*Boom! Boom! Boom!* Across the horizon, massive waves of energy rippled through the air like the growls of distant thunder, spreading ceaselessly across the skies above the Dragon Island. However, Xiao Yan, seated cross-legged before a titanic cauldron outside the chaos, appeared utterly oblivious. Eyes lined with bloodshot veins, he stared unblinkingly into the cauldron while his stiff hands continued weaving complex seals, meticulously regulating the cauldron’s temperature. For over a month without respite, enduring a workload that would exhaust even a Dou Zun-tier expert to near collapse, Xiao Yan had somehow held on. However this resilience came at a cost—his mind had now turned to a sludge of fog and fatigue.
Black擎—Black Qin, watched the wild-haired Xiao Yan with a tense grip on his fist. He knew Xiao Yan had reached his endurance’s absolute extreme. His nerves had remained locked to the utmost, denying himself even the smallest moment of repose—such merciless self-infliction bound to incur profound self-harm.
“This lad… truly ruthless with himself. If he can weather this through, old Black will pledge brotherhood with you—smash whoever you command.” Black Qin murmured to himself. Even a man proud and defiant as him, was now compelled to marvel at Xiao Yan’s relentless spirit.
*Boom!*
The moment these words exited, an earth-splitting noise rang forth in the distance. Immediately after, a ferociously fierce aura, fast as a lightning storm, raced over in violent succession. Yet the figure of this might had scarcely arrived, when a raucous laughter crashed like rolling thunder.
*“Haha! So here you are!”*
At this voice, laughter rippling closer step-by-step, the figure blinked through the air, reaching in mere flashes, halting his descent before the edge of this great volcanic crater. The group gazed upward toward him. He was a tall man in armored dark gold garb, his eyebrows golden, bearing faint trace of a ruthless temperament over his face.
“It’s the fourth commander of the Dragon Armored Army—the ruthless Xia Sha?” Surprise lit Black Qin’s face slightly before his brow furrowed in concern. A single casual motion sent out over a dozen companions from concealment through the encircling ridges, their gaze now sharpened towards their new hostile mark, the golden-browed adversary, the one addressed as Xia Sha.
“Black Qin, heh. Didn’t know I’d run into you…”
Observing Black Qin blocking his passage, Xia Sha’s stare narrowed a degree. Without delay or superfluous banter his hand snapped forth and behind him, warriors surged forth in battle stance, growling with dragon-imbued threats filling nearby airwaves.
Frowning, Black Qin nodded once; following him, a group numbering ten-some figures belonging to Eastern Dragon Island, shot outward intercepting the warriors cloaked in gold-dark dragon plating.
“Black Qin; hand over that young master peacefully and leave this with no bloodshed. Otherwise, by sun’s set… I swear it—red rivers will flood your East Isle!”
Cackling wildly, Xia Sha dashed abruptly forward, blinking into proximity just ten zhang away from Black Qin in the blink of an eye. Their gazes collided like flame and flint. The atmosphere thickened, tension spilling outward between the two like ripples of power.
“Try it, then—if you, Xia Sha, dare take our master by force!” Black Qin’s expression soured; without hesitation, the crack and punch of his fist shattered space itself, forming black gashes slicing fast toward his attacker.
“Hmph!”
Meeting this initial action, Xia Sha’s smirk twisted to a snarl. His figure didn’t budge a centimeter back. Like fire answering fire, fist met void as energy collided, tearing space.
*BOOM!*
Violent shockwaves blasted across, expanding like waves in a storm. Xia Sha staggered slightly but quickly steadied, and with a stomp against sky itself, became a ghost-like wraith at Black Qin’s flank. Like a whirling maelstrom of force, relentless strikes raged forth.
Not intimidated, even for a hair’s breadth, Black Qin responded coolly but unwaveringly, engaging his enemy headlong.
*CRASH! CRACKLE!* Above the sky the silhouettes twisted in battle. Each strike cracked and reverberated the air with deep sound bursts.
At one last remote quiet corner that had held fast against the violence—disturbance now seized control there, but against this, none stirred. The lean young man sitting before the cauldron remained completely still and unmolested.
Midair clashed both figures, energies crashing outward rending space into black fissures nearly tens of meters across in an all-consuming impact.
With the clash, two warriors sprang backward like struck thunderbolts retreating momentarily, each from the other’s orbit.
“I didn’t foresee it… but your skill has ascended fully into Half-Holy now.” Brute-rock—Man Yan, scowled and withdrew with uneven steps, his violet dragon scales dimming. Eyes fixed upon an expressionless foe.
Chu Li’s face bore no sign of strain despite an equal skill range. Opponent Man Yan employed potent esoterica, morphing mid-transformation into hybrid draconic combat, a complication indeed hard to suppress outright.
“Cease your futile resistance, Xiao Chu Li.” Man Yan called. “As per your East Dragon Island, you were the weakest of four from the start. Now our triad converges, resistance collapses into oblivion.”
