The sky fractured and the earth split, the sun and moon lost their light, natural laws proliferated wildly, spiritual energy turned chaotic, and vast stretches of the void collapsed as the ocean surged with thousand-foot waves.
The pocket world housing Dragon Island seemed to grow unstable itself.
This battle was destined to be etched into the annals of history.
The entire Dragon Clan had mobilized. Yang Kai and his companions each fought their own engagements. Though others shouldered their share of the pressure, Yang Kai alone still faced seven colossal dragons. Everything today had been set in motion by him, so naturally the Dragon Clan harbored bone-deep hatred toward him and lavished their attention accordingly.
Surveying the entire battlefield, the only engagement where the outcome hung in the balance was the fight between Yang Kai and the seven dragons.
Zhu Qing fought two opponents without being at a disadvantage.
Jiu Feng likewise faced two, though she relied primarily on guerrilla tactics. She couldn't bring down those two dragon cultivators, but neither could they do anything to her. Like Zhu Qing, the outcome on her battlefield would not be decided anytime soon.
Zhu Lie duelled his opponent one-on-one. Both were eighth-rank dragons, evenly matched, so determining a winner was anything but simple.
Liu Yan faced Fu Qi, whose bloodline was not particularly exalted, but the Dragon Clan's heritage spoke for itself. Having received the Phoenix Clan's legacy, Liu Yan was still too early in her growth phase to have reached her full potential. From the moment they clashed, she was pushed onto the defensive. Dragon and phoenix intertwined, dragon roars and phoenix cries rising one after another. She could only hold her own—she didn't seek to defeat her enemy, only to alleviate some of the pressure on Yang Kai. Worried about his safety, her distraction left her even more hard-pressed.
The various battlefields were roughly in equilibrium, but only Yang Kai's side was at a glaring disadvantage.
The ambush had failed. The seven dragons immediately closed in, giving him no room to unleash his full strength. They formed a coordinated formation with clearly defined layers, executing dragon-clan secret arts one after another. Yang Kai was battered into a wretched state, his massive body tumbling through the air time and again. In barely the time it took half an incense stick to burn, over a hundred wounds covered his body—each deep enough to expose bone. Blood stained his dragon scales, coating him as though he had been painted with a layer of gold dust.
Fortunately, his physical constitution had improved markedly after his dragon transformation. Without that, he could never have sustained this level of combat intensity and would have died countless times over.
Equally fortunate was his Space Secret Art, which allowed him to twist the void at critical moments and turn peril into safety.
Drops of golden blood rained down. Countless sea beasts in the ocean below swarmed toward the scent, gulping down the bloodied seawater to refine the draconic essence within. Dragon blood was extraordinarily precious—in ordinary times, dragons simply did not bleed. So even though these sea beasts had lived around Dragon Island for years, none had ever had the opportunity to consume dragon blood.
But today, those droplets of dragon blood fell as though they cost nothing, and naturally countless sea beasts scrambled to snatch them up.
In the sky above, Yang Kai wrestled with the seven dragons. Below the ocean, innumerable sea beasts bit and fought among themselves. The entire world seemed to have gone mad.
The battlefield kept shifting. After a while, Fu Chi's Spirit Island could no longer be seen.
Yang Kai panted heavily, his eight-zhang dragon body standing firm in midair, his gaze proud and imperious. The seven dragons surrounded him on all sides, watching him like tigers.
"Insulting our Dragon Clan—your crime deserves death!" one dragon roared.
"Deserves death!" the other six echoed. That sound—part dragon cry, part beast howl—carried unmistakable traces of a dragon-clan secret art. The roar, once unleashed, transformed into an invisible soul attack that hammered toward Yang Kai's sea of consciousness.
After fighting for so long, they had shed their earlier caution. Yang Kai's explosive rampage, which had crippled one of their kin in the blink of an eye, had genuinely frightened them before. But now it seemed this man was no multi-armed monstrosity—his feat had been nothing more than a sneak attack's advantage.
Facing seven dragons in formation was already the greatest honor he could hope for. Even in death, he should have no regrets.
Yang Kai stood unmoved. He reached up and casually dug a finger in his ear, then flashed a grin. "Who kills whom remains to be seen. Don't speak too soon—you might twist your tongue and have trouble putting it back."
"Stubborn to the end!" That dragon snarled with impatience. "Since you court death so earnestly, we shall grant your wish."
The words had barely faded when dragon cries shook the heavens. The seven dragons pounced from every direction. Rolling waves of dragon might flooded the void—even an ordinary third-level Emperor Realm cultivator would have felt their courage waver and their will to resist crumble under such an onslaught.
Yang Kai was not so helpless, but his roguish grin vanished in an instant, replaced by a look of utmost gravity.
Though reluctant to admit it, facing seven dragons alone, he was… simply no match. The Dragon Clan truly was not to be trifled with.
He needed to call for reinforcements right away. With that thought, Yang Kai focused on dodging the seven dragons' killing blows while secretly sending out a pulse of divine sense.
On another part of the battlefield, Fu Ling and the blue dragon attacked Zhu Qing in tandem, and the fight had reached a stalemate.
Three dragons churned and tangled in midair, trading blow for blow in a furious spectacle.
Then, without warning, Fu Ling's movements stuttered for just an instant. She sent a divine-sense transmission to the blue dragon, relaying a brief message.
The blue dragon understood. She twisted her body and dove straight toward Zhu Qing.
But at that very moment, Fu Ling—the purple dragon—suddenly swooped toward the blue dragon's flank and raked out with a vicious claw.
A tearing sound rang out. The blue dragon's body shuddered, and she instinctively dodged the vital areas. But immediately after, searing pain erupted from her waist and flank. At the same time, the might of a ninth-rank dragon bore down on her, and the dragon essence within her body grew sluggish, its circulation faltering.
A strained, muffled groan escaped her. Her body—nearly twenty zhang long—began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Bloodline suppression!
Terror and disbelief flooded the blue dragon's eyes. She had no idea why this was happening.