The others spun around in shock. Wuzhao, who had been lying unconscious on the ground, now stood behind the Yi King without anyone noticing when he had moved. One hand was buried in the King's chest, and he drew out a blood-soaked inner core. Inside it slept a small golden dragon.
Every eye fixed on it.
"A golden dragon?" Mu Jiu blurted. "Why is Muguang's golden dragon body here?"
"That isn't Muguang's true form," Fan Yue said. "A thousand years ago, Muguang used two dragon scales to lay down a spirit-sealing array. One became the dragon soul at the city gate. The other became the dragon body at the array's heart."
"No wonder you're the Master of Haoyue Hall. You really do know everything." Mu Jiu gave him a thumbs up.
The youth stiffened, frowning. Something told him faintly that this wasn't the memory of whoever this Master of Haoyue Hall was supposed to be.
But no one had time to dwell on it. The instant the inner core left the King's body, the silent Yi spirits in the blood pool let out a howl and turned once more into streaks of black resentment.
Outside the city, the huge dragon shadow that had been slowly fading let out a long cry and reformed.
"This is bad. The god-slaying dragon soul has been reawakened!"
Jinyao's face changed at once.
In the stone hall, the Yi King, his inner core torn from him, spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud.
"No!" Hua Hong leaped forward and caught him as he fell.
The King's crown had come loose, his face ashen. He reached a hand toward her. "Hong... Hong'er..."
Hua Hong stared at him, dazed.
Blood poured from his mouth in great gouts, a horrifying sight.
"Father... Father was wrong. It was I who brought ruin on the Yi Clan. Don't... don't hate Yong'er. Live well."
With the last of his strength, the King pressed a finger to her brow. A faint thread of soul light sank into her forehead and vanished.
The instant the light disappeared, he closed his eyes, all strength gone from him.
Whatever she had seen in that flicker of light, Hua Hong stood frozen a moment, then glanced toward the sleeping Hua Yong not far away. She rose abruptly, swept out her hand, and the iron staff dropped back into her grip. She turned to face the one holding the King's inner core, her eyes bloodshot.
"Why?!"
"You shouldn't have come back." Beside the blood pool, Wuzhao glanced coldly at the King's corpse, avoiding her eyes.
"It was you. You used dark methods in secret to steal every Yi soul." Bai Shuo spoke up suddenly.
Not until Wuzhao cut the inner core from the King's body did she finally understand who had silently stolen the souls of the whole Yi Clan, and who had poisoned Hua Yong with demon venom.
Wuzhao held the King's deepest trust. In all of Yi City, only he could have done it.
"That's right. It was me. I poisoned Hua Yong. I took the souls of the Yi Clan." Wuzhao's face showed nothing.
"Why would you betray your own people?!" Hua Hong's voice shook.
"Why? Because they deserved to die. The Yi King deserved to die. Hua Yong deserved to die. They killed your mother. They owed a life for it!"
Because of Consort Mei? Seeing the hatred in Wuzhao's eyes, Bai Shuo faltered. Could it be that Wuzhao had felt something for the Yi Queen...
"The people are innocent! For the sake of one woman, you'd bury an entire city with her?!" Hua Hong roared.
"Why not?" Wuzhao pointed at the wailing spirits in the blood pool. "For a pack of wretches abandoned by heaven and earth, my adoptive father gave his whole spirit power in sacrifice to that ungrateful beast, and it killed your mother for it! What did it matter that the Mei family guarded this city for a thousand years? In the end, all they got was a shattered family and death!"
So Wuzhao was Old General Mei's adopted son. No wonder Hua Hong, since returning to Yi City, had shown warmth to no one else, only holding on to some old affection for him.
"No, Father didn't..."
"Silence. He doesn't deserve to be called your father!" Wuzhao cut her off with a snarl, and holding the Yi King's sword, leaped above the blood pool. Countless streams of dark energy poured into the inner core, and the sleeping golden dragon inside was instantly overtaken by it, its eyes snapping open.
There was no awareness in those eyes, only a savage killing intent.
The moment they opened, that violence turned to dark energy and shot straight toward Fan Yue, wrapping tightly around him.
It was a god-killing dragon body forced awake by dark energy, and whoever carried divine power became its target.
