Gu Santong was clueless, but Zhuo Fan propped his weak body over, his evil smile looking glorious on his face.
Hum~
The green glow had started by now, filling Huangpu Tianyuan’s body with brimming vitality and healing him all over again.
“Ha-ha-ha, I am undying. You got nothing on me!” Huangpu Tianyuan cackled.
Gu Santong was raging again.
Boom!
Huangpu Tianyuan was stomped into the ground, his face twisted in pain so bad you couldn’t even see his features.
He may be undying but not pain free. Young Sanzi’s trampling hurt like hell.
Not that he minded. He just felt good putting up a tough front in front of peak experts like Gu Santong and Zhuo Fan seeing how they could do nothing to him. Other than the excruciating pain, he felt peachy.
“Ha-ha-ha, you may have joined hands but it doesn’t mean squat!” Huangpu Tianyuan smiled.
Zhuo Fan grinned, taking one step at a time like climbing mountains, “He-he-he, old codger, don’t get ahead of yourself. Nine Dragons Diamond Body is but an earth ranked martial art, far from invincible.”
“Your point? You still can’t take me out either way. Unless you enter the Ethereal Stage and destroy my soul, nothing will work, ha-ha-ha…”
Huangpu Tianyuan sneered, looking at them saying [Take your best shot. I’ll just sit here, waiting.]
Gu Santong was about to flip out, squeezing harder on the guy with the hoof but Huangpu Tianyuan just toughed it out.
Zhuo Fan still took slow steps over. He placed a bloody hand on the guy’s head.
“Young Sanzi, hold him down good.” Zhuo Fan warned.
Gu Santong nodded.
Huangpu Tianyuan mocked, “Zhuo Fan, you’re on the verge of collapse with no energy left. What could you possibly do? You couldn’t even best me at your peak! Ha-ha-ha…”
“Ha-ha-ha…”
Huangpu Tianyuan laughed, as did Zhuo Fan.
Huangpu Tianyuan frowned, “I’m mocking your weakness. Why are you laughing?”
“I’m laughing at your ignorance.” Zhuo Fan’s eyes flashed with a black glow and his body released a black energy, “The world is filled with countless arts and techniques. Do you think that Bodhi Root has truly made your body undying? Humph, feast your eyes on the real world. Even with your Nine Dragons Diamond Body, you’ll still have a horrid death.”
“Demon Transformation Art!” The black energy flowed through his hand into Huangpu Tianyuan.
The rock solid Earth Dragon Body was stained with pitch-black energy, as it seeped into him, dissolving him, despite how hard the dragon souls fought the invasion.
Especially the Returning Dragon soul, it turned black, as if poisoned.
[How come?] Bodhi Root was the essence of life, a panacea for all poisons. Fusing it with the dragon soul would make the Returning Dragon soul immune as well.
Not like he could tell this was no poison but Zhuo Fan’s Yuan Qi built through the Demon Transformation Art.
Demon Transformation Art could assimilate anything and everything. Taking all that it had and leaving nothing but dregs. He was putting Huangpu Tianyuan through the same process, robbing him blind, dragon souls included.
“Zhuo Fan, what the hell are you doing?” Huangpu Tianyuan lost his smug attitude.
It even contained dread.
Zhuo Fan just grinned, “Hi-hi-hi, what, he asks? This!”
Zhuo Fan worked his art and took it all back now. Huangpu Tianyuan felt his power leaving, his Yuan Qi, his breath, even the dragon souls. Everything going into Zhuo Fan.
Overwhelmed, Huangpu Tianyuan struggled to get away. With a monster above him, he was going nowhere fast though, made to endure this naked humiliation as the power ebbed from him.
Roar!
The wail of a dragon shook Zhuo Fan as a dragon soul entered his body. With the loss of one dragon soul, Huangpu Tianyuan’s claw returned to normal.
Panicking, Huangpu Tianyuan was horrified.
He guessed what Zhuo Fan was doing, but the reality was just that much crueler, of how easy it all came to Zhuo Fan.
He had refined them himself, through blood and sweat, yet they jumped ship like it was nothing?
[What demonic art is Zhuo Fan using to rob me?] That dragon soul he got from Huangpu Qingtian was because his life faded away.
But Huangpu Tianyuan was very much alive right now.
Huangpu Tianyuan’s heart was going a mile a minute, yet he did not have the time to mind the doubts, finding himself at death’s door, “Stop, stop I say!”
“Humph, old Huangpu, you’re so stuck-up, so obnoxious, where has all that attitude of yours gone?” Zhuo Fan laughed.
Huangpu Tianyuan felt like crying, fighting the process with all he had, to no avail. As the dragon souls left him, his body weakened, coming back to his human form.
Roar~!
Roars came from Zhuo Fan this time, wrestling inside him for a way out.
Huangpu Tianyuan grasped at his chance at victory, “Ha-ha-ha, they aren’t refined by you. You may have taken them, but they won’t listen to anyone but me. Return them and I promise not to fight you again. We will split the world between us.”
Huangpu Tianyuan was at a disadvantage and started speaking terms.
Zhuo Fan smiled, “The world was mine to begin with. Why would I ever share it? Moreover, these earthworms, since I’ve pulled them out of you, do you think I can’t tame them?”
Zhuo Fan’s forehead revealed an azure flame making the dragon souls fall back.
Huangpu Tianyuan’s eyes teared up.
He had now lost even his bargaining chip.
Zhuo Fan’s tricks were that weird and insidious. Regent Estate had a hold of the Dragon Vein for a thousand years yet never could get the souls to submit. And Zhuo Fan just showed up and they’d behave like children?
Sighing, Huangpu Tianyuan showed a powerless expression of remorse as he thinned out.
As the last dragon soul roared, Returning Dragon soul entering Zhuo Fan, Huangpu Tianyuan became human again, stripped of all arrogance.
In another hour, Huangpu Tianyuan turned to ashes, lost in the wind.
Gu Santong sneered at the empty ground and turned back to a child.
He had no clue if Huangpu Tianyuan ever felt endless remorse at having messed with the father and son duo, that he dared pose before them, but with the loss of the dragon souls, despair was all those old eyes showed.
It was then that the old man lost his will to live as well…
“Dad, I never knew you had such a trick. Is that Nine Serenities Emperor’s master skill? You robbed the old guy of even his temper…” Gu Santong smiled.
Zhuo Fan cut him off, “Young Sanzi, defend me while I unite the dragons. I’m breaking through.”
He sat cross legged, eyes closed and cultivated.
Gu Santong saw him rush and figured this had to be a rare chance for his old man. He stopped talking and was earnest in protecting him.
Two days went by, time in which Zhuo Fan’s power grew. Going one layer per day, reaching the 5th layer of Profound Heaven Stage. And with this change his body healed as well.
But Huangpu Tianyuan was a peak Radiant Stage expert, brimming with power.
Whoosh!
With a bang, a black chain shot for Zhuo Fan’s skull.
Gu Santong grabbed it, “Who’s there? Come out!”
“Gu Santong, you are the imperial family’s Divine Dragon, yet you collude with traitors of the empire? Did you forget the promise you made three hundred years ago?”
As the black smoke twisted, Shadow King with Sima Hui and Fang Qiubai made their appearance.
All while Zhuo Fan was calmly sitting there, ignoring the world around him…
