Chapter 1853: The True Form of the Demon Lord (Part 2)
The Nine Suns howled in fury. In countless corners of the Southern Divine Region, one could clearly see a massive Golden Crow shadow proudly spreading its wings in the distant firmament, dyeing an entire vast star domain into an incomparably dazzling gold.
The ground of the Canglan Divine Domain rapidly sank, sank deeper and deeper... This divine domain, which had endured the protection of Canglan for hundreds of thousands of years and had not completely collapsed even under the war of the two divine domains, under the too-terrifying Golden Crow Divine Flame, began to truly dissolve layer by layer into eternal nothingness.
The blazing fiery light reflected in pairs of pupils dyed gold, scorching their bodies, their skin as if pressed against red-hot branding irons, and even their souls seemed to be being forged in flames.
This was already the case hundreds of miles away; it was impossible to imagine what kind of purgatory Long Bai, buried in the center of the blazing sun sea of fire, was enduring.
But, the flame purgatory was far from over.
The eruption of the Nine Suns Heavenly Wrath had not yet ceased, when within the golden fire prison, clusters of crimson fire lotuses silently bloomed.
The fire lotuses vied to bloom, at first just embellishments on the dazzling golden sea of fire, until hundreds... thousands... millions... the entire fire domain and firmament turned into a crimson-gold color, infinitely gorgeous and bewitching.
“Brilliant... World... Red... Lotus...” Qianye Ying'er murmured softly.
The Nine Suns Heavenly Wrath and the Brilliant World Red Lotus—the extremes of Golden Crow Flame and Phoenix Flame! Not only could Yun Che house both within himself, but now he could even release them simultaneously!
In the three years in the Zhou Tian Divine Realm, his Xuan Dao cultivation had not broken through, but his mastery over various powers had clearly entered a new realm.
All the Dragon Gods and Dragon Lords seemed to have lost their souls, unable even to utter a shout.
And the five Withered Dragon Venerables... when Yun Che fully released his Dragon God aura, they thought there was nothing in the world that could shake them so much. But at this moment, their withered faces were all twitching violently under extreme shock.
Dragon God... Darkness... Calamity Thunder... Storm... Flame...
The simultaneously erupting and blazing Nine Suns Heavenly Wrath and Brilliant World Red Lotus...
Their cognition, as the Dragon Emperor and Dragon Gods, which could be called unparalleled through the ages, was completely shattered.
Yun Che's figure appeared in the completely discolored firmament. He turned his back to the sea of fire and lotuses, and lightly twisted his fingers.
Boom————
The cry of the Golden Crow overlapped with the song of the Phoenix. The crimson fire lotuses exploded together, blasting out endless crimson flames. Yet the Phoenix flame and the Golden Crow flame did not devour or repel each other, but instead, defying cognition, they merged strangely, intertwining into a crimson fire prison as dreamlike and resplendent as it was nightmare-like and terrifying.
“Waaaaaah!”
A large wave of miserable screams came. A group of Divine Lords of the Western Region with relatively weaker cultivation, under the illumination of the crimson light, their bodies turned blood-red in an instant, their hair and fur burning. The pain that suddenly struck felt as if their bodies had been instantly burned through.
They frantically circulated their Xuan Qi and finally managed to dispel this terrifying heat. Lifting their heads, for a moment they simply could not believe that the crimson flame light was actually hundreds of miles away.
The crimson fire light devoured everything. Whether in the sky or on the ground, the former colors could no longer be found.
Only Yun Che's figure stood proudly and clearly in the firmament... The Xuan practitioners of the Northern Domain stared blankly upward. At this moment, they were not looking up at the Demon Lord, but at a god.
Within the heaven-burning crimson sea of fire, one could faintly glimpse the illusory shadow of a ten-thousand-zhang dragon body writhing in agony.
How painful the burning of the crimson flame was, one could never imagine without personally experiencing it.
The Dragon Emperor—no one doubted that he possessed the strongest will and soul in the world—but even he was nearing soul collapse in this too-cruel purgatory.
Howl... Aoo...
A hoarse dragon roar filled with pain came faintly. The struggling dragon shadow rapidly contracted at this moment, and then, by means of this contraction, forcibly opened a rapidly vanishing dragon domain, finally managing to escape the crimson fire prison with difficulty.
Beneath the crimson firmament, Long Bai, who had transformed back into human form and was covered in burning flames, fell straight down and crashed heavily to the ground.
Bam!
It was not until the moment before landing that the crimson fire on his body finally extinguished.
But Long Bai, who had fallen to the ground, did not stand up for a long time. The dragon aura floating around him was extremely chaotic and filthy, mixed with soul-scorching flame aura... Clearly, the terrifying crimson flame had deeply invaded his dragon body, dragon veins, and dragon soul. Even for the Dragon Emperor, it was absolutely impossible to drive it out in a short time.
