Chapter 547: Primordial Dragon King

The taste is off.

The taste is off.

The taste is off.

Seeing that tall and thin man, three hundred sixty zhang high, dressed in imperial attire, Wu Tie's heart alarm blared, his pores exploded, his eyes shone brightly, staring fixedly at the opponent.

It was like a tiger roaming the mountains that suddenly bumped into another beast of equal or even greater ferocity. Without a single extraneous thought, Wu Tie's body instinctively reacted in the most direct way.

The man a hundred li away was strong, extraordinarily strong.

Moreover, his taste was off. Compared to the few innate items Old Master Hu had found by guiding the way, this man's aura was even more ancient than those items.

Right, the scent on this man's body is somewhat similar to that of the drought demon in the Nine Dragon Coffin.

Extremely ancient, extremely weathered, extremely divine, carrying a hint of inexplicable solemnity and majesty. Towering above, like an ancient god seated in the clouds, thoughtless and worry-free, with not a trace of distraction, observing all beings from on high with an eternal, unchanging weathered mindset.

On the drought demon, this ancient aura is somewhat fainter. But on this man, this ancient aura has almost condensed into substance.

The drought demon used the great divine ability of borrowing death to be reborn, discarding its true form and sprouting a new body. Like a cicada shedding its shell, though her aura is ancient, it is mostly a rich, vigorous, fresh life force.

And this man, expressionless, sitting in the huge coffin, has undergone no transformation; he is directly the primal true form from the mythic primordial era… just like Wu Tie encountered Osiris in the underworld, ancient and formidable, his aura like a primordial fossil, the flavor of being soaked and cleansed by time exceptionally clear.

Whether it's the Nine Dragon Coffin or the Jellyfish Bottle, although they are innate items, their origins lie in the spiritual apertures and cave heavens of heaven and earth, where the heavenly laws are overly concentrated, giving birth to heavenly creations after countless years of gestation.

Although they are also innate items, compared to the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Bottle, a true primordial innate treasure left from antiquity, they still lack a layer.

A true innate treasure, in the genuine sense, is a treasure born when this heaven and earth were created.

In this sense, although the Nine Dragon Coffin and Jellyfish Bottle are powerful treasures, they are merely junior members among innate spiritual treasures.

The man seated in the coffin ahead bears the aura of heaven's creation. He is an antique left over from the primordial mythic era, his existence in this world far predates that of the Nine Dragon Coffin and other innate spiritual treasures.

Having had close contact with the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Bottle and other true primordial innate treasures that created heaven and earth, Wu Tie could barely discern this strange aura and roughly guess the man's origin.

Linghu Qingqing, together with the four elders of the Linghu clan, certainly have cultivation surpassing Wu Tie's, are much older, well-informed, and have seen countless rare treasures—but they have never come into contact with a truly ancient innate spiritual treasure.

They only felt that this man was formidable, but they could not sense just how terrifying he truly was.

Wu Tie exhaled and looked at those metal puppets.

These metal puppets number over a hundred thousand, forged entirely from five-colored alloy, each standing three zhang six chi tall, with natural Dao runes faintly appearing on their surfaces, each puppet's quality far surpassing Ninefold Refined Immortal Weapons.

Even the Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons commonly seen in the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, the antique heirlooms of great clans that painstakingly expended endless energy and wealth to forge for their descendants, are inferior in material to these puppets.

Wu Tie's heart beat powerfully, surges of hot blood rushing to his head, making him slightly dizzy and his face a bit flushed.

These puppets are numerous; each bears faint Dao patterns, and each hides within it at least one, up to twelve complete Dao laws. In other words, solely in their mastery of the Dao, each puppet rivals a peak expert of the Fetal Storage Realm.

Wu Tie's divine fetus emitted boundless light; the projection of the Creation Jade Disc rotated slowly behind it, as Dao laws on his divine fetus condensed into dragon-shaped patterns that flowed and coiled, while the same dragon-shaped patterns on the Creation Jade Disc shone with brilliant divine light.

Over a hundred thousand metal puppets, Wu Tie roughly determined that they collectively possess one thousand two hundred ninety-six different kinds of Dao laws.

Out of the three thousand Dao, the complete Dao laws on these puppets exceed thirty percent.

Wu Tie's mutated bones can seize the Dao laws contained within external objects, refining their essence for his own use.

These puppets will be Wu Tie's best supplement. The rare materials used to forge them can strengthen his bones and increase his physical strength, while the complete Dao laws contained within them can directly fuse with his divine fetus.

Cultivating the Primordial Classic requires a long time, mainly because it demands mastery of three thousand Dao and eighty-four thousand side paths.

