Word Count: 2,809 Words
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"Lord Dragon Emperor, didn't you want to save people? Ke ke, then this king will let you save to your heart's content!"
Blood-wrapped figures hurtled toward her at terrifying speed. Zi Yan clenched her silver teeth and darted forward. Her jade-like palms flashed out like lightning, striking all three in rapid succession. Golden light surged from her hands and scattered the eerie blood glow clinging to them. A pulse of hidden force followed, flinging the three out of the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation where the elders waiting outside caught them at once.
"Ke ke, what a kind and benevolent Dragon Emperor. This king is almost reluctant to part with you..."
The instant Zi Yan sent the three away, a bloody flash flickered before her eyes. The Northern Dragon King materialized in front of her like a ghost. Savage delight twisted his grim features, and his large, blood-smeared hand slammed into her shoulder with lightning-like speed.
Puchi!
A horrifying force burst into her body from the point of impact. The corrosive blood aura instantly sent agonizing pain tearing through every inch of her. Zi Yan spat out a mouthful of blood, and her delicate body flew backward under countless anxious gazes.
This was exactly why Xiao Yan had chosen to rescue people first. He had known from the very beginning that someone like the Northern Dragon King, that piece of human scum, no, dragon scum, would use the Ancient Void Dragon tribesmen to threaten Zi Yan.
"Hahahaha! I am the Dragon Emperor of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe! You, a bastard who only just came back with no merit to your name, what right do you have to be Dragon Emperor?!" The Northern Dragon King had clearly sunk into complete madness. The title of Dragon Emperor had become an obsession buried in his bones, driving him utterly insane.
"Kill!"
All three heads roared at once. The gigantic Dragon Slaying Sword in his hand swept out, its power displayed to the utmost limit. The blade fell like a demon-subduing executioner's axe. A single slash released an invisible ripple that suppressed everything in its path and rotted all things in this world!
Compared with the Northern Dragon King, Zi Yan truly was far too young. Because Dragon Island had split apart, the inheritance she received had never been complete. The three Dragon Kings, however, had already held their titles before the split. They possessed the full legacy of Dragon Island and had tempered themselves through countless battles.
Injured as she was, Zi Yan raised her sword horizontally to block. A piercing clang rang out, and an overwhelming force blasted down through the blade into her arms. Unable to rely on the Dragon Emperor's bloodline pressure or the Dragon Slaying Sword's power to suppress him, how could she possibly contend against a 6-star Dou Saint?
A boom shook the sky after only a few exchanges. Zi Yan was blasted away and smashed heavily into Dragon Island below.
"What, is this all our noble Lord Dragon Emperor can do? Hahahaha! If not for that Xiao Yan, Eastern Dragon Island would have been destroyed by us long ago. Why would I ever have needed the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation?!!"
"You forced me into this! The people of the three Dragon Islands died because of you! If you hadn't contested the Dragon Emperor's throne, none of this would have happened. It's all because of you!!"
The Northern Dragon King had truly gone mad. In his deranged mind, every sin and every fault belonged to Zi Yan alone.
Wuuuu!
A strange, resentful aura suddenly poured out of his body. Countless wronged spirits of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe erupted from within him in a flood.
Northern Dragon Island began to churn in an instant. The blood mist of the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation surged like a living sea of gore and fused with the vengeful spirits pouring from the Northern Dragon King's body.
"That's Lie Shan, and Zhu Mu, and Xuan Mo... they were actually... actually all refined?" First Elder Zhu Huo stared in disbelief. Those names belonged to experts of his own generation, old warriors who had followed the old Dragon Emperor together since their youth.
In the end, every one of them had met such a fate.
"Lord Dragon Emperor, aren't you kind-hearted? Then tell me, will you save these too?!"
The Northern Dragon King's face was wild with madness. He opened his mouth, and the void space within his body began disgorging its contents in rapid succession. Hundreds of juvenile Ancient Void Dragons were expelled one after another, none of them yet able to take human form, each barely ten meters long.
The instant Zi Yan saw those young dragons hidden inside his body, her eyes turned blood-red with fury. The blood mist of the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation was already surging toward them.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!!!
A blinding purple-gold light erupted. Zi Yan abandoned the Dragon Slaying Sword, and her body transformed in an instant as she reverted to her true form. A colossal dragon bearing a pair of enormous phoenix wings, several thousand meters long and vast as a mountain range, soared into the sky. She coiled her immense body around the young dragons and shielded every last one of them beneath her.
"It's all right. This Emperor will protect you all."
ROAR~~
"Heh heh heh, it's over. The Ancient Void Dragon Tribe belongs to this king now!"
"Be refined by the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation!"
Zi Yan had cast aside the Dragon Slaying Sword and used her true body to shield those young dragons. Endless blood energy surged inward and drowned her form in an instant.
