Long Chen saw a distant ‘mountain’. His heart pounded.

That was a huge, three-mile-long Earth Dragon. This so-called Earth Dragon was actually just a large lizard. It had two horns on its head, making it appear sinister and terrifying. It also had a pair of wings, but it wasn’t able to fly. It was covered in golden scales from top to bottom, and currently lying at the peak of a mountain. Seeing Long Chen and the others arrive, it let out a thunderous roar.[1]

“That’s clearly an eighth rank Magical Beast!” Long Chen gulped.

Little Snow let out a quiet growl.

Long Chen was speechless. “Even if I’ve advanced, I’m not a match for an eighth rank Magical Beast! Are you joking?”

Little Snow actually thought that he could handle an eighth rank Magical Beast now that he had advanced. Long Chen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Little Snow really had overestimated him. It wasn’t as if he had advanced to Sea Expansion. How could he dare to challenge an eighth rank Magical Beast?

That was equivalent to a human Foundation Forging expert. Furthermore, seeing its immense territory, it was obvious that it was the ruler of this place. No other Magical Beasts dared to provoke it.

Most importantly, anything in this world that was remotely related to a dragon wasn’t something you should provoke. This Earth Dragon was a fire attribute Magical Beast, and the Earth Dragon Golden Blaze, first on the beast flame rankings, came from it.

In the outside world, the Earth Dragons no longer possessed very pure bloodlines. And with such impure bloodlines, their limit was the sixth rank. But this one was a truly powerful existence that had reached the eighth rank.

“Brother Long, let’s try it! Its flesh will definitely be…” Wilde’s stomach grumbled. He gulped down his saliva, a hopeful light in his eyes.

“Although I feel like it’s very foolish, I still want to try it. Ah, I really am becoming more and more stupid,” sighed Long Chen. The Earth Dragon had something that he needed.

That was its Neidan. Just the beast flame seed extracted from a sixth rank Earth Dragon would be ranked first on the beast flame rankings. So it was obvious just how much energy had to be in this Earth Dragon’s Neidan. Within Long Chen’s body, Huo Long was starting to become agitated.

Even at this distance, it was able to sense the Earth Dragon’s flame energy. It was urging Long Chen to summon his courage.

Long Chen put away Little Snow immediately to avoid him being one-shotted. He didn’t have the slightest assurance in fighting against an eighth rank Magical Beast.

But there was one thing that gave him confidence. If they really were unable to defeat it, he could always bring out the dragon scale. Any Magical Beast with comparatively greater intelligence would be affected by the dragon might, especially this kind of Magical Beast that was related to dragons.

“Wilde, this fellow is extremely powerful. The chances of us winning are very low. The plan is for me to attack first, while you preserve your power. When the time comes, I’ll send you a message. Then you’ll immediately activate your Barbarian Blood Bronze Body and hit it with your strongest attack. Whether or not we can win is up to you, understood?” said Long Chen.

Wilde nervously nodded. Long Chen knew that if Wilde even understood fifty percent of his meaning, it would be not bad. He just told him to not move and wait for him to create an opportunity.

Once he was sure Wilde understood and was just about to move out, the Eastern Wasteland Bell suddenly rang out in Long Chen’s head.

“Are you really going to attack it? Your chances of winning aren’t high. In fact, you’ll likely end up being killed. You’re looking down on an eighth rank Magical Beast’s power. I really can’t understand you. You don’t understand what Leng Yueyan is thinking, but now I find I also can’t understand what you’re thinking. If you’re so unlucky all the time, why don’t you be more well-behaved?”

“Hehe, with bad luck, the danger factor is much higher, so the chance of succeeding is lower. That is correct. But you don’t know how I passed the last few years. Everything I have, I gained through risking my life. If I didn’t dare to do something because of danger, I wouldn’t have been able to obtain more opportunities, and I would have been surpassed by others. My experience over these years tells me that it is the people who fear death the most that have the earliest and most miserable deaths. Furthermore, my experience also tells me that the greater the danger, the greater the profit. I don’t know if this theory of mine suits others, but I feel like it works for me,” said Long Chen. This was his precious experience that he had gained through risking his life over and over.

The Eastern Wasteland Bell descended into silence. Everything about Long Chen was so strange, making it so he couldn’t understand him. If Long Chen was truly its heir, then the world’s karmic luck should have gathered all over him. But then how was he so unlucky?

Long Chen had just moved when a roar rang out. This time, it wasn’t just a warning. It also contained a trace of anger. The fact that Long Chen was encroaching upon its territory had angered the Earth Dragon.

The Earth Dragon was a king amongst Magical Beasts, and as a flame attribute beast, it was easily angered. It had been many years since any Magical Beast had tried approaching it. The surrounding Magical Beasts were just its prey.

