He had arranged for Ao Chen as though he were a junior who needed protection.
Yet when Ao Chen heard Azure Dragon's words, he merely smiled faintly and shook his head.
"Thank you for your kindness, Ancestor. But I don't take East King Duke seriously. There's no need to trouble yourself over Immortal Court matters. I'll handle them myself."
"Impudent!" Seeing that Ao Chen not only refused his offer but even dared to speak so arrogantly, Azure Dragon's face darkened with anger.
This brat had already committed a grave crime by killing an Immortal Court Envoy, and now he dared to say he didn't take a Quasi-Sage seriously? He truly didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth!
His state of mind was already poor from the backlash of Karmic Debt, and Ao Chen's "arrogant" attitude only stoked his anger further.
"Hmph! Insolent fool, you have no respect for your betters!"
"Very well. Today, as your elder, I'll teach you a proper lesson on behalf of your fallen father, so you'll learn the might of the powerful."
Before the words had even faded, Azure Dragon thrust his withered hand forward!
He didn't use many laws, relying only on the vast dragon essence and physical strength of a Hunyuan Golden Immortal. They formed a blue dragon claw that blotted out the sky and covered the earth, descending on Ao Chen with the force to suppress all things!
Though this strike was meant to teach him a lesson, and Azure Dragon had held back seven-tenths of his strength, the Quasi-Sage power within it was still enough to make any Grand Unity Golden Immortal's Form and Spirit Annihilated in an instant!
Seeing Azure Dragon attack, Ao Chen sighed. He knew there was no avoiding a fight today.
"Sigh..."
He knew his transformation over the recent period had been so drastic that it was only natural Azure Dragon wouldn't believe him.
So, faced with this thunderous strike, he showed no anger. He stood with his hands behind his back, his expression calm, as if the Quasi-Sage's claw rushing toward him were no more than a falling leaf.
Just as the blue dragon claw was about to reach him, he moved.
He didn't even look at the claw. He simply raised his right hand at his leisure, joined his fingers like a sword, and lightly pointed at the enormous claw.
The gesture seemed casual, yet it appeared to contain the power to create and destroy an entire universe!
Whoosh!
A soft sound!
Under Ao Guang's horrified gaze, Azure Dragon's terrifying claw, powerful enough to crush stars, was pierced in an instant upon touching Ao Chen's fingertip, as if it were made of paper!
An indescribable force of Nirvana and Stellar Force erupted from his fingertip!
"Crack... Boom!"
The blue dragon claw shattered piece by piece, bursting into a shower of light!
"What?"
Azure Dragon's pupils contracted. For the first time, his face showed utter disbelief and shock!
His full-power strike had been broken with such ease by a single finger?
Before he could recover from the shock, Ao Chen's figure appeared in front of him like a phantom.
Second strike!
Again, it was an utterly ordinary punch, aimed straight at Azure Dragon's chest!
Azure Dragon was overcome with terror. In his haste, he gathered all the dragon essence and law power remaining within him in front of his body, trying to defend himself!
But against Ao Chen's fist, which contained the peak power of a Mythical Heavenly Immortal, all resistance was futile!
Boom!
It was as if billions upon billions of stars had exploded at once!
Azure Dragon's defenses were torn apart in an instant, as easily as thin paper!
The terrifying force slammed squarely into his chest!
Pfft—!
Azure Dragon took a blow like the weight of billions of tons. His enormous body shot backward like a cannonball, dragon scales shattering as blood sprayed from his mouth. His breastbone broke into pieces, and his aura weakened to the extreme!
Immediately afterward, Ao Chen's figure appeared above the flying Azure Dragon as if he had teleported. His gaze was indifferent as he raised one finger.
Third strike!
Starlight dotted his fingertip, as if it bore the weight of all the stars in the heavens. He slowly pressed it toward the ancestral aperture between Azure Dragon's brows!
This single finger froze space and stopped time!
Azure Dragon felt an irresistible, incomprehensible supreme force lock onto him and suppress him completely. Even his thoughts seemed to stop turning!
His eyes filled with terror, confusion, and deep frustration!
At last, Ao Chen's finger stopped an inch from Azure Dragon's brow. The terrifying force of suppression nevertheless surged into Azure Dragon's body like a tide, sealing away all his power!
Azure Dragon's massive body slumped into the dark ocean trench. Apart from faint breaths, he could no longer move at all!
Three strikes!
Just three strikes!
The dignified Dragon Clan Elder, once one of the Four Symbols sacred beasts, Azure Dragon—a genuine early-stage Hunyuan Golden Immortal—had been effortlessly suppressed by Ao Chen!