The Dragon Transforming Demon Formation's corrosive aura ate into her body, and Zi Yan's presence withered completely. The Northern Dragon King let out a savage laugh, and the boundless blood mist and vengeful dragon spirits pounced toward her, intent on refining her into blood water.
Outside the bloody formation, the experts of Eastern Dragon Island watched in horror. Their eyes turned red on the spot.
"Haha..."
The Northern Dragon King cackled without pause. Yet just as the blood mist and vengeful spirits were about to engulf Zi Yan, a cluster of milky-white flame appeared before her enormous body.
The flame rose slowly. It was tiny, no more than a weak flicker like a candle, yet the blood mist and vengeful spirits of the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation recoiled from it as though they had encountered something utterly terrifying. Not a single wisp dared come near.
An empty zone opened within the formation at once!
"Having put up with you until now, I have to admire my own patience."
A calm voice drifted from within the milky-white Heavenly Flame. As the fire slowly faded, Xiao Yan's figure stood revealed within it.
The Northern Dragon King froze in midair the instant he heard that voice. His expression darkened by slow degrees. He raised his head, stared into the void ahead, and a chilling snarl tore from his throat.
"Xiao Yan!!! It's you again!! You again!!"
His eyes burned blood-red, his face contorted with savage fury as he roared. "Why aren't you dead?! You should have died in the Demon Flame Space! Why?!"
If one asked whom the Northern Dragon King hated most in this world, there was no question at all.
Xiao Yan.
He had ended up in this monstrous state because of Xiao Yan!
"Xiao Yan, have all the Ancient Void Dragons on Northern Dragon Island been rescued?" Zi Yan asked hurriedly the moment she saw him.
"Mm. The only ones left are the young ones hidden inside him." Xiao Yan gave a light nod.
What he did not say was that there were barely any survivors left on the island. Most of those remaining were old dragons, weak dragons, or members of the tribe with pitifully thin bloodlines and little strength.
All the powerful ones, all those with strong bloodlines, had already been refined by the Northern Dragon King. That was why Xiao Yan and the others had been able to complete the rescue so quickly.
Had the Northern Dragon King not imprisoned these young dragons inside his body, Xiao Yan would have blasted it to pieces long ago.
A low hum sounded as black flame surged forth. The Nihility Devouring Flame wrapped around every young dragon and carried them out of Northern Dragon Island in an instant, delivering them into Yun Yun and Nalan Yanran's care outside.
Zi Yan breathed a long sigh of relief as she watched the young dragons being carried safely away. She reverted to human form and stood beside Xiao Yan, grinding her teeth so hard it seemed she wanted to tear the Northern Dragon King apart with her bare hands.
She was about to summon the Dragon Slaying Sword when she suddenly coughed up another mouthful of blood. Her face turned white as paper. Blood aura was spreading rapidly from her shoulder wound, corroding her body. Though her Dragon Phoenix constitution was resisting with all its might, waves of piercing pain still made her complexion grow paler by the moment.
"Ke ke, struck by the dragon-transforming blood aura of the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation, even a Dragon Phoenix body won't have an easy time of it." The Northern Dragon King threw back his head and laughed, his voice shrill with glee. He had sacrificed nearly every tribesman on Northern Dragon Island, turning them into blood water and paying a ghastly price just to seize back the advantage. Zi Yan's misery now filled him with savage joy.
"Don't force your bloodline strength right now. Leave the Northern Dragon King to me." Xiao Yan summoned the Three Thousand Burning Flame. The little purple dragon shrank down and flew to Zi Yan's wound, breathing violet flame onto it to purge the dragon-transforming blood aura from her body.
Then Xiao Yan turned his gaze to the Northern Dragon King, his expression icy. "A beast like you is being let off lightly even by death."
"Heh, beast?" The Northern Dragon King bared his fangs in a crazed grin. "This world only has the strong and the weak. Nothing else!"
"Is that so," Xiao Yan said quietly. "Then feel the weight of your sins."
Every surviving Ancient Void Dragon had already been rescued. Now he could truly fight without restraint!
A brilliant crimson flame appeared in his palm. He had only just obtained the Red Lotus Karmic Flame and had not yet had time to refine it, but Huo Zhi had already removed the soul lock on the Heavenly Flame, and Xiao Xuan's soul imprint still remained within it. Because of that, Xiao Yan could already wield a measure of its power.
He flicked his wrist and tossed the Red Lotus Karmic Flame skyward.
"Heavenly Flame Dou Technique, Karmic Retribution Purgatory."
The Flame Mantra began circulating wildly. A vast and terrifying aura erupted from his body, so oppressive that the entire Dragon Island trembled. A single thunderous boom split the sky open, revealing an incomparably fiery-red hell beyond. In the next instant, boundless karmic fire poured down from above, burning through the endless void as though everything in the world were about to be destroyed.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
Under the terrifying karmic flames, Northern Dragon Island's defenses were instantly melted away by the blood-red fire.
