The Surface Twin's phosphorescent fingertips cast wavering light across the subterranean passage paved with bronze dragon scales. Each step upon the saucer-sized plates resonated through the abyss - the groaning of chains like some slumbering behemoth turning in fitful dreams. The air hung thick with petrified time, smelling of oxidized metal and forgotten oaths.
"When Zhulong fell three centuries past, its spine petrified into this corridor," the Parasitic Twin rasped unexpectedly. His violet-black tongue darted from the grotesque head embedded in his brother's chest, tasting viscous fluid weeping from the walls. "Behold these crystallized marrow rivers - frozen galaxies trapped in stone."
I sidestepped dripping cerulean droplets that hissed where they struck my boots. The murals lining the passage shifted like living parchment - warriors in patinaed armor driving tiger-engraved modao into colossal beasts submerged in magma. When my gaze caught the lead warrior's fire-scarred visage beneath his helmet, my heart stuttered. Those battle-ravaged features mirrored precisely the White Tiger Guardian from my visions.
"We arrive." The Surface Twin halted before a bronze door etched with celestial charts. The parasitic head convulsed violently, spewing obsidian mist from its orifices. The vapor coalesced into seven grotesque keys slotting into comet-shaped depressions.
As the door groaned open, draconic majesty struck like a physical blow. The cavern beyond stretched vast as forgotten heavens, dominated by half-buried leviathan bones - a bronze dragon carcass mountain. Its caudal vertebrae fused with bedrock, fractured ribs dangling chains that suspended thousands of mummified corpses. Most arresting was the heart-cage - there pulsed the tiger-headed modao, its hilt's guardian sigil resonating with my tattoo in sympathetic vibration.
The Parasitic Twin's shriek rent the air. Wraiths poured from desiccated mouths, swirling into a vortex above the dragon's remains. His brother wove nine ghost-seals with fingers moving like possessed spiders, necrotic sigils crawling along chains toward the carcass: "By Xuixu's mandate, through reversed scale's covenant, rise from Nine Hells' depths..."
The spectral White Tiger behind me opened eyes like twin supernovae. When the incantation reached "Let Huangquan's gate yawn wide", emerald flames briefly ignited the dragon's empty sockets before guttering out. The Surface Twin staggered, vomiting torrents of black ichor as the spirit vortex detonated. Backlash winds carved crimson glyphs across his flesh.
"Guardian soul-blood... required after all..." The Parasitic Twin's venomous glare locked on me. Chains lashed around my wrists. Agony blossomed as three golden-tinged blood droplets traveled the links, only to rebound upon contacting bone - my essence coalescing midair into a roaring tiger's visage.
Sudden silence pressed like a burial shroud. The twins' faces contorted between shock and rapture, neck tendons bulging like earthworms. I shattered my bonds, stumbling against a protruding stele. Its inscriptions - twisted ancient characters - crawled into my bloodstream through lacerated palms.
"Cease!" The Surface Twin barked. "That's Yinglong's Funeral Arms Canon, etched in dying breath with reversed scale! Only Guardian's lineage can..."
His warning fractured beneath bone-cracking resonance. My hands moved unbidden, replicating his earlier mudras with blood-smeared fingers. The dispersed wraiths reformed into twelve skeletal serpents assaulting the bronze portal. As my pinkie completed the final sigil, black waters seeped through the cavern floor.
Amid the Parasitic Twin's howls, the embedded modao shuddered violently. Its tiger sigil projected a luminous pillar stretching my shadow into skyscraping proportions. Within the radiance condensed a palm-sized bronze wyrmling, broken wings still bearing an ancient arrow fragment.
"Impossible..." The Surface Twin collapsed, his ritual robes shedding enchanted threads like dead skin. "We gathered seven draconic bloodlines... You're merely..."
The wyrmling blinked amber-slitted eyes. Cocking its head at translucent claws, it suddenly snapped at nearby spirit fragments. With each consumed wisp, its form solidified - verdigris sloughing away like unwanted armor. Upon devouring the seventh morsel, a tiger mark identical to mine bloomed on its brow.
