"This is..." An old cultivator with snow-white hair and beard tore out a tuft of his beard in shock. "Legend has it that one Immortal Divine Medicine resembles a human body. Could this be the root of that Immortal Medicine?"
The great emperors among the passersby were truly terrifying-even this badly damaged human-shaped immortal medicine could not escape their recognition.
Hearing his words, the people nearby looked at the ice-snow source again. If it contained the root of an Immortal Medicine, it could still be tremendously useful!
Their gazes burned with greed, as though they wanted to swallow the entire piece of ice-snow source along with it.
"An Immortal Medicine! To think I would live to see one!" someone exclaimed.
"A pity it's incomplete. Young friend, I'll offer forty thousand jin of source. How about selling it to me?" an old cultivator said.
"You want to buy the root of an Immortal Medicine for forty thousand jin? You're shameless! I offer fifty thousand!"
"A complete Immortal Medicine would be priceless, but an incomplete one is only worth so much. I offer fifty-five thousand!"
"I offer..."
The old men erupted into a quarrel, competing to outbid one another.
Jiang Zhu ignored their bids and put away the ice-snow source. "Everyone, I won't be selling this Immortal Medicine."
The old men watching were disappointed and could not help asking, "Young brother, will you be cutting any more stones?"
Jiang Zhu shook his head and left despite their efforts to persuade him to stay.
He had obtained everything he wanted from this trip to the Sacred City. It was time to leave. His priority now was cultivation-reaching the Four Extremes Secret Realm as soon as possible.
News that two Divine Medicines, an immortal gold sword interwoven with the Dao and its principles, and numerous life-extending Treasure Medicines had been cut out of stones in the Sacred City in a single day swept through the entire city like a storm.
Many wondered aloud whether a Source Heavenly Master's successor had appeared.
Meanwhile, the holy lands that had incurred Jiang Zhu's enmity quietly circulated his appearance and cultivation level.
Many hearts burned with greed, eager to make a move. He was merely in the Dao Palace Realm. With their cultivation, wouldn't capturing him be as easy as reaching out a hand? Then that envy-inducing fortune...
Yet they did not even know the supposed Source Heavenly Master's successor's name. All they knew was that he might belong to the Demon Clan, with prominent horns, a scale between his brows, and demonic aura suffusing his body.
Many people in the Sacred City searched for Jiang Zhu's whereabouts. Eventually, someone said he had left through the south of the city.
Beneath the blood-red setting sun lay a desert a hundred li south of the Sacred City.
Surrounded by mountains, Jiang Zhu stood atop the highest peak, continually stirring the dragon veins beneath his feet as he waited for his prey to arrive.
An endless Gobi Desert stretched before the mountains. The land was desolate, its red soil bleak. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but emptiness and desolation.
Standing on the summit, Jiang Zhu gazed toward the far end of the land. A cluster of tiny black dots was rapidly approaching on the horizon.
"They're here!" Jiang Zhu murmured. He had deliberately exposed his whereabouts in the Sacred City and retained his dragon body for this very moment.
The group sped closer from the horizon, gradually coming into view: hundreds of burly figures clad in scale armor and holding spears, their killing intent and blood aura surging into the sky.
Hundreds of knights rode all manner of extraordinary savage beasts, charging out from the far horizon. Every beast bore cold, gleaming scales, divine light flashing over their smooth surfaces as they galloped through the air, sweeping forward like a tsunami.
Their immense pressure shook all directions. Both heaven and earth trembled, and a murderous chill enveloped the surrounding region.
Suddenly, the savage beasts' roars shook the high heavens, making ears ring and souls tremble. The dragon-blooded beasts bellowed with peals like thunder.
A skyful of spears shot forth in their wake. Divine light flickered at their tips, their shafts resembling divine rainbows as they fell like rain, seemingly capable of piercing any defense. All hurtled toward the peak where Jiang Zhu stood.
The knights remained silent. Their very first move was a killing strike, intended to annihilate him along with the mountain beneath him.
"I've been waiting here for a long time. You'll be the first I send on your way today!"