Agonized screams rang out. The flames had not yet fallen directly onto the island itself, yet the vengeful spirits trapped within the Dragon Transforming Demon Formation were already being burned to ash. The searing heat alone was enough to roast Northern Dragon Island black.
The Red Lotus Karmic Flame!
Its special power was to ignite inner demons and draw out karmic sin. The heavier a person's crimes, the more horrifying the backlash. For a creature like the Northern Dragon King, one could well imagine what sort of terrible karmic retribution would descend upon him.
"Peak 5-star Dou Saint!!!" The Northern Dragon King's eyes went wide. Only a few years ago, Xiao Yan had been a mere 2-star Dou Saint. Now he had reached the peak of 5-star.
And his strength was faintly a notch higher than his own. His growth had been even faster!!
Let alone the Northern Dragon King. Even the warriors and elders of Eastern Dragon Island were dumbfounded.
"That milky-white flame... could it be the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame?!"
"My Dragon God! Grandmaster Xiao Yan didn't escape the Demon Flame Space at all. He refined the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame! Did he absorb all the energy in the Demon Flame Space before coming out?!"
Everyone on Eastern Dragon Island had known Xiao Yan was trapped inside the Demon Flame Space. Now, not a single one of them thought of it that way anymore.
He had clearly spent two full years cultivating inside it!!
Peak 5-star Dou Saint, only a hair's breadth from 6-star! And the Northern Dragon King had refined the entirety of Northern Dragon Island just to barely reach 6-star Dou Saint!
High above, the scarlet purgatory opened wide and poured down the most overbearing, most terrifying karmic fire in existence. Once unleashed, this fire could burn gods and demons alike, incinerating all things stained with karma until nothing remained but ash.
"That should be the Red Lotus Karmic Flame... but wasn't the Red Lotus Karmic Flame in the Yan Clan's hands?"
The karmic flames crashed down like a heavenly waterfall and drowned the entirety of Northern Dragon Island. For an existence like the Northern Dragon King, there was no flame more terrifying than the Red Lotus Karmic Flame. It would not merely kill him. It would drag every last one of his sins into the light and make him suffer the most horrifying retribution.
"STAY AWAY!"
The Red Lotus Karmic Flame wielded by Xiao Yan was terrifying beyond imagination. Even the Northern Dragon King could not endure it. In the blink of an eye, the blood mist around his body began to boil like scalding water, and Northern Dragon Island turned crimson, like a true purgatory of karmic retribution.
The boiling karmic fire on the ground below transformed into the things the Northern Dragon King feared most and shackled his limbs. The faces of the Southern Dragon King and Western Dragon King on his shoulders twisted viciously as they glared at him. Xiao Yan and Zi Yan could not know what he saw or heard, but the terror etched across his face made one thing clear enough. He was confronting the things he feared most.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!!
At that desperate instant, the Northern Dragon King erupted with boundless dragon might. At the very threshold of life and death, the bloodline sleeping within him awakened. A massive dragon silhouette emerged, radiating vast imperial pressure, as though the legendary Dragon God himself had descended.
"Even Ancestral Dragon Strength won't save you."
A flash of milky-white flame passed through Xiao Yan's eyes. Little Yi transformed into a pure white fire lotus, holy and flawless. With a soft rush of flame, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame erupted in full brilliance. In that moment, Xiao Yan seemed the Purifying Lotus Demon Saint reborn, clad in long robes of white fire.
"Northern Dragon King, you stirred rebellion and used your own kin as blood sacrifices. Death is far too easy for you."
"Refining Sky Ancient Formation, appear!"
As his voice fell, terrifying milky-white flame shot upward and downward like a pillar connecting sky and earth. The demon flame pierced deep into the fabric of space itself. A deafening rumble rolled out from the void, and then every warrior of Eastern Dragon Island watched in horror as an enormous fire formation slowly materialized in the sky above.
It was exaggeratedly vast, so enormous it could have blotted out the entire sky over Northern Dragon Island!
RUMBLE!
At the same time, the endless void beneath Northern Dragon Island began to churn. Under countless stunned gazes, a second colossal fire formation surfaced from below.
One above, one below. Two enormous white fire formations, each as vast as an island, locked Northern Dragon Island between them. The Northern Dragon King's expression turned ugly in an instant.
"This is the Purifying Lotus Demon Saint's Refining Sky Ancient Formation!!"
"Did Xiao Yan obtain the Purifying Lotus Demon Saint's inheritance?!"
Even Zi Yan was shocked. She had known Xiao Yan refined the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, but she had never expected him to have mastered even the Purifying Lotus Demon Saint's most powerful formation!
Is there anything you can't do?!
"Northern Dragon King, if I let you die quickly, how could I face the ancient dragons you refined?" Xiao Yan's voice was cold and unhurried, carrying the weight of absolute judgment. "Today, I will refine your body into a puppet and seal your soul within the Karmic Retribution Purgatory, where it will burn for ten thousand generations!"