Seeing quite a few readers expressing confusion in the comments, I've decided to dedicate a chapter to explain things.
First and foremost, the mythical bloodlines hidden within the protagonist are his true "cheat"!
After all, relying solely on the Emerald Phosphorescent Serpent Emperor wouldn't be enough to take on the gods of the Divine Realm. So, naturally, I had to give him some overpowered advantages, or it would be too brutal for the protagonist.
What, should the protagonist really wait tens of thousands of years for his beast incarnation to become a god?
Some readers have asked why I didn't have the Emerald Phosphorescent Serpent Emperor transform into a dragon.
First of all, turning a snake into a dragon isn't exactly novel—too many stories have already done that. Besides, the dragons in Douluo Dalu aren't all that impressive. At best, there's the Dragon God, but even that's just someone who was taken down by the gods of the Divine Realm. How impressive can that be?
Let me clarify here: in this book, the Dragon God's background is based on the lore from the first three Douluo Dalu books and the Divine Realm Side Story.
The fourth book's setup is too absurd and won't be adopted here.
In the lore of the first three books and the side story, the Dragon God was a divine king who ascended from the mortal world. Because the Dragon God was oppressed by the gods in the Divine Realm, it led the beast gods in rebellion, ultimately failing and being split in half by the Asura God into the Silver Dragon King and the Golden Dragon King.
And it was precisely because of the Dragon God's rebellion that the Divine Realm established the rule prohibiting beasts from becoming gods.
The first three Douluo Dalu books revolve around this concept, and the conflict between soul beasts and the Divine Realm is a reasonable setup. Tang San suppressing soul beasts makes perfect sense—it's politically correct.
Then comes the fourth book, where the author completely overturns the previous setup and makes the Dragon God a Creator God! Even the Divine Realm was portrayed as something it created. The beast faction suddenly got a massive upgrade… The most ridiculous part is that the rule prohibiting soul beasts from becoming gods was turned into something the Dragon God itself decreed before it died.
Great, now the blame falls entirely on the soul beasts themselves. Soul beasts became the architects of their own misery, while the gods came out squeaky clean, completely blameless. After all, the rule wasn't their doing—it was the Dragon God's.
This setup was clearly designed to absolve the Divine Realm, but it's so excessive and unreasonable that it doesn't make any sense.
Thus, in this book, only the setup from the first three books and the side story is used. The fourth book's setup is ignored.
Now, about the protagonist: aside from the awakened Nine Infants bloodline, the other mythical bloodlines in his body can essentially be considered dormant for now. That's because I've set very stringent awakening conditions for them!
This mainly serves a purpose for potential future storylines. Once Douluo Dalu is finished, I might venture into other worlds. At that point, the other mythical bloodlines will come into play.
Of course, there's also the possibility that I'll stop writing after finishing Douluo Dalu. That will depend on how well the story performs. For now, consider the other mythical bloodlines as non-existent. The Nine Infants bloodline alone is more than enough for the protagonist to dominate Douluo Dalu.
(End of Chapter)