There is a webnovel series that I have been following for many years now. Have you heard of Douluo Dalu or Soul Land? Not only is it a webnovel, it has also been made into a manga, game and drama. People born in that world are able to manifest beast souls, weapon souls or whatever, with which they cultivate and reach higher levels. Basically, Westerners would place it under the fantasy genre. Douluo Dalu 4, which updates twice daily, will be ending this month. Anyway, there was a revelation pretty recently which I found to be pretty epic. Thus, I’ve decided to share it here (The author was originally gonna end the saga with 4, but somehow it seems there’ll be a 5 as well!)
Basically, the protagonist of DD4 is named Lan Xuanyu. He is the successor of the Dragon God, born with his bloodline. The Dragon God was split into two, Golden Dragon King and Silver Dragon King. His father has the power of the Golden Dragon King sealed within him while his mother is the Silver Dragon King (or Queen, if you want). Since birth, Lan Xuanyu has been fighting to merge the Golden bloodline and the Silver bloodline to ultimately become the new Dragon God and create an immortal realm.
There are levels in this world. At level 100, one becomes a God. Still, Gods are only immortal if there are God seats. Ever since the God realm was swept away by some space-time disaster, those who achieve Godhood will basically age and die when their longevities are up. At level 110, one becomes a True God, and at level 120, a Greater God (arbitrary translations by me). Beyond that lies the ultimate God King realm. God Kings can create an immortal realm. One more thing – besides humans, there are also beasts in this world that have sentience. However, beasts cannot achieve Godhood according to a formless heavenly law existing in the world…
Long, long ago, the Dragon God was THE strongest God King. However, the Dragon God went crazy one day. Rampage, a fierce battle, as blood rained down from the skies… Ultimately, the Dragon God was slain by one of the human Gods, splitting into two. Along with him, the entire Dragon race, once proud and mighty, was slaughtered. The beast races that supported the Dragon God were restricted from attaining Godhood forevermore as henceforth, humans alone could reach that realm.
Now, one might think that the Dragon God had suppressed the human race who eventually rose up to overthrow his tyranny. In actuality, I believe that our MC might have thought that way too. More specifically, he had reason to believe that dragons thought themselves superior to other races, which could have led to stuff such as discrimination. The reader is also led to believe this. This paints a picture of the oppressed humans fighting bravely as an underdog in a revolution, for justice…
The MC lectured the Dragon God’s remaining wisp of soul at one point, but at the point when he was taking the Dragon God’s test (successorship), the truth of eons ago was finally revealed. And it was… astounding.
So, the immortal realm is not the endpoint. The immortal realm is a 4th dimension realm and breaking through to a 5th dimension one will basically allow it to flourish for all time and all that. How did it start, that dreadful tragedy? Well, it all started when the Dragon God was trying to evolve the immortal realm from a 4th dimension to a 5th dimension one. It is revealed that the Dragon God had not 9 Dragon Kings but 10 under him, the 10th being his own son. The Dragon God had a wife who cared for him long before he became Dragon God. However, she was merely ordinary while he was super powerful. Thus, she could not bear his child. Eventually, the Dragon God was being bugged to have a successor. She made the decision to sacrifice herself to get pregnant and died as soon as the Dragon Prince was born.
The Dragon God’s wish was to evolve the immortal realm, the Dragon Prince knew. Thus, when the Dragon God was facing difficulty in the breakthrough, he listened to the words of a compatriot (either Time or Space Dragon King), and went over to lend his assistance. The Dragon God drained the power from the Dragon Prince. The Dragon Prince did not resist and had a smile throughout as all the life was drained from his body and he died. Now, the Dragon God definitely was not intending this! In reality, those scoundrels the Space and Time Dragon Kings were fooling his senses through their arcane arts. With the evolution nigh complete, the Dragon God regained his senses and found the Dragon Prince dead, smiling, at his feet…
The Dragon Prince thought that the wish of the Dragon God was completing that evolution. However, he was wrong! The Dragon God wanted the evolution so that his son could have a stable rule. In fact, after the evolution succeeded, he had been planning to go look for his wife in death. With his son now dead, what had it all been for in the first place!!! The Dragon God flew into a rage. He slew the King who had asked his son to approach him and lend him his strength. Then, he ultimately went crazy and flew into a slaughter. The nine remaining Dragon Kings as well as the eight non-Dragon God Kings battled against him, but even with the backlash from the forceful termination of the evolution, he was too strong. He killed the majority of them and when they knocked him temporarily out of commission there were only like 3 Dragon Kings and 5 non-Dragon God Kings left.
