Chapter 138: Golden Dragon

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The Core was Extreme Yang, and linked to Fire.

The Body was Light Yang, and linked to Earth.

The Spirit was Extreme Yin, and linked to Water.

The Soul was Light Yin, and linked to Wind.

The Body was thus subordinate to the Core, opposed to the Soul, and linked to the Spirit.

Together, those four components made for a human cultivator.

For now, Edward had absorbed a treasure of his Core and his Spirit, and if he wanted to he could continue going as he started. However, absorbing a natural treasure for his Body and his Soul would make his breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm easier.

The Core and the Spirit opposed each other, so fusing them together would prove to be a hard task, but if the Spirit, subordinate to the Soul, and the Body, subordinate to the Core, were added in, then the merging would become much more thorough, and also easier.

An Extreme and Light component of the same attribute would easily merge with each other, while two linked components would also form a strong link. The Core and the Body would merge with one another, and so would the Spirit and the Soul.

Then, the link between the Body and the Spirit, as well as the one between the Core and Soul, would make the ultimate fusion of the core components easier.

By then, Edward's being would reach true unity as he would reach a truly perfect Nascent Soul. Of course, that was easier said than done. Extreme Yin and Yang treasures were more likely to appear because the extreme either lived or died. But it was harder for the Light Yin and Yang treasures to appear.

Edward had been searching for one such treasure for some time now, but he did not expect one to show up before him. The Golden Dragon was not a simple existence, it was made from the Core of a planet, and had been nurtured by the Queen Parasite for who knows how many years now.

Not every planetary core could give birth to a sentient entity, even with external help, but Edward happened to find one.

Without any hesitation, Edward whipped out Aeglos as he understood that before absorbing it, he needed to defeat the Golden Dragon, and kill the Queen Parasite controlling it.

Edward used his Dragon Head move right away, and created a rather strange scene. Edward's Dragon Head actually was really similar to the Golden Dragon's head, but was many times smaller, so it looked like a baby dragon meeting it's father.

This scene didn't last long though as the Golden Dragon slightly moved it's head away, and Edward's move clashed with it's scaled back.

The place where Edward's attack hit exploded, and a bunch of golden flesh and blood exploded out, but compared to the huge size of the Golden Dragon, this injury was nothing more than a scratch.

Edward instantly understood that his Dao Techniques would probably be useless against the Golden Dragon, but he didn't have the time to think too much about his actions as the Golden Dragon was upon him.

Edward exploded the air next to him, pushing him away at a great speed, but the size of the Golden Dragon played against Edward.

Even though he travelled a great distance with his technique, the Golden Dragon was several thousand kilometers long, and so even it's head was several kilometers wide in radius.

The massive Golden Dragon thus slammed into Edward, with a strength even greater than Starro or anything he had ever faced.

Edward was sent flying at an even greater speed as he slammed into the walls of the cave, and created a massive crater from the impact.

The Golden Dragon, or rather the Queen Parasite guiding it, was relentless as before the dust even settled, she guided the massive Golden Dragon toward the point of impact.

As it reached the wall of the cave, the rocks seemed to have turned into mud as the Golden Dragon easily swam through it, destroying everything in it's way as it created a massive tunnel, before winding back toward the initial position of the core of the planet.

However, as it returned it saw Edward back in good shape, waiting for it in the cave. When Edward slammed into the wall, most of the bones in his body were broken, and many of his organs had either shifted in place or been directly destroyed.

But Edward also discovered that the Golden Dragon, despite the extremely strong impact it produced, was also a good thing for him as his body was filled with Yang Chi.

The core of a planet was extremely important to said planet as it not only produced the magnetic field that kept it in one piece, but it was also the major source of Yang Chi for said planet. It was not an Extreme Yang Natural Treasure, but a Light Yang Treasure, one of incredible might.

Hence, just being close to the Core of the planet multiplied Edward's Chi recovery and overall might by several factors, so being slammed by it was even greater.

So while his body was ravaged by the impact, it had also filled his body with a new kind of pure Yang Chi, one that helped reconstruct his body nearly instantly, and a little bit stronger than before.

He thus had the time to teleport away, dodging the second attack.

