Chapter 69: The New Bloodline After the Fusion of Dragon Souls

After parting ways with Dio from the Free Mage Corps, Wang Ling gazed at the B-level skill book and seventy thousand currency points he had obtained, feeling a touch of melancholy. The three extra-life mushrooms he had acquired in the Mario world had all been sold; from now on, the main quests could not afford any mistakes—he had to approach them with full dedication.

Moreover, there was a crucial point: he had no idea when he might be able to enter the Mario world again. To gain such a large amount of currency points as he had before wouldn't be so easy anymore.

"I wonder how little Peach is doing now. Has she been kidnapped yet? I'm really worried..."

Leaving the Free Market, Wang Ling returned to his personal quarters. His current total currency points stood at 77,600, more than enough to cover the cost of merging the Dragon Soul. At the brain terminal, after paying the required twenty thousand currency points, a beam of light shot out from the disc-shaped orb, enveloping his body.

Bathed in light, although he didn't experience the pain of spiritual power injection as he had in the Dark Warrior's laboratory, Wang Ling’s consciousness quickly grew hazy. The fusion lasted a full twenty minutes before concluding, and when he finally regained clarity, he felt obvious changes in his body—his entire being was cool and comfortable, his insides filled with strength, his mind sharper than before, and even his vision had noticeably improved!

He could sense a distinct energy at a spot similar to the dantian within his body.

Previously, when the souls of the Heavenly Dragon and Earth Dragon entered Wang Ling’s body, they released spiritual power to transform his bloodline—a process meant to be long and ongoing. However, he had been transported back by the Dream Space before the transformation was complete, causing it to halt abruptly. Now, by spending currency points and harnessing the power of the brain terminal, the transformation was finished in one stroke.

This transformation amounted to the two dragon souls releasing spiritual power to purify his cells, bones, blood, and flesh—in martial arts terms, it was akin to cleansing the marrow and renewing the body, allowing him to be reborn. Of course, this cleansing was not through internal force or mystical herbs, but through spiritual power.

What is spiritual power?

All things possess spirit. Spiritual power is a mysterious energy generated from the soul—it is elusive yet truly existent. This energy is born from the soul, attached to the body; without a body, spiritual power dissipates, and the soul gradually fades away in nature.

Body and soul can be seen as two sides of the same coin: by tempering the body, spiritual power is enhanced and feeds back into the soul. When the soul grows stronger and infuses more spiritual power into the body, the body likewise becomes more powerful.

The spiritual power of the Heavenly Dragon and Earth Dragon was not ordinary. These mighty dragon souls possessed extraordinarily high-quality spiritual power, and when they transformed Wang Ling’s bloodline, they purified his body completely. Not only did some latent sub-health issues caused by late nights vanish, his bones and blood were strengthened; his cellular vitality, strength, and resilience all reached their optimal states.

Wang Ling extended his hand, staring in disbelief at his palm. The calluses from writing assignments and gaming had disappeared, his skin was now delicate.

He hurried to the mirror on the wall and found his complexion greatly improved, flawless like a child’s, with not even the tiniest pores visible near his nose. As a student and homebody, his eyes often showed fatigue and bloodshot veins, making him appear somewhat listless. Now his whites were clear, pupils jet-black—no trace of exhaustion remained!

"Damn! If this happened in the real world, how many people would envy me to death!"

At that moment, the Dream Badge issued a message:

"Your body has successfully fused the souls of the Heavenly Dragon and Earth Dragon. Cleansed by spiritual power, your personal attributes have increased. You have acquired the spiritual power energy system. Your bloodline has changed."

Hearing the prompt, Wang Ling quickly checked his stats through the badge, and saw—aside from his original attributes and skills—a new entry:

"Special Bloodline: Dragon Blood."

"This bloodline is obtained by merging the souls of the Heavenly Dragon and Earth Dragon. After fusion, the two dragon souls slumber within your body. You must develop yourself to awaken the dragon souls gradually and master their immense power."

"As the dragon souls awaken, they will further enhance your attributes. Currently, the dragon souls' awakening is at 1%, granting a +1 bonus to each personal attribute."

"You have acquired the spiritual power energy system. Because the dragon souls are dormant, this spiritual power is not dragon soul power nor advanced elemental spiritual power, but the most basic non-attribute spiritual power."

"Note: A descendant of dragons should possess dragon blood! You are fortunate to have acquired this special bloodline, but how you wield its power and transform it into strength depends on your own efforts."

Seeing the data, Wang Ling became so excited he could barely contain himself. He checked his personal attributes and found his base stats had become:

"Strength: 36 (+1), Agility: 35 (+1), Stamina: 36 (+1), Intelligence: 35 (+1)"

"Compared to the time in the laboratory when dragon soul spiritual power was first infused, each attribute has increased by ten points—this must be due to the bloodline transformation from the dragon soul fusion. The +1 in parentheses represents the bonus from the dragon souls' awakening: 1% gives one point. If it reaches 100%, would that mean a hundred points bonus?"

