The group hurriedly rushed out with the Dragon-Qilin. The Dragon-Qilin was wounded and limping, so Lina the Spirit Fox leapt onto Quinn Shepherd’s pack, immediately casting a spell to summon a tornado that swept the Dragon-Qilin into its winds and carried him along with them.
Behind them, Heaven-Wave City—built atop riverbank mountains—was collapsing. In its midst, the colossal Nethervault Demon King fought against the city’s many experts. At the same time, he still had leisure to pulverize the flesh of those he killed, using their bones and skulls to construct a sacrificial altar.
Bloody bones and skulls kept flying through the air, landing at his feet and quickly forming a thick layer.
He had only projected his magic power and consciousness here—his true body remained in the so-called Nethervault—but even in this incomplete state, his strength already surpassed Cult-Master-class experts.
Within the city, the Dragon King of the Dragon Tamer Sect was not the only Cult-Master-level powerhouse; there were others at the Life-and-Death Realm and even Divine Bridge Realm. Yet even besieged, none could overcome the Nethervault Demon King—instead, they were repeatedly wounded.
As for the city’s stationed army—tens of thousands of divine-ability practitioners—under the Nethervault Demon King’s roar, many were wounded, and countless more were slain by the twelve beams of his gaze.
The city was in utter chaos. Countless soldiers broke formation, scrambling to flee, some leaping straight into the river only to be smashed against the cliffs by the raging waves, their bodies shattered to pieces.
Most of the city’s soldiers were disciples from various sects, lacking proper military discipline. Faced with such horror, they collapsed instantly, their morale shattered—unable to rally their forces or form arrays to trap the Nethervault Demon King.
When Quinn and Libationer Barrett trained beyond the frontier, eight hundred steppe divine-ability practitioners working together could batter Barrett’s Cliffwall Heaven-Steel divine art until he was forced to retreat again and again.
Libationer Barrett was a Cult-Master-class expert, and even he could be driven back. Heaven-Wave City had tens of thousands of divine-ability practitioners and warriors. If they joined forces, they might have withstood the Nethervault Demon King for a while. But unfortunately, the sects were fragmented, unable to unite—their own lives took priority over everything else.
Quinn glanced back and saw Drake Dandy still in wild pursuit, but it didn’t seem like he was actually chasing them to kill.
"That's it—Drake Dandy is fleeing for his life too," Quinn realized.
Boom—
As powerhouses clashed, terrifying shockwaves rippled out, tearing buildings apart, sending fragments spinning through the sky. Quinn and his companions were swept up by the force, flung into midair, while countless others tumbled and spun in all directions.
Boom, boom—before they even hit the ground, more shockwaves crashed into them. Quinn was battered so badly he coughed blood, hurriedly snatching Lina off his back and cradling her to keep the Spirit Fox from being killed by the impact.
The fourth shockwave slammed into them. Quinn grunted, forcing his Overlord Three-Core Art into motion; his body instantly toughened, but he was still sent flying.
Thud.
Quinn crashed to the ground, rolling over a dozen times before finally stopping. He’d been hurled into a mountain forest, where wild winds howled overhead, shaving off the tops of countless trees.
Those winds were the lingering shockwaves from the Heaven-Wave City powerhouses’ divine abilities.
Blood trickled from Quinn’s lips as his eyes widened; his chest felt so tight he could barely breathe. After a moment, he suddenly gasped for air, a crackling sound coming from his lungs—he must’ve suffered a lung injury from the shock.
Quinn took a few rough breaths, then pulled Lina the Spirit Fox from his arms. She was badly hurt and unconscious. Quinn quickly fished a jade bottle from his Glutton Dragon Pouch, pried open her mouth, and poured several drops of Dragon Spittle Elixir down her throat.
After a moment, the fox slowly came to, dazed for a bit, then began to cry: "I lost Dragon Big!"
The Dragon-Qilin, unable to walk properly, had been carried by Lina's spell—a tornado that let the beast float in midair. But when those shockwaves blasted through, her magic was shattered, and the Dragon-Qilin was flung away, high and far.
Quinn comforted her: "It's fine, Dragon Big can heal himself—though with a wound on his rear, I just worry he can't lick it. Anyway, I've lost Wayne Shen and the others too."
"Dragon Big is valuable!"
Lina bawled, "Wayne Shen and the others aren't worth anything..."
Quinn stood, circulated his yuanqi, and forced the clotted blood from his chest. Then he scooped Lina into his arms. "Let's go find them."
He’d barely finished speaking when his body tensed up. From deep within the woods came the sound of trees collapsing—a massive serpent slithered out, forcing the trunks aside as it passed.
It was the same giant snake that had once destroyed Quinn and Wes Young’s tower-ship on their way to the capital!
The monster raised by Drake Dandy!
"Cough, cough..."
A fit of violent coughing echoed from the serpent’s head. Quinn looked up to see a bedraggled, flamboyant man—Drake Dandy—perched atop the flat skull, coughing and spitting blood.
His gaudy flowered robe was riddled with holes, makeup smeared across his face—he looked utterly wretched.
"You destroyed Heaven-Wave City! You ruined my Dragon Tamer Sect!"