Side paths are trivial; to fully comprehend and integrate the three thousand Dao with one's divine fetus is an immensely difficult task.

But a shortcut through Zhongnan is right before our eyes!

As long as we kill all these over-a-hundred-thousand puppets, Wu Tie's cultivation of the Primordial Classic can achieve over thirty percent completion. Moreover, with a divine fetus fused with over a thousand Dao laws, how greatly could Wu Tie's power surge?

Even a half-step Divine Ming Realm expert could be slapped to death.

After taking a deep breath, Wu Tie looked at Linghu Qingqing and Old Master Hu and the others. No matter how Linghu Qingqing's group prepares to deal with the antique that leapt out of this mountain, Wu Tie will certainly join the battle.

I'll personally take out some puppets on the spot, then have the Yin-Yang Daoist and Five Elements Daoist instantly teleport over, using the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Bottle and Five Elements Divine Light to sweep away the remaining puppets… a perfect operation.

Wu Tie lightly moved his limbs and muttered softly: 'So many… humanoid puppets, this battle won't be easy to fight.'

Linghu Qingqing and Old Master Hu were drawn into the rhythm by Wu Tie's words; they discarded their gaze from the thin, hard-to-deal-with man and grimaced at the sight of the over-a-hundred-thousand puppets.

After slightly sensing the aura emitted by these puppets, they all grimaced, simultaneously showing extremely unsightly expressions.

'Insane.' Hu Tu muttered softly.

'Simply… if we could control this puppet army…' Hu Sizhen began to indulge in wild fantasies.

'Be careful… form the formation, form the formation.' Linghu Qingqing took a deep breath, suddenly feeling a bit regretful… he shouldn't have let the four elders activate their divine powers, bringing the fleet here so quickly.

If he spent a bit more time on the road, he could seriously refine the Undying Heart Lamp a little, able to exert a bit of its power; combined with a massive army formation, he would have some confidence in suppressing these over-a-hundred-thousand puppets.

But now, the Undying Heart Lamp is only superficially refined; he hasn't even been able to erase the soul imprint left by Venerable Dafang within it, so he cannot unleash its power. Relying solely on a military formation of tens of thousands of warships, casualties in this battle would likely be severe.

In this massive fleet, the number of Fetal Storage Realm commanders alone approaches a hundred thousand, with even more Fetal Storage Realm outlaws.

But in terms of quality,

These puppets are all at peak Fetal Storage Realm strength, and many fuse twelve Dao laws within themselves, making their strength not measurable by ordinary peak Fetal Storage Realm cultivation.

Moreover, they are forged entirely from extremely rare materials, with steel tendons and iron bones, copper heads and iron arms; even ordinary Ninefold Refined Immortal Weapons and Heavenly Dao Divine Weapons struggle to damage them in the slightest, letting ordinary Fetal Storage Realm commanders and outlaws fight these puppets?

That would be like lambs entering a tiger's mouth—certain death.

'The arrow is on the bow; we must shoot.' Linghu Qingqing drew a deep breath, stomped his foot hard, and gritted his teeth in anger: 'The family's great undertaking rests on this one move. In this scoundrel's underground palace, the surface already holds these hundred-thousand puppets so overbearing—who knows how many more rare treasures lie hidden below?'

'Let's go all out, stake everything on this battle… our clan will not lose.'

Linghu Qingqing spoke while pulling from his sleeve a seven-colored crystal-forged, exquisitely beautiful long-necked vase.

From the vase came a faint but powerful suction that seized the heart and spirit; Wu Tie merely glanced at it and felt his blood and qi tremble, his divine fetus wavering, as if about to be forcibly pulled from his body.

Wu Tie stared blankly—what a wickedly strange object!

He quickly glanced at Linghu Qingqing and then at the long-necked vase… he suddenly recalled the soul crystals traded by the emissaries of the Auspicious Oddity Sect on the Demon-Suppressing Battlefield, with Shengyao and Yourou and others.

Instinctively, Wu Tie thought of those rare items refined from the souls and blood essence of countless human warriors.

This scoundrel Linghu Qingqing has already prepared for a great sacrifice.

He has already regarded every soldier in this fleet as expendable.

If they can slay those puppets, that's certainly a great merit… but if they are slain by the puppets, their blood essence and souls will be sucked away by the Scene Treasure Bottle, becoming commodities for his future trade with the so-called gods.

"Form the formation, attack!" Linghu Qingqing bellowed.

Four Linghu Elders rose into the air, each sacrificing the heavenly-path divine weapons they had painstakingly refined through countless efforts, then producing their most familiar innate spirit weapons, cautiously advancing toward the underground palace.

