The ancient architecture beneath the Ancient Moonlit Sea had existed for untold ages.
Time itself seemed frozen here.
Silent.
Submerged.
Even Evan felt a surge of excitement.
This wasn't some in-game cutscene.
This was real.
He was watching the little azure dragon split the sea with his own eyes.
"Whoa! It really opened!"
March and Stelle raised their hands excitedly.
Only when standing here in person could one truly understand the scale of it.
For a moment, Evan had almost thought someone had whispered Water Dragon Chant directly into his ear.
But no—
That resonance was real.
When Dan Heng parted the sea, Evan clearly felt the Ancient Sea respond to the Cloudhymn Art.
A resonance unique to the Dragonkind.
When the waters fully separated—
Scalegorge Waterscape revealed its true face.
A submerged dragon palace.
Ruined.
Majestic.
Ancient.
Jing Yuan stepped forward.
But his gaze did not linger on the palace long.
Because in the distance—
He saw it.
The Ambrosial Arbor.
Radiating Abundance energy.
Alive.
"Dan Heng, you really are a Dragon Lord!"
March snapped two pictures of him and immediately sent them to the group chat.
"So does that mean all this architecture is technically yours?"
"I am not a Dragon Lord," Dan Heng replied calmly.
"These structures belong to the Vidyadhara as a whole."
"…Also."
"Shouldn't we focus on the boss fight?"
For once, he didn't get dragged off-topic.
Still—
His eyes flickered toward Evan.
That Dragon Lord aura earlier—
It wasn't incomplete.
It wasn't fractured.
It felt whole.
What exactly had Dan Feng done back then?
He didn't know.
Jing Yuan spoke quietly.
"During the Shuhu Rebellion, I witnessed this sight once."
"Mountains shifting. Seas turning."
He closed his eyes briefly.
The Vidyadhara had sacrificed much for the Xianzhou.
In ancient times, nearly every Vidyadhara had been a dragon.
Now?
A shadow of their former glory.
And among the traitors—
The ones he least wished to investigate—
Were his old allies.
But that reckoning would wait.
The Stellaron crisis came first.
He issued orders to Fu Xuan.
Seal the outer perimeter.
No further incidents.
"General! Are you planning to face Phantylia alone?"
Fu Xuan's voice carried concern.
"She is a Destruction Lord!"
"Not alone," Jing Yuan replied with a smile.
"I have friends."
The reincarnation of an old friend.
The famed Nameless of the cosmos.
And an Emanator from a certain Aeon's homeland.
Phantylia had chosen the wrong battlefield.
"Don't worry, Lady Diviner," Evan added lazily.
"I'll make sure the General returns alive so you can overthrow him properly."
Fu Xuan went silent.
They advanced deeper.
The palace lay in ruins.
Echoes of the past lingered.
Illusions of elders arguing.
A younger Dragon Lord standing firm.
Dan Heng paused.
The voice—
It sounded exactly like his own.
"Seems sealing the Arbor wasn't popular," March muttered.
"Don't remember," Dan Heng replied.
Stelle, meanwhile, stared at the countless dragon eggs resting around them.
The rebirth grounds of the Vidyadhara.
But the awakened Arbor was influencing them.
Not good.
"We opened the sea…"
"But the path to the Arbor isn't open yet," Stelle pointed out.
Dan Heng nodded slowly.
"I understand."
"Bow thrice with the three claws. Pay homage to the inchwood."
"The path to the Root will open."
Each Dragon Lord had reinforced the seals across generations.
Three layers of sealing.
Three reinforcements.
Only by undoing them all could one safely approach the Root.
"Here we go," Evan murmured.
The final seal shimmered before them.
Dan Heng stepped forward.
Dragon Lord power surged.
An azure dragon manifested behind him.
Light bloomed.
And from deep within the Root—
A terrifying energy erupted.
"Giggle~"
"Evan dear~ I truly wanted to invite you to join me."
"Why did you betray me?"
The ground trembled violently.
The dragon palace shook.
The Arbor's Root pulsed with violent Abundance energy.
Stelle immediately swapped her bat for the Flame Lance.
"I never betrayed you," Evan said lazily.
"You were the one who flirted first."
"And I told you already—I wasn't interested in that body."
"Didn't expect you to switch bodies just for me."
"Kids these days really play hard."
Welt adjusted his glasses.
For once—
He felt modest.
Compared to Evan, even his own past sounded tame.
March blinked.
"Wait. So this Destruction Lord changed bodies because of you?"
"Mr. Evan, you're really something…"
Jing Yuan immediately summoned Stoneheart Dreambody.
Evan quietly suppressed his own urge to take it out too.
"Hehe~"
"The General of the Luofu."
"The former Dragon Lord."
"And our dear benefactors."
"What an honor."
Her voice filled the entire space.
The Arbor's tremors intensified.
"I'm a little… full~"
"The Arbor's fruit is so large."
"Abundance. Stellaron."
"And Lord Nanook's Destruction."
"Do you think I'll look different after this?"
The ground split.
The Root shifted like a living thing.
Like something out of cosmic horror.
Even Jing Yuan stumbled back two steps.
This—
Was the true power of the Ambrosial Arbor's Root.
Then—
Flames appeared.
They fused into massive petals beneath the Root.
The petals rotated slowly.
Water vapor gathered, then violently dispersed.
And from within—
A colossal silhouette emerged.
Elegant.
Terrifying.
Beautiful.
Towering like a mountain.
And thus—
The Destruction Lord Phantylia fully descended.
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