140: Chapter 140 Evil Dragon Devours Lightning

"O… One move?" A young Cultivator with a youthful face muttered like a sleepwalker.

He pinched his thigh hard, his knuckles turning white. Intense pain surged, but it could not dispel the sense of absurdity and unreality permeating his heart.

"Nangong Tianlong… the dignified champion of the previous session… just like that… defeated?"

"Not defeated…" Beside him, an old man with white hair and beard and a deep aura spoke in a voice as hoarse as an old bellows. His body trembled uncontrollably. His gaze toward the figure on the Martial Arts Arena was filled with unspeakable awe and horror, as if he were looking up at a forbidden existence that had walked out of myth.

"It is a crushing defeat! A thorough, completely powerless, and even… despair-inducing crushing!"

The old man took a deep breath, his chest heaving violently, before he could barely suppress his surging blood. His voice still carried an incredulous tremor: "Crossing the gap of the Golden Core Middle Stage and Late Stage, a full two minor Realms! And the opponent is Nangong Tianlong, who possesses the Tyrant Blood Azure Dragon Body! To… to be defeated in one strike! Is this youth… is he really… still of the Human Race?!"

"Silver Thunder Dragon… True Dragon Dao Body…"

On another high platform, an Elder from an ancient Holy Land gripped the armrest tightly, his knuckles turning white. He repeated the words unconsciously, his eyes hollow, filled with confusion and shock at the unknown power. "What kind of Heaven-Defying Legacy is this? Unheard of, unseen! Even in the ancient Dao records, there is no record of such a perfect Fusion of thunder and True Dragon Origin! What on earth… has the Xuantian Sect obtained?!"

In the VIP stands, Qian Wanguan's mouth was open wide enough to fit a whole fist, his jaw nearly dislocated.

His priceless jade fan, which he never left his side and was meticulously carved from ten-thousand-year warm jade, had long since fallen to the ground and shattered into pieces. Jade dust splattered all over him, but he was completely unaware, not even blinking an eye.

He turned his head abruptly and stiffly, his neck emitting a "crack" sound, and stared fixedly beside him. There, Chu Changsheng sat composedly, holding a teacup with a calm expression, as if the earth-shattering, perception-defying duel on the Martial Arts Arena was merely a predictable, unremarkable play.

Qian Wanguan's gaze instantly transformed from its previous shrewdness, fawning, and opportunism! It turned into near-maniacal awe! It was the trembling and prostration born from the instinct of the Soul when a mortal life faces the vast sky, the abyss, and an unknowable, great existence!

It was extreme fanaticism! Like the most devout believer who had finally witnessed the supreme "miracle" of his faith!

Only at this moment did he realize with absolute clarity and depth—that his previous petty thoughts and so-called "investment" vision were how ridiculous and short-sighted!

What he had latched onto was not some promising, powerful backer… but an invincible heavenly ladder capable of stirring up the winds and clouds, overturning rules, and perhaps even reshaping the cognition and landscape of the entire cultivation world! It was the only path leading directly to that mysterious, supreme place!

In the center of the Martial Arts Arena, Chu Zhanxiao slowly raised his right hand, his movements unhurried, carrying a calmness that controlled everything.

As his mind stirred, that thunderous giant Dragon, which intimidated the entire audience and made people dare not look directly at it, let out a low and satisfied Dragon roar, like muffled thunder rolling across the sky.

Immediately, that suffocatingly massive body began to rapidly transform from solid to ethereal, turning into the purest, most Origin silver lightning. Like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, it docilely spiraled and converged, finally turning into a condensed silver Dragon-shaped phantom, affectionately coiling and lingering by his side. The Dragon head gently rubbed against his arm, like the most loyal companion.

However, even though it had shrunk countless times, the faint shadow cast by this Dragon phantom was still like a substantial leaden cloud, heavily shrouding half of the Martial Arts Arena.

It also made all the originally arrogant and conceited Prodigies off the stage feel an absolute suppression originating from their Bloodline and the depths of their Soul!

Subconsciously and unanimously, they… lowered the arrogant heads that had once looked down on their peers and refused to bend easily.

Above the Martial Arts Arena, Chu Zhanxiao stood suspended in the air, his green robes fluttering. He just slightly raised his five fingers upward.

"Roar…" The silver Thunder Dragon phantom coiled behind him let out a low and majestic Dragon roar, as if it had received a supreme command.

The huge Dragon head slowly lowered. Those cold, indifferent, emotionless thunderous vertical pupils, like two silver suns shrunk countless times, accurately and firmly locked onto the figure below that was struggling slightly on the broken Martial Arts Arena.

