There were over ten experts fighting against an armored lizard. That armored lizard was a mile long and covered in powerful scales.

Its huge tail was like a whip that crumbled mountains when it struck. It was actually extremely amazing, and it was forcing those ten-plus experts to miserably retreat.

The intense battle had already changed the terrain in the mountain range. Those people were all experts amongst experts. All of them were at least rank two Celestials, and there were even three rank three Celestials.

Amongst them was Long Chen’s old friend, Xue You. Xue You was surrounded by three different runes that released a torrential aura.

On his own, Xue You was blocking the majority of the armored lizard’s attacks. The other two rank three Celestials were in charge of restricting it at the sides, while the rank two Celestials could only occasionally launch attacks when they had an opening. But their attacks were clearly unable to cause much damage to the armored lizard.

“What? Do you recognize them?” asked the Eastern Wasteland Bell.

“They’re my mortal enemies.” Long Chen nodded. He rapidly thought up a plan. “Senior, are you capable of concealing my aura?”

“Something as minor as that is simple. But are you planning on sneak attacking him once I conceal your aura? Let me warn you, that long-haired fellow is not so simple. He’s an innate rank three Celestial, and he’s already begun condensing his fourth Heavenly Dao rune. His odds of one day becoming a rank four Celestial are practically one hundred percent. Your chances of successfully sneak attacking him are very low. It’s too risky,” warned the Eastern Wasteland Bell.

Long Chen smiled. “That’s fine. It’s not my first time coming into contact with him. That last battle was truly sullen. But this time, I’ll have a proper battle with him. Last time, he acted like such a poser. Now it’s time for me to get my revenge.”

Thinking of how Xue You had acted as if he was a supreme overlord, as if he could crush him with a wave of his hand, Long Chen was extremely irritated.

He had his own pride. Such humiliation and contempt were something that infuriated Long Chen, but back then, he hadn’t had the qualifications to be infuriated. However, today would be different.

“So are you planning on sneak attacking him?” asked the Eastern Wasteland Bell.

“No, he doesn’t have the qualifications to make me sneak attack him. I want to kill him with my true strength. Furthermore, I’m not very good at assassinations. As soon as I attack, I won’t be able to conceal my killing intent, and I’ll be sensed. Failing an assassination attempt is too embarrassing, so I’d prefer to fight him head-on. I’ll have more confidence that way.”

“Then why have me conceal your aura?”

“I have something more important that I want to do. At that time, you just have to work together with me.” Long Chen laughed mischievously, a crafty light shining in his eyes.

BOOM!

Xue You’s black sword slashed onto the armored lizard’s head. That immense force sent its head slamming into the ground, causing the ground to sink once more.

“Careful!” Xue You suddenly shouted. With its head smashed into the ground, the armored lizard’s huge tail wildly swung without any pattern. As a result, one rank two Celestial didn’t dodge in time and was struck by the tail. A terrifying force directly blew him into a bloody mist.

Long Chen couldn’t help being startled. Just what level was this armored lizard? It seemed it wasn’t lacking compared to Meng Qi’s Redeye Sacred Blood Phoenix.

What he didn’t know was that this armored lizard was actually a mutated Magical Beast. Its original bloodline was substandard, but after mutating, its combat power had become terrifying. It could be ranked as an overlord amongst rank seven Magical Beasts.

With its mutated runes on its scales, even Xue You’s sword was unable to break through its defenses, and Xue You’s sword was a Treasure item.

It was precisely because it was so powerful that Xue You had been delighted to find it. He had been willing to spend a great deal of time baiting it out of its lair so he could capture it as his housepet.

In truth, while the armored lizard was powerful, it had one fatal weak point. There was a white scale between its eyes. That scale was similar to a dragon’s reverse scale.

That scale was its only weak point. If they concentrated their attacks on it, then killing it wouldn’t be very difficult.

After all, it was a Magical Beast with an impure bloodline. Even if it had mutated, it hadn’t been able to completely erase its innate weak point. But that wasn’t something bad to Xue You. When he fought against others, he would stand at that scale to protect it. Then there would be no weak points.

With the two of them combined, they would be like tigers with wings. Their power would reach a whole new level.

So Xue You intentionally avoided that fatal spot. He wanted to use power to subdue it and then place a slave mark.

If he used a curse to weaken it, then even once he forcibly placed the slave mark, it wouldn’t be convinced of his power. Then it would continuously try to fight back. If he had to stop it from fighting him during a battle, capturing it would have no meaning.

However, if he used power to subdue it before making it his housepet, such a housepet would be afraid, and the chances of it fighting back were lower. After that, by acting good to the Magical Beast for a while, lowering its guard, they could properly fight together.

Xue You’s runes surged as he fought. The others had surrounded it, not letting it escape. If it fled to its lair, all their previous efforts would be wasted.

Seeing Xue You’s power, Long Chen was startled. It seemed he was even stronger than when he had fought the Hidden Ground Gold Spider King.

