The Old Dragon Wakes

Hai Yunxue was the epitome of thousandfold charm and hundredfold seductiveness. Her purple gown added a hint of nobility. Her skirt fluttering, she stood lightly atop the treetops, like a bewitching spirit or a fallen angel, stirring the heart and swaying the soul.

On her beautiful face, a cold smile held a trace of allure, yet even more ruthlessness and resolve. Several Tiger family half-demigods surrounded and protected her, and many young elites of the Eternal Continent followed at her side.

A fierce killing aura emanated from these people, placing Xiao Chen, Liu Mu, Yizhen, Niu Ren, and Jin Sanyi in grave peril.

Xiao Chen frowned. Had even the White Tiger Holy Emperor's ancestor come? Otherwise, why would they dare act so arrogantly despite having seen Chiyou accompanying him?

"If you want to deal with me, be prepared to pay a heavy price." Xiao Chen was very calm, facing them coldly. At the same time, he speculated: if the White Tiger Holy Emperor had indeed come, could it be that he had vaguely deduced that Xiao Chen was about to receive a great opportunity and had sent people to disrupt and prevent it?

"Killing you is as easy as taking something from my pocket." A half-demigod of the Tiger family spoke with a somber, almost ferocious gaze fixed on Xiao Chen. Their hatred for him ran deep—the Tiger family had lost no small number of members at his hands.

Such contempt could not anger Xiao Chen. Having experienced so much, he could remain as calm as an ancient well in the face of such provocations. He said flatly, "Then step forward and try."

Niu Ren, Liu Mu, Yizhen, and Jin Sanyi, whose identity was still hidden, all prepared for battle.

"Little whelp, I'll kill you!" The Tiger family half-demigod roared with a somber fury. He was no ordinary half-demigod; his strength pressed straight toward the sixth heaven of the Sky-Mastery realm, far greater than the first-heaven Tiger family half-demigod Xiao Chen had killed before.

With a tiger's might, a gale sprang up in the dead forest. He roared and swept out a white radiance that pulverized trees and rolled toward Xiao Chen.

In that instant, Xiao Chen's eyes blazed with cold light. The ultimate speed of the Eight Aspect Worlds surged into motion—not to flee, but to charge forward! His Hand of the Supreme Being rose, white as fine jade, crystalline and almost translucent, like a heavenly saber cleaving through the surging white energy waves.

Ultimate speed! Faster than anyone could react. A shadow flickered and vanished. A spray of blood soared into the sky. Xiao Chen halted not far ahead, holding a dripping head in his hand.

Instant kill!

"As you said, killing you is as easy as taking something from my pocket."

Xiao Chen gave a cold snort and tossed away the bloody head.

The Tiger family half-demigod died with open eyes. He had been close to the sixth heaven of Sky-Mastery, yet in that moment he was slain in a single blow.

Carelessness was only one factor. Strength was another. Xiao Chen himself was already at the fourth heaven of Sky-Mastery. With the ultimate speed of the Eight Aspect Worlds and his indestructible Hand of the Supreme Being, even against an opponent nearly two heavens higher, he held a terrifying advantage.

The several half-demigods of the Tiger family erupted in fury. The young elites gathered around Hai Yunxue sucked in cold air. But then the whole group surged forward, intent on destroying Xiao Chen.

"Stay where you are," Xiao Chen barked coldly, almost heartlessly. "You want to go to the Mortal World, but with such conduct, how can I allow you to enter? I have decided to trap you forever on Dragon Island."

"Who do you think you are?" A young cultivator shouted coldly, a trace of mockery in his voice.

Xiao Chen said nothing. He directly used the jade bracelet to tear open space, and that youth was instantly enveloped and drawn into a spatial passage.

"Senior Tonghu, you are the guardian of Mount Lu. Someone is trying to sneak across. Please handle this as you see fit." Xiao Chen transmitted his voice.

"Boom!" A wild surge of energy lashed into the spatial passage.

"Ah…" A miserable scream followed. The young cultivator instantly dissolved into a mist of blood.

Tonghu had been blocked by Taihao not long ago, allowing Xiao Chen to break through into the World of Immortality with the bracelet. These days, he had been pent up with frustration. Hearing that someone on the other side was trying to sneak across, his anger flared and he killed directly.

When the space sealed shut, Hai Yunxue stood stunned. The Tiger family half-demigods and the young elites were nearly petrified.

So the key to entering the Mortal World lay with Xiao Chen! Turbulent waves rose in their hearts as they feared for their prospects.

Suddenly, an immense pressure descended. Xiao Chen's expression changed—that was likely the half-ancestor White Tiger Holy Emperor, who seemed to have truly come to Dragon Island!

