The Vermilion Bird utterly destroyed the rebels’ organization with its consciousness, leaving them in shambles after a few rushes. All the survivors could think about was how to flee from the valley. They cursed at themselves for having only two legs and not being able to run faster.
“Xiaolong, it’s your turn!” The bird cackled and called out for Long Xiaoxuan.
The dragon perked up and, with a whip of his body, brought up a great tornado of wind and cloud. An endless dragon roar pierced through the sky, the call differing greatly from the bird’s shriek.
The air around him converged and swept through the void like an infinite array of furious waves. This was a technique unique to the true dragons.
The sound roiled continuously and built upon itself, hammering upon every cultivator’s eardrums like cracks of thunder. It was inhumane torture to the rebels.
The roar assaulted their senses, consciousness, and organs with the intensity of a mallet and the weight of a boulder, the impact making minds explode and bodies burst.
Long Xiaoxuan had waited for a chance to stretch his muscles for a very long time. He was going to show off the fullest depths of his might! He whipped around the fringes of the valley like lightning, the roar enveloping the entire area.
The valley seemed trapped in an enormous drum, and the roars a furious drumming on the drum skin.
Shrieks rang through the air.
Long Xiaoxuan’s roar made Jiang Chen’s blood boil. He laughed and started roaring as well, his just as powerful since he’d assimilated the true dragon bloodline. The chain seal in his consciousness raised his mind to Long Xiaoxuan’s level.
It was as if another dragon had joined the fight. Their relentless roars madly pierced the clouds and sky.
Mountains and rivers trembled; the sun and the moon dimmed. Outside the valley, powerful gales brought dust and stones into the air and destroyed all vegetation.
If not for the cover the formation provided, even the spirit herb base within the valley and its cultivators would be caught in the impact.
As it was, they were still antsy in face of the great destruction. They shuddered to think what would happen without their protection.
Holy Girl Yu Ling stammered with shock, “Master, isn’t he – isn’t he human? Why can he roar like a dragon as well?”
Prime Puresmoke had guessed the human cultivator’s identity. “He must be the new genius Jiang Chen from the Eternal Sacred Land – the hero who saved them,” she murmured. “I didn’t expect him to be this young.”
“Jiang Chen?” Holy Girl Yu Ling was befuddled. She’d never heard of such a young genius in Myriad Abyss. Where had he come from?
Puresmoke sighed softly. “You may not know the name Jiang Chen, Ling’er, but you must have heard of his other name.”
“What is it?” the girl asked curiously.
“Shao Yuan.”
“Shao Yuan? The pill dao genius from the Eternal Sacred Land? The one that defeated Master Shi Xuan from Flora Divine Nation and turned him into a pill slave?”
“That’s him,” the prime said pensively. “We only know him as a pill dao genius, but he is even more talented in martial dao. No wonder Xiahou Zong, the top genius of House Xiahou from Eternal, died at his hands in the sword competition.”
“I did hear that,” Yu Ling said incredulously. “But there are a great number of experts in the Eternal Sacred Land. How can he alone be more impactful than all of them combined?”
“I had the same question. It’s said that the young man befriended a vermilion bird that can rival a god. Now it seems the tale is an understatement rather than an exaggeration. He’s accompanied by a true dragon as well! There has never been a genius like him throughout history. Is the Eternal Sacred Land going to rise up from now on?”
The prime gazed at the amazing phenomena brought about by the battle outside the valley, a trace of worry flashing through her eyes. She was more and more curious about the young man. She also envied the Eternal Sacred Land for stumbling upon such an unrivaled genius.
People like him appeared only once every ten thousand years, or even longer. And he’d ended up joining the Eternal Sacred Land! She heard that the young man had originally been recruited by House Yan from the Bluesmoke Isles. The Eternal Sacred Land had gotten ridiculously lucky.
“Master, is this Jiang Chen a descendent of the dragons?”
“He should be human, but he must have refined the true dragon bloodline and acquired many of their techniques. It’s amazing that his roar can match and resonate with a true dragon’s. That proves him to be a genius amongst geniuses.”
Puresmoke was proud and her standards were high. Not many youths had been complimented by her, and none had ever received such high praise from her.
Holy Girl Yu Ling widened her eyes, gazing outside the valley with surprise.