The dragon's killing intent was overwhelming. Fan Yue's spirit platform burned as if on fire, his face twisted in pain.
"Mumu!" Bai Shuo's face changed and she ran toward him.
"Stay back!" the youth shouted in alarm.
Just as he feared, the golden dragon's gaze snapped to Bai Shuo, and dark energy burst from its eyes, streaking straight for her.
The dragon's might was far beyond what a Half-Immortal like her could withstand. It struck her and sent her flying.
"Master!"
"Ah Shuo!"
Two cries rang out at once. Fan Yue tried to break free to save her, but the dark energy held him fast.
The youth let out a furious cry and swung the silver chain in his hand against the energy wrapped around him. It shuddered, and a few strands were actually severed.
Enraged, the dragon poured even more killing intent onto him, this time aimed straight for the space between his brows.
He coughed up blood, and the chain fell to the ground, letting out a silent cry of anguish.
Chongzhao rushed forward and caught Bai Shuo as she fell through the air.
At the same moment, a dragon's roar sounded from the sky, and the stone hall shook. Everyone sensed a vast force bearing down on the palace.
Beichen's expression changed. "The dragon soul from the other scale has awakened!"
If the dragon soul merged with the golden dragon's true body, it would become a true weapon capable of slaying gods.
The whole hall shook. Seeing Fan Yue seared by the dragon's killing intent, Bai Shuo tore herself free of Chongzhao's arms and shouted at Wuzhao.
"Wuzhao, if the dragon soul merges with the dragon body, everyone will die, Hua Hong included! She's Consort Mei's only daughter! The Yi King is already dead. What grudge is left for you to hold?!"
The figure hovering above the blood pool paused, a flicker of struggle crossing his eyes. But in an instant it vanished, leaving nothing but hatred carved to the bone.
"It's not enough. One life isn't enough!"
Wuzhao shouted in a frenzy and hurled the core into the blood pool, where it began wildly drawing in the Yi spirits. The little golden dragon grew visibly larger by the second, its golden body slowly turning black.
Wrapped in dark energy, Fan Yue's brow turned bloody red. He sank to one knee, the dragon soul's power like a blade driven into his spirit platform.
"Mumu!"
"Ah Shuo, the dragon's power is too strong. You can't get near him!" She tried to rush toward him again, but Chongzhao held her back with all his strength.
"There's no use talking to him anymore. His mind has been seized by hatred and dark forces." Beichen's eyes darkened. "We have to stop the dragon soul from merging with the body. If the dragon falls fully under the demon's control, the whole Wilds will be wiped out!"
"Destroy the core! If we kill the dragon's body inside it, the soul will scatter too!" Bai Shuo shouted, staring at the black dragon in the pool.
When Muguang had left the spirit-sealing array to protect the Yi people, he had split the dragon scale in two, likely fearing that someday the divine array might be turned to someone else's use.
Above the pool, Wuzhao's eyes were hollow. He raised a hand, and the Yi King's sword shot up from the ground, splitting into four blades that formed an array to shield the dragon's body.
"Kunlun sword cultivator, ethereal one, get in there!"
Aside from Bai Shuo, no one prized his own life more than Mu Jiu, and terrified the dragon soul would fully wake, he swung out the Small Annihilation Wheel and, of all people, charged in first.
Beichen and Chongzhao leaped up after him, and the three of them, moving with practiced coordination, closed in on Wuzhao from three sides.
A dim light flickered in Wuzhao's eyes. He struck out with one palm, and the three of them, bound by the sealing array, were sent flying before they could land a single blow.
Hua Hong leaped up and caught all three with her staff.
It was rare to see the noisy fox act so bravely. In midair, she steadied Mu Jiu and pressed a stream of spirit energy into his chest as she caught him.
Mu Jiu, reeling and his blood churning from the blow, suddenly felt warmth spread through his spirit platform. He turned his head and met a pair of cool, distant eyes.
Something caught in his chest, and before he could say a word of thanks, she had already leaped away, her staff swinging down at Wuzhao in the pool.
This time, she held nothing back.
The instant the iron staff struck his blade, flames roared to life along its length, fire fierce enough to burn mountains and melt seas. The entire stone hall trembled.
