249: Transformation into a Dragon (Part Two)

Hei Jing didn't need to look closely to know that each crystal represented a Yin Flood Dragon.

"So there really are demons insane enough to go to this extent." Hei Jing's throat tightened.

The moonlight was torn to shreds by the demon clouds, shining on Jiao Rong's frenzied smiling face.

That expression reminded him of a Fallen Demonic Cultivator he had encountered before becoming an Underworld Marshal.

The same paranoid fanaticism, the same disregard for one's own kin as mere ants.

Bai Xuan saw that Hei Jing was still dazed and swept him behind himself with a horizontal blade strike.

In the gap carved by the blade light, Hei Jing saw a bronze cauldron slowly rising from the bottom of the altar.

What was boiling inside the cauldron wasn't lava, but the corpses of hundreds of young flood dragons.

His nails dug deep into his palms as he joked, "Brother Xuan, once this is over, I want to make a suggestion to the Research Institute. Can we add an early warning mechanism for boss battles in the future?"

"Let's focus on getting out of here alive first!"

Bai Xuan flicked his sleeves and slapped three Golden Armor Talismans onto himself. "Do you remember the Task Code written by His Majesty?"

"I remember... Rule three says if you encounter someone you 'can't beat,' prioritizing your own safety comes first."

Hei Jing reached for the low-grade talismans in his robes, only to find the talisman paper had long been shattered by the demonic power.

"But rule four says if your teammates are reliable, you can try for a counter-kill?"

Bai Xuan smiled, his blade erupting with blinding golden light. "Smart."

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire clan altar suddenly shook violently.

The 'roar' of the Roaming Divine Dragon mixed with the faint cries of the young flood dragons' souls.

Hei Jing gripped the last remaining Warning Talisman in his sleeve.

This time, his eyes were truly opened.

The most terrifying thing wasn't monsters or ghosts, but the indifference and madness in the eyes of one's own kind.

When the Roaming Divine Dragon's claws tore through the clouds... Hei Jing heard his heart beating like a drum, but the moment his good brother swung the blade, he calmed down.

[So what if it's a Demi-God Realm boss?]

He had to show these monsters who treated their own kin as bargaining chips just how tough the bones of a Netherworld Underworld Marshal really were.

The moment the dragon claws tore through the clouds, Hei Jing felt as if even his meridians were being crushed into powder by the Demi-God pressure.

The blade light swung by Bai Xuan collided with the dragon scales, sending sparks flying into the poisonous mist.

The Warning Talisman spontaneously combusted, and a faint hexagram appeared in the ashes—it was an omen of extreme misfortune.

"Watch out!"

Hei Jing tackled Bai Xuan to the ground, dodging a sneak attack from the dragon claws.

The skull slipped from Bai Xuan's hand and rolled to the edge of the altar.

The two of them looked up and saw the floating larvae of the Soul-Sacrificing Gu reassembling in mid-air.

Eerie blue blood-tears seeped from the soul crystals held in the insects' mouths.

The souls of the young flood dragons wailed nursery rhymes from when they guarded the clan lands.

Bai Xuan's temples throbbed.

[The difference in strength is too great; we can't win at all.]

"Damn it! I really miss the time when I was a Ghost Fire Youth right after the Spiritual Energy Revival."

Under the high-pressure situation, Bai Xuan helped Hei Jing stand up. He didn't bother acting serious anymore and prepared to do whatever felt most satisfying.

At least before dying in battle, he would release his youthful self.

At that moment, the corpses of the young flood dragons in the bronze cauldron opened their pale green eyes, their tiny limbs twitching in the boiling slime.

The Condensation Incantation carved on the cauldron's walls was greedily sucking the tender flesh and blood.

Hei Jing bit the tip of his tongue, the metallic taste of blood exploding in his mouth. In a daze, he heard Jiao Si's clear voice from two days ago: "Marshal Hei, wait until my mission to guard the clan lands is finished."

"I'll go work in the Netherworld. I heard from the ghost messenger brothers that the Underworld has great benefits, including social security and housing."

At this moment, Jiao Si's skull was wedged in a crack at the edge of the altar, its hollow eye sockets pointed toward the clouds.

