Chapter 4023: Slash

The ruins of the Ancient Dragon King City had been blasted into a scorched, flat plain by world-level lightning. Combined with the encroachment of darkness, this vast, empty area was filled with a sense of dark corruption. The soil was dark and damp; one could squeeze dark, liquid matter out of a handful of it.

Hovering above this luminous area was a slowly rotating vortex of darkness. Directly beneath this vortex was an ancient dragon, a hundred meters long, with dragon skin as black as ink. It was a scaleless ancient dragon—a rarity among its kind, as only one of the few ancient dragon clans belonged to the scaleless lineage.

Once the renowned Calamity of Frost, Heyulisai, from the Second Epoch, it had now been eroded into an Abyss Ancient Dragon. In fact, it had long since died; the massive burn wound on its chest was its original fatal injury.

This was, of course, not the peak, supreme ancient dragon "Heyulisai" of the past; otherwise, Su Xiao would surely have died here. Or rather, the ancient dragon's "Supreme Dragon Might" ability was not unique to it; ninety percent of "Supreme Peaks" possessed similar capabilities.

While it is true that some "Supreme Peaks" lack such abilities, one must never assume those few are weak. A prime example is the Deer God, whose ability in single combat is legendary throughout the Astral Realm.

Though far from its peak, the power of "Heyulisai" was beyond doubt. This ancient flying dragon, which had spent its life in battle, was dead, yet its dragon corpse still understood how to fight. Nourished by the power of the Abyss, a violent, murderous new consciousness had sprouted within the ancient dragon's remains. Driven by this, the ancient dragon's body had, in a sense, come back to life.

Now that the Abyss Ancient Dragon had awakened and broken its seal, it desired only one thing: to vent its rage and bloodlust. The problem was that for a thousand kilometers in every direction, the land was scorched earth. The only living thing present was the human holding a long blade, his gaze calm.

"Roar!"

The Abyss Ancient Dragon roared, spreading its tattered dragon wings. The darkness within a radius of several hundred kilometers seeped from the ground like water droplets, swarming toward it.

"Roar!!!"

Layers of dark wind pressure expanded. Su Xiao felt waves of violent attacks incoming, each carrying a sense of impending death. Yet, for some reason, he suddenly felt that he could "Perfectly Block" the incoming "Extreme Dark Dragon Roar" attack.

Su Xiao's pupils constricted. The scene in his eyes shifted; the incoming dark dragon roar, previously a dense, chaotic mess, began to show traceable patterns. He saw streams of dark tangents attacking from the front—this was the essence of the "Extreme Dark Dragon Roar."

Su Xiao had not suddenly achieved some epiphany in battle; this was simply the capability of "Perfect Block."

He held his blade in one hand and blocked the incoming dark tangents.

Clang!

A heavy, vibrating shock traveled from Checking Zhan Long Shan to his hand. Su Xiao had truly used his long blade to block an attack that was non-physical in nature, yet possessed substance.

Furthermore, he discovered that he did not necessarily need to hold his blade horizontally in a blocking stance to trigger "Perfect Block." As long as he used his blade to "intercept" the incoming attack, he could trigger "Perfect Block" using his protective energy.

One might ask, why does "Perfect Block" have such an outrageous upgrade? The answer is that the "Seed of the Supreme," of which only two were granted upon reaching the limit of the Supreme Tier, was forcibly defaulted: one was used to upgrade a "Supreme" ability, and the other was used by Su Xiao to upgrade "Perfect Block," turning it into a "Supreme Passive."

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang...

The continuously incoming dragon might was "Perfectly Blocked" by Su Xiao, one slash at a time. He discovered that "Perfectly Blocking" these attacks did not trigger the instant-death judgment of "Extreme Dark Dragon Fury." Otherwise, given his luck, he likely would have triggered the "instant-death judgment" on the very first hit, consuming a "Heart of the Blade."

Moreover, it now appeared that having 8/8 "Hearts of the Blade" was not excessive at all. Powerful enemies of the Abyss type truly loved to trigger "instant-death judgments" at every turn.

The dragon roar lasted for half a minute. During this time, Su Xiao "Perfectly Blocked" over 60 times. Logically, blocking ten times would exhaust his protective energy, requiring 10 seconds to recover. However, in reality, blocking such attacks consumed protective energy very differently than blocking a melee strike from an enemy.

For instance, perfectly blocking one strike from the Beast Lord would immediately consume 10% of his protective energy. Conversely, perfectly blocking a dragon roar consumed only 1.2% to 2% per hit, and his protective energy would continue to recover during the process.

