RUMBLE!
Dark clouds blanketed the sky as golden thunderbolts churned and wove themselves into a dense net of lightning.
An enormous creature threaded through the storm, its world-shrouding body plunging half of Heavenly One Immortal City into darkness.
A suffocating pressure descended upon the city!
“The Great Desolation Domain… Dragon Peng Venerable…”
Jiang Wuhen raised his gaze slightly toward the shadow beneath the storm clouds and narrowed his eyes.
“A beast is a beast. Even after a thousand years of cultivation, you lot are still nothing but muscle-brained fools!”
“A mere dragon peng dares to throw its weight around in Heavenly One Immortal City.”
“Seeking death!”
The words left his mouth as Jiang Wuhen leaped into the air, his body shooting skyward like a rainbow to face the colossal dragon peng head-on.
At the sight, every person nearby tensed.
“He’s actually facing the Dragon Peng Venerable… to protect us!”
“Good heavens! That ancient dragon peng is fully grown. Bearing the title of Venerable, its strength must be at least at the nirvana realm. Brilliant as the Imperial Son is, how can he be a match for such an ancient monster!”
“The Imperial Son is benevolent at heart. Unable to bear seeing us oppressed by a fierce beast, he slew that young ancient dragon peng, and that’s what brought the Dragon Peng Venerable’s wrath upon him…”
“With the Imperial Son to protect us, this is Heavenly One Immortal City’s blessing, a stroke of fortune for all humanity!”
The crowd gazed at Jiang Wuhen’s retreating figure, deeply moved.
Xiao Chen, meanwhile, clenched both fists, his expression growing ever more solemn.
“This man… is nothing like the utterly depraved villain the rumors paint him to be.”
“Could it be that all the talk on the Desolate Ancient Continent painting him as a villain is nothing but slander?”
“Shizun, Jiang Wuhen doesn’t seem to be the Dragon Peng Venerable’s match. Should we step in and help him?”
Xiao Chen thought to himself.
“Hold on. This Jiang Wuhen isn’t some hothead with nothing but courage. Since he dares to step forward, he must have something up his sleeve.”
“Let’s watch how he handles it…”
The voice said calmly.
…
At that moment, high in the sky.
Jiang Wuhen hovered in midair, double pupils surfacing within his eyes.
“Playing the monster, turning my Heavenly One Immortal City into such a foul mess!”
“Invincible double pupils, void piercing… Break!”
The words rang out as divine light of the void erupted from his double pupils, piercing the darkness like the first light of dawn. Everywhere it passed, the gloom dispersed.
An enormous ancient dragon peng with wings spanning a full hundred zhang stood revealed before Jiang Wuhen.
“Ancient double pupils?”
“So the rumors are true!”
The Dragon Peng Venerable’s gaze was icy cold. Then the tone shifted.
“Even if you possess the bearing of a natural born sage, you should not be this brutal. You took my child’s life!”
“Today, this Venerable will have you brats pay for my child’s blood!”
The golden wings beat once, and golden feathers fell from the sky like a storm of arrows, hurtling toward Jiang Wuhen.
Jiang Wuhen’s eyes narrowed.
“Still not making a move?”
The question left the Dragon Peng Venerable momentarily confused.
And the next instant—
Boom, boom, boom!
Those golden feathers, scattering like celestial blossoms, were caught in an invisible net and frozen in midair, unable to move so much as a hair’s breadth.
Then they detonated, one after another.
In the blink of an eye, only a sky full of golden powder remained, swept away by the gale.
At the same moment, a figure wrapped head to toe in black stepped out of the void and stood behind Jiang Wuhen.
This person’s aura was extraordinarily concealed. Even standing right before them, one couldn’t detect the faintest fluctuation of energy.
The Dragon Peng Venerable’s gaze sharpened.
“I’ve long heard that among the Heavenly One Immortal Sect’s Shadow Guards, twelve ‘Shadow Venerables’ stand ever at the Empress’s side, answering only to her commands.”
“I never imagined the Empress valued you so highly as to arrange one of the Shadow Venerables to protect you in secret…”
“But even a Shadow Venerable is only at the nirvana realm! This Venerable bears the ancient dragon peng bloodline. At the same level, how could a mere human stop me?”
“If this is your trump card, then this Venerable can only say: Jiang Wuhen, your life is mine to take!”
The Dragon Peng Venerable’s aura surged, killing intent blazing.
