Cade’s shimmering form reappeared right next to the dragon’s enormous head. Releasing a fiendish roar, he slammed his fist into the side of the beast's skull, where many of the energy veins converged. Regrettably, his fist passed through yet another fading afterimage.

  Not expecting to miss, the Asura needed a sliver of time to recover his balance, and the tip of the dragon's silver tail, thick as a dozen men, smashed into his body, cracking like a heavenly whip and sending him tumbling through the air for several hundred feet.

  Briefly stunned, Cade shook his head to dispel the dizziness, spitting out bloody phlegm as he swiftly stabilized himself. His face darkened. The dragon was insanely quick and undeniably strong, but it was its movement art that was the most troublesome. It was far superior to his own ability, even when pushing Blood Wings to their full potential. He didn’t think the dragon would be able to trigger it too often—with his god sight he could see that moving its spiritshifted body required a lot of qi—but apparently the creature had a much larger reservoir than Day Night expected.

  She knew I needed blood from a fast creature for my dual-blooded War Form. Did she arrange this for me? I refuse to believe this slippery bastard appeared here by coincidence.

  Cade’s eyes narrowed, releasing golden, crackling sparks as he clenched his scaled fist. As the guardian spirit had said, he had to turn this duel into a battle of attrition. Any time the dragon was forced to evade unnaturally fast, it was losing precious qi it couldn’t quickly recover.

  Let’s slow you down a little.

  He released his oppressive aura, which spread like an invisible contagion, and his body once again phased, flashing between several spots around the dragon, leaving scarlet afterimages and a small, seemingly accidental opening between them. To achieve this brief burst of speed, Cade pushed as much ignited blood qi as he could into the two bumps on his back containing the bloodseeker’s movement laws.

  This approach worked well enough to briefly confuse the beast, and Cade faked a kick to its head, forcing the silver dragon to use its elusive movement art once again, gambling that it would choose the opening he had purposely left. Sensing his chance had come, he rapidly ignited all the mist in his Blood Wings, appearing in front of the dragon’s head right as its serpentine body blurred. The Asura smashed his right fist into its silver-scaled snout, the blow resounding through the area like a peal of thunder.

  The dragon roared in pain, the mighty strike hurtling it through the air. Cade wasn’t about to let it recover: several more blows followed, each producing a rippling shockwave, but only one landed—the flying serpent’s agility was incredible considering its massive, sinuous body. Cade was growing convinced the dragon’s speed had a spatial origin, as there was hardly any momentum behind its rapid movement. In addition, he could see energy veins inside its spiritshifted form pulsing with soul qi each time the beast triggered its movement art, channeling some exotic laws beyond his understanding.

  The dragon shook its head, its recovery nigh-instant, bright scarlet eyes burning with rage and indignation. It didn’t seem hurt, as though its true body hadn’t suffered any damage at all.

  Cade’s expression turned grim and his jaw tensed as he launched another powerful kick into the beast’s side, but the dragon’s body unexpectedly uncoiled and his leg missed by a couple of inches. At the same time, the creature’s giant head swiveled, its open maw centering on its opponent.

  Shit, it got me!

  His sixth sense pounded in alarm as the beast’s wide-open jaws revealed a triple-layered formation circle in the depths of its throat. Cade immediately ignited all of his blood qi, his body blurring to the side as a thick beam of sizzling silver flame erupted toward him. Regrettably, he was far too close to his opponent to escape unscathed. Sensing a scorching sensation in his left leg, the Asura cast it a quick glance, and his eyes widened like two dinner plates, lightning crackling menacingly.

  He no longer had a leg. Everything past the middle of his thigh was gone, leaving him with a smoking, cauterized stump.

  Cold sweat instantly covered his back. Cade was quite proud of his ability to withstand damage. This silver fire was destruction given form—it had erased his leg from existence; not even ash remained. Judging from the amount of soul qi disappearing from within the dragon’s veins, this deadly attack had taken a huge toll on its energy reserves. The muscles on his jaw rippled as he listened to the beast’s mocking roar.

  “Foolish Asura! This is what happens when you meddle in the affairs of your betters!” the dragon boasted, its massive body shaking with grating laughter.

  “Oh, this? This is just a flesh wound,” Cade shrugged with indifference, though internally he was chaining curses with the skill of a seasoned dock worker. “Why would missing a leg change anything when I have so many limbs?”

  Two dozen undulating ribbons unrolled from his body, each nearly a hundred feet long, snapping into the shape of tattered wings. The appendages curled threateningly toward the dragon, instantly cutting off its infuriating laughter.

  There was no other option; he had to use the full might of his Blood Wings—the beast was far too fast. In addition, its spiritshifted body was dissipating his blows far too easily. He had no idea what kind of dragon this was, but Cade’s attacks lacked both scale and range. His fists just weren’t enough to deal with this ancient creature.

