Lao Jianghu looked at the former first protector's body on the ground: the body was still split in two and it was laying in a puddle of black, putrid blood, not moving in the least.

"No, that guy is dead. This voice... Comes from deep down below the ground!" His expression turned serious and somewhat anxious as he made a hand seal.

Clouds churned and lightning crackled, countless rays of golden light shone from the ground and rose in the sky. They danced in the air and then assembled into a seal: every other light was eclipsed by the great object that had just appeared in the sky.

The gigantic golden seal towered over everything: it was enormous and incredibly complicated, with millions upon millions of words inscribed on top of it, each of them written in a mysterious and ancient language.

The words and the geometrical shapes acted as big chains of some sort to bind down two even bigger figures: although they were apparently unconscious, maybe even dead, they still emitted an enormous amount of pressure!

The smallest of the two was an incredibly mighty tiger, its hide was composed of hundreds upon thousands of small, golden, shining weapons. Its eyes were closed, his chest rose up and down rhythmically, as if it was sleeping peacefully.

In front of the great tiger was an even bigger monster: it was a black dragon whose figure covered the whole sky above the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect. Its black scales shone with chaotic purple and blue light while its whole figure made one want to cower from the terror it instilled into the heart of men.

He was terrifying to the most, thousands of sharp points made their way from the creature's head all the way down to his tail. His head was thin and pointy and many whiskers and horns adorned the ugly face of the slumbering dragon.

Suddenly, that mighty beast's breath stopped and everyone shut up, scared witless. No sound rang out for a long time, it was so silent that people could hear their own heartbeat. If a needle were to fall right then, it would be heard several miles away!

Cheng Hao gritted his teeth and turned towards the two Ancients and shouted "Quick! We have to run away! We have to get away from here NOW!" He kicked off the ground and grabbed the arms of his two new companions, dragging them away with him.

Thanks to his incredible speed, it only took a few breaths to appear a few miles away from the position they were in before, but even then, the golden seal shone down on them. It looked like it extended for countless miles over the horizon

"Damn! Can't run away, uh?" Cheng Hao cursed and stopped. Aster and Iris fell face first on the ground. The man groaned and then opened his mouth to protest.

No sound came out as his previously annoyed expression turned into terror.

Up in the sky, a black eyelid slowly rose, revealing an evil, yellow eye.

A vertical pupil shrunk as it readjusted to the light and then went back to normal. The beast blinked a few times as it explored its surroundings. It then looked down onto the sea of people below as if it was looking at a fancy restaurant's menu.

It inhaled, an enormous nostril widened and then went back to its original size as the beast seemed to taste the air.

The monster smiled as it fully awoke from those countless years of slumber. It breathed in and then glanced down again.

It opened its mouth and the crowd felt their blood turn cold from the terror.

On the other hand, he seemed to be completely at ease, laying on the golden seal just like an emperor would sit on a throne. If it weren't for the golden chains and the evil look on the dragon's face, people would surely have mistaken him for a monarch of the heavens who had descended upon the world!

"Hello..." a cold and evil voice said "Nice weather isn't it?"

It looked around and the people below stupidly nodded in response.

The dragon was bound down by chains but it could still move enough to stretch his neck. The tinkling noise that the golden chains made when the beast shifted its position startled awake those who were still too shocked to move.

"Now then..." it asked amused "Who should I eat first?"

He turned to look at the two Ancients wearing white robes "You, perhaps? Traitors are the tastiest of them all!"

The two of them trembled in fear as they felt the dragon's gaze piercing straight through them. They both fell on the ground, clenching their head as tears began to fall from Iris's eyes and Aster looked up in despair.

Cheng Hao gritted his teeth as he stepped in front of Iris and Aster, putting himself in between the big dragon's gaze and the two.

He then turned to face the gigantic beast "Damn... You guys need to escape, I can't let my efforts be wasted now!"

He pondered for a bit and then touched the two Ancients' foreheads.

A single thread seemed to appear, connecting the two's figures to Goldy's. Seeing that, Cheng Hao nodded and then yelled once again "Goldy! Follow them! It will be the only way people will know they are on our side!"

Aster and Iris were startled when they noticed the Golden Dragon floating in the air a few feet from them: he had not been there before, so where did it come from?

