Chapter 440 ·Crimson Flame Chi Dragon
Chapter 440: Crimson Flame Chi Dragon
“Retreat. From now on, anyone who uses Fire-Attribute techniques will be executed!”
True Monarch Red Dragon's expression was gloomy. He glanced at the terrified sect army, his voice spreading throughout the entire Severed Dragon Cliff.
Hearing this, the Red Sun Sect cultivators all breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly retreated with the momentum, circulating their magical power under the leadership of eight Red Sun Generals. They cooperated with the Azure Spirit Sect cultivator army to maintain the defense of the Myriad Azure Everlasting Spirit Ancient Wall and jointly resist the terrifying flames that burned everything they touched.
At this moment, the eyes of the five Upper Moon Generals narrowed. Seizing the opportunity, they led the Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers straight toward the main gate of Severed Dragon Cliff's main pass.
“Change Formation—Mystical Ability · Crescent Moon Breaks the Army!”
As the fierce shout rang out, the aura of the five hundred Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers suddenly changed, pouring all their magical power into the spear tip.
The thousand-zhang giant spear that had originally accumulated its momentum and taken form collapsed once again, condensing into a ten-zhang cold spear.
“Rumble!”
At this moment, the roars of more than five hundred Dao Soldiers transformed into an invisible intent. Carrying that Crescent Moon Cold Spear, they vanished in an instant, transforming into a deep-blue cold line that tore through space.
They had only one target, and that was to blast open the gates of Severed Dragon Cliff and reclaim the sect's fortified pass.
“Presumptuous!”
True Monarch Red Dragon's expression changed slightly as he decisively threw out a Spirit Beast Pouch.
The momentum of this army formation was extraordinary, comparable to the peak full-powered strike of a middle-stage Nascent Soul True Monarch, and could not be ignored.
If he allowed the Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers' strike to blast open the defensive gate representing the three-sect allied army, causing heavy casualties among the three sects' cultivators and triggering a chain reaction that resulted in the loss of Severed Dragon Cliff, he would certainly receive severe punishment from the sect.
“Roar!”
The Spirit Beast Pouch opened, and a crimson giant beast suddenly shot out, releasing a dragon roar.
It was approximately two hundred zhang long, hornless, with a python-like head and short whiskers. Its entire body was covered in crimson scales, its four limbs robust, and its five-toed claws resembled molten gold. Crimson flame clouds flowed beneath its claws, emitting the Beast King Dragon Might that suppressed Heaven and Earth.
‘Damn it!’
Seeing the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon appear and block their path, the expressions of the five Upper Moon Generals immediately darkened.
But with the arrow already nocked on the bowstring, they had no choice but to release it. Even when facing a fourth-realm Beast King head-on, they did not evade. Their eyes narrowed, and a heroic spirit of slaughtering a Beast King arose in their hearts.
“Boom!”
As the blue and crimson figures collided with a thunderous crash, Heaven and Earth changed color. At times, dazzling flowing flames exploded, while at others, extreme frost descended.
“Crimson Flame Chi Dragon?”
Golden Egg raised its three heads, revealing an intrigued gaze.
Having stayed beside Chen Beiwu for so long, it had more or less learned some knowledge of identifying beasts.
【Name】: Crimson Flame Chi Dragon
【Attribute】: Pure Fire
【Bloodline】: Fourth-Tier Upper Grade
【Dao Age】: Over four thousand years
【Mystical Abilities】: Crimson Flame Transforms Form, Flamefire Patrol, Forged Fire Chi Flame...
【Introduction】: The Crimson Flame Chi Dragon is the essence of fire. It is crimson and hornless, with flame patterns growing upon its scales. It cannot be burned by entering fire, becomes delighted upon encountering flames, can control earthfire, and has an extremely irritable temperament.
“Don't advance recklessly. Be careful not to fall into the formation's encirclement.”
Chen Beiwu reminded Golden Egg through divine sense.
A fourth-realm Beast King with more than four thousand years of Dao age was equivalent to a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.
And an aberrant species of fire like the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon was even more extraordinary. Even among Beast Kings, it could be considered a rather difficult Mystic Beast to deal with.
Otherwise, a mere early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator like Sun Tianyi would not have been able to make his name known throughout the Yellow Evolution Territory and establish the illustrious reputation of True Monarch Red Dragon by relying on a Crimson Flame Chi Dragon.
“Understood.”
Golden Egg's three heads nodded in unison.
Normally, it might be greedy, but it also understood the importance of protecting Chen Beiwu at this moment.
“Explode!”
Having completed his preparations, Chen Beiwu's divine sense moved. The Star-Evolution Disk in his hand blossomed with dazzling radiance, exerting the Six-Yin Absolute Formation's final function and instantly detonating its formation core.