A dragon's cry rang from Jiang Zhu's mouth. The dragon veins beneath his feet surged, and boundless dragon qi rose to condense into the phantom of a true dragon. The immense dragon coiled around him, forming a domain. Wherever its body reached, space and time froze.
The dragon formed from dragon qi opened its enormous maw. Spiritual energy throughout the area instantly stopped flowing, as though bound by invisible chains, forming the Heaven-Trapping Formation.
The rain of divine rainbows crumbled into dust with the dragon's roar. The hundreds of knights were likewise fixed in midair, unable to move.
At that moment, the dragon-blooded savage beasts beneath them roared and opened their bloody maws, exposing savage teeth like daggers forged from divine metal. They actually turned and bit at the knights on their backs.
"You rode dragon-blooded savage beasts to fight me? Do you really think the dragon horns on my head are just decorations?" Jiang Zhu's dragon horns shone translucently, and divine light flowed over the scale between his brows.
Under the pressure of a true dragon, the dragon-blooded savage beasts fell under the sway of the Dragon-Control Art and attacked their riders. In an instant, countless knights perished in their maws.
Frozen in midair, the knights could only watch helplessly as those jaws closed on them.
"You beasts dare devour your masters?"
Just then, a figure appeared out of thin air. He extended a hand, which transformed into an enormous palm that blotted out the sky. Its knuckles were sharply defined, its palm lines clearly visible as it struck down at the dragon formed from dragon qi.
Jiang Zhu drew upon more power from the dragon veins. The condensed dragon threw back its head and roared, its scales flashing gold. Its claws reached out, tearing through the void.
Golden scales covered its tail, whose tip was as sharp as a heavenly blade. As it swept through the air, it carved black fissures in the void.
The enormous dragon attacked with both claws and tail, charging toward the great hand with boundless might.
Boom!
The instant the dragon's claws collided with the sky-blotting hand, thunder seemed to explode nearby. Dazzling radiance burst forth, illuminating the entire region as brightly as day. The shock waves leveled a mountain range dozens of li long.
The explosion became tangible waves of sound, rolling one upon another like the beating of heavenly drums and shattering the rocks.
The enormous dragon's body broke apart, returning to heaven and earth as dragon qi. Two of the great hand's five fingers shattered, drastically reducing its power, and the True Dragon Heaven-Binding Formation ground it out of existence.
"Even with the dragon veins, the True Dragon Claw, and the Divine Dragon Tail Sweep, I could only barely block one attack? The gap in cultivation is still too great." Jiang Zhu looked at the shattered dragon body, gauging the disparity.
"Hm? What mysterious art is this, to withstand a palm strike from me?" The figure was somewhat astonished, then became wildly elated. "Such a wondrous art ought to be mine!"
Meanwhile, the others watching from concealment were also startled by the sight of such a mysterious art.
"This dragon youth actually possesses such formidable combat strength. Even if he borrowed the power of the dragon veins, a secret combat art like this could probably rival the Nine Secrets!"
Remembering that he also possessed Immortal Medicine and immortal gold, those spying from the shadows burned with greed. This Demon Clan junior must be mine! × N
Twelve Dragon Transformation Realm auras appeared at once, locking onto Jiang Zhu. An elder of the Wanchu Holy Land brought out a Profound Jade Platform to seal the void and sneered, "Demon Clan brat, hand over the Divine Medicine, immortal gold, and your inheritance, and I'll leave your corpse intact!"
Golden light shone from Jiang Zhu's dragon horns. Within his sleeve, the Great Saint Weapon, the Glazed Glass Lamp, hummed and trembled. "You want to kill me? Let's see whether you have what it takes!"
The Yaoguang elder suddenly struck. His divine power surged like an ocean, and a flash of sword light became a thousand-zhang river of stars that slashed down. "Enough talk! Refine his soul directly!"
Seeing this, another elder in black-and-white robes reached out with a great hand and seized a mountain range, shrinking it to just over ten meters before smashing it down toward Jiang Zhu. "I'll break this formation!"
That ten-meter-long mountain ridge was unimaginably heavy, almost enough to crush the firmament.
The other Dragon Transformation Realm cultivators attacked as well, manifesting their divine power with sky-surging might, intent on crushing Jiang Zhu utterly.
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