“What the hell is going on?” Ryan Ling was totally dumbfounded when he saw this. Back in the day, these Dragon Scales were treasures that the whole of Japan went nuts fighting over, but now every single guy here had one. How could that not freak you out?
“Maybe something happened to the Divine Dragon!” Guihai One-Blade, always sharp, shouted right away.
Something happened to the Divine Dragon? Ryan’s mind buzzed, like the sky was caving in. The Divine Dragon wasn’t just some big shot—it was their last hope on this trip. If anything happened to it, wouldn’t that mean all their hopes just went up in smoke?
But before Ryan could even process that, those guys with black headscarves came charging in, actually trying to hack Ryan and Guihai One-Blade to death!
“Get the hell outta my way!” Ryan was already on edge, no way he’d play nice. He roared, and all the attackers went flying, while every last Dragon Scale landed in Ryan’s hand.
Even though his Nascent Soul Stage had vanished and he was back to Golden Core, dealing with these guys was basically like squashing ants.
“These really are Dragon Scales! What the hell happened?” Ryan checked them—they were exactly the same as the one Jinbiao Chen found before. There were at least a dozen here, and with this many, it was basically proof the Divine Dragon was in serious trouble!
“Where’d these Dragon Scales come from? Spit it out!” Guihai One-Blade didn’t hesitate—he grabbed their leader and snarled.
“You two outsiders actually dare mess with the Southcape Shaman Sect? You’re dead meat!” The leader wasn’t scared at all—he just snorted coldly.
“Die!” Guihai One-Blade didn’t hold back at all—a massive saber shot out from behind him and chopped the guy’s head clean off.
He swept his gaze over the others and said, "If you don't talk, you die too!"
Guihai One-Blade finished speaking, and that giant qi-saber swept across. The others weren’t as tough as their leader; instantly, everyone’s face turned pale—one guy even peed his pants.
"Talk! If you don’t, you’re next!" Ryan’s eyes locked on the guy who’d wet himself and yanked him up.
The guy’s teeth chattered in terror, and he peed even harder. He stammered, "These dragon scales—they were ripped right off the Divine Dragon!"
"Where’s the Divine Dragon? What happened to it?" Ryan felt his scalp tingle.
"The Divine Dragon—it’s dead!" The guy finished, unable to withstand Ryan’s terrifying aura, and passed out.
Hearing this, Ryan was completely stunned. For him, it was like a thunderbolt on a clear day—his whole world felt like it collapsed in an instant.
"No way, absolutely no way!" Ryan shook his head over and over, refusing to believe it. Even Guihai One-Blade was stunned.
The Divine Dragon is such a powerful being—there’s no way it’d go down that easy.
"What the hell happened? Tell me everything!" Ryan grabbed a few more guys, who screamed in terror—but that fear actually made them spill some info.
From what they said, it happened on a stormy, lightning-filled night. Weird vortex clouds appeared in the sky, then a series of deafening thunderclaps. Suddenly, a Divine Dragon—almost completely charred—fell into the Divine Dragon Pool. These guys were from the Southcape Shaman Sect, so they got lucky and picked it up.
Hearing this, Ryan and Guihai One-Blade finally understood—the Divine Dragon wasn’t dead, it had just failed its tribulation and crashed.
Ryan wasn’t even at Nascent Soul yet. The Nascent Soul Stage has five sub-levels: early, mid, late, peak, and perfection. Only at perfection can you face the Heaven-Tribulation.
The Heaven-Tribulation has nine layers, each one insanely strong. If you break through even one, you’re already halfway to being an immortal—definitely not just an ordinary mortal.
The Divine Dragon’s power was already at the late Heaven-Tribulation stage, so the lightning was even more intense. One wrong move and it could get knocked down.
Even after figuring all this out, Ryan didn’t look happy. The Divine Dragon’s sudden tribulation failure had completely wrecked his plans.
Whether he could use the Divine Dragon’s power to break through to Nascent Soul was now totally up in the air!