“Funny… if not for key elders journeying into the voidlands to train while both Great and Second Elders endure deathly meditative trances, then not merely you—perhaps even all three draconic overlords couldn’t threaten our sanctuary!” Xiao Chu Lin sneered.
“Hehe… indeed, mere hypothetical though.”
As Chu Li’s mocking smile had just died down, the soundless void crackled from within—someone chuckling cold into the air.
This unexpected arrival darkened face upon noticing.
“Has Northern Dragon Isle appeared? Finally arrived…”
As the eyes of Xiao Chu Lin pierced deeper, sudden glimmers emerged over hollow spatial nothingness. Green light pierced through, figures materializing amidst roaring energy waves overhead the island, their descent marked by a rush of thunderwind.
“It appears we arrive fashionably late… ah, but all the same—I won’t miss the finale.”
Above drifted down in a jade coat a senior elder, viewing the battlegrounds below beneath an amused mien. “Qin Yan.” Chu Li stiffened further upon identifying that familiar jade-clothed figure.
Three Dragon King-level powers were dispatched—encompassing not one, but an entire semi-sainted warrior and two Dou Zun peak warriors—clear intent upon the young one they hunted. For little Cai Lin of royal extraction, capture seemed no less than their ambition today.
Master Qin Yan stepped lightly through void as murmuring faded to purpose-driven stillness.
“Chu Li, intercept that youth yourself while I retrieve *His Majesty*,” he addressed Man Yan. “That youth bearing Dragon King’s bloodline—by my personal command, will be claimed here and away.” No sooner were those spoken than movement followed swiftly. Man Yan intercepted swiftly—claws swiping, shattering space toward retreating Chu Li.
“Damn treachery!”
Rearranged by his foe, red wrath boiled from Chu Li. A surge of might roared within—a clash met full force, while the old jade-robed one, Qin Yan, darted through terrain in rapid succession, reaching finally the perimeter of steaming volcanic peaks where the titanic cauldron stood brewing beside.
The old master paused briefly beside the cauldron to eye the figure cross-legged nearby—Xiao Yan. His gaze sharpened on the caulldron briefly thereafter, brows furrowed deeply.
“So that is… the young one destined of Royal Dragon lineage?” He muttered, eyes narrowing further. “Even at juvenile stage—those imperial energies already whisper potential.”
His gaze narrowed in plotting further. “No time for delay, else we invite danger. Take the lad.”
As decision passed through mind into resolve, his figure darted with action, reaching just steps near the boy when an unexpected figure emerged blocking passage with unyielding posture—Tie Jiang Zun Zhe—Ironblade Sage, hand clenching steel blade firm in stance. A chill silence crept into the atmosphere, the Sage’s gaze piercing cold as unbothered he behold Qin Yan—undisrupted and calm amidst vast power discrepancy between them.
“Fool!”
Catching a glacially slow blade’s approach with eyes almost unimpressed, Qin Yan sneered disdainfully.
With a simple swirl of the cloth of authority he cast out spirals of destructive energy winds aimed to displace opposition instantly—his belief resolute that lesser foes lacked the threat level of even a moment’s delay.
*Ssshik!*
Unflinching before the surging blast, Ironblade remained expressionless—a single slash, unimpressively simple, descending slowly from sword held above head.
This strike released what felt like a fraction of a hair—its narrow, miniature arc barely wide enough to hold significance—but with this arc’s flight—vast inner strength drained from Iron blade himself; and yet his blade still sang.
The moment it struck!
A terrifying, cataclysmic explosion tore space around it—the miniature slice cutting clean through Qin Yan’s violent energy wave.
*BOOOUUMM!*
A concussive force erupted outward violently. Ironblade Sage coughed a plume of crimson skyward—body dropping limp into undergrowth with brutal impact.
“Hah! Fool to the core indeed!”
Qin Yan laughed smugly, contempt clear, watching Ironblade’s failure in defiance—a foolish act of sheer desperation worth no greater than death sentence.
“Boy… extinguish your little fires—yield your companion.”
The Master calmly advanced toward Xiao Yan, voice a low hum. Xiao Yan remained still, as a statue—still gazing into the cauldron.
“Tssk…”
The sage stepped nearer until he loomed behind; he shook his head before raising hands, swirling with surging mightful dou. Without hesitation, his blow launched for Xiao Yan’s very crown itself—blunt force aimed to incapacitate.
Yet—when the strike would have hit—the impossible occurred.
*At That Instant—The Slumber of the Cauldron Shifted; Her Eyes Opened—*
With a single piercing glare from that young slumbering form within—arising sharply—the soundless roar of raw sovereign might lacerated into Master Qin’s ears—an icy voice, cutting deep into his spine:
*”You’ve defied bounds by threatening him even an inch. Today—you give your life in return.”*
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