Stone Sword Dragon's Roar

Earth Element Law Origin!

Pure energy that surpasses the System's analysis limit!

Cheng Xi's heart pounded like a drum in his chest, blood rushing to his head, making his eardrums buzz. The Jianmu Fragment vibrated violently in his palm, its emerald light flowing like a living thing towards the chest of his skeletal robe, illuminating the faint but incredibly dense earth-yellow glow emanating from beneath the silver-gray fabric with perfect clarity!

Instinct! A greedy instinct originating from the depths of his soul drove him forward! The power contained within this Xirang Crystal (the System's name for it) was the key to solving all his current predicaments! Restoring System energy, suppressing Rune backlash, resisting the Human Cultivation's erasure… even, glimpsing that mysterious and unfathomable path to the extraordinary!

One step!

He was only three steps away from the seated remains and the ancient stone platform!

"Buzz--!"

An unforeseen change occurred!

From the center of the stone platform, the plain, unremarkable ancient stone sword inserted there let out a low, resonant hum without any warning! The entire stone platform, along with the rocky ground beneath their feet, trembled violently!

A heavy, vast, terrifying pressure, like the entire Zhongnan Mountain range crashing down, descended with a roar! The air instantly solidified, becoming as viscous as mercury! The Elite Guards guarding the area grunted, as if struck by invisible hammers, stumbling back in unison, most of their torches extinguishing with a puff! The light in the stone cave dimmed drastically, leaving only the faint glow refracted by the stalactites on the ceiling and the emerald light of the Jianmu Fragment!

Cheng Xi bore the brunt of it! The pressure wasn't aimed at the physical body but directly at the spirit and will! He felt his vision blacken, as if he were buried beneath an endless, primordial earth, the phantoms of countless ancient mountains crushing down in succession! His sea of consciousness felt like an ice surface into which a boulder had been thrown, instantly covered in cracks! A groan of unbearable burden came from the depths of his soul!

"Pfft!" He could no longer suppress a mouthful of blood, and it sprayed out fiercely! His body swayed, and he could only rely on the emerald light erupting from the Jianmu Fragment in his hand to keep him from collapsing on the spot!

[Warning! Impacted by ultra-high-level Earth Element Law pressure! Mental barrier on the verge of collapse! Source: Stone Sword (Guardian Artifact)... Target: Guarding Xirang Crystal...] The System's alarm shrieked!

Guarding?! This seemingly inanimate stone sword was actually the guardian artifact for the Xirang Crystal! Anyone approaching the crystal would suffer this terrifying pressure originating from the earth!

"Royal Brother!" Ying Zheng's sharp shout echoed from behind him. Under this mountain-crushing pressure, he was the only one still standing! His Black Robes billowed in the invisible force. He took a step forward, forcefully squeezing to Cheng Xi's side, and reached out to steady his wavering body!

The moment Ying Zheng's hand touched Cheng Xi's shoulder--

"Roar--!!!"

A vast, ancient, and majestic dragon roar that made the soul tremble erupted from Ying Zheng's body without warning! This was not a real sound but directly resonated in the depths of the consciousness of every living being in the stone cave!

Accompanying this dragon roar, a point of pure, ultimate purple-gold light suddenly ignited deep within Ying Zheng's profound, abyss-like eyes! Immediately after, a blurry but incredibly majestic five-clawed true dragon phantom surged upwards from behind him! Though faint, the dragon phantom carried the supreme imperial majesty of ruling the eight directions and looking down on all under heaven!

The instant the dragon phantom appeared, the vast earth pressure emanating from the stone sword seemed to encounter its natural enemy and abruptly paused! The invisible crushing force experienced an extremely brief moment of stagnation and retreat!

Now!

A sharp glint flashed in Cheng Xi's eyes! This was the moment he had been waiting for! The dormant Ancestor Dragon aura within Ying Zheng indeed possessed a natural suppressive effect on the Earth Element pressure, which belonged to the same origin law!

He endured the tearing pain in his sea of consciousness and poured all his remaining mental power, along with all the life energy erupted by the Jianmu Fragment, madly into the System! The target locked—the Xirang Crystal beneath the skeletal robe!

[Forced analysis initiated! Target: Xirang Crystal's outer sealing structure! Energy overload!... Deduction... Hiss... Node locked!]

The pale blue System interface flashed wildly in Cheng Xi's collapsing sea of consciousness, instantly locking onto an extremely tiny energy node within the invisible sealing network made of countless fine earth-yellow Runes on the surface of the Xirang Crystal. This node experienced a momentary fluctuation due to the interference of the Ancestor Dragon aura by the stone sword's pressure!

"Open... for me!" Cheng Xi let out a silent roar in his heart! Using the natural, strong resonance between the Jianmu Fragment and the Xirang Crystal, he transformed his last ounce of condensed will into an invisible chisel and fiercely stabbed towards that fluctuating node!

"Pop!"

A faint sound, like a bubble bursting, audible only to Cheng Xi!

At the chest of the skeletal robe, the earth-yellow glow suddenly contracted inwards, then erupted with a light a hundred times stronger than before! A crystal, only the size of a pigeon's egg, perfectly round, and exhibiting the purest earth-yellow color, slowly floated up from beneath the dust of the robe, like a star breaking free from invisible restraints!