While the Golden Dragon was digging a tunnel through the planet, Edward hadn't just been sitting there idle, recovering from his injuries, as he started inscribing a giant array into the ground. By the time the Golden Dragon came back, the array wasn't over yet, but even while standing in front of it, Edward kept a major part of his concentration on carving the array on the ground, while the other part went to the fighting.

Raising his left hand, a massive whirlwind appeared above him, and he threw it at the Golden Dragon. The living planetary core was now solid, but it was still extremely hot, so Edward did not even try using half assed water element techniques as they would vaporize before even nearing it.

Instead, as Edward threw the whirlwind at the Golden Dragon, it quickly turned into a flaming tornado, and slammed into the Golden Dragon.

The winds created by the spell were strong enough to rip off the flesh on the Golden Dragon's surface, but the planetary core seemed unable to feel the pain as it continued rushing toward Edward, a part of it's scales simply being swept away.

Thankfully, this time Edward knew he couldn't dodge the attack, and he had enough time to create a portal and portal away.

He didn't close the portal though, and kept it opened as he watched the Golden Dragon smash into it.

Space could be very sharp, and that's also why no one should go through a Sorcerer's portal without their approval, as if they close it on the person going through the portal, the majority of people would simply get cut in half.

However, as the Golden Dragon slammed into the portal, it simply crushed it down, destroying it while only making a light cut on it's scales. Light compared to it's size, but light nonetheless.

Standing some distance away from the Golden Dragon, who was searching for him, Edward frowned slightly as he thought of a way to kill the dragon.

Despite looking like so, he wasn't completely outmatched by the Golden Dragon. It's greatest advantage was obviously it's gigantic size, and the strength that came with it, but it's weaknesses were as great.

First was the obviously bad match up for it, every one of it's attacks healed Edward, and strengthened him to a small extent. It also wasn't able of using energy attacks, meaning it could only fight in close range.

Second was it's lack of intelligence, or rather the Queen Parasite's. Edward had weaknesses too in this match, such as his weaker physical strength, speed and size, but he used his head to go around them, while the Golden Dragon did not.

So while the Golden Dragon was much stronger and faster than Edward, he was smarter and capable of adapting to his enemies. Now, all he had to do was to find a way to kill the Queen Parasite inside the Golden Dragon, without harming it too much.

Well, he had found a way, the array he had been building, but the reason he frowned was because he wasn't sure it would work.

The array he was currently building was one that would attack the spirit, and for maximised power he decided to let it make no distinction, meaning that if he succeeded he would kill both the Golden Dragon and the Queen Parasite.

However, he didn't care much for several reasons. The first, the one that troubled him, was that he was limited to city wise arrays in terms of size, and while this was more than enough most of the time, here it simply wasn't enough.

The reason he was taking more time to set it was that he forced himself to create a bigger one as he could afford to do so in this rich Yang Chi environment, but even then his array would only be the size of several cities.

Although it was targeting the spirit, the size still mattered, so Edward wasn't sure this array would be enough to kill the two beings.

The second reason he didn't care about killing the spirit of the Golden Dragon was that he wasn't even sure it was still there, and even if it was, it was probably merged with the Queen Parasite's.

And even if none of those were the case, Edward didn't actually need the Golden Dragon to be alive. The goal was to capture the essence of the Golden Dragon and fuse it into his body, so it's spirit wasn't needed, he actually would have to kill it.

So yes, Edward was a little troubled, but he first had to try to know whether his plan would work or not.

In the following minute, Edward actually found his small size to be somewhat of an advantage too as the Golden Dragon was unable to find him.

However, Edward was forced to show himself a few times as the Golden Dragon seemed intent on leaving this place for some reason.

Still, all he had to do was to attack it, to keep it's attention focused on him, and after a few minutes of a game of cat and mouse, Edward finally finished his array.

He took some more time to replenish his Chi reserves, just in case, before throwing an enormous boulder at the Golden Dragon.

It did nothing to the giant beast, who simply shrugged off the giant boulder as a pebble, and instead allowed it to learn where Edward was.

But that was exactly what he wanted as the Golden Dragon started flying towards him, like a dumb enraged bull.