Everyone quickly carried the dragon qilin outwards. The dragon qilin was injured and had trouble walking. Hu Ling'er jumped onto Qin Mu's bundle and immediately cast a spell, summoning a tornado that swept the dragon qilin into the whirlwind, carrying it along as they broke through.
Behind them, Tianbo City, built upon the mountains by the river, was collapsing. The enormous demon king within the city was fighting against the city's many strong cultivators, and yet he still had the leisure to crush the flesh and blood of those he killed, using their bones and heads to construct an altar.
Blood-soaked bones and heads kept flying through the air, landing at his feet, quickly forming a layer.
Only his mana and consciousness had descended here; his true body remained within that so-called Dutian. But his strength was already superior to that of Cult Master-level experts.
Within the city, not only was there the Dragon King of the Dragon Taming Sect at the Cult Master level, but there were also other experts at the Life and Death realm and even the Divine Bridge realm. Yet even surrounded, they could do nothing against the Dutian Demon King, only suffering injury after injury.
As for the army garrisoned in the city, the tens of thousands of cultivators were injured by the Dutian Demon King's roar, and then an unknown number were killed by his twelve gazes.
Chaos erupted throughout the city. Countless soldiers broke formation, scrambling to flee. Some jumped directly into the river, only to be smashed against the cliffs by the towering waves of the Yong River, their bodies shattered to pieces.
The soldiers in the city were mostly disciples from various sects, lacking military discipline to begin with. Facing such terror, they collapsed at the first contact, with no morale whatsoever, unable to gather forces to jointly form formations and trap the Dutian Demon King.
When Qin Mu and Libation Scholar Bashan went beyond the frontier for training, eight hundred grassland cultivators working together could batter Bashan Libation Scholar's Cliff Heavenly Yang spell into tatters, forcing him to retreat again and again.
Bashan Libation Scholar was a Cult Master-level expert, yet he was still forced back. Tianbo City had tens of thousands of cultivators and warriors. If they had joined forces, they could likely have held off the Dutian Demon King for some time. Unfortunately, the various sects were scattered like loose sand, unable to gather—each one concerned only with their own escape.
Qin Mu looked back and saw Long Jiaonan still in pursuit, though it seemed she wasn't chasing them.
"Right, Long Jiaonan is also fleeing," Qin Mu realized.
Boom—
The terrifying shockwaves from the clash of experts spread outward. Houses collapsed one after another, disintegrating in midair. Qin Mu and the others were lifted by the terrible waves, flying through the air, countless people flailing as they fell in all directions.
Boom, boom—while still airborne, before they hit the ground, several more terrifying waves came. Qin Mu coughed up blood continuously from the pressure. He hurriedly took the little fox from his back and held her in his arms, lest Hu Ling'er be killed by the tremors.
The fourth wave struck. Qin Mu grunted, activating the Hegemon Body Three Elixirs technique. His body immediately became incomparably hard, yet he was still sent flying.
Thud.
Qin Mu crashed to the ground, rolling over a dozen times before stopping. He had been thrown into a forest. Above this forest, fierce winds howled, slicing off the tops of countless trees.
Those were the residual waves from the experts' spells in Tianbo City.
Blood trickled from the corner of Qin Mu's mouth. His eyes were wide, his chest tight, unable to breathe. After a moment, he suddenly gasped in great heaves, a ragged sound coming from his lungs—they were likely injured from the impact.
After a few rough breaths, he took Hu Ling'er from his arms. The little fox was also badly hurt, unconscious. Qin Mu quickly took a jade bottle from his glutton bag, pried open her mouth, and poured a few drops of dragon saliva inside.
After a moment, the fox slowly came to. Dazed for a while, she said with a crying voice, "I lost Dragon Big!"
The dragon qilin had trouble walking. Hu Ling'er had used a spell to summon a tornado, letting the dragon qilin sit upon it, floating in midair. But those waves destroyed her spell, and the dragon qilin was sent flying, thrown high and far away.
"It's okay. Dragon Big can heal himself. It's just that his injury is on his rear—I'm afraid he can't lick it. Besides, I also lost Shen Wanyun and the others."
"Dragon Big is very valuable," Hu Ling'er cried.
"Shen Wanyun and the others aren't worth anything..." she added.
Qin Mu stood up, circulating his vital energy to expel the stagnant blood from his chest, then picked her up. "Let's go find them."
Just as he said this, his body suddenly tensed. From deep in the forest came the sound of trees collapsing. A great serpent slowly slithered through the forest, pressing trees aside as it advanced.
That great serpent was the same one that had destroyed the towered boat Qin Mu, Wei Yong, and the others had been riding when they went to the capital!
The colossal creature raised by Long Jiaonan!
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Violent coughing came from atop the serpent's head. Qin Mu looked up to see a disheveled, exotic-looking man sitting on the serpent's flat head, coughing and vomiting blood as he went.
His flowered robe was riddled with holes, the makeup on his face smeared—a wretched sight.
"You destroyed Tianbo City! You destroyed my Dragon Taming Sect!"
Long Jiaonan rose unsteadily from the serpent's head, her expression caught between crying and not, her gaze falling upon Qin Mu. Qin Mu's heart tightened, and he slowly retreated step by step.
Long Jiaonan was a formidable expert. She had once confronted archer cavalry and sword guards outside the capital. Even the capital's archer cavalry and sword guards couldn't keep her, and she had escaped unscathed.
"Who exactly are you?"
