Chapter 468 - 467: Changing the Battlefield
Raising a divine beast with destructive attributes equal to a First-Grade God is not an easy feat, even for a Lord Ravager like Phantylia. It was almost the same as squeezing out all the negative emotions nurtured within Xu Tianran, who was a perfect vessel of nourishment, and exchanging them all at once for this radiant, violet Heavenly Dragon. As a First-Grade Divine Beast of destruction, its power far surpassed that of ordinary First-Grade Gods. Lu Jingming had no doubt that, judging from the power displayed at this very moment, even if he faced five First-Grade Gods of the same level at once, he could easily suppress them or hunt them down one by one.
Yet, before this Dragon of Destruction, any god would pale in comparison. Far from a trace of solemnity on Lu Jingming's face, a burning spark gradually lit up in the depths of his eyes, which were tinged with laziness. That spark was excitement. It was a pure desire for a worthy opponent, and an anticipation for the fierce battle to come. Apart from enjoyment, battles were one of his few interests—something that could truly make his blood boil.
"Come, let's see how glorious a legend erased by the Dragon God himself can be."
He whispered to himself, pressing his right hand into the void. A strange spear materialized from thin air into his hand. Half of the spear shaft was ink-black, as if it condensed the decay and end of the world. The other half was jade-white, radiating the purest and most primal sense of creation and vitality. Two completely opposite yet perfectly fused concepts gave this spear a strange, harmonious unity.
A super-artifact: Black Abyss, White Flower.
"ROAR——!!!!"
With the indomitable fighting spirit surging in Lu Jingming's body and the aura radiating from the super-artifact, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon instantly felt an instinctive sense of disgust and threat. Its eyes, forged from thunder of destruction, were now locked onto Lu Jingming. It opened its massive maw wide enough to swallow mountains. A pure, extremely condensed pillar of violet-black destruction shot boldly toward Lu Jingming, as if it intended to pierce through the universe itself.
Wherever the pillar of light passed—whether the ruins of palaces or the solid earth—everything was quietly erased the instant it touched. Facing an attack that could kill even a Titled Douluo in a second, Lu Jingming's figure suddenly vanished just before the pillar struck. The next moment, he appeared above the dragon's head.
But before he could act, the dragon's abnormally large, mountain-thick tail produced a terrifying sonic boom as it sliced through the air, folding space like waves of water. Lu Jingming feared that if he were hit, even a true god's body would instantly collapse.
"Now this is interesting," Lu Jingming laughed, unfazed. Instead of resisting forcefully, he lightly tapped his toes in the air, and his entire figure floated upwards like a weightless feather. He knew that fighting here would mean the city of Xinming would be completely wiped from the map. Civilians and soldiers with no time to evacuate would be turned to dust by the aftershocks of this god-level battle.
"Big guy, your opponent is here!"
Lu Jingming's form turned into black and red lightning streaking across heaven and earth. Instead of attacking, the dragon bolted eastward, away from Xinming City, toward the massive distant mountains. Beneath the violet-black apocalyptic sky, the streak of black and red lightning was tiny, yet eye-catching.
As expected, the violet-glowing Heavenly Destroyer, driven solely by destructive instinct, let out an enraged roar upon seeing its only target escaping. Its massive body took a single step forward.
BOOM... BOOM... BOOM...
With each step, a terrifying earthquake beyond magnitude level erupted. The remaining buildings of Xinming City collapsed like dominoes under the violent tremors. The ground was crushed by gigantic, bottomless footprints, and magma was forced up through cracks by the immense pressure. Abandoning the ruined city, the dragon gathered the power of all four limbs, launching its massive form into the sky, with the resulting gusts blowing parts of the earth away.
Unfurling its wings that blotted out the sky and sun, it transformed into a mobile, apocalyptic disaster, desperately pursuing the black and red lightning. Thus began a running battle, with the entire continent as the battlefield.
Lu Jingming was extremely fast, but he never fully widened the distance, always maintaining a fine gap—close enough for the giant beast to see but not touch. The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon continuously fired beams of destruction from its mouth, eyes, and even the cracks between its scales; fragments of thunder net trying to swat down the tiny insect ahead.
None of these attacks struck Lu Jingming. However, wherever they landed, unimaginable destruction followed. A single beam could slice a thousand-meter peak from summit to base, leaving behind a terrifying, bottomless pit with mirror-smooth edges. In an instant, entire rivers, riverbeds, and all life within evaporated, leaving only dried valleys and rising black smoke for hundreds of kilometers.
Everything along the way—peaks, forests, rivers, lakes... All were utterly destroyed by the violent energy, turning into scorched earth and oblivion.
Within the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, they traversed thousands of kilometers and arrived at an extremely cold plateau, composed of countless snow-capped mountains.
"Here will do," Lu Jingming suddenly stopped, floating above the summit of a 10,000-meter snow peak. This place was far from the crowds, the terrain open, and he could fight this legendary behemoth with hands and feet unbound.
"ROAR——!!!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon finally caught up, slamming its massive frame down onto the plateau. The shockwave instantly triggered a terrifying avalanche that spread across the land. Countless snow-capped mountains collapsed before this man-made natural disaster.
