Chapter 1855: Demonic Lord's True Form (Part 2)

The Golden Crow roared in fury. From countless corners of the Southern Divine Region, an enormous Golden Crow could be seen clearly, spreading its wings proudly across the distant sky, staining a vast stellar region an incomparably dazzling gold.

The ground of the Azure Sea Divine Region rapidly sank, then sank further... This divine region, protected by the Azure Sea for hundreds of thousands of years and still uncollapsed even after the war between the two divine regions, truly began to disintegrate layer by layer into eternal nothingness under the terrifying Golden Crow Divine Flames.

The scorching inferno light illuminated pairs of golden-hued pupils, searing their bodies as if their skin were pressed against a red-hot branding iron, and even their souls seemed to be forged by the flames.

Even from hundreds of miles away, it was like this. It was impossible to imagine the purgatory Long Bai endured, buried at the very heart of the fiery sun sea.

But the fiery purgatory was far from over.

The eruption of the Nine Suns' Heavenly Wrath had not yet ceased. Within the golden inferno, scarlet fire lotuses suddenly blossomed silently.

The fire lotuses vied to bloom, at first merely adorning the dazzling golden sea of fire, until hundreds... thousands... tens of thousands... the entire fiery expanse and the sky transformed into a crimson-gold, an infinitely splendid and captivating sight.

"World-Blossoming Red Lotus..." Qianye Ying'er murmured softly.

The Nine Suns' Heavenly Wrath and the World-Blossoming Red Lotus, the ultimate extremes of Golden Crow Flame and Phoenix Flame... Yun Che could not only contain them simultaneously, but now, he could even release them simultaneously!

In the three years within the Cosmic Sky Realm, his profound cultivation had not broken through, but his command over various powers had clearly entered a completely new realm.

All the Dragon Gods and Dragon Monarchs seemed to have lost their souls, unable to even utter a cry.

As for the five Elder Dragon Sovereigns... When Yun Che fully unleashed his Dragon God aura, they had thought nothing in the world could shock them so profoundly. But now, their withered faces twitched violently in extreme shock.

Dragon God... Darkness... Tribulation Lightning... Storm... Fire...

The simultaneous eruption and blazing forth of the Nine Suns' Heavenly Wrath and the World-Blossoming Red Lotus...

Their understanding, as Dragon Emperors and Dragon Gods, which could be called unparalleled through ancient and modern times, was thoroughly shattered.

Yun Che's figure appeared in the completely transformed sky. With his back to the sea of fire and fire lotuses, he subtly flicked his fingers.

BOOM————

The cry of the Golden Crow intertwined with the song of the Phoenix. The scarlet fire lotuses exploded simultaneously, unleashing endless crimson flames. Yet, the Phoenix flames and the Golden Crow flames did not devour or repel each other; instead, they merged in a bizarre fusion that defied understanding, weaving together into a scarlet inferno as dazzling as a dream and as terrifying as a nightmare.

"Ugh ahhhhh!"

Large swathes of screams erupted. A group of relatively weaker Western Divine Region God Emperors instantly turned blood-red from head to toe, their hair burning, under the illumination of the crimson flames. The sudden onset of pain felt as if their bodies had been instantly incinerated.

They frantically circulated their profound energy, finally managing to dispel the terrifying heat. When they looked up, for a moment they couldn't believe that the crimson flames were still hundreds of miles away.

The crimson firelight engulfed everything. Whether sky or earth, their original colors could no longer be found.

Only Yun Che's figure stood clearly and proudly above the sky... The profound practitioners of the Northern Region stared up blankly. At this moment, they were not looking up at the Devil Master, but at a god.

Within the heaven-burning crimson sea of fire, a vague, struggling phantom of a thousand-zhang dragon body could be glimpsed.

How painful the searing of the crimson flames was, one could absolutely not imagine without experiencing it firsthand.

The Dragon Emperor, no one doubted that he possessed the strongest will and soul in the current age, yet even he was on the verge of soul collapse within this excessively cruel purgatory.

Howl...

A faint, hoarse dragon roar, filled with pain, could be heard. The struggling dragon phantom rapidly contracted at this moment, and then, leveraging this contraction, forcibly tore open a rapidly fading Dragon Realm, finally managing to escape the crimson inferno with great difficulty.

Beneath the crimson sky, Long Bai, who had reverted to human form and was covered in flames, plummeted straight down, crashing violently onto the ground.

Only in the moment before he landed did the crimson flames on his body finally extinguish.

But Long Bai, having crashed to the ground, did not get up for a long time. The dragon aura swirling around him was incredibly chaotic and turbid, mixed with soul-scorching fiery energy... Clearly, the terrifying crimson flames had deeply invaded his dragon body, dragon veins, and dragon soul; even as the Dragon Emperor, it was absolutely impossible for him to expel them in a short time.