  In the next moment, his ribbons were set ablaze with crimson light as he once again ignited all the mist and filled them with his understanding of spiritual anti-laws, at the same time enhancing their native severance laws. His comprehension was nowhere near as good as Legion’s, but hopefully he could make up for it by overwhelming the beast with a sheer number of blows.

  The dragon’s vertical pupils narrowed. It was obvious it had never seen anything like his Blood Wings before. Bloodseekers might not even have existed back then.

  As both opponents floated in the air, staring gloomily at each other and deciding on their next moves, several miles away a group of over thirty disciples from all three organizations stood in front of a formation circle with a large glowing orb at its center, showing the progress of the fight.

  “Don’t these tentacles look a lot like those on a ribbon bloodseeker?” someone from the Tower of Arts pointed out, and others nodded thoughtfully. Anyone who spent some time in the desert would eventually learn about these rare, exotic beasts.

  “It seems the Asura can control them at will, like an extension of his body,” another person remarked.

  “Fellow Daoists, what is this Asura exactly—is it really a demon? Does anybody know?” asked a timid-looking elven woman in a white Tower of Arts robe with orange accents. Her voice was soft and pleasant to the ear.

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  Aria stared at the image thoughtfully. “I’ve read about them in an old chronicle in my clan’s main library,” she said slowly. “If its words are to be trusted, the Asura are a race of shapeshifting demons, bloodthirsty and utterly fearless. Apparently, they drink blood and consume souls for sustenance and cultivation. They are described as nearly unkillable and capable of regenerating from a single drop of blood, though I’m not sure how true that part is.”

  “What?!” several disciples exclaimed in unison.

  “But… how is that even possible…? Wouldn’t that be a heaven-defying ability—an immortal body?” the elven Tower disciple frowned in thought.

  “It gets worse. They can pretend to be any other bipedal race—human, elf, fey—it doesn’t matter,” Aria added with discernible concern in her tone.

  “Wait... Are you suggesting this demon came here with us?” Tarron gasped in a weak voice, his face deathly pale. He was draining a bloodstone, hoping to recover some blood qi. The bleeding from his severed leg had luckily already stopped, but he had lost a great deal of blood.

  The beautiful fey offered a light nod. “Maybe. It could’ve been frozen in a time bubble and released like this dragon. But it’s not impossible that it arrived here with us. Most of you weren’t there to see it, but it signaled us to leave. Why would it do that?”

  Her question remained unanswered as a young, dark-robed woman from Shadow Dao Palace exclaimed, pointing at the glowing orb where Cade’s red-robed form suddenly blurred, rapidly lunging forward, ribbons snapping around him like deadly whips.

  “Look, it’s tearing the dragon apart! I’d bet all my spirit crystals this massive beast will fall!”

  “Hmph, then you’d likely be left without crystals,” a striking female elf with her hair gathered into a top knot crossed her arms over her chest. She stood next to her timid friend, another of the Tower of Arts’ core disciples. “Anyone who has ever held a dragon compendium in their hands would recognize this creature. It’s a silverscale mirage dragon, fifth on the list of the most dangerous true dragons. The species has been considered long extinct. We’re extremely privileged to see it in person. Judging from its size, this one is still very young, yet already so powerful.” Her tone was filled with scholarly curiosity and quiet reverence in equal measure.

  As if called out by name, the silver serpent let out an irritated roar as it attempted to evade Cade’s slicing ribbons. Each hundred-foot-long appendage struck independently, and the Asura noticed with satisfaction the ribbons cutting into its spiritshifted body, cracking like steel whips and leaving furrows blazing with residual severance laws. As the dragon rapidly accumulated dozens of wounds, its huge form started turning transparent.

  “Don’t think this is going to help you much, Asura dreg,” the beast snarled, dispersing its towering shape and recalling all the qi into its true, bipedal form. “Your pathetic efforts mean nothing to this Dragon Lord!”

  The disciples gathered around the orb gasped collectively as they witnessed the creature’s transformation.

  “It’s a demonic beast!” Tarron couldn’t help but exclaim upon witnessing the dragon shapeshifting into a man-like figure.

  In front of Cade floated a sleek, humanoid form covered in tiny silver scales radiating an aura of ancient might. It looked similar to goldscales, aside from being completely hairless, with two blood-red, crystalline horns jutting from its forehead and a row of short, stubby spikes running along its spine. Same as the Asura’s, its jaw was thick and protruding, making the dragon’s face appear quite savage. A glowing, translucent armor instantly wrapped around its body, forming sharp claws around its hands. A draconic helmet solidified around the beast’s horned head, two crimson eyes glowing like hot coals from within.