Having finished the dragon roar, the Abyss Ancient Dragon seemed to clear its head. Its dark-gold vertical pupils looked down at Su Xiao, its sharp teeth baring as it exhaled a mist of cold.

Zing!

An elegant wind-trace slash struck the Abyss Ancient Dragon's wing, sending a shower of sparks flying. The slash of "Flow" dissipated. Although the Abyss Ancient Dragon's wings were tattered, they were incredibly sturdy. Or rather, these wings were the only part of its body that still retained the formidable physique of its former "Supreme Peak" state.

The Abyss Ancient Dragon flapped its wings and soared into the air with a boom. Despite its hundred-meter-long body, it flew with fluid grace, showing none of the clumsiness of a lizard-like dragon. Instead, it flew rapidly, becoming the king of the sky.

Ninety percent of enemies would not dare to fly in front of a master of techniques. The problem was that the Abyss Ancient Dragon was clearly among the remaining ten percent, and a top-tier one at that.

Su Xiao watched the Abyss Ancient Dragon flying above. Although the dragon was further away, his sense of crisis grew stronger. Even his max-level Intuition began to prickle like needles.

Ten thousand meters above, the Abyss Ancient Dragon flew within the clouds of darkness. Suddenly, it vanished—disappearing so completely that not a trace of its aura remained.

Looking up at this scene, Su Xiao did not relax; instead, he gripped his hilt tighter. The sense of crisis was nearly maxed out, as if someone were pressing a steel needle against his eyeball, to the point where the tip was just touching the surface.

Crack!

Like a thunderclap—though no lightning appeared. It was the Abyss Ancient Dragon above shattering space. Because the force of the rupture was so violent, it produced a sound like a thunderbolt.

The distance of ten thousand meters was covered in less than 0.00001 seconds. The Abyss Ancient Dragon had dived in front of Su Xiao. On its dragon claws, dark power had accumulated to the limit, causing the claws to swell significantly, resembling curved blades of darkness.

There was no chance to hold his blade for a block.

With a boom, five trenches, each a hundred meters wide and endless in length, appeared in the earth. The shattered magic spirit turned into smoke. Su Xiao, located a thousand meters away, felt a bloodstain gradually appear on his cheek, just below his eye.

After the vibrating sound of the wind, the Abyss Ancient Dragon a thousand meters away vanished once more.

Crack!

Like lightning sliding across the firmament, the Abyss Ancient Dragon's massive body flickered in and out of the black clouds. The next second, its aura suddenly vanished.

The blood-red glow in Su Xiao's eyes intensified. If one spoke of charge-up time, Blood Qi-style swordsmanship could not compare to the "Blade Dao Series." The strength of the "Blade Dao Series" lay in its ability to erupt with the full force of a slash in an instant.

Boom!

Boom!!

Boom!!!

The Blood Qi on Su Xiao's blade was compressed until it rose like blood-red smoke. This battle with the Abyss Ancient Dragon was more thrilling and dangerous than the one with the Beast Lord. There was no continuous exchange of blows, but rather a series of desperate, ultimate-level abilities erupting the moment they met.

The surroundings suddenly became very quiet. Su Xiao began to hear his own breathing and the thumping of his heart.

Crack!

The thunderous sound of a space-shattering slash.

"Blade of Blood: Exploding Blade."

The long blade, rising with blood-red smoke, collided instantly with the incoming dark dragon claw.

With Su Xiao and the Abyss Ancient Dragon as the center point, the space in the surrounding area flew apart like a shattered mirror. Su Xiao flew backward, turning into a blood-red shadow, while the Abyss Ancient Dragon was forcibly stopped, transitioning from a dive to a crash landing, its dragon wings plowing through the soil.

After flying back at least several kilometers, Su Xiao extended a large number of Spirit Shadow Threads from his hand. These threads, tipped with space-characteristic crystal spikes, pierced into the space, serving as anchors to slow his backward momentum.

After landing, Su Xiao looked at the Abyss Ancient Dragon. With his super-vision, he confirmed that the dragon was not having an easy time either; it spat out a large mouthful of blood, within which fragments of organs could be seen.

This fight might be unwinnable. The Abyss Ancient Dragon's physique was simply too difficult to deal with. If Checking Zhan Long Shan were not sharp enough, and his Swordsmanship Master level not high enough, it would be hard to inflict heavy damage. As it stood, as long as he didn't strike the dragon wings, he could still inflict wounds.

