The Heaven Devouring Hou lay collapsed amid the rubble. The God-Destroying Pearl's shock wave had hurled its enormous body more than two hundred feet away, shearing off half its scales. Dark red blood still seeped from the spots on its back where three spikes had been torn out.
It was not dead yet.
Its three foreclaws slowly scraped through the rubble. Intermittent rumbling sounds came from deep in its throat. Most of the light had faded from its crimson eyes, its pupils unfocused, with only one last glimmer of ferocity struggling in their depths.
Carrying the spinal tendon over his shoulder, Fang Mo walked up to the Heaven Devouring Hou's head and stopped.
The Heaven Devouring Hou's crimson eyes shifted and found Fang Mo. A faint snort escaped its nostrils, no longer hot enough to blow aside the rubble by its feet.
Fang Mo crouched.
"You went hungry for three hundred years, fed on essence blood like fodder for three centuries. Once you got out, someone rode you around as a mount, and in the end, your own side's God-Destroying Pearl blew away half your body."
He reached out with his left hand and patted a surviving scale on the Heaven Devouring Hou's nose.
"What a miserable life you've lived."
A low rumble rolled from the Heaven Devouring Hou's throat. It sounded less like anger and more like some response born of utter exhaustion.
Fang Mo stood and summoned the God Slaying Saber back into his hand.
The saber hummed in his grip. Dragon markings flowed slowly along its blade, and for an instant, they resonated with the markings on the Heaven Devouring Hou's remaining scales.
"Nian Nu'er, what can this Hou's head be refined into?"
"A Hou's horn bones contain the essence of the Dragon Emperor Bloodline. They are