Flame Dragon, Combine!
What a pity.
The boy had appeared too late. Everything on Cowherd's end had already been arranged.
Otherwise, if this boy personally stepped in, they probably wouldn't even need much of the Venerable One's methods!
That face alone was the most potent gu in the world!
Jiang Zhe's expression remained unchanged, but several thoughts had already raced through his mind.
So that's how it is...
He had thought the Old Yellow Ox had some extraordinary means of his own, but from beginning to end, he had been relying on Dingguang Joyful Buddha!
In that case, sooner or later I'll have to fight Dingguang Joyful Buddha...
But his own strength was still too weak.
He didn't know whether the monkey had finished learning his skills! Could he find a way to mooch off Patriarch Bodhi's cultivation grounds?
"So that's how it is... Dingguang Joyful Buddha has been your backer from the very beginning."
Jiang Zhe couldn't help himself and murmured it under his breath.
His voice was soft, as soft as a leaf falling to the ground.
But to an old demon at Peak Human Immortal, even the softest sound was no different from a thunderclap.
The smile froze on the Old Yellow Ox's face.
"You... you haven't entered my Buddhist Order! You haven't entered my Joyful Chan?!"
How could the Venerable One's name come out of a country mortal's mouth?!
This boy had never entered the Venerable One's sect at all!
Then what about everything he had just said? Going to Spirit Mountain, welcoming Yang Chan, dividing up the fairy maidens!
Hadn't this boy heard every last word?!
This boy had to die!
The satisfaction in the Old Yellow Ox's eyes vanished in an instant, killing intent rising like a tide as his face turned icy!
Boom!!
Golden light surged around him, transforming into a bizarre formation that descended over Jiang Zhe and the surrounding area!
Buddhist script flowed across the formation's walls, and Sanskrit chants hummed. Like an overturned golden bell, it sealed every sound inside!
"Although I don't know how a mortal like you evaded the Venerable One's Conversion Technique..." Inside the formation, the Old Yellow Ox's voice was as cold as if it had been tempered in ice. "Since you've learned of a scheme you shouldn't have known about, you'll stay here by this pool tonight!"
Yet there wasn't a trace of panic on Jiang Zhe's face.
His gaze passed beyond the formation's walls, toward the horizon.
High in the night sky, six streaks of light were disappearing into the clouds one after another.
The six fairy maidens had each returned to their palaces.
Only Weaver Girl, unable to find her clothes, remained stranded by the pool.
As long as he took down the old ox before him, then caught up to Cowherd and retrieved the immortal clothes, the mission... would be complete, right?
Besides, it was the dead of night in these desolate mountains, and the barrier this stupid ox had put up himself would keep the noise in.
If they fought, they probably wouldn't even startle a bird.
He certainly knew how to pick a place. He had even set up an arena for Jiang Zhe.
Jiang Zhe tilted his head slightly and loosened his neck.
The next second-whoosh!
A cluster of flames burst from his palm! Blinding white tongues of fire licked at the night, crackling!
Without the slightest hesitation, he raised his hand and struck straight at the golden light covering him!
Boom!!
Crimson and gold collided with a crash. A scorching blast rolled outward, reducing every blade of grass beneath his feet to ash!
Crack!
A glaring crack burst across the surface of the golden light, then spread inch by inch until it shattered into golden fragments that filled the sky!
Through the swirling fragments, the Old Yellow Ox's face emerged, transformed with horror!
"S-Samadhi True Fire! How is that possible?! Who are you?!"
Boom!
Before his words had faded, a torrent of demonic Qi exploded around him and shot into the sky!
Strangely, that demonic Qi was black as ink, yet wrapped within it were layers of compassionate Buddhist light!
Demonic and Buddhist light intertwined, twisting and surging into countless shadowy figures. Some embraced, some entwined; they seemed both joyful and tormented, like earthly paradise and Asura hell at once!
Jiang Zhe's gaze grew grave, little by little.
Peak Human Immortal.
This Old Yellow Ox had actually cultivated to Peak Human Immortal, nearly half a step into Earth Immortal!
In the Heavenly Court, even he would be a great demon capable of donning armor, taking up a halberd, and serving as a heavenly soldier!
What's more, he cultivated Buddhist teachings. With Buddhist light mixed into his demonic Qi, he was more than ten times as troublesome as an ordinary mountain spirit or wild monster!
If he truly succeeded in this Joyful guidance tonight and harvested Weaver Girl's fortune and bloodline, he might well break through to Earth Immortal on the spot!
And what about Jiang Zhe?
He had a mortal body, no cultivation method, and no spells. All he had, however he looked at it, was this single wisp of Samadhi True Fire!
A very real gulf between their cultivation realms lay before him.
Meeting cultivation with cultivation... was courting death.
But so what?
The old ox cultivated the desires of the human heart.
And Jiang Zhe's fire specialized in burning desire!
Jiang Zhe slowly closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, a flame deep within his pupils blazed into a prairie fire!
He raised his hand and pressed all five fingers firmly against the scorching, fiery red phantom of a divine dragon over his heart. A low shout burst from deep within his chest!
[Flame Dragon Armor! Combine!]
Boom!!
Crimson flames erupted from his chest and swept over his entire body in an instant, like magma rushing backward!
Where the fire passed, crimson armor formed inch by inch, dragon patterns flowing across it. A fierce dragon-head faceplate emerged bit by bit from the flames...
Boom!
Samadhi True Fire burst from his chest like magma breaching a dam, completely engulfing Jiang Zhe!
Amid the raging flames, a dragon's roar suddenly rang out across the mountains!
The illusory figure of a four-clawed fire dragon spiraled upward, every scale distinct as it bared its fangs and brandished its claws!
Then it raised its head and roared at the sky. Its body bent, and it plunged downward like a falling meteor, smashing into the burning sea of fire!
Boom!!
The flames exploded in an instant! Crimson and silver-white armor interlocked and fused inch by inch in the firelight. A fierce dragon totem wound down from his left shoulder, running the length of his body!
The helmet bore the form of a fearsome flame dragon's head, its crimson horns curving slightly upward, their sharp edges fully exposed!
On his chest, a complete dragon-head relief glared furiously, its jaws slightly open around a perfectly round golden sphere of light. The sphere flickered, as if it might erupt the next second!
Flame-shaped spikes jutted from the outsides of both arms, gleaming with a biting, scorching light. His ten fingers curled slightly, his hands like a pair of assembled dragon claws that seemed capable of tearing mountains apart!
Tiny flames burned silently across the armor, casting every ridge in shifting light and shadow!
Standing there, he looked exactly like a savage fire dragon poised to strike!
And yet!
Over his eyes was a transparent, ice-blue visor!
Blazing fire, icy blue.
Seen from afar, how could this be a beast that only knew how to breathe fire?
It was unmistakably a fire dragon, calm to the very extreme!
The more violent, the more clearheaded.
Jiang Zhe slowly closed his eyes, feeling the newborn armor become one with every limb and bone in his body as power surged through his meridians like a tide.
He didn't know what grade of magic treasure this armor would be in this world!
An Innate Numinous Treasure? Or a Chaos Numinous Treasure?
Or perhaps it shouldn't be called a magic treasure at all.
After all, the armor grew along with his strength and his mastery over flames.
When he was weak, it sheathed its edge; when he was strong, it became a prairie fire.
Its command over all the fires in the world alone was enough to prove just how powerful, how absurdly overpowered, the Flame Dragon Armor was!