The space around them flickered between dark and bright. Light would appear only to be swallowed instantly by darkness; darkness would form only to be scattered instantly by light. These two opposed, contradictory, mutually destroying elements, incapable of coexistence, seemed to be fighting each other for the right to exist, straining with everything they had to preserve themselves and drive the other out.
Ye Tianxie’s eyes stayed closed, his expression as placid as still water, neither joyful nor sorrowful, as though he had no idea at all what was happening to his body or around it. The strobing glow lit Long Moya’s aged face again and again. He made no further sound, simply watching the changes in Ye Tianxie and in the Dragon God’s Stone with an expression rigid and blank. What was happening in his heart at that moment was the greatest tumult of his entire life. This was like an unthinkable aberration — and even more like an unthinkable miracle. After the initial shock, as his heart slowly settled, what grew in its place, and grew fast, was a hunger to see the result now… He wanted to know what would come of dragon-power that held both darkness and light once it was awakened, and what the final power would turn out to be… Light dragon-power? Dark dragon-power? Or ordinary dragon-power, the two having struggled and canceled each other out? Or…
And that fourth possibility — the one that in theory could not happen — set his heart hammering wildly all over again.
The alternating light and dark went on for several minutes, and apart from that the place was deathly still, quiet enough to frighten. Even Guoguo had retreated to a safe distance, eyes wide and little mouth hanging open as she watched the changes coming over her master… Though what her expression conveyed was not shock of Long Moya’s kind, but the wonder and excitement of someone seeing a marvelous new thing… and something else, buried very, very deep: a kind of glee.
At last the scene before them changed again — and this change nearly popped Long Moya’s eyes out of their sockets.
Light and darkness stopped alternating. On Ye Tianxie’s body, and on the Dragon God’s Stone… light and darkness appeared at the same time.
On the left half of Ye Tianxie’s body, a fierce and holy radiance poured out a light too bright to look at directly — a light without any impurity, untouched and uncorrupted by any other glow. And on the right half of his body was a black light, black as an endless abyss. It was darkness too, and yet it was deeper than any darkness Long Moya had known, so deep that to be covered by it seemed to promise a fall into a lightless chasm without end or limit.
And down the center of Ye Tianxie’s body, and down the exact center of the Dragon God’s Stone, the dividing line between darkness and light was clear enough to hurt the eyes.
Light and darkness had come to exist together in a single vessel. The light had not driven out the darkness; the darkness had not swallowed the light. It was beyond bizarre, impossible to comprehend or explain by any ordinary logic — a sight that overturned everything anyone knew, appearing with absolute reality on Ye Tianxie’s body and on the Dragon God’s Stone bound to his power.
Ye Tianxie’s eyes remained shut, but at some point his brow had drawn faintly tight, as though he were enduring something almost past bearing. And Long Moya’s eyes, in that moment, opened as wide as they could go… As a mighty dragon of Divine Mystery strength, how could he fail to sense it? The aura pouring off Ye Tianxie’s left was dragon-power of the light attribute. The aura pouring off his right was dragon-power of the darkness attribute.
They had actually… actually appeared together, existed together!
Had everything come undone? Why were things that could not possibly happen happening — had the truths and the order of nature all collapsed…?
And still it wasn’t over.
As though some agreement had been reached between them, or as though they were being held in check by some deeply strange power, darkness and light achieved what should have been impossible: they ceased to affect one another. Each claiming half of Ye Tianxie’s body, they began to swell. The holy white and the pitch black grew fiercer as they expanded, the reach of each stretching wider and wider… Gradually, a sphere of light formed around Ye Tianxie’s body, half white, half black, wrapping him entirely within it. The sphere grew and grew until it reached Long Moya’s feet, forcing him to give ground, step by step.
Behind him was a cliff wall whose top could not be seen. Long Moya backed up until there was nowhere left to back up to, his eyes fixed on what was in front of him the whole time, never leaving it for an instant. He was afraid that a single blink might make him miss some detail of this impossible sight.
Hwaaa…
An utterly bizarre sound drowned out Long Moya’s vision. The half-black, half-white sphere abruptly swelled at tremendous speed, spreading outward in what amounted to an explosion. With his body wholly enveloped by the light rushing over him, all Long Moya could see was a field of flawless white… He didn’t see it. Ye Tianxie didn’t see it either. In that exact moment, the Dragon God’s Stone dissolved soundlessly away, as if vaporizing — and at the same time, hidden by the overwhelming light and the overwhelming darkness both, a small, snow-white shape leapt free from the center of the stone…
The light and the darkness on Ye Tianxie vanished together — and what surrounded his body now was something impossible: a colorless radiance.
“Ding… Your Dragon Soul power has undergone its initial awakening. Its power attribute has been judged to be the power of the Evil Soul, lying between the divine and the sinful. This new power has generated a new class for you. Please name your class… As the essence of the power is that of the Evil Dragon, the class name must contain the words ‘Evil Dragon.'”
