The next morning, the training grounds were far livelier than usual. The air hummed with hushed, excited chatter.
After a night of retelling, the commotion outside town the previous evening had become a thrilling adventure story in the children's mouths. A crowd of youngsters surrounded the older children who usually led them, their eyes wide and little faces flushed.
"My brother said that magical beast was taller than a barn! It opened its mouth, and crunch-the horse in front of it was gone, bones and all!" A skinny, monkey-like boy gesticulated wildly, nearly spraying spit into the faces opposite him.
"Nonsense! My dad went to look. He said it was the lord mage's mount, and it looked mighty impressive!" A sturdier boy immediately contradicted him. "The fireballs were the important part! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, boom! A hundred times louder than thunder cannons!"
"I heard every mercenary had special skills. They were all powerful warriors, but a few swipes of those claws and..."
"I think it was because the mage's magic was so powerful!"
The stories grew more outlandish with each telling. They argued until their faces and ears turned red, as though they had seen it themselves. Only two people stayed out of it.
Loa stood in a corner, meticulously stretching his arms and legs. His mind was busy, repeatedly replaying yesterday's details-the trembling ground as the Claw Beasts charged, the scorching air as the fireballs exploded, Lord Hogg's mountain-like steadiness when he stepped forward. He had to turn all of that into strength behind his sword, not leave it as mere talk.
Linley stood a little farther away, his back to the noise and his face toward the sun that had just risen in the east. Excited yet a little afraid, he unconsciously touched the ice-cold ring tucked against his neck. His father's words from last night had circled through his mind all night. Mages... testing... spiritual power... A vague yet dazzling path intertwined with the path of the Dragonblood Warrior he knew, leaving his heart in turmoil. He was excited to have a new direction, and afraid his talent would fall short of the requirements.
"Young Master Linley! Wasn't Young Master Linley there yesterday?" The sharp-eyed skinny boy suddenly shouted. Every child's gaze instantly fell on Linley.
"Young Master Linley, did you really see it?" "Did that magical beast breathe fire?" "What did the mage look like? Did he have a pointed hat and a white beard?"
The questions left Linley rather helpless. He could only answer, "Yes, I saw it. That enormous magical beast was called a Velociraptor. It was huge. The mage wore red robes and used fire-not fireballs, but several enormous fire serpents."
His account was bland, nowhere near as exciting as what the children had imagined, but the fact that he had seen it himself was enough to draw cries of "Wow!" None of them asked Loa nearby. As far as the children were concerned, Loa from the smithy had probably spent yesterday at home, hammering away at iron.
Morning training began amid Hillman's stern-faced commands. The children put away their excitement and began working their arms and legs. Loa and Linley were quieter than usual, and pushed themselves harder. Beads of sweat struck the dirt, and their panting sounded especially clear in the morning air. It seemed that only by exhausting their bodies to the point of falling apart could they suppress the burning, unsettled thoughts yesterday's fire had kindled in their hearts.
Just as Hillman blew his wooden whistle to announce the end of morning training, and the children breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to dash home to eat-
Roar!
A deep, heavy roar, as though grinding its way up from the depths of the earth, filled the entire sky without warning!
All the children, along with Hillman and the other instructors, froze and craned their necks upward together.
Something had suddenly appeared in the sky east of town, which had been brilliantly blue a moment earlier. An enormous creature appeared on the horizon!
It was not a cloud.
It was a terrifyingly huge living creature! Its outstretched wings seemed to blot out half the sky, and every slow, powerful beat stirred a roar of wind like muffled thunder. Glossy black scales covered its body, reflecting a cold, hard gleam in the sunlight. A fearsome head, a long neck, and a savage presence that made every living creature's calves cramp!
"A dragon... a dragon?!" On the training grounds, an instructor forced out the broken words through chattering teeth.
A dragon from legend! And a black dragon, the fiercest and toughest of them all! What was it doing above Wushan Town?
Ahead of the black dragon, a dazzling emerald light shot in from the other direction like a meteor flying backward. It seemed to be trying to flee into the distance, but the black dragon barred its path!
The light withdrew, revealing a figure. He was a middle-aged man in ordinary green clothes, with an unremarkable face and a pair of frighteningly bright eyes. An old longsword hung on his back as he hovered in midair, facing that terrifying black dragon! The wind snapped his clothes, but he seemed nailed to the sky.
He could fly! Another Saint!
"Rudi!" The green-clad man's voice was level, yet reached every ear clearly. "Don't push this too far!"
"Dillon!" A shrill, chilling voice came crashing down from the black dragon's back. A gaunt old man in gray robes stood there, clutching a magic staff set with a yellow crystal. He was the black dragon's master, the Saint-level Earth Element mage Rudi. "I've chased you for three days and nights. Anyone who didn't know better would think you were afraid of me! That thing belongs to whoever has the ability to take it!"
Before his words faded, Dillon's gaze turned cold. He wasted no more words. Pressing two fingers together, he lightly swept them through the air.
Hummm!
