Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 296
Nine Dragons Destroy the Sea, Severely Injuring the Eight-Headed Serpent with a Single Strike
A reeking rain of blood poured down turbidly through the foggy mists of space.
The once mirror-like surface of the East China Sea had now transformed into a gigantic, boiling cauldron of oil. Tens of thousands of miles of raging waves roared as they crashed against submerged reefs, stained with a murky, purplish-black hue of demonic blood and malicious toxins. The four giant snake heads that had been severed earlier were slowly sinking into the pitch-black abyss of the sea trench, releasing billowing clusters of bubbles carrying leftover lightning and fire, sizzling as they burned the rotting flesh into thick black smoke.
Each severed neck shot a pillar of blood thirty meters high straight up into the clouds. The overpowering stench was so pungent that flocks of sea birds more than a hundred miles away panicked, flapping their wings in terror as they fled inland.
The colossal body of the Eight-Headed Water Python, resembling a range of black iron mountains, twisted madly. Thick scales several inches deep scraped against each other, producing a succession of harsh, metallic screeches like metal crushing boulders. The excruciating agony of losing half its life completely ignited the ancient demonic nature imprisoned within the beast’s body.
“ROOOOOOAR! HISSSSS!”
The eardrum-splitting roar echoed across the vault of heaven. Visible sonic waves, like an invisible sledgehammer, slammed directly onto the water’s surface, tossing up hundred-meter-tall walls of water standing upright mid-air before crashing down ferociously.
The monster’s final two intact heads—the Void Head and the Storm Head—stood erect among the sea of pitch-black clouds.
The Storm Head on the left blazed with a fierce blue light, with dense strips of dark blue lightning as thick as ancient tree trunks coiling around its numb-looking horns. A whirlwind rotated around its neck like a giant spatial saw, shaving the wave crests flat. Meanwhile, the Void Head on the right radiated an ash-gray aura of deathly silence; its pupils lacked any focal point, instead forming two deep whirlpools that swallowed every ray of light entering them. Any raindrops falling within a three-zhang radius of the Void Head instantly vanished without a trace, ground into nothingness by the warped spatial force.
An upper-position Monarch-tier beast that had rampaged along the coastline for thousands of years had now been driven to this desperate corner by a human brat!
Humiliation, hatred, and unbridled savagery merged into a monstrous killing intent. Within the colossal chest of the Eight-Headed Water Python, its huge demonic beast heart began pounding at a frantic frequency:
Thud-thud! Thud-thud! Thud-thud!
The heartbeat shockwaves made the entire continental shelf tremble with every beat. All the purest, signature spiritual blood and essence within its body flowed in reverse, channeling its full strength into the two remaining heads. The pitch-black scales along the beast’s spine began to crack open, each fissure oozing deep red liquid mixed with an uncanny silvery glow.
It wanted to self-detonate!
For a high-level Monarch to exhaust its primordial spirit and bloodline to activate a deep-sea forbidden technique—the resulting explosive might would be enough to flatten the entire coastline of Shenzhou within a radius of five hundred miles, turning millions of innocent civilians along the shore into dust beneath a toxic flood!
“Human... die with me!”
A malevolent thought shrieked across space, transmitting straight into the sea of consciousness. The Storm Head tilted its head back to spit out a thick, pitch-black lightning pearl, while the Void Head opened its bloody maw like an abyss, unleashing a dark vortex that tore spatial barriers asunder. The two currents of destructive power collided and fused, forming a chaotic energy storm with world-destroying might, roaring straight ahead!
Space cracked apart in patches like shattered glass. The pressure was so immense that the sea surface beneath caved in by dozens of zhang, forming a gigantic sinkhole devoid of water, exposing deadly coral reefs.
Facing the desperate, life-or-death counterattack of the deep-sea beast, Lin Feng remained suspended calmly high in the air.
The ferocious sea gale flapped his silver-embroidered magical trench coat wildly, but the hem never touched his skin—a transparent, shimmering, invisible energy membrane enveloped his entire body, completely isolating him from the foul, rotting stench of the battlefield.
The handsome youth’s face bore not a ripple of fear. His eyes were profound, reflecting the swirling vortex of destruction hurtling toward him with the absolute coldness of one who held life and death in the palm of his hand.