The moment the crystal appeared, the earth element spiritual energy within the entire stone cave instantly boiled! The ground undulated like waves! The stalactites on the ceiling emitted a crisp hum! A vast, pure, origin aura that nurtured all things and bore all things permeated the air!

However, this aura only lasted for a moment!

"Roar--!!!"

The stone sword let out an unprecedented, furious roar! The terrifying pressure, like an ancient fierce beast thoroughly enraged, surged back like a tidal wave! Ten times stronger than before! Countless fine cracks on the stone sword's plain surface suddenly lit up with dazzling earth-yellow light, and the sword body vibrated violently, emitting a groan of unbearable strain, as if it were about to shatter at any moment!

The floating Xirang Crystal was pulled, trembled violently, and turned into a yellow light, about to re-enter the stone platform!

"You wish!" Cheng Xi's eyes were bloodshot! He had paid the price of a severely damaged sea of consciousness to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pry open a sliver of the seal. How could he let it fail now! With his last ounce of strength, he hurled the Jianmu Fragment in his hand fiercely towards the Xirang Crystal flying back to the stone platform!

"Buzz!"

The Jianmu Fragment and the Xirang Crystal collided violently in mid-air!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a strange, harmonious resonance like a drop of water merging into the earth! The emerald and earth-yellow lights instantly intertwined, entwined, forming a soft, dual-colored beam of light! Within the beam, the Jianmu Fragment, as if returning to its mother body, rapidly softened, extended, and transformed into countless slender emerald roots, greedily and gently entwining around the pigeon's egg-sized Xirang Crystal!

The crystal's struggle instantly stopped! The violent Earth Element origin power, like a river finding its course, was madly absorbed and guided by the emerald roots!

An indescribable torrent of energy, so pure and dense it was extreme, flowed along the spiritual connection between the Jianmu roots and the fragment, like a river breaking its banks, and surged into Cheng Xi's depleted sea of consciousness and meridians!

"Ugh...!" Cheng Xi's body trembled violently, as if being doused with boiling magma! But this time, it was no longer a destructive impact! The Jianmu roots acted like the most precise filter, transforming the violent origin power of the Xirang Crystal into gentle, pure, directly absorbable Earth Element spiritual energy!

[Energy infusion! Chaos base point charging! 1%... 5%... 10%...]

The System's cold notification sound was like heavenly music at this moment! The depleted energy pool surged at an unprecedented rate! The cracks in his sea of consciousness rapidly healed under the nourishment of the pure energy, even becoming more resilient and vast! The burning pain of the Rune backlash in his chest was completely soothed by the dense Earth Element spiritual energy, replaced by an unprecedented sense of stable power rooted in the earth!

However, this surge of energy also alerted an even more terrifying existence!

Rumble--!

From the depths of the stone cave, behind the giant stone wall where the remains had carved "Soul Suppresses This Gate," a dull, heart-stopping thud suddenly erupted! It was as if some ancient, slumbering behemoth had been thoroughly awakened by this sudden fluctuation of Earth Element origin power and the Ancestor Dragon aura!

The stone wall trembled violently, shedding dust and rubble! The three bloody characters "Caution" on the wall, as if wiped by an invisible force, instantly became dim and lusterless!

A terrifying will, older and more savage than the stone sword's pressure, filled with chaos and destruction, instantly flooded the entire stone cave like a cold tide!

"Thump! Thump!" Under the impact of this will, the guarding Elite Guards fell like cut wheat, instantly losing consciousness!

"Go!" Ying Zheng grabbed Cheng Xi, who was momentarily frozen and whose expression was shifting due to absorbing the massive energy, and with his other hand, he swiftly reached out and precisely grabbed the Xirang Crystal, wrapped in emerald roots and glowing, floating in the air!

Heavy as a mountain in his grasp!

Without hesitation, he dragged Cheng Xi and retreated rapidly toward the cave entrance! His speed was so great that an afterimage trailed behind him!

"Roar--!!!"

Behind him, the Stone Sword let out a final, unwilling roar, like a mournful cry. The dazzling earth-yellow light on its blade suddenly extinguished, and countless fine cracks instantly spread across its surface!

Boom!

The massive Stone Sword, along with the stone platform beneath it, collapsed with a deafening roar! Dust and smoke filled the air!

Almost at the exact same moment the platform collapsed!

"Crack--!!!"

The huge stone wall engraved with "Soul Suppresses This Gate" suddenly cracked, like fragile glass, splitting open from top to bottom with a terrifying, ten-foot-wide chasm!

Deep within the chasm, a pure, despair-inducing darkness churned and surged!

A giant claw, covered in dark golden scales and impossibly huge, suddenly emerged from the darkness behind the chasm, digging fiercely into the edge of the stone wall! Its sharp tips scraped against the rock, producing a grating sound that set one's teeth on edge and splashing a stream of dazzling sparks!

A cold wind, carrying the scent of sulfur and blood, mixed with chaotic whispers, surged out of the chasm like a breath from the deepest hell, instantly filling the entire grotto!

Ying Zheng, dragging Cheng Xi, rushed toward the cave entrance without looking back. His Black Robes were blown straight behind him by the destructive wind! He tightly gripped the warm, yet heavy, two-colored ball of light in his hand, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Behind him, the dark golden giant claw was slowly tearing the chasm wider