"Damn it, of all times, they had to show up now!" The Ghost Elder froze, then yelled out. At least a dozen top-tier experts had appeared around the perimeter, each one no weaker than those five life-bound Shaman Gods.
Ryan Ling gritted his teeth. With his current strength, wiping out all these people would be a real struggle. Worse, he was hauling the entire Shaman Cult treasure vault—if a fight broke out, he'd definitely lose a chunk of it!
"Go!" Ryan didn’t hesitate. He channeled all his power into his feet, and in an instant, golden light blazed up beneath him like wind-fire wheels—he shot forward at breakneck speed.
"Trying to run? You think we’ll just let you escape? Heaven-Net!" One of the Kunlun League bosses shouted. Instantly, a massive net unfurled across the sky, while the other bosses joined in—layer after layer of black nets covered the horizon, dyeing the sky pitch-black. The killing qi rolling off them was no weaker than the Seven-Star Massacre Array!
At that moment, Ryan stopped dead in his tracks, fists clenched tight!
"Heh, Ryan Ling, today’s your funeral. You mess with the Kunlun League, you really think you’ll walk away alive?"
"Don’t kill him too quickly. HQ’s already concentrated most of our forces in China—the whole Yangtze region is locked down. Once public opinion is suppressed, the attack begins. Soon, the whole Southriver will be up in flames, and the 'God of Southriver' can watch his homeland burn!"
"Got it, we’re taking him alive. You see how much weaker his aura is now? Catching him should be a breeze!"
......
With all the Kunlun League bosses shouting, Ryan was now completely surrounded!
But he wasn’t panicked—in fact, he looked totally calm.
"Bunch of idiots—break!" Ryan didn’t even bother with them; he just threw a berserk punch straight ahead.
Boom! With a deafening crash, that so-called Heaven-Net was smashed open—a huge hole blasted right through!
"Is this guy even human?" The boss who’d spoken earlier gulped hard, eyes bugging out in shock.
Ryan didn’t hesitate—he shot through the gap, riding the waves again.
Right now, taking down all these Kunlun League bosses would be tough for him, but blocking his escape? That was pure wishful thinking!
"Stop him! Don’t let him get away!" Seeing Ryan fly off again, the bosses all shouted at once. By now, nobody was backing down.
"Chase him! Everyone, bust out your best Dao Artifacts—we have to intercept him!" As soon as the order dropped, every top boss whipped out their own Dao Artifact, and not one of them was shabby.
Swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks, forks—every kind of weapon imaginable!
Sure, none of these Dao Artifacts could compare to his Kanglong Mace or the Hell Furnace, but with those boosts, their power shot up several times over!
Ryan Ling gritted his teeth. Right now, his Nascent Soul power was starting to go a little haywire—after all, the Niyama war had burned up almost all his strength, and he’d only just broken into the Nascent Soul Stage, so things were still a bit unstable!
But that instability was just a matter of time.
Maybe with a night’s meditation, everything would be back to normal.
"Ryan, these guys are like sticky plasters—you just can’t shake them off!" The Ghost Elder grumbled, watching the Kunlun League bosses claw and shout behind them.
They were still some distance from the Crystal Palace, so Ryan could only power forward. As long as he reached the Crystal Palace and got the dragon power shield, those jerks wouldn’t be able to keep up so easily.
"Get him! He’s obviously slowing down—I bet he’s almost out of juice, hah!" One of the lead Kunlun bosses shouted, and the rest all started yelling too. They’d just joined the fight and were still totally pumped.
"Damn it, you think I’m just here for decoration? I’ll kill a few of you right now!" Ryan was annoyed—even if he couldn’t wipe them all out at once, he could still take down a few and scare the rest off.
"Hell, if it comes down to it, we’ll just throw down—like we’re scared of them!" The Ghost Elder was gritting his teeth too.
But just then, a voice called out from behind—it was none other than Paula Bloom of the Bloom Family from Southcape. With the Dragon Pearl’s blessing, she’d reached fifth-tier God Realm, but since the Niyama battle had to be a quick hit, Ryan hadn’t brought her along. He never expected Paula to show up now!
"Ryan, hurry and follow me!" Paula called out. She’d already carved out a temporary tunnel to the undersea Crystal Palace using dragon power!
"How’d you get here?" Ryan was a little surprised.
"I know my strength isn’t much help to you, but I figured you’d come back, so I whipped up a tunnel on the fly—thought it might be useful…" Paula hadn’t even finished before Ryan grabbed her hand, shouting excitedly.
"It’s super useful! You’re seriously clever and capable!" Ryan said, yanking her toward the tunnel.
"Didn’t you say I was dead weight?" Paula huffed, clearly still a little salty about what Ryan had said last time.
"I take it back, you’re definitely not dead weight. You’re awesome—the most capable woman in the world!" Ryan grinned, piling on the compliments.
"That’s more like it!" Paula said, giving her chest a little shake and shooting Ryan a smoldering look, obviously teasing him.
Ryan couldn’t help swallowing, his hands itching.
But this was crunch time—Ryan didn’t have the luxury to think about that. He quickly dragged Paula into the dragon-power tunnel, and their speed shot up several times over.
With the Dragon Pearl’s blessing, dragon power treated them like magnets—instantly pulling them along.
"They got away? Where’d they go? They just vanished?"
"No way they just flew off—we’ll find them for sure! Search the area, hurry up!"
"Yeah, I can sense dragon power fluctuating nearby. That mysterious Divine Dragon Crystal Palace must be close. If we find it, we’ll catch them all in one net—the Divine Dragon’s badly wounded right now!"
"Right, seal off hundreds of miles around—search every inch! No way they just disappeared into thin air!"
......
At this point, the South Asia Kunlun League bosses weren’t about to let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away. This was supposed to be Grandmother Long’s big moment, but now that she was dead, everyone wanted the credit.
In no time, massive waves of power swept over the sea, blanketing everything. All the fish and shrimp nearby started dying off in droves.
Meanwhile, deep under the sea, Ryan and Paula had already made it back to the Crystal Palace. With the Dragon Palace finally in sight, Ryan could finally breathe a little easier.
He immediately handed over the precious herbs he’d stolen from the Shaman Cult to the Divine Dragon. With its healing powers, the Divine Dragon slowly began absorbing the ones that would help its injuries.
But the Divine Dragon was still way too hurt—Ryan wasn’t naive enough to think these herbs would fix it in one go. The only real cure would be surviving another Heaven-Tribulation; only then could its power truly return!
With that handled, Ryan headed back to his own chamber. Burning his Nascent Soul power to the max had taken a toll, but with three hours—or at most, a night—he’d be back to full strength.
The Shaman Cult’s treasure trove had tons of herbs for cultivation, plus some top-tier nutrient fluids for the Primeval Heavenwood’s growth. Ryan dumped them all in, sparing no expense!
"Bunch of cocky bastards—enjoy your last few hours. Once I’m done here, I’ll cut you all down!" Ryan muttered, shutting his eyes. As he started his second round of training in the Dragon Palace, Paula Bloom quietly slipped in, clearly here to ‘help out.’ This time, she was dressed extra provocatively—looked like she was finally ready to finish what she’d started last time…