Chapter 237: Chapter 237: Evil Flood Dragon

Qi Huan fell silent for a moment before nodding slightly. "I’m at your disposal, Brother Xu."

Xu Yunfan was somewhat surprised. He hadn’t expected Qi Huan to be so perceptive; it almost made him feel bad for what he’d been about to do.

If Qi Huan had shaken his head and tried to leave, the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer on Xu Yunfan’s back would have shown him what a real Hammer Technique was.

He’d have shouted,

"Where do you think you’re going?"

The two of them wasted no more time and sped toward the peak of Chixia Mountain.

Naturally, Xu Yunfan didn’t move with the same fanfare as before. His legs shot out like arrows, yet his feet landed without a sound.

Two hours later, upon hearing the breathing sounds from the Ghostly Wail Abyss near the Celestial Craft Cave outpost, Xu Yunfan’s expression shifted.

A loud CRACK resounded from the tendons in the arches of his feet as the unique Profound Steel hue of his Profound Steel Hundred-Forged Body spiraled up from his knees.

Qi Huan felt a sudden pressure on the back of his neck, and the blast of air from the Dragon Scale Armor launched him onto an ancient tree twenty zhang high. He quickly righted himself in the air and landed softly.

Xu Yunfan’s movements were like a phantom’s as he landed weightlessly beside him.

"Not a sound."

The instant Xu Yunfan’s fingers dug into the tree trunk, the crimson glow eight hundred zhang away began to churn violently.

The entire mountain range heaved like a living creature. Dark red lava oozed from cracks between the scale-like rocks, and the stench of sulfur and blood washed over them. Xu Yunfan’s breath caught in his throat; the air he inadvertently inhaled felt like a blade scraping his windpipe.

The instant Qi Huan’s cyan scales bristled, his demonized pupils shrank to pinpricks. He could finally see the so-called "mountain range" for what it truly was.

A Flood Dragon’s body, over a hundred zhang long, lay coiled like a winding segment of the Earth Veins. Molten patterns flowed across every single one of its red scales.

Bone spurs, each a full zhang in height, jutted from its spine. The tips were crusted with dark-golden scabs of dried blood that actually glinted like starlight in the sun.

Most terrifying of all was its head. Two sunken volcanic craters sat where its eyes should have been, with boiling, lead-gray magma slowly trickling down the channels of its snout.

Many of the scales on its body were shattered, giving it a ferocious and terrifying appearance. The sound that made the entire mountain seem to heave was the breath passing through this Flood Dragon’s nostrils.

With every inhalation, vast amounts of Spiritual Mist were drawn into its nostrils, transforming into specks of starlight that merged with its body, repairing its wounds little by little.

The terrifying pressure it exuded made both of their own vigorous qi and blood turn sluggish.

The two stared intently at the Evil Flood Dragon for a long time.

Finally, certain that the Evil Flood Dragon had no intention of moving, the two relaxed slightly. Only then did Qi Huan speak, his voice filled with awe.

"So Flood Dragons actually exist... I thought they were just myths. I never imagined I’d see one in a Little Heaven and Earth Secret Realm!" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"What could this Flood Dragon have possibly encountered to sustain such horrifying injuries..."

Xu Yunfan’s eyes gleamed, his heart filled with shock. He swallowed hard. Sensing the Flood Dragon’s aura, the individual Armor Leaves of his Dragon Scale Armor began to slowly pulse, emitting a low hum.

The ironwood beneath their feet, said to be even harder than Refined Steel, suddenly exploded with spiderweb cracks. The slumbering Evil Flood Dragon had merely shifted in its sleep, yet the Earth Veins for a hundred zhang around buckled like dough, throwing up a three-zhang-high wave of soil.

Qi Huan suddenly clutched his chest as black blood seeped from the gaps between his demonized cyan scales.

A form of bloodline suppression made his knees crack as if they were about to give way, a feeling like thousand-pound anvils were pressing down on every one of his bones.

"Fall back!"

Xu Yunfan’s sharp cry, laced with his Red Flood Dragon Mountain Coiling Strength, jolted Qi Huan out of his stupor, stopping him from collapsing to his knees.

The moment their feet left the ground, the ancient tree they had been hiding in was consumed by a gout of Earth Fire.

Shaken, Xu Yunfan subconsciously touched his Dragon Scale Armor.

’This Evil Flood Dragon must have spotted us from the very beginning.’

Just then, the Earth Fire spat out a torrent of boiling lava, from which a four-clawed blast of Qi Force extended. Clinging between the talons was rotting flesh and, shockingly, half a suit of Sword Pavilion-issue light armor.

"Someone else has been here!"

