Spiritual Map

Long Jiuyao below also noticed the anomaly of the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd. When he saw one of the pits that originally held the Ancestral Symbol Origin suddenly flicker with red light, he understood in an instant.

The strangeness of the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd upon entering the Secret Treasure Land could now be explained. This Pattern Fire Dragon had an inextricable connection with the lost Flame Ancestral Symbol Origin's Halberd Spirit.

Long Jiuyao stood holding the halberd, his gaze fixed on the coiling giant dragon above his head.

Long Jiuyao's legs suddenly bent, the Azure Stone floor tiles beneath his feet sinking several centimeters from the pressure. He leaped abruptly, rising to the same height as the fire dragon. The dragon halberd was raised high above his head, then slashed down with all his might. The halberd blade tore through the air, heading straight for the dragon's head.

"Clang!"

The result was frustrating. Long Jiuyao's attack only managed to spark a few streaks of light on its head, failing to even break through its defense. Although the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd was a Divine Object, having long lost its Halberd Spirit, it was now merely a High-grade Spirit Treasure. And with Long Jiuyao's current strength, he couldn't fully unleash its power!

"Black Obsidian Sacred Dragon Finger!"

Long Jiuyao thrust several fingers behind him. Several pitch-black fingers wreathed in Yin Sha collided violently with the fire dragon's claws. But in an instant, the Black Obsidian Sacred Dragon Finger was shattered into pieces, dissolving into starlight and dispersing.

Seeing this, Long Jiuyao quickly dodged. The giant claw grazed past his face, the resulting gust of wind stinging his skin like knife cuts. Failing in his attack, Long Jiuyao retreated rapidly, unwilling to prolong the fight.

However, the Mountain Wall Fire Dragon high above had no intention of letting him off easily. Its body erupted with dazzling flames, directly unleashing a scorching fire attack. The flames howled as they came, scorching the Azure Stone floor black from the heat.

A Dark Gold Radiance flickered across Long Jiuyao's skin. His left and right hands were coated with Yin Sha and Golden Sun Power respectively. Holding the halberd with both hands, he infused two opposing and extreme forces into the dragon halberd.

Long Jiuyao swung the dragon halberd, targeting the fire dragon that was momentarily frozen from its just-released attack. A dual-colored Qi blade of Yin and Yang shot straight toward the fire dragon's belly.

At the same time, the fire attack reached Long Jiuyao's face. Its speed was so great that Long Jiuyao couldn't dodge; he could only brace himself.

"Boom!"

The Qi blade struck the fire dragon, and the fire dragon's flames simultaneously hit Long Jiuyao. Dust and smoke filled the entire Stone House.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Long Jiuyao, his skin flickering with Dark Gold Radiance, had his robes half-destroyed, many parts scorched black. But the fire dragon high above was also heavily injured, a large, deep wound visible to the bone on its underside.

At this moment, the terrifying regenerative ability of the Ancient Dragon Bone within Long Jiuyao manifested. The Dark Gold Radiance dimmed slightly as it helped him recover. Minor burns healed in the blink of an eye, but the more severe injuries still made him wince in pain.

The Purple Back Dragon Horn Centipede coiled around Long Jiuyao's waist also grew several times larger in an instant, raising its head to stare at the flame dragon in the air.

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

Hearing this, Zi Lin's ferocious mouthparts spat out countless golden threads as fine as hair, heading toward the dragon in the air. Though the threads looked as thin as hair, their toughness was absolutely terrifying.

The golden threads moved so fast that they bound the dragon in the air in the blink of an eye. The flame dragon rolled and twisted violently, but its struggles only tightened the threads. Bound and trapped, the flame dragon fell from the air, smashing a several-meter-wide crater into the Azure Stone floor.

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

With the flame dragon pinned in the crater, Long Jiuyao didn't notice anything unusual about it.

At this moment, the flame dragon's body was covered in Crimson Flame, and the golden threads slowly melted under the heat—though the melting wasn't fast.

Long Jiuyao, holding the dragon halberd, walked slowly toward the crater a few meters ahead. He was very cautious, not letting his guard down just because the flame dragon was trapped.

"Hiss!"

Just as Long Jiuyao was about to reach the crater, Zi Lin behind him let out a startled cry, sensing that the Golden Measure Silk had disappeared.

Hearing Zi Lin's cry, Long Jiuyao turned his head to look. It would have been better if he hadn't—because the moment he did, he suffered a great loss. A massive dragon tail wreathed in blazing flames swung at him like a deadly whip.

Long Jiuyao had no time to dodge. He could only raise the dragon halberd vertically in front of him to block the tail that was already upon him. But he was still sent flying like a cannonball, embedded into the wall dozens of meters behind him. Dust scattered everywhere.

Seeing Long Jiuyao knocked away, Zi Lin's eyes, gleaming with Fierce Radiance, locked onto the fire dragon not far away. Its massive Golden Fangs flashed with a bloodthirsty light.

