Chapter 484: Jiang Chen Appears

Jiang Chen was bold precisely because of his exceptional skill, relying on the formidable potential of the Ice Fire Demon Lotus as he crept upward in stealth.

The Ice Fire Demon Lottuses clung to a span of two or three zhang along the inner walls of the cavern, and Jiang Chen attached his spiritual sense to them, observing the savage battle unfolding within.

At this moment, the entire cavern was in shambles. Jagged boulders scraped loose from the walls lay piled everywhere.

A black True Dragon coiled atop one of the massive rocks, its fierce gaze fixed upon a section of rock wall.

On that wall, the hunchbacked warrior had already lost one arm. His chest and back were covered in bloody wounds, and he was gasping for breath in great heaves.

"You despicable human! You dare lay a poison formation in my territory! Tell me—what sect do you belong to? Once I leave this place, I will annihilate your entire sect!"

The dragon's thunderous voice echoed through the cavern in rolling waves.

"Hahaha." The hunchbacked powerhouse, though wounded, burst into wild laughter. "Big words. If you weren't poisoned—if you'd said that in your peak state—I might have been wary of you. But you've been hit with my personally refined Lock Spirit True Essence Powder, and you think you can still run wild? Keep dreaming."

As he spoke, the hunchbacked warrior coughed repeatedly, spitting out mouthfuls of blood.

Clearly, though he had used the poison formation to ambush the True Dragon, the dragon had dealt him devastating injuries in return. He was gravely wounded and, for the time being, lacked the strength to launch another assault to finish the dragon off.

This scene left Jiang Chen uncertain whether to rejoice or worry.

The hunchbacked warrior's cunning was truly terrifying. He had come to the Spirit Wood Spring and refrained from acting the whole time—secretly preparing a poison formation in advance, apparently as a contingency for exactly this kind of encounter.

And the True Dragon, when it first awakened, had been completely unaware of the formation. The more fiercely it attacked, the more poisonous fumes it inhaled.

Though its ferocious assaults had indeed gravely wounded the hunchbacked warrior, the dragon had absorbed too much of the Lock Spirit True Essence Powder and could no longer gather its dragon breath to deliver a killing blow.

A True Dragon and a Saint Realm Second-Stage martial warrior—locked in a battle that left both sides critically injured.

"Lowly human, don't think I don't know what you're after. The Spirit Wood Spring may be wondrous, but it will never purify your base bloodline."

The True Dragon was furious.

The hunchbacked warrior smiled serenely. "Keep spouting threats. This wound of mine won't kill me anytime soon. But this poison of yours—if you get no treatment, even with your True Dragon essence, how long can you last? Three months? Six? A year? I have all the time in the world to wait you out. Once you've breathed your last, I'll skin you, strip your tendons, drain your blood, eat your heart, and refine your crystalline core. Hahaha… Dragon bloodline combined with the Spirit Wood Spring. This is a stroke of fortune the heavens have bestowed upon me, Wei Wudao! The Myriad Phenomena Territory hasn't produced an Imperial Dao martial warrior in centuries—it seems heaven has decreed that I, Wei Wudao, shall ascend to the throne, unify the Myriad Phenomena Territory!"

Dragon bloodline—if he could absorb and melt it into himself, ascending to the Imperial Dao was the bare minimum. Add in the purification of the Spirit Wood Spring, and given enough time, becoming a Title Emperor revered across the Divine Abyss Continent was entirely possible.

At the thought of this, Wei Wudao laughed with smug delight.

Suddenly, his laughter cut off as a sharp glint of killing intent flashed through his eyes. "Who's there?"

Though gravely wounded, Wei Wudao's spiritual sense was far from weak. He had faintly detected a ripple of spiritual awareness—someone was secretly watching them.

His shout carried overwhelming force, causing the rock walls to tremble. Chunks of stone tumbled down from above.

That ripple of spiritual sense was, in fact, Jiang Chen, secretly observing them through the Ice Fire Demon Lotus—his approach extremely concealed. Jiang Chen had been very careful, yet he hadn't expected Wei Wudao to be sharper than a rat.

He immediately withdrew his spiritual sense and ceased observing.

Wei Wudao scanned the area for a moment but found nothing.

"Strange. I distinctly felt a spiritual sense spying on us. It was well-hidden, but I'm certain of it!" Wei Wudao's gaze suddenly shifted to the two water curtains, where the silhouettes of two figures were still clearly visible. "Weird—was I imagining things? Those two Origin Realm rats are pinned down under my Heavenly Water Divine Talismans. There's no escape for them. Could it be that those little Origin Realm warriors who entered this cavern haven't all been killed?"

At this thought, Wei Wudao was momentarily startled.

He didn't fear these Origin Realm warriors. Even if every single one of them charged in without exception, Wei Wudao was fully confident he could eliminate them all.

A starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Besides, he was merely injured—his combat ability was diminished, but that didn't mean he couldn't handle a few insignificant Origin Realm fighters.

Wei Wudao was about to look away from the water curtains when something suddenly caught his attention.

"No, no!" A thought flashed through his mind. That brief glance had revealed something out of place.

Wei Wudao moved in a flash, alighting beside the water curtains like a great bird. Being closer to the curtains and farther from the True Dragon, he felt absolutely no pressure landing there.

"How can this be?" Wei Wudao stared at the two figures in the water curtain—particularly Mu Gaoqi, whose complexion had clearly been turning purple earlier. How was he now looking more flushed and healthy?

This defied all logic.

Wei Wudao circled the water curtains, observing from every angle, but through the barrier of water, he couldn't make out anything specific.

The illusory images Jiang Chen had created through the Ice Fire Demon Lotus—if scrutinized up close, a Saint Realm Second-Stage warrior would certainly spot the flaws.

But through the water curtain, combined with the fact that Wei Wudao was heavily wounded and operating at barely half his cultivation, no matter how he looked, he couldn't detect anything wrong.

Uneasy, Wei Wudao slapped his palm against the water curtain. A hand seal transformed into blue light and enveloped the barrier.

Two sharp cracks rang out.