Yun Che slowly descended, looking down at Long Bai.

Long Bai's white robe, long hair, and eyebrows had all turned to ash. His everted flesh and exposed dragon bones were all charred black, his entire body seeming to be encased in a thick layer of black charcoal, with not a single intact spot to be found.

Such a tragic state left no trace of the Dragon Emperor's majesty... No one dared to believe that this was actually the Dragon Emperor, supreme in chaos and arrogant over myriad realms.

However, precisely because he was the Dragon Emperor, his ultimately too formidable dragon body allowed him, despite the immense suppression, to quickly escape Yun Che's crimson purgatory.

Sensing Yun Che's approaching aura, Long Bai opened his eyes. His gaze was filled with pain, confusion, bewilderment, ferocity, and unwillingness... His facial features, entirely distorted from their human form, twitched violently. His lips parted, and before a sound could escape, he suddenly spewed large plumes of black, scorching smoke from his internal organs.

"Cough... cough cough cough cough cough..."

He coughed painfully, his chest heaving as if about to split apart. The burns all over his body were torn layer by layer, then torn again.

He couldn't believe his wretched state.

Because he was Long Bai!

He was the supreme sovereign between heaven and earth, the emperor of chaos!

How could he possibly be defeated by a mere Yun Che...?

BANG!!

A foot viciously stamped onto his chest. His calcified dragon bones shattered layer by layer like bursting beans... Long Bai's entire body stiffened, and in his dragon eyes, Yun Che's cold gaze, as if looking down on an ant, was reflected from close range.

This kind of gaze had always only appeared when he looked down upon others.

"Long Bai," Yun Che lowered his gaze and murmured indifferently, "This ugly appearance truly suits you."

"..." Long Bai's eyes narrowed with a ferocious might. But before he could speak, Yun Che's foot pressed down hard, and the words about to be uttered instantly turned into a painful guttural sound.

"What, unwilling? Unreconciled?" Yun Che's face showed no pleasure, nor pity, only a soul-chilling indifference:

"You wanted a duel, and I granted you this opportunity."

"You didn't use a weapon, so I discarded mine."

"You were injured, and I injured myself to a greater extent."

"I gave you every chance, but you're... useless...!"

The cold words turned into a low growl. The deep-seated anger within him seemed to slightly lose control at this moment. As a sinister glint flashed in Yun Che's eyes, the power around his body surged downwards.

PFFT!!

Amidst the cruel muffled sound, Long Bai's chest completely shattered. Yun Che's entire foot sank deep into his internal organs.

Two large plumes of blood mist simultaneously erupted violently from Long Bai's chest and mouth.

The Dragon City of Qiankun, the Elder Dragon Sovereigns... Clearly, what Long Bai desired was not merely the utter annihilation of the devil race, but an incredibly strong desire to drive Yun Che into complete and utter despair, to make him realize how utterly humble and insignificant he was before Long Bai... ideally forcing him to beg for mercy with his tail between his legs, revealing his full ugliness.

With this, he sought to prove to Yun Che, to Shen Xi... and even more so to himself, how wrong Shen Xi's choice had been!

Yun Che, similarly ruthless... by discarding his weapon and not hesitating to injure himself, ensured that Long Bai, after his miserable defeat, couldn't find a shred of dignity, not even a tiny reason to console himself.

"Dragon Emperor!"

"Your Highness!!"

The sound of shattering bones and spraying dragon blood jolted the Dragon Gods, who were in extreme shock, as if waking from a dream. They no longer cared about the Dragon Emperor's command or past lessons. Apart from the heavily injured Azure Dragon God and the still-shaken White Rainbow Dragon God, all five other Dragon Gods unleashed their dragon energy.

But before they could act, a shrill, heart-rending dragon roar suddenly resounded.

Mutated dragon energy, mixed with dragon blood, erupted, shaking Yun Che far away. Long Bai's body slowly rose at this moment, the dragon energy swirling around him... shockingly mixed with dense blood energy.

The expressions of the Dragon Gods drastically changed. All the God Emperors of the Western Region were greatly alarmed.

"Dragon Emperor, you..." Dragon Two spoke with a heavy, alarmed tone, his heart half-filled with anger, half with sorrowful disappointment.

Mutated dragon aura, a blood-stained Dragon Realm... Long Bai had actually burned his own Dragon God essence blood!

Burning essence blood, while granting power beyond the norm for a short period, often came at the cost of irreversible talent impairment! One should absolutely not do so unless in desperate straits.

Among some human races with special inheritances, if the consumed essence blood was not excessively heavy, there were still ways to restore it, though it would require immense resources and a long time.