No longer attacking from afar, its eyes—burning with destructive intent—locked onto the small figure atop the snowy peak. In the next instant, its huge body stomped on the ground. Yet, with a speed akin to teleportation, which defied its size, its massive claw—covered in violet-black scales and as large as a hill—came crashing down at dusk, blocking all escape from above, below, left, and right, as if even light could not escape the shadow of its claws.
"Perfect," Lu Jingming advanced without retreat. In his hand, the Black Abyss White Flower's pitch-black half suddenly emitted an extremely deep black light, as if trying to swallow everything—the power of withering.
He didn't choose a frontal clash, but with astonishing technique, as the claw struck, his spear shot out like a viper, piercing into the palm of the massive claw and slipping between the scales.
Crack—!
A soft sound. The immortal dragon scales, capable of withstanding the attacks of a God King, were engraved with the concept of withering like paper paste under the spear's tip. The spearhead pierced easily, and like the deadliest virus, the black force of withering rapidly spread along the wound into the dragon's body.
"ROOOAAARRR——!!!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon let out a painful roar. This was not physical pain, but the acute agony of its very life being erased. From the palm, its massive claw—flesh, tendon, bone, and scale—rapidly lost vitality, turning into brittle, ashen sand and gravel that fell away.
In agony, the dragon wildly flailed its claw, trying to shake off the hateful insect. Lu Jingming used this immense force to leap into the air, nimbly somersaulting to land on the dragon's massive arm, which coiled like a mountain range. Without pausing, black and red lightning ran under his feet, and his entire form shot down the dragon's arm toward its back like an arrow loosed from a bow.
The dragon sensed his intent and fiercely slammed its other, uninjured claw at Lu Jingming's arm.
"Too slow," Lu Jingming sneered, accelerating again, and just before the claw struck, he landed on the dragon's vast back. Standing on this land made of violet-black scales, Lu Jingming took a deep breath, gripped Black Abyss White Flower with both hands, and pushed the power of withering within the spear to its limit.
He lowered his body, holding the spear, and stabbed the tip diagonally into the hard dragon scales at his feet. Then, he charged forward. From the back of the dragon's neck toward the tail vertebra, he ran desperately. The Black Abyss spear in his hands cut a deep gorge into the dragon's back like the sharpest plow.
SCREEEEEEE——!!!!!
A piercing screech, like forcibly tearing metal, echoed through the sky. The indestructible violet-black dragon scales, eroded by the power of withering, peeled away one by one. Black blood gushed from the wound like a fountain. A terrifying, bone-deep wound stretching hundreds of meters appeared on the back of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon!
"ROOOAAARRR——!!!!!!!"
No longer pain, but ultimate fury and madness. The dragon let out the most terrifying wail since its birth. Its colossal body rolled, twisted, and smashed violently against the land, trying to shake off the ant clinging to its back—a trauma it would not soon forget.
The majestic, snow-capped mountains crumbled like sandcastles under its wild thrashing, flattening everything. In just a few dozen seconds, the entire plateau's terrain was completely reshaped, transforming into a wasteland dotted with huge canyons.
Amid the violent tumbling, Lu Jingming was finally thrown from the dragon's back. Before he could steady himself in mid-air, a pillar of destruction, several times thicker than before, instantly appeared and struck his chest.
BOOM——!!!
All Lu Jingming could feel was an irresistible, terrifying force approaching—one that could erase the stars themselves. The black and red lightning shield covering his body shattered in an instant. Immediately after, his body was flung backward like a ball hit by a speeding train—faster than he had come.
Like a meteor, he crashed through seven or eight snow-capped peaks in succession, finally slamming into a 10,000-meter mountain and leaving behind a bottomless, human-shaped tunnel. The entire snowy peak groaned under the impact, with countless massive cracks spreading from the point of collision across the whole mountain.
"Roar!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon stopped rolling, slowly turning its massive head. Eyes burning with destructive thunder, it stared at the felled snow peak, checking if the ant was dead. In its perception, the aura that had filled it with disgust was now extremely weak, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
However, the next instant—
In the profound darkness at the base of the snow-covered peak, a faint, pure white light shone—a drop of blood. From the earlier impact, a single drop of crystal-clear blood had flown from Lu Jingming's body. At this moment, that drop of blood exuded an unparalleled, sacred, and majestic vitality.
With a flash, countless thin, white threads of pure life energy erupted from the blood droplet. They rapidly intertwined, transcending the laws of matter, weaving through the void.
First, a complete, intricate nervous system took shape, followed by jade-white bones, then vibrant red muscles full of explosive power, and finally, smooth, unblemished skin...
Not even a second passed.
An intact Lu Jingming was re-formed from the darkness. He moved his limbs, feeling even greater strength boiling within his body than before, and a satisfied smile appeared on his lips.
"As expected of the power of destruction. That strike was truly powerful."
Taking a step, his figure instantly vanished into the mountain, and when he reappeared, he was already floating in the air outside the snowy peak, facing the dragon from afar.
For the first time, a hint of confusion appeared in the instinctive mind of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon. It could not understand how the ant that had been so grievously wounded and near death was suddenly unscathed, and even exuded a stronger presence than before.
However, the instinct of destruction soon overrode this confusion. It knew only that its enemy was not dead.
And so, it must kill again.
"ROOOAAARRR——!!!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon drew in a sharp breath. At that moment, it was as if all the air across the entire plateau had vanished.