**CHAPTER 07: THE CHAOS ITSELF**
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Several hours after the training with his father.
Night had already fallen, but Tianlong was still in the courtyard, sitting in a lotus position, meditating in silence, lost in his own thoughts.
The night breeze blew gently through the trees, swaying the leaves and carrying the damp scent of earth and the dust still lingering in the air from that morning's training. The stone ground around him still bore the marks of the battle with Yu Zhenhai—deep scratches, cracks, and grooves left by feet and claws.
The darkness didn't bother him. On the contrary, it helped him dive deeper into his own consciousness.
His breathing was slow, measured, almost imperceptible. The flow of spiritual energy around him circulated at a steady pace, forming gentle whirlwinds that enveloped his body like invisible veils. But, unlike the tranquility he displayed outwardly, inside, his mind was seething.
As was natural for any spirit master after breaking through a cultivation level, Tianlong had sat down to stabilize his foundation. The breakthrough to rank 28, achieved after absorbing part of the spiritual energy returned by the second skill of his martial soul, had long been fully consolidated. But even after stabilization, he remained there—meditating, not for cultivation, but to reflect on his previous battle.
"In that fight... my father used only three skills and still almost crushed me completely," he thought, replaying every second of the combat in his mind.
He knew that, at his current level, he would never be able to defeat his father in a fight, because, even though Zhenhai wasn't using the spiritual energy of someone at rank 89, he couldn't diminish his physical strength, speed, perception, and other attributes.
Although Tianlong knew this, he always, after a fight against his father, meditated to analyze how he could have performed better in that combat.
"Maybe I should have used Observation Haki more offensively... or combined the Dragon's Blood Essence with a more direct move. I'm relying too much on brute strength."
He let out a soft, resigned sigh.
"It's a pity that all my techniques are still too weak."
Even Observation Haki, one of his most powerful techniques, only allowed him to see two seconds into the future—an incredible advantage in combat between two spirit masters, but with critical limitations. The cooldown interval was at least 15 seconds, enough time for an experienced enemy to exploit the opening. And he suspected his father had done exactly that.
Zhenhai, with hundreds of previous duels against him, had probably deduced that he had some kind of perception technique and managed to time his attack precisely.
"I need to train until I can extend that time to at least five seconds."
His thoughts quickly shifted to his other skills.
Armament Haki was still far from reaching the level of the legends from the anime of his past life. Its current use barely protected his skin against attacks beyond a second spiritual skill. It was still a long way from punches that could shatter mountains, like Garp's Galaxy Impact.
As for Shunpo, his primary movement method, it was fast and powerful but suffered from the same cooldown limitation. Using it too frequently would leave him vulnerable, so he had to save it for the most critical moments.
As for the Eight Gates technique, it was a technique he had recently created after realizing that, in this world, something akin to the Eight Gates from the Naruto world also existed. For now, he could only open up to the third gate.
And finally, the energy he had recently discovered in this world, the Dragon's Blood Essence energy. Since Gu Yuena had only recently begun teaching him about it, he obviously couldn't use it as well as she could yet.
While reflecting on his progress, he murmured to himself in a grave tone:
"I have a lot of close-combat techniques... but almost nothing for long-range. I need to reach rank 30 as soon as possible. Maybe my next spirit ring will change that."
His thoughts led him to the two entities that defined his existence:
His martial souls.
The first, the Divine Dragon of Creation, granted dominion over elements like Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Thunder, Wood, Metal, Light, Space, Time, and Creation.
The second, the Divine Dragon of Destruction, governed destructive and dark forces, such as Darkness, Ruin, Annihilation, Devouring, Poison, and Death.
Tianlong understood that perhaps the secret behind his ease in replicating techniques from the anime of his past life lay precisely in the nature of these two souls.
Observation Haki, for example, was an intuitive form of temporal perception—mastery over Time.
Shunpo, a technique of instantaneous movement, was rooted in rudimentary control over Space.
So, perhaps the best way to make his techniques stronger was to grow stronger himself, increasing his spiritual power so that his understanding of the elements and laws controlled by his martial souls would become greater and more profound.
And he felt, with an intuition burning beneath his skin, that the third spirit ring would bring that breakthrough.
As a cultivated spirit beast in human form, Tianlong couldn't choose the skills he would receive, as humans did. Still, his spiritual connection with his own soul gave him a faint sense: his elements, at the next level, would evolve to a much greater degree.
So far, his dual pair of purple rings, two for each martial soul, consisted only of general strength and defense enhancements.
**Skills of the Divine Dragon of Creation:**
**1st Ring – Celestial Impulse **
A body-strengthening technique that drastically amplified his physical strength upon activation. But that was just the beginning. Every thirty seconds, his strength, speed, and endurance doubled in a cumulative process that lasted up to five minutes.
At the end of that time, if not interrupted, his body would enter an overload state, releasing all the accumulated energy in an absolutely devastating final attack.
Unfortunately, in his previous fight against his father, he hadn't reached the five-minute mark, so he couldn't use this skill.