"Parasitic infestation! Destroy it!" The Parasitic Twin clawed at his brother's robes. "Should this wraith-dragon bond..."
The creature trilled like a contented kitten, scaling my leggings to nestle against my chest. When cool claws touched my tattoo, visions erupted - White Tiger Guardian's final strike piercing Yinglong's heart, dragonblood crystallizing on the modao's hilt as jade light escaped heavenward.
"Not necromancy." I stroked the wyrmling's warming scales as it nibbled my bloodied finger. "Soul's homecoming."
The cavern roof exploded. Moonlight and sandstorms flooded the tomb as the wyrmling's sigil blazed. Chains awoke as serpentine hordes, their mummified burdens plunging into inky waters. Through the twins' curses, I heard subterranean vibrations - not ghostly echoes, but vital rhythms undisturbed for three centuries.
The wyrmling soared toward the modao. Upon contact, the dragon's remains dissolved into bronze sand while the weapon shrank into a hairpin clasping my leather tie. Memories cascaded through the artifact - blood-oaths beneath thunderheads, betrayal's arrow from allied shadows, Azure Dragon's final warning before Xuixu's maw: "White Tiger, beware birth, age, sickness..."
"Fortune favors us." The Surface Twin materialized behind me, his parasite feasting on a corpse's lingering spirit. "A Guardian reincarnate versed in Funeral Arms, paired with soul-devouring drake..."
The wyrmling interrupted with azure flames bathing corpse-piles. Burned spirits sighed ecstatically, their essence flowing into my dantian. Dormant tattoos shifted into full armor patterns. The Parasitic Twin launched himself bodily from his brother's chest, putrid blood trailing as he lunged.
Events unfolded like shredded silk tapestry - the drake's sigil projected sword-light pinning the shrieking parasite to stone, the Surface Twin stuffing spell-papers into his hemorrhaging chest cavity. My tiger-claw tore through his torso unbidden, fingertips brushing Yinglong's reversed scale as three-century-old words thundered through my skull: "Guardian... we were all deceived..."
As I cast the bloodied scale into darkness, the dragon tomb collapsed. The Parasitic Twin's disintegrating lips formed four final words lost in maelstrom winds - "Beware Xuixu's depths."
The wyrmling burrowed into my collar, milk-teeth gently worrying my clavicle. Amidst cascading bronze sands, I gripped the hairpin as final memory shards aligned - the blurred assassin's blade from White Tiger's memories now clear, its hilt carved with a tiny, damning character: "Sickness."
The dragonling's tail scraped against the cavern wall, bronze scales striking sparks from sandstone. We descended through a sloping tunnel where viscous fluid oozed between stone joints, reeking of putrid dragon marrow. The Surface Twin's lantern illuminated fragmented murals - three-century-old battle scenes reanimating in mineral pigments. I watched the White Tiger Guardian's modao pierce Yinglong's reversed scale, noticing through the weapon's glowing sigils a blurred character: "Sickness".
"Three quarters till midnight." The Surface Twin's chest wound had scabbed into dragon-scale patterns. "The Cursed Armory's miasma will..."
The ground vanished beneath us. Plummeting through darkness, I smelled oxidized blood - thirty zhang below, a forest of broken weapons stood blade-upward, their edges glistening with eternal blood-dew. The dragonling hissed warning as tiger claws anchored in stone, my free hand grabbing the Twin's collar.
The armory awoke. Spears rusted into serpentine shapes rose like venomous brambles under moonlight. A bronze battle-axe bore tattered Vermilion Bird banners - remnants of Southern Legion lost in the Deluge Cataclysm.
Crack.
Subterranean chains snapped. Primordial heartbeats pulsed through the armory, making blood lakes ripple. The tiger-headed modao at the epicenter levitated, its "Sickness" sigil blazing like will-o'-wisp. The Twin sealed our acupoints with crimson talismans: "Breath-hold! Soul-Miasma!"
