The clash of titans was a beautiful, terrifying, and world-shattering thing. The golden lightning of Yu Yuanzhen's Celestial Dragon's Judgment, the ultimate power of his ninety-thousand-year-old ninth spirit ring, met the Hundredfold Thunder Tribulation of the Thunder Roc Sovereign in a silent, blinding inferno of pure, elemental chaos.
The very canyon seemed to scream as the two ultimate attacks collided, the raw power of their meeting a cataclysm that tore the very fabric of the world.
For a single, heart-stopping moment, the world was white.
And then, the sound came. A deep, resonant, and soul-shattering BOOOOOOM that was not a sound, but a physical, tangible wave of pure, destructive force. The ground of the canyon, already a scarred, broken landscape, was pulverized into dust. The very walls of the canyon, a mile away, cracked and groaned under the strain.
When the light faded, the two Super Douluos were thrown backwards, their magnificent avatar forms flickering violently. Yu Yuanzhen's golden lightning was gone, replaced by the familiar, and now slightly weaker, blue of his normal spirit. He let out a low, pained groan, a thin trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth.
Tang Hao had fared slightly better, his own avatar still holding, though its form was wavering, its oppressive grey aura flickering like a dying candle.
They had survived. But the cost had been immense. Yu Yuanzhen had expended a vast amount of his spirit power to fuel that single, ultimate attack. And the Thunder Roc Sovereign…
It hovered in the air above them, its colossal form wreathed in the swirling remnants of the two storms. It was wounded. A large, ugly gash, oozing a strange, violet-colored ichor, had been torn into its side, a testament to the raw power of the Celestial Dragon's Judgment. Its blazing white eyes, which had been filled with a cold, intelligent fury, were now burning with a new, more personal hatred.
But it was not defeated.
A new, strange, and incredibly powerful energy began to radiate from the beast. Its physical form, the body of feathers and storm clouds, began to shimmer, to waver, like a heat haze on a summer day.
"What… what is it doing?" Yu Yuanzhen growled, his voice a low, pained sound as he struggled to maintain his avatar.
The Roc's body dissolved. It was no longer a creature of flesh and blood. It was a being of pure, unadulterated lightning. A magnificent, terrifying, and translucent silhouette of an avian king, its form a swirling vortex of pure, violet-white electrical energy.
"An Elemental Body," Tang Hao breathed, his own eyes wide with a mixture of awe and a deep, profound dread. "I've only ever read about it in the most ancient texts of my clan. A state that only the purest, most ancient elemental beasts can achieve. In this form… physical attacks have much less effect compared to before."
The Thunder Roc Sovereign, now a phantom of pure, elemental fury, let out another of its soul-shattering cries. But this time, it was not just sound. It was a wave of pure, disruptive electrical energy that washed over them.
Tang Hao's Deathgod Domain, which had been a constant, oppressive presence throughout the entire battle, simply… fizzled out. The grey, misty energy was torn apart, annihilated by the pure, overwhelming power of the Roc's elemental form.
Without the suppressive power of his domain, Tang Hao felt the full, unrestrained pressure of the canyon's natural storm slam down on him. His own power, which had been holding its own, was now being actively, forcefully suppressed.
The Roc moved. It was not just fast; it was instantaneous. It was a flicker of pure lightning, a thought that moved through the air.
"Tempest Rush!"
It was on them in an instant, its form a blur of violet-white energy. It did not use its talons. It simply crashed into them, a living, breathing bolt of lightning.
Yu Yuanzhen roared in defiance, his own blue lightning flaring to life. He met the charge head-on, his dragon avatar a shield of pure, domineering power.
The clash was a silent, beautiful, and utterly one-sided thing. The Roc's pure, elemental lightning simply… consumed his. Yu Yuanzhen was thrown backwards, his avatar shattering like glass, his own, human form appearing, his body crackling with residual violet energy, a pained, shocked expression on his face.
The Roc then turned its attention to Tang Hao. It became a storm, a whirlwind of lightning-fast strikes that were impossible to track, impossible to predict.
Tang Hao was a master of combat. His Clear Sky Absolutes were techniques of profound, beautiful artistry. But they were techniques. They required a rhythm, a flow, a pattern.
The Roc had no pattern. It was chaos. It was a dozen different attacks from a dozen different directions at once. A lightning-fast jab from the left. A sweeping arc of pure energy from the right. A sudden, crushing blow from above.