At the same time, Zhiling leaped with both feet, landing on Iron Egg. One fox and one dog transformed into a streak of crimson-gold light and charged toward the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon.
“Roar!”
The Crimson Flame Chi Dragon opened its enormous mouth and spewed out a sea of crimson flames. The extreme temperature instantly melted gold and turned stone to liquid, melting dozens of Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers. Even the five Upper Moon Generals did not dare test its edge.
‘Follow my command, don't resist!’
At the instant Chen Beiwu's divine sense transmission sounded, Zhiling activated the Void-Stepping Fur Escape. The seven fox tails behind her trembled slightly, releasing a streak of violet radiance that completely enveloped the Mirror Moon Sect's cultivator army.
The five Upper Moon Generals, who had been prepared beforehand, cooperated fully, changing the momentum of the Dao Soldiers from offense to defense.
“Buzz!”
With a flash of violet radiance, including the Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers, more than three thousand Mirror Moon cultivators instantly shifted a hundred li and retreated behind Chen Beiwu.
Zhiling, meanwhile, went limp and collapsed onto Iron Egg.
With her current Dao age, using the Void-Stepping Fur Escape to teleport a hundred li was effortless. Unfortunately, the ones being teleported this time were more than three thousand Mirror Moon Sect cultivators.
Logically speaking, a Seven-Tailed Violet Fox with only the realm of a Beast General should have been completely incapable of accomplishing such a large-scale short-distance teleportation. Being able to teleport dozens of cultivators was already an extraordinary display of talent.
To accomplish the feat of teleporting several thousand cultivators in an instant, Zhiling would have needed at least the strength of a fourth-realm Beast King.
However, with Chen Beiwu, a Nascent Soul True Monarch, assisting her and using the Companion Beast Seal to cooperate through an ingenious method, Zhiling could barely accomplish this by exhausting herself completely. The price was that the magical power within her body was almost completely depleted.
“Not good!”
True Monarch Red Dragon's expression changed slightly. He instinctively sensed danger and signaled the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon to retreat.
Mo Buyun also sensed that something was wrong. He no longer cared about concealing the contingency left behind by the sect and directly ordered his subordinates to activate the full might of the Blood-Transforming Pagoda Slaughtering Life Platform, while simultaneously offering up the formation flags of the Myriad Blood Returning Corpses Soul-Luring Grand Formation.
In an instant, the three pillars atop the Blood-Transforming Pagoda Slaughtering Life Platform erupted with surging blood radiance. The entire Severed Dragon Cliff seemed like a sleeping giant beast that had suddenly awakened.
“Rumble!”
The sea of blood rolled backward, and countless dark-red chains continuously surged out from within it, attacking the entire ground of Severed Dragon Cliff and completely sealing the formation core of the Six-Yin Absolute Formation.
“Ancient Wall Suppresses the Mystical!”
The Azure Spirit Sect cultivator army also sensed the danger. Under the command of the Golden Core elders, they activated their Mystical Ability.
The next instant, the pale-azure barrier enveloping the entire Severed Dragon Cliff seemed to come alive. It transformed into a divine tree that blotted out the sky, emitting vast power that stabilized Heaven and Earth, forcibly suppressing the terrifying tremors and backlash of spiritual essence in the earth veins caused by the self-detonation of the Six-Yin Absolute Formation.
‘What a ruthless junior!’
Mo Buyun looked at Chen Beiwu with deep apprehension.
What young calves fearing no tigers, what hard-headed reckless fool seeking to seize Severed Dragon Cliff—these were all disguises worn by this young junior.
From beginning to end, the Mirror Moon Dao Child had only one objective: enter the Six-Yin Absolute Formation, seize control of the Six-Yin Clear Radiance Severed Dragon Absolute Formation, then detonate this fourth-tier absolute formation and bury the entire Severed Dragon Cliff, annihilating the ten-thousand-strong allied army of the three sects in one stroke.
To accomplish this objective, the Mirror Moon Dao Child had not hesitated to use himself as bait, and the four-thousand-strong Mirror Moon Sect cultivator army as bait.
No, that wasn't right!
Mo Buyun's heart jumped as he looked toward True Monarch Red Dragon.
“Daoist Sun, retreat quickly!”
Before his voice had even fallen, Mo Buyun waved the formation flag. The Myriad Blood Returning Corpses Soul-Luring Grand Formation spewed out a gray-white current that converged with the Pagoda Blood Fiend, forming a defensive barrier before True Monarch Red Dragon.
“Boom!”
True Monarch Red Dragon's pupils contracted. He discovered the figures of Chen Ziang and the Three-Aspect Profound Flood Dragon suddenly appearing before him.
