70: It's just a reptile, how can it be worthy of being called a master?

Looking at the scene before him, Lin Zifeng’s face was so gloomy it looked like it could drip water.

Ignoring Jiang Lan, he hurried towards the dilapidated city wall.

Seeing this, Jiang Lan didn’t say anything and followed behind Lin Zifeng.

At this moment, the guards who were originally on the city wall had long since disappeared, and even the city wall had several breaches.

They didn’t go to the city gate; instead, they entered the county town through a nearby breach in the city wall.

Jiang Lan’s expression also slightly darkened.

What met their eyes was a chaotic scene on the streets, with countless wails, cries of agony, and curses rising and falling.

Numerous broken corpses lay haphazardly on the streets, and severed limbs flew everywhere, almost dyeing the entire ground red.

Jiang Lan took a deep breath, the heavy smell of blood rushing into his nasal cavity.

“Hoo…”

He slowly exhaled that breath.

Before this, Jiang Lan had read history books.

But no matter how realistically history books depicted things, they were, after all, just strings of words.

Only now, experiencing it firsthand, did Jiang Lan truly understand what the phrase ‘less than one in a hundred survivors’ in history books meant in reality.

It was a living hell.

Jiang Lan looked up; he now wanted to know what exactly had turned a perfectly fine county into its current state.

“Woo—”

In the distance, a sound somewhat resembling a cow’s bellow rang out.

Jiang Lan looked intently in the direction of the sound and saw a large, entirely black snake soaring into the sky.

From afar, the snake was at least three zhang long and as thick as a strong man’s waist.

Seemingly sensing the gaze, the large snake’s pair of huge green vertical pupils turned towards Jiang Lan.

The two were far apart, yet they stared at each other.

Only now, under Jiang Lan’s careful observation, did he realize that this big fellow seemed to be more than just a large snake.

On its head, there were two slight protrusions, looking like small fleshy bumps.

A thought flashed through Jiang Lan’s mind.

Is this a Jiao Dragon?

Beside Jiang Lan, Lin Zifeng could no longer hold back.

His Aura fully emanated.

Jiang Lan felt as if even the air around him had become somewhat muddy and viscous at this moment.

He raised his long blade, still in its sheath, and held it in front of Lin Zifeng.

“I’ll handle it. Wait for me here.”

With that, without waiting for Lin Zifeng’s response, Jiang Lan’s figure instantly vanished from the spot.

Lin Zifeng stood still, watching the vanished Jiang Lan, and clenched his fists.

Although he was angry, he hadn’t been blinded by it.

The speed Jiang Lan had just displayed was far beyond his reach.

A Martial Artist’s physical quality is directly linked to their Realm.

Even if one is skilled in movement techniques, at most, their speed would be faster within the same Realm.

But the speed Jiang Lan showed was clearly much faster than his.

On the other side, Jiang Lan had stopped, standing directly beneath the Jiao Demon.

“You want to stop me?” The Jiao Demon’s vertical pupils stared down at him, speaking in human tongue, its voice like a muffled thunderclap.

“I don’t want to stop you.” Jiang Lan shook his head, “I just want to kill you.”

With that, his long blade was in Soul Emergence.

“Boom!”

Jiang Lan’s Aura spread out, forming a tangible, chilling wave of Qi that whistled outwards, extinguishing several burning flames near him.

For a moment, within Jiang Lan’s vicinity, it was as if winter had arrived; the bloodstains on the ground gradually began to solidify and freeze.

“Woo—” The Jiao Demon roared and directly swooped down towards Jiang Lan.

Things had come to this; any more words would be futile.

It was a fight to the death.

The Jiao Demon’s long tail lashed out, seemingly carrying immense force, creating explosive sounds as it whipped through the air, heading straight for Jiang Lan’s head.

“Die!”

The Jiao Demon spoke in human tongue.

Jiang Lan’s eyes were fixed on the trajectory of the long tail; he didn’t even dodge.

He activated the Blazing Sun Demon Suppression Blade, and a large amount of True Qi flowed through his limbs and bones, pouring into the long blade.

Instantly, the long blade glowed with golden-red light. Jiang Lan raised the long blade, drawing a dawn-like blade light in the air, and slashed towards the long tail.

“Chh!”

At the last moment, the Jiao Demon seemed to sense danger and changed the direction of its long tail, striking the back of Jiang Lan’s blade.

However, even so, the scales on its black tail were scorched dark red.

Jiang Lan was also not having an easy time.

The moment the blade was struck by the Jiao Demon’s tail, he felt a surge of immense power, and the long blade almost flew out of his hand.

Jiang Lan’s feet firmly gripped the ground as he retreated, plowing a long mark in the ground. Only then did he manage to dissipate most of the force from that blow.

“Woo—”

The Jiao Demon roared in anger and descended to the ground.

As it fell, its Jiao Dragon body gradually shortened and transformed.

When it landed, the Jiao Demon’s body had disappeared, replaced by a young man with two small horns on his head, his body covered in black scales.

The man had a pair of green vertical pupils, and his face was also covered with sparse, mottled black scales.

Most importantly, he had four arms.

The upper two, apart from being covered in scales, were no different from an ordinary person’s.

The lower two, however, had several hard scales on the back of the hands. His palms opened and closed without hindrance, but when he clenched his fists, the hard scales would protrude, like two daggers.

The man stuck out a long, thin tongue and licked half a circle around his upper lip.

“It’s been a long time since I encountered such a strong blood meal as you. Eating you is worth a whole county of people.”

Jiang Lan’s Aura radiated to its peak; the blood on the ground had long since frozen, and even the brick road not stained with blood was covered with a thin layer of frost.

A mocking smile appeared on his lips.

“You’re not the first to want to make me your blood meal. But I do lack a suitable blade sheath, and your skin looks good.”

Jiang Lan’s words seemed to dismiss the Jiao Demon, but in reality, he had already become fully alert.

This Jiao Demon was not easy to deal with.

The Aura it emitted was already powerful enough.

But this Jiao Demon showed no intention of leaving; instead, it intended to fight him to the death here.

Jiang Lan could think of no other reason than it having nothing to fear.

Moreover, from the force of that tail strike just now, Jiang Lan could feel that this Jiao Demon was at least not weaker than him, if not stronger.

Yet, even so, Jiang Lan had no intention of retreating.

The Jiao Demon wanted to use him as a blood meal; why wouldn’t he want to turn the Jiao Demon into his Lifespan?

There is only death, so what is there to fear?

“You should be honored to be this Venerable One’s blood meal.”

With that, the Jiao Demon stomped on the ground, creating a considerable deep pit in the bricks, and shot up, lunging fiercely towards Jiang Lan.

Jiang Lan settled his Qi into his Dantian, holding his long blade level, and drew a golden-red light in the air, heading straight for the Jiao Demon.

“You’re just a crawling insect; do you even deserve to be called Venerable One?”