340: Chapter 74: The Battle Against the Dragon, The Unfinished Battle_2 340: Chapter 74: The Battle Against the Dragon, The Unfinished Battle_2 Guided by the Dragon Sensing, Ao Ying had already jumped into the well!
And the aura of Qingmang from Tiesuo Alley also lingers nearby…
Xie Xuanyi might very well have jumped into the bottom of the well too!
These two value their lives too lightly, disregarding danger.
But I am not like them!
“It seems, this is the greatest fortune of the Great Yue Kingdom.”
Prince Jiu took a deep breath and made up his mind.
The moment he began hunting human cultivators, he used Divine Thought to inform Peacock Venerable to come to this place.
Now that the hunt was nearing its end, Peacock Venerable should be arriving at the Snow Mountain soon.
If I were to jump into the well, even if an accident were to occur, there should be Peacock Venerable to “catch” me!
“Jump…”
“I must jump!”
Just as Prince Jiu was preparing to jump into the well.
The Great Yue Well trembled lightly.
Boom, boom, boom.
A deep rumbling erupted from the water of the well, shattering the false calm.
That extremely powerful Tao rule surged out explosively!
“???”
Prince Jiu was completely dumbfounded, and he swiftly retreated.
But the eruption of the Dao rule was like a volcano.
Everything happened too fast, even at the peak of the Yin God Realm, one could not evade in time—
Emperor Qi’s Lifebound Cave Heaven had been sealed by the Ruyi Dao.
The Tao Rules shattered.
Divine light pierced through.
“Ssssh!”
A crisp cracking sound arose from within the column of light.
The Prince Jiu, who had been floating above the Great Yue Well, was forced back dozens of feet, yet was still grazed by the column of light.
He watched in horror as one of his arms, struck by the column of Tao Rules, was devoured…
and in the blink of an eye, turned to nothingness.
A true nothingness.
It didn’t turn to blood and flesh, or shattered into ashes.
“Ahhh…”
Tendons on Prince Jiu’s forehead bulged as the heart-wrenching pain surged through his Heart Lake.
He fell heavily to the ground, quickly sealed the wound with Dao rules, and summoned a multicolored divine lantern.
That towering figure that had enveloped his head also bent down to shield him in the middle…
But after a sweep of Divine Thought, Prince Jiu despaired.
For a member of the Demon Race at the Yin God Realm.
Regenerating a severed arm isn’t too difficult.
At the Yin God Realm, one transcends the mundane; a little injury to the mortal body doesn’t matter.
As long as the Lifebound Cave Heaven and the Tao Rules are present, one can slowly “repair”.
This aspect is slightly inferior for the Human Race.
However, it isn’t without a means to “repair”.
For example, Qing Sun, who was forced to sever his arm due to Zhao Chunyang infusing Sword Qi, if the Holy Empress took action, removed the Sword Qi, and then combined it with taking some Spirit Pills, the severed arm could be slowly healed and grow back.
But now, the arm that Prince Jiu had lost, had been completely turned to nothing.
An unprecedented force of Tao Rules had hit him, stripping his “arm” from his body!
This meant…
Even if the Great Venerate took action, it would be impossible to heal this piece of flesh.
If he never had it to begin with, how could it grow back?
“What kind of Tao rule is this?”
His face ashen, he watched the terrifying column of light soaring into the sky.
When his arm was severed, even the divine figure condensed from his Lifebound Cave Heaven behind him had an arm “sliced” off.
In that instant.
The previously Silent Annihilation of the ancient kingdom seemed to “come alive” again.
Sand flew and engulfed him.
The sounds of iron cavalry charging from all directions enveloped him.
Prince Jiu’s pupils constricted, and he found the scene incredibly familiar…
It was the Ancient Battlefield he had walked through before entering the ancient kingdom!
The battle against the dragon!
At that time, he even jokingly hoped that the void barriers in the ancient battlefield did not exist.
If possible.
He wanted to personally enter into the column of light in the battlefield, to witness the truth behind that battle against the dragon…
perhaps even recognize that “True Dragon”.
After all, as a member of the Demon Race, he carried a noble phoenix bloodline that allowed him to stand equal with “Dragon Descendants”.
He hadn’t expected that his jokes would turn into a cruel reality.
The Dao rules of the Great Yue Well had shattered, and the column of light rose up, enveloping the entire ancient battlefield.
“Boom!”
A sonorous dragon chant resonated between heaven and earth.
Prince Jiu sat collapsed on the ground, pale-faced as he watched the majestic True Dragon emerge from the Great Yue Well.
This True Dragon was only a Dharma form manifesting, an illusion congealed.
Moreover, due to the erosion of time over a thousand years, this Dharma form’s presence had nearly hit rock bottom…
but even then, the divine might it emitted caused the whole ancient city to be engulfed within it.
Prince Jiu found that he couldn’t even move a finger!