Tang Hao was forced into a desperate, purely defensive posture. He couldn't even begin to build the momentum for his Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer. He was being completely, utterly overwhelmed.
He knew, with a cold, hard certainty, that he could use his Great Sumeru Hammer. He could explode his rings. He could meet this storm of lightning with his own storm of annihilation.
But he couldn't.
'To use that technique now,' he thought, his mind a cold, calculating machine even in the heat of this desperate battle, 'would leave me crippled. Weak. And I cannot afford to be weak. Not now. The negotiations with this clan… the re-emergence of my own sect… it all depends on my strength.'
He looked at Yu Yuanzhen, who had managed to recover, his face pale, his own expression one of grim, dawning horror.
They both knew. They could not win this fight. Not without a price that was too high to pay.
They exchanged a single, silent look. A decision was made.
"We are leaving!" Yu Yuanzhen roared, his voice a desperate, powerful command. He activated his own spirit bone, a fifty-eight-thousand-year-old leg bone from a rare, spatial-type beast. "Void Step!"
His body flickered, for a moment becoming a shimmering, translucent phantom. He then vanished, a single, silent ripple in the air, a master of evasion making his escape.
Tang Hao was left to face the full, unrestrained fury of the Thunder Roc Sovereign alone.
"You think you can escape?!" the Roc's telepathic voice was a roar of pure, triumphant fury. It descended upon him, a living, breathing thunderstorm of pure, destructive power.
Tang Hao met the storm with a desperate, brilliant, and utterly defiant display of his own power. He did not use his hammer. He used his bones.
"Right Arm Spirit Bone Ability: Shattering Sky Strike!" he bellowed. A phantom of a Golden Ape King shot from his fist, a concentrated, armor-piercing shell that momentarily disrupted the Roc's elemental form.
"Left Leg Spirit Bone Ability: Mountain Stomp!" He slammed his foot down, and the very ground of the canyon erupted, a wave of pure, kinetic energy that forced the Roc to momentarily halt its descent.
"Torso Spirit Bone Ability: Titan's Resilience!" A ghostly, shimmering phantom of a massive, black-furred ape materialized around him, a desperate, final shield against the storm.
He used the precious, fractional second that his spirit bones had bought him. He turned and, with a final, defiant roar, he fled, a dark, sorrowful meteor disappearing into the storm-wracked labyrinth of the canyon.
The Thunder Roc Sovereign hovered in the air, its elemental form slowly solidifying back into a creature of flesh and storm clouds. It watched them go, its blazing white eyes filled with a cold, contemptuous fury.
'I could pursue them,' it thought, its own body a canvas of deep, aching pain. The gash in its side was still oozing violet ichor, and the backlash from its own ultimate attack was a burning fire in its core. 'But they are powerful. To hunt them down, to ensure their demise… it would cost me too much. I must recover. I must return to my brothers. And I must warn them. The humans… they are growing bold.'
With a final, mournful cry that echoed through the desolate canyon, it turned and flew back towards the deep, hidden heart of its domain.
High on the ridge, the silent, invisible bubble of Ah Yin's camouflage held firm. The seven observers watched the retreat of the two Super Douluos, their faces a mask of pure, unadulterated shock.
"They… they ran," Ning Rongrong whispered, her voice a choked, disbelieving sound. "Two Super Douluos… ran away from a single spirit beast."
"It was not a simple spirit beast, little princess," She Long's voice was a low, grim hiss from behind them. "That… that was a true king among the beasts. A being on a level that I have never seen before."
They did not follow the Roc. To do so would have been suicide. They simply waited, their hearts hammering against their ribs, until the last, lingering traces of the three colossal auras had vanished from their senses.
Zhang Tian, however, was not idle. He had been a silent, watchful observer throughout the entire, beautiful, and terrifying battle. But he had also been… planting.
The entire basin where the battle had taken place was now a silent, invisible carpet of his Blood Silver Grass. And as the Thunder Roc Sovereign had turned and flown back towards its home, a single, unnoticed tendril of crimson grass had detached itself from the main mass. It had snaked through the air, a silent, parasitic thread, and had latched onto the beast's wounded side.
'Go,' Zhang Tian had commanded it, his mental voice a quiet, absolute order. 'Show me its secrets.'
Through the senses of that single, brave vine, the world transformed. He was no longer a boy standing on a high, rocky ridge. He was flying. He was soaring through the storm-wracked heart of the Dragoncry Thunder Canyon, a silent, invisible passenger on the back of a king.
