The heavens wept.
Thunder rolled endlessly across the storm-darkened sky, lightning splitting the clouds into jagged scars. Rain poured down, hissing into steam as it met the heat of two auras colliding in the void.
One was wrapped in a dark-red inferno, his figure blurred by the sheer intensity of his qi. The other loomed astride a monstrous Nine-Headed Hydra, each serpent maw dripping venom of a different terror—paralysis, corrosion, hallucination, necrosis, soul-poison, blood-burn, petrification, miasma, and void poison. Black-green droplets sizzled through the air, falling like deadly rain.
The hydra struck first. Nine heads lashed out, venom arcs cutting through the storm.
The flame-shrouded figure—Tian Longwei—roared, his fire bursting outward, weaving a shield of searing crimson. Venom struck flame, exploding into shrieks of smoke and poison. His barrier cracked under the hydra's relentless assault, and with a thunderous crash, Longwei plummeted to the earth.
Hovering above, the rider sneered.
Hei Feng Duanpo. His voice echoed like a curse.
"Tian Longwei, your sect has already fallen. You have nowhere left to run. Hand over the Supreme Weapon… or die a death worse than poison itself."
Longwei, bloodied but unbroken, forced himself to his feet. His voice cut through the storm.
"Hei Feng Duanpo, today's grudge—I, Tian Longwei, will settle with my own hands! Do you think you can seize the Supreme Weapon from me so easily?"
Duangpo's laugh boomed, cruel and scornful.
"Look at you. A crippled flame. With that weak body, what can you possibly do?"
Yet Longwei laughed as well. Louder. Wilder. His ragged voice rolled like thunder, his mirth echoing across the heavens. The sound unsettled Duanpo; unease flickered in his eyes.
Then Longwei bent low, whispering with a smile.
"Buddy… it's time. Come out."
The earth ruptured.
A majestic beast surged forth—the Poisonous Fire Dragon (毒炎龙). Fifty meters of sinuous scale and claw, wings unfurling to span a hundred meters, each flap igniting the rain into showers of fire. Its roar shook mountains and rattled the heavens.
Duanpo smirked, masking his surprise.
"Ha! I thought you had brought out the Supreme Weapon. In the end, it's just a beast."
But then—
Flame surged. Venom ignited. Both Tian Longwei and his dragon simultaneously burned their core qi.
The world trembled.
From beneath the ground, flames surged like molten rivers, piercing the sky in pillars of red and violet fire. The storm itself scattered before their fury. The dragon's scales blazed, Longwei's body radiated destructive brilliance.
Hei Feng Duanpo's smile vanished. His pupils shrank.
"What… what is this? Even if they're burning their core energy, this… this power is too vast! Impossible! What the hell is this?!"
The heavens shook. The earth quaked. The clash of poison and flame was about to remake the world.