Phoenix True Form

Scorched marks appeared across Taotie's dark-gold fur, damage that could only have been inflicted by a full-force strike from a Martial Soul True Form.

But it immediately let out a low growl and thrust its massive curved horns forward, smashing a crack into the Purplefire Phoenix's chest.

Huang Fei's Phoenix True Form swayed violently in that instant. Purple flames gushed from the crack like blood.

She let out a mournful cry, forcibly steadied herself, and lunged at Taotie once more.

Her sharp claws carved several shallow bloody marks across its dark-gold fur, but Taotie's counterattack was even fiercer.

It opened its huge maw filled with tiger fangs, bit down on one wing of the Phoenix True Form, and violently shook its head to tear at it.

In that instant, Huang Fei felt agonizing pain shoot up from the base of her wing.

Her Martial Soul True Form was torn apart. Purple flames scattered through the air in countless fragments, and a shrill phoenix cry resounded throughout Dragon Valley.

After suffering Taotie's devastating blow, she could no longer maintain her Martial Soul True Form. The purple light faded away, and Huang Fei returned to human form, falling from the sky and crashing to the ground as blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.

She struggled to push herself up, but Taotie's bite had nearly torn apart all the tendons and bones in her left shoulder.

The searing pain made her vision go dark in waves. She could not even move her fingers.

Taotie lowered its head to look at Huang Fei lying on the ground. The dark-green eyes beneath its armpits held no emotion, only instinctive indifference.

It raised its enormous forelimb, tipped with humanlike claws, and stomped heavily toward Huang Fei's chest.

"Don't!"

Lu Mingfei's grief-stricken cry rang out at that moment.

He lay sprawled across Taotie's back, both hands gripping its dark-gold fur tightly as every ounce of strength in his body erupted at once.

The aura of the Black Dragon King surged from the depths of his soul.

That supreme pressure, originating from the source of dragonkind, swept through the entire valley like a flood.

A nearly crazed light ignited in his eyes. His voice was hoarse and ragged as he snarled, "Don't touch her!"

Taotie's claw stopped above Huang Fei's chest.

The dragon's might crashing down on it made its soul tremble uncontrollably.

It could sense a pure, unadulterated fury in Lu Mingfei's voice.

That fury pierced through the barrier of bloodlines and struck directly at the deepest instincts of its soul.

The Taotie with a hundred thousand years of cultivation hesitated in that instant.

It glanced at the barely living Huang Fei by its feet, then looked back at the small figure on its back, who was radiating terrifying pressure. At last, it slowly withdrew its claw.

Then it turned around, broke into a run, and raced toward the depths of Dragon Valley.

Its dark-gold fur whipped wildly in the night wind.

Lu Mingfei clung to its back, jolted so badly he felt as if his body were about to fall apart, yet he refused to release that clump of coarse fur.

He looked back and saw Huang Fei growing farther and farther away, smaller and smaller, until she was completely swallowed by the gray mist.

He opened his mouth, wanting to shout something, but the wind was too fierce. His voice was torn apart in Dragon Valley's night, and nothing carried through.

At the mouth of the valley, silence lingered for a long time.

Dugu Bo walked over to Huang Fei. Looking down at the blood-covered woman whose left shoulder had nearly been torn off, a complicated emotion flickered in his eyes.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly said in a low voice, "Purplefire Phoenix... You're from Spirit Hall's Phoenix Family, aren't you?"

Huang Fei raised her bloodied face to glance at him but did not answer.

Dugu Bo asked again, "What is Flute Kite Douluo, Huang Lingyuan, to you?"

Huang Fei's lips moved. Her voice was weak but clear. "She is my aunt."

Dugu Bo's green eyes narrowed slightly.

He truly had felt a flicker of killing intent just now.

Someone from Spirit Hall had appeared in Dragon Valley, and she was even a core member of the Phoenix Family. That alone was suspicious enough.

But the name Huang Lingyuan gave him pause.

Flute Kite Douluo was the current head of the Phoenix Family, and her cultivation was unfathomable.

If he truly killed Flute Kite Douluo's niece here, that Flute Kite Douluo would never let him go, even if she had to chase him to the ends of the earth.

Although Dugu Bo prided himself on his poison arts, he had no confidence of defeating someone like Flute Kite Douluo.

Besides, people from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, as well as the Dragon Duke and Serpent Lady, were present.

If he killed someone from Spirit Hall in public, news of it would spread throughout the Heaven Dou Empire by the next day.

By then, the relationship between the Heaven Dou Imperial Family and Spirit Hall would become exceedingly awkward.

Dugu Bo's killing intent came swiftly and faded just as swiftly.

He withdrew his gaze and casually flicked his sleeve. "Someone from the Phoenix Family... What a pity.

Let's hope your life is tough enough to hold out until someone comes to save you."

With that, he turned and walked toward the depths of Dragon Valley, his gray robe snapping in the wind.

Yet he did not go far. He stopped at the edge of the gray mist, standing with his hands behind his back as though waiting for something.

Huang Fei lay on the cold ground, the excruciating pain making even breathing difficult.

She could feel that the tendons and bones in her left shoulder had broken. The massive blood loss was beginning to blur her consciousness.

She gritted her teeth and refused to pass out, because Lu Mingfei was still on that Taotie's back, and she had no idea where it would take him.

She owed the Pope a debt of gratitude, and she owed Lu Mingfei an explanation. She could not fall here just like this.

But in the end, she could not hold on.

Huang Fei's consciousness slowly receded from her mind like the ebbing tide. The last image before her eyes was the dark-gold Taotie carrying Lu Mingfei into the gray mist.

Her fingers curled slightly, then fell limp. Her eyes slowly closed as she sank into unconsciousness.

The gray mist churned in the depths of Dragon Valley.

Taotie had completely vanished, leaving only a trail of enormous footprints stretching toward the deepest part of Dragon Valley, a forbidden land no one had ever set foot in.

Lu Mingfei lay across Taotie's back, dizzy from the violent jolting. Its coarse dark-gold fur dug painfully into him.

All he could hear was the howling wind and the heavy pounding of Taotie's hooves as it ran.

The stone walls and trees on both sides became blurred patches of color rushing past.

But he had no mind to care where he was being taken.

His thoughts were filled with the sight of Huang Fei collapsing on the ground, covered in blood.

That scene was branded into his mind, impossible to shake away.

He remembered the sight of Huang Fei charging forward to block Taotie's path. He remembered the dazzling purple light when she unleashed her Martial Soul True Form.

He remembered the shrill phoenix cry when Taotie bit down on her wing.

And even more clearly, he remembered the miserable state she was in after falling to the ground, unable to move even a finger.

She was clearly only a Soul Sage, yet before a hundred-thousand-year Taotie that even Title Douluos did not dare confront head-on, she had charged forward without hesitation.

Again and again, she was thrown back. Again and again, she lunged at it.

Why...

Lu Mingfei could not understand.

He had not known Huang Fei for long.

From their first meeting at Spirit Hall to this journey to Dragon Valley, it had only been a little over a month.