Chapter 905

Mysterious, thick mist, like silkworm cocoons, completely enveloped the twenty people on the Stone Dragon Staircase.

Outside the Stone Dragon Space, the flag bearers of the Twenty Flags all wore expressions of envy; they knew this was a chance belonging to the Great Flag Leaders, and once they underwent such a transformation, they would possess the prototype of the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body".

Although the so-called "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" is merely a basic form within the system of the Five Heavenly Dragon Lines, for them, who are at the Earth Fiery General stage, this already counts as top-tier configuration.

With the support of the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body", physical strength, speed, and power would all receive obvious improvements, and when engaging in magical combat with others, one would naturally hold every advantage.

As for them, the ordinary flag bearers, they might in the future obtain enough Heavenly Dragon Qi to transform the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body", but that would require them to pay an extremely high contribution, a difficulty not small; after all, let alone their Twenty Flags, even looking across the Five Heavenly Dragon Guards, only some elites could meet such requirements.

Moreover, even if these elites could cultivate the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body", at best they would only reach a level of around five scales; wanting anything higher was unlikely.

Because lacking the "Climbing the Dragon" step, this determined the upper limit of the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body".

Fortunately, if their own ranks increased in the future, they might directly skip the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" and attempt to cultivate battle bodies of higher forms.

Under the gaze of many envious eyes, the thick mist cocoons on the stone steps lasted for about half an hour, and then, the cocoons at the very bottom began to dissipate one after another.

Figures emerged one by one.

The Great Flag Leaders who appeared at this moment looked no different from before, but as they curiously moved their bodies and swung their fists and feet, a faint, sharp sound of wind being torn apart arose, a sign that their physical strength had improved.

And the most conspicuous thing was that a dragon-shaped mark appeared on their foreheads, driven by the activation of their Xiang Li.

The mark was circular, shaped like a long dragon biting its own tail, and the center was perfectly filled with dragon scales.

However, the number of dragon scales differed.

In some people's dragon-shaped marks, there were only four dim dragon scales; others had five, six, and all these dragon scales presented a dull color, as if they had not been activated.

This was because what everyone had obtained now was merely the prototype of the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body", and the number of dragon scales within the dragon-shaped mark represented the upper limit of their respective Heavenly Dragon Battle Bodies.

Those whose dragon-shaped marks displayed four dragon scales meant their upper limit was only the Four-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body; in the subsequent second round of "Scale Snatching", they could snatch at most four dragon scales, and their "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" would reach its limit and could not be improved further.

The same logic applied to others.

As the mist cocoons dissipated one by one, more and more Great Flag Leaders successfully transformed; among them, Li Li Fengyi obtained a six-scale dragon mark, Li Li Hongli and Deng Deng Fengxian both had seven-scale dragon marks, while Li Li Qingfeng, Li Jingtang, and Lu Lu Qingmei, who were in a superior position, had eight-scale dragon marks.

Roar!

At this moment, a low dragon roar came from the end of the stone steps, immediately attracting everyone's attention; as gazes turned there, they saw the thickest mist cocoon there slowly dissipating.

A few breaths later, Li Luo's figure emerged.

On his forehead, the dragon-shaped mark containing nine dragon scales attracted everyone's gaze.

Nine-Scale Dragon Mark! Nine-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body!

As long as Li Luo snatched nine dragon scales in the upcoming "Scale Snatching", he could directly activate this battle body to its strongest level.

Many gazes were complex; the Nine-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body had not appeared for a long time.

Amidst those envious and jealous looks, Li Luo also opened his eyes; he slowly clenched his five fingers, and immediately his eyes showed surprise.

Because he felt his physical strength had received a considerable boost at this moment; this boost was no less than the Three-Layer Thunder Body, and this was a direct physical improvement, unlike the Thunder Body which still required activating thunder sounds to form enhancement and amplification.

Simply put, one was passive, the other active.

Moreover, besides strengthening the body, the Heavenly Dragon Battle Body had three additional effects.

Dragon Wings, Dragon Aura, Dragon Power.

With a thought, Li Luo's Xiang Li flowed within his body, surging into the dragon-shaped mark on his forehead; in the next moment, a special energy burst forth from within.

Puff!

A dragon wing of energy, about a zhang in length, unexpectedly extended from Li Luo's back; as it slowly flapped, it created a hurricane.

This energy dragon wing had the effect of flight and was extremely practical.

As for the so-called Dragon Aura, it was a special pressure; if released suddenly during combat with others, it could achieve the effect of catching them off guard, and if this Dragon Aura was combined with one's own Long Xiang, it would exert extremely strong suppression on many spirit beasts.

As for Dragon Power, this could only be unleashed after the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" was truly activated.

This Dragon Power was somewhat similar to the "Elephant God Power" support given by Li Luo's Jin Yu Xiang Knife, capable of instantly granting extremely violent power amplification.

It was said that one scale equaled one dragon, and if the "Nine-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" was activated, it could unleash the power of nine dragons; its might was probably stronger than some Marquis-Sealing Techniques.

However, the nine dragons here were not true dragon power; strictly speaking, they could only be called dragon beasts, but even so, it was an extremely powerful killing move.

Li Luo was extremely satisfied; it was not in vain that he had suffered such hardships previously to break through the three thousand zhang; the final gains were indeed exceptionally abundant.