In the silence, the sweet chime of the system rang in his ears. The corner of Ye Tianxie’s mouth curved up, and without much thought at all, he said slowly, “Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon!“
Rebel-boned… He had a rebel’s bones, and it seemed he’d been born with them.
“Ding… The class name ‘Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon’ has been successfully registered!”
“Ding… You have successfully changed class to the exclusive class ‘Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon.’ Strength +45, Constitution +45, Agility +45, Spirit +45, HP +1150, MP +1150. On each level-up, in addition to 5 free attribute points, you gain a further Strength +3, Constitution +3, Agility +3, Spirit +3, and HP +20, MP +20. Each point of Strength grants 2 attack power; each point of Constitution grants 10 HP and 1 defense; each point of Agility grants 1 accuracy and 1 evasion; each point of Spirit grants 2 magic attack and 10 MP.”
“Ding… You have obtained the ‘Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon’ exclusive innate skills ‘Body of the Evil Dragon,’ ‘Claw of the Evil Dragon,’ ‘Eye of the Evil Dragon,’ and ‘Soul of the Evil Dragon.’ The dragon’s exclusive forbidden technique ‘Dragon Soul Detonation’ has been unlocked.”
Body of the Evil Dragon: The dragon is the living creature with the most formidable constitution and defensive capability, and an Evil Dragon fusing light and dark dragon-power will have a body stronger still than an ordinary dragon’s. It also carries extremely strong immunity to the powers of light and darkness. Light resistance +70%, dark resistance +70%, water resistance +20%, fire resistance +20%, wind resistance +20%, lightning resistance +20%, earth resistance +20%. Defense increased by 5 × level; defense increased by (0.3 × level)%. May wear the equipment of any class.
Claw of the Evil Dragon: The dragon is the living creature with the greatest strength, and an Evil Dragon fusing light and dark dragon-power will have strength greater still than an ordinary dragon’s. A dragon’s claw is itself a terrible weapon; any ordinary weapon placed into a dragon’s claw becomes a mighty divine armament. Attack increased by 5 × level; attack increased by (0.3 × level)%. Critical rate +5%. May use the weapons of any class.
Eye of the Evil Dragon: The strange draconic eye produced by the fusion of light and dark power. It can see through environments of absolute darkness and absolute light, possesses visual range several times that of an ordinary person, and can see through the information — even the weaknesses — of monsters, players, and NPCs whose strength is no more than 20 levels above the user’s own.
Soul of the Evil Dragon: An exclusive and singular ability of the Evil Dragon. When activated, it burns the Evil Dragon’s life to build the strongest, most impregnable defense, completely blocking any attack from an enemy. Reduces HP by 10% per second while active; automatically cancels when HP drops to 10% or below, and may be interrupted at any time during its duration. HP cannot be restored by any means while it is active. Cannot be used when HP is below 10%. Usable three times per day, with no less than one hour between uses. Powered by the Evil Dragon’s own force; requires no other cost.
When the class-change chimes for “Rebel-Boned Evil Dragon” rang out, the sheer strength of the bonus attributes — enough to leave anyone slack-jawed — had him doubting his own ears. Too strong. Truly too strong, strong beyond anything he had allowed himself to expect. On the four basic attributes alone, he had just gained a full 180 points!
And when the details of the four innate skills surfaced in his mind, tough-minded as he was, his brain simply crashed for a long moment… He could never have imagined that a class emerging from this string of bizarre encounters and bizarre processes would possess innate abilities this powerful. He had never even considered that the world of Fate would permit a class like this to exist… In defense and in attack alike, it hugely exceeded the ceiling of an ordinary player. Even with nothing but these four innate skills, this class would still be far, far stronger than any normal one. The thought struck him immediately: an ability set like this tore the game balance of the world of Fate clean in half, with no room for argument.
And finally, that skill named “Dragon Soul Detonation.” Its skill description ran to just eight characters — and those eight characters made both his gaze and his heart lurch:
Dragon Soul Detonation: Detonate the dragon soul. Destroy everything.
Detonate the dragon soul. Destroy everything. Beyond those eight characters, there was no other information about the skill whatsoever. No mention of damage. No mention of range. No mention of cost. No note on what the skill actually did… But those four unmistakable characters were destroy everything. What degree of destruction earned a phrase like destroy everything?
Forcing down the shock and the exhilaration in his heart, Ye Tianxie opened his eyes and looked around. The fierce light-power and dark-power were entirely gone. There wasn’t a trace of illumination anywhere; even the Dragon God’s Stone, the one light source that had been here, had vanished without remainder. And yet, in a space with plainly no light in it at all, he found he could see everything here clearly — right down to the tiniest chips of stone on the ground.
The Eye of the Evil Dragon… the strange eye that saw through absolute darkness and absolute light!
(End of Chapter 111)