What had only been small, unremarkable bumps on either side of his head now burst forth like vigorous saplings breaking through soil. Two dragon horns rose high and proud, their appearance scarcely inferior to those of a true Dragon Clan descendant.
Dragon pressure blanketed the void like a physical force, so oppressive that all three dragons found their breathing laborious. Their chests felt as though boulders had been piled atop them—a suffocating heaviness that made their internal dragon essence circulate a fraction slower than it should.
All three were horrified.
The horror deepened when they noticed that certain dragon scales on their bodies had begun to shine with an intense, pulsing light.
Those luminous scales were none other than the foundation of the Dragon Palace's Protection Art. For them to behave this way could only mean the art had become unstable.
When Yang Kai had assumed his eight-zhang dragon form, they had been unaffected by the bloodline suppression. But now that he had transformed into a fifteen-zhang dragon, even with the Dragon Palace's Protection Art shielding them, the terrifying pressure still sent faint tremors of instinctive dread through their bloodlines.
Zhu Lie had said before that the Protection Art could neutralize a great portion of the bloodline suppression—but only a great portion, not all of it. Once the suppression exceeded a certain threshold, even the Dragon Palace's Protection could not bridge the gap in bloodline standing.
Just as Li Jiao had felt facing Fu Chi, so now did all three dragons feel a bone-deep chill of fear when confronting Yang Kai.
They had to end this quickly, or this day would likely be their last.
The three dragons reached their decision in an instant. After Yang Kai assumed his fifteen-zhang form, the resolve in their dragon eyes only grew fiercer—an unflinching determination to press forward.
Yang Kai threw a sudden punch. A fist the size of a house struck the giant dragon lunging from the left squarely on the skull. The deafening boom was accompanied by a mournful dragon cry as the impact sent the creature's head snapping sideways, several scales flying from its skull. Its massive body tumbled end over end and crashed into the distant sea.
But that moment's delay allowed the dragon from the right to close the distance. Its outstretched claw gleamed with cold, merciless light—like an indestructible blade—and it tore straight for Yang Kai's chest.
Yang Kai had no way to dodge. His body was pinned, and even his Space Ability had been sealed.
If that claw found its flesh, the consequences would be catastrophic.
In that crisis, driven by pure instinct, something moved behind him.
A dragon tail lashed out like a divine whip descending from the heavens, carrying horrifying power as it cracked down upon the attacker.
The slap of impact rang sharp and clear. The tail struck the right-side dragon square along its spine. With a shrill dragon shriek, the creature plummeted downward like a meteor.
Yang Kai's expression turned odd. His divine sense swept behind him, and his brow rose in surprise.
At some point, a dragon tail had appeared behind him.
The discovery startled him.
He knew that over a month of intensive cultivation had advanced his Dragon Transformation Art considerably, but what the complete transformation would actually look like, he had not known—until now.
Fifteen zhang of dragon body. Horns upon his head. A tail trailing behind him. Every scale blazing with golden light. The metamorphosis was nothing short of earth-shaking, utterly different from his five-zhang form.
His towering frame surveyed the world from on high, and he felt as though the very earth knelt at his feet. A surge of exhilarating boldness flooded his chest.
The dragon that had been restraining him stared with widening eyes. All of this had unfolded in the span of a heartbeat—two of his clansmen sent flying with a single fist and a single tail strike, leaving him alone to face Yang Kai's second-stage transformation. His chest tightened with dread.
Something flickered in his eyes. His dragon head darted forward, and his gaping maw lunged to bite Yang Kai's skull.
Yang Kai raised an arm to block. The razor-sharp teeth sank deep into the flesh and muscle of his forearm, drawing torrents of blood. Yet Yang Kai merely let out a cold laugh. Under the dragon's horrified gaze, his other hand reached up, seized the horn atop its skull, and wrenched it sideways.
"ROAR!" The dragon's agonized cry shook the heavens. The horn snapped, and blood gushed from the wound on one side of its head.
Yang Kai tucked the broken horn away, then extended a dragon claw and raked it across a specific point along the dragon's belly.
Tsss, tsss…
In an instant, a gash several zhang long split open across the creature's abdomen. Through the wound, writhing innards were faintly visible. A dozen or more scales were scattered to the wind—and among them was the scale that served as the foundation for the Dragon Palace's Protection Art.
When that scale's light flickered and died, the dragon could no longer maintain its true form. It shrank at a visible rate, and in the blink of an eye had reverted to its human shape. It fled from Yang Kai in a panic, one hand clutching its belly as blood streamed between its fingers, its face deathly pale.
Yang Kai's crimson dragon eyes cast a contemptuous glance at the fleeing figure, but he made no move to pursue.
Without the Dragon Palace's Protection, this Dragon Clan member was no longer a threat worth his attention.
With a low roar, his colossal body plunged straight down into the sea—yet, impossibly, not a single drop of water was displaced.
Moments later, violent energy fluctuations surged from beneath the surface. A pillar of water erupted skyward as Yang Kai burst from the ocean, one dragon pinned in each hand. Water sprayed in every direction, and a rainbow immediately arced across the sky.
These were precisely the two dragons he had knocked away earlier. His enormous clawed hands were clamped tight around both their necks as he hauled them upward through the air.
Yang Kai's hair and whiskers whipped wildly in the wind. He threw his head back and roared with laughter, then clenched both hands inward. The two dragons slammed into each other with a thunderous crash, leaving them both dazed and seeing stars.