Drake Dandy staggered to his feet atop the serpent’s head, half-crying, half-laughing, his gaze landing on Quinn. Quinn’s heart tightened and he began to retreat step by step, slow and deliberate.
Drake Dandy was a top-tier expert—he’d once fought the capital’s elite archery cavalry and Sword Guard, escaping clean despite their best efforts.
"Who are you, really?"
The flower-crowned serpent lifted its head, glaring down at Quinn. Drake Dandy shrilled, "Did the Imperial Preceptor send you?"
Quinn said nothing, backing up to a big tree, then suddenly darted behind it.
Drake Dandy shrieked, thrusting out a hand—yuanqi formed a giant palm that crushed the tree to splinters with a snap!
But there was no sign of Quinn behind the tree. Drake Dandy went wild, raising both hands; the ground trembled as jagged stone spikes thrust up from below, towering higher than the trees. In moments, the whole area became a forest of stone, dozens of zhang across.
"Escaped? You can't get away."
The giant serpent slithered forward, crushing stone spikes as it went. Drake Dandy, still wounded, writhed atop the serpent’s head like a human snake. After a moment, his head split open, then his face, and out from beneath crawled a new head.
He kept wriggling like a snake, and soon shed his entire human skin. Drake Dandy stood up naked, fetched a fresh set of robes, and slowly dressed, glancing around and giggling: "I know you haven’t gone far. You’re still hiding nearby—I can feel your eyes on me. Admiring my body, are you?"
Quinn crouched in the crown of a tree about a hundred zhang away, eyes locked on Drake Dandy’s newly molted form. "The Dragon Tamer Sect’s bizarre art really lets him shed his old skin and swap bodies. But wasn’t Drake Dandy supposed to be the Dragon King’s son? Why does he look like a curvy woman...?"
The instant he’d ducked behind the tree, Quinn had pulled his teleportation robe over himself and jumped away, dodging Drake Dandy’s killing blow. But with his limited cultivation, he could only teleport about two hundred zhang—still within the woods.
What shocked him most was Drake Dandy’s art. The wounds on his body had vanished completely after molting.
And after crawling out of his old skin, Drake Dandy was stark naked—only now did Quinn notice the body was nothing like his own, more like a voluptuous woman.
"Her chest is way more impressive than mine. I’ll never reach that level."
Quinn mused, "So is Drake Dandy male or female? Or maybe she’s a girl, but the Dragon King wanted a son, so he named her Dandy—‘Delicate Dragon Boy.’ Probably raised her as a boy, and ended up with this strange result."
He kept his gaze fixed on Drake Dandy, not blinking. Blinking now would give away his position—an expert like Drake Dandy could track the direction of his stare and pinpoint exactly where he was hiding.
Drake Dandy’s divine arts were brutally powerful—Quinn knew he was no match for him, or her.
And he could only trigger his teleportation robe three or four more times before draining his cultivation—escaping Drake Dandy’s pursuit would be nearly impossible.
But staring at Drake Dandy forever wasn’t a solution either. Experts like him—or her—were so sensitive, they could follow the sensation of being watched straight to you.
Drake Dandy kept dressing, back turned to Quinn. The skin at the nape of her neck crawled with goosebumps. She giggled, "You’re staring at my neck. Do you like it?"
Quinn’s pupils contracted—the goosebumps on Drake Dandy’s neck were shrinking, narrowing in on his exact location!
Quinn threw his robe over himself—just as a deafening boom erupted beside his ear and his body vanished in the explosion of a divine art.
Drake Dandy’s robe hung half-open as she withdrew her hand. The giant serpent sped toward her, but found no trace of Quinn. Suddenly, she looked up—there he was, sprinting through the sky, running on nothing but air.
"You can’t escape!"
The serpent beneath her spat out demonic energy, soaring after Quinn.
Midair, the two caught sight of Heaven-Wave City—and were stunned. The city built atop the mountains had been utterly destroyed, replaced by a blood-and-bone altar!
The Nethervault Demon King stood atop the altar, slaughtering two experts—one was the Dragon King of the Dragon Tamer Sect, riding his flood-dragon; the other was a Divine Bridge cult master.
Both were in mortal danger—the Nethervault Demon King could kill them at any moment. The demon’s mouth spewed out demonic scripture, even more cryptic and profound than the incantations Quinn had used to summon him!
Above Heaven-Wave City, the sky spun and twisted—lightning cracked, thunder roared, and the heavens were torn open, revealing a shadowy, black space!
Something moved in that darkness—suddenly, a two-headed, two-eyed fiend shot out of the swirling vortex.
The fiend stopped in midair, shouting something back at the vortex.
Buzz.
Countless black dots spewed from the vortex, flooding toward Heaven-Wave City.
They were Nethervault fiends!
Tens of thousands of fiends poured from the Nethervault, slaughtering each other as they fell. Their corpses rained down, piling atop the altar and making it grow ever larger and taller.
Blood rain began to fall from the sky.
Some fiends, clearly of higher rank, landed wielding scepters and surrounded the altar, chanting ancient, obscure demonic scripture. Runes blossomed in the air above the altar, dazzling and bright.
"I think I’ve caused an even bigger disaster than the Academy incident..." Quinn’s eye twitched.
——Second update at 6 PM today!