"Where’s the Divine Dragon’s body now? Take us there, now!" Ryan steadied himself. Hanging around the Divine Dragon Pool was pointless—finding the dragon fast was all that mattered.
No need to say more—the Divine Dragon was definitely on its last legs. If these Shaman Sect idiots messed around, things could get really bad.
"At the Southcape Shaman Sect headquarters!" one of the headscarf guys blurted out.
“To Southcape Island!” Ryan didn’t hesitate, spun the car around, and Guihai One-Blade followed close behind—the two of them sped toward Southcape Island!
The Shaman Sect was a huge native clan in Southcape, practicing shamanic arts. Their roots ran deep on Southcape Island, but even more important—they had tons of followers all over Southeast Asia. In fact, shamanism was the state religion in many South Asian countries. But these shamanists were always eyeing Huaxia, especially in Niguo, where anti-Chinese policies were extreme.
Back when Ryan unified Jiangnan, the Shaman Sect never accepted it. They relied on their shamanist allies in Southeast Asia to keep resisting—and when the seventeen provinces protested, only the Shaman Sect didn’t respond.
The Divine Dragon was Ryan’s only hope now!
If the clueless Shaman Sect killed the Divine Dragon, forget about fighting the Western Pacifying King—Jiangnan wouldn’t last ten days before the Kunlun League’s forces smashed through!
That’s why Ryan had to act against the Shaman Sect!
---
Just as Ryan and Guihai One-Blade raced toward Southcape Island, a massive shamanist festival was underway inside the island!
“The heavens have truly blessed the Shaman Sect—sending down the Divine Dragon! If each of us drinks a big bowl of dragon blood, we’ll all reach the God-Realm and become immortals. Hmph, Jiangnan will never belong to that kid Ryan—it’ll all be ours!” shouted an old shaman in bizarre clothes, his face painted with white stripes.
“That’s right! With the Divine Dragon in our hands, the Southcape Shaman Sect will rise up and take Jiangnan for ourselves. I say we cut open the dragon’s belly right now—not just drink its blood, but eat its flesh too. Then we’ll have a whole army of top experts, unstoppable!” another old shaman shouted.
In an instant, all the other shamans started barefoot dancing around, acting like they were about to soar into the sky—totally hyped.
But just then, a shaman rushed in: “Grand Shaman, that woman’s back—and she brought a bunch of people! Looks like she’s here to start a fight!”
“Damn it! Paula Bloom, that shameless woman—always using her Bloom family’s power on Southcape Island to mess with us. Now she dares crash our Dragon-Slaughter Festival? I’ll destroy her today! I hear that cougar’s got a wild side—maybe after we drink dragon blood and eat dragon meat tonight, we’ll have some fun with her too!” the Grand Shaman yelled.
“You said it—Paula Bloom’s looks are famous on Southcape Island. She’s thirty-five or thirty-six and still got a killer figure. Looks like the Shaman Sect’s getting lucky tonight!” another old shaman chimed in.
In no time, the Grand Shaman led all the shamans out—clearly, anyone who dared stop their dragon slaughter was dead meat!
Just then, Ryan and Guihai One-Blade arrived at Southcape Island. Ryan was about to charge into the Shaman Sect and rescue the Divine Dragon, but a stunning woman beat him to the punch—she rushed to the Shaman Sect’s gates, yelling to stop their outrageous plan.
Remember, the Divine Dragon is Huaxia’s totem—if the Shaman Sect really kills it, they’ll be the worst criminals in all of Huaxia!
Seeing the woman already making her move, Ryan and Guihai One-Blade held back—they’d wait and see how things played out. After all, this was Southcape, and they were outsiders. Plus, the Divine Dragon was probably in the Shaman Sect’s hands, so Ryan figured he’d better find its exact location first.
Just then, the Shaman Sect’s main gates swung open, and a vicious voice yelled: “Paula Bloom, you slut! What, you coming here to let the Shaman Sect boys have some fun?”