Currently, he hadn’t even released his full power, but each of his attacks was incredible. Long Chen suddenly thought of the Eastern Wasteland Bell’s words, as well as how Xue You had tried to become a rank four Celestial in the trial caves.

The Eastern Wasteland Bell had said that Xue You was already in the process of becoming a rank four Celestial. Although he was still just in that process, his power was already so high. Once he succeeded, wouldn’t he be unrivaled?

They fought for over two hours. The armored lizard was clearly unable to defeat Xue You. That was because its strongest aspect was its defense, and it didn’t have any long-range attacks. Its huge body had become its weakness now, as it was unable to reach Xue You.

To it, Xue You was too small and fast of a target. It tried to flee several times, but the others had tightly surrounded it and refused to allow it to pass.

As a result, after all this time, it had exhausted all of its energy. Without any energy to struggle, it lay on the ground. Although it possessed a fierce and savage temperament, it knew it was done for today.

“Hahaha, there’s no need to be afraid. I won’t kill you. In the future, you’ll be this lord’s housepet!” laughed Xue You excitedly.

After hours of fighting, after striking it with so many attacks from his black sword, he saw that there was very little damage to its scales. There wasn’t even any blood. Its defense was truly unrivaled.

What he needed was a housepet with unrivaled defense. His Yama King Blood Curse took time to use, and it was easy to interrupt. But with the armored lizard protecting him, who could interrupt him? At that time, he would be able to use that curse as he pleased.

Long Chen suddenly asked the Eastern Wasteland Bell, “Senior, what does this lord mean? Is that a very badass appellation?”

“Cough, this question of yours is a bit awkward,” coughed the Eastern Wasteland Bell. It had also once called itself this lord in front of Long Chen.[1]

At that time, thinking of its own status, the Eastern Wasteland Bell was clearly much higher than Long Chen. After all, an existence like it was something Long Chen had to look up to. So it had naturally called itself this lord.

But who would have thought that Long Chen possessed such an incredibly terrifying existence within him? So it no longer called itself this lord. Furthermore, it had found that in front of Long Chen, it had no qualifications to be arrogant. So now that Long Chen asked this, it immediately became embarrassed.

“He has begun placing the slave mark. Senior, help me conceal my aura. I want to give my old friend a pleasant surprise.” After saying that, Long Chen began stealthily creeping his way closer. The armored lizard was huge, and so it blocked the others’ line of sight.

When the slave mark was being placed, the armored lizard once more began struggling, but it had already exhausted all its energy. And under everyone’s combined suppression, the slave mark smoothly entered.

“Hahaha, from today onwards, I, Xue You, will dominate the Immemorial Path! Who could possibly contend against me?!” Xue You excitedly roared after placing the slave mark.

“Congratulations lord Xue You on obtaining an unrivaled steed!” The people around him immediately respectfully flattered him.

“Hahaha, Devil Empress Yueyan, you’ve suppressed me for so long. Today, I’ll be turning the tables! Is the Corrupt path something that can be led by a woman like you?” sneered Xue You.

As soon as he mentioned the Devil Empress Yueyan, the others shivered in fear. They were clearly terrified of that Devil Empress.

“You don’t need to be afraid. Leng Yueyan is claimed to be number one in close-range combat, but that just happens to be my weakness. That’s the only reason she suppressed me. But now that I have the armored lizard, as long as she can’t break its defenses for a moment, I’ll be able to force her to her death,” said Xue You confidently.

“That’s true. This armored lizard’s defense can truly be described as unrivaled. Even your Treasure item was unable to break its defenses,” said a rank two Celestial.

“If I had used my full strength to activate the Treasure item, then this armored lizard would only have been able to block three of my attacks. But that’s already enough. As long as it can block a single attack, I’ll have achieved my goal. In terms of defense, this mutated Magical Beast is definitely number one amongst seventh rank Magical beasts,” claimed Xue You arrogantly.

“Is that so? I don’t really believe that. Let me try it!” A lazy voice rang out from the top of the armored lizard’s head. Seeing the owner of that voice, Xue You’s expression completely changed.

[1] Other than just the common word for I, in Chinese, you can also call yourself different things to express different things. Here, ‘this lord’ is 本座, is an arrogant and supreme way of referring to oneself. It is used by multiple characters. For example, when Shui Wuhen first appeared, she also called herself 本座 at the beginning, but she doesn’t use it with Long Chen (unless he’s being disrespectful and needs to be taught a lesson).

Another common appellation in this novel is 老子, which can mean your daddy. It is also an arrogant way to call oneself, but unlike 本座, it is much less dignified. So 本座 is something a respected sect leader would use, while 老子 is what a boss of a gang would use. 老子 is what Long Chen calls himself when he’s being a poser, and the Dragonblood warriors may also use it depending on the time, and so did the person from the Heaven Splitting Divine Sect.

In this case, the Eastern Wasteland Bell referred to itself as 本座 when it first met Long Chen, but then it switched to 老夫, which might be translated as this old man.

I generally won’t actually translate these appellations as this lord or your daddy unless they’re actually relevant in terms of word play like here. Instead, I normally just use tone or descriptors to get the meaning across.