Suddenly, the ground around the lake erupted with a series of deafening cracks.
The lake's edge rose up in hundreds of stone steps. Now, even these steps had begun to shake.
The trembling intensified with each passing moment.
Without warning, the entire cavern seemed to rock on its axis. Massive chunks of boulders broke loose from the rock walls above and came crashing down.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen and Mu Gaoqi were shielded by the water barrier surrounding them.
The falling rocks struck the water screen and bounced away with dull thuds.
The hunched cultivator's face darkened as he shot a murderous glare toward Mu Gaoqi.
He knew that the commotion had finally awakened whatever powerful creature dwelled here. His plan had been completely thrown into chaos!
Whoosh!
A streak of green light suddenly shot across the ground in front of the lake, carving a terrifying trench into the earth. From within that trench, a tail abruptly lashed out.
The tail swept upward, swelling with the wind, and cracked through the air like a whip.
It swept toward the spot where the hunched cultivator stood.
The hunched man had been on guard even before the tremors started. Seeing the tail hurtling toward him, he launched himself sideways, landing on the left side of the stone steps.
His hand seized a thin blood-red blade from thin air.
A flash of steel as he slashed at the tail.
Jiang Chen's heart went cold at the sight of that bizarre tail. "The divine dragon shows its head but never its tail — this is a descendant of the dragon race! A dragon's descendant has been lurking in this place?"
A tremor ran through Jiang Chen's soul, stirring up endless waves of shock.
Whatever power flowed through a dragon's bloodline was terrifying beyond measure. No matter how humble or diluted the lineage, it was still dragon blood.
After all, the dragon race was one of the most indisputably powerful bloodlines of the primordial era.
The hunched cultivator's blade struck the dragon tail.
Clang!
A crisp, ringing shockwave erupted, spraying sparks in every direction.
Yet the strike failed to leave even a scratch on the dark scales of the dragon tail. The hunched cultivator was visibly shaken.
Though he hadn't gone all out, he had judged the angle perfectly, calculating exactly where to land the blow. Even if it couldn't sever the tail, cracking through those scales should have been well within reach.
Instead, apart from a shower of sparks, not a single mark remained.
The realization sent a chill of cold sweat down the hunched cultivator's spine. His body blurred sideways, darting toward a higher ledge on the cavern wall.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The dragon tail seemed possessed of an almost supernatural awareness, tracking the hunched cultivator's landing spot with unerring precision.
It swept again and again, carving long furrows into the rock face like an enormous blade splitting heaven and earth. Countless stones tumbled from the walls.
The thunderous rumble of cascading boulders made the cavern look as though it might collapse at any moment.
Jiang Chen watched the battle with unblinking focus.
"Only one tail has appeared, and it's already driving a Second-level Spirit Realm cultivator to flee in all directions. The power of this dragon is truly terrifying."
It would be a lie to say Jiang Chen felt no nervousness.
But a battle of this magnitude was not something he was willing to miss. At this moment, he was hoping — with every fiber of his being — that the dragon would win.
Because if the Spirit Realm expert from the Xiaoyao Sect managed to kill this dragon, what would come next would be unchecked slaughter. He and Mu Gaoqi would be the very next targets on the old man's list.
"The hunched cultivator keeps dodging, but he refuses to flee. Could he still have some trump card?"
After watching for a while, Jiang Chen noticed something. The battle's outcome was obvious — this hunched Xiaoyao Sect cultivator didn't even dare face the dragon tail head-on, proving his strength was far inferior to the dragon's.
Yet the man not only refused to run, he seemed to have something else in mind.
"Let's see what this old fox from the Xiaoyao Sect is really after." Trapped inside the water barrier, Jiang Chen couldn't get any closer to investigate, so he had no way of knowing the old man's intentions.
But one thing was certain: this Xiaoyao Sect powerhouse was utterly obsessed with the Wood Spirit Spring. Even in the face of a dragon, he simply would not retreat.
The dragon tail's attacks were terrifyingly powerful. Each sweep carved a deep furrow across the rock face.
If that tail struck a person, even a Second-level Spirit Realm expert would suffer shattered bones and cough up their life's blood.
"What the hell is this old man planning?"
Jiang Chen watched and observed for a while longer, but still couldn't piece it together. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something alarming — Mu Gaoqi's face had turned purple, and he was on the verge of passing out.
The water barrier was in a state of vacuum. While Origin Realm cultivators didn't need fresh air to survive, the barrier's powerful sealing force carried an insidious corrosive effect. Mu Gaoqi, with his comparatively weaker cultivation, was struggling to hold on.
Jiang Chen studied the water barrier and knew there was no way to break it from the inside.
But in his mind, he had long since devised an escape plan.