Now, everyone loved and respected the Dragon King who was a fair ruler. One of the human God Kings mentioned above was viewed by the Dragon God as fair and impartial and most suited to be enforcer of laws (Asura God). However, if the Dragon King recovered from his wounds and remained crazed, he would end up destroying the whole immortal realm with his own hands! The rational thing to do was for the Asura God to end him with his Divine Weapon, as much as this might grief him.
To make a long story short, the Dragon Kings (Light, Dark and Water were left) could only let anyone harm the Dragon King, who was like their father, over their dead bodies. And guess what??? The Light Dragon King called the unsuspecting Water Dragon King over and killed her. She and the Dark Dragon King who was her husband then ended their lives tragically together, but only after telling the Asura God and co to ‘treat the dragon race well’. They agreed, of course.
And so the Asura God prepared to slay the Dragon God…and then the god legion arrived. The dragons saw how all their Kings were dead, the ‘usurper’ Asura God about to bring his weapon down, heartlessly slaying that unconscious Dragon God. The Asura God and co had no way to explain themselves to the enraged dragons. A war broke out. The dragons were not God Kings, but mighty were they. Ultimately, all the dragons and virtually all the beasts were killed. Obviously, the other side was devastated as well. Of the five non-Dragon God Kings, only three remained – the Asura God and the Gods of Good and Evil (another husband-wife pair).
At this point, the Asura God resolved himself and struck. But then the Dragon God’s Divine Weapon activated and protected him! And the Dragon God awoke! The three prepared themselves for death. But death did not come. The Dragon God absorbed the negative energy that was running rampant in the immortal realm into himself before splitting his emotions into two – the good part and the crazed part. Then, he spoke to the Asura God:
I do not have much time remaining. Remember these things. One, do not attempt to evolve the immortal realm unless you have a definite way. I went crazy and this tragedy happened because I challenged the universe’s laws. We are mere specks before it… Two, I have devoured all the resentment, hatred and negativity into my body. It will take a long time before it fades away. After your blade descends, the portion with my goodwill will leave carrying hope for my race. As for the evil portion, you must suppress it in the immortal realm and let it fade with time…
…
This whole tragedy is my fault. After I die, unless the dragon race is restored, the Dragon God revived, do not allow the beasts to achieve Godhood in the immortal realm. Since it was us who caused this tragedy, we should be the ones who pay the price. I hope that this hatred can slowly fade away after my departure…
(Without the dragon race or any existing beast Gods to protect them in the immortal realm, newly ascended beast Gods would be hated due to all the bloodshed they’d caused and not meet good ends)
Cut me down. The time of the dragons is over. Shouldering your own fates, do not let this mistake repeat itself. If I am able to return one day… no, I will never return. If he who bears my legacy is able to return one day, it will surely be him who can lead you who remain, attempting a breakthrough to a higher dimension realm once more…
“Milord!” The three God Kings wailed in agony, falling to their knees before the Dragon God.
At this moment, they no longer held any resentment or fury towards him whatsoever. The awakened Dragon King did not take revenge on them but instead stabilised the immortal realm, sacrificing himself to seal all the negative energy within. He was still that glorious Dragon God who had created their immortal realm, leading it towards that Golden Age!
The sword fell. A dragon’s roar reverberated throughout the immortal realm. All lowered their heads. Gold and silver flashed, dragon corpses flying into the air and into a nine-coloured whirlpool.
“Farewell, immortal realm!”
And that’s the end of my post! Really, this segment was just so epic, the Dragon God so grand and magnificent. Don’t you think? Well, I felt like sharing and so I did, and I got to flex my translator muscles too! It’s been a long time haha. Obviously, I only read the raws and never the tled version, so don’t blame me for stuff all not matching. Ok thx bye.