Deep within the crimson mist, the battle between the Burial Thunder Ghost King and Zhang Zhen had reached a fever pitch.
The mountain forests for miles around had nearly been razed flat. Ancient trees had turned to charcoal, and rocks had been blasted to powder by lightning. Black-and-red thunderclouds hung low between the mountains, each rolling surge illuminating the two fiercely battling figures.
The Burial Thunder Ghost King stood forty feet tall, his charred King's Robe snapping in the lightning-lashed wind.
All four of his slit-pupiled eyes opened at once, a mass of black-and-red lightning swirling in each. Every beat of the dark red ghost heart at the center of his chest brought a bolt of Heaven-Burying Thunder down from the sky.
Boom!
A black bolt split the crimson mist, hurtling straight toward Zhang Zhen's head.
The ground beneath Zhang Zhen abruptly collapsed as he shot skyward to meet the lightning. Dragon-Manifestation Realm blood energy erupted from his body, condensing behind him into a crimson flood dragon hundreds of feet long.
"Break!"
Zhang Zhen clasped both hands around empty air.
The crimson flood dragon released a sky-shaking roar. Its enormous body rapidly contracted, transforming into a Blood Dragon Spear over a hundred feet long. Its point thrust upward, colliding head-on with the burial thunder descending from the sky.
Boom!
Crimson light and black lightning exploded together.
The savage shock waves swept through the mountains, shearing two nearby peaks in half. Before the countless fragments could land, stray lightning and blood energy ground them to dust.
Zhang Zhen charged out of the explosion's center.
Holding the spear in both hands, its tip trailing a crimson dragon's silhouette, he crossed hundreds of feet in an instant and thrust straight at the Burial Thunder Ghost King's chest.
The Burial Thunder Ghost King did