Spiritual Map

Long Jiuyyao, down below, also noticed something strange about the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd. The moment he saw one of the holes where the Ancestral Talisman Origin had originally been embedded flash red, he understood.

The anomaly of the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd when they entered the Secret Treasure Land now made sense, too. This Pattern Fire Dragon was intricately connected to the Halberd Spirit of the lost Flame Ancestral Symbol Origin.

Long Jiuyyao stood with his halberd in hand, gazing at the massive dragon coiling overhead.

Long Jiuyyao suddenly bent his legs. The Azure Stone tiles beneath his feet caved in several centimeters as he sprang upward, rising level with the fire dragon. He lifted the Dragon Halberd high above his head and brought it crashing down, its blade cleaving through the air toward the dragon's head.

"Clang!"

The result was frustrating. Long Jiuyyao's attack only sent a few sparks flying from its head; it hadn't even breached the dragon's defenses. Although the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd was a Divine Object, it had long since lost its Halberd Spirit and was now merely a High-grade Spirit Treasure. And Long Jiuyyao still lacked the strength to unleash its full power!

"Black Obsidian Sacred Dragon Finger!"

Long Jiuyyao thrust several fingers behind him. Several pitch-black fingers wreathed in baleful energy slammed into the fire dragon's claws, but they were instantly shattered by a swipe and dissolved into starlight.

Seeing this, Long Jiuyyao hurriedly dodged. The massive claw swept past his face, its gusting wind stinging his skin as if it were being sliced by a knife. His attack had failed, so Long Jiuyyao swiftly retreated rather than press the fight!

But the Mountain Wall Fire Dragon high above had no intention of letting him go. A blinding light burst from its body as it unleashed a scorching blast of flame. The fire roared toward him, scorching the Azure Stone floor black.

Dark Gold Radiance shimmered across Long Jiuyyao's skin. Baleful energy and Golden Sun Power covered his left and right hands, and as he gripped the Dragon Halberd, the two opposing, extreme forces flowed into it.

Long Jiuyyao swung the Dragon Halberd at the fire dragon, which had momentarily paused after launching its attack. A blade of energy, half yin and half yang, struck the dragon in the belly.

At the same time, the fire dragon's attack reached Long Jiuyyao. It came too fast for him to dodge, leaving him no choice but to take the hit.

"Boom!"

The blade of energy struck the fire dragon, while its flames hit Long Jiuyyao at the same time. Smoke and dust filled the Stone House.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Long Jiuyyao's robe was half destroyed, and much of it had been scorched black, though Dark Gold Radiance still shimmered across him. The fire dragon high above had also been badly wounded. A huge gash beneath its belly, deep enough to expose bone, came into view.

The Ancient Dragon Bone inside Long Jiuyyao now revealed its terrifying regenerative power. The Dark Gold Radiance dimmed slightly as it helped him recover. His minor burns healed in the blink of an eye, but the more serious injuries still hurt enough to make him grimace.

At that moment, the Purple Back Dragon Horn Centipede coiled around Long Jiuyyao's waist grew several times larger and raised its body, staring up at the fiery dragon.

"Zi Lin, use Golden Measure Silk to bind it."

At his words, Zi Lin's ferocious mouthparts spat out countless golden threads, fine as hair, toward the dragon overhead. Though thin as strands of hair, the threads were astonishingly tough.

The threads moved so quickly that they wrapped around the dragon in the blink of an eye. The fiery dragon thrashed and twisted, but its struggles only tightened the binding. At last, the bound dragon fell from the sky and smashed into the Azure Stone floor, leaving a crater several meters wide.

"Well done, Zi Lin," Long Jiuyyao praised.

The fiery dragon had crashed into the ground, and the crater concealed it from view. Long Jiuyyao didn't notice anything unusual.

At that moment, Crimson Flame covered the fiery dragon's body. The golden threads slowly melted under the flames, though not very quickly.

Holding the Dragon Halberd, Long Jiuyyao cautiously walked toward the crater several meters ahead. He didn't let his guard down just because the fire dragon was trapped.

"Hiss!"

Just as Long Jiuyyao was about to reach the crater, Zi Lin cried out behind him. It had sensed that the Golden Measure Silk had vanished.

Hearing Zi Lin's cry, Long Jiuyyao looked back. That glance cost him dearly: a massive tail wreathed in blazing fire lashed toward him like a death-dealing whip.

Long Jiuyyao had no time to dodge. He could only hold the Dragon Halberd upright in front of himself to fend off the tail, which was already upon him. But he was still blasted away like a cannonball, embedding himself in a wall dozens of meters away as dust billowed around him.

Seeing Long Jiuyyao sent flying, Zi Lin fixed its savage gaze on the fire dragon nearby. Its huge golden mandibles gleamed with bloodthirsty light.

