Not two days later, Hua Qiu brought news. The Ghost Messengers she had dispatched recently had picked up traces of the Jiao Dragon Demon. Given that the dragon demons had come out in full force this time, rampaging everywhere and killing until their eyes ran red with bloodlust, they should be hiding out in the Fog Moon Shoal area.
Fog Moon Shoal was a swamp shrouded in poisonous mist year-round, with spiritual energy so thin it was barely there. Aside from a few demons and monsters native to the place, hardly anyone ever went there—mainly because nothing rare or valuable lurked inside to make it worth the trip.
Yet its location at the Border Region between the Mortal Realm and the Devil Realm, combined with the poor visibility, made it an ideal hideout. On one hand, it offered easy access to the Mortal Realm. On the other, if they were ever exposed and hunted down, the shoal’s thick fog could provide perfect cover for an escape.
After receiving the news, Shang Si gathered Lin Xiao, Qin Xinying, and the others in the dead of night to plan the ambush.
The discussions dragged on for several more days.
By careful count, Lu Shiyuan had now been inside that palace for half a month.
Ever since she entered, a veil of faint light had enveloped the entire abandoned structure, as though the long-dormant halls were joyfully welcoming their mistress home.
No one noticed that every wisp of spiritual energy scattered across the entire Immortal Realm was slowly, steadily flowing toward the glowing palace at its heart.
One month later, at Fog Moon Shoal.
“Wicked beast! Time to die!”
They clearly hadn’t expected anyone to show up near Fog Moon Shoal. Cheng Yan, leading the Jiao Dragon Clan, hovered in midair clad in flowing purple robes. His face was almost demonically alluring, dark wisps of qi coiling unmistakably between his brows.
Cheng Yan eyed the group that had suddenly appeared to encircle them. Far from panicking, a bloodthirsty gleam lit his gloomy, slitted eyes once he took in their predicament. “No wonder the shoal felt so eerily quiet today…”
“Since you’ve so kindly delivered yourselves to our doorstep, you can stay here forever!” Even as the words left his mouth, an attack hurtled toward him.
In an instant, the purple-robed youth’s vast spiritual power erupted outward. He charged straight into the assault, shattering it with a flash, and appeared before the elder. His slender fingers crooked midair, clamping around the man’s throat.
The elder from that minor sect frantically activated his protective artifact. He had never dreamed this young dragon demon could be so overwhelmingly powerful—to dismantle his full-force strike in less than a breath and close the distance right under his nose. This was nothing like the intelligence he’d been given!
But Cheng Yan read his thoughts plain as day and gave him no chance to activate it.
Death loomed inescapably close. The elder realized with sickening clarity that doom had found him.
Cheng Yan savored the familiar terror in the man’s eyes and let out a jagged, mocking laugh. “Too late for fear now.”
He had grown bored of squashing mortals like ants. Slaughtering cultivators and great demons for a change was just the thing!
His fingers tightened, and the man in his grasp exploded into a cloud of blood mist right before him.
The handful of other cultivators who had come to surround the dragon demons watched their comrade perish in an instant—and so brutally—that their own eyes blazed red as they charged Cheng Yan.
But to him, their flurry of attacks resembled nothing more than snowflakes drifting down. He threw himself backward into empty air, plummeting straight into the dense black fog below and vanishing from sight.
At the same instant, a deafening roar shattered the heavens. “Listen up, lads! Kill every last one who isn’t kin!”
That resounding cry of “kill” sent the dozens of encircled Jiao Dragon Demons into a frenzy of savage ecstasy.
The battle erupted in full.
Cheng Qi’s death had merely been a ploy by the Jiao Dragon Clan—a few-for-many trade to buy time. Long before he carried out his self-detonation, they had already named their next clan leader: Cheng Yan, whose bloodline power was the strongest in a millennium and who stood the best chance of surviving the heavenly tribulation to truly become a dragon.
And Cheng Yan proved worthy of leading his clan to its zenith.
He reveled in the chaos of this grand melee, every fiber of his being thrumming with the urge to kill. He feared not these hunters who had gathered specifically to wipe them out.
Until…
“Who’s there?” The Jiao Dragon Clan’s senses for danger were preternaturally sharp. Even as Cheng Yan lurked amid the choking poisonous fog, selecting his next victim, he whipped around to peer into the murk behind him.
He and his clansmen shared a special knack for peering farther through the fog, letting him make out a hazy silhouette just a few meters off despite the gloom.
Then the figure stepped slowly forward, revealing itself fully.
“It’s you,” Cheng Yan said. His eyes narrowed to slits as a sinister smile twisted his lips. “No wonder those spineless, useless cultivators from the Mortal Realm suddenly mustered the guts to come hounding my clan—and even knew to look for us here at Fog Moon Shoal. Yedu’s been pulling the strings from the shadows.”
Shang Si watched him smile but said nothing.
Seeing no reaction from her, Cheng Yan paid it no mind. He lifted one wrist and rubbed it gently, lowering his eyes. “I’ve heard that your Shang clan line exists beyond the Three Realms, favored by the Heavenly Dao itself—ruling Yedu as Lord from generation to generation…”
“Perhaps if I drink your blood, I can trigger a tribulation right here and transform into a true dragon!” With those last words, Cheng Yan’s expression twisted in an instant, and he struck. He aimed to catch Shang Si off guard with a devastating blow, only for his fist to sink into something soft like cotton. She sidestepped effortlessly, raising her hand to neutralize the attack without breaking a sweat.
