At this moment, the person most stunned was Master Azan. Clearly, he had never expected Ryan Ling and the others to suddenly rise up out of nowhere, with their power skyrocketing to this level.
"Master Azan, what do we do now?" The other black wizards nearby were all staring in shock. Earlier, they couldn’t understand why Master Azan had suddenly ordered a retreat, but now every single one of them looked at him with newfound respect.
Obviously, if not for Master Azan’s quick thinking, the entire Nyamar black wizard corps would have been completely wiped out.
"Get back to Nyamar immediately! Deploy every last national defense measure!" Master Azan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. By now, Ryan Ling was already going after Infernal Rakshasa Ksitigarbha. Once, Ksitigarbha was so powerful—yet now, in Ryan’s grip, it looked like he could be crushed to death in an instant.
The rest of the black wizards didn’t dare hesitate for even a second—they all immediately retreated toward Nyamar.
Watching this insane scene unfold, Master Azan quickly issued a second order: "Call in every Shaman Cult leader from all Southeast Asian countries, notify the U.S. commander stationed in Malacca, and send word to Grandmother Long, the Kunlun League’s Southeast Asia envoy—tell them to reinforce Nyamar ASAP. Otherwise, not just Nyamar, but all of Southeast Asia will become a living hell."
"Understood!" The surrounding black wizards were sweating bullets. This was obviously a full-on nightmare level emergency. The moment this order went out, tens of millions of people would be thrown into panic!
But Master Azan had no choice. Right now, even if it wasn’t Ryan Ling—even Guihai One-Blade or Paula Bloom could pose a country-level threat. How could he not take maximum precautions?
After issuing this string of orders, Master Azan led everyone off the South Sea waters. Meanwhile, Nyamar’s warships were still monitoring the situation up ahead.
"Ksitigarbha, do you really think you’re a match for me?" At this point, the Infernal Rakshasa Ksitigarbha had been completely blocked off by Ryan Ling, with Guihai One-Blade and Paula Bloom sealing every possible escape route above and below.
"Anything left to say? Today’s the day you get wiped out for good!" Ryan roared, ready to send Ksitigarbha straight to oblivion.
Ksitigarbha was totally freaked out now. He saw the Hell Furnace’s Yellow-Spring Hellfire bubbling up—one touch from that stuff and any ghost would get roasted to ashes!
"Spare me! I’ll be your slave, obey you for a thousand lifetimes, just don’t kill me!" Ksitigarbha dropped to his knees, begging for his life.
"Don’t fall for it! This guy’s sneaky as hell—he’ll stab you in the back for sure!" Ghost Elder piped up inside Ryan, sounding totally fed up with Ksitigarbha’s tricks.
Ryan just snorted. "Heh, you’re not even worth it!" Without a second thought, he let the endless Yellow-Spring Hellfire blaze down.
"Wait!" Ksitigarbha realized he was toast, face turning deathly pale as he shrieked, "Kid, you can’t kill me! I serve the Western Pacifying King—if you take me out, you’re picking a fight with him, and you’ll die without a grave!"
Ryan just clenched his jaw. "Oh yeah? I’ll take down the Western Pacifying King sooner or later— but you die first!" He knew Ksitigarbha was pure trouble, so he swept his gaze over and yanked the demon straight into the Hell Furnace.
This demon was evil to the core—if the Western Pacifying King hadn’t been backing him, he’d have been dead a million times over in the Netherworld already.
"Oh crap, Ksitigarbha’s dead!" The surrounding black wizards freaked out, screaming in panic.
"Everyone fall back—get ready for the final showdown!" Master Azan gulped hard. He couldn’t believe that in just a few minutes, such a powerhouse had been shredded by Ryan.
Obviously, they were next on the chopping block!
"Hey, Divine Dragon, how you holding up?" Ryan didn’t bother chasing the black wizards—after squashing Ksitigarbha, he dove straight into the ocean to check on the dragon!
The Divine Dragon was totally wrecked—scales busted, body covered in wounds.
Without hesitating, Ryan shoved the Dragon Pearl back into the dragon’s claws. That pearl was its lifeline—maybe with it, the dragon would perk up a bit!
"I... I..." The moment the Dragon Pearl touched the Divine Dragon, its faint glow vanished—looks like the pearl was all tapped out. The dragon was so beat up it couldn’t even speak.
"This is bad—the dragon’s hurt down to its marrow! We need to heal it, or it’s toast!" Guihai One-Blade was super tense, sounding like he was about to lose it.
"How do we fix this? I’ll grab the stars and moon if I have to—I’m saving this dragon no matter what!" Ryan had just scored his Nascent Soul thanks to the dragon, so there was no way he’d let anything happen to it.
"It’s tough, real tough!" Even Guihai was at a loss, staring at the dragon’s sorry state.
But the Divine Dragon didn’t seem to care about itself—its weak eyes drifted to a cracked dragon egg nearby, then back to Ryan. It was basically asking him to take over.
"No way, Divine Dragon! Don’t even think about giving up—I’ll save you, I swear!" Ryan’s heart was pounding like crazy. The dragon knew it was on its last legs; after failing the tribulation and blocking all those black wizards, plus taking a hit from Ksitigarbha, it was basically hanging by a thread.
"Ryan, use your Primeval Heavenwood—the life liquid inside might keep the dragon going!" Ghost Elder shouted from inside, quick on the uptake.
"Right, the Heavenwood!" Ryan forced himself to chill out, then yanked the whole Primeval Heavenwood out of the Demon-Snaring Bowl and plopped it next to the dragon. Instantly, endless life liquid poured into its massive body.
The Divine Dragon’s wounds eased up a little, but for a beast that size, it was just a drop in the bucket. Soon it slowly closed its eyes, clearly wiped out.
"It’ll barely hold on for a few days, but this is still bad news—we need to find a real cure, fast!" Ghost Elder added, sounding super urgent.
"Where do we even find that?" Ryan blurted out, desperate.
"Far as I know, only dragonkind itself or Nyamar’s black wizards can cure this. Those guys used to call themselves Dragon Masters—they know dragons better than anyone. That’s how they made the Divine Dragon fail its tribulation. So if you wanna save it, you’ll have to storm the black wizards’ home turf in Nyamar…"
Ryan’s eyes lit up. "Black wizards, huh? Looks like we’re about to crash their party in Nyamar!"
Guihai One-Blade nodded, his face grim. "We’ll have to go all out. Saving the Divine Dragon is our top priority."
Paula Bloom punched her palm, grinning. "Count me in—let’s show those black wizards what real power looks like!"
Ghost Elder snickered inside Ryan. "With you three together, those black wizards won’t know what hit ‘em!"
The Divine Dragon, still weak, managed a faint nod. It was putting all its hopes on Ryan and the crew.
Ryan clenched his fists, eyes blazing. "Don’t worry, Divine Dragon—I’ll get you back on your feet, even if I have to flip Nyamar upside down!"
The crew geared up, ready to take on whatever horrors Nyamar’s black wizards had cooked up.
As they set out, the atmosphere was tense but electric—everyone knew the next battle would be a showdown for the ages.
Ryan glanced at the battered Divine Dragon and the cracked dragon egg. "Hang in there. I’ll be back soon—and I’ll bring hell to Nyamar!"
With that, the squad plunged into the deep, ready to sweep away everything in their path!