The great serpent raised its head, looking down at Qin Mu. Long Jiaonan shrieked, "Was it the State Preceptor of Yankang who sent you?"
Qin Mu said nothing, backing away to a large tree. Then, in a flash, he vanished behind it.
Long Jiaonan screamed and thrust her hand forward. Her vital energy transformed into a giant hand that shattered the tree with a crack!
But behind the tree, there was no trace of Qin Mu. Long Jiaonan went mad, raising both hands forward. The earth shook continuously as sharp rock spikes thrust out from underground—taller than the trees, covering an area of dozens of zhang, forming a stone forest.
"Escaped? You can't escape."
The great serpent moved its body, crushing the rock spikes as it pressed forward. But Long Jiaonan atop the serpent's head seemed injured, her body writhing on the serpent's head like a human-shaped snake. After writhing for a moment, her head suddenly split open, then her face split apart, and a head emerged from beneath.
She continued writhing like a snake, and before long, shed a layer of human skin. Long Jiaonan stood up naked, took a set of new clothes, and slowly dressed herself. Looking around, she giggled, "I know you haven't gone far. You're still hiding nearby—I sense your gaze. You're admiring my body..."
In the dense forest about a hundred zhang away, Qin Mu crouched in the crown of a large tree, his gaze fixed intently upon the transformed Long Jiaonan: "The Dragon Taming Sect's bizarre techniques actually allow one to shed their old skin and take a new body. But isn't Long Jiaonan supposed to be the son of the Dragon King of the Dragon Taming Sect? How is she a woman with such a voluptuous figure..."
The instant he had hidden behind the tree, he had immediately pulled his Transmission Robe over himself and teleported away, evading Long Jiaonan's killing blow. But his cultivation was not high; he could only teleport about two hundred zhang at most, not enough to leave this forest.
What surprised him most was the mysterious technique Long Jiaonan practiced. She had been injured before, but after shedding her skin, there wasn't a single wound left.
Moreover, Long Jiaonan who crawled out of the shed skin was naturally completely bare. It was only then that Qin Mu noticed her body was different from his own—like that of a woman with an alluring figure.
"Her chest is far more developed than mine. I could never train to that level."
Qin Mu thought to himself, "Is he male or female? Or perhaps she's female, but the Dragon King wanted a son, so he named her Jiaonan—meaning 'delicate boy'? The Dragon King probably raised her as a boy, and this strange appearance is the result."
His gaze remained fixed on Long Jiaonan, not blinking. Blinking at this moment would expose his position between the opening and closing of his eyes, making it easy for Long Jiaonan to pinpoint his exact location.
Long Jiaonan's techniques were so overbearing and powerful; he was absolutely no match for her, whether male or female.
Moreover, activating the Transmission Robe only three or four times would exhaust his cultivation, making it very difficult to escape Long Jiaonan's pursuit.
And staring at Long Jiaonan continuously wasn't a solution either. An expert like her had extremely keen senses and could likely follow his gaze to locate his position.
Long Jiaonan was still slowly dressing, her back to Qin Mu. The skin on the back of her neck showed fine goosebumps. She giggled, "You're staring at my neck. Is my neck pretty?"
Qin Mu's pupils contracted sharply. The goosebumps on the back of Long Jiaonan's neck were gradually shrinking in area—she had already determined Qin Mu's exact position!
Qin Mu pulled the robe over himself. A deafening explosion sounded beside his ears as his figure vanished amid the detonation of her spell.
Long Jiaonan, her robe half-open, withdrew her palm. The great serpent carried her as she swept through the air, but she found no trace of Qin Mu. Suddenly she looked up and saw a figure sprinting through the air overhead.
"You can't escape!"
The great serpent beneath her feet spat out demon qi and soared into the air, chasing after Qin Mu.
In midair, the two saw the state of Tianbo City and their hearts filled with horror. The city built upon the mountains had been completely destroyed, replaced by an altar constructed from blood and bones!
The Dutian Demon King stood upon the altar, brutally attacking two people. One was the Dragon King of the Dragon Taming Sect, accompanied by the flood dragon. The other was that Divine Bridge realm Cult Master-level existence.
These two were in imminent danger, likely to be killed by the Dutian Demon King at any moment. From the Dutian Demon King's mouth came demonic language, far more abstruse and profound than what Qin Mu had used when summoning him!
Above Tianbo City, the sky was rotating, twisting. Suddenly lightning flashed and thunder roared—the sky was torn apart, and a dark space faintly appeared!
Something seemed to be moving within that dark space. Suddenly, a strange figure with two heads and two eyes flew out from the wildly spinning vortex.
That strange figure stopped in midair, shouting a few sentences toward the vortex.
Buzz.
Countless black dots sprayed from the vortex, a dense swarm surging toward Tianbo City.
Those were the Heavenly Demons of Dutian!
Tens of thousands of Heavenly Demons were pouring in from Dutian. These demons were killing each other, their corpses falling like rain from midair. Their bones piled upon the altar, making Tianbo City's altar continuously grow larger and taller.
Blood rain began to fall in midair.
Some of the Heavenly Demons appeared to be of higher rank, descending from the sky carrying scepters, landing upon Tianbo City's altar. They circled the altar, chanting ancient, abstruse demonic language. Immediately, countless magnificent runes appeared above the altar, shining with brilliant light.
"I may have caused a catastrophe even greater than the incident at the Imperial Academy..." Qin Mu's eye twitched, thinking to himself.
————Second update today at six PM!