Did he want to seize the jade bracelet?

However, Xiao Chen was not alarmed. He knew that the Xuanwu old ancestor from the Pure Land had not gone to strike the heavenly stele either and was nearby. Sure enough, another vast pressure surged like an angry sea, neutralizing the first.

After a moment of confrontation, both overwhelming pressures receded like the tide.

Hai Yunxue did not delay a moment; she turned and left, and those around her quickly followed in retreat.

"Hahaha…" Jin Sanyi laughed unrestrainedly. At this moment, strangely enough, he did not stammer at all.

Perhaps it was because all the sounds were the same—even a stammer was indistinguishable.

Those people withdrew far away. Xiao Chen briefly parted ways with Liu Mu, Niu Ren, and the others, then soared into the sky. He felt that something was calling to him from the heavens above.

The twelve-grade lotus platform flew back to beneath the Buddha's feet.

On the hundred-meter-high wall of the Dead City, the huge dharma wheel flickered with an eerie light. A disheveled Daoist with fierce light blazing in his eyes stared coldly at the Buddha without a word.

But his domineering presence was unmistakable. This was definitely a half-ancestor level expert, capable of standing against the Buddha without falling behind. How could he be an ordinary person?

The massive dharma wheel let out a "dong" sound that rang across the entire Dragon Island. The dharma wheel embedded in the death-reeking city wall shook violently, then broke free. The wall seemed about to collapse, and black blood oozed from the cracks.

"Jieyin Daoist, why do you not return?!" The Buddha employed the Lion's Roar divine ability, trying to subdue the fierce Daoist.

"Hum—" The answer was a jarring metallic hum. The huge dharma wheel spun, rapidly shrinking, and was held flat in the fierce Daoist's palm.

"Why do you not return?!" The Buddha roared repeatedly. Legend said that the Buddha's Lion's Roar could cleanse a person's most fundamental spiritual consciousness, allowing even a world-destroying demon to shed his viciousness and attain Buddhahood on the spot.

Three roars of the Buddha could make all evildoers in the world reform their minds and turn to good—it was the supreme wonder of the compassionate method. But after three roars, the fierce Daoist remained cold and indifferent, instead seeming to enlighten the Buddha. He said, "Elder brother Buddha, you are fixated on appearances."

After a brief silence, the Buddha said, "You are I, and I am you. What need to distinguish?"

"Wrong. You are the Buddha; I am Jieyin Daoist. You are you, and I am I. All the celestial Buddhas and gods are like every ordinary being—each has a unique true self." The fierce Daoist identified himself as Jieyin Daoist.

Those watching from afar were astonished. Jieyin Daoist was the first founder of the Western Religion during the War of Investiture! Zhunti Daoist was the second founder. How could the Buddha be linked to Jieyin Daoist?

The Buddha's face showed compassion. "Return to oneness." Behind his head, three relics shot forth, aimed at Jieyin Daoist. Three golden beams were as brilliant as billions of stars streaking through the sky—dazzling and magnificent.

"The Great Dao is natural. Elder brother Buddha, you have left a trace." A cold smile played at the corner of Jieyin Daoist's mouth, half teasing, half contemptuous. An iron horsetail whisk appeared in his hand as he swept it forward with force.

The clash of half-ancestors was unfathomable. The relics and the iron whisk formed a destructive field that annihilated that region of space, creating a black hole.

It seemed ordinary, but the onlookers knew how terrifying that pitch-black space was—even gods and demons entering would be destroyed in both form and spirit!

The Buddha and Jieyin Daoist controlled their power precisely, letting no excess energy escape, yet they displayed the most terrifying killing potential. Even a half-ancestor caught in that black hole would lose half his life.

This region of space seemed fine, but the dimensional space connected to the black hole had truly collapsed.

This exchange ended evenly. The three relics flew back, spinning behind the Buddha's head in rainbow light and auspicious rays, reflecting a scene of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

The Buddha did not stop there. He pointed, and the twelve-grade lotus platform flew forward. It was crystalline like warm jade, not glaring, but the energy it rippled with inspired awe—even the will to resist was lost. It was a power of righteous harmony and vastness.

Jieyin Daoist sneered. The dharma wheel in his hand soared into the sky, then grew to the size of a house, shining with black light as it crashed into the twelve-grade lotus platform. This dharma wheel's energy had been completely darkened, its nature directly opposite the lotus platform. The dark power was chilling and oppressive.

Crystalline brilliance met shimmering black light. The twelve-grade lotus platform and the dharma wheel both trembled, radiance shooting in all directions. That spot became the eye of the storm. Both sacred artifacts were blasted into dimensional space.