Jiang Wuhen watched the golden dragon peng hurtling down, his gaze darkening.
“How noisy.”
“Suppress.”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the Shadow Venerable behind him struck.
With a single step, the void in all four directions darkened like ink spilling into clear water. Darkness spread and enveloped the sky.
“Hmph. All bark and no bite!”
The Dragon Peng Venerable snorted, and the ancient dragon peng bloodline erupted.
A ferocious, domineering assault hammered against the shroud of darkness.
Yet it was like a stone dropped into the ocean. Not the faintest ripple was raised.
The next instant, several threads of black shot from the darkness like phantoms. Even the Dragon Peng Venerable’s formidable body was pierced clean through by them.
In an instant, golden dragon peng precious blood sprayed into the air.
“W-what kind of technique is this?”
“How can a mere human command…”
Terror surfaced on the Dragon Peng Venerable’s face.
It beat its wings fiercely, golden flames seemingly igniting across its body. Its aura exploded outward and it shattered through the dark threads.
But instead of continuing the attack, it turned to flee.
After that single exchange, it already knew the other party’s strength exceeded its own.
If this fight continued, nine times out of ten it would perish here.
“Where there’s life, there’s hope!”
“When this Venerable returns to the Great Desolation Domain and rallies the demon clans’ heroes, I will raze Heavenly One Immortal City to the ground and slaughter every soul within, young and old alike!”
The Dragon Peng Venerable spat out its threat and turned to flee.
Jiang Wuhen frowned.
“You think I’ll actually let you go back?”
“Move. Keep it here!”
The instant the words left his mouth, the endless darkness surged and coalesced into a gigantic hand, pitch black as ink.
The hand descended from the heavens, seemingly containing the space law within it. No matter how fast the Dragon Peng Venerable flew, from a distance it appeared frozen in place, utterly unable to escape the black hand’s domain.
Then the hand clenched shut with a violent snap, and the darkness detonated.
BOOM!
An earth-shaking explosion rang out, mingled with shrieks of agony, as the massive ancient dragon peng tumbled from the sky and slammed into the ground below.
One move, and the Dragon Peng Venerable was gravely wounded!
Jiang Wuhen’s lips curved upward.
An ancient dragon peng. Now that was a fine catch. Every part of it was a treasure.
Its precious blood and essence could temper the body, strengthen bones and tendons, cleanse the marrow, and advance a cultivator’s realm.
Its flesh and blood was not only a rare delicacy of the Desolate Ancient Continent but also contained purified energy.
Beyond that, a nirvana realm ancient dragon peng very likely carried a ‘primitive precious bone’ within it, recording its bloodline divine ability. Should a human learn it, it would be called the ‘dragon peng treasure art.’
Treasure arts and martial skills were similar in nature. The difference was that treasure arts were learned from the precious bones within fierce beasts, whereas martial skills were created by humans.
As for the golden feathers, scales, and talons, they were the finest materials for forging divine weapons and sharp blades.
Of course, this golden roc Venerable also possessed a sliver of divine dragon bloodline and stood at the nirvana realm. If it could be taken as a mount, so much the better.
[Ding dong. The host is savage and domineering, ruthless with few words, and has suppressed a nirvana realm ancient dragon peng. This befits a villain’s style. Reward: twenty thousand villain points!]
The system notification rang out, and Jiang Wuhen nodded.
“System, is there any way to make this ancient dragon peng willingly become my mount?”
Jiang Wuhen asked.
[The host may spend eighty thousand villain points to exchange for a primordial forbidden art from the shop: Soul-Controlling Art!]
[Soul-Controlling Art: Primordial forbidden art. Split off a thread of one’s divine soul as a ‘soul seed’ and implant it into the target’s sea of consciousness, where it takes root upon their divine soul. With a single thought, the caster can control whether the target lives or dies!]
[Note: The prerequisite is absolute cooperation from the subject. The slightest misstep that causes the soul seed to be destroyed will inflict fatal damage upon the caster. Additionally, the soul-controlling art has no effect on Sons or Daughters of Fortune.]
[Exchange?]
“Exchange!”
Jiang Wuhen said without hesitation.
In an instant, a torrent of information flooded into Jiang Wuhen’s mind.
A trace of an otherworldly, unsettling light flickered through his eyes.
Jiang Wuhen stepped forward slowly and gazed at the battered ancient dragon peng with cold eyes.
“Vile creature. I’ll give you two choices. Submit… or die.”
