# Chapter 53: Death Smoke Black Dragon
In the countless worlds of the multiverse, there are always more or less regions that, for reasons widely known or unknown, are revered as sacred lands by the races living in those worlds.
Perhaps due to religion, perhaps due to history, perhaps due to a great battle or a major technological invention, or even because some great figure was born or died here—in any case, these places are so special that every move they make draws people's attention.
Mycroft Continent, Southern Far Sea, Seven Sacred Mountains—the Church of the Seven Gods of Humanity built their first temple here eight hundred and thirty-four years ago and established the continent's common calendar. It is located on this high mountain's... half a sentence.
The warrior's steps were slow, but heavy as a mountain. The icy rain could not approach his body, for as soon as it came close, it would be evaporated into white steam by the black-red battle qi radiance.
On one side, the massive Steel Elemental Chu Hao had already lifted the corpse of the alien flying dragon and brought it before Joshua. The warrior swept his gaze over it and immediately recognized the origin of this strange flying dragon.
"Demon flying dragon, an inferior version of the demon-blooded giant dragon. No wonder they're used as cannon fodder."
Shaking his head with some disdain, Joshua's expression was flat: "The Five-Colored Dragons send this kind of trash to surround the Sacred Mountain?"
That was truly underestimating the nearly thousand-year foundation of the Church of the Seven Gods. One must know, this was the origin of all clergy across the entire continent, a sacred place where all radiance shone.
And just as Joshua finished speaking, a low, furious roar came from above the clouds.
"Human, stop!"
This roar was like thunder, shaking the atmosphere. The surging rain clouds in the distance were instantly blasted apart by the intense sound waves, revealing a hole over a hundred meters in diameter. In the center of this hole, a dragon whose body was clearly several times larger than the other flying dragons around it was flapping its wings, flying rapidly toward the location of the Gale.
"Oh?"
Uttering a single syllable, the warrior, who had been somewhat disappointed by the lack of worthy opponents, focused his gaze. He looked up at the black dragon shadow in the gloomy clouds, light seeming to flicker in his eyes: "Now something's coming."
Joshua couldn't help but feel eager to try. From the roar just now, he had already sensed the opponent's strength—it was an existence surpassing Gold, having reached the Ultimate realm.
The upcoming battle would be his first fight against a peer-level opponent since advancing to Ultimate. The warrior didn't know just how far his current power had reached, and this unknown black dragon would be the perfect test subject.
"Human."
The dragon had already arrived directly in front of the warship. Its body was surrounded by a mass of black smoke. This black dragon warily looked down at the warrior on the steel warship's deck, its amethyst-like eyes flowing with an inscrutable expression: "Turn back. Ahead is not a place you can reach. Turn around now, and in consideration of your strength, I will not pursue."
This was an incredibly robust black dragon, its scales complete and lustrous, carrying a faint purple sheen. Obvious black floating light flowed across its wings, and sharp dorsal spines stood out clearly along its spine.
The ordinary flying dragons around it, in comparison, were like human children next to adults. Even the floating warship was merely a large airship in its eyes.
"[Death Smoke] Grandi."
Squinting his eyes and recalling for a moment, Joshua recognized the other party's identity. The corners of his mouth curled up, revealing stark white teeth: "So it's you."
The black dragon before him was named [Death Smoke] Grandi.
Although it appeared to be a young adult dragon, it was actually over two hundred and fifty years old. Grandi had once ravaged the Far South continent a hundred years ago, even joining forces with another black dragon, [Undead Dragon] Mandagar, to destroy a small nation beside a commercial alliance, plundering treasures and valuable resources. This act enraged all human kingdoms and the Church of the Seven Gods. Thousands of dragon-hunting orders were issued, putting a bounty on these two vicious evil dragons, and tens of thousands of hunting groups swarmed to the Far South to search for their traces.
Under these circumstances, even the elder council of the Five-Colored Dragons remained silent, not daring to say a word at this time.
It was precisely under these circumstances that [Undead Dragon] Mandagar, who was still brazenly active in the Far South, was nearly cut in half by a Holy Sword wielder. The cautious Grandi, seeing his friend's miserable fate, simply retreated to his lair and never appeared before the masses again for a hundred years.
But even Joshua hadn't expected that it would come out of hiding and attack the Sacred Mountain here.
One must know, in his previous life, Grandi's lair was discovered in a small swamp in the Eastern Plains, only found by a Legendary Mage four or five years after the Dragon Calamity. The task of finding and assisting this Legendary Mage in killing it was an Ultimate-rank chain quest chain, for which tens of thousands of players had spent much time.