Was it an illusion? Or an invisibility Mystical Ability?
Sun Tianyi reacted extremely quickly and offered up the crimson jade disk he carried with him.
All of his combat strength lay in the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon. To prevent an enemy from employing the tactic of capturing the king first, he carried quite a few protective Mystical Treasures with him. Sometimes, he even deliberately used himself as bait to lure enemy cultivators into a trap.
“Buzz!”
As the crimson jade disk spun rapidly, twelve bronze mirrors suddenly appeared around Sun Tianyi.
The twelve bronze mirrors rapidly folded together, forming an imperceptible pale-silver barrier.
‘What a pity!’
Seeing that Golden Egg's Great Evolution Fixing Reality Mystical Ability had been detected, Chen Beiwu did not continue his forceful assault. His figure rapidly retreated, exiting the Myriad Blood Returning Corpses Soul-Luring Grand Formation.
Instinct told him that the bronze-mirror barrier offered by True Monarch Red Dragon and the formation of Severed Dragon Cliff were both extraordinary. Forcing an assassination attempt would not only fail to instantly kill Sun Tianyi, but he himself might instead become trapped.
‘What a pity.’
Seeing Chen Ziang retreat, Mo Buyun could not help feeling regretful.
Fourth-tier absolute formations were extremely rare and difficult to deploy, requiring enormous amounts of cultivation resources and cultivators as consumable materials.
Although the Blood Fate Sect was one of the three great Demon Sects of the Western Evolution Territory, it was impossible for them to casually deploy a fourth-tier absolute formation at Severed Dragon Cliff. However, the Myriad Blood Returning Corpses Soul-Luring Grand Formation and the Blood-Transforming Pagoda Slaughtering Life Platform could mutually amplify each other, causing the formation's might to skyrocket.
With the Blood Fate Sect cultivators fully activating the Blood Transformation Platform, they could even cause the Myriad Blood Formation's might to rival a fourth-tier absolute formation for a short period of time.
If Chen Ziang had not retreated just now and had been trapped by the Myriad Blood Formation, Mo Buyun was confident that he could mobilize the three-sect allied army to surround and kill him.
“Withdraw the army.”
Looking at the fortified pass in the distance, where all kinds of spiritual radiance flickered, Chen Beiwu decisively ordered the retreat.
His objective had already been accomplished!
Although he had failed to seize Severed Dragon Cliff in one stroke and annihilate the ten thousand cultivators of the Azure Spirit, Red Sun, and Blood Fate Sects, he had roughly figured out the methods the three sects had deployed at Severed Dragon Cliff.
Upon hearing the retreat signal, the Mirror Moon army showed no desire to continue fighting.
The Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers at the very front changed from the vanguard into the rear guard. More than four hundred cultivators gathered like a tide, contracting into a circular formation to protect the sect's cultivators as they retreated.
Iron Egg, which had been fighting the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon, likewise used a feint to pull away and cautiously remained on guard, preventing the three-sect allied army at Severed Dragon Cliff from leaving the pass to pursue them.
In barely a moment, only several hundred cultivator corpses remained beneath Severed Dragon Cliff.
Meanwhile, parts of Severed Dragon Cliff had become ruins engulfed in raging flames, without even a single fragment of a corpse remaining within them.
“Phew.”
Mo Buyun exhaled a breath of foul air. Not only did he feel no joy whatsoever, his expression instead became increasingly solemn.
Severed Dragon Cliff had indeed been defended, but the price was that all the methods of the three sects had been exposed, along with the deaths of more than two thousand cultivators from the three sects.
Among them, the number of fallen Red Sun Sect cultivators alone exceeded nineteen hundred.
One had to know that this was a defensive battle. Yet the casualty rate of the three armies had reached twenty percent!
Anyone who did not know the circumstances might have thought that the three-sect allied army was the attacking side, while the Mirror Moon Sect cultivators were the defenders.
“Why didn't you pursue them?” True Monarch Red Dragon feigned fury.
“If Daoist Sun wants to pursue them, it is not too late to do so now. My responsibility is to ensure that Severed Dragon Cliff does not fall, not to annihilate the Mirror Moon Sect army.” Mo Buyun spoke calmly.
“Hmph.” Sun Tianyi snorted coldly and rebuked him: “I already said long ago that the Six-Yin Absolute Formation left behind by the Mirror Moon Sect could not be used and had to be abolished immediately.
If you had not insisted on activating the Six-Yin Absolute Formation and allowed the Mirror Moon Dao Child to use it against us, how could our sect have suffered such heavy casualties!”
Mo Buyun's eyelids twitched slightly.
What a fine little brat, blaming others after the fact.