It was like a silent accusation against the injustice of fate.

Hei Jing was about to pick up Jiao Si's skull from the edge of the altar.

Suddenly, the Roaming Divine Dragon's tail swept across.

Hei Jing's vision went black.

The dragon tail was a full hundred zhang long, covered in greenish-black scales that glinted with a metallic texture.

Dark red blood foam and bits of flesh were stuck in the gaps, clearly left over from the previous slaughter of the young flood dragons.

The dragon tail moved so fast it was almost invisible to the naked eye.

Only the shriek of the air being rapidly sliced could be heard, like someone scraping an iron plate with a rusty blade.

It was so piercing it made one's teeth ache.

The first to suffer were the bronze candlesticks at the edge of the altar. Four candlesticks as thick as a man's embrace were struck by the dragon tail.

They were snapped in half like matchsticks.

The million-ton bronze bases flew a thousand meters away, crashing into the ground with a boom... Splintered rocks rained down on Hei Jing and Bai Xuan.

Hei Jing instinctively raised his hands to protect his handsome face.

The rocks hit his arms with dull thuds, making him gasp in pain.

Looking at Bai Xuan, he had already pulled Hei Jing behind a stone pillar in the center of the altar.

The Yin Flood Dragon totem carved on the pillar's surface was stripped of debris by the air currents from the dragon tail, revealing mottled clan rules.

With a crack, a portion of the altar to the northeast had already collapsed.

Revealing the dense skeletons beneath—all skeletons of young Yin Flood Dragon Clan members.

The smallest was not even as long as an adult's arm.

The hurricane whipped up by the dragon tail swept up the young flood dragons under the altar, forming a small tornado in the air.

Bai Xuan watched as the shredded Yin Flood Dragon clan rules drifted before his eyes; the three words "Protect the young" had been torn in half.

The other half had flown off to who knows where.

The distant poisonous mist was swept away by the hurricane, revealing the clan buildings further away.

The carved pavilions trembled under the dragon tail's residual power, roof tiles falling one after another, kicking up clouds of dust.

"We can't be played with passively like this anymore." Bai Xuan gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his temples.

He slapped the last Golden Armor Talisman onto Hei Jing.

He himself gripped Suppressing Evil.

The blade's surface had already been pitted and corroded by demonic power.

Killing intent surged in Hei Jing, his tone chillingly cold.

"This old geezer doesn't treat his own kin as people at all, feeding the Soul-Sacrificing Gu with young flood dragon souls and then using the insects to control the barrier..."

"Damn it, no wonder he could reach the Demi-God Realm."

"He's impossible to kill; he just uses the insects to repair himself whenever he's injured. With so many corpses, who knows how long we'd have to hack away before he's exhausted!"

Rip—

The dull sound of a spear tip piercing a suit.

Jiao Pengze streaked past Hei Jing. Before the sound of his boots crushing the gravel had faded, he was already beside Jiao Rong.

The spear shaft drew a bloody arc in the moonlight.

"Fourth Uncle Rong, the small fry from the Netherworld have been cleaned up."

The youth looked down and wiped the blood from the spearhead.

There wasn't a trace of the innocence he had shown when chatting with Hei Jing at Yao Zui Cliff three days ago.

Hei Jing knelt on one knee, clutching his side. The blood seeping through his fingers stained his silver-buttoned suit pants red.

The metallic taste of blood in his mouth mixed with the intense pain, making his eyes turn red.

He pulled the corner of his mouth into a bloody smile: "Little brat, what kind of skill is a sneak attack?"

"Skill?"

Jiao Pengze performed a fluid spear flourish, the very Picking the Lamp in the Waves technique that Jiao Si had been most proud of during his life.

"What Marshal Hei should be worried about are your trusted subordinates—"

He pointed his spear at the pile of corpses to the northeast of the altar. "Look, their soul fires aren't even enough to fill the insects' bellies."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. They're not nearly as tasty as our clansmen..."

The moonlight shone on the Gu Markings at the corner of his eye—a forbidden technique mark planted this morning using powder made from Jiao Si's skull.