Zi Lin rapidly closed in on the distant fire dragon. With its hundred feet, it was very fast. The fire dragon, undaunted, also charged forward. In the blink of an eye, the two beasts were locked in a tangle.

Zi Lin's pair of Golden Fangs bit into the fire dragon's claws beneath its belly, while the fire dragon's body coiled around Zi Lin. Zi Lin's Golden Fangs sank deep into its flesh.

"Crack, crack, crack!" A sound of fangs grinding against bone rang out.

"Roar!"

The bitten fire dragon let out a pained cry. But it wouldn't just sit still. Its body radiated scorching flames, burning Zi Lin wrapped around it.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

The vast Stone House echoed with the sound of meat sizzling, like something being roasted.

Zi Lin's body kept turning black and charred, but it didn't release its Golden Fangs, which were clamped tightly onto the dragon's claw.

"Crack!" Finally, the dragon's claw was bitten clean off as Zi Lin endured the pain of the flames.

The fire dragon, wracked with pain, had the flames covering its body recede. Zi Lin seized the opportunity to press its advantage. Its hundred feet all shimmered with golden light as it coiled around the dragon, stabbing its feet into the dragon's flesh and tearing off chunks of meat with its massive fangs.

Not far from where Zi Lin fought the fire dragon, the dust had long since settled. A disheveled Long Jiuyao used the dragon halberd as a crutch to support himself as he walked out of the crater, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand.

"Good thing I have the Ancient Dragon Bone. If it were an Ordinary Dragon Bone, that blow would have either killed me or left me severely injured and unable to fight." Long Jiuyao muttered under his breath.

Looking at the fire dragon's miserable state in the distance, Long Jiuyao felt slightly more balanced.

He didn't choose to support Zi Lin immediately. Even if he went up, it would only prolong the stalemate. But his Yuan Power cultivation couldn't sustain a long battle, so he decided to hang back and charge up a big move.

Long Jiuyao planted the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd on the ground. A Natal Celestial Talisman appeared at his brow. He waved his hand lightly, and a faint breeze stirred within a zhang of his surroundings.

This was the Natal Celestial Talisman, capable of mastering the power of heaven and earth. But this talisman had only just been condensed, so the Gale Force he could wield was very limited.

Long Jiuyao gathered the Gale Force within a zhang of his surroundings before him. An invisible wind blew his forehead hair.

His Spiritual Power compressed the scattered Gale Force. A visible Wind Blade, as thick as an arm, materialized before him. Beads of sweat as big as beans kept dripping from Long Jiuyao onto the Azure Stone floor tiles.

"Zi Lin, move aside."

Long Jiuyao struggled to drive his Spiritual Power, commanding the Wind Blade to strike at the fire dragon.

The moment Zi Lin heard Long Jiuyao's voice, she left the fire dragon's body. The fire dragon, covered in bite wounds, could no longer even attempt to flee, forced to watch helplessly as the Wind Blade severed its head.

After unleashing this move, Long Jiuyao collapsed weakly to the ground, gasping for air in heavy breaths.

The fire dragon's body dissipated, turning into specks of starlight, and finally coalesced into a single Crimson Scale.

"Jin Ming, bring that scale over," Long Jiuyao said weakly.

Jin Ming, who had been hiding in the distance, grabbed the scale in his mouth and came to Long Jiuyao's side.

In this battle, Jin Ming had been completely useless. Of course, that was understandable—he was only at the Earth Origin Realm. One hit and he'd be done for. He was now the weakest member of their team.

Long Jiuyao stared at the Crimson Scale in his hand. This was the thing connected to the Halberd Spirit!

But no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see anything special about the scale. Yet the Demon Breaking Dragon Halberd was closely tied to it.

Long Jiuyao recalled how the fire dragon had first appeared by absorbing Spiritual Power. He figured the scale must work the same way.

With that thought, Long Jiuyao poured all his remaining Spiritual Power into it in one go.

As the Spiritual Power flowed in, the Crimson Scale in Long Jiuyao's hand emitted a crimson light. The light reflected into the air before him, faintly outlining something like a diagram.

"This... is a map of the Crimson Fire Plain in the Demon Domain?" Looking at the diagram formed by Spiritual Power, Long Jiuyao spoke with slight surprise. As his words fell, his gaze fixed on a certain spot on the diagram—there, a bright red dot was marked.

"Could this be the map showing where the Halberd Spirit is?" Long Jiuyao murmured, then grinned. "It looks like I'll have to go to the Crimson Fire Plain, but not now. At least not until I reach the Creation Realm."

Even a remnant scale incarnation was hard to deal with, let alone the Halberd Spirit itself.

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

As the Spiritual Map merged, Long Jiuyao felt as if something had been added to his mind—likely the map itself.