The blade in Wuzhao's hand was sheared in two by the flame, and the staff drove straight into his chest, sending him flying to be pinned against a stone pillar.
Mu Jiu stared at Hua Hong, who looked every bit a wrathful spirit of death, utterly stunned.
Good grief, Wuzhao was a High Lord at the very least. Just how strong was this princess?
Only now did the others realize that through every brush with death, Hua Hong had never once fought at her full strength.
"The Sky-Burning Staff. You're the Sky Fire Demon Monarch." Beichen looked at her, visibly moved.
Sky Fire and Cangshan, the two great death gods beneath Haoyue Hall, had carried an infamous reputation across the Three Realms for a hundred years.
No one had ever guessed that the Yi princess Hua Hong was Haoyue Hall's own Sky Fire Demon Monarch.
"Sky Fire? The one whose single strike kills across ten thousand miles, the foremost Demon Monarch at the peak of the demon path?"
Mu Jiu swallowed hard. A peak High Demon's decisive strike. It really was terrifying.
Hua Hong seemed not to hear any of it. She stood staring quietly at Wuzhao pinned to the pillar, a grief hidden deep in her eyes that no one else could see.
She had killed the last member of the Mei family with her own hands.
Pinned to the pillar, Wuzhao lay dying. Perhaps it was that grief that reached him, for his crazed mind found a faint moment of clarity. He smiled gently at her and reached out his hand.
"Your Highness, don't cry. I... I..."
He never finished. The last light in his eyes faded, his hand fell limp, and his eyes closed.
No one knew what he had meant to say to her.
Perhaps he didn't need to. Perhaps she already understood.
For everything he had done, even in death, he had no regret.
"Quick, Big Iron, destroy the core!"
The hall fell suddenly silent at Wuzhao's death, but Bai Shuo's mind was on Fan Yue alone, and she wasted not a moment.
Hua Hong came back to herself and flew toward the pool. Just as her staff came down on the core, a dragon's roar sounded, and the massive dragon soul surged into the hall, its tail sweeping toward her.
The Sky-Burning Staff met it head on. The dragon's jaws snapped open and bit the staff clean in two. The soul flew toward the body in the pool, and with a swing of its tail, struck at her.
Even at the peak of the demon path, she was still only an Immortal. Against the power of a dragon god, what chance did she have?
As the tail bore down on her, Hua Hong's eyes narrowed, and in that instant a faint thread of demon power caught the blow. A fiery red tail swept up from the ground, wrapped swiftly around her waist, and pulled her back out of the air.
She stared at the Small Annihilation Wheel, split in two and drifting through the air, still dazed, when a teasing voice sounded at her ear.
"Sky Fire Demon Monarch. Now we're even."
She turned. The little fox blinked at her, grinning smugly, his tail still brushing against her palm as he spoke.
Goosebumps rose over her at once, and she was about to punch the stupid fox into the ground when Bai Shuo shouted beside them.
"Not good, the dragon soul and body have merged!"
Just then, the dragon let out a long roar and a blaze of golden light swept through the hall. The stone chamber shook as if the earth itself were splitting, and everyone was thrown off their feet.
The Kunlun sword shielded Hua Hong and Mu Jiu, while Chongzhao held Bai Shuo tightly against him. Rubble rained down, striking his back, and he grunted but didn't budge an inch.
The golden light faded, and the shaking stopped. Everyone looked up and froze.
A black dragon, mountain vast, rose from the blood pool, its unmatched might filling the hall and pressing everyone down so they couldn't rise.
This, at last, was the true power of a dragon god.
A chill spread through every heart in the room.
High above the city, the dragon's roar tore into the sky. The dark energy had taken the shape of a dragon shadow that broke through the barrier, and everything it touched burned to nothing.
Fear flashed in the eyes of the immortals gathered there. Jinyao rushed forward, revealing his true form as Baize, and with a furious roar, used his demigod body to block the rampaging dragon soul.
In the stone hall, the dragon's savage eyes fixed coldly on the youth kneeling at its center, his face covered in blood.
The black dragon let out a long cry and brought a claw down on Fan Yue.
"Mumu!" Bai Shuo pushed Chongzhao away and ran toward him without a moment's hesitation.