Yun Che descended slowly, looking down at Long Bai.
Long Bai's white clothes, long hair, and both eyebrows had all turned to ashes. The turned-out flesh and exposed dragon bones were all charred black. His entire body seemed wrapped in a layer of thick charcoal, with not a single intact spot to be found.
In such a miserable state, there was no trace of the Dragon Emperor's dignity... and no one could believe that this was the Dragon Emperor, the supreme lord of the chaos, overlooking all realms.
But precisely because he was the Dragon Emperor, his ultimately too-strong dragon body allowed him, under immense suppression, to still quickly escape from Yun Che's crimson purgatory.
Sensing the approach of Yun Che's aura, Long Bai opened his eyes. His gaze was pained, chaotic, confused, vicious, unwilling... His completely disfigured features twitched violently. His lips parted, but before any sound could emerge, he suddenly spewed out a large mass of black scorching smoke from his internal organs.
“Cough... couuuugh...”
He coughed dryly in pain, his chest heaving as if about to burst, the burns all over his body torn open layer by layer, again and again.
He couldn't believe his own miserable state at this moment.
Because he was Long Bai!
He was the supreme sovereign of heaven and earth, the emperor of chaos!
How could he possibly have been defeated by that mere Yun Che...
Bam!!
A foot stomped heavily onto his chest. The dragon bones that had been forged by fire shattered layer by layer like popping beans... Long Bai's entire body stiffened. In his dragon eyes reflected Yun Che's icy gaze, so close, as if looking down at an ant.
This kind of gaze had originally only ever appeared when he himself looked down on others.
“Long Bai,” Yun Che said with lowered brows and a downward gaze, speaking indifferently: “This ugly appearance really suits you.”
“...” Long Bai's gaze gathered authority amidst his ferocity, but before he could speak, Yun Che's foot pressed down hard, and the words about to leave his mouth instantly turned into a pained guttural sound.
“What, not convinced? Not resigned?” There was no pleasure on Yun Che's face, and even less pity—only the cold indifference of a frozen soul:
“You wanted a one-on-one fight, so I graciously gave you that chance.”
“You didn’t use weapons, so I abandoned weapons as well.”
“You were injured, so I injured myself to an even greater extent.”
“I gave you every opportunity, but you are... use... less...!”
The cold words turned into a low roar. The deeply hidden anger within him seemed to lose control slightly at this moment. As a sinister gleam flashed in Yun Che’s eyes, the power around him surged downward violently.
Puff!!
With a cruel muffled sound, Long Bai’s chest completely shattered. Yun Che’s entire foot sank deep into his internal organs.
Two large sprays of blood mist erupted violently from Long Bai’s chest and mouth at the same time.
The Qiankun Dragon City, the Withered Dragon Venerables... Clearly, Long Bai wanted not only to annihilate the demon race, but also had an incredibly strong desire to push Yun Che into utter despair, to make him know just how insignificant and tiny he was before Long Bai... Ideally, force him to grovel and beg, exposing all his ugliness.
In this way, to prove to Yun Che, to Shen Xi... and even more to himself, just how great a mistake Shen Xi's choice was!
And Yun Che was equally ruthless... He abandoned weapons and did not hesitate to harm himself, so that under his miserable defeat, Long Bai could not find even the slightest shred of dignity or any reason to comfort himself.
“Dragon Emperor!”
“Your Highness!!”
The sound of shattering bones coupled with the spraying dragon blood jolted the Dragon Gods, who were in extreme shock, awake as if from a dream. They no longer cared about the Dragon Emperor's orders or the lesson of the previous example. Except for the gravely wounded Azure Dragon God and the still-shaken White Rainbow Dragon God, the other five Dragon Gods all erupted with dragon aura.
But before they could act, a dragon roar so shrill it tore the heart and lungs suddenly rang out.
An aberrant dragon aura mixed with dragon blood erupted, blasting Yun Che far away. Long Bai's body also slowly stood up at this moment, the dragon aura floating around him... unmistakably mixed with thick blood energy.
The expressions of all the Dragon Gods turned pale. All the Divine Lords of the Western Region were greatly alarmed in their hearts.
“Your Highness...” Su Xin Dragon God murmured, at a loss.
“Dragon Emperor, you...” Long Er frowned deeply, his voice shocked. His heart was half angry, half pained and disappointed.
The aberrant dragon breath, the blood-stained dragon domain... Long Bai had actually burned his own Dragon God essence blood!
Burning essence blood, although it would grant power beyond normal limits in a short time, the cost was often irreversible talent loss! Unless in a dead end, one should never do this.
