A flash of violet light erupted from Alex Xiao, and in an instant, a beautiful young woman appeared before Evan Chu.
"Big Bro, thank you!" Alex Xiao accepted the beast core from Evan Chu and spoke with excitement.
This beast core could easily help her break through one or even two realms—maybe even grow a fifth tail. Right now, she was absolutely thrilled.
She picked a corner of the room to sit down and started absorbing the core’s energy. Meanwhile, Evan Chu wasn’t idle—he took out the Dragon Scale his mother had left him from his storage ring.
The Dragon Scale glowed faintly gold in his palm. With grim determination, Evan Chu drew the Frostbane Sword and, in a swift motion, slashed his wrist, letting blood drip onto the scale.
As his blood touched the Dragon Scale, a dazzling golden light burst forth, illuminating the whole room. Even though Alex Xiao was busy absorbing the beast core’s energy, she stopped instantly.
She stared at the Dragon Scale in Evan Chu’s hand, her face full of confusion. The scale radiated an overwhelming dragon force that made her feel like submitting. By now, she was used to Evan Chu having all sorts of freakish treasures.
A surge of dragon force erupted from the Dragon Scale. Evan Chu calmly drew it into his body and began circulating it through his dantian, all with a natural ease and no resistance at all.
Once the dragon force entered his body, Evan Chu’s Heaven Star Core started spinning wildly inside his dantian. The Divine Dragon phantom on the core suddenly seemed to wake up—the dragon’s eyes even blinked a few times, looking eerily alive.
Evan Chu was totally unaware of all this. He had only one goal in mind—absorb the dragon force from the Dragon Scale, awaken his bloodline, and make a breakthrough to the next realm.
When Roxy awakened her Vermilion Bird bloodline, it left a deep impression on him—she had instantly broken through to the late Heaven Martial Realm. The power of bloodline awakening was truly terrifying.
By now, Roxy was probably already at the Divine Martial Realm back in the Phoenix Temple. The gap between his strength and hers was only growing wider.
As time slowly passed, the dragon force inside Evan Chu kept growing. It felt like the Dragon Scale held an endless supply of power—its golden glow hadn’t dimmed at all.
Gradually, the dragon force began to fuse with his Chaos Qi, then poured into his Heaven Star Core—more and more, layer by layer.
After two hours, most of the Chaos Qi in his Heaven Star Core had transformed into this pale-gold energy. Evan Chu didn’t know exactly what this golden energy was, but he was sure it had to be even stronger than Chaos Qi.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when the glow on the Dragon Scale finally began to fade. That meant most of its power had been absorbed. Originally, he could have used the scale three times, but due to past events, this was the last time it could help him.
He wasn’t sure if he could fully awaken his bloodline, but at least he knew he could awaken more than half of it.
Right now, his Heaven Star Core was completely saturated. His dantian was packed with unfused dragon force, and plenty of that power had already flooded into his meridians and blood.
Evan Chu noticed that his meridians and blood had changed color—especially his blood, which now ran a faint gold instead of red. The sight was almost unbelievable.
Once he’d absorbed all the dragon force from the Dragon Scale, his meridians and blood were completely saturated with power. The scale itself, meanwhile, had turned into a white piece of scale armor.
But there were words on the scale armor. Evan Chu looked closer and read: "Feng’er, if you’ve finished absorbing the dragon force from this scale, it means you’ve grown up and learned your true identity. Mother is sorry—please forgive me!
The Dragon Shrine is nothing like what you imagine. Without Saint Martial Realm strength, absolutely do not go—your life would be in grave danger.
Also, the location of the Dragon Shrine is extremely secret. To enter, you must first pass through the Vermilion Bird Clan. Feng’er, do your best—Mother is waiting for you in Purgatory..."
Reading this, Evan Chu nearly lost control. The word 'Purgatory' alone stabbed straight into his heart, conjuring up visions of endless torment. Fury and pain welled up inside him, his mind spinning with images of his mother suffering beyond imagination.
A wave of murderous intent burst from his body. His eyes turned blood-red, his face stiffened, and he looked utterly ferocious—like a beast on the edge of madness. All the rage and helplessness he’d buried erupted in that instant.
He should have been calmly circulating the dragon force in his meridians and blood to awaken his bloodline. But now, his agitation made the power inside him restless and unstable. Evan’s heart hammered in his chest, thoughts tangled between fury and desperation.
Lost in his rage, Evan Chu didn’t notice the danger at all. All he could think about was his mother, suffering endless pain and torment in Purgatory, and the burning need to save her—even if it cost him his life.
The mounting pain finally snapped him back to reality. At that moment, Sword Spirit Luna shouted urgently, "Lin Feng, what are you doing? Suppress your dragon force now, or you’ll go berserk!"
Even with Luna’s warning, Evan Chu couldn’t suppress the power. The bloodline force, awakened by dragon force, couldn’t find a proper path and began to tear his body apart.
Agonizing pain swept through him, even worse than when he made the breakthrough to the fourth layer of the Starforge Body. Evan Chu felt like his body was no longer his own—he was completely out of control.