On the Dragon body, between layers of Dragon scales, countless fine purple-gold electric arcs flowed and flickered uncertainly. Every flash emitted a heart-palpitating destructive fluctuation.

The shadow it cast was no longer just a lack of light, but seemed to possess substantial weight, like the thickest, darkest ink poured down from the Nine Heavens, completely and ruthlessly… swallowing Nangong Tianlong, who was struggling to crawl up, from head to toe!

That terrifying Dragon might, originating from the level of life and the supreme Bloodline, was like an invisible sky, pressing down hard on Nangong Tianlong, and also on the hearts of every witness off the stage.

It made hundreds of thousands of people subconsciously stop and hold their breath, as if the slightest sound would bring about that thunderous, catastrophic disaster!

Chu Zhanxiao lowered his eyes slightly. His gaze, like a substantial sword of cold ice, pierced through layers of air and dust, landing precisely on Nangong Tianlong's tattered clothes, which were stained with dark gold and scarlet.

His voice sounded, calm as a polar cold abyss that had not melted for eternity, without a ripple, without any emotional fluctuation, yet every word was clear. Every syllable was like the heaviest drumstick, fiercely striking the hearts of everyone in the deathly silent Martial Arts Arena, shaking their Divine Soul: "Bring out your… true ability."

He paused, and the destructive electric arcs in the thunderous vertical pupils suddenly brightened by three points. "Otherwise—the next strike, you won't even… have the chance to open your mouth to concede."

"Boom—!!!" These words were more impactful than the previous earth-shattering thunder collision! Like a spark thrown into boiling oil, it instantly stirred up a monstrous wave of horror in the deathly silent Martial Arts Arena!

"Wh… what?! True ability?! Nangong Tianlong just now… hadn't used his full strength?!"

"The Tyrant Blood Azure Dragon Body pushed to the limit, both arms broken, vomiting blood and flying backward… is this not his limit?!"

"Are you kidding! How is this possible?!"

Countless people looked up in horror, their faces filled with extreme absurdity and disbelief! Their gazes focused uniformly on the edge of the Martial Arts Arena, on that figure who seemed to be on the verge of death. Could it be… this seemingly crushing duel was far from over?! Could Nangong Tianlong… still be hiding a more terrifying, more unknown trump card?!

On the Martial Arts Arena, Nangong Tianlong supported himself with his hands, half-kneeling on the broken profound iron ground. His chest, like an old, leaking bellows, heaved violently and with difficulty. Each inhalation carried a "ho ho" sound like a bellows, and every cough was accompanied by fine blood foam and visceral fragments spraying out from his cracked mouth, staining the ground in front of him red.

He slowly and extremely laboriously raised his head. Under hair as messy as withered grass and stained with blood, those eyes that were once full of arrogance and sharp as a falcon's… were now completely reddened by boundless humiliation, fury, and a near-substantial, crazy violence! It was as if two clusters of Devilish flames from the Nine Nether Hell were burning fiercely within them!

His gaze, like a nail quenched in the most vicious curse, was fixed tightly and unblinkingly on the figure standing in the air, riding the Dragon, looking like a deity.

"Heh… hehe… hahaha…" He laughed lowly. The laughter started very soft and suppressed, like the whimpering of a night owl, then became louder and louder, more and more manic, finally turning into a hair-raising wild laugh!

In the laughter, there was no longer any of the previous magnificent aura or kingly demeanor, only the cold, evil, snake-like tongue-flicking, and a cruel pleasure about to completely release his ferocity!

Supporting his knees, which were almost completely shattered and barely connected by flesh and skin, he tremblingly, bit by bit, struggled to stand up straight again! This simple action seemed to have exhausted all his strength, causing every muscle in his body to spasm and tremble violently.

He raised his still-intact left hand, and with the back of his hand, he wiped across the corner of his mouth casually and roughly, smearing that striking crimson into a hideous arc across half his cheek.

Then, he grinned, revealing teeth stained with blood, and displayed a heart-palpitating, chilling… weird smile at Chu Zhanxiao in the air. In that smile was the coldness and evil after completely tearing off his disguise, and the pure, unscrupulous madness after abandoning all pride and bottom lines to achieve his goal!

"Not bad… really not bad…" Nangong Tianlong opened his mouth, his voice hoarse and dry, like two rusty iron pieces rubbing together, but it carried a strange, unsettling calmness. "It is I… who underestimated you."