A hundred years ago, [Death Smoke] Grandi was already at Gold Peak, or even Ultimate-rank. Coupled with the dragon's physical talents, ordinary human Ultimates could not defeat it. Now that it had reappeared in people's sight, its strength had solidly entered the Ultimate realm.
Clearly, the mages and captain on the Gale all recognized this vicious evil dragon recorded in history books. After seeing its form through the screen connected to the detection array, they were collectively startled.
They weren't very clear about Joshua's strength. Although the rumors spreading in the Imperial Capital had some truth, most were somewhat exaggerated. At most, they knew Joshua was now at the Ultimate realm. But regardless, the dragon before them was also Ultimate, and clearly an old-timer who had entered the Ultimate realm for decades.
Even ignoring the innate differences between humans and dragons, that was still decades of experience!
'Ultimate Essence' was the core that experts refined from their bodies, souls, and techniques through tempering. No matter how much of a genius Joshua was, reaching this realm at under thirty years old, Grandi had also undergone a hundred years of training and couldn't possibly be inferior to the warrior.
Immediately, the runic arrays on the Gale began to operate at full capacity. Both mana cores were running at full load to extract energy. The middle-aged captain knew Joshua's temperament and understood that fleeing was useless against such a vicious dragon. In the current situation, a fierce battle was bound to erupt between this man and this dragon, and he had to ensure the safety of this floating warship while helping Joshua defeat this demonic dragon.
Hovering before the warship, Grandi's surroundings surged with a darkness so deep it let through no light—this was negative energy concentrated to the extreme. Even in the River Styx of the Abyss, it would be rare to find such a dense concentration of negative energy.
Every time this darkness surged, the gradually spreading black clouds grew thicker by one degree. The overly powerful force even drew lightning from the atmosphere. At the moment the dark clouds reached a certain threshold, thunder and lightning flashed in the high sky, and purple lightning serpents wound across the sky dome above the black dragon, releasing terrifying power.
All this power was completely locked onto Joshua. The dragon used its purple dragon pupils to stare intently at Joshua, who held both a greatsword and a great axe, as if waiting for his answer. But the warrior showed no reaction—he simply stood there, silently confronting Grandi.
The dragon before him was extremely cautious. After sensing that Joshua was also at the Ultimate realm, it did not approach within a hundred meters of the floating warship. It moved forward as the warship moved, always maintaining a distance of several hundred meters. Even Joshua couldn't guarantee that he could launch a surprise attack at this distance that the other party couldn't react to.
But as they confronted each other, layers of black smoke suddenly emerged from the surrounding moisture, enveloping the entire Gale.
Grandi was called [Death Smoke] precisely because this black dragon was so proficient in utilizing negative energy that it could convert this pure negative energy into a long-lasting smoke form, creating its own domain. When it and Mandagar destroyed that Far South small country, it was this negative energy smoke that swallowed that nation's capital, killing over a hundred thousand humans.
Taking advantage of the dense moisture at high altitude, the Death Smoke became even more concealed. Silently and soundlessly, it swallowed the warrior and the entire warship.
Clearly, Grandi had no intention of letting everyone leave. It was merely using the time of confrontation with the warrior to slowly use Death Smoke to surround everyone. As an Ultimate-rank dragon lord, it was truly cautious to an extreme.
"Clang!"
However, a sound of steel clashing came from within the smoke. The black smoke that had originally covered the ship's hull was immediately overwhelmed by even thicker, more violent black-red battle qi. A silver-white greatsword cut through the darkness, the blade vibrating slightly under the influence of battle qi, producing the previous clanging sound.
Accompanied by intensely violent battle qi fluctuations, the black smoke and moisture that had shrouded the entire warship were completely cleansed.
"Only know how to ambush?"
Without saying a second word, Joshua merely revealed a contemptuous cold smile, and then his figure vanished in an instant.
Powerful force erupted beneath his feet, the steel deck denting several meters deep. The entire warship even pressed down slightly from this. Under this reaction force, the warrior crossed several hundred meters in an instant, arriving before the black dragon.
He let out a low shout, gripping the silver greatsword in his right hand, and swept it horizontally toward Grandi's abdomen.
The warrior's size compared to the dragon was only about the size of one of its palms, but his strength was in no way inferior to these massive creatures.
Although the Divine Mechanism that Firefly had transformed into had no special magical effects, it was extremely hard and sharp enough to easily cut through steel and other weapons. It could be considered indestructible, even able to cut through dragon scales like tearing paper.