Qi Huan’s voice was hoarse. As a Demon Fiend, he was naturally suppressed by an Upper-rank Great Demon Fiend and still hadn’t caught his breath, yet his tone held an obvious note of delight.

His demonized pupils suddenly contracted into vertical slits. In a distant Molten Rock Pool, half of an Ice Pattern Longsword bobbed on the surface. Eerily, the unique frost-flowers of the Sword Pavilion’s Frosty Nineteen Forms were blooming from it despite the intense heat.

Xu Yunfan’s pupils contracted sharply.

Three Crescent Scales suddenly shot out from his Dragon Scale Armor’s Heart Protection Mirror. At almost the same instant, seven streams of Sword Qi tore through the air from the southwest.

Wherever the Sword Qi passed, the churning crimson haze condensed into a cascading waterfall of ice crystals, freezing the cloud of sulfurous fire spewed by the Evil Flood Dragon in midair.

"That’s Sword Qi from the Cyan Bamboo Sword. Someone from the Sword Pavilion... probably Pei Yan. He’s actually using a Flood Dragon to test his blade! Looks like a lot of Sword Pavilion disciples have died here."

There was a wry, incredulous tone in Qi Huan’s voice, making it unclear whether he was praising the man’s bravery or mocking his ignorance.

"Die!"

Pei Yan’s voice, laced with icy shards, pierced their eardrums.

This roving disciple of the Sword Pavilion was actually walking across the solidified lava. The Green Bamboo Long Sword in his hand pulsed with a three-foot-long aura of frost, and each step he took branded a hexagonal ice flower onto the ground.

His left sleeve hung empty. A few drops of blood were frozen within the ice crystals that had sealed the stump of his severed arm.

The Evil Flood Dragon suddenly reared its head and let out a series of shrieks that sounded like metal grinding against stone.

From its volcano-like eye sockets, the lead-gray magma suddenly erupted, coalescing in midair into nine Qiu Longs made of lava.

Seven rings of frost suddenly erupted from Pei Yan’s Cyan Bamboo Sword. As he pointed its tip forward, the Longsword hummed. Channeling the unique Extraordinary properties of a Divine Weapon, he used the Taiyi Splitting Light Sword technique to manifest seven phantasmal streams of Sword Qi.

Xu Yunfan could clearly see the frosty patterns on the sword’s spine refract the light of the lava to form an image of the Big Dipper Star Map. The Sword Qi had not even arrived, yet a layer of white frost was already forming on Qi Huan’s demonized cyan scales from a hundred zhang away.

Qi Huan was visibly shaken. ’I can’t believe I’m being affected by the Sword Qi from this far away.’

Xu Yunfan, however, seemed completely unaffected. As the frosty Sword Qi washed over him, the Dragon Scale Armor Leaves on his body pulsed, expelling a breath of scorching air that instantly dissipated the chill.

"Sword Divides the Northern Dipper!"

With a thunderous shout, the sword light transformed into seven rivers of ice that surged upward.

Each of the lava Qiu Longs was pierced through its vital point by the frosty Sword Qi. Their boiling bodies froze into ice sculptures before they even hit the ground.

Pei Yan’s expression was savage, his sharp eyebrows bristling with fury. He advanced across the ice he created, his one arm holding the sword steady. He pointed its tip at the Evil Flood Dragon’s left volcanic eye, and the cold light that emanated from it froze the sulfurous magma into a glassy crystal.

The Evil Flood Dragon’s mountain-like body suddenly began to tremble violently.

The bone spurs along its spine all shot upright like a volley of ten thousand arrows. The dark-golden blood scabs at their tips then burst apart, transforming into a sky full of fiery meteors that rained down on the sword light.

Pei Yan swung his sword, its Frost Blade weaving a hexagonal net of ice in the air. But the instant the fiery meteors touched the net, the blood scabs within them suddenly burst open, releasing millions of golden threads!

"Looks like he’s a goner."

Xu Yunfan’s eyes narrowed, a profound look within them.

’Those golden threads... they seem to be part of whatever was restraining the Evil Flood Dragon. But now it’s forcibly activating them with its own qi and blood.’

The ice net instantly vaporized into a white mist. It was too late for Pei Yan to change his technique.

The Evil Flood Dragon plunged its right claw into the Earth Veins, and the entire slab of red mountain rock rolled over like a living creature.

The remnants of the seven lava Qiu Longs reformed amidst the earth and rock, fusing into a single red-gold chain. The half-suit of Sword Pavilion light armor attached to its end suddenly exploded in a mist of blood—it was the remains of the disciple who had been devoured by the Flood Dragon earlier!