The five Hu Tu brothers also rose slowly, the five-element treasures hovering above their heads, the five-element forces interacting in cycles of generation and restriction, emitting five-colored light, closely following behind the four elders.

They held the collected innate spirit treasures, being the most financially robust and strongest combat force in this fleet; the gaunt man in imperial robes was naturally their responsibility to deal with.

On each warship, thick flowing-light chains shot out with a howl, each chain locking tightly to the neighboring vessels, tens of thousands of warships quickly linking into a single entity. On the warships, elite warriors sat cross-legged in their usual drill positions, silently cultivating the army's standard technique; the mana from a single lineage rapidly merged and integrated into the vast battle formation.

With a booming "Boom", a sheet of blood cloud shot up into the sky above the massive formation; within the blood cloud, a ferocious nine-headed dragon could be faintly seen appearing and disappearing.

The Great Jin Divine Kingdom possesses a national treasure called the Myriad Dragon Palace; this artifact was taken away by the former Crown Prince Sima Sheng, and is now controlled in hand by the White Eagle.

Within the Myriad Dragon Palace lies great profundity; the strongest battle formation of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom originates from the Myriad Dragon Palace.

Depending on the completeness of the formation and the cultivation of the troops forming it, the Great Jin Divine Kingdom's strongest battle formation can condense into a one-headed dragon, three-headed dragon, nine-headed dragon, thirty-six-headed dragon, hundred-headed dragon, all the way up to the ten-thousand-headed dragon realm.

The fleet brought by Linghu Qingqing can condense into the illusory image of a nine-headed dragon's military soul; this fleet is already top-tier elite in the present Great Jin Divine Kingdom.

Even at the founding of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, the founding divine emperor's topmost elite guard corps could only condense a hundred-headed dragon at most.

The nine-headed dragon hovered in the blood mist; its nine ferocious heads raised to the sky and let out long howls, whereupon nine different-attribute attacks—wind and rain, thunder and lightning, blazing rock magma, poisonous wind and poisonous mist—descended from the heavens, turning into a raging torrent that flooded the underground palace a hundred li away.

The man who had risen half his body, sitting dazedly in the coffin, seemingly in a state of lost consciousness, heard the nine-headed dragon's long howl; his pupils suddenly shifted.

As if suddenly awakening from a ten-thousand-year nightmare, the man's pupils flashed bright; his pupils differed from ordinary people's, not round but a strange gold-flecked color, shaped like a shuttle—vertical slit pupils.

'Hiss—roar!'

A dragon's roar surged upward from the man's chest.

Wu Tie felt his vision darken, as if a mountain had slammed into him head-on; he lost his footing, staggering backward several hundred steps. The few private-army elites of the Hu family standing behind him were struck by Wu Tie's retreating body and instantly shattered to pieces.

The seven-colored crystal stone long-necked vase hovering above the giant ship spewed a seven-colored divine light; the blood mist exploded from several private-army elites was sucked up by the vase with a 'hiss', and before their souls could escape, they were directly seized by the seven-colored divine light.

Wu Tie raised his brow, suddenly feeling a warm dampness in his nose.

He reached up and touched his nose tip, only to find fresh blood dripping from his nostrils; he stared wide-eyed in shock at the gaunt man a hundred li away who had emitted the dragon's roar.

Despite the massive battle formation between them, a single dragon's roar was enough to shake Wu Tie……

Wu Tie blinked his eyes, blankly gazing upward—where was the battle formation?

The battle formation that had condensed into a nine-headed dragon's military soul—where was it?

Wu Tie saw that on tens of thousands of warships, countless soldiers vomited blood in unison, with nearly eighty percent of the warriors limp on the decks, their bodies utterly limp and unable to move.

The battle formation composed of tens of thousands of warships and over a hundred million elite soldiers was shattered to pieces by the gaunt man's single dragon's roar!

Linghu Qingqing and Old Master Hu stared dumbfounded at the gaunt man; even the four Linghu Elders who had been slowly advancing halted their steps instinctively.

"Dragon?"

The gaunt man's thin lips parted slightly, and a cold, indifferent voice echoed through the void: "Just now, did you condense a dragon's soul?"

"I am of the dragon race, the Western Dragon King Ao Chi…… How dare you condense such a hideous nine-headed worm into a dragon's soul?"

"Those who insult my dragon kind shall die!"

Inside the coffin, Ao Chi vanished.

Before Linghu Qingqing's eyes, the strangely collapsed figure that had been three hundred sixty zhang tall suddenly shrank to over two zhang tall, and Ao Chi appeared abruptly.

Linghu Qingqing let out an angry roar, grabbed Old Master Hu, and shoved him in front of herself as a shield.

With a 'Bang', Old Master Hu's flesh and blood exploded.