Chapter Ninety-Seven: Seizing the Lotus and Fleeing
“Kill him!”
“We must strike now and kill him!”
After a brief hesitation, the silver-haired elder let out a heavy breath. Then, in his eyes, a terrifying killing light flared to life, and under that unseen murderous intent, his robes snapped violently in the wind.
Faced with Luo Hao, whose entire body was now shrouded in black dragon power and who had fallen into the demonic path, the silver-haired elder seemed to see endless bones piled beneath his feet, and boundless rivers of blood flowing before him.
To oppose a Seven Fiends True Demon whose demonic body had only just reached a minor level, nearly two-thirds of the races in the heavens had been wiped out in the ancient war. If Luo Hao were allowed to grow unchecked, he might one day become even more terrifying than that demon ever was.
Of course, there was also the chance that Luo Hao might die by accident in the course of cultivation. But the silver-haired elder dared not gamble. If he lost that gamble, the disaster that followed would be unprecedented.
“Dragon-demons are beyond all remedy. This is the eternal taboo of the dragon race. A dragon-demon appears only to slaughter and end the world. He must be killed as early as possible!” The Black Flood Dragon King, usually so proud and aloof, revealed a hidden secret for the first time to a human being. It was a legacy passed down from ancient memories, inherited as one of the flood-dragon clan.
“Make your move!”
The silver-haired elder and the Black Flood Dragon King shouted at the same time, and then a green gourd rose into the air from the elder’s waist.
Buzz.
At that moment, the green gourd trembled and hummed. Emerald light spilled forth as though it were splitting heaven and earth apart, flashing with mysterious brilliance. It looked nothing like a wine gourd now.
Whoosh!
Green light flashed from within the gourd, and a hanging waterfall of emerald radiance poured down. In the next instant, that waterfall erupted with blinding brilliance, tearing through layer upon layer of spatial barriers as it swept toward Luo Hao.
“Kill!”
Sensing the sudden murderous intent, a cruel light flashed through Luo Hao’s dark eyes. A roar of slaughter burst from his mouth like the bellow of a demon king. His fist, covered in black dragon power, smashed forward, determined to shatter the emerald waterfall in one blow.
Bang!
The black dragon power was incomparably heavy, each thread of it seeming to weigh like a mountain. The emerald waterfall, by contrast, was like the first ray of primordial light at the creation of heaven and earth. Black dragon power and emerald light collided violently in the void.
BOOM!
The explosion shook heaven and earth. Green and black radiance swept madly outward like tidal waves of the cosmos, and the rippling shock sent the human martial artists on Heaven-Star Lake coughing blood as they were blasted backward.
“Run!”
“Go back at once and report to the sect. There is a medicine king on Heaven-Star Lake!”
“And the inheritance of the human ancestors too!”
The human martial artists retreating while coughing blood were all pale with terror. They fled from the range of Heaven-Star Lake at once, heading out of the Azure Sky Mountain Range.
Above the lake, the thick black dragon power contracted sharply. Luo Hao roared amid the storm of spiritual force that had burst outward.
When the storm finally passed, the silver-haired elder’s figure had retreated dozens of yards, but his eyes remained fixed on the center of the tempest. There, a mass of black light was rising. Clearly, even such a terrifying storm had not killed Luo Hao.
When the chaos dispersed, Luo Hao stood within a mass of black dragon power burning like demonic flame. Blood streamed from his entire body. His hair hung loose about him, and he looked like a vicious ghost crawling up from the depths of hell. Yet he also carried an icy chill that pierced straight to the bone, and under that frigid aura, the surrounding void had actually begun to freeze.
“Dragon-demons truly are monstrous. We absolutely cannot allow him to reach full maturity.”
The silver-haired elder’s heart trembled wildly, filled with dread. Luo Hao’s cultivation was on an entirely different level from his own. Yet this youth, who had only just awakened the power of the dragon-demon, had actually managed to receive his blow head-on. The storm of spiritual force just now would have killed any martial artist in the Sky Gang Realm without exception, yet Luo Hao, whose strength was only at the Spirit Realm, had merely been gravely wounded.
“Elder Qingyang, what are you doing? Are you trying to stop me from slaying this demonic evil?”
Just as the silver-haired elder was about to strike again, Elder Qingyang suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his path.
Elder Qingyang gave him a long look and said calmly, “Fellow Daoist, you must not slaughter the innocent indiscriminately.”
“Slaughter the innocent? Heh. If you do not kill him now, more people will die later. The terror of a dragon-demon is beyond anything you can imagine.” The Black Flood Dragon King, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke again.
Even after hearing the Black Flood Dragon King’s words, Elder Qingyang showed no sign of yielding. Instead, he said in a deep voice, “Fellow Daoist, have you not noticed? When this child faced your attack, he only defended passively and never took the initiative to kill. That means he is using his own will to suppress this so-called dragon-demon. Give him a chance.”
“Womanish mercy!”
The silver-haired elder was also torn in his heart. How could he not see it? Yet when he thought of the ferocity of that ancient war, he dared not hesitate any longer. Turning to the Black Flood Dragon King beside him, he said, “Help me hold this man back. The dragon-demon must be stamped out while it is still in the bud.”