The moment the words fell—a sudden change occurred!

"Hum…" Around his body, the golden Dragon Qi that had originally dimmed and scattered due to the heavy injuries, and was almost about to completely dissipate, suddenly fluctuated violently!

Immediately after, wisps and strands of eerie aura, pitch-black as the deepest midnight and thick as ten-thousand-year swamp mud, emerged out of thin air from deep within his body!

This black Qi was as thin as gossamer, yet carried a cold, dead, and filthy feeling that made the Soul instinctively disgusted and nauseated! Like venomous snakes with life, they rapidly spread, coiled, and eroded the originally brilliant and dazzling golden Dragon Qi!

The brilliant gold and the filthy black, two diametrically opposed forces that should have mutually repelled each other, were now, in an extremely awkward and extremely evil way, forcibly fused and entangled together!

Nangong Tianlong's entire aura instantly became chaotic, eerie, and more than ten times more dangerous!

"Crack… crack crack—!!!" A dense sound of bone friction and splicing, which made one's scalp tingle and teeth ache, erupted like popping beans from his arms!

Seeing his two arms, which should have been completely broken and hanging limply, under the crazy coiling and infusion of that eerie golden-black aura, were actually forcibly pulled, spliced, and fixed as if by countless invisible black threads!

Under the skin, the broken bone ends were wriggling and aligning violently, making a hair-raising sound, and were forcibly reconnected by that overbearing and evil power!

Although the re-raised arms still carried an inhuman stiffness and uncoordination in their movements, and the skin surface was covered with twisted, protruding black lines like centipedes, the re-clenched claws, with golden-black Qi lingering at the fingertips, had already recovered a terrifyingly peerless sense of threat! Even more insidious and dangerous than before!

"Warm-up…" Nangong Tianlong slowly, in an extremely unnatural posture, twisted his neck, and his joints emitted an unsettling "click" sound.

He raised his head. At this moment, his pupils had been completely swallowed by a dense, inky blackness, with not a trace of white to be seen. Even the skin around his eye sockets had spread with spiderweb-like, fine black threads. His entire being exuded an evil, chaotic aura that mixed remnants of Dragon Qi with monstrous Devilish Qi, causing one's Soul to tremble.

"...It is over."

He grinned, revealing a smile that was cold to the extreme.

"Now—"

"Let you witness..."

"What true power is!!!"

The moment the final word "power" escaped his lips—

"Swish—!"

His figure suddenly... blurred and vanished from where he stood!

It was not extreme speed, but a more bizarre state, as if a ghost had merged into the air, into the shadows, as if he himself belonged to a part of the darkness!

The next instant!

Like a teleportation, without any warning and extremely abruptly, he appeared behind and to the side of Chu Zhanxiao, in a relative blind spot for both vision and defense!

The speed was beyond common sense, leaving behind only a slowly fading, dimly colored afterimage where he had originally stood, as well as a delayed, sharp, and piercing screech of an air explosion!

"Shh—!"

His five fingers curled into a claw and thrust out fiercely!

What swirled around his fingertips was no longer pure golden light, but a viscous, liquid-like, pitch-black aura that seemed to possess an independent life! This black Qi greedily devoured all surrounding light; even the air, upon contact with it, emitted a faint "hissing" sound as if being corroded by strong acid, releasing a faint, fishy stench!

This claw strike was vicious and tricky to the extreme, its trajectory erratic and bizarre. There was no longer any trace of the grand, upright, power-breaking-skill nature of Dragon Clan combat techniques, only naked, ruthless, and deadly intent to stop at nothing to achieve its goal!

It went straight for Chu Zhanxiao's unguarded vital point—his heart! The intention was to crush his heart in one strike and sever his life force!

"Hmm?"

Chu Zhanxiao's brows furrowed abruptly.

He did not even turn his head, nor did he move.

But the Thunder Dragon shadow that had been circling by his side, connected to his heart and mind, had already roared, making the most instinctive reaction!

"Roar!"

The dragon tail, covered in layers of thunderous scales and flickering with silver light that purified all evil, acted like a world-destroying divine whip tearing through the firmament. With speed transcending four dimensions and carrying majestic Heavenly Dao might, it swept fiercely toward that bizarre figure to the side and rear! It sought to sweep all evil into nothingness!

"Boom!! Hiss, hiss, hiss—!!!"

The dragon tail and the claw wreathed in pitch-black aura collided fiercely!