Goldy trembled as he looked at the great seal up in the sky "So mighty... This seal would effortlessly bind down even the mightier of the Ageless Realm for eons... Wouldn't this be able to bind down even powerful Immortal realm Heavenly Beasts? These guys were probably only a step away from the Supreme stage

[Note: Mortal Realm: Inferior

Ageless Realm: Royal

Immortal Realm: Highgod

!"

Blindlight shook his head and recovered "Cheng Hao! Where did you put the golden drop of blood?"

Cheng Hao paled as he shook his head "I-I don't have it here! I also do not know where exactly it might be right now..." he bit his lips and his brows furrowed "What now..."

Goldy also looked pretty terrified when Cheng Hao said that, then its eyes brightened up "Blacky! What about Blacky!"

Cheng Hao stopped his pondering and then he asked in an extremely flat voice "You mean... He isn't here with you?"

Goldy smiled kindly "Yeah look, I can hold snakes so gigantic that they can blot out the sun in my tiny stomach just fine, right? No wait, can't I simply create a pocket dimension to thrown in said snakes at will? Can't I just do that?"

The dragon's gentle expression turned into fury "Of course I can't! And even if I could, why would he even come with me? He hates me if not detests me from back when I harassed him in the old days, whenever I had the chance!"

Cheng Hao sighed "Bad ending so soon? No! It cannot be!" He turned to look at the two beasts in the air "As long as that snake is still bound down by the seal, it will still be okay!"

Suddenly, the dragon opened his mouth roaring and attempted to lift itself up. As he did so, with a loud crackling noise, the chains began to break apart.

Goldy shook his head and yelled at the young boy in front of him "You did it on purpose, didn't you? You just HAD to set off such an obvious death flag, didn't you?" He gritted his teeth and he cursed "Damn! What now?".

Cheng Hao also looked wide-eyedly at the scene above them "Shit! Why couldn't I just shut up?" He slapped himself on the forehead.

The dragon smiled fiercely and looked at the young boy like a predator would look at its prey "Ahaha, foolish genius child... I will eat you as well soon, you do not need to worry! Just lay back and enjoy as I massacre your friends!"

Suddenly, above them, a loud Tiger's roar could be heard as Lao Jianghu floated up above in the sky and the image of a golden tiger appeared behind him.

A while ago, that illusion would look mighty, but when compared to the black dragon, it was the same as if a feeble flame was being compared to the sun. Still, the old man wit golden eyes did not seem to mind about that, as he ignored the drastic difference in size and power.

His hands constantly moved, making various hand seals, his demeanor was that of a ruler of the heavens and his presence that of an emperor of the earth as the powerful golden blade that he had used to kill Yin Hei floated behind him.

It suddenly brightened up and shined even brighter than it had when Lao Jianghu had been fighting against the human-shaped Shadow Dragon. It grew several times in size and only stopped once it had grown to be a few hundred meters long. Even if it was incredibly huge, it still wasn't even a thousandth, a ten thousandth or even a hundred thousandth of the humongous dragon's body.

Lao Jianghu then pointed his finger towards the enormous black dragon and the gigantic blade magically followed, hovering parallel to the man's arm, its tip pointing right at the spot in between the dragon's eyes.

The beast looked at the old man in disdain. It scoffed and then smirked "You wish to fight me with that toothpick of yours? Even if you were at your full strength you just might have been able to fight me head on... But now!" it laughed "You can only wish to die peacefully!"

Down below, the crowd of people followed the exchange of words between their one hope and the Shadow Dragon attentively. The light in their eyes hinted that they still had some hope about being able to live through the day, but what the old man said next extinguished that light completely.

Lao Jianghu stood silent and simply looked up at the black dragon. He then sighed and the hundred-meters-long golden sword went back to its mild state, hovering behind him "You are right..."

As his voice rang out, countless people's legs gave out and they fell on their knees, tears streaming down their cheeks as they simply stared ahead in despair silently: they did not even the strength to cry out aloud.

"As I am now, a human, I do not have the power to fight you. I will die here and so will everyone else in this world and many others as well..." Lao Jianghu looked down and his expression was hidden. The Shadow Dragon up in the air smiled as it propped itself up, breaking some of the remaining intact chains in the process.