This was utterly unlike anyone Cheng Yan had fought before—not like those thick-headed fools outside the fog who relied on sheer numbers, either. In that single exchange, he could tell the difference.
The woman before him was a genuinely tough nut to crack.
That made things difficult.
Cheng Yan wasn’t some brute who only knew how to charge headfirst. With half Jiao Dragon blood coursing through his veins, his kind was notoriously cunning.
Realizing he had no chance of coming out on top against her, he switched tactics, trying to persuade her to leave. “Yedu lies beyond the Three Realms—why wade into this mess? Even if my clan turns the Three Realms upside down, it won’t touch your territory.”
Shang Si’s sleeve fluttered slightly as she turned her gaze on him, her smile turning cool. “Young Master Cheng, you have quite the short memory. Have you already forgotten sending men to assault Yedu and unleashing those resentful spirits the other day?”
Whether for public or private reasons, the entire Jiao Dragon clan had to be buried at Fog Moon Shoal today.
Shang Si wasted no more words on him. She formed hand seals with both hands, activating the array she had laid down earlier.
Faint starlight flickered into existence in the void, and the grand array’s power began to manifest. Only then did Cheng Yan realize Shang Si hadn’t followed him here—she had been lying in wait all along.
He immediately shifted into his true form and barreled toward her, desperate to disrupt her seals.
Cheng Yan knew full well that if the array fully activated, he’d be trapped inside. No one from outside could enter, and no one within could escape.
He’d be fish on the chopping block, completely at her mercy.
Shang Si had foreseen his outburst and come prepared. Everyone knew the demon races were at their most ferocious in their true forms, not their human guises. The instant the Jiao Dragon revealed itself, it filled the entire space.
The black fog hovering above Shang Si’s head had been scattered by the array’s power, but Cheng Yan’s true body soon blotted out the sky overhead with its pitch-black bulk. The massive dragon head gaped wide with its bloody maw and lunged at her, exuding suffocating pressure.
Jiao Dragons resembled dragons but lacked horns, born of water. Yet most water-loving demons dreaded fire above all else.
Shang Si freed one hand and hurled the pre-activated Fire Phoenix Clan’s Sacred Artifact at the enormous head. Firelight exploded across the heavens in an instant. The phoenix demon’s accompanying flames coiled into serpents, flooding every corner of the grand array with ravenous hunger, poised to devour all in their path!
Even as its wielder, shielded by the artifact’s grace, Shang Si could feel the horrifying heat radiating from those flames.
“No wonder Qin Xinying said the Fire Phoenix Clan spared no expense this time.” Shang Si hadn’t realized just how ferocious a phoenix demon’s innate fire could be. Small wonder the Jiao Dragon Clan had always coveted their bloodline power.
Had this Jiao Dragon demon already been burned to death?
The absurd thought flitted through Shang Si’s mind before Cheng Yan dispelled it with action.
The bluish-black Jiao Dragon burst from the inferno, its body wreathed in flames. Cheng Yan’s scales gleamed even blacker and shinier from the blaze.
His enormous eyes locked onto Shang Si, his voice a rasping snarl of fury. “You bitch—if you want my life, you’ll pay for it in blood!”
The colossal Jiao Dragon surged toward her once more.
But Shang Si’s seals were now complete. The sacred artifact had bought her just enough time, and the grand array stood fully formed.
Cheng Yan’s escape was sealed. Even if his body perished, his soul would remain imprisoned here. No wonder he was losing his mind.
With both hands free, Shang Si had completed the vital first step in slaying a dragon demon.
As for the rest…
She held her ground in midair, unflinching as he charged, her voice calm and measured. “Then today, let this lord see what the true price of blood looks like.”
As she spoke, she opened her right palm. Spiritual power coalesced swiftly into a Light Sword, its blade radiating such intense power that it sent chills through the air.
Lu Shiyuan had once puzzled over how every Ghost General of Yedu possessed their own natal spirit weapon—except Shang Si. She’d never seen hers.
Shang Si had simply said she didn’t need one, offering no further explanation.
If Lu Shiyuan could witness this now, she would understand why.
The aspect of a dragon’s body that it prided itself on most was undoubtedly its formidable physique and terrifying defensive power. Every inch of its form was covered in beautiful yet incredibly tough scales—scales that even the finest supreme-grade sword blades in the world might fail to pierce.
This was precisely what Cheng Yan was banking on.
However… Shang Si thrust out her hand, pressing it against the massive dragon head hurtling toward her. She rode the momentum of the impact, swiftly retreating backward. Then, just as Cheng Yan’s eyes reddened and he geared up for his next assault, she sprang into the air, driving the Light Sword in her grasp straight into the faint, nearly invisible seam of flesh atop its head.
But a dragon was a dragon, while a Jiao Dragon was a Jiao Dragon.
Jiao Dragons boasted scales rivaling those of true dragons, yet they were born without horns—a trait that became the fatal weakness of the Jiao Dragon Demon.
Anywhere lacking the protection of scales was defenseless.