“Very well. End this quickly.”
Unexpectedly, the Black Flood Dragon King did not refuse. Instead, he agreed at once. His flood-dragon body swelled violently to hundreds of yards in length, and after his tail, hard as a steel whip, smashed apart a vast stretch of void, it struck at Elder Qingyang with irresistible force. At the same moment, the silver-haired elder vanished once more from where he stood.
“Luo Hao, be careful!”
The jade mirror in Elder Qingyang’s hand shone, and faint inscriptions appeared upon its surface, freezing the surrounding void for a brief moment. His footwork was unfathomably profound. The steel-whip-like tail missed him by a hair, and the void where he had just stood collapsed completely. The hurricane of space had not even taken shape before it was annihilated beneath the flood-dragon’s tail.
Elder Qingyang and the Black Flood Dragon fought furiously in close combat, and as the battle raged, their figures gradually disappeared from above Heaven-Star Lake.
“Hahahahaha! How could Heaven-Star Lake produce a medicine king and not have my Ten Thousand Demons Gate come and take a look?”
After the man and beast vanished, a domineering voice suddenly rang out over Heaven-Star Lake. The silver-haired elder, whose spiritual force had already become wildly unstable as he prepared to strike, immediately halted. The newcomer's cultivation was actually no weaker than his own.
A black-robed middle-aged man appeared, his robe billowing, followed by several dozen people.
He had thick brows and large eyes, with a stern and resolute face. On his left cheek, however, there was a hideous scar like a writhing earthworm.
The black-robed man’s gaze swept over the lotus platform at the center of the lake, and shock flashed in his eyes. This had originally been no more than a routine venture by the sect’s disciples, but after receiving a report from within the sect, he had rushed over with his people immediately. To think there truly was an ancient herb on the verge of becoming a medicine king here.
The silver-haired elder, who had just forced himself to stop, looked at the newcomer as though he wanted to spit fire.
“What do the friends of Ten Thousand Demons Gate mean by this? Why have you taken my granddaughter?”
“One of the Ten Demons of Ten Thousand Demons Gate, Dian Qingtang.”
From afar, Duan Yixiao, who had been watching the situation closely, suddenly spoke in a tense murmur. As a Sky Gang Realm expert of the Five Peaks Spirit Academy, he knew all too well how terrifying the Ten Demons of Ten Thousand Demons Gate were. Every one of them was infamous and formidable.
Facing the silver-haired elder’s question, the black-robed Dian Qingtang merely smiled, then gently pushed the unconscious white-clad girl, Yu He, before him and said, “Please do not be angry, senior. The scene was chaotic just now, but your granddaughter is unharmed. I was only looking after her in your stead.”
“In that case, please release my granddaughter at once.” With the white-clad girl in the other man’s hands, the silver-haired elder, no matter how strong he was, dared not act rashly and could only force himself to speak patiently.
At his words, Dian Qingtang only smiled and said nothing. The elder’s expression immediately darkened.
“What exactly do you want?”
Seeing the old man’s reaction, Dian Qingtang seemed quite satisfied. He said lightly, “It is simple. As long as the senior hands Luo Hao over to my Ten Thousand Demons Gate, I guarantee your granddaughter will not be harmed in the slightest. I will even apologize to you in person.”
“Hmph. That boy has hands and feet of his own. If you have the ability, capture him yourself. This old man will not interfere.”
For the sake of his granddaughter, the silver-haired elder had no choice but to yield.
“Where is Luo Hao?”
Clearly Dian Qingtang did not know who Luo Hao was. The silver-haired elder immediately raised a hand and pointed. “The figure surrounded by black qi is Luo Hao.”
“Hmph, old thing, dare you toy with me? It seems your granddaughter no longer wishes to live. Where exactly is he?”
The silver-haired elder was inexplicably shouted at by Dian Qingtang and immediately swept his gaze toward that stretch of void.
Yet that void was already empty. There was no sign of Luo Hao anywhere. A sharp light suddenly burst in the silver-haired elder’s eyes. He whirled around and cried out, “No good, the Azure Water Crystal Lotus!”
That shout immediately drew everyone’s attention. Dian Qingtang’s gaze flashed like lightning as he looked over at once, only to see a figure shrouded in black qi already racing toward the Azure Water Crystal Lotus.
The Azure Water Crystal Lotus had two leaves and five flowers, its entire body gleaming with jade-green light. In the center of its blossom hovered a bead of blue-red color, brimming with endless vitality and a faint, oppressive pressure.
Under the cover of black dragon power, a flicker passed through Luo Hao’s dark eyes. Then, without the slightest hesitation, he plucked the Azure Water Crystal Lotus in one motion. At the same instant, a faint dragon pattern flashed beneath his feet, and he vanished directly from sight.
“Pursue him!”
Dian Qingtang’s face turned dark as he shouted furiously. The dozens of disciples from Ten Thousand Demons Gate behind him instantly gave chase out of Heaven-Star Lake.