“You want to drag the Shenzhou coastline down to be buried with you?” The corners of Lin Feng’s mouth curled into a mocking smile. His voice wasn’t loud, but it pierced through thousands of roaring storms, ringing clearly in the beast’s ears: “Are you worthy?”
Suppressing all tremors, Lin Feng leisurely raised his left hand into the air.
His five slender fingers twitched slightly, and a wondrous silvery-gray magic flower abruptly bloomed in his palm. The Chaos-system stars instantly connected at a terrifying speed, tracing orbits and trajectories that completely upended ordinary laws of physics.
“Chaos—Reverse Curvature Domain!”
His ethereal voice echoed. Right in front of Lin Feng, the tranquil space suddenly bent, transforming into a giant rippling mirror as transparent as crystal, stretching a thousand zhang to block heaven and earth.
The toxic storm energy combined with the Void beam unleashed in desperation by the Eight-Headed Water Python struck the Chaos mirror, resembling a fierce beast slamming into a bottomless quagmire. The entire terrifying momentum did not explode at all; instead, it was bent backward at a flawless one-hundred-and-eighty-degree angle by the Chaos force field!
Whoosh!
“What?!” Deep beneath the sea, shock extreme and fierce flashed within the beast’s two giant snake eyes.
The toxic storm carrying all its own self-detonating life essence was reflected back at twice the speed! The silver-purple destructive wave slammed heavily into the forebody of the Eight-Headed Water Python.
CRASH! SPLINTER!
The steel-like scales that had claimed to be impervious to blades and spears shattered in large chunks under the bite of its own corrosive venom. The Void Head shrieked pitifully as half its cheek was torn apart by the spatial beam, torn flesh and broken bones scattering across the sea surface. The Storm Head also had one of its eyes blown out by the shockwave, black blood gushing forth in torrents, causing it to thrash its massive body wildly, sweeping its tail to shatter chunks of coral reefs deep below.
Its desperate gambit was neutralized in the blink of an eye, and the beast’s momentum collapsed completely. A sense of powerlessness and terror crept into the savage soul of the ancient serpent for the very first time.
Yet Lin Feng gave it no chance to catch its breath.
“This farce ends here.”
Lin Feng slowly took a step in empty space. Beneath the soles of his boots, golden fire ripples blossomed and spread in all directions.
He raised his right arm high, pointing straight toward the boundless nine heavens.
At that very moment, the entire gloomy, darkened sky of the East China Sea suddenly froze. The sea breeze stopped blowing, and tsunami waves were suppressed by an enormous invisible hand, becoming terrifyingly flat.
Within Lin Feng’s spiritual world, the Fire-system Star Sea surged with an unprecedented, brilliant wave of flames. All three hundred and forty-three Tier 3 Advanced-level Starlets resonated in unison, emitting excited cheers like an army answering a mobilization order. Star trails streaked across the spiritual firmament, weaving into forty-nine blazing Star Maps, which then overlapped and fused flawlessly into a majestic, awe-inspiring Fire-system Star Palace!
Yet that wasn’t all!
Right above the apex of the Star Palace, a noble, ancient, and brilliantly golden fire flame rose slowly—far surpassing mortal fire. It was the Primordial Dragon Flame—the origin flame awakened from the depths of the dragon soul, carrying the absolute majesty of the king of all beasts from primeval times!
The temperature in the air skyrocketed by thousands of degrees in an instant. Tens of miles of accumulated dark clouds were instantly incinerated by the ferocious heat, revealing a sky glowing with brilliant golden light as if a second sun had descended upon the mortal realm.
The seawater beneath Lin Feng’s feet boiled furiously, and rising white steam formed giant columns connecting heaven and earth.
“Star Palace condenses... Primordial Dragon Flame!”
Lin Feng enunciated each word clearly, his voice carrying the majesty of a magic sovereign, shaking the eardrums of all creation:
“Advanced Fire-system Ultimate Technique — NINE DRAGONS DESTROY THE SEA!”
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!
A true, majestic, and ancient dragon roar tore through the nine heavens and ten earths, descending upon the mortal world!