Zi Lin darted toward the distant fire dragon. With its hundred legs, it moved swiftly, and the fire dragon was just as fast as it charged toward Zi Lin. In the blink of an eye, the two beasts were locked in combat.

Zi Lin's pair of golden mandibles clamped onto the dragon's claw beneath its belly, while the fire dragon coiled around its body. Zi Lin's golden mandibles sank deep into the dragon's flesh.

"Crack, crack, crack!" Its mandibles ground against bone.

"Roar!"

The bitten fire dragon let out a pained cry, but it didn't simply take the attack. Scorching flames erupted from its body, searing Zi Lin.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

The vast Stone House filled with the sizzling sound of meat roasting.

Charred flesh appeared across Zi Lin's body, but it didn't release the dragon's claw from its vice-like golden grip.

"Crack!" At last, enduring the searing pain, Zi Lin bit through the dragon's claw.

The fire dragon cried out in pain, and the flames covering its body receded. Zi Lin seized the chance to press its advantage. Golden light shimmered across all hundred of its legs as it wrapped around the dragon. Its legs pierced the dragon's flesh, and its huge mandibles tore chunks of flesh from its body.

The smoke and dust had already cleared around the area where Zi Lin and the fire dragon were fighting. Long Jiuyyao, battered and disheveled, used the Dragon Halberd as a crutch as he emerged from the crater and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Good thing I have the Ancient Dragon Bone. If I had an ordinary dragon bone, that blow would've either killed me or left me gravely wounded and unable to fight," Long Jiuyyao muttered.

Long Jiuyyao watched the fire dragon's miserable state in the distance, and felt a little better.

He didn't rush to help Zi Lin. Even if he joined the fight, he would only prolong the stalemate, and his Yuan Power cultivation wasn't enough to sustain a long battle. So he chose to stay back and charge up a powerful move.

Long Jiuyyao planted the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd in the ground and stood upright. A Natal Celestial Talisman appeared between his brows. He swept his hand through the air, and a gentle breeze stirred within a radius of one zhang.

This was the Natal Celestial Talisman, which gave him control over the immense power of heaven and earth. But it had only just condensed, so the Gale Force he could command was limited.

Long Jiuyyao gathered the Gale Force within a radius of one zhang in front of him. An invisible gust stirred the hair on his forehead.

His Spiritual Power compressed the scattered Gale Force. A visible Wind Blade, about as thick as an arm, appeared before him. Beads of sweat rolled from Long Jiuyyao's forehead onto the Azure Stone tiles.

"Zi Lin, move!"

Long Jiuyyao struggled to use his Spiritual Power to direct the Wind Blade at the fire dragon.

The instant Zi Lin heard his voice, it sprang away from the fire dragon. The dragon, covered in bite wounds from head to toe, couldn't escape even if it wanted to. It could only watch helplessly as the Wind Blade cut off its head.

After unleashing that attack, Long Jiuyyao was so drained that he slumped to the ground, gasping for breath.

The fire dragon's body dissolved into specks of starlight, eventually becoming a Crimson Scale.

"Jin Ming, bring me that scale," Long Jiuyyao said weakly.

Jin Ming, who had been hiding at a distance all along, picked up the scale in his mouth and brought it to Long Jiuyyao.

Jin Ming had done absolutely nothing in that fight, but that was understandable. He was only at the Earth Origin Realm; one hit would probably have been enough to finish him off. He was the weakest member of their team.

Long Jiuyyao examined the Crimson Scale in his hand. This had to be something related to the Halberd Spirit!

But no matter how closely he looked, the scale didn't seem special at all. Still, it was closely connected to the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd.

Long Jiuyyao recalled that the fire dragon had appeared after absorbing Spiritual Power. He figured the scale probably worked the same way.

With that, Long Jiuyyao poured all his remaining Spiritual Power into the scale at once.

As the Spiritual Power flowed into it, the Crimson Scale in Long Jiuyyao's hand emitted red light. The beams reflected into the air before him, faintly outlining what looked like a diagram.

"Is this... a map of the Crimson Fire Plain in the Demon Domain?" Long Jiuyyao said in surprise as he studied the shape formed by the condensed Spiritual Power. Just as he finished speaking, his gaze fixed on a spot on the diagram, where a bright red dot was marked.

"Could this be a map to the Halberd Spirit?" Long Jiuyyao murmured. Then he grinned and said, "Looks like I'll have to go to the Crimson Fire Plain, but not now. I'll have to wait until I reach the Creation Realm."

Even the manifestation of a remnant scale had been hard to deal with, let alone the Halberd Spirit itself.

The Spiritual Map floating in the air was forcibly absorbed by the Natal Celestial Talisman in Long Jiuyyao's Mud Pill Palace, entering his mind.

As the Spiritual Map merged with him, Long Jiuyyao felt as though something had appeared in his mind. It was probably the map.