Too late. Crimson mist rose from blood-dew, congealing into armored wraiths. My temples throbbed as visions assaulted - White Tiger Guardian kneeling in monsoon rain, "Sickness"-marked modao protruding from his back. A boot stamped his spine, its Taotie patterns writhing beneath the assassin's bronze mask: "Four Symbols must merge... the Guardians' fate..."
"Beware!" The Parasitic Twin's remnant shrieked. I twisted as a demon-blade grazed my neck, its skull patterns matching the vision's armor. The dragonling's azure flames intensified the mist - wraiths feeding on my bloodlust.
The Twin tore his robes open. Black blood oozed from Yinglong's scale as he painted air-sigils. Weapons turned earthward like compass needles: "By Darkwater's guidance, Nine Hells open!"
The earth fractured. Through deafening roars emerged scaled hands larger than siege engines. The revealed horror defied mortal nightmares - a ten-zhang obsidian ape clad in chainmail, three human-faced basilisks coiling its neck. Most unnerving was the dragon-sealing nail in its chest - identical to White Tiger Guardian's artifact.
The ape's hammer-fist descended, hurricane winds scattering cursed blades. The Twin's Seven Evils Banner faltered under basilisk venom. My White Tiger aspect roared skyward. When claw met fist, three-century-old memories flooded:
Blood-drenched White Tiger stood over broken modao. Before him, Yinglong shed death like snakeskin, dragon-claws bearing Guardian's seal. Most horrifying - the figure on dragonhead wore "Sickness"-embroidered armor, command-flag summoning heavenly lightning.
"Venom!" Reality and memory merged. I dodged basilisk fangs as the hairpin elongated into modao. Severed snake-necks spewed dragon-marrow instead of blood. The decapitated heads writhed, eyeless faces chanting: "Guardian... you too are cursed..."
The ape howled in agony, sealing-nail bleeding jade light. The Twin cast nine Taotie-engraved coins, chains entangling its legs: "Strike Danzhong acupoint!"
The dragonling soared to scorch ape-ears. Scales melted like spring snow under azure flames. I leapt up the monstrous arm, modao singing toward the seal. Blade met bronze - the ape's fury dissolved into human sorrow.
"Strike!" The Twin coughed dragon-scale blood. "Illusion..."
Three inches deep. The ape petrified, basilisk-necks wailing like newborns. The collapsing armory birthed a blade-tornado overhead. The dragonling expanded to three chi, swallowing the vortex whole, third eye splitting its tiger-marked brow.
The Twin's dragon-claw nails pierced my wrist: "Purge the armory spirits! This corruption..."
The engorged dragonling froze. Black blood seeped through scales, third eye reflecting Taotie command-flags. Ancient consciousness observed us through its gaze - predator evaluating trapped prey.
"Retreat!" My blade split crimson earth. Below the abyss coiled Zhulong's embryo, each scale carved with Guardian seals. The Twin laughed madly, pressing Yinglong's scale to the embryo's brow: "At last... the awaited..."
Continental plates shifted. When Zhulong's eyelids parted, its pupils mirrored apocalyptic futures - Twelve Primordial Dragons rending heaven's veil, Empire Dominion's thirty-two barriers shattering like glass. Most terrible - the figure astride dragonheads wore my face in Guardian armor.
Rain fell as if the Heavenly River inverted its course. Kneeling in quagmire, the tiger-crested helm's gorget bit into my throat. The broken modao beside me stood like a grave marker, its "White Tiger" inscription eroding under blood-tinted deluge. This was no dream - the three-century-old storm's percussion on armor, Vermilion Guardian's arterial spray as dragon-binding chains pierced her heart, the "Sickness"-inscribed halberd tearing through my spine - all sensations vibrated with visceral veracity.
"Four Symbols Convergence Array!" My voice rasped through thunder. Black Tortoise's shell-shield ignited azure radiance to the left, Vermilion's phoenix arrows scoring the firmament, Azure's lightning-pike cleaving rain-curtains. A thousand rehearsed formations should have birthed golden barriers over Empire Dominion.
No light came.
