Long Chen coughed up blood. He hadn’t thought this silver lizard would be so crafty. At the same time as it had attacked him from the front, it had silently sent out its long tail to strike him from behind as well.

If he had been struck directly, then even with his powerful physical body, he would probably have had all his bones broken. Anyone else would just explode instantly.

Stabilizing himself, Long Chen wiped off some blood from the corner of his mouth. He was just about to check the others’ situation when the silver lizard opened its mouth. A golden ray of light suddenly shot out.

Long Chen’s scalp turned numb. Without even thinking about it, he used the Lightning Body Blink to dodge to the side.

The ray of light shot right past him. It then pierced through the light barrier and struck the castle walls. A huge hole appeared in the wall. Not only that, it continued forward, killing any Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards in its way.

Through that hole in the wall, Long Chen saw many female faces. It was the Heaven Female Alliance.

Countless shocked expressions could be seen there. They had been lucky just now, as this ray of light had shot past them. But if it had been angled just a bit to the side, it would have gone right through them. That would have been a calamity they didn’t want to even imagine.

“Not good!”

Seeing the silver lizard once more open its mouth, Long Chen’s heart turned cold. The direction it was facing was the army outside. If it once more attacked, who knew if those disciples would be so lucky again?

But the silver lizard didn’t give him much time to think. Its next attack was being prepared and would come out quickly. He couldn’t dodge it again.

“Lightning Finger!”

Seeing it open its mouth, a sphere of light fully condensed inside, Long Chen quickly shot out a bolt of lightning that entered its mouth.

That silver lizard hadn’t expected Long Chen to take advantage of when it was unleashing its attack. Its attack had only just formed and it hadn’t had time to release it when the lightning arrow struck it.

“Go ahead and explode.”

BOOM!

The ball of light exploded in the lizard’s mouth. Its mouth shattered along with its lower head.

“Damnit, this monster’s aura didn’t drop at all.” Long Chen had thought it was over now that its attack had exploded inside its head. But he suddenly realized that the heavily injured lizard’s aura was as fierce as ever.

That meant its vital point wasn’t its head. It was very likely similar to a Neidan Magical Beast. Unless its Neidan was destroyed, its body wouldn’t die.

Long Chen suddenly launched an attack, slashing his saber at it. It was just an ordinary attack, because he had no time to charge up a magical art. He couldn’t give it any breathing room.

Long Chen’s saber slashed toward its head. He wanted to completely destroy its head, but it instinctively blocked with its arms.

If he could have destroyed its head with this move, then his victory would just be a matter of time. It would run out of energy eventually.

But this silver lizard’s power far exceeded Long Chen’s expectations.

If he hadn’t been lucky and managed to use his thunderforce to cause its attack to self-destruct, the consequences would have been too horrible to imagine.

It was truly worthy of being the trial for core disciples. Although it had only revealed a portion of its power, it was enough to deeply shock Long Chen. It definitely had the power to push him to the brink, and maybe even into death.

Having failed with this attack, Long Chen extended his left hand. A lightning sphere shot out. He couldn’t give it any chance to recover.

The lightning sphere exploded on the lizard’s body. It let out a bizarre cry, and its body stiffened.

Long Chen was already in the air, his saber raised. Twenty-seven of his acupuncture points had been activated, and a fierce aura soared into the sky.

Only eighteen of these acupuncture points had full-grown divine runes on them. He was able to unleash the second form of Split the Heavens perfectly, but the third form’s divine runes were still in their initial states. They were still being nourished by his spiritual yuan.

But despite that, they were strengthening with each passing day. The power of Split the Heavens also increased with them.

Long Chen was accumulating his energy for the third form. He was confident that despite the silver lizard’s power, once it was struck by this blow, it would at least be heavily injured. Then he could easily kill it.

But just at this moment, his expression completely changed. He hastily looked at the distant battlefield.

Panicked cries rang out along with loud cursing. A huge flame beast had charged the Dragonblood Legion and was attacking Huo Long.

“Que Xinyan, you must want to die!” roared Long Chen. That flame beast was Que Xinyan’s Earth Flame. For him to send it to attack Huo Long, he was too despicable.