The prototype of this "Nine-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" possessed an upper limit far surpassing others.

This made him sigh again; truly, no wonder it was a Li Li Tianwang-level power; such foundation was indeed rare in Outer Shenzhou; after all, the "Thunder Body" he had obtained was already a body-refining secret technique qualified only for the royal family of the Black Wind Empire, yet compared to the Heavenly Dragon Battle Body, it fell short considerably.

Moreover, the upper limit of the Thunder Body was only the Five-Layer Thunder Sound, but the Heavenly Dragon Battle Body had a complete advancement system beyond that, so the two could not be compared at all.

Fortunately, at least the "Thunder Body" was still quite useful for Li Luo at present.

While everyone was immersed in the mystery brought by the "Heavenly Dragon Battle Body", a grand and majestic voice descended from the void at this moment.

"Climbing the Dragon ends here; prepare yourselves to welcome the final step of the Dragon Head Struggle: Scale Snatching."

Hearing these words, everyone present's expressions stiffened, and then their eyes showed battle intent.

If the Climbing the Dragon step was relatively gentle, then the "Scale Snatching" step would appear full of contention, because every dragon scale needed to be obtained by defeating an opponent.

And the Dragon Head would be born in this step.

Simply put, whoever snatched the most dragon scales at the end would become the Dragon Head.

Li Li Qingfeng exhaled lightly, glancing at Li Luo's position; in the Climbing the Dragon step, his brilliance had been completely overshadowed by Li Luo, but it didn't matter; Climbing the Dragon could not decide the Dragon Head's ownership.

Although Li Luo had obtained the prototype of the "Nine-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" in Climbing the Dragon, this was only the first step; as long as he prevented Li Luo from obtaining nine dragon scales in the upcoming "Scale Snatching", then his so-called "Nine-Scale Heavenly Dragon Battle Body" would become nothing more than an empty shell.

Climbing the Dragon was lost, but the position of Dragon Head, he would absolutely not yield again.

While Li Li Qingfeng was thinking thus, everyone present discovered that thick mist suddenly surged forth in the world, then completely enveloped them.

The clouds and mist obscured vision, and spatial fluctuations were faintly emitted.

This obstruction lasted for over ten breaths, and then the clouds and mist gradually dispersed.

Li Luo and the others discovered that the Stone Dragon beneath their feet had vanished; at this moment, they seemed to be standing upon a huge cloud-and-mist circular platform.

Above the circular platform were suspended stone platforms, each about a hundred zhang in size.

Gazing toward the far rear of the circular platform, they saw a Stone Dragon Mountain range coiled in the void, its dragon mouth facing the location of the circular platform.

Clearly, that stone dragon mountain was the very place they had ascended the dragon.

"The scales are claimed through a lottery-based round-robin system: each participant fights eight matches; the winner of each match takes one dragon scale, until the contest ends." The grand voice rang out again.

Yet the twenty Great Flag Chiefs present remained calm, clearly already aware of this.

Li Luo's eyes flickered slightly—he wasn't worried about the lottery-based round-robin. Having just broken through to the Ultimate Evil State by riding the momentum, his true cultivation level was now no weaker than that of some ordinary Great Flag Chiefs. Among the other Great Flag Chiefs, only Li Li Qingfeng, Lu Lu Qingmei, and—oh, that headache-inducing Iron Turtle, Li Li Jingtao—posed any real threat to him.

To prevent Great Flag Chiefs from the same lineage from deliberately losing to each other, those from the same lineage typically wouldn't face off.

And if one won all eight matches, they would claim eight dragon scales, activating their Heavenly Dragon Battle Body to the Eight-Scale level.

But even this wasn't perfect.

Because there was a ninth scale.

The contest for the ninth scale was said to be the most grueling bout in the Dragon Chief Battle, harder even than the "Nine Dragon Fusion Flame" they had braved during the dragon ascent.

Yet the contest for the ninth scale was unique—it could only be initiated after winning all eight matches, so there was no need to rush now.

Li Luo touched the dragon seal on his brow; he had worked so hard to obtain this "Nine-Scale Dragon Seal," and naturally he wanted to activate it to perfection during this opportunity, for obtaining another such "dragon scale" later would demand immense effort and time.

So if possible, he certainly didn't intend to let go of the ninth scale.

As he pondered this, a streak of light suddenly descended from midair, then split into numerous rays, striking each of the Great Flag Chiefs.

Li Luo reached out, grasping one ray; it condensed into a jade tablet.

The moment Li Luo seized the jade tablet, it erupted in light, engulfing his figure and shooting skyward, landing upon a floating stone platform.

When Li Luo landed, a shadowy figure descended before him—a Great Flag Chief of the Dragonbone Lineage.

The moment the opponent saw he was facing Li Luo in the first match, he couldn't help but wear a look of utter despair.

Li Luo smiled, clenched his palm, and the Golden Jade Xiang Knife materialized.

As a distant bell tone resonated, Li Luo unleashed his Qi, surging forward like lightning.

And the battle ended even faster than expected.

Next, Li Luo fought four more matches in succession, winning each effortlessly, and thus claimed four dragon scales—but the scales could not yet be infused into the dragon seal; he must wait until the Dragon Chief Battle truly concluded.

Until the fifth match, a tall, graceful silhouette appeared before him.

Li Luo finally perked up.

For he had encountered Lu Lu Qingmei.

(End of Chapter)