The brilliant thunder, representing the supreme yang and supreme hardness of Heavenly Dao punishment, and the filthy black Qi, representing the supreme yin and supreme evil that seemed to come from the lowest depths of Hell, met like sworn enemies, instantly unleashing the most intense and insane strangulation and annihilation!

A piercing sound of corrosion, like cold water poured into boiling oil, resonated throughout the area, making one's scalp tingle and one's Divine Soul feel uncomfortable!

Although the silver thunder light was constantly purifying and dispersing the black Qi, each flash caused large swathes of the black Qi to evaporate.

Yet that black Qi was exceptionally viscous and stubborn, like a bone-sticking gangrene, carrying a bizarre corrosive and sluggish property that actually forced... a slowdown to the Thunder Dragon tail's peerless momentum, which should have been able to break through anything and sweep across thousands of troops!

Although it was only a momentary hindrance, so brief that it could almost be ignored!

But, for an opponent of Nangong Tianlong's level, and in such a bizarre state, this tiny difference was already enough!

"Whoosh!"

Nangong Tianlong's figure turned with the help of the force like a ghost! At an angle that almost defied human anatomy and was viciously bizarre to the extreme, from the dual blind spot of vision and perception at Chu Zhanxiao's lower left, he struck again like a venomous snake emerging from its hole!

The black Qi at his fingertips surged suddenly, extending into sharp Qi rays over a foot long. Like the deadly tongue of a poisonous dragon, it brought with it the faint sound of space being corroded, stabbing straight for the unprotected vital point of Chu Zhanxiao's throat!

At this moment, his movement technique was bizarre and unpredictable, following like a shadow. His aura was cold and violent, like a completely different person from before.

The remaining, contaminated golden Dragon Qi, and the bizarre, evil, pitch-black Devilish Qi, were forcibly fused together in an extremely awkward and uncoordinated manner, forming a unique aura that was both domineering and viciously evil. It made everyone watching under the Martial Arts Arena, even across a long distance and the protective light screen, feel a chill all over their bodies, as if they had fallen into an ice cellar!

"Your thunder is supreme in hardness and yang, indeed the nemesis of evil."

Nangong Tianlong's voice was elusive, as if coming from the lowest depths of the Hell abyss, drifting along the cold wind, drilling into Chu Zhanxiao's ears with cold mockery and killing intent.

"But Chu Zhanxiao—"

"How long can you, with your 'True Dragon Dao Body' that has just undergone Awakening and consumed so much, support such high-intensity thunder bursts...?!"

"When you are exhausted, that will be the moment you perish!"

The tactic was clear as day!

No longer engaging in direct confrontation, but using bizarre and unpredictable movement techniques, combined with that evil, vicious, and corrosive bizarre power, to engage in guerrilla warfare, harassment, and attrition!

Like the most patient venomous snake, constantly probing, constantly biting, injecting venom, until the prey is exhausted, has no power to resist, and then launching the fatal strike!

"Bang! Boom! Sizzle—!"

Around Chu Zhanxiao, silver thunder light burst forth naturally, transforming into a blazing and condensed Thunder Domain, firmly protecting him within.

Every time Nangong Tianlong's attack, wreathed in black Qi, struck and collided with the Thunder Domain, it would explode into a blindingly bright ball of light, erupting with a loud sound like clashing metal and a piercing corrosive sound!

The escaping shockwaves and the sputtering thunder and black Qi scraped another thick layer off the already shattered Martial Arts Arena ground. Gravel turned into powder, shooting everywhere, and smoke and dust filled the air.

Chu Zhanxiao's expression was calm as water, but in his eyes, sharp, electric-like Divine Soul light was constantly flickering and dimming.

His spiritual sense had long been spread out, his heart and mind unified, capturing and calculating with extreme precision every subtle trajectory change of that ghostly figure and every fluctuation of energy.

"Heterodox paths—"

During a gap in a fierce collision, Chu Zhanxiao finally spoke coldly. His voice was not loud, but it clearly overwhelmed all the roaring and screeching, carrying undisguised contempt.

"Dare to be arrogant?"

The moment his words fell, the sharp light in his eyes surged!

As his thoughts flickered, the silver Thunder Dragon phantom that had been circling and guarding behind him suddenly let out a heaven-shaking long groan. Its massive dragon head rose high, and its giant mouth opened abruptly!

"Hum—!!!"

Above the Martial Arts Arena, the endless power of thunder seemed to have received an irresistible summons, frantically gathering, compressing, and condensing toward the dragon's mouth!

The thunder light changed from silver-white to incandescent white, then into a pure silver light that made one's heart palpitate and seemed capable of piercing through everything!

