Although she knew perfectly well that this boost was only temporary and that afterward it usually came with extremely severe side effects, reaching the realm of a Limit Douluo at the age of twenty-two was a miracle in itself.
In the distance, Huo Yuhao was utterly stunned. He stared blankly at the silver-blue Ice Dragon in midair, so shocked he almost shouted, "Holy crap, is he cheating?" In the end, he held it in and stayed quiet.
"B-Brother Sky Dream..." Huo Yuhao stammered, asking the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in his Sea of Consciousness, "What level of strength is senior at now?"
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was just as shaken. It couldn't answer Huo Yuhao's question right away.
When Huo Yuhao saw that the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm still hadn't replied, he nearly thought it had fallen asleep again. He tried asking once more.
"Limit Douluo!" This time, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm answered quickly. It had probably recovered its wits.
"What!" Huo Yuhao sucked in a sharp breath, doing his part to warm up the entire Douluo Continent.
"Even though it's temporary and won't last long, in his current state, your senior might just be able to fight Di Tian." The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice carried a hint of emotion. "Little Yuhao, your senior really is full of surprises!"
"How did he do it?"
"That fifty-thousand-year Soul Ring," the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm said. "If I'm not mistaken, the second Soul Skill it granted him is this heaven-defying ability to raise his strength to the Limit Douluo level for a short time."
"Normally, the side effects of a skill like this are severe. He'll probably need more than half a year to recover afterward. But there's no denying that, at a life-or-death moment, it's a trump card powerful enough to turn the tide."
Huo Yuhao nodded in a daze, his gaze fixed on the silver-blue Ice Dragon in midair.
At last, he understood why Jiang Che had been able to subdue the Ice Empress, and why he could face an unparalleled powerhouse like Di Tian with such composure.
It was because Jiang Che's foundations were truly far beyond anything he could have imagined.
In midair, the Ice Dragon circled once. Its golden eyes looked down at Di Tian on the ground, and its voice rang out like a bell, carrying the dragonkind's natural majesty and pride.
"Beast God, now do you think I can trade a few blows with you?"
Di Tian looked up at the silver-blue Ice Dragon. A complex expression flashed through his dark, slit-pupiled eyes: surprise, admiration, but above all, the anger of someone who had been challenged.
He, too, transformed into his dragon form and slowly rose into the air, facing off against the Ice Dragon from a distance.
The two figures, one black and one blue, stared each other down high above the Star Dou Great Forest. Their utterly different auras collided in the air, setting off invisible ripples of energy that swept away every cloud within a thousand zhang.
"Interesting. Very interesting!" A smile tugged at Di Tian's lips. "To temporarily reach the Limit Douluo level—you do have some ability."
"But do you think you can fight me with a cheap trick like that?"
The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King was more than twenty meters long, his body covered in pitch-black dragon scales. Dark golden light edged every scale, a perfect embodiment of the dragonkind's overwhelming might.
Di Tian's wings spanned thirty meters, their membranes like frozen darkness. Each flap whipped up a gale that tore through space, making the forest canopy below rise and fall like waves.
His dragon eyes were golden too, his slit pupils narrowed to thin lines. They reflected Jiang Che's Ice Dragon form as his lips curved slightly, revealing two rows of gleaming white fangs.
"Interesting," Di Tian said, his voice issuing from the dragon's maw. "A human taking dragon form. That's rare."
Jiang Che didn't answer. All his concentration was focused on maintaining Ice Dragon Descent. This wasn't an ordinary Martial Soul Avatar, but true Dragon Transformation.
The source power of the Ice Dragon King Martial Soul within him had been fully unleashed. The Ice Dragon's source power contained in the five-hundred-and-sixty-thousand-year Soul Ring granted by the panel had completely fused with his own bloodline, giving him a dragon's flesh and blood for the time being.
He could clearly feel the power in every muscle of his dragon body, the texture of every scale, even the faint vibrations of air flowing over his wing membranes as they beat.
This was his first time existing in a complete dragon body. The feeling was even more remarkable than he'd expected.
"Roar!"
Jiang Che moved first.
The Ice Dragon's wings snapped forward, and its massive body shot toward Di Tian like a cannonball, moving so fast it left a string of silver-blue afterimages in the air.
His right claw lashed out. Five talons sheathed in icy dragon scales gathered the soul-freezing power of Ultimate Ice as they reached straight for Di Tian's throat.
Di Tian neither dodged nor retreated. He thrust out his right claw, and the black talons crashed into the silver-blue ones in midair.
Boom—!
A deafening explosion erupted. A visible shock wave spread wildly from the point where their claws collided, shaving an entire layer off the forest canopy below as splintered wood and shards of ice flew everywhere.
Jiang Che felt an irresistible force surge through his arm. It sent his entire dragon body flying back dozens of zhang, and several fine cracks appeared in the icy scales on his right claw.
Di Tian also retreated several zhang, a flicker of surprise passing through his dark, slit-pupiled eyes.
He looked at the thin layer of frost coating his right claw, then gave it a slight shake. The frost shattered and fell away, but the chill of Ultimate Ice had already seeped between his scales, leaving his claw tips slightly numb.
"Not bad." Di Tian gave a low shout, beat his wings, and shot toward Jiang Che in a streak of black light.
The two giant dragons clashed in midair, exchanging claw strikes, bites, wing blows, and tail sweeps. Every attack carried enough force to split mountains and shatter stone.
The Ice Dragon Jiang Che had become excelled in speed. He circled Di Tian again and again, attacking from tricky angles and immediately pulling back, never giving Di Tian the chance to meet him head-on.
The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, on the other hand, excelled in strength. Every attack was broad and forceful, and the gale from each swing of his claws could snap trees a hundred zhang away.
"Is dodging all you can do?" Di Tian taunted. The Black Dragon King's tail swept across with a shriek that tore through the air, heading straight for the Ice Dragon's waist.
Jiang Che didn't try to block it. He beat his wings and shot sharply upward, narrowly evading the tail sweep. His claw raked across the tip of Di Tian's tail, leaving five shallow streaks of ice.
"You think I'm dodging?" Jiang Che sneered. The Ice Dragon's wings suddenly folded inward, and he dived like a shooting star. The icy power gathered in his right claw reached its peak. "Third Soul Skill, Ice Dragon Claw!"
Dense silver-blue light gathered around the five talons of the Ice Dragon Claw. The chill of Ultimate Ice solidified into five razor-sharp blades of ice. This time, Jiang Che made no attempt to test him. He went straight for Di Tian's face.
Before you continue