Black Tortoise grunted. Seven bone spikes protruded from his shield's inner face, impaling his forearm. My pupils contracted - those spikes bore Guardian Bureau's anti-tamper sigils. Premeditated deicide.
"Why?!" Vermilion's scream merged with thunderclap. Her redirected arrows froze mid-flight. Through sheets of rain, I finally saw - the supposed guardian mages herding civilians toward cauldrons beneath city gates.
Azure removed his faceplate, revealing draconic eyes - whites replaced by scales, tongue forked like serpent's. "By Guardian Bureau's decree, Four Symbols converge." His lightning-pike discharged violet tendrils through Vermilion's mudra-forming hands. "But not elemental harmony..."
Agony erupted between my shoulders. The halberd tip protruding from my chest dripped blood defying gravity - each droplet flying toward cauldrons where Taotie gluttons writhed in molten bronze. Beyond the horizon, Yinglong's shedding carcass birthed pale new flesh - the nascent dragon's brow stamped with Guardian Bureau's sun-moon crest.
Black Tortoise surged forward, shield crushing three spell-weaving mages. Half his face dissolved from bone-spike venom, yet he roared: "White Tiger! Shatter the cauldrons! They feed on living..."
Clockwork clicks pierced the storm. A hundred Taotie terracotta soldiers erupted, joints spewing molten bronze, modao blades etched with soul-suppression spells exclusive to Guardians. My tiger seal burned against chest - their sun-moon breastplates resonated with my authority. They'd been programmed to prioritize Guardians.
"Flee!" Vermilion's dying throw sent phoenix-feathers detonating against cauldrons. The explosion revealed hell's own tapestry - ten thousand souls churning within bronze intestines, their essence siphoned through ritual grooves to feed the newborn dragon. Upon its skull-throne sat the High Sacrificer, command-flag billowing with "Birth, Age, Sickness, Death" prophecies.
Black Tortoise intercepted terracotta blades with his shield. His legs fused into charcoal by bronze spray: "To Xuixu... find Azure's true..." Three modao pinned him to ramparts. I recognized their serials - Jiazi-Seven, Nine, Thirteen - anti-demon arms we'd sanctified three winters past.
The newborn dragon's breath vaporized rain into blood-mist. Clutching Vermilion's shattered feather, I retreated beneath terracotta onslaught. Dragon scales sprouted from my wounded arm. Pale roots burrowed through blood-soaked earth - the succession oath's backlash.
"Does it hurt?" The High Sacrificer's voice carried dragonflame warmth. "When you bled on Four Symbols' pillars, did you fathom Guardian power springs from dragon's veins?"
Azure's lightning-pike descended. Parrying steel-on-steel, I saw his eyes fully reptilian, tiny claws wriggling through armor joints. More terrible - his command-flag's balanced sigils now writhed as sacrificial text: "Four Symbols Become One."
"The hour arrives." The Sacrificer's flag-flourish tore my tiger seal toward the cauldron. As it submerged, Empire Dominion's dragon-veins ruptured. The newborn's tail shattered thirty-two divine barriers like eggshells.
Crawling toward the nearest ley-node, broken modao sparking against stone, my palm touched ritual grooves. Subterranean roars answered. The molted dragon shrieked, its crest weeping black blood. Consumed souls oozed through scales, coalescing into White Tiger's spectral form.
"So this..." I vomited scale-studded ichor, comprehending the centuries-long scheme. Guardian Bureau had cultivated draconic seeds in our blood. The Convergence Array wasn't reinforcing barriers - it forged vessels for Primordial Dragons.
Terracotta blades sheared my backplate as the newborn dragon disintegrated. Through the High Sacrificer's enraged bellows, I saw my blood boiling in cauldrons - the tiger seal's "Guardian" inverting to "Prisoner". White Tiger's true demise three centuries past - awakened dragon-kin shredding hollow oaths.
Rain ceased abruptly. Consciousness fading, I glimpsed twelve draconic pupils splitting heavens - cosmic eyes reflecting endless cycles of betrayal and rebirth...