The eye of the storm had an unimaginable devouring force that made even the distant mountains tremble, as if they were about to be torn from the ground and sucked into another dimension—let alone the watching cultivators. Many were already lifted off the ground, rushing toward the storm eye like moths to a flame, about to turn to ash.

The Buddha recited a Buddhist mantra and sighed softly. He reached out a Buddha hand, and the twelve-grade lotus platform was gently drawn back. At the same time, Jieyin Daoist sneered and withdrew his hand. The eye of the storm vanished.

"Thanks to your arrival, I have been resurrected." Jieyin Daoist said coldly, without emotion. "In the ancient battle, you left alone, and my soul scattered here. Now we owe each other nothing."

Those in the distance did not understand.

The only half-ancestor who had not attacked, the Xuanwu old ancestor from the Pure Land, sighed softly. "The Fate Twins divine ability—truly unparalleled."

At these words, everyone was shocked. They immediately thought of a serious question: Could it be that… the Buddha and Jieyin Daoist were actually the same person? Masters of the Fate Twins, one soul split in two?!

The Fate Twins divine ability had long been called a rare and supreme technique, but few could cite an absolute top-level example from history that dominated the world with it. But today, this mystery was unveiled. Even the Buddha was one of the Fate Twins—Jieyin and the Buddha were the representative figures of this divine ability. How could it not be called powerful and terrifying?

Jieyin Daoist was clearly the Evil Child. Although his soul had scattered in that ancient age, as long as the Good Child lived, he would never be truly and completely destroyed. Now, when the Buddha broke through the strange blood curtain and came close to the dharma wheel, the Fate Twins divine ability reappeared, and thus the evil Daoist was resurrected.

Jieyin Daoist spoke coldly. "Above heaven and below earth, I alone am supreme. The 'I' in this refers to all beings, and also to each person's true self. Both you and I have a true self. From now on, we will be two separate people." With that, he held the dharma wheel in his hand and forcibly broke through the blood curtain shaken loose by the heavenly stele, flying out from above the Dead City.

The Buddha sighed, then was silent. He too broke through the blood curtain, and the headless Shenxiu followed closely behind him.

Elsewhere, something even more astonishing occurred. Primordial, Tongtian, and the others were wildly demolishing the city wall, as if they wanted to tear down the hundred-meter-tall Dead City.

Although their power was boundless, the wall's firmness was beyond imagination. Even with half-ancestor strength, it was difficult to truly shatter it; they could only cause partial cracks.

At that moment, an aged sigh rang out. The towering black wall actually began to tremble, as if a pair of invisible giant hands were trying to lift it bodily off the ground.

Everyone cried out in shock. The black wall, as towering as a mountain range, was indeed slowly rising from the earth. Even the heavenly stele was pulling up from the ground, as if about to leave Dragon Island entirely.

What was happening? Everyone was horrified. Even the half-ancestors like Primordial and Tongtian were uncertain.

Suddenly, someone screamed, "That's… an old dragon! It has shouldered the city wall and the heavenly stele!"

No one knew when an ancient dragon, decrepit beyond recognition, had come beneath the Dead City. Its horns and claws had already fallen off; its scales were almost completely gone. Its wrinkled skin was dull and lusterless. But it was actually using its back to lift the mountain-like wall and prop up the heavenly stele!

This was inconceivable. How much power did this unremarkable old dragon possess? That terrifying strength… could it be the ability of an Ancestral God?

The sealed dragon race, the cursed dragon race, the strongest race almost forgotten by the world… still had such a supreme being!

Primordial, Tongtian, Zhunti Daoist, Chiyou, and Laozi all flew down from the wall, charging toward the foundations.

"Clang!" A resounding metallic note. Zhunti Daoist actually dug out a seven-colored ferocious sword half-buried in the foundation of the Dead City. He immediately used his strongest power to draw the sword, trying to extract it.

Primordial was even more joyful, nearly trembling with excitement. From the ancient foundation, he discovered an ancient staff, and he wished he could unseal it immediately.

On another side, Chiyou uncovered an iron halberd, so familiar that it made him shake with emotion.

Lord Tongtian dug up an ancient shield, a delighted expression on his face as he prepared to break the foundation seal.

Just then, the old dragon, with the wall on its back and its claws pulling at the heavenly stele, let out a sharp roar. The entire Dragon Island trembled. It seemed about to flip the Dead City upside down.

But at that moment, a vast fluctuation like a mighty ocean descended. A phantom of one heavenly stele appeared beside the Dragon Island heavenly stele, followed by another phantom…

The lifted Dragon Island heavenly stele fell back down. The mountain-like wall also slowly descended.