From within the brilliant golden sea of fire atop Lin Feng’s head, nine giant beams of light simultaneously broke through the void. They were not ordinary magic illusions, but nine Golden Divine Dragons condensed from pure Primordial Dragon Flame!
Each fire dragon was over three hundred zhang long, with thick, majestic dragon muscles and razor-sharp golden fire scales glittering like cast gold. Their fierce dragon heads bore towering horns, their whiskers fluttering in the fiery tempest, and their four sharp divine claws looked capable of tearing the firmament asunder.
The nine fire dragons circled half a turn around Lin Feng, forming a blinding, magnificent divine dragon array before simultaneously roaring and plunging headfirst from the nine heavens down into the vast ocean!
The sight was so majestic and magnificent that anyone witnessing it would have knelt down in prostration!
Seeing the fire dragons descending with pure destructive pressure, the Eight-Headed Water Python felt utter despair. The pupils of the Storm Head contracted to the size of pinpricks. Its cowardly survival instinct surged; no longer thinking of revenge or destroying the land, it twisted its ten-thousand-zhang body and dove frantically down toward the thousand-meter-deep sea trench in an attempt to escape.
“Run? Where do you think you’re running!”
Lin Feng swept his hand down coldly.
The nine golden dragon flames tore through the atmosphere at ten times the speed of sound. Wherever they passed, the air was burned into an absolute vacuum, producing popping explosions that shook the firmament.
BOOM! CRASH!
When the nine fire dragons slammed into the sea surface, a wonder unprecedented in the history of magic appeared.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of deep seawater were instantly vaporized into nothingness by the tens of thousands of degrees Celsius of the Primordial Dragon Flame! The surrounding seawater parted to both sides, creating a circular, blazing vacuum corridor hundreds of zhang wide, exposing the deep sea trench directly to the sunlight!
The first fire dragon roared as it lunged, its massive hill-like dragon claws snatching straight onto the spine of the Eight-Headed Water Python.
SPLINTER!
The beast’s sturdiest steel scales shattered like paper under the dragon flame claws. The claws drove deep into flesh and blood, and the terrifying heat instantly melted its spinal cord and muscles, causing the Eight-Headed Water Python to arch its entire body in agony, its miserable shrieks choking in its throat.
That was not the end!
The second and third fire dragons flew in a double-dragon onslaught, their bodies coiling tightly around the middle section and tail of the beast, squeezing like a thousand-pound vise. The sacred Primordial Fire roasted every inch of the demonic beast’s flesh, turning its protective slimy hide into ashen black dust.
“HISSSSS!” The remaining Void Head struggled to open its mouth, spitting out a beam of spatial energy trying to sever the dragon’s body.
Yet the fourth and fifth fire dragons had already descended!
The two fire dragons opened their maws wide to clamp onto the Void Head, dragging it backward. Amidst world-shaking dragon roars, the two dragons slashed their claws and tore the ash-gray head into two halves! Golden flames rushed in to burn away all the spatial magic core inside the beast’s skull, permanently extinguishing its ability to manipulate space.
The sixth and seventh fire dragons plunged downward, targeting the sole remaining Storm Head.
CRASH!
The giant fire dragon head slammed directly into the beast’s forehead, smashing its lightning horn. The snake head was driven straight down into the coral reefs beneath the sea, shattering into a deep crater. Dragon flames coiled around its neck, completely sealing off its rampaging lightning-system magic energy.
By now, the entire colossal, thousand-zhang-plus body of the Eight-Headed Water Python had been bitten, torn, and pinned down to the continental shelf at the bottom of the ocean by the seven fire dragons, unable to twitch even half an inch. Black blood stained an entire region of the sea floor, but as soon as it flowed out, it was incinerated by the surrounding flames into billows of white smoke.
It was utterly defeated! A deep-sea Monarch beast of ancient renown now lay like a tattered earthworm, breathing its last at the bottom of the deep sea.
Yet Lin Feng still did not stop.
“Nail it for me!”
Lin Feng’s gaze was as cold as a blade just unsheathed. He lowered his index finger.
In the sky, the final two golden divine dragons—the largest, bearing the most ferocious essence of the Primordial Dragon Flame—suddenly collided and fused into one!