Where the greatsword passed, ink-like negative energy mist and moisture were directly split apart. A powerful shockwave, before the greatsword truly arrived, struck Grandi's body like a wind giant hammer. The surging negative energy mist around the black dragon was neatly split in two, and its body began to shake violently.
But it was only mist. As the mist was dispersed, Grandi's massive form had somehow disappeared. Accompanied by the exclamations of the observation personnel inside the warship, the black dragon silently appeared behind the warrior.
[Water Mist Illusion] and [Shadow Assault]!
Before the expressionless black dragon, an energy ball seemingly formed from gathered shadows condensed, with pure negative energy lightning leaping within it. Tiny electric sparks flashed rapidly around this energy sphere, like a formation composed of lightning.
Clearly, Grandi had not spent the century of seclusion idly. It had mastered the black dragon's innate water and negative energy talents to a level where it could continuously use several powerful spells without any fluctuation to conceal its form, then instantly teleport behind Joshua to deliver a fatal blow.
If not for its size, this black dragon could have become a fearsome assassin.
But facing the negative energy mass larger than itself, Joshua paid it no mind. As if he had known all along, he swung the great axe that had been charging power in his left hand straight out.
Black-red battle qi vibrated rapidly on the serrated axe blade, producing a piercing shriek that drowned out the thunder. The ear-splitting sound waves even caused the magical elements within tens of meters to vibrate violently. Black-red lines spread in all directions. These battle qi-formed ripples, like solid axe blades, stirred up an endless storm that surged back toward Grandi.
There was a gap in size and weapons, but the battle qi-formed blades had no such limitation. The dragon's several dozen-meter-long massive body granted it powerful physical strength and mana reserves, but it also made it impossible for the dragon to dodge this kind of overwhelming blade attack. Joshua could face death without fear, ignoring Grandi's spells, but the black dragon didn't want to be injured. It could only cancel the spell before its chest and fly backward rapidly to create distance.
But how could Joshua let it create distance so easily?
Thunder exploded, and a ring composed of white air appeared in the atmosphere. Before the sound arrived, the warrior's figure had already vanished, appearing once again before Grandi.
At this moment, Joshua could see every pattern on the other party's body. This black dragon, so brutal in legend, bore countless scars on its body, all well-hidden by its black scales. And now, Grandi's amethyst-like dragon pupils were fixed tightly on the tiny warrior at its chest, its mouth uttering strange syllables.
[Law: Stagnation]
Strange ripples were released from the black dragon's mouth, acting upon Joshua almost instantly. As an Ultimate-rank existence, Grandi had many ways to avoid the warrior's strike, but it did not dodge. Instead, it prepared to confront him head-on. While issuing the Law of Stagnation, the black dragon reached toward its own chest with its massive claws, easily capable of crushing solid rock and steel. Even if it couldn't severely wound the warrior, it could put him at a disadvantage.
But unfortunately, at the moment the strange Law force touched Joshua's body, the mysterious runes flowing with light on the warrior's bones began to tremble. Divine power flickered, releasing blinding, dazzling light. The Law force was suppressed by a higher-level power, completely losing its effect.
The warrior's axe strike, without any stagnation, slashed straight toward the black dragon's chest.
Although the Divine Mechanism that Ling had transformed into was sturdy, it was pushed to its limit by the warrior's power. The originally black axe blade had turned into a dazzling red light. This light was so intense that it even drowned out Joshua himself. Not only that, but the surrounding darkness, and even Grandi's form, were swallowed up.
Then came a deafening roar.
The observation personnel on the warship, and even the clergy of the Far Sea Sacred Mountain who had begun observing the distance, could only see that in the high sky covered with black clouds, a black-red star suddenly appeared. This star rapidly expanded and then exploded. Thousands of flying dragons were turned to ash by the explosion's aftermath. The remaining shockwave dispersed clouds for several kilometers. Violent air currents and typhoons clashed, forming several temporary tornadoes. A low, startled and furious wail echoed through the atmosphere.
A massive black shadow, without hesitation, turned into a streak of light, flying rapidly into the distance. It plunged directly into the thick clouds and disappeared.
Everyone was stunned.
Hovering in midair, having only managed to deliver this one axe strike without following up with other attacks, Joshua's eyes widened as he looked at the great axe in his right hand. The black axe blade still retained traces of red light, releasing a hint of terrifying aura.
His voice, for the first time, carried a trace of panic: "Ling, are you okay?!"