Que Xinyan had already suppressed his silver Bloodthirsty Devil Lizard with his other Earth Flame. Looking at the furious Long Chen, he sneered.

“Sorry, my flame beast suddenly stopped listening to orders. I’m trying to communicate with it right now, and I’m sure I’ll regain control quickly. Just wait,” said Que Xinyan.

Right now, his other Earth Flame Beast was unleashing powerful attacks on his silver lizard. He also had a long flame chain in his hand that had bound it. That silver lizard was unable to escape no matter how hard it struggled.

Que Xinyan had taken the absolute advantage. Thus, killing his silver lizard was just a matter of time. As for trying to communicate with his Earth Flame, that was absolute nonsense.

The Earth Flame Beast he was controlling was facing the silver lizard head-on, while he provided assistance. After a few testing blows, he had gained control of the rhythm and laid down a trap that had cleanly caught the silver lizard.

He had originally thought that he would be the fastest one to suppress a silver lizard. The others still hadn’t gained an absolute advantage like him. But when he had looked over at Long Chen, he had been shocked.

The silver lizard Long Chen was fighting already had half its head destroyed. Que Xinyan had looked over just in time to see Long Chen use a lightning sphere to paralyze his own silver lizard and prepare an attack to kill it. Que Xinyan was startled and infuriated, unable to accept that the person he looked down upon would kill a silver lizard before him.

This core disciple trial was their first step to rallying their supporters. While everyone was in danger, they would save them all, and the disciples who lived would follow them unswervingly.

But the person who killed their silver lizard first would raise the greatest morale. That related to their future rankings, and Que Xinyan couldn’t allow Long Chen to get a head start on him.

As a result, just as Long Chen had taken the absolute advantage, Que Xinyan ordered his other flame beast that was still outside to attack Long Chen’s flame dragon.

Long Chen’s faction immediately panicked. Huo Long was their faction’s greatest defensive shield. Now that it was attacked, their defensive line immediately collapsed, and the ordinary disciples were exposed to the Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards.

Most sinister of all, Que Xinyan had his flame beast attack all-out. It clamped down on Huo Long’s neck and refused to let go. It was actually devouring Huo Long’s energy.

Huo Long had already spent a great deal of its energy on protecting the ordinary disciples behind it, as those had been Long Chen’s orders. As a result, this sudden sneak attack put it at an immense disadvantage. Despite doing its best, it was unable to reverse the tide.

This sudden turn of events also caught Guo Ran and the others by surprise. They wanted to help Huo Long, but now an unending tide of Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards charged over. They had no choice but to go all-out killing them, or the ordinary disciples would all be slaughtered.

Even so, the ordinary disciples were falling one by one. With their defensive line in tatters, they were as weak as paper in front of these Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards. Their blood dyed the ground, and seeing the people beside them falling, the ones still alive all turned scarlet-eyed.

Those people were their brothers who they had entrusted their lives to. In the same manner, their lives had been entrusted to them. Seeing them dying one by one, they let out their bestial roars. Without a care for their lives, they charged at the Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards, unleashing fatal attacks.

“Don’t worry, Long Chen, I’ll quickly regain control! Very quickly…” Seeing Long Chen’s eyes seeming to spit flames, Que Xinyan reassured him.

Long Chen glanced from the recovering silver lizard in front of him to the sneering Que Xinyan. An icy emotion crept over his heart.

In front of countless people’s shocked gazes, Long Chen directly left his light barrier and rushed back to the Dragonblood Legion.

“He… he gave up!” The countless people whose attention had been drawn over were all stunned.

He had no choice but to give up. Huo Long was being suppressed, and the flame beast was in the midst of devouring its power. Huo Long was growing weaker and weaker. Furthermore, those disciples were dying too quickly.

Although it would have only taken him a few breaths to kill his silver lizard, those few breaths represented thousands of lives that would be forever gone from this world. Furthermore, even after killing it, he would need some time to send everyone to safety. The number of people that would die during that time was unacceptable to Long Chen.

“Boss, you…” Guo Ran and the others didn’t know what to feel upon seeing Long Chen give up his core disciple spot.

“We can talk about other things later. First, save them.”

Long Chen waved his hand, and dragon roaring filled the air. A huge lightning dragon flew out at the endless Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards.