Fierce Battle

Seeing Gulanxiu sent flying, the creature resembling an armored dragon didn't press its advantage. Instead, it watched him warily and spoke in a deep, rumbling voice. "Human! This Blood Spirit Wilderness isn't a place for you. Leave at once, and I'll let bygones be bygones!"

Gulanxiu had steadied himself by then. He looked at the armored dragon, a glint of fighting spirit in his eyes, and said with a smile, "You want me to leave? Beat me first!"

With that, he charged forward again, swinging the Great Axe at the Armored Dragon Beast.

As Gulanxiu raced toward it, the Armored Dragon Beast's eyes flashed with anger. It let out a low growl and swung its claws at him.

Faced with the forceful swipe, Gulanxiu's figure blurred. Nearly a hundred afterimages appeared in the air, and in an instant he dodged the incoming claws and closed in on the armored dragon.

The Great Axe flashed in Gulanxiu's hands, instantly opening a wide gash in the armored dragon's belly. He then quickly retreated before its tail could lash out.

The armored dragon roared and pursued Gulanxiu, but its Law Comprehension was far inferior to his. Gulanxiu easily dodged its attacks while opening two more gashes in its body!

After a brief exchange, Gulanxiu had already figured out the Armored Dragon Beast's capabilities. It was a level-nine Domain Lord, on par with Gulanxiu in his Heavy Metal Stym.

Of course, as a Wild Beast, the armored dragon had tremendous physical strength, roughly five times that of an ordinary human. Its scales and claws were also extremely hard. If it had faced an ordinary Domain Lord instead of Gulanxiu, its opponent might not even have been able to pierce its defenses.

But the Wild Beast's Law Comprehension was mediocre. It had only comprehended a little of the Gold Law—nowhere near enough to pass the third level of the Sky Bridge.

That was only natural. If its comprehension had been deep enough, it would have already advanced to Realm Lord. As a native Wild Beast of the Bloodfall Continent, it had no need to suppress its rank.

The enormous gap in Law Comprehension between them left Gulanxiu in an invincible position.

Still, Gulanxiu didn't want to lose such a good sparring partner, so he pressed on and continued fighting the Wild Beast.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" As they clashed again and again, Gulanxiu realized that the Wild Beast's strongest weapon was its tail club. Every time his Great Axe collided with the Armored Dragon Beast's tail club, he felt as if he were being overpowered.

Its claws, on the other hand, were evenly matched with Gulanxiu's. The fierce battle set his blood surging, filling him with a sense of exhilaration.

But just as Gulanxiu blocked the armored dragon's claws again, a sly glint flashed in its eyes. Blood-red patterns shimmered across its hard tail club, and its already terrifying strength suddenly doubled as it crashed down at Gulanxiu.

Gulanxiu was caught up in the heat of battle. Though he saw the red glow on the tail club, he paid it no mind and raised his axe to meet the blow.

"Boom!" Caught off guard, Gulanxiu was sent flying like a baseball.

The immense force shattered the bones in both his arms, and searing pain coursed through his body.

Gritting his teeth, Gulanxiu took out a fruit and stuffed it into his mouth. It was called a Life Fruit, and could instantly heal all physical injuries short of those suffered by an Immortal. In the Treasure Vault, two cost one point. Before coming to the Bloodfall Continent, Gulanxiu had specifically bought ten.

Gulanxiu felt a cool, life-giving energy coursing through his body. His arms, broken by the tremendous force, were steadily healing.

Although the Armored Dragon Beast's Law Comprehension was mediocre, it had decent battle experience. At the very least, it knew to press its advantage. Seeing Gulanxiu injured, it quickly pursued him and shouted, "Damn human, die!"

It swung its tail club, still covered in blood-red secret patterns, at Gulanxiu once more.

Gulanxiu blurred, leaving a trail of afterimages in the air as he narrowly dodged the terrifying blow.

After its deadly strike missed, the armored dragon's massive body rolled under its own momentum and slammed into the ground.

"Boom!" The earth shook and dust billowed. The sturdy ground of the Bloodfall Continent was left with a crater a hundred meters across.

Fortunately, they were on the Bloodfall Continent. On an ordinary life planet, the destructive force of that blow would have been enough to instantly destroy a large city.

By now, Gulanxiu's arms had fully healed, but he was unusually furious. He had been injured by a mere Domain Lord-level Wild Beast.

He admitted that he had been careless earlier. He had only wanted to practice against the Wild Beast, not kill it right away. He hadn't expected it to seize the opportunity to land such a vicious blow.

Now Gulanxiu was ready to kill. He would end the fight quickly. He charged forward again and shouted, "Second Axe!"

The Great Axe in Gulanxiu's hands suddenly grew enormous. The space in front of him seemed to freeze, making the Armored Dragon Beast struggle to move. The space before the blade warped slightly, leaving streaks of black fissures in the air.

Facing this blow, which bore down like a mountain, the Armored Dragon Beast's eyes filled with fear. The blade hadn't even reached it yet, but it could already sense how terrifying the attack was.

The powerful force binding it made it even harder to move. It couldn't even use its tail, fused with a Bloodfall Crystal, to defend itself. All it could do was watch helplessly as the Great Axe drew closer.

At last, the axe struck the Armored Dragon Beast's head. There was no earth-shaking boom, no powerful shockwave. It was as if a wooden blade were slicing through tofu. As Gulanxiu's axe passed through, the Armored Dragon Beast's body split in two and fell apart in opposite directions.

Gulanxiu coldly looked at the armored dragon, now split in two, and noticed two blood-red crystals inside the stomach pouch in its belly.

He beckoned, and the two crystals fell into his hand. Feeling the mysterious power within them, Gulanxiu murmured to himself, "So this is a Bloodfall Crystal?"

Suddenly, Gulanxiu seemed to sense something. He put away the Bloodfall Crystals, lifted the Great Axe, and struck the left half of the Armored Dragon Beast's body.

He wasn't mutilating a corpse. He had realized that the Armored Dragon Beast wasn't dead. His axe had been powerful enough to split its body open, but it hadn't damaged the creature's Core Nucleus.

For a Domain Lord, the most important thing was the Life Core. A Domain Lord's soul was hidden inside the Core Nucleus; the body was merely flesh and energy.

That didn't mean the body was unimportant, of course. The soul still needed energy to sustain it. Without a body to support it, the soul inside the Core Nucleus would quickly fall into a deep sleep.

The body and Core Nucleus complemented each other. Like the Armored Dragon Beast, one could only be slaughtered at will until its body had recovered.