Ao Guang stood nearby, utterly dumbfounded and terrified out of his wits!
"You..."
Azure Dragon stared at the familiar yet unfamiliar junior before him with eyes that had witnessed endless ages. Alongside his fear, his gaze held even more disbelief and confusion.
He had lost, and so quickly and completely that he hadn't even been able to put up a decent fight!
He knew that because of the backlash from Karmic Debt, he was at less than a tenth of his full strength. That last strike had only reached, at most, seventy percent of his peak power.
But a loss was a loss!
Given the overwhelming power Ao Chen had just displayed, he had no doubt that even at his full strength, he might not have been able to change the outcome.
Was this really the junior Ao Chen he remembered, a young dragon with decent talent who had been stuck at the Golden Immortal level?
How had he gained such... such heaven-defying power in a mere few tens of thousands of years?
"Hunyuan Golden Immortal... You... You've actually broken through to the Hunyuan Golden Immortal realm?"
Azure Dragon struggled to speak. His voice was hoarse, yet carried a hint of barely contained excitement and joy!
As he saw it, there was no way to explain Ao Chen's terrifying strength unless he had broken through to the Hunyuan Golden Immortal realm, matching or even surpassing Azure Dragon himself!
The thought that, at such a turbulent time for the Dragon Race, they had produced a young Hunyuan Golden Immortal of limitless potential replaced the despair and dejection in Azure Dragon's heart with immense hope!
"Ha ha ha! Good! Excellent! Heaven hasn't forsaken the Dragon Race! Heaven hasn't forsaken us!" Azure Dragon was so moved that tears streamed down his aged face.
"Ao Chen! With you here, how could the Dragon Race fail to rise again? Immortal Court is nothing to fear! Ha ha ha..."
He could already picture the Dragon Race reclaiming its former glory under Ao Chen's leadership!
Ao Guang was excited as well. Though he was still shocked by Ao Chen's strength, hearing the ancestor say Ao Chen had become a Hunyuan Golden Immortal turned his worries into tremendous joy.
But faced with Azure Dragon and Ao Guang's excitement and misunderstanding, Ao Chen remained calm.
He didn't explain that he cultivated not the path of the Hunyuan Golden Immortal, but the far more profound and transcendent Mythical Grand Unity Method.
First, the Mythical Grand Unity Method was abstruse and mysterious, touching upon his very essence. It was difficult to explain to others, and doing so would consume too much of his energy.
Second, he had come to Dragon Abyss for a more important purpose—not to show off his strength or lecture Azure Dragon on the Dao.
"Ancestor," Ao Chen said calmly, withdrawing the power suppressing Azure Dragon.
"Let's set aside the matter of cultivation realms for now. I came here after hearing that the elders had suffered a backlash from Karmic Debt. I wanted to check on you. Have you found any way to resolve it?"
At the mention of the backlash from Karmic Debt, the joy vanished from Azure Dragon's face, replaced once more by deep sorrow and helplessness.
He struggled to sit up and sighed. "Sigh... It's a long story."
"This backlash came too suddenly and too fiercely, erupting almost simultaneously! We had made some preparations, but it still caught us off guard."
"Now, every elder who was in seclusion—including me—is entangled in Karmic Debt. Our foundations are damaged and our origins depleted. We can barely keep our True Spirits from perishing, let alone attend to anything else."
"As for a solution..." Azure Dragon shook his head bitterly.
"The Dragon Race's Karmic Debt is an immeasurable chain of cause and effect accumulated since the Dragon-Han Calamity. It's deeply rooted."
"Unless we receive immeasurable merit on the scale of Pangu Creates the World, or use the luck of the entire race to wear it away, there's no solution!"
"We can only rely on our own cultivation to temper it slowly. But this backlash is too severe. Many of the old fellows may not have much time left."
At the end, the voice of this Dragon Clan Elder, who had lived through countless epochs, held a hint of despair.
Yet after hearing him out, Ao Chen showed no sign of worry. Instead, he nodded.
"Merit and luck are indeed viable methods, but they aren't the only way."
"Hm?" Azure Dragon abruptly raised his head and looked at Ao Chen.
"Do you have a way?"
"I have a few ideas." Ao Chen didn't explain further and spoke only in a calm tone.
"Though the Dragon Race's Karmic Debt is heavy, it's not entirely beyond resolution. It will just take some time to prepare and try."
"This..." Azure Dragon was unconvinced.
Before you continue