213: Chapter 213 Demon Soul

"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."

The Horned Dragon lay on the ground, its serpentine body curled between bushes and rubble. Its scales were covered in bloody gashes and mud. Its dark yellow vertical pupils were half-open, and its breathing was weak and rapid, each inhalation bringing up a mouthful of blood foam.

He heard footsteps approaching, the rubble on both sides crunching underfoot. Someone had come. He forced himself to lift his dragon head, watching as two figures stood before him, one on the left and one on the right.

Wu Li crouched on the left, holding a fire halberd. His blood-red pupils stared at the Horned Dragon, but he did not speak.

E Kuang stood on the right, his E Kuang slowly closing and opening, as if savoring some taste.

A garbled hiss squeezed from the Horned Dragon's throat, the sound hoarse and weak, like a snake with a crushed spine making its final struggle.

"You... cannot kill me..."

He gasped for air, blood foam spilling from between his fangs, "Otherwise... the Wan Jiao Palace behind me... will not let you off..."

Wu Li's pupils shifted slightly.

Wan Jiao Palace—although this was the first time he had heard the name, thinking of Master Mo Yuan, who was also a dragon, and the fact that both dragons possessed fragments of the Yao Venerable's Legacy, he suspected this was no coincidence.

Regarding this, Wu Li's face revealed no expression.

E Kuang, however, did not hesitate.

He looked down at the Horned Dragon, his E Kuang snapping open and shut with a dull crunching sound, "Cut the crap. Do you think you're the only one with a background?"

The two had been fighting for so many years that there was no longer any thought of holding back; it was either you die or I die.

He raised his right claw, a dark red Yao light condensing at the tips. Without the slightest hesitation, he brought it down toward the Horned Dragon's neck.

The Yao light traced an arc, slicing through the gap in the scales where the dragon head connected to the body, like cutting into a piece of frozen meat, meeting no resistance whatsoever.

"Puchi!!"

The Horned Dragon's dark yellow vertical pupils contracted violently in that instant, then rapidly dilated.

His dragon head slid down along the path traced by the Yao light, rolled onto the rubble, struck a protruding stone, and flipped twice before coming to a stop.

The mouth was still slightly agape, as if there were words left unsaid, but there was no sound left.

E Kuang retracted his claw and glanced at the severed dragon head on the ground, as if he had just finished a trivial task not worth the effort. He then turned his head, his iron-gray vertical pupils landing on Wu Li.

He kicked the Horned Dragon's body and said in a rough voice, "A Peak Third-Tier Horned Dragon—it's a treasure from head to toe. The scales, tendons, bones, flesh, and Yao core are all valuable. How do you want to split it?"

Wu Li did not rush to answer.

He crouched beside the Horned Dragon's body, his blood-red pupils staring at the lifeless form as if examining an unfinished project.

A moment later, he stood up, raised his right claw, and spread his five fingers, a layer of dark red blood light shimmering in his palm.

"I only want one thing."

Wu Li did not explain what it was, nor did he waste more words. He stepped forward, extended his sword-finger, and with a dot of crimson light condensed at the tip, pressed it against the center of the Horned Dragon's brow.

The blood light seeped in from his fingertip, like a needle piercing into something.

The Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra circulated within his body. That pulling force followed his sword-finger, traveling in reverse along the Horned Dragon's Meridians, piercing through flesh, bone, and scales, all the way upward until it reached the depths of the skull.

There lay a glow that had just extinguished.

The Horned Dragon's Divine Soul had not yet completely dissipated. It remained within the shell, like an oil lamp still smoking; although the flame was no longer visible, the wick still held residual heat.

"Found it..."

Wu Li's Blood Eye Pagoda Sutra was aimed exactly at that residual heat.

He hooked his sword-finger. "Come out!!"

"Hum~" The blood light permeated everything.

Like unravelling silk from a cocoon, he peeled the soon-to-dissipate Divine Soul from the shell, pulling it out along the Meridians, like dragging something buried deep within a ruin.

Subsequently, a semi-transparent cyan orb of light drifted out from the Horned Dragon's brow, hovering above Wu Li's palm. It pulsed weakly, and inside, one could vaguely see the phantom image of a dragon, shrunk countless times, twisting and struggling.

The Horned Dragon's Divine Soul had not yet fully dissipated; its residual consciousness was still roaring within the orb of light, but the sound could not escape. It was like a person trapped in a glass bottle—visible, but silent.

Wu Li retracted his sword-finger, closed his five fingers, and grasped the Divine Soul in his palm.

"The scales, tendons, bones, flesh, and Yao core are all yours. I only wanted this."

E Kuang did not speak.

His iron-gray vertical pupils stared at the dissipating cyan halo in Wu Li's hand, and he remained silent for a long while.

After reaching the Third Tier, the Yao Race relied on Heaven And Earth Treasures and Bloodline resonance to Cultivate. Most of their techniques were innate Bloodline Divine Abilities; very few could Cultivate techniques after birth, and even fewer could develop a complete system.

Yet this crow before him had one technique after another: Colorless Profound Light, Blood Pupil, fire halberd combat skills, and now this method of extracting a Divine Soul. It was clean and precise, not like something cobbled together on the spot, but rather like it was supported by a complete Legacy.

He re-examined Wu Li.

Both were Third Tier, both had Yao bodies, but that air of composure was different from the wild Yao that scraped by in the mountains.

E Kuang had fought under the Horned Dragon for decades and had seen many great Yao. Those raised in the wild mostly relied on brute force and bloodlust to hold their ground, but Wu Li was different. This was not the style of a Loose Cultivator Yao; this was a Yao with a Legacy behind it.

E Kuang's attitude softened slightly. He no longer used his presence to pressure others as he had just now. His tone was light as he casually remarked, "Your method is quite rare. Not many Third-Tier Yao can extract a Divine Soul."

"The scales, tendons, bones, flesh, and Yao core are yours, I have no objection. You take your share, I take mine; we each get what we need."

"Furthermore, I have fought this Horned Dragon for so many years, and all I wanted was this territory of Black Stone Ridge. I can promise that with your Qingfeng Ravine as the center, within a radius of a hundred miles, as long as you don't cross the boundary, I will not touch your territory."

"How about that?"

Wu Li put away the Horned Dragon's Divine Soul and straightened his body.

"That would be best."

"I don't need any territory; this mountain ravine is enough for me to live in. There's no need for me to fight anyone for land."

E Kuang was stunned after hearing this, then burst into loud laughter.

The laughter echoed in the mountain pass, dull like rolling stones grinding over an iron plate, shaking the rubble on both sides until it trembled slightly.

"Good! Very good!"

E Kuang said the word "good" three times. After his laughter subsided, his E Kuang slowly closed, and his iron-gray vertical pupils revealed a rare hint of appreciation.

"Straightforward. Since that's the case, I am E Kuang, an E Kuang Lizard. If you have any business in the future, come find me in the north."

Having said this, he withdrew his gaze and strode away. His grayish-brown figure, along with the dragged dragon body, vanished into the depths of the twilight.

Wu Li stood where he was, watching their backs disappear behind the distant mountain ridge.

Hu Lie, Hei Yu, Heida, Heier, and a few other great Yao walked slowly from the direction of Qingfeng Ravine and stopped behind him.