Chapter 1835: The Dragon Seeking Personal Revenge

This happened without warning. Jiaotu was startled, and its long body recoiled sharply.

The Shadow Dragon's upper and lower fangs clamped shut, but there was no crunching sound, because it had bitten something.

It should have bitten Jiaotu's body in two, but the latter instinctively dodged. The Shadow Dragon only managed to bite its flank, then violently shook its head!

Their sizes were not in the same league; the Shadow Dragon flung it as easily as an adult throwing a six or seven-year-old child.

Pale golden blood splattered in the air. Jiaotu slammed into the city wall with a loud bang like muffled thunder, shaking half of the isolated city.

Such a collision left a shallow dent in the hard Panlong city wall!

There were also several radial cracks around the dent.

Previously, no matter how Jiaotu and the Shadow Dragon fought, the city wall had always been indestructible; no one could damage it in the slightest.

This collision demonstrated immense force; Jiaotu even felt its bones shattering throughout its body.

Although the Shadow Dragon's previous capture of Miaozhantian was swift, it was nowhere near as ferocious as this!

Qianhuan had just pulled itself out of the wall when the Shadow Dragon turned its head in the ruins, its massive body crushing countless broken tiles and debris, and attacked Jiaotu again!

Miaozhantian was clearly closer, but it insisted on pursuing the farther target.

This series of actions made Miaozhantian keenly sense the "personal vendetta."

It looked closely and saw that actual eyeballs had appeared in the Shadow Dragon's sunken eye sockets, with blood-red vertical pupils, unlike the two wisps of ghostly fire from before.

Seeing this behemoth charging towards it, Qianhuan endured the pain, scrambled up, and ran along the wall.

Another loud "bang" echoed, making the wall itself tremble violently and causing Qianhuan to stumble.

The Shadow Dragon missed again and couldn't stop, crashing hard into the city wall. Not only did plaster crumble and fall, but a large section of the battlements was also dislodged on impact and fell directly in front of Qianhuan.

As it hurriedly dodged, the Shadow Dragon pounced, its upper and lower fangs clamping together with a snap, missing Qianhuan's hind claw by mere millimeters. Had Qianhuan not twisted away in time, and had its tail tip not already been chopped off by Miaozhantian, it would have been caught by the Shadow Dragon this time.

Why did this thing single out Jiaotu and chase it like mad?

Qianhuan racked its brain. It had barely touched the Shadow Dragon in this battle, carefully avoiding it the entire time. From sixty years of experience, it should be no different from a rock or a plant in the Shadow Dragon's eyes.

But Qianhuan glanced back in the midst of its frantic flight and saw the Shadow Dragon's pupils dilated, reflecting only Qianhuan's image.

That gaze was not just focused; it was also filled with hatred.

Hatred?

An ominous thought simmered in Qianhuan's mind:

Could it be that this Shadow Dragon had also regained some consciousness, no longer acting purely on instinct?

Previously, Qianhuan's external avatar in Yaoguo, when unconscious and controlled by King Yao, couldn't even defeat a divine demon avatar. But once it regained consciousness, one divine demon avatar died, another was severely wounded, and Qingyang was also badly injured.

It was clear that consciousness made a world of difference in combat power, like exchanging a kitchen knife for a divine weapon.

And perhaps this Shadow Dragon had also incidentally reviewed its experiences over the past sixty years, discovering that Qianhuan, this old scoundrel, was inhumane and constantly finding ways to torment it.

Weren't all those missing parts from the dragon's body due to Qianhuan?

No wonder it relentlessly pursued Qianhuan, looking as if it harbored deep-seated resentment.

For so many years, this Shadow Dragon had acted purely on instinct. Why did it suddenly become enlightened today?

Coincidence was impossible. Qianhuan immediately thought of the recent invasion of its spiritual sea. It hadn't known what had slipped in then—could it have been this Shadow Dragon's consciousness?

The Grand Heaven Orb had been in its hands for sixty years, and this had never happened before, so the Shadow Dragon's consciousness must have come from outside.

And what could connect to its spiritual sea and let in a stowaway—

Need it be said? Only the power of the Great Square Cauldron!

Qianhuan gnashed out two words:

"He Xiao!"

Just now, He Xiao had seemed exceptionally sincere when he sent Spider Immortals and his subordinates to help the Illusion Sect dig out the divine fire array's anchor points; Qianhuan was almost fooled by him. Now the boy's true colors were revealed again: he merely wanted all three parties to suffer in the spiritual sea!

It knew that He Xiao and his group had hidden in Miaozhantian's territory, where the sand table couldn't track their location or movements. So, even in its frantic flight, it had to spare a thought to instruct Xiao Wencheng to keep a close eye on the sand table and to immediately capture He Xiao once his position appeared there!

Xiao Wencheng was very surprised to receive this instruction. After all, Granny Zhu and others had just helped them injure a demon immortal; for their side to suddenly turn against them, wasn't it too...

So he immediately said, "As you command! I will send the Blood Fiend to search."

Qianhuan had suffered a heavy blow from the Shadow Dragon, with half its belly missing. Its injuries were truly severe; with every slight movement, golden dragon blood gushed out, staining the walls, the ground, and the ruined houses and broken walls along its path.

From behind, Miaozhantian's sneering laugh could be heard: "Excellent, excellent! This is instant karma!"

Miaozhantian was now in a joyous mood. The suppressed frustration of being two-on-one against the Shadow Dragon and Jiaotu earlier had been completely dispelled by the scene before it. It hadn't yet figured out why the Shadow Dragon suddenly attacked Qianhuan—perhaps that fellow had touched something it shouldn't have?