However, once the essence blood of the Dragon God lineage was consumed, it was a permanent loss! There had never been a precedent or possibility of recovery!

(After all, they didn't possess Dragon God Marrow.) What was even more terrifying than burning essence blood was Long Bai's current state... The Dragon God essence blood he had burned was certainly not a small amount; it was likely as much as half!

The price was that after this battle, his dragon might would very likely be inferior to that of the seven existing Dragon Gods.

He's gone mad... The Dragon Emperor has gone mad.

He had indeed suffered a miserable defeat at Yun Che's hands, defying everyone's expectations. However, this was absolutely not his desperate situation, nor was it the desperate situation of the Dragon God Realm.

On the contrary, though he alone was defeated, the Western Divine Region still held an absolute crushing advantage over the Northern Divine Region.

With just one command from him, the Northern Divine Region would surely fall into an abyss. The severe injuries Yun Che inflicted upon him could be repaid tenfold.

Even if he possessed a tiny shred of sanity, he could not possibly have made this utterly inconceivable and insane move.

With his essence blood burned, there was no turning back. Long Bai also, at this moment, completely cast off his hundreds of thousands of years of Dragon Emperor majesty. His charred facial features, twitching, were uglier and more ferocious than the most malevolent ghost anyone could imagine.

"Heh heh... heh heh heh heh..."

Long Bai was laughing, a laugh that made scalps tingle and bodies turn cold.

"I am the Dragon Emperor, the master of chaos, the supreme sovereign of all heavens. Thousands of races and myriad spirits in this world must all bow before me in submission!"

"And you... you are merely a junior, a filthy dark devil beast!"

"How could I possibly be defeated by you... How could I be inferior to you!"

His hoarse, sinister voice unrestrainedly vented the terrifying arrogance he had never revealed for countless years.

Perhaps, beneath his long-standing facade of indifference to all things and disdain for throwing his weight around... lay an extreme arrogance that had never truly regarded anyone, any living being, as worthy of his attention.

"Just now, it was merely a test. Now, this is my true power!" He raised his charred arm, around which slowly flowing crimson blood energy was entwined: "Now feel... the Emperor's wrath!!"

His appearance and his words seemed to have completely succumbed to madness.

"Your Highness! Your Highness... you..."

The Dragon Gods were stunned on the spot, their hearts sinking into an abyss.

Long Bai had indeed suffered a miserable defeat, but it wasn't because he was weak; it was because the returned Yun Che was too terrifying. Especially his Dragon God aura, which surpassed all reason, had caused an excessively severe suppression on Long Bai.

Although the defeat was somewhat unsightly, it certainly wasn't humiliating. Moreover, with the power to command the Western Region, he could crush his opponent in an instant.

They couldn't understand why a mere defeat could strike Long Bai so profoundly... He was the Dragon Emperor with the strongest dragon soul, the most tenacious will, and unwavering conviction!

A terrifying cold might settled upon the five Dragon Gods as Long Bai's gaze subtly shifted. His words were low and deliberate: "I will kill Yun Che; what need is there for others' strength! Any of you who dares to interfere... I will ensure he has no burial place!"

The five Dragon Gods froze in place, no longer daring to release their dragon energy.

Their gazes met... each more confused and bewildered than the last.

"Oh dear." Chi Wuyao murmured softly: "Long Bai's obsession with Shen Xi is truly far more terrifying than imagined."

She glanced at Qianye Ying'er: "Is that Shen Xi truly beautiful enough to cause such heavenly chaos and worldly disorder?"

"Hmph, a mere seductress." Qianye Ying'er scoffed through her nose.

She had never met Shen Xi, and had no desire to.

"Hah... Aaaahhhh!"

Long Bai let out a furious roar, his body flashing like a blood shadow, and charged straight at Yun Che... With his essence blood burning, his Dragon God power was imbued with profound savagery, tragic intensity, and a faint despair.

The permanent loss of Shen Xi and the personal crushing of Yun Che had almost become his final, unyielding obsession.

Yun Che did not move his feet, but slowly raised his hand to meet the blood-red dragon energy.

THUMP———

The blood light burst forth, yet Yun Che's body remained unmoving. Long Bai's dragon claw, infused with rampaging power, was simply halted between Yun Che's fingers.

Even with Dragon God power that had wildly surged at the cost of burning his essence blood, he still could not resist the overwhelmingly dominant bloodline suppression.

Facing Long Bai, whose pupils had burst open with desperate blood patterns, Yun Che's lips curled into a disdainful sneer as he quietly murmured, "Is that all?"

CRACK!!

He tightened his five fingers. Amidst the violently bursting blood light, the dragon claw, which had been calcified for a long time in the crimson flames, was directly crushed into dust.