When Zhu Lie finally came to his senses, he had already retreated over a hundred zhang. Yang Kai laughed like a man possessed: "Where do you think you're going!"
As the Laws of Space rippled, Yang Kai overtook Zhu Lie from behind and seized his dragon tail with both clawed hands, yanking hard.
Zhu Lie, who had been rocketing skyward, was jerked by that tremendous force and sent hurtling back down toward the ground. A roar tore from his throat — deafening in its fury. He whipped his head around and snapped his gaping maw at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai smirked, his figure flickering back and forth in a blur. He dodged the attack effortlessly and, in the same motion, tied the dragon's tail into a literal knot.
His Dragon Transformation Art had advanced further, drawing out the power of the Golden Holy Dragon's origin bloodline to a greater degree. Yang Kai suddenly realized that Zhu Lie was simply no match for him — and he was certain this feeling was correct.
It wasn't that his strength had grown. Rather, the bloodline of his half-dragon form had become purer, enough to exert a suppressive effect on Zhu Lie's own lineage.
"ROAR!" Zhu Lie bellowed, his voice thick with humiliation and rage. He had been deeply shamed. A proud dragon — noblest of all living creatures — had just been tied in a knot with his own tail. This was intolerable. He thrashed and twisted, desperately trying to break free of Yang Kai's grip, but under the bloodline suppression he could barely channel seventy percent of his power. How could he succeed?
Yang Kai clamped down on the knotted dragon tail with both hands, let out a great shout, the muscles on his arms bulging grotesquely, and began to swing.
Whoosh…
Whoosh…
The twenty-zhang-long dragon was like a plaything in Yang Kai's hands, hoisted and swung in great arcs, spinning like a windmill.
Below, the Emperor Realm cultivators from Star God Palace and the Cyan Sun Divine Temple watched with twitching eyelids and cramping feet.
At first the rotation wasn't too fast, but gradually it accelerated. Zhu Lie's twenty-zhang body became a spinning blur, a perfect circle, with over a dozen phantom afterimages radiating outward from Yang Kai like a many-armed deity.
Those weren't clones — just afterimages left by the sheer speed of the rotation.
Zhu Lie was so dizzy he could barely hold himself together. His dragon energy refused to coalesce in the slightest. He could feel the gazes of the swarm of insects below, and an indescribable wave of shame washed over him. He would have gladly passed out right then.
With a sharp whoosh, Yang Kai released his grip. Zhu Lie plummeted like a cannonball fired into the earth.
The ground trembled. Dust billowed upward. A massive crater appeared in the earth, and the twenty-zhang dragon lay within it, shaking his head violently, trying to stagger to his feet but swaying like a drunkard.
Yang Kai descended from the sky and plopped himself onto Zhu Lie's head, one hand gripping a horn while the other balled into a fist and hammered down on his skull.
Boom, boom, boom…
Every blow landed like a sledgehammer against the heart, making Wen Zishan and the others flinch with each strike.
Zhu Lie continued to resist, but under the dual pressures of bloodline suppression and dizziness, his struggles were laughably futile.
"Come on, come on. Now tell me — how high is the sky, and how thick is the earth!" Yang Kai said as he kept punching.
Zhu Lie had no breath to answer. He could only roar and howl. Hearing Yang Kai's taunting words only deepened his anguish; the blood and qi in his chest churned so violently he nearly spat out a mouthful.
After over a hundred consecutive punches, Zhu Lie's head was split and bleeding, several dragon scales on the verge of shattering. He seemed to have exhausted himself entirely. He lay flat on the ground, his massive tongue lolling to one side, chest heaving for air — but the huge dragon eyes burned with undiminished fury.
Without the bloodline suppression, he would have leapt up and swallowed Yang Kai whole.
"Still want to forbid me from going to Dragon Island?" Yang Kai remained seated on his head, punctuating the question with a slap that left his own hand stinging.
"Whether you like it or not, you're going. The Dragon Clan won't—"
Before he could finish, Yang Kai stood and stomped down on his skull. The tremendous force drove Zhu Lie's head into the ground with a resounding clang, nearly biting off his own tongue. He snapped his mouth shut in a hurry.
"Let me ask you one more time — still want to keep me from going to Dragon Island?" Yang Kai looked down at him from his perch.
Having learned his lesson once, would Zhu Lie even bother responding?
"Think I can't handle you?" Yang Kai grinned ferociously, his gaze sweeping over the dragon's body. He had noticed something during their earlier exchange but hadn't been sure — now was the perfect time to inspect more closely.
Before long, his eyes lit up, and his burning stare fixed on a single dragon scale near the base of Zhu Lie's neck.
At a glance it looked no different from any other scale, but upon closer inspection, one could sense that it was unique. Its color was slightly darker, and its aura carried a subtle distinction.