Black smoke and clouds coiled around it like a heavy, sinister curtain, shrouding a physique so powerful it was almost exaggerated.
Its flesh was densely covered in spike after spike like steel needles, flaring outward in every direction. The cold gleam at their tips was like venomous serpents flicking their tongues, enough to make one's spine turn icy with a single glance.
Most bizarre of all were its eyes. Cross-shaped pupils had appeared within them, with a thread of scarlet light seeping from their depths, as though karmic fire were burning soundlessly.
It was a black humanoid creature standing thirty feet tall. Its features were sharply sculpted and distinct, and at first glance, it was almost no different from a human.
Yet its aura—its oppressive presence—was something no living being could possibly possess.
With merely one step, the originally smooth, level palace floor became as though soaked in ink, darkness too deep to dissolve rapidly spreading across it.
The Primordial Ancient Dragon's body had stiffened like a statue. Cold sweat seeped densely from its brow and rolled down its cheeks.
Not a single muscle in its body could move, as though the void were filled with invisible, formless threads that bound it firmly in place. Even the immense power of the dragon race within it had, at this moment, been subjected to some incomprehensible restraint.
The natal Dragon Pearl, which had originally emitted a gentle radiance, was now dull and lifeless. Like a dead stone, it silently rolled beneath its enormous foot.
The Black Jade Qilin stood beside Lin Fan, its expression grave to the extreme.
It stared fixedly at the black creature ahead. Within its eyes, there faintly emerged a trace of wariness it had never felt before. It was an oppression born of instinct, as if what stood