It sighed and shook his head "My dear rival... These few hundreds of thousands if not millions of years have been fun... I wish we could do this again... If I wasn't going to destroy everything, that is! Now then, where do I think should I start? Maybe the Liberis Plane? Those guys are just so fun to toy with, especially when they scramble around on their flying ships and try to fight back! Or maybe the Lakora plane! Half-men are just so much fun to squash! Or maybe-"

"...BUT." Lao Jianghu interrupted

The Shadow Dragon looked confused for a second and then it looked back down at Lao Jianghu, his expression one of annoyance "Tiger. You have been defeated. You are dead. You cannot turn this around. You reached a dead end. Game Over, you understand? Right now you are acting like a spoiled kid, nothing more"

The beast looked down and it seemed somewhat angry "You are annoying the hell out of me, you have been a fun toy to play with before... But a broken toy is just not as fun anymore. Just die and let me enjoy my real passion: destruction and chaos!"

Lao Jianghu smiled bitterly once but then he looked up: his eyes were not hazy in the least, they were clear and burning with passion, his determination was clear and his resolve as well as his confidence were even clearer!

"You stupid snake... You really thought this was the end, didn't you?" Lao Jianghu smirked and ridiculed Long Yin Hei "Too bad for you, I have long since prepared for this moment!"

The Shadow Dragon tilted its head and looked confused.

"I have a little quiz for you..." the old man looked at the golden blade that now hovered beside him and caressed it just like a doting father would caresses his beloved child

"Question number one:" As a way to indicate the first question, he shamelessly lifted up his middle finger at the beast "Do you know how much time it takes to create one of these beauties?"

Long Yin Hei looked confused for a second and then his disdain increased even more "Trying to buy time, are you? Hope your brothers will save your ass? Too bad I have already sealed this plane away from prying eyes! You should just give u-"

"Slightly less than a minute. It takes from ten to fifteen breaths."

The Shadow Dragon's mouth hanged open and then the dragon gaped.

Even Cheng Hao was shocked when he heard the man's answer.

After all, the weapon was incredibly powerful. Lao Jianghu smiled at the dragon's reaction and explain "I am not truly creating them. I am merely extracting them from my main body, laying in the seal. That might also be one of the reasons that the seal has weakened a bit. Still, this means that it only takes little time to summon a single one of these powerful weapons."

He smiled calmly and then he raised the middle finger on his other hand, flipping off the snake twice at once and at the same time indicating the number two "Second question. How much damage can one of these do to your true self?"

Yin Hei felt uneasy and angry, but his pride refused to let him lose face and respond to the man's provocations. The dragon grinned widely and answered proudly "One of them can, at most, stop me for a fraction of a breath!"

Lao Jianghu's eyes glinted "Even better than I imagined..." he muttered. He then looked back towards the center of the Sect, where the ten towers stood tall despite all the wind and pressure imposed on them.

"Third question... My Protector Tower is made up of golden weapons... How many of them are really made up of gold?"

Yin Hei's brows furrowed as he felt something was wrong. Something was really wrong. He opened his mouth to speak but before he could Lao Jianghu smiled and then clapped his hands together "The answer is..."

As he lingered off, Yin Hei looked at him intensively.

Lao Jianghu grinned and yelled "None of them are!"

Suddenly, countless golden streaks shot out from the center of the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect!

If one were to look from above, he would be able to see the golden tower made out of countless golden weapons was being dismantled at great speed as the many golden blades, bows, axes and all other kinds of weapons suddenly seemed to become alive and shoot towards the old man wearing golden robes.

Lao Jianghu smiled as an enormous hurricane took form around him and hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of weapons hovered around him like hundreds of thousands of bloodthirsty golden beasts!

Lao Jianghu clapped his hands once more and then pointed towards the astonished Shadow Dragon. Lao Jianghu smiled as the countless golden weapons moved and all targeted Yin Hei.

"Last question!" He shouted and then scratched his nape as if he had found a problem "If they are not made out of gold, what are they really made out of then?" His brows furrowed theatrically and he acted as if he was pondering.

He snapped his fingers and the golden weapons banded up so that they began to resemble the faint outline of an enormous tiger. They all began to emanate the same blinding light as the first golden longsword and began to grow bigger and bigger until they each became a few hundred meters long.

The illusion of the tiger became so huge that it was basically as big as the Shadow Dragon "The answer is..."

Lao Jianghu smiled and explained 'kindly'.

"They are Aura Weapons made out of the Essence of a Heavenly Beast! I did not use this technique in my previous lives as a human as it would take several years to prepare it, but you gave me enough time in this lifetime... You gave me ten years! For ten years you left me alone as you thought me as being in the crippled body of the Sect Head, letting me come up with all the countermeasures I could... All of this to finally, permanently, defeat you once and for all!"