Just as Su Xiao was weighing how to proceed, a sound came from above.

"Moo!!"

Amu, who had been sleeping, finally woke up. Upon learning that Su Xiao was fighting a powerful enemy, his first action was to have Baha carry him through the air, and now, he descended from above.

The Abyss Ancient Dragon, having just recovered, naturally noticed Amu. Originally, it didn't intend to pay Amu any mind, but to everyone's astonishment, Amu actually gave the Abyss Ancient Dragon the middle finger. Even with one's heels, one could guess that Baha had taught Amu this.

Yet Amu had surpassed his teacher. Ultimately, he was a tank-type follower. Using the 【Follower Promotion Badge】, he had gained a taunt ability, and the scope of this taunt ability seemed quite flexible.

The Abyss Ancient Dragon didn't understand the meaning of the middle finger, but seeing Amu do it, a surge of rage rushed to its chest. It flew up from a low altitude with ferocity, and at a speed Amu couldn't react to, its front dragon claw grabbed Amu, shoved him into its mouth, bit down on Amu's head and upper body with its sharp teeth, and pulled hard.

Well, it didn't pull him apart, and the dragon teeth even took two punches from Amu. As luck would have it, those two dragon teeth were the ones most severely eroded by time. The Abyss Ancient Dragon flew into a rage, simply shoved Amu completely into its mouth, and began a terrifying and cruel chewing process.

Crunch~, crunch~

After the scalp-numbing chewing sounds, the Abyss Ancient Dragon gulped and swallowed Amu.

A truly miraculous scene occurred. After being torn, chewed, and finally swallowed, enduring the highly acidic digestion generated by the Abyss, Amu actually didn't die. One could only say that the 32 portions of "Abyssal Source Matter" he had drunk hadn't been in vain. In the past, these attacks would have been enough to kill Amu several times over.

Having swallowed Amu, the Abyss Ancient Dragon was even more furious. It dived toward Su Xiao, landed fiercely, and its dragon wings, like giant blades, slashed down with force.

Clang!!

Su Xiao flew backward. For the first time since promoting to the Supreme Tier, his block was broken. This made his entire skeleton feel as if it were about to fall apart, and large cracks appeared in his flesh. As he landed, blood flowed from his chest.

He had to end this quickly; this ancient dragon seemed to have endless stamina.

Suddenly, the Abyss Ancient Dragon used its spatial ability to flicker in front of Su Xiao, its wings gathering together to form a dragon-wing weapon, slashing down in a rage.

The next second, Su Xiao shattered. In reality, he had "swapped" positions with the Magic Spirit, appearing a thousand meters away. Just as this attack ended, the dark vortex above was actually sliced open.

"Instant Return."

No matter how terrifying the Abyss Ancient Dragon's physique was, using such a terrifying attack that would have instantly killed Su Xiao had it landed, there would inevitably be a brief moment of vulnerability.

After swapping positions with the Magic Spirit and returning in front of the Abyss Ancient Dragon.

"Blade Dao: Blood Shadow."

The long blade in Su Xiao's hand had returned to its sheath. He lowered his posture slightly, slowly exhaling white mist. All the Blood Qi in his body clung to Checking Zhan Long Shan. This was the strongest slash he could execute in the Blood Qi style.

Zing!

A blood-red slash mark spread from the Abyss Ancient Dragon's belly to beneath its jaw. A massive amount of black dragon blood scattered, but the Abyss Ancient Dragon did not retreat in the slightest. It raised its dragon claw, the darkness upon it concentrated to the limit.

"Super Blood Smoke Cannon."

A ten-meter-tall Blood Qi phantom of an upper body appeared above Su Xiao. The phantom pointed its index finger forward, and a blood smoke cannon as thick as a water barrel hit the Abyss Ancient Dragon, causing its strike to pause.

"Roar!!"

With no warning, the "Extreme Dark Dragon Roar" struck, and Su Xiao's health plummeted.

【Warning: You have been subjected to an "instant-death judgment"...】

Three "Hearts of the Blade" were consumed in succession to exempt the instant death.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

Breaking free from the shock of the dragon roar, Su Xiao immediately used "Perfect Block" to resist the terrifying damage and secondary effects of the roar.

However, something even more hair-raising happened: the Abyss Ancient Dragon, while maintaining the "Extreme Dark Dragon Roar," spread its wings. This was... the ultimate destruction of darkness!

Hum!

Su Xiao felt a buzzing in his ears. As his entire body flew backward, he felt light, as if he were about to fall into a permanent slumber...