Long Chen ignored its warning and continued forward. The Earth Dragon’s territory was huge. It was several thousand miles, and on this land, there wasn’t a single blade of grass growing. It was just barren rock.

When Long Chen had traveled hundreds of miles into its territory, the Earth Dragon finally couldn’t endure any longer. It didn’t move, but it opened its mouth. Golden flames rushed toward Long Chen. Long Chen didn’t even have a chance to react before they instantly devoured him.

The golden flames melted the rocks around him. A burnt smell filled the twisting air.

“Damn, this is thousands of times stronger than the Earth Dragon Golden Blaze that Huo Wufang controlled!” exclaimed Long Chen. “Just this one spurt of breath is enough to kill any number of rank two Celestials struck by it. If I could subdue it, then I would be able to roam around the Immemorial Path unchallenged. Regretfully, there’s no way to subdue it with brute force, and even if I could capture it, there’s no hope of successfully placing a slave mark on it with my current Spiritual Strength.”

The only chance there would be any hope of subduing it was if he used the dragon scale’s might. But he definitely couldn’t do that again. If he exhausted too much of the essence blood in the dragon scale, he wouldn’t be able to cultivate the Dragon Blood Body Tempering Art. If that happened, he wouldn’t even have a place to cry. Furthermore, even if the Earth Dragon couldn’t resist the dragon might, couldn’t it run? He wouldn’t be able to stop it, and then he would have lost everything.

Long Chen was surrounded by blue flames. Those raging golden flames were unable to do anything to him. In fact, they were absorbed by the blue flames.

His arm shook as Huo Long almost charged out of its own accord. Long Chen hastily suppressed it. Now wasn’t the time to release it.

Taking advantage of when it was breathing fire, Long Chen closed the distance. With the Earth Flame protecting him, he didn’t fear any of this fire.

When Long Chen was just a few dozen miles away, the Earth Dragon suddenly moved. It stood up and revealed its mountain-sized wings, rushing at Long Chen. Although it wasn’t able to fly, its speed was incredible. A huge claw came whistling toward him.

“Split the Heavens!” With the broadsword, Split the Heavens was much stronger now. Long Chen’s Sword Qi slashed onto its claw.

Long Chen felt like his Sword Qi had slashed into an immovable mountain. A huge backlash sent him flying. He tumbled back, only crawling up dozens of miles away.

When he crawled up, he suddenly realized that his attack hadn’t even managed to slow the Earth Dragon down. It was still charging at him.

One of its huge wings smashed down on him. That wing had bone thorns growing on it that whistled through the air.

Long Chen’s scalp turned numb. It was no wonder the Eastern Wasteland Bell had said he was courting death. An eighth rank Magical Beast’s power wasn’t something he could imagine.

“Divine ring!”

“Four Star Battle armor!”

With a furious roar, Long Chen explosively released all his power. A huge ray of Sword Qi soared into the sky.

“Split the Heavens 2!”

BOOM! Long Chen’s arms both broke. He vomited blood as he once more flew back. On the way, a mountain he crashed into crumbled to bits.

“Fuck, how is it so powerful?!” Although Long Chen had thought that he had already overestimated an eighth rank Magical Beast’s power before fighting, he realized he had actually still underestimated it. He had advanced to the twelfth Heavenstage of Xiantian, but he was still unable to receive even a single attack from the Earth Dragon with his strongest move.

Suddenly, it flapped its wings, releasing a powerful gust that sent him flying. It opened its mouth, and a sea of raging flames spurted toward him.

This was not the same breath as last time. Within this sea of flames were countless flame runes.

The ground instantly melted. In front of this terrifying heat, the liquefied ground began to vaporize. This was Long Chen’s first time seeing such a terrifying beast flame.

Fortunately, the Earth Flame restricted the beast flame. No matter how the flames tried to attack him, Huo Long absorbed them easily. Those flame runes were especially nourishing for it.

“Now it’s troublesome. I can’t get close to it, let alone lock it down. None of my strategies will work anymore. But while it’s breathing fire, there should be an opportunity.”

Long Chen suddenly took out a giant pill with the same size as a baby’s fist. It was pitch-black and had nine pill rings on it. It was the most difficult medicinal pill he had ever refined.

In truth, this was a poison pill he had refined back when he had refined the Sea Merging Pill. It was something that contained all the poison of the Hidden Ground Gold Spider King.

Back then, he had felt that it might be able to help in a crisis. Now he brought it out. Wrapping it with the Earth Flame’s power, he sent it flying into the Earth Dragon’s mouth.

[1] To be clear, the dragon here does not refer to a real dragon. It is the same as when Huo Long and Lei Long fly out, they aren’t true dragons. You should just treat that as a descriptor of shape.