A spear of thunder, only as thick as an adult's arm but condensed and compressed to the extreme, with its entire body flowing with a mercury-like luster and its tip flickering with a point of destructive cold light, suddenly took shape within the dragon's mouth!

Where the spear tip pointed, space was no longer distorted but presented a bizarre, glass-like feeling of "solidification" and "fragility," as if a light touch would cause it to shatter completely!

"Swish—!!!!!"

It gave no one time to react!

The thunder spear broke through the air!

There was no grand momentum, no piercing screech, only... extreme speed! And unparalleled penetrating power!

It seemed to completely ignore the barriers of space and the passage of time. As soon as it was spat out from the dragon's mouth, its sharp edge had already crossed time and space, directly... arriving before Nangong Tianlong's brow!

Fast!

Indescribably fast!

Beyond thought, beyond perception, and even... beyond the very concept of "fast"!

In Nangong Tianlong's pupils, the crazily flickering black light suddenly froze at this moment!

An unprecedented death crisis that made his Soul scream was like ten thousand feet of ice water, instantly soaking him from head to toe!

"Roar—!!!"

From the depths of his throat, he erupted with a roar that did not sound human at all, filled with extreme shock and madness!

At the very instant the crisis arrived, his hands, relying on instinct, turned into countless afterimages before him, frantically slashing!

The gold-and-black mixed, incomparably evil energy within his body surged out desperately, instantly constructing before him a rapidly rotating energy vortex that seemed to lead into an endless dark abyss!

At the edge of the vortex, gold and black Qi currents intertwined, emitting a powerful pulling and twisting force, attempting to deflect, devour, and dissolve this fatal strike!

"Break!"

Just as the sharp edge of the thunder spear was about to touch that bizarre vortex—

Chu Zhanxiao unleashed a thunderous shout, his voice like the world-destroying thunder from above the Nine Heavens, booming and exploding!

"Rumble—!!!"

That silver thunder spear, condensed to the extreme, was not sucked in or deflected by the vortex like ordinary attacks.

Instead, the moment it touched the edge of the vortex, it fiercely... exploded completely from the inside out!

But, it was not a simple energy explosion.

It transformed into billions of thunder threads, as fine as ox-hair drizzle but sharper than divine weapons and swords! They intertwined and wrapped around, instantly spreading out to form a death thunder net that covered several zhang in radius, airtight!

This thunder net not only contained extreme penetrating power but also carried the unique purification and annihilation properties of thunder, covering every inch of space that Nangong Tianlong could possibly dodge into—up, down, left, right, front, and back!

Severing all paths of retreat! Sealing off all doors to survival!

"Urgh ah—!!!!!!"

A shrill, painful, and desperate howl, filled with endless unwillingness and despair, suddenly rang out, tearing through the sky!

Nangong Tianlong's ghostly figure was forced out of his high-speed movement and virtual-real transformation state by this death thunder net! He revealed his true form!

Although at that critical moment, relying on some bizarre life-saving means, he narrowly, at the cost of sacrificing part of his torso, twisted his body and avoided absolute vitals like his heart and head...

But—

"Pfft! Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft—!!!"

Dense sounds, like rain, of flesh being pierced by sharp weapons exploded one after another!

His arms, legs, shoulder blades, waist and abdomen, back... more than dozens of locations were instantly pierced through by those peerlessly sharp thunder sword threads at the same time!

Horrifying holes, charred black, with glass-like edges, and piercing through from front to back, appeared all over his body!

Gold-and-red mixed Dragon blood, along with viscous, filthy, pitch-black liquid, gushed out from these holes like fountains, instantly staining him into a broken, bloody person, riddled with holes and unbearable to look at!

"Thud!"

He staggered and fell heavily onto one knee, his knee smashing a shallow pit into the ground.

His whole body trembled violently, every breath accompanied by a wheezing sound of blood foam, as if the next second, this broken body would completely fall apart and disintegrate.

However—

His lowered head slowly raised.

Those eyes, which had been almost completely swallowed by dense ink-black, with only a trace of weak golden light remaining in the very center, stared fixedly, viciously, and crazily at the figure in the air that was still as straight as a pine tree.

The last bit of humanity and reason in his eyes seemed to be rapidly fading, replaced by a pure, all-destroying bestiality and devilish nature.

In his throat, he let out a "he-he" roar, like air leaking from a broken bellows. The voice was distorted and blurry, but filled with chilling hatred and madness:

"You..."

"Seek..."

"Death!!!"