Su Xiao suddenly opened his eyes and immediately "swapped" positions with the Magic Spirit.

A fierce crunching sound followed—the Abyss Ancient Dragon had bitten down on the Magic Spirit that had just swapped places with Su Xiao, swallowing it in one gulp to temporarily trap it.

If other enemies did this, they would be asking for trouble, but for an ancient dragon, it could truly trap the Magic Spirit. It appeared to have swallowed the Magic Spirit, but in reality, it had transmitted the Magic Spirit into a spatial rift. Only flesh-and-blood beings like Amu would the Abyss Ancient Dragon actually swallow.

With "Swap" temporarily unavailable, the situation became extremely dangerous.

The Abyss Ancient Dragon spread its wings and flew up. At the same time, Su Xiao landed with a boom, creating a giant crater. He rose from the crater and discovered that his life-saving ability, "Blood Monarch," had triggered.

The good news was that "Burning Blood Ember: Lv. EX" was incredibly powerful in this battle.

【"Burning Blood Ember: Each attack imbued with Blood Qi: Burning Blood Ember that hits an enemy reduces the enemy's maximum health by 30%. This can stack, reducing the enemy's maximum health by up to 150%."】

The Abyss Ancient Dragon still had 650% of its maximum health remaining, and with the slash damage just now, every time the Abyss Ancient Dragon vanished into the black clouds and reappeared, its health was full again.

Su Xiao was not without advantages. The Green Steel Shadow ability activated during the previous group battle still had a significant residual effect, roughly a 90% bonus. Because he had been in a state of battle the entire time, Green Steel Shadow did not fade easily.

The Abyss Ancient Dragon dived again in an instant. Su Xiao had already adapted to this move to a certain extent and prepared "Perfect Block" with foresight. However, the incoming Abyss Ancient Dragon suddenly turned into a dark bubble. The real Abyss Ancient Dragon broke through the dark bubble, its massive dark dragon claw striking toward Su Xiao.

Boom!

A grayish-black Ash-Extinguishing Bullet flew from the muzzle, spiraling slightly. At the speed of the Ash-Extinguishing Bullet, almost at the same moment the "Dead Silence Ash-Extinguishing" gun fired, the bullet hit the Abyss Ancient Dragon's neck.

This strike forcibly stopped the dragon's dive, which was quite ruthless. Due to its own diving momentum, the Abyss Ancient Dragon fell down without any defense.

"Extreme Blade: World!"

Once the Abyss Ancient Dragon entered the range of "Extreme Blade: World," a massive number of slashing star-lines appeared. Even the Abyss Ancient Dragon's tough skin couldn't withstand the slashes of "Extreme Blade: World." Dragon blood splattered, but the Abyss Ancient Dragon, having just recovered, didn't seem to care at all, instead trading injury for injury, striking at Su Xiao with a dragon claw.

Boom!

Another Ash-Extinguishing Bullet fired. The Abyss Ancient Dragon, in its striking stance, was blasted back by the shot. But it immediately demonstrated that as a hegemon of the First Epoch, even if dead, its physique remained terrifying.

"Roar!!!"

Layers of dragon roars expanded. The Abyss Ancient Dragon forcibly changed from passive to active.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang...

The crisp sound of the long blade perfectly blocking the dragon roar tangents sent sparks flying from the blade. The frequency of this dragon roar was outrageously high, causing Su Xiao's health to plummet significantly. Two more "Hearts of the Blade" were consumed to prevent instant death.

Blasting Su Xiao back, the Abyss Ancient Dragon spread its wings, took to the air, and flew into the black cloud vortex above. When it appeared again, it would restore its health to full.

Su Xiao naturally wouldn't watch the enemy recover while doing nothing. A "Bright Red Potion" was crushed, and the semi-fluid liquid seeped into the skin of his hand, causing his health to recover rapidly.

Whether he could win depended solely on this final gamble. However, he clearly felt that the Checking Zhan Long Shan in his hand was different. Or rather, this was the closest he had ever been to slaying a dragon. Looking across the Astral Realm, there were actually only a few dragon-kin that could be called true members of the dragon race, and ancient dragons were clearly the representatives among them.

Crack!

An unprecedented sound of space shattering came from above. The Abyss Ancient Dragon that reappeared was now covered in rising black smoke; it had gathered all the darkness into its entire body.

It was still that almost unsolvable, fast dragon dive. In an instant, the Abyss Ancient Dragon was diagonally above Su Xiao, reaching the point of being within arm's reach.

"Time: Dominator."

