Chapter 695: Natural Disaster

In the chaotic battlefield, as Li Huowang momentarily struggled to understand what the newly freed Dragon Vein was doing, he saw it excitedly shouting towards the surrounding battlefield. "Run! Run! This is a trap! The Dharma Sect wants to use the Dragon Vein as bait to catch you all!"

No sooner had it spoken, than deafening roars, seemingly from nowhere, echoed continuously. The ground began to tremble violently. The clearing at the center of Yunze shook even more intensely, as if the entire fortress, or rather, the whole ground, had come alive.

It turned out that destroying the Dragon Vein was just a pretense. The Dharma Sect didn't just want to destroy the Dragon Vein; they also aimed to use its destruction as an excuse to capture all the Si Tianjian members in one fell swoop!

At that moment, the sky suddenly darkened; a natural disaster was upon them. As he felt the gaze from the sky fixated on him, a drop of cold sweat ran down his face, and Li Huowang knew they were in deep trouble.

He had originally thought that no matter how many masters the Dharma Sect brought, facing the three Si Tianjian overseers and the top experts within the Si Tianjian bureau, they were doomed to fail. Even if there was an ambush, he and Miaomiao could have left without any issue. But no one expected that God Yu'er would directly intervene!

This wasn't the Dharma Sect's conspiracy; it was God Yu'er's! To clear obstacles to his descent, he would stop at nothing.

Li Huowang knew that God Yu'er couldn't descend yet, but that didn't mean he couldn't make other moves. Since he had personally set this trap, more trouble was surely to follow.

"Go! Miaomiao, quick retreat!" Peng Longteng suddenly appeared beside Li Huowang, grabbed him with one hand, and threw him directly towards the distant swamp.

As a spine-chilling crane cry echoed from far away in the sky, the dry ground of Yunze trembled even more violently.

Suddenly, stone pillar-like fangs rose from the surrounding marsh, blocking Li Huowang's path in mid-air. Before he could turn, massive spikes continuously rose around the entire fortress. These spikes interlocked, and with a violent tremor, they slammed shut, forming a mountain-sized mouth that swallowed the entire fortress at the center of Yunze.

As they plunged into complete darkness, everything around them instantly fell silent. When Xuanpin, dragging a sun, illuminated their surroundings, the crowd erupted, and both sides of the conflict, no longer caring about anything else, scattered in all directions.

The panic on these people's faces was unmistakable. It was clear that the Dharma Sect members had not been informed this was a trap.

With things having come to this, Li Huowang could only force himself to stay calm. He walked over to Xuanpin and asked, "What method did God Yu'er use? What belly are we inside now?"

Xuanpin concisely answered Li Huowang's question. "The Earth Dragon."

"What? A real Earth Dragon?" Li Huowang's pupils contracted instantly. He had always thought "Earth Dragon turning over" was just another name for an earthquake, but he never imagined such a creature actually existed!

The dim surroundings began to tremble slowly. Clearly, the Earth Dragon had begun burrowing into the ground, and was going deeper and deeper. If they didn't find a way out soon, they'd never escape!

Realizing this, Li Huowang immediately prepared to move towards the side, intending to escape by any means necessary, even if it meant tearing a hole through this so-called Earth Dragon.

Li Huowang quickly reached the edge and pressed his hand against the iron-hard wall. Under his control, the wall quickly melted into a large opening. Although extremely tough, the hole could be fixed. But before Li Huowang could continue, something unexpected happened: He felt an itch on his body, reached for the wound on his abdomen, and pulled out several worms.

Looking at these green worms, Li Huowang suddenly recalled the human figures he had seen in Yunze. "Dad, you have so many worms in your belly, and there are more and more! I'll throw them all out."

Li Sui's tentacles continuously threw out the worms from Li Huowang's belly. But when Li Huowang saw worms also squirming beneath the smooth skin of Li Sui's tentacles, his heart skipped a beat.

The Earth Dragon was digesting them—not just people, but Li Sui as well. What made his expression turn grim was that this digestion wasn't limited to the internal body; it was also affecting the external.

"Ahhh!" Lü Xiucai's scream rang out. When Li Huowang turned around, he saw all sorts of chaotic malevolent spirits, wrapped in black smoke, emerging from Lü Xiucai's shadow.

Inside the Earth Dragon's belly, everyone's shadow began to transform into a door that could not be closed, endlessly summoning all kinds of malevolent spirits. These spirits weren't particularly strong, roughly on par with Master You. However, their numbers were infinite; no matter how many were killed, they kept coming.

"Xuanpin! Do something!" Li Huowang shouted to the Dalian Si Tianjian overseer beside him.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I already escaped before the Earth Dragon opened its mouth. What's beside you is just my illusion." As he spoke, Xuanpin's body gradually melted away.

"What did you say?!" Li Huowang stared at him in disbelief.

"As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Since I came to Later Shu to save the Dragon Vein, it's only natural that I would have a contingency plan in case of emergency. What, don't tell me you didn't prepare a backup plan?"

Li Huowang reached into his belly and pulled out a palm-sized piece of human skin that no one had noticed. Gritting his teeth, he admitted he had prepared a backup plan. While traveling, he had secretly peeled off two layers of his own skin to create two life-saving artifacts: one for himself and one for Miaomiao. But his backup plan was utterly useless in this situation!

Li Huowang quickly scanned his surroundings, only to find that besides Xuanpin, the Si Tianjian Overseer of Later Shu had also fled, and many others had run away too.

The only consolation was that Zheng Boqiao, the Si Tianjian Overseer of Siji, had not escaped. He stood there with a livid face, surveying the surroundings as if calculating something. His own backup plan apparently hadn't allowed him to get out either.

"No matter, just wait a moment. My external self is definitely figuring out a way to rescue you. You don't need to doubt that I would abandon you, as both Dragon Veins are also in here."

"Wait a moment?! Do you see if we *can* wait now?!" Li Huowang cut down the malevolent spirits charging at him with a single swing of his sword, and pointed at the chaos before him, demanding an answer.

In just this short time, the various malevolent spirits had made the surroundings incredibly crowded. Many of those with weaker cultivation had already succumbed to the combined assault of internal worms and external spirits, making the situation instantly critical.

"Don't panic. My external self is definitely thinking of a way. Besides, you won't die that easily." After saying this, Xuanpin's body completely melted away.

Just then, Li Sui's voice emerged in Li Huowang's mind. For the first time, her voice was filled with fear and dread. "Dad, a lot of worms are appearing in my belly too. They're eating my flesh, Dad. Am I going to die?"