**2nd Ring – Celestial Wing Shield**
A majestic defensive skill. When activated, the spiritual projection of the Dragon of Creation appeared behind him, unfurling a vast, radiant wing in front of him. This wing formed a reflective barrier that not only blocked physical and spiritual attacks within a certain limit but redirected the impact with five times the force to any target chosen by Tianlong.
In the previous fight, he had considered using it against his father, but his spiritual energy was already at its limit—so he opted for another approach.
**Skills of the Divine Dragon of Destruction:**
**1st Ring – Fragmented Ruin**
Similar to Celestial Surge, this technique greatly increased his physical strength. However, its unique feature was in the touch: with each blow that connected with the opponent, Tianlong absorbed 10% of the enemy's spiritual energy, strengthening his own attributes.
It was a combat-growth skill—the more he attacked, the more lethal he became.
However, its limitation was clear: it only worked against opponents with spiritual energy at the same level or weaker than his. That's why he didn't use it in the fight against his father.
**2nd Ring – Veil of Annihilation**
A dark counterpart to the Celestial Wing Shield. The spiritual projection of the Dragon of Destruction extended a black wing in front of Tianlong, creating a similar reflective barrier—but with a reduced effect.
The attack was reflected with twice the force, instead of five times. However, this technique absorbed some of the offensive energy and converted it into healing and spiritual recovery, allowing him to continue fighting even when exhausted.
These were the techniques that made up his arsenal so far. Powerful, yes—but incomplete. They lacked range. They lacked something to tie everything together.
But there was something that had been bothering him since he was young.
Behind all that magnificent structure of power and technique, there was a silent doubt—an existential mystery that had followed him since the moment he opened his eyes in this world.
Why the hell did he have two martial souls?
Among humans, though rare, the phenomenon of twin martial souls was known. Cases like these existed and were documented, even if they were exceptions among millions.
But Tianlong wasn't human. He was a spirit beast. And that was the problem.
Because spirit beasts, upon transforming into humans, carried their original martial soul with them. Xiao Wu was the clearest example of this: a Soft-Boned Rabbit before, and her martial soul, even after her transformation, remained the same rabbit.
But Tianlong?
He possessed two completely distinct martial souls. One represented Creation. The other, Destruction.
It was as if he simultaneously carried the beginning and the end of all things.
This contradicted one of the most fundamental rules of spiritual theory: twin martial souls usually shared similar traits, complementing each other in nature. But in his case, the souls were the exact opposite of one another.
The only hypothesis he had managed to formulate was that perhaps his original martial soul was a single one—but for some unknown reason, it had been split into two.
And this theory gained strength because of what he felt when activating both souls simultaneously.
Something no human bearer of twin souls could do.
According to records, all spirit masters with twin martial souls were forced to use them alternately. There was no record of a human capable of activating both souls at the same time.
But Tianlong was different. He could. And he did so naturally.
Also, with the knowledge he had of future events in the history of Douluo Dalu, he knew that this theory would be broken by Xie Xie (Soul Land 3), who could also use his two martial souls simultaneously.
But that still belonged to a distant future.
Every time Tianlong activated both souls at the same time, a strange vibrational reaction coursed through his body. It was as if they recognized each other as parts of the same whole... but at the same time, repelled each other, like opposing poles.
In the oldest records of the clan's library, there were mentions of this sensation—always associated with when a spirit master was near another spirit master who likely had a martial soul compatible with theirs. And if the level of compatibility was high enough, they could perform a martial soul fusion process, generating an extremely powerful technique, as in the case of Dai Mubai and Zhuqing.
But that had a problem... All these fusions involved two different people.
How, then, could one fuse two souls... within a single body?
It was this same question that once led him to try.
Inspired by another hybrid spirit beast who, in the future, would reach the divine realm—Tang Xuanyu.
Tang Xuanyu possessed two martial souls and, upon ascending as the Dragon God, fused them into one. This memory planted the idea in his mind: if Tang Xuanyu could do it... then maybe he could too.
One day, driven by courage or perhaps madness, he tried to channel the power of both souls, forcing them to merge.
The result was simply a disaster.
Creation and Destruction collided within his mind, and his soul nearly shattered in the process, along with the inner layers of his spiritual body, which almost broke apart. He vomited blood, lost consciousness, and remained in a coma for an entire month, hovering between life and death.
In fact, he was only in a coma for a month because of his mother, who went to the Star Dou Forest to call a friend to heal him.
If it weren't for that help, he might never have woken from the coma.
Since then, he never tried again. But the doubt still lingered in his mind.
Perhaps, if he could witness, in person, the fusion between two compatible spirit masters... if he could study that process, understand its laws... maybe one day he could achieve what no one before him had dared to attempt.
Or perhaps...
Perhaps he shouldn't follow in anyone's footsteps.
Perhaps he needed to forge a new path. A path that had never existed.
A path where Creation and Destruction ceased to be enemies—and became a single force.
A force that represented the absolute balance between opposites.
> The Chaos Itself.
....