A time force field enveloped the surroundings, and the striking dragon claw slowed down. Never think that Amu is usually a simpleton and also a simpleton in battle. At this moment, the Abyss Ancient Dragon's heart felt a sharp pain, as if... it had been bitten by something.

Crack!

The world-lightning cloud, which had been shrouded by the dark vortex above, was blasted by a world-lightning pillar, completely revealing a pillar of world-lightning dozens of kilometers in diameter, instantly enveloping Su Xiao and the Abyss Ancient Dragon within it.

Su Xiao dared to draw the world-lightning for three reasons: first, his own lightning resistance was indeed high enough; second, he had already switched to "Dark-Devouring Soul Core," causing his exemption from all damage to soar; third, the Green Steel Shadow bonus was still active.

Within the violent golden world-lightning domain, the Abyss Ancient Dragon was paralyzed for a moment, but this ancient flying dragon actually began to resist the world-lightning, relying on its powerful flesh to pounce toward Su Xiao.

But before that.

"Heavenly Wrath: Torrential Slash."

All the world-lightning within a thousand kilometers of the surroundings instantly converged onto Checking Zhan Long Shan, turning it into a golden lightning long blade, its length increasing by nearly half.

With a boom, Su Xiao's aura was so powerful that the ground beneath his feet was pressed down a layer. Looking down from above, the area where he was located had been pressed into a circular crater a thousand meters in diameter.

Su Xiao's health plummeted by a significant portion.

Without any pause, Su Xiao turned into a world-lightning afterimage and vanished from where he stood.

"Heavenly Wrath: Torrential Flash!"

With a sizzle, the world-lightning drew a straight line. On the opposite side, the Abyss Ancient Dragon had gathered all its darkness into its dragon claw. As long as this strike landed, Su Xiao, whose health was already less than one-third, would surely die on the spot.

Zing!

A golden slash mark flashed across the Abyss Ancient Dragon's neck, and a crisp sound of a slash that shook the heavens appeared.

The dark dragon claw that the Abyss Ancient Dragon was preparing to strike with suddenly stopped. Because its maximum health of 650% had been instantly emptied. This was the charm of the "basic attack is an ultimate move" style developing into the late stage.

This was, a one-slash dragon slaying!

Su Xiao had already risen from the ground. He had almost died himself executing this slash. It seemed unreasonable that this slash had cut 650% of the Abyss Ancient Dragon's maximum health, but if one understood what this slash contained, one wouldn't feel that way.

First, there were Su Xiao's various passives and Swordsmanship Master abilities, which had accumulated into the "basic attack is an ultimate move" school. On this foundation, there was the 500% bonus from the passive state of "Extreme Blade: White Night."

Not only that, but there was also the slash of "Heavenly Wrath: Torrential Slash" containing world-lightning.

And on this foundation, there was the double attack intensity increase from "Extreme Counter."

Combined with the current Green Steel Shadow ability, which could "violently boil," under the tens of thousands of points of true damage, it wasn't just a matter of breaking all the body's defensive characteristics; it would result in negative physical defense.

That wasn't all. This slash finally carried the execution of the Magic Blade. Do not forget, the Magic Blade was no longer "executing 30% of maximum health," but executing "enemy units with less than 30% of total health." Combined with the current Magic Spirit intensity of 6605 points, executing an Abyss Ancient Dragon with a maximum health of less than 240% was, of course, achievable.

The reduction from "Burning Blood Ember" and the execution of the Magic Blade did not conflict.

The massive dragon head flew off as the slash passed. In the Abyss Ancient Dragon's vertical pupils, the rage and fury gradually faded. These pupils became dim and murky, yet also became exceptionally old and majestic. It was somewhat confused, but soon, it knew what had happened.

Looking at the Law-Breaker who, though heavily injured, still held his long blade with Blood Qi boiling, the gaze of the Abyss Ancient Dragon—no, it should be Heyulisai—was somewhat complex.

What was puzzling was that the Law-Breaker who rose in the Second Epoch was actually known to Heyulisai. One must know that even if there were Law-Breakers in the First Epoch, they didn't seem to be the protagonists of the era? At least, there were no relevant records.

A bit of soul power belonging to Heyulisai spread from the dragon head and drifted toward Checking Zhan Long Shan. Clearly, this dragon slaying would have a very special significance for Checking Zhan Long Shan, and the weapon Checking Zhan Long Shan truly deserved this blade name, which had great symbolic significance in the Astral Realm.

Dragon slaying, success! ===== CHAPTER 4024 =====