He saw the canyon as the Roc saw it. A world of pure, elemental power. He saw the deep, hidden valleys where the lightning was a constant, solid river of energy.
And then, he saw it.
The Roc descended into a valley that was different from the others. The lightning here was not a chaotic, random storm. It was a single, massive, and impossibly powerful pillar of pure, white-hot energy that descended from the heavens and struck the very center of the valley, a constant, eternal, and world-shaking tribulation.
And in the center of that valley, in the heart of that pillar of pure, divine lightning, two other colossal figures were waiting.
One was a leopard. A creature of impossible size and grace, its fur not fur, but a shimmering, shifting coat of pure, azure-blue lightning. It was the Azure Lightning Leopard, a hundred-thousand-year-old beast whose speed was not just speed, but a flicker of pure, instantaneous energy.
The other… the other was a dragon. A true dragon. Its body was a magnificent, terrifying creation of pure, solid, and almost physically tangible violet lightning. Its wings were a storm, its roar the thunder itself. It was the Violet-Gold Thunder Dragon, a creature whose power, whose very presence, made the Thunder Roc Sovereign seem like a common sparrow.
Zhang Tian stared, his mind a silent, screaming vortex of pure, unadulterated shock.
Three. There were three of them. Three hundred-thousand-year-old spirit beasts, three kings, hiding in the secret, hidden heart of this forbidden canyon.
He listened, through the senses of his vine, as the three kings began to speak, their voices a telepathic symphony of ancient, powerful thought.
"You are wounded, brother," the Violet-Gold Thunder Dragon's voice was a deep, resonant boom that seemed to shake the very foundations of Zhang Tian's soul. "Did you kill the intruders?"
"I drove them away," the Thunder Roc Sovereign replied, its own voice a weary, ragged sound. "They were powerful. The one with the hammer… he carried the scent of a different kind of death. A domain of pure slaughter. And the other… the one with dragon spirit seemed like someone from this human clan close to the region and his spirit and power was a pale, pathetic imitation of our own lightning, but his draconic aura and power was undeniable."
"They will likely return," the Azure Lightning Leopard's voice was a sharp, cutting hiss. "And they will bring more of their kind. We must be ready."
The Thunder Roc Sovereign nodded. "We will."
Zhang Tian withdrew his senses, his mind reeling.
'Three hundred-thousand-year-old beasts,' he thought, a cold, hard knot of a new, terrifying understanding forming in his gut. 'And not even the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan knows they are here. This canyon… it is not their forbidden ground. It is a dragon's nest.'
He looked at his companions, at their pale, shocked faces. They had seen a battle between two Super Douluos and one beast king. They had no idea of the true, terrifying power that slept just a few dozen miles away.
He thought of Tang Hao, of Yu Yuanzhen. He pictured them returning, their pride wounded, their ambition stoked, with their new army of Titled Douluos. He pictured them walking into this valley, into this nest of three ancient, powerful kings.
The thought of the slaughter of the new army of Titled Douluo who would face these three shockingly powerful beast kings made him internally smile.
His thoughts then turned to the Azure Lightning Leopard. He pictured its sleek, powerful form, its blinding speed, its pure, elemental power. He thought of his dear lover, Zhu Zhuqing.
'It's spirit ring…' he thought, a familiar, predatory hunger stirring within him. 'For her seventh, or her eighth ring… it would be a perfect, god-sent match.'
He immediately, ruthlessly, crushed the thought.
'No,' he chided himself, his expression turning grim. 'That is the old way of thinking. The path of slaughter. My path is a different one.'
He looked down at his own hands. He thought of the spirit tools he had designed, of the pills he had created.
'An artificial spirit ring,' he thought, his resolve hardening into a diamond of pure, unshakeable conviction. 'I will create one for her. A ring forged from the purest lightning-attribute metals, infused with the essence of the Thunder Hell Prison Vine, powered by a circuit array of my own design. It will not just be a ring. It will be a masterpiece. A creation that will not just match the power of this leopard king, but surpass it. That… that is the true path ahead as an Engineer.'
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A/N: Check out my other novels like "Douluo Dalu: Time Travel", "Harem Master: Seduction System" and the "Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist" and I hope you like this story and those stories as well.
Check out more chapters on my P.atreon. The P.atreon will have 20+ Chapters ahead for this story. I hope you like it.
The link of p.atreon is: bit.ly/evildragon