Blinding golden light burst forth as the two dragons transformed into a giant Fire Divine Spear a thousand zhang long, its shaft engraved with countless glowing, fiery ancient dragon scales, and its sharp tip carrying the weight of an entire Mount Tai!
WHOOSH!
The divine spear tore through the wind, descending with a roaring shriek that echoed up to the clouds.
THUD! CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!
The tip of the Fire Divine Spear plunged straight through the dantian—where the Eight-Headed Water Python’s life-bound Demon Core was stored—piercing completely through its massive body and nailing it thousands of meters deep into the granite continental shelf at the bottom of the sea!
The entire East China Sea continental shelf shook violently. Underground shockwaves spread far out to sea, causing the seabed to crack open into deep chasms. The flaming divine spear stood like a heavenly pillar forged of sacred fire, firmly pinning the monster python’s corpse down ten thousand fathoms deep!
“Ugh... ugh...”
The Storm Head of the Eight-Headed Water Python twitched weakly a few times. Its once-ferocious pupils were now filled with the dimness and despair of impending death. Its Monarch life essence was melted away, and its abundant life force drained away at an irreversible pace. It could only emit faint, wheezing puffs, entirely stripped of any capacity for resistance.
A single strike settled the universe!
With just a single execution of “Nine Dragons Destroy the Sea” combining Advanced Fire-system magic and the Primordial Dragon Flame, Lin Feng had single-handedly suppressed and utterly crippled the combat capability of an upper-position Monarch-tier great demon that had once made the entire Shenzhou coastal alliance tremble!
A brilliant, glorious victory now rested entirely in the palm of his hand!
The sea of fire gradually receded, and the surrounding seawater began rushing back to fill the giant vacuum void. Hundreds of thousands of tons of seawater collided to form towering white columns of waves, but upon approaching the flaming divine spear pinning the beast, the water automatically boiled, unable to extinguish the immortal golden flames.
Lin Feng slowly lowered himself from the high altitude.
The hem of his robe fluttered in the warm, heavy breeze rising from the sea surface. He hovered over the water a few dozen zhang away from the beast’s head, gazing calmly down at the dying monster lying beneath the transparent sea water on the rocky shelf.
“An upper-position Monarch Demon Core, plus the bloodline essence and armor materials of the Eight-Headed Serpent... the harvest from this trip to the East China Sea isn’t bad.” Lin Feng muttered, the corners of his mouth curving into a satisfied smile.
He raised his hand slightly, condensing a sharp Lightning-Fire Sword Qi at his fingertip, preparing to deliver the final coup de grâce to sever the beast’s head and harvest its precious spoils.
However, the exact moment his sword Qi tip was about to strike—
Thud.
A muffled, dry heartbeat suddenly echoed.
That sound did not come from the Eight-Headed Water Python. The beast’s heart had nearly stopped beating at this point, its vitality exhausted.
That noise came from... deep beneath the continental shelf fissure where the Fire Divine Spear had just driven deep into the earth!
Thud-thud! THUD-THUD!
Each heartbeat grew clearer and heavier, like a giant heart that had slumbered for tens of thousands of years beneath the ocean floor, suddenly awakened by the scent of Monarch beast blood and the heat of the Primordial Dragon Flame!
Lin Feng instantly halted his downward strike, his brows knitting slightly as his sharp spiritual sense immediately flooded out to blanket the entire seafloor area.
Deep within the pitch-black, thousand-meter-deep chasm, the seawater suddenly turned ink-black. An eerie, bone-chilling cold aura slowly rose, diametrically opposed to the scorching heat of the dragon flame.
Crack... crack...
The seabed rocks began to fracture more violently. An unusually pitch-black spatial fissure slowly pried open amidst the rock crevices. From within that boundless fissure, a pair of giant, blood-red eyes resembling two bloody moons slowly opened, bearing a majestic pressure far surpassing ordinary Monarch-tier—an aura so ancient, taboo, and demonic that it made one’s soul tremble!
The bloody stench of the Eight-Headed Water Python hadn’t merely marked a victory... it seemed to have inadvertently unlocked the seal of an infinitely more terrifying creature lurking within the taboo deep-sea abyss!
Lin Feng narrowed his eyes, gazing deep into the pitch-black fissure, his right hand tightening slightly as the lightning and fire around him once again quietly circulated.