Chapter 971 - Despair

He shed his skin

Then regenerated it.

This whole process happened in just the blink of an eye. Gu Li laughed playfully but his expression wasn’t nearly so pleasant.

He’d practically been roasted alive. Would anyone be happy?

“Impossible!” cried Zhuge Hong, revealing her true thoughts. You could clearly see her pupils trembling in her eyes. Then she looked back towards the sea of flames.

Only Gu Li had walked out alive. Did that mean…..

But at that very moment, Gu Li turned towards the flames and laughed, “Your Excellency Black Dragon, that’s the mount I caught for you.”

They soon saw man, his body still alight with flames, walk grimly out of the fire.

Black Dragon.

He walked out of the sea of flames as well.

“Gentle! Don’t hurt him,” Black Dragon said in a low voice. He was actually in much better shape than Gu Li had been before regenerating.

Say what you want; this was a clear demonstration of his strength and experience.

The moment he saw the flames spreading outward, he created a protective barrier around himself.

Even though that was the case, he still had numerous burns all over his body.

However, for Zhuge Hong, this still meant…..

Despair.

Her true natal flames.

After Lei Hu fell in battle, flames of fury raged in her heart. She was pretty much already using the highest level of flames she could possibly manage.

Yet this was all she’d accomplished.

Gu Li had grabbed Xia Hua by the tail and was tossing him around like a toy, even after he’d reverted to his true form as an azure dragon.

What was left for them but despair?

Becoming clan head meant you were a peak-level existence within your clan. Clan heads weren’t necessarily the absolute strongest. Still, anyone capable of taking a leadership role was at the very least one of their clan’s top experts.

But even after returning to their true forms and activating their natal blood essence…..

Even after all that, this was the result.

Besides despair, what was left for them?

“Roar!” the azure dragon let out a long cry. His roar was furious, but more than that, it was pained.

His draconic body shook violently. His strength was enough to shatter mountains, yet in Gu Li’s hands, his tail couldn’t even tremble.

“Your Excellency Black Dragon, that mount of yours is rather disobedient.” A faint smile tugged at Gu Li’s lips.

Not far away, Black Dragon smirked.

“I’ll just have to tame him,” he said with a snort.

Rumble.

Boundless spiritual energy flooded out of Black Dragon’s body. They watched as scales spread from his hands and up his arms. His thick arms brimmed with unconstrained power, like a giant primordial god.

He seized the dragon’s body, forcibly restraining him.

“Roar!” Xia Hua cried out in pain.

“Scree……” the vermillion bird cried out and flapped her fiery wings, forming countless raging flames in the sky.

The raging flames flew towards them. Gu Li let go of Xia Hua’s tail. His right arm shook as his hand grew large enough to block out the sun. He reached out and caught the countless flames in his massive palms, then smothered them.

“You can’t ruin Black Dragon’s good fortune,” Gu Li chortled, then narrowed his eyes. Suddenly, he arched his brows in surprise.

His gaze shifted.

“Sh*t.”

As he spoke, he looked towards Black Dragon, only to see a distortion in space. Ye Zichen, blood-red sword in hand, walked right out of the spatial rift.

Swoosh.

There was a flash of light as he swung his blood-red sword. The scales on Black Dragon’s arms shattered. Fresh blood dripped from his arms.

In pain, Black Dragon relaxed his grip. Xia Hua seized the opportunity to struggle free.

“You’re seeking death!”

Black Dragon noticed Ye Zichen for the first time, then shouted, eyes bloodshot, “you’re seeking death!”

His massive, hundred foot long arms swung ferociously at Ye Zichen.

Hurricanes whirled around his arms. Ye Zichen’s pupils constricted.

He held his sword to his chest. He could no longer dodge. All he could do was block.

Completely focused, he concentrated his spiritual energy in his sword.

Bang!

When the bloodied blade collided with Black Dragon’s arm, it shattered into fragments. After breaking the sword, those thick, powerful arms slammed into Ye Zichen’s chest.

Their might slammed him right into the distant mountainsides.

“Cough….Hack….” Ye Zichen clutched his chests and coughed violently. The blow shook him so hard, his organs had shifted around inside him. Many of his blood vessels had snapped as well. Blood poured uncontrollably out of his mouth.

“I planned to handle you later, yet you dared ruin my good fortune?” Black Dragon roared darkly. At the same time, he grimaced and snatched Ye Zichen from the mountainsides.

“Die.”

All Ye Zichen knew was that the sky above him suddenly darkened. He could only watch as the massive hand above him swung towards him.

“Emperor Ye!” Tu Biyu, Xia Hua, and Zhuge Hong shouted simultaneously. Before the battle had even begun, they’d all agreed……

They could die on the battlefield, but no matter what, Ye Zichen absolutely couldn’t die.

They each hurried towards Ye Zichen but with their speed, they couldn’t catch up to Black Dragon.

Wham!

His massive palm landed. Ye Zichen looked up dazedly, his gaze unwilling, as the blow landed.

“Emperor Ye!” the Sacred Beast clan heads cried out once more. It seemed they’d already witnessed Ye Zichen’s end. Only Black Dragon, after finishing his attack, deeply knit his brows….

Emperor Ye actually died!

The clan heads’ eyes grew bloodshot. Ignoring the damage to their lifespans, they unleashed their most powerful secret arts.

In an instant, the sky filled with intercrossing beams of light.

Now that they no longer held anything back, even Black Dragon had no choice but to dodge their attacks. He hurriedly retracted his fist and focused on how to handle the clan heads’ secret arts.

The azure dragon reached the valley. He roared, “Ol’ Beetle, move those boulders!”

Black Dragon’s attack just now had shattered almost half the mountain. They couldn’t see Ye Zichen at all.

If he was alive, they had to find him. If he was dead, they wanted to see his corpse.

The head of the Xuanwu Tortoise Clan, Tu Biyu, fixed his gaze on the rubble and roared, “Moving Mountains and Cleaving Hills!”

As he roared, light appeared around him, dispersing over the fallen rocks. As it landed, they emitted similar light as well.

The rocks flew up and hung in the air.

“No wonder.”

After struggling to block the clan heads’ attacks, Black Dragon’s expression grew increasingly unsightly.

He and the clan heads watched as a young woman knelt about half a meter away from Ye Zichen, her hand pressed to his chest. They were surrounded by a protective barrier.

“Cough….” eyes tightly shut, Ye Zichen coughed violently. He opened his eyes and looked around….

“I actually didn’t die? How is that possible?”

Given his condition just now, he hadn’t even been able to circulate his spiritual energy. How could he possibly have survived Black Dragon’s furious assault?

“Why didn’t you die? What do you think?”

As Ye Zichen’s mind wandered, an angry murmur echoed in his ears. It was then that Ye Zichen noticed the girl in front of him.

However, before he could even open his mouth, he heard Black Dragon’s furious shout.

“Master of the Laws, isn’t this just a bit too unfair to me?”