“It seems the rebels have fallen apart already, master. Why don’t we charge out now?” She was itching for action.
“No!” Puresmoke exclaimed immediately. “The dragon roars are at their peak power. If we barge out now, we’ll only get hurt.”
“Wouldn’t the reinforcements mock us for not even having the courage to go out and kill our enemies?” Yu Ling asked worriedly.
“Silly girl, what good can we do by going out? The rebels are now the losing side. Our effort isn’t necessary. Don’t worry. The base is no longer in danger. Nonetheless, it’s a different matter whether the Marital Sacred Land will be able to survive the war.” The prime had greater vision.
As she’d said, the rebels were falling apart. The aides planned to flee during the chaos, but the Vermilion Bird had already marked them with its consciousness. It’d been withdrawn from the battle, but not indifferent to it.
Right before the aides could escape the core battlefield, the bird attacked them with its consciousness, blocking their paths. The aides scurried around like headless chickens.
They weren’t weak. All of them were eighth level empyrean experts. It’d take even Jiang Chen and Long Xiaoxuan some time to kill them in a one-on-one fight.
However, their morale had hit rock bottom, which severely undermined their ability to fight. Jiang Chen and Long Xiaoxuan fought them like a well-oiled machine, taking out the aides one by one.
Without Forefather Goldenbell and the seven commanders, the rebels were directionless and helpless. If the aides had stuck together, Jiang Chen and Long Xiaoxuan wouldn’t have been able to kill them.
However, they’d split up and fled in fear, which divided their strength and gave man and dragon a chance to pick them off.
The aides had been the rebels’ last hope. If they had calmed down and assumed control over the army, they wouldn’t be so easy to defeat no matter how powerful Jiang Chen and Long Xiaoxuan were. After all, there were tens of thousands of them.
Unfortunately, the aides had been scared witless by their commanders’ heads and lost their will to fight. As a result, this part of the rebellion fell apart.
Jiang Chen and the dragon quickly eliminated five of the seven aides. The remaining two were trapped by the Vermilion Bird, struggling to escape.
Jiang Chen roared and laughed. “Now you don’t have to envy Brother Vermilion or Little White, Brother Long. After devouring all seven of them, you’ll make great progress in cultivation.”
Dragons were adept at devouring cultivators. The flesh and spirit energy of advanced empyrean cultivators were great supplements for them.
A human cultivator might end up exploding due to an overload of energy if they devoured others with no restraint, but true dragons had no such concerns. Long Xiaoxuan feasted on the cultivators without worry.
Jiang Chen could tell the dragon had greatly enjoyed the fight. He didn’t try to steal the dragon’s thunder, but instead assisted him in devouring the cultivators. Of course, the empyrean decrees left in their remains went to Jiang Chen. Each took what they needed.
Jiang Chen didn’t feel any guilt for killing so many empyrean cultivators. He felt no sympathy at all for them.
They were descendents of deserters from the ancient times. They hadn’t made any contributions to the human race, and had instead started a civil war, putting all lives in danger. These treacherous people deserved no sympathy no matter how he looked at it.
They hadn’t started the rebellion for the greater good, but for their own selfish desires.
The sixth, the seventh…
In less than half an hour, Jiang Chen and Long Xiaoxuan had defeated all seven of the aides. The dragon devoured their flesh and energy, while Jiang Chen gained a great wealth of empyrean decrees.
He suddenly felt that it wasn’t such a bad idea to come to Martial Divine Nation’s rescue. Even if the rewards the sacred land gave him ended up being limited, he’d gained an abundance of resources on the battlefield.
The empyrean decrees were exactly what the human domain needed.
These cultivators came from the lines of deserters who had robbed the human domain of its greatest heritages and foundations. They’d fled to the Myriad Abyss Island and recreated the glory of the human race.
Taking their empyrean decrees and possessions back to the human domain was simply returning them to their rightful owners.
With the aides dead, there was a shortage of elites within the rebels.
Jiang Chen and his companions had keen eyes. They targeted only the empyrean cultivators. Those below that level of cultivation made up the bulk of the army, but were only a burden in the fight. Even if they were lucky enough to survive the dragon roars, they would be crippled. There wasn’t a need to take their lives.
