Instead of making his next move, Lü Guhong stood in front of Lu Yun. “Not bad. Your senses are decent and you blocked my attacks of swiftness. But I’ll kill you with my next move.”

Lu Yun quietly considered the youth, and also refrained from action. The monster spirit struck a lazy pose, weaknesses glaringly obvious in his stance. However, Lu Yun knew that if he made a move, the young man would fight back ferociously.

“Make your strongest move.” The governor nodded slowly. “Your attacks are impressive, but not enough to kill an august immortal.”

He’d acquired Aoxue’s talent through the Tome of Life and Death and sparred with her for years. At some unknown point, he’d become one of the best cultivators in the world of immortals.

Even then, he didn’t think he had the ability to kill an august immortal, nor did he think Guhong could, with the way he was fighting.

Lu Yun would put him at Wu Tulong and Dongfang Hao’s level, or slightly below them. If the monster spirit had managed to kill an august immortal, he must possess a special killing move like Lu Yun’s Judgement of Life or Death.

Countless immortals and cultivators had taken flight to watch the two of them fight from a distance. Wu Tulong, Dongfang Hao, Zi Chen, and Mo Qitian remained at the four corners of the battlefield, marking a circle roughly five kilometers in radius.

Bam!

An explosion sounded from Guhong’s body as a pillar of emerald light enveloped him. He seemed to be undergoing some changes in the light, which were accompanied by a faint fragrance wafting out of the pillar.

Is he going to reveal his true form? What is he?

Monster spirits transformed to human form to facilitate cultivation, but they were at their strongest in their original forms. If Lü Guhong had slain an august immortal, he must have done so in his original form.

“That’s.. a jiao, and a poisonous one at that!” [1] Lu Yun’s face clouded over. Now he recognized the fragrance.

Poison!

The characters of Lü Guhong’s name had suggested a true form of some avian creature, but he was actually an enormous crocodile!

Though they shared many traits and looked similar, these scaly beings were a completely different species from dragons. The strongest among them were no lesser than a dragon, and so-called scaled dragons were a crossbreed of the two races. Since dragons were the more dominant bloodline in that genealogy, scaled dragons called themselves dragons.

Lü Guhong was the venomous kind of crocodile!

Just as Lu Yun was recovering from his shock, a snarling green figure charged out of the beam of light and lunged at him, brandishing its claws.

A Poison Fiend!

By killing others with poison and incorporating the victims’ souls into it, a terrifying spirit would be born over time—a Poison Fiend!

Others might not be able to see the thing clearly, but Lu Yun could. This particular fiend had reached the immortal realm. Its poison could kill even a golden immortal, let alone an august immortal. Nerves made his hands clammy with sweat.

Whoosh!

His body burst into black flames. An immortal-realm Poison Fiend was too terrifying, even more so than the mutated poison in Qing Han’s body. Without hellfire, Lu Yun wouldn’t survive being in close proximity, let alone fighting it.

The poison in Qing Han’s body has been suppressed by the empress’ heritage, but not cured. Once the empress leaves, the poison will resurface and kill him.

Fusang Purewood is inside the Skandha Extinction Tomb and protected by the empress’ dread zombie, which means it’s unattainable. Qing Han won’t prolong his life with an origin sphere, so that leaves this Poison Fiend for cleansing his poison. Perfect!

Lu Yun’s eyes lit up.

Kill Lü Guhong and take the Poison Fiend! Turn him into my Infernum, which means whatever he possesses is mine! His mind made up, the determination to kill his opponent increased his strength by thirty percent.

Hum.

Tremendous violet sword energy spilled out of Lu Yun’s body and splashed over the premises, its continuously enlarging surface area forcing the spectating cultivators to back away. Even Wu Tulong and the other three youths were no exception.

A violet ocean spanning fifteen kilometers in diameter took shape in the sky, within which sword energy and boundless killing energy were rampaging, ricocheting off of each other and the environment. A great dragon howl shook the heavens as a violet dragon broke the surface, creating waves thirty thousand meters tall.

Vast Dragon Seaturner!

The sword art was ten times more powerful than when Lu Yun had used it in the arena. The arena hadn’t suppressed his cultivation, but its limited space had prevented the sword art from fully deploying. Now everyone understood why Lu Yun had dared accept Lü Guhong’s challenge outside the arena.

“What happened? Why is Lu Yun suddenly so determined to kill Guhong?” Some immortals paled from the show of strength.

“Top geniuses respect each other even when they compete. They wish to validate themselves by killing the other, but they aren’t so hellbent on slaughtering their opponent!”

“Does he have a history with Guhong?”

……

“That’s a Poison Fiend! It’s a kind of spirit that can consume Little Yu’s poison!” Shock flashed through Chen Xiao’s eyes. “He, he wants to kill Lü Guhong, take the fiend, and cure Little Yu with it!”

“Does he know about Little Yu’s secret?” Qing Buyi asked in confusion and surprise. “But it doesn’t seem that way....”

A Poison Fiend was the first option Qing Buyi and Chen Xiao had considered to cure Qing Han, but all of their attempts to do so failed. No matter how hard they’d tried, they couldn’t create one.

Chen Xiao shook his head. He didn’t quite understand Lu Yun. Why was the young governor so driven for a friend?

……

“Lü Guhong!” Lu Yun’s voice rang through the sky. “Time for you to take one of my moves and see who dies!”

Bam!

All of the vast seas of the sky were the sword dragon’s domain. In an area spanning fifteen kilometers in diameter, boundless sword energy condensed to a single point. That point rested on the violet dragon, everything at its command.

“How is he so powerful?!” Hidden within the beam of light, Guhong’s heart sank. The Poison Fiend was his trump card; not only was it incomparably strong in a physical sense, but its venom could kill even a golden immortal!

The power Lu Yun was now demonstrating, however, had thoroughly exceeded the limits of his defenses.

With a derisive glance, the violet dragon slashed at the Poison Fiend and beam of light. The world loomed large in Guhong’s vision and rose to pulverize him.

“Stop! Stop! Spare him!!” A furious yell rang out at this time and a figure rushed in to block Lu Yun’s dragon.

“Die!” Lu Yun opened his arms with a blank expression, becoming one with the violet dragon. His tremendous killing intent and sword energy devoured even the figure who’d rushed into the fray.

1. There are several ways of translating the Chinese character jiao. It’s a type of hornless Chinese dragon that’s said to be aquatic or river dwelling. They’re often referred to as flood, or scaled dragons, and sometimes translated as crocodile or kraken. I don’t call them dragons in NECRO because the author says they are a completely different species, not a derivative.

1. There are several ways of translating the Chinese character jiao. It’s a type of hornless Chinese dragon that’s said to be aquatic or river dwelling. They’re often referred to as flood, or scaled dragons, and sometimes translated as crocodile or kraken. I don’t call them dragons in NECRO because the author says they are a completely different species, not a derivative.