"Ah Shuo!" Chongzhao's face went white.
"Girl, are you trying to get yourself killed? That's a dragon god!"
Mu Jiu shouted after her, but Bai Shuo seemed not to hear. She threw the Qiankun Pouch from her waist, and countless paper figures flew out, crying and wailing as they rushed the dragon's claw like moths to a flame.
A beam of immortal light shot from her hand, and two turtle shells struck the dark energy wrapped around Fan Yue.
Amid the chaos of explosions, she didn't stop for a single step, throwing herself toward the youth kneeling on the ground.
Chongzhao's hand closed on empty air. Watching her fling away every treasure she owned, something in the resolve he had kept unshaken since taking up cultivation cracked, if only for an instant.
Caught in the whirlpool of dark energy, Fan Yue's mind had gone hazy. He struggled to lift his head and saw a familiar face running toward him.
"Master, are you looking for someone you love?"
"No. Master is looking for someone she owes a debt to."
"Then I'll come with you."
"Come with me to do what?"
"To help you find him."
The turtle shells finally pried loose the dark energy coiled around him, and Bai Shuo broke through that single gap, reaching out her hand.
She caught him.
His thin frame fell into her arms, and heat rose at the corners of her eyes.
She was afraid to die, but in that instant, she had been more afraid of Mumu dying in front of her.
The paper figures kept bursting in the air, dissolving into ash beneath the claw. The instant she pulled him into her arms, the claw came down over both their heads.
With the last of his strength, the youth pulled her beneath him, shielding her with his own body against the blow.
Bai Shuo squeezed her eyes shut, her whole body trembling with fear.
God, she was really going to die.
The claw fell, a flash of light passed, but the pain of being crushed to pulp that she had braced for never came.
She blinked and looked up, her eyes meeting her young disciple's.
In those eyes full of blood, there was an emotion she couldn't quite make out.
"Hey, you two! Help us, damn it!"
A weak, exhausted cry sounded nearby. She turned to see Hua Hong, Chongzhao, Beichen, and Mu Jiu standing before them, holding the claw back with everything they had.
True friends, Bai Shuo thought, tears nearly springing to her eyes. The wild relief of surviving swept away every trace of that flicker in her heart just moments before.
Its strike blocked, the black dragon in the pool roared in fury, and its whole body surged up and charged toward them.
Mindless as it was, it burned with rage. These people in the hall were no more than ants to it, and yet they had forced it to fight with everything it had.
As the claw tore toward them, a burst of demon light erupted from Chongzhao's body and made the dragon falter. No one but Chongzhao saw that within that light, a mist of blood bloomed like demon flowers.
Above the city, the instant the blood mist bloomed, Fuling's face changed and she sank to one knee.
Zhenyu glanced at her indifferently, his expression unmoved.
In the hall, the dragon's body had closed in above them, and in the brief moment the demon light held it back, Mu Jiu turned and shouted at Bai Shuo.
"Damn it, girl, the demon dragon wants a god? Where's the god?!"
She looked at her young disciple as Mu Jiu's shout rang in her ears.
As the claw came down, she hesitated no longer. She drew a blade across her palm and pressed her hand to his brow.
The color drained from the youth's eyes and he tried to pull away.
"Master... don't..."
"Master of Haoyue Hall! Wake up!"
Her voice shook. She held onto him with all her strength, not daring to meet his eyes.
The instant her blood welled up, the black dragon's eyes paused, as if sensing that one strange thread of bloodline energy, and a faint divine light flickered through them, even buried as they were beneath dark energy.
That was...
In that same instant, the blood sank into the spirit platform between his brows, and a blazing red divine power erupted through the hall like fire. A figure leaped out of the flames, and the silver chain on the ground let out a joyful ring as it flew into his hand.
In midair, the figure brought the chain down on the black dragon in one stroke. A vast divine light struck the dragon's body head on. It let out a wail, its body shattering, and countless streams of black dark energy poured out of it, turning into the souls of the Yi people and flying out through the top of the hall.
Within the light, the figure in red robes slowly bent down, looking at Bai Shuo with the corner of his mouth curved upward.
"So you knew all along how to wake me."