The old sword on his back never even left its sheath, yet an enormous blade of light formed purely from emerald Battle-qi tore across the sky. As though splitting heaven and earth, it slashed straight down at Rudi on the black dragon's back, shrieking piercingly with the force to destroy everything! Wherever the sword light passed, the air twisted into ripples.
Facing that terrifying strike, the black dragon let out an enraged roar. Rather than dodge, it abruptly swung its enormous body across, thrusting its thickly scaled back squarely between the sword light and its master!
Clang!!!!!
It was not an explosion, but a terrifying crash like two bronze bells weighing tens of thousands of pounds colliding, loud enough to shatter eardrums! The emerald sword light struck the black dragon's spine full-on, bursting into light more dazzling than the sun! A terrifying shock wave exploded outward in a ring, instantly clearing a vast swath of clouds high above.
As the light dimmed slightly, the black dragon roared in pain. A huge patch of scales on its back had shattered, exposing a mangled, bloody wound beneath, and dragon blood rained down. But it had truly withstood the blow! The instant the black dragon moved to block it, Rudi's gray robes ripped apart, revealing thick, translucent armor beneath, as though carved from the finest diamond! A heavy, earthen-yellow glow flowed over the armor, effortlessly dissolving the collision's aftershocks.
Rudi stood on the dragon's back without a hair harmed. His face had merely paled for an instant.
"Earth Guardian Saint Armor? Hmph!" Dillon snorted coldly, seemingly unsurprised by Rudi's turtle shell.
Rudi gave a sinister smile, raised his staff high, and rattled off a string of ancient, tongue-twisting syllables. Earthen-yellow light surged wildly through the sky. The blue heavens abruptly turned a murky yellow, so oppressive that breathing became difficult.
"Meteor Fall!"
With a sweep of his staff, the air for thousands of meters above Wushan Town groaned under the strain! Countless rocks wreathed in yellow flames, the largest as big as houses, materialized out of nowhere. Like a celestial river pouring backward, they came crashing indiscriminately down with apocalyptic howls toward the hovering Dillon and... the town beneath his feet!
"This is bad!" Hillman's expression changed instantly on the training grounds. He bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Everyone! Hurry! Go home! Take cover! Now!!!"
The spectacle overhead had already frightened the children stiff. Only Hillman's thunderous roar snapped them out of it. Crying and shouting, they bolted desperately toward their homes like startled rabbits, and the scene instantly dissolved into chaos.
Dillon stared at the descending rain of rocks, his face taut. The old sword on his back finally left its sheath! Its blade was a dull emerald green as well. Gripping it with both hands, he unleashed his power at the falling rocks!
"Break!"
Surging emerald Battle-qi erupted from his body into the sky like a volcano! He swung his longsword, sending enormous emerald sword energies crisscrossing into a vast net of destruction that swept upward!
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom-!!!
Thunderous blasts rang out in an unbroken series, shaking the ground until people's feet tingled! Each streak of sword energy shattered one or more rocks, bursting into deadly fireworks high in the air. He smashed most of the rocks apart.
But when Saints fought, even the scraps that escaped were natural disasters! Countless boulders shattered and cracked by the sword energy, along with flaming fragments, still carried the force of their descent despite losing their initial momentum and magical guidance. Like deadly hail, they battered Wushan Town below!
"Run! Run!"
"The house is collapsing!"
"Help!"
The town, merely panicked a moment before, became hell in the blink of an eye. Huge rocks punched through roofs, smashed down walls, and set wood alight. People ran like headless flies through the narrow streets. Now and then, someone was struck by a falling rock and let out an agonized scream. The guards shouted themselves hoarse telling people to take cover, but against power like the wrath of heaven and earth, it did no damn good.
At Hillman's very first shout, all the awe and thoughts in Loa's mind were driven out by something more urgent-home! The smithy! Everything Grandpa Old Jack had left behind, those tools, those memories, and the two paintings he had hidden away like treasures!
He spun around, threw aside his wooden training sword, and drove the "qi" inside him into an unprecedented frenzy, pouring it all into his legs. Holding nothing back of his strength at the peak of the second rank, he raced toward the smithy at the western end of town as fast as he could, like a startled deer!
Faster! Faster!
He sprinted headlong, his ears filled with the rumble of collapsing houses, the crackle of burning wood, the townspeople's shrill cries, and the guards' strained shouts. The familiar bluestone road seemed endless now, and the sights along the way made his heart sink lower and lower: a hole gaped in the roof of his neighbor Uncle Tom's house, the display window of Aunt Anna's bakery lay shattered across the ground, and the sign from Old Brown's cobbler shop lay crooked across the road...
"Get out of the way! Into the cellar!"
"My child! Where's my child?"
"Help!"
Amid the chaos, he narrowly dodged a millstone-sized rock that crashed down in front of him, scattering fragments everywhere. Dust made him cough relentlessly. But he dared not stop, his heart pounding as though it would leap from his chest.
Just as he raced across the square in the middle of town, not far from home, the commotion in the sky grew even more terrifying.
Before you continue