However, considering the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon, Mo Buyun decided to follow his instincts. He looked toward the Azure Spirit Sect cultivators' position and redirected the blame:
“Daoist Sun, I wasn't the only one who insisted on activating the Six-Yin Absolute Formation back then.”
……
On the other side, the temporary camp of the Mirror Moon Sect.
“How are the casualties?”
Chen Beiwu, dressed in white, sat behind the desk. Shu You and the others, along with the five Upper Moon Generals, stood before him.
“Reporting to the Dao Child, our sect suffered a total of five hundred and twenty-nine deaths in this battle, including four hundred and eleven Qi Refinement cultivators and one hundred and eighteen Foundation Establishment cultivators and Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers.”
“There are nine hundred and eighty-eight severely wounded who have lost their combat strength, eighty-seven of whom are Crescent Moon Dao Soldiers, while the rest are Qi Refinement disciples.”
“There are more than eighteen hundred lightly wounded, most of them Qi Refinement disciples. Two of them are Upper Moon Generals...” Shu You reported concisely, handing over the jade slip.
Chen Beiwu's gaze swept over the jade slip, his tone calm: “Double the compensation for the fallen and their memorial benefits. If they have relics, send them back to the sect.”
“In addition, gather the lightly and severely wounded together. Have Xuele handle their treatment.”
“Yes.” Shu You looked toward Xuele.
“Very well.”
Xuele nodded readily and followed Shu You toward the center of the camp.
“Enough. All of you may leave. In two hours, I want to see the Mirror Moon army with its combat strength still intact.”
As Chen Beiwu's voice fell, everyone immediately bowed and withdrew. No one raised any objection.
There was no other reason. Although the Mirror Moon cultivators had suffered considerable losses in this great battle, compared with the casualties suffered by the three-sect allied army, it was undoubtedly a great victory.
‘Unifying the Earth Evolution Territory really isn't simple. My current strength is still somewhat lacking. I can't even effortlessly defeat ten thousand enemies alone and seize Severed Dragon Cliff!’
Chen Beiwu slowly leaned back against the chair, his head resting against Zhiling's body as he thought inwardly.
Battlefield slaughter was not the same as a duel.
Even if he activated Myriad Spirits Tribulation Transformation, he could not break through Severed Dragon Cliff and slay True Monarch Red Dragon in a short period of time. Instead, he might become entangled by that Crimson Flame Chi Dragon and the three sects' formations, making it difficult to escape and even potentially causing the sect's army to be annihilated.
‘Fortunately, I gained quite a lot this time.’
Chen Beiwu's divine sense moved, probing into Nine-Breath Chaos.
Within the chaotic Heaven and Earth, a fourth-tier Auspicious Fortune and two golden Fates slowly drifted.
Above these three strands of Fate floated a mass of crimson-black Calamity Aura.
Clearly, by slaying the cultivators of the three sects, he could use the Fate-Seizing Edict Embryo Mystical Ability to seize the Fate of numerous cultivators, but Calamity Aura would appear alongside it.
Unlike the Calamity Qi seized by Chen Beiwu through the Nine Breaths Breath-Absorption Method, this type of Calamity Aura would be actively cleansed by the Fate Rank of the Heavenly Fortune Purple Dragon.
“Roar!”
As a dragon roar sounded, the floating crimson Calamity Aura slowly dissipated at a visible speed.
Seeing this, Chen Beiwu withdrew his divine sense and began considering the problems and difficulties he might encounter in seizing Severed Dragon Cliff next.
Without a doubt, if he could seize Severed Dragon Cliff in one stroke, annihilating the remaining seven thousand or so cultivators of the three-sect allied army along with the Nascent Soul True Monarchs, the Fate that the Fate-Seizing Edict Embryo Mystical Ability could seize would definitely not be limited to two golden Fates. It was highly likely that he could obtain multiple Auspicious Fortunes, or even multiple Crimson Fortune Dragon Fates.
But True Monarch Red Dragon and True Monarch Blood Origin were truly difficult to deal with!
In a one-on-one battle, Chen Beiwu might not be able to keep the Crimson Flame Chi Dragon from escaping, but he was confident he could slay the two of them together.
However, if the two of them hid themselves within Severed Dragon Cliff with all their might, relying on the formation Mystical Treasures and cultivator army within the fortified pass and refusing to come out, Chen Beiwu would also find it difficult to resolve the matter in a short period of time, unless he was willing to treat the Mirror Moon Sect army as disposable consumables.
“Buzz!”
Just then, the Star-Evolution Disk within Chen Beiwu's dantian trembled slightly.
‘Beiwu, I have a way!’ Heart Chestnut suddenly spoke.
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