Wang Ling felt his mouth watering...

"No matter how you look at it, my personal attributes have comprehensively improved... Looks like I really need to choose balanced allocation and develop all aspects in the future."

In fact, after getting the Plum Blossom Seat skill book, Wang Ling had considered shifting his points primarily into strength.

Whether facing bullets at range or fists and kicks up close, they could be dodged or blocked. Throws, however, were special—once grappled, there was no way to evade, and defense was pointless. Thus, the special quality of throws was that they couldn’t be defended against: you were bound to be caught.

Given this, such skills would be extremely powerful.

But throws could fail! If an enemy’s strength exceeded the user’s, the move might fail to execute. With balanced stats, facing an opponent also focused on strength, throws might become useless and even fail, causing a moment of rigidity—a fatal flaw!

Some summoned characters have allies: white-iron muskets for ranged combat, Plum Blossom Seat for close quarters. With a focus on strength, stamina as a secondary, and the new B-level skill book, his survivability and combat ability would be solid.

But now, seeing his personal stats, he hesitated again.

Balanced allocation has its merits: no weaknesses, able to handle any crisis, though lacking specialization might be dangerous and offer less explosive power in high-intensity battles. With the dragon soul transformation and overall attribute boost, plus the potential awakening bonuses, comprehensive development now had a solid foundation.

"In short, I'll allocate points evenly for now, and adjust as needed in the future!"

Wang Ling glanced at his personal stats once more, feeling very satisfied. After all, personal attributes had minimal impact on world difficulty; such gains were mostly beneficial.

"The base stats for an ordinary adult are ten points each; I now average thirty-six. Nice—even a punch without skills will pack considerable force. Defense, vitality, and mental strength are all increased. With higher agility, my sprint ability improves. If I hadn’t outrun Bai Feng last time, it would’ve been dangerous... What’s her allocation focus? Her agility clearly isn’t high..."

After reviewing his attributes, Wang Ling turned to his new energy system: spiritual power.

He sensed the energy at his dantian, trying to channel it to his hand. After a dozen failed attempts, he finally succeeded once—a small white orb appeared in his right palm, lasting only a few seconds before flickering and bursting into motes of light that scattered.

"I’ve gained energy, but I’m not proficient at using it. Energy isn’t like a skill that can be directly executed. Looks like these seven days of leisure can’t be wasted; I must familiarize myself with and master this energy."

"And I must find a way to increase the dragon souls’ awakening. Think of Billy and Jimmy in Double Dragon, unleashing their dragon soul awakenings—almost rivaling the Four Heavenly Kings of Orochi in King of Fighters. With twin dragon souls in my body, the potential is clearly greater. But to fully harness their power won’t be easy, since awakening is only at 1%."

At this thought, Wang Ling recalled a line from the bloodline data:

"Because the dragon souls are dormant, this spiritual power is not dragon soul power nor advanced elemental spiritual power, but the most basic non-attribute spiritual power."

"So, could basic white spiritual power advance to elemental spiritual power? Eventually upgrade to gold and silver dragon soul powers? Hmm, simply firing a spiritual power energy blast surely isn’t as strong as an elemental-enhanced one. Looks like my main energy development path should be to explore the elemental transformation of spiritual power."

After merging the Heavenly and Earth Dragon souls, Wang Ling was left with 57,600 currency points. He picked up the B-level skill book he had traded from Dio, feeling a surge of excitement.

Actually, after acquiring the Plum Blossom Seat, unless he encountered a truly tempting skill, he would never have spent the equivalent of sixty thousand currency points—a huge fortune—on another skill book!

This skill book came from the King of Fighters world on GBA.

Among the Psychic Team, the Chinese member Choi Kensou (the boy who eats buns and teams with Athena Asamiya) unleashes all his energy into the enemy and triggers a violent explosion—a secret technique:

Immortal Aura Activation!

(For accuracy: In fact, Choi Kensou's ultimate move does not appear in either of the two King of Fighters GBA games... But absence doesn’t mean he can’t use it—his psychic power was absorbed by another Chinese boy, Bao, so he couldn’t release it at the time. Thus, this skill could plausibly exist.)

(I hope everyone is satisfied with the inclusion of Chinese elements like Dragon Bloodline and Immortal Aura Activation. In many unlimited genre stories, the protagonist always relies on abilities from Japanese anime. Of course, in an unlimited setting, it's impossible not to use those powers—even essential to keep the story moving, unless it’s entirely about movies. But I wanted to add some Chinese elements, so I chose these abilities. There’ll also be martial arts masters like Wang Long from Kung Fu, and the drunkard from Double Dragon. I hope everyone appreciates these Chinese touches.)

(China has so many great things. From novels alone, you can see how rich people’s imaginations are. Sadly, no one has created classic animations like Dragon Ball, One Piece, or Naruto, nor classic games like Mario, Tank War, Final Fantasy, or God of War...)