Among some human clans with special inheritances, as long as the essence blood loss was not too severe, there were ways to recover, but it would consume enormous resources and a long time.
But for the Dragon God lineage, once the essence blood was lost, it was a permanent loss! There had never been a precedent or possibility of recovery!
(After all, they did not have the Dragon God's Marrow.)
What was more terrifying than burning essence blood was Long Bai's current state... The Dragon God essence blood he had burned was by no means a small amount—it was likely as much as half!
The cost was that after this battle, his Dragon Might might even be inferior to that of the seven existing Dragon Gods.
Crazy... The Dragon Emperor had gone crazy.
He had indeed suffered a crushing defeat at Yun Che's hands, which caught everyone off guard, but this was by no means a dead end for him, nor was it a dead end for the Dragon God Realm.
On the contrary, although he had lost personally, the Western Divine Region still had an absolute crushing advantage over the Northern Divine Region.
As long as he gave the order, the Northern Divine Region would fall into the abyss. The severe injuries Yun Che had inflicted on him could be repaid tenfold.
Even if he had a shred of rationality, he would never have made such an utterly inconceivably insane move.
Since the essence blood was burned, there was no turning back. In this moment, Long Bai also completely shed the dignity of the Dragon Emperor that he had held for hundreds of thousands of years. His charred features twitched, becoming uglier and more ferocious than the most evil demon anyone could imagine.
“Heh... heh heh heh...”
Long Bai was laughing, a laugh that made one's scalp tingle and body turn cold.
“I am the Dragon Emperor, the ruler of chaos, the supreme sovereign of all heavens. All the thousands of races and millions of beings in the world must bow and submit before me!”
“And you... are nothing but a mere junior of half a Jiazi, a filthy dark demon beast!”
“How could I possibly be defeated by you... How could I be inferior to you!”
The hoarse, grating voice wantonly vented the terrifying arrogance that he had never revealed in countless years.
Perhaps, beneath the facade of always looking down on everything with indifference and never deigning to bully others by virtue of his power... was an extreme arrogance that had never regarded any person or any living being in his eyes.
“Just now was merely a trivial test. Now, this is my true power!” He raised his charred arm, around which coiled slowly flowing scarlet blood energy: “Experience well... the Emperor's Wrath!!”
His appearance and his words seemed to have fallen into complete madness.
“Your Highness! Your Highness... you...”
All the Dragon Gods stood dumbfounded, their hearts falling into the abyss.
Long Bai had indeed suffered a miserable defeat, but it was not because he was weak. It was because the returning Yun Che was too terrifying. Especially his Dragon God aura, which defied all reason, had placed too severe a suppression on Long Bai.
Although the defeat was somewhat unsightly, it was by no means enough to lose face. Moreover, by commanding the power of the Western Region, he could crush the opponent in an instant.
They could not understand how a single defeat could have struck Long Bai so hard... He was the Dragon Emperor with the strongest dragon soul and the most tenacious will and conviction!
A terrible cold authority descended upon the five Dragon Gods as Long Bai's gaze shifted slightly. His words were low and heavy: “To kill Yun Che, why would I need the help of others! Whoever among you dares to interfere... I will make sure they die without a burial place!”
The five Dragon Gods froze in place, no longer daring to release their dragon aura.
Their eyes met... each one more confused and lost than the last.
“Ah,” Chi Wuyue muttered softly, “Long Bai's obsession with Shen Xi is truly terrifying beyond imagination.”
She glanced at Qianye Ying'er: “Is that Shen Xi really so beautiful that she can bring calamity to heaven and chaos to the world?”
“Hmph, a slut.” Qianye Ying'er snorted disdainfully.
She had never met Shen Xi, and had absolutely no desire to.
“Ha... Aaaaaah!”
Long Bai let out a furious roar, his body streaking like a blood shadow, charging straight at Yun Che... Under the burning of his essence blood, his Dragon God power took on a deep violence, pathos, and a faint hint of despair.
Having lost Shen Xi forever, personally crushing Yun Che to death had almost become his final obsession that he must fulfill.
Yun Che did not move a step. Facing the blood-colored dragon aura, he slowly raised his hand.
Bam——
The blood light exploded and scattered, but Yun Che's body remained motionless. Long Bai's dragon claw, condensed with berserk power, was simply frozen between Yun Che's fingers.
Even the crazily rampaging Dragon God power, gained at the cost of burning essence blood, still could not resist the too-overbearing suppression of bloodline.
Facing Long Bai, whose pupils burst with desperate blood lines, Yun Che didn't even bother to curl his lips in mockery. He simply said softly: “Is that all?”
Crack!!
He closed his five fingers. Amidst the violently exploding blood light, he directly crushed the dragon claw, which had been forged in the crimson flame for so long, into powder.