But no matter what, it was extremely happy.

It was high time Qianhuan, that scoundrel, experienced the pain of its own making. "You've tormented it for sixty years; it must want to pay you back with interest!"

Qianhuan remained silent, activating soul power to repair its body while running towards the Fortune Pool in front of the Mitian Temple.

The Shadow Dragon pursued relentlessly from behind, its speed ridiculously fast. Jiaotu even had to use the urban terrain to hinder its progress; otherwise, it would have been overtaken long ago.

Miaozhantian, temporarily neglected, was not idle either; it swept past them from diagonally behind.

It knew what Qianhuan wanted to do:

Exit the spiritual sea!

As the master of this world, why should it stay and fight the Shadow Dragon to the death? It was better to retreat, recover from its injuries, and then re-enter to vex both of them.

If the Shadow Dragon lost its target then, would it come back to target Miaozhantian?

Nine times out of ten, it would.

The Shadow Dragon couldn't get out, but Miaozhantian had a great opportunity!

The world held by the Mirage Immortal was indistinguishable between real and fake; even Miaozhantian couldn't find a second exit here. If it could escape by following Qianhuan, it could at least avoid the Shadow Dragon's attacks.

It was clearly full of divine power and divine spells, yet it was forced to fight only with soul power. This feeling was too stifling.

If it could get out one step ahead of Qianhuan, Miaozhantian would have more room to maneuver.

In a blink of an eye, it had its calculations all figured out and determined Qianhuan's destination, so it dashed towards the Mitian Temple on its own.

The Shadow Dragon wasn't chasing it, so it didn't need to run secretively; it could just go in a straight line.

Qianhuan took a few more breaths, but also rushed to the front of the Mitian Temple.

The Fortune Pool was still rippling gently, while the broken stone head of the Mitian statue lay on the ground, its cold eyes staring directly at them, as if mocking both of them simultaneously.

Qianhuan had no time to spare to look at it. Charging all this way, it had gained several more wounds. Relying on its smaller size, it squeezed through the small side door of the temple, where the tall, solid walls could slightly slow down the Shadow Dragon.

Then it escaped to the edge of the Fortune Pool and plunged in headfirst.

A second before entering the water, it saw a shadow darting nearby, also about to dive in.

It was Miaozhantian!

It had arrived a step earlier and was waiting here for Qianhuan to open the exit.

The two entered one after another, with less than half a breath between them.

If Qianhuan could get out itself, even if there were obstacles along the way, Miaozhantian could kick them open and follow!

It was very confident.

At this point, Qianhuan couldn't pay attention to it, because the Shadow Dragon had already pushed down the temple wall and was charging towards the Fortune Pool.

Then, it ran headfirst into an iron plate and was bounced back by the water's surface.

It didn't hurt, but it just couldn't get in.

Miaozhantian was no exception.

Qianhuan's shock was immense. It lowered its head and looked into the pool:

Below the pool's surface, it was surprisingly locked by a dense net of chains. Black smoke permeated the connections and mesh, as if tangible, leaving not a single gap!

It refused to give up and charged into the water again.

Though the chains appeared somewhat elastic, hitting them felt exactly like hitting the southern gate of Panlong City directly—they were solid as iron plates!

Qianhuan could even sense that the chains were integrated, distributing force among themselves.

If it spent more time and effort slowly wearing them down, it might be able to break one or two chains. But wasn't time precisely what it lacked most now?

What a travesty! It was actually trapped in its own spiritual sea!

What material was this chain net made of that it could actually stop it?

Miaozhantian, standing nearby, raised its voice several octaves in surprise: "You can't get out either?!"

Qianhuan, face ashen, rolled to the side, dodging the Shadow Dragon's pounce. Jiaotu's golden blood dropped into the pool, and the dark shadows beneath it vied to devour it.

Miaozhantian stood by. Seeing the Shadow Dragon ram its head into the chain net with a clanging racket, but failing to create an opening, it couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

It had already figured out that Qianhuan had modeled its spiritual sea as a realm of laws. Therefore, to block the passage between the illusory and the real, and to trap the master of this spiritual sea within the isolated city, required the use of higher-level laws!

These chains in the pool were manifestations of more powerful laws.

There was another detail here: Qianhuan was the master of the spiritual sea, but not the master of this isolated city within the sea.

Upon entering the isolated city, one was either a guest or an enemy; no one here had special privileges, nor any right to command.

The only master here seemed to be the enraged Shadow Dragon before them!

The Shadow Dragon seemed dazed from hitting the chain net and vigorously shook its head. But it didn't dwell on it; it turned its head, locked onto Qianhuan again, and resumed its relentless pursuit.

Meanwhile, He Lingchuan's divine soul passed through the mirror and returned to its original body; the Haoyuan Golden Mirror also displayed the scene inside Panlong Isolated City again.

Everyone saw the latest development and exchanged bewildered glances, seeing incredulity reflected in each other's eyes.

"What's going on?" Wanqifang murmured. "Qianhuan is... trapped in its own spiritual sea and can't get out?"

"No!" Granny Zhu, with sharp insight, said. "Strictly speaking, Qianhuan is trapped in this isolated city, not its own spiritual sea."

In Qianhuan's spiritual sea, Qianhuan was the master; it wouldn't be easy for others to deal with it like this.

As she said this, her other eyes were looking at He Lingchuan, who merely raised an eyebrow and smiled inscrutably.

Dong Rui worried: "Since no one can get out, will they team up to slay the dragon first?"