The Attacking Dragon

"So many..."

Meng Hongchen instinctively edged half a step closer to Xu Tianming.

Xu Tianming stood in front of her, his red eyes fixed tightly on the approaching monsters.

"Twelve."

Xiao Hongchen counted in a low voice, sounding extremely tense.

Ye Guyi said nothing. Holy light gathered in her hand, and her pale golden hair streamed backward in the foul wind surging beyond the barrier.

The Rift Realm Creations paused fifty meters from the barrier. The Dark Demon Tiger raised its head and let out a hoarse roar.

Then, all the Man-Faced Demon Spiders raised their abdomens at once and sprayed pale purple silk. The Mandala Snakes twisted their bodies, firing venom like a rain of arrows. The Wind Baboons spread their damaged wing membranes and closed in from the flank, while the Dark Demon Tiger lowered its center of gravity and pounced.

At the edge of the barrier, twelve Soul Guidance Cannons turned in unison, the blazing white light from their muzzles tearing through the dark purple sky.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of explosions rang out. The first barrage struck the three leading Wind Baboons with perfect accuracy. High-energy Soul Guidance beams pierced the Star Crystal cores in their chests, and their crystallized bodies exploded into fragments in midair. Dark purple crystal shards rained down, crackling densely as they struck the barrier.

The spider silk woven by the Man-Faced Demon Spiders burned away the moment it touched the outside of the protective barrier, turning into charred ash under the flames emitted by the Soul Guidance Cannons.

One Mandala Snake tried to circle around from the side, but the instant it leaped, the intersecting fire from two Soul Guidance Cannons severed its body in two.

The bisected snake body crashed to the ground. Its crystallized scales still trembled faintly as dark red venom gushed from the wound, corroding one deep pit after another into the ground.

The Dark Demon Tiger was the fiercest. It took a Soul Guidance beam head-on, shattering the crystal armor on its shoulder, but its body only paused for a moment. Then it opened its jaws and blasted a breath of black mist at the protective barrier.

Silver ripples spread across the barrier's surface, but nothing else happened. Then all four Soul Guidance Cannons turned toward it.

Boom—

The Dark Demon Tiger's body fell apart amid the flames. Its enormous tiger head crashed onto the ground, its dark purple Star Crystal eyes still fixed in a savage expression before finally going dark after a while.

The entire battle had lasted less than twenty breaths.

Outside the barrier, only crystallized debris littered the ground, along with black smoke slowly rising into the air. The Soul Guidance Cannons' muzzles slowly rotated again, aiming outward as they returned to alert.

Meng Hongchen let out a long breath and patted her chest.

"Don't worry,"

She lifted her chin, revealing a proud smile.

"With the defenses Grandpa set up, unless they have the strength of a Titled Douluo, they can forget about getting near us."

After saying that, she felt it was not enough and added another sentence.

"Anyone below Titled Douluo level will die if they come."

Xiao Hongchen removed his hand from the short blade and glanced at her.

"Could you stop tempting fate?"

"What do you mean, tempting fate? That's just the truth!"

"The truth is that whenever you say something like that, something bad always happens."

"You..."

Meng Hongchen puffed out her cheeks in anger. Just as she was about to retort, the ground beneath their feet suddenly let out a heavy thump.

Boom—

A streak of crimson-gold fire shot into the dark purple sky, transforming into a massive mushroom cloud.

Even from dozens of miles away, the violent blast of air swept over them, bending the crystallized dead trees outside the barrier and making them crack and snap.

Then an enraged roar resounded throughout the entire Rift Realm, solid sound waves sweeping toward them.

Layer after layer of ripples spread across the barrier's surface. Meng Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen both covered their ears. Ye Guyi frowned as well, holy light circulating around her body to cancel out the piercing hum.

The ground trembled faintly. Pebbles stripped from the crystallized rock walls bounced a few times before falling into the cracks in the earth.

"Grandpa and the others... are already fighting the Rift Realm Lord."

Xiao Hongchen lowered the hand covering his ear, his face pale. The aftershocks from a battle of that level alone made Grand Soul Master-level children struggle to breathe.

Xu Tianming said nothing. He looked up at the place where the flames burned, his eyes entirely calm, while inwardly he kept complaining.

First Soul Ring.

Where was my First Soul Ring?

He lowered his head and looked at his right palm. A miniature sun revolved there, radiating warm light.

Fine, I made a wish and pulled over a Rift Realm. But where's my Soul Ring?

Xu Tianming wanted to drag the Star Core out of his sea of consciousness, point at its nose, and curse it out.

The side effects are maxed out, but the main course isn't served. What kind of scammer is this?

He even suspected that the Star Core had been damaged during the transmigration. It only knew how to wreak havoc and had forgotten the important part.

At that moment, the humming in the air abruptly changed. The originally sharp, piercing background noise seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand, suddenly dropping into a low, muffled drone.

It was far too quiet. Then the ground shook once. This tremor was not like the distant aftershock of an explosion from before. It was close, heavy, and rhythmic.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump...

Each tremor was clearer and closer than the last.

Xiao Hongchen's expression immediately turned ugly. He dropped to the ground, pressed his right ear against the crystallized earth, and spread the fingers of his left hand to feel the frequency of the vibrations.

"Three-step quake, five-step shudder..."

He muttered to himself, lowering his voice.

"Something's coming."

"It's huge."

"It weighs... probably more than a hundred thousand jin."

As he spoke, he frowned, his expression intensely focused and serious, as though he were answering a teacher's question in class.

No one responded. Ye Guyi and Meng Hongchen were both staring wide-eyed ahead, their little faces deathly pale.

Xu Tianming looked down at Xiao Hongchen on the ground. After two seconds of silence, he patted his shoulder.

"Stop listening."

Xiao Hongchen raised his head, his expression extremely serious.

"Your Highness, I'm studying the enemy's movement pattern. The distance between each of its steps..."

"We can see it."

Xu Tianming pointed ahead. Xiao Hongchen froze, then turned in the direction of his finger. At the end of the crystallized forest beyond the protective barrier, a small mountain was moving.

No.

It was not a small mountain. It was a dragon.

A massive creature thirty meters tall emerged from the mist within the Rift Realm.

Its body should have been covered in dazzling golden dragon scales, but more than half had already been corroded by dark purple Star Crystals. The crystals and dragon scales grew intertwined, like a suit of armor forcibly pieced together after being shattered.

Through the gaps, molten-gold fire flowed slowly. With every breath it took, scorching sparks burst from its nostrils, burning one molten hole after another into the ground.