nanluo died, the dragon aura within him would be dispersed by the will of heaven and earth, losing its wisdom and becoming pure, unconscious dragon aura meant to serve the true Heavenly Emperor.

This was something the spiritually awakened dragon aura could never accept.

Thus, the wise dragon aura devised a compromise: it would be born through the fortune of the divine court.

The divine court could be said to be the embryo of the heavenly court.

If its lord possessed the rank of a Heavenly Emperor, then a divine emperor could give birth to a dragon aura of his own.

Nanluo was both a divine emperor and one bearing the rank of a Heavenly Emperor; with merely a seed of dragon aura, he could nurture one belonging to himself.

Within the golden sea of fortune, the purple dragon suddenly saw Nanluo’s figure appear before it, though Nanluo’s eyes were shut, as if he had no wish to speak.

Nanluo curiously examined the awe-inspiring sacred purple dragon and could not resist probing it with divine sense.

How dare anyone lightly touch the reverse scale of a dragon?

Fortunately, Nanluo was its master, or else the purple dragon would already have swallowed that reckless fool whole.

“Hm? Dragon aura of a divine emperor? You’ve changed from Heavenly Emperor dragon aura into divine emperor dragon aura!”

Nanluo used his divine sense to inspect the dragon’s invincible power, only to discover that it no longer reached the level of a divine emperor, but had fallen to the strength of a half-emperor. He could not help exclaiming in surprise.

The purple dragon opened its majestic, icy violet eyes. Within those huge pupils lay deep sorrow, and it emitted a mournful dragon cry, as though recounting the enormous price it had paid for descending early.

The Heavenly Emperor dragon aura within Nanluo had originally belonged to the Heavenly Emperor, but in order to descend ahead of time, it had been forced to lower its own rank and become divine emperor dragon aura, only then permitted by the will of heaven and earth to exist.

Though divine emperor dragon aura could grow stronger as the divine court expanded and eventually recover its former state as Heavenly Emperor dragon aura, for the time being it possessed only half the power of the Heavenly Emperor dragon aura—that is, the strength of a half-emperor.

“Just to descend early and help me, you’ve suffered for it,” Nanluo said softly, touched as he soothed the purple dragon.

“Rest assured. I, Nanluo, swear before heaven and earth that I will let you become the supreme Heavenly Emperor dragon aura once more.”

Hearing Nanluo’s solemn vow, the purple dragon appeared quite satisfied and closed its eyes again, continuously breathing in and out the fortune around it, laboring to recover its cultivation and striving to become once more the dragon aura of the Heavenly Emperor that could dominate the world.

Nanluo cast one last deep look at the Heavenly Emperor dragon aura, no, the divine emperor dragon aura, before leaving the sea of golden fortune.

...

By then, the millions of deities beneath the altar had already broken into a clamorous uproar, endlessly arguing over the supreme dragon might that had just appeared.

When the purple dragon first appeared, all beings bowed in submission.

Only Nanluo and the gods had seen it; all other beings had not.

After the purple dragon created the sea of fortune, it swiftly flew there to restore its cultivation.

Once it departed, the supreme dragon might that had subdued all beings vanished.

The millions of deities and the myriad divine lords of the northern wastes, now able to move again, all began discussing the overwhelming pressure that had just forced them into submission.

Yet not a single one among the countless deities had ever seen the purple dragon, and none could possibly know its origin; they could only infer from the dragon cry that it had been a dragon of supreme existence.

The gods, still shaken by the purple dragon, remained immersed in their own thoughts and paid no attention to the increasingly noisy deities below the altar.

Thus, when Nanluo’s soul returned from the sea of fortune to his body and he stood again upon the altar, he could immediately see the noisy crowd below, and the vast din reached his ears without cease.

Can one imagine the chaos of millions of deities shouting at once?

Nanluo frowned slightly. Though he understood their fear, astonishment, and confusion, he could not forgive their disorderly clamor.

How could such noisy and unruly deities be worthy of becoming the noble gods of the divine race?

“Silence!”

With a soft command, his voice exploded like thunder from the ninth heaven, reverberating in the ears and hearts of the gods alike.

The millions of deities in the consecration plaza all paled and dared not speak another word.

The world fell into utter stillness.

“I know what the gods are discussing. Now, I shall tell you.”

Nanluo spoke calmly.

The gods beneath the altar all widened their eyes and strained their ears, ready to hear the earthshaking secret that would follow.

What was that dragon cry that shook the heavens? What was that supreme dragon might?

“The divine court has been established. From the heavens descends a purple dragon to guard our divine court and unite the world!”

Nanluo’s majestic voice rang out across the consecration plaza and spread in all directions.

Ang!

As his voice fell, a ten-thousand-foot purple dragon stretched out its body, flew from the sea of golden fortune, and soared above the altar, radiating supreme dragon might.

Because the power of its dragon might had been restrained by the divine emperor dragon aura, that supreme presence would only make the gods feel pressure and awe; it would not force them into submission.

Even so, when the gods saw that supreme, mighty, and domineering purple dragon stretching across the heavens, they believed Nanluo’s words without the slightest doubt.

The millions of divine beings of the divine race grew even more certain in their hearts that their race was the chosen race of destiny, and they took pride in the strength of the divine race, shouting fanatically:

“The divine court has been established. From the heavens descends a purple dragon to guard our divine court and unite the world!”

“The divine court has been established. From the heavens descends a purple dragon to guard our divine court and unite the world!”