(Noon, Day 1)
Roar!
Another pain-filled, savage roar rang out. Jiang Tingting saw dense, broken Imperial Formation Rune Chains stabbing into the dark clouds like venomous snakes, while thick black blood mist spread through them.
Jiang Tingting could sense that the clouds filling the sky were actually black frost mist condensed from an extremely high concentration of yin baleful energy.
Even if a thousand or ten thousand of the yin-baleful ley lines beneath the cold pool where she stood were drained dry, they would not be able to form even one ten-thousandth of the clouds overhead!
At the same time, a serpentine body struggled and writhed within the clouds alongside the agonized dragon roars. Its movements alone were so fast that Jiang Tingting, a mighty expert of the Immortal Platform Second Heaven, could not even see them.
What an enormous figure it was!
Looking up, the portions visible through the clouds resembled enormous black pillars blotting out the sky and sun.
Its diameter alone seemed to have reached a terrifying several dozen kilometers. When she scanned it with Divine Sense, its length was even more horrifying—over a thousand kilometers!
Jiang Tingting could clearly sense that this was not some secret art like a Dharma Manifestation that enlarged one's body. It was an actual physical body!
It was simply too huge!
That colossal figure was like a celestial star dragged down to earth, completely covering the entire visible sky when viewed from the ground.
Sharp scales covered the black, serpentine body like mountains of blades.
Along that enormous back, vicious, mountain-like sword spines stood erect. The aura they emitted tore through the clouds and even ripped open space, slicing through the golden Rune Chains spread across the sky and generated by the Jiang family's defensive formation, sending showers of sparks flying.
One had to understand that this was a broken Imperial Formation left behind countless ages ago by the Jiang family's Great Emperor, the Great Emperor Hengyu!
Even without having all its power activated, it was still a formation capable of suppressing Great Sage-level cultivators!
Yet despite the powerful broken Imperial Formation having wounded this terrifying giant dragon, with Rune Chains piercing through its flesh and causing a massive black river of blood to pour down from the sky like the waters of the Milky Way overturned—
That blockade was already on the verge of collapse. Piercing, grating creaks came from the Rune Chains, as though they could be forcibly snapped at any moment by the immense strength of the colossal dragon.
The next moment, an overwhelming pressure descended from the sky along with a focused gaze, making Jiang Tingting feel a lethal threat.
Amid that pressure, an incomparably massive head extended down from the dark clouds. Its two eyes, with pupils as black as the depths of a frozen abyss, radiated pain and savagery.
Its head was so absurdly huge that even a thousand or ten thousand of the hundred-meter-tall Godzillas Fang Zheng had seen in monster movies would not be enough for a single bite. They would be too small even to fill the gaps between its teeth.
With a gigantic body stretching thousands of kilometers, even in an Ultraman story, it would be a movie boss that required the Ultramen to fuse into a new form to defeat.
At that moment, the trembling sensation in both her body and Primordial Spirit when faced with danger—the feeling that she was less than an ant—told Jiang Tingting one thing.
It told her that this was absolutely an expert above the Sage realm!
Oppressed by that intense sense of danger, she did not even think of the two Emperor Weapons on her person—the Taiyin Moon Blade and the Human Emperor Seal.
Her pupils constricted as she stared in shock and disbelief at the situation before her. How could this be?
The Jiang family's Emperor Weapon, the Hengyu Furnace, is currently in a fully awakened state! How could any demon race invade the Jiang family?
Could this be a Forbidden Zone Supreme? No! This flood dragon is powerful, but it is still far weaker than the masters of those Life Forbidden Zones!
Wait! Jiang Tingting noticed something was wrong. Why does this flood dragon look so much like...
A Monster Spawner? Could it be?! Jiang Tingting seemed to have realized something.
Her pupils shrank. Sweeping out with Divine Sense, she looked at the small flood dragon slowly rotating within the Monster Spawner beside her.
They are exactly the same!
Jiang Tingting was utterly stunned by her own conjecture.
She struggled to force out the words, "Could this be the monster spawning Senior Fang Zheng spoke of?!"
Just as Jiang Tingting was too shocked by her own speculation to speak—
Roar...
A dragon cry filled with pain and savagery descended from the heavens, accompanied by the sound of Rune Chains being forcibly snapped apart.
The broken Imperial Formation shrouding the entire Jiang family had ultimately not been controlled by anyone or fully activated.
If enemies had invaded from outside the defensive formation, it would naturally have been more than sufficient.
But with an enemy suddenly and inexplicably appearing inside the formation, the fact that it could instantly activate its defenses on its own without anyone controlling it and temporarily seal off a Great Sage-level figure was already its limit.
At that moment, Rune Chains all over the sky snapped apart at incredible speed, forcibly torn asunder by the terrifying physical strength of the enormous frost flood dragon's body, which stretched thousands of kilometers and could drag dozens of stars through space at sublight speed through brute force alone.
If the broken Imperial Formation were not still functioning, even a slight sway of that terrifying flood dragon's body would create shockwaves from striking the air that could scour the entire Jiang family territory into a hellish land of death.
And although the Jiang family's Hengyu Furnace had remained in a fully awakened state recently, meaning the divine spirit within the weapon should have been conscious, it did not act at once for some unknown reason.
If this situation continued, the Jiang family might truly be finished.
"Hmph!"
Just as the formation-pattern chains in the sky were about to snap apart completely, a cold snort came from a hidden Secret Realm within the Jiang family, jolting the flood dragon's entire body.
"You petty loach, how dare you act so brazenly!"
An old man whose face was so wrinkled it could crush flies, whose back was bent and hunched, and whose entire body exuded an aura of decay—so old that he could lie down and immediately cosplay a Zombie—suddenly shattered the divine source sealing him away.
His name was Jiang Wen. He was the tenth-generation descendant of the Jiang family's Great Emperor, Jiang Hengyu, and a cultivator who had reached the Quasi-Emperor Third Heaven as early as countless ages ago.
After seeing no hope of further breakthroughs and nearing the end of his lifespan, he had sealed himself within divine source and been stored in a Jiang family Secret Realm.
He was an ancestor-level figure who could only be summoned to resolve matters when the Jiang family faced a life-or-death crisis.
Jiang Wen first respectfully bowed toward the Jiang family ancestral hall, where the Hengyu Furnace had somehow fully awakened.
Then, he tried to communicate with the divine spirit of the Hengyu Furnace using Divine Sense, but received no response.
His brow furrowed tightly. Turning to the old man beside him, he asked, "What is going on? Why has the Hengyu Furnace awakened? You woke me—has some crisis arisen that requires me to control the Hengyu Furnace?"
He did not look pleased at having been awakened by his descendants, because once he awakened, it inevitably meant he had to deal with some difficult problem. His expression was exceedingly solemn.
The old man looked at the ancestor before him, lowered his head, and gave a bitter laugh. "Ancestor, we do not know why the Hengyu Furnace fully awakened either. A few days ago, after activity erupted from the various Life Forbidden Zones, the Hengyu Furnace suddenly became like this."
"As for the exact reason, I fear only the family head knows."
"An upheaval in the Forbidden Zones..." Jiang Wen fell silent for a moment.
He sighed softly, recalling the past. "Is another Dark Turmoil about to occur? How many people will have to die this time..."
Before he could sink into his grief, the old man bowed again. "Ancestor, we woke you this time to deal with the Great Sage-level Demon Dragon outside."
"Although the Hengyu Furnace awakened on its own, it has not acted for some unknown reason. The Jiang family has no expert capable of opposing a Great Sage-level Demon Dragon. If you do not act, the Jiang family may face annihilation."
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