The blood of the phoenix from a peak Yin God powerhouse of the Demon Race was indeed extraordinary, but in front of a True Dragon, it was no different than an ant…
As for earlier thoughts of “conversations and recognition”, they were now laughable.
That True Dragon Dharma soared into the sky, it never even deigned to glance at him!
It was merely by coming into contact with the Dharma of the True Dragon emerging from the depth, he was deemed to have committed the “crime of blasphemy”, punished by the Tao rules with the severance of an arm.
Prince Jiu couldn’t imagine.
What would happen if one truly touched a True Dragon?
The next moment.
His face, shocked, became utterly frozen, for atop the back of the emerged True Dragon, there seemed to be several familiar figures seated.
Yes…
not just one.
Xie Zhen.
Ao Ying.
And…
standing at the head of the dragon, that shabby girl with her clothing and hair fluttering in sync, her hands clasped behind her back.
The very one he had been most disdainful towards.
The one he couldn’t be bothered to take another glance at — the Little Mute Girl from Tiesuo Alley.
…
…
The moment the [Feng Mou] drew Essence Blood from the person on the throne,
the shackles of Ruyi Dao were broken.
But what also broke along with them…
were the shackles “Qing Li” had placed on herself.
A thousand years ago, Emperor Qi used this Lifebound Cave Heaven to hunt the “True Dragon.”
In the end, as the True Dragon was dying, it spilled its Dragon Blood and drew a boundary…
trapping Emperor Qi’s remnant thoughts inside the throne, while sending its own will and Divine Sense with the Dragon Blood into the void.
Over the long years, Emperor Qi patched things up within his Lifebound Cave Heaven, waiting for the shackles to break.
And she, in this perished kingdom, underwent her own “rebirth.”
To ascend from a Yin God to a Yang God, one needed to inquire within and ask the Dao.
The subsequent ascensions were naturally even more difficult.
It is said that to ascend to a True Immortal…
one needs to see through the mortal world and overcome the “Reincarnation Tribulation.”
In the Da Sui Sword Palace, there were methods to help one through the trials of introspection and asking the Dao; one could either descend the mountain to gain experience or enter the mountain’s Grotto Heaven to cultivate in seclusion.
But no one knew what the Reincarnation Tribulation was.
This level of tribulation was too far removed from the mundane world.
Only those who truly ascended to heaven, nearing that step, could witness their own “Tribulation of Reincarnation.”
Shan Man took one hundred and twenty years.
To explore the secret of “Her.”
In her view, the reason Qing Li was blind, mute, and subjected to these tribulations…
was due to the “Five Decays of Heaven and Man,” essentially the approach of her end.
But there was another explanation.
This was Qing Li’s “Reincarnation Tribulation.”
Qing Li took one thousand years to traverse this tribulation.
Before Shan Man was born, She had already been wandering in the void, blinded and muted.
The greatest tribulation though was the loss of memory, losing oneself.
Stepping into the Great Yue Well and seeing her own self on the throne, already shattered a thousand years prior…
Qing Li retrieved her lost memories.
She became Herself once more.
The mighty dragon chant enveloped the entire main city.
The overwhelming brilliance transformed into an ocean, flooding the entire skies.
The moment the throne shattered.
The body of Emperor Qi’s remnant thoughts began to absorb the ancient and majestic Divine Power, sealed for a millennium.
But there wasn’t a trace of joy on his face.
The Ancient Battlefield from a thousand years ago, under the domain of Ruyi Dao, reappeared instantly.
The dragon-slaying battle from that time had not yet concluded.
Now that both had escaped their confines, war was resumed at the first opportunity!
Countless strands of Sword Qi fell like rain, forming a prison, locking the “True Dragon” in place—
Emperor Qi stared fixatedly at the young girl at the head of the dragon, his voice icy to the extreme, “These thousand years…
have you been passing through Reincarnation Tribulation?
Sadly, even if you succeed, it’s useless, for you have missed the correct era.
Even if you succeed in overcoming the tribulation, you are doomed to turn into a wisp of ash.”
Qing Li looked up at Emperor Qi in the sky, commanding a million brave soldiers.
She softly said, “What joy is there in living, what fear in dying?
I do not care about death.
What about you?”
At these words, Emperor Qi’s expression changed.
This war, enduring a thousand years…
Had he not also missed the correct era?
The nation was silent, the offerings he had prepared reduced to bone.
Now, where was there talk of ascending to heaven?
This war, fought until the end, resulted in nothing but ash, remnants, and embers.
In the end.
Only the very essence of “war” itself remained!
“I have nothing left,”
Emperor Qi, looking down upon the shattered city below, sneered with disdain, “But…
I still have the chance to ‘try once more.’ If I can kill you, this ‘True Dragon’ who passed through Reincarnation Tribulation, perhaps the Ruyi Dao could achieve absolute perfection.
What does it matter if the nation is destroyed?
If the heavens collapse, I shall become the heavens!”