  Cade’s brows drew together as his god sight told him this was an armor made entirely out of soul qi, reinforced with laws he didn’t understand. What he did know was that his spiritual qi anti-laws would be useless against it.

  How the hell can it use soul qi so well at Rank 2?! This is some serious bullshit.

  His only consolation was his own, very reasonable energy consumption. Maintaining War Form was quite efficient, even when using qi ignition, and maintaining his Blood Wings was barely making a dent in his voracious heart. He still had more than half of his blood qi left, not to mention six full bloodstones hidden inside the folds of his robe. On the other hand, the dragon must have already burned through ridiculous amounts of both spiritual and soul qi.

  Cade stopped reinforcing his ribbons with spiritual severance laws, as it was a waste of effort and energy, leaving enough qi to enhance their native sharpness. From the many books on cultivation he had read, he knew this soul qi armor was going to be very resistant to physical damage and would completely restrain all of his Feral Path techniques, as primed blood qi wouldn’t be able to pass through the armor’s protective barrier. Yet he still had to try, as there wasn’t much else he could do. He was painfully aware of the small crowd gathered some distance away, observing and analyzing their every move.

  Those disciples surrounding the large orb watched the fight escalate with quiet fascination, as two forms—silver and crimson—clashed multiple times at a speed so fast it was difficult to follow even for several third-tier experts present. Deafening rumbling spread out over miles, each blow launching a brutal shockwave.

  Cade clenched his teeth, his strikes doing little other than stunning the dragon on occasion. As expected, none of the Feral Path techniques he knew had worked. At the same time, the beast’s soul claws continued to scrape at his scales, sending bright sparks of soul qi bursting in all directions. It struggled to pierce through the Asura’s powerful defenses, but Cade knew it was only a matter of time before his scales weakened.

  “How do you like my soulforged armor, little Asura?” the dragon chortled, striking with even greater fervor.

  “Legion, how’s your understanding of soul laws now?” Cade spoke into his mindscape, ignoring the beast’s taunts. In case the battle took a turn for the worse, he had to be prepared to use his sword. This would be the same as giving up on Sword Dao—there were at least several monastery disciples who had seen him with the dark, rusted weapon in hand. The sword’s appearance was too distinct. He wasn’t sure if Aria had seen him wield Legion, but it was a possibility he couldn’t ignore.

  “Decent, but far from great. I have barely started recovering, Master. My comprehension is still low. It might be just enough to get rid of this weird armor, but… I can’t guarantee it,” Legion’s metallic voice answered, its tone utterly devoid of the usual humor.

  “Alright.” Cade’s expression darkened further. Even the spirit knew his situation wasn’t favorable. Right now, he and the dragon were equally matched, and it was only because his oppressive aura was constantly bearing down on the beast, slowing it and reducing its ability to unleash its full might.

  Around ten minutes later, filled with constant high-powered exchanges, the Asura’s blood qi dipped below a quarter of his reservoir, and two more of his bloodgems were completely drained. Now that he was both resisting and dealing a lot more damage, he was burning through blood qi at an expedited rate.

  On the other hand, the dragon appeared very content to continue fighting, suggesting it wasn’t expending a lot of energy. The creature seemed to cherish the battle of attrition, likely convinced of its superiority in that regard. At the same time, Cade’s growing frustration had been gradually approaching its limits.

  He knew that by revealing Legion, he would be sending himself into a situation that could easily result in his demise. Once someone connected the dots, there would be no way for him to return to the monastery. He would be revealed as a demon and hunted down by a bunch of old monsters.

  After another fruitless clash, both opponents once again separated. Cade was painfully aware he was losing strength. His blood qi reservoir was dwindling, all the while the silver dragon appeared indestructible. The realization that he could very well die here gradually began to settle in. His decision now lay between dying now and possibly dying after returning from the Realm. Pulling out Legion wouldn’t guarantee victory, but he would at least have a decent chance. If he won, he could always stay here, locked in time for another nine years.

  Although he knew he could ask Night for help, something inside him revolted at the thought.

  Cade gritted his teeth, bone grinding on bone. The idea of giving an extra nine years of worry-free life to Marius and Griswold vexed him beyond belief, but asking for the guardian spirit’s assistance would mean admitting that he had lost before giving it everything he had. According to many cultivation treatises, this could cause a serious wound to his barely tempered Dao Heart, something he absolutely couldn’t risk, especially not now that he had learned he had a heart demon. Cade had to give this fight his all; there was no other way.

  One more clash and another serious wound later, he let out a dejected sigh, readying to pull out his sword, when he suddenly heard Night’s voice in his mindscape, speaking to him in the same manner as Lao Ren once did.

  “Gather the lightning in your eyes, then release all of it up close. If you destroy its armor, it will deal a grave wound to the dragon’s soul.”