Vivian drew in a deep breath and forced down the blood surging inside her. Her grip tightened around the longsword in her hand. The blade gave off one last thread of light. She was ready to fight to the death. Even if it ended in utter soul-ruin, she would still buy Jared, inside the hidden chamber, one final sliver of time.
Luther, Grace, and Evelyn struggled back to their feet too. Each of them dragged out the last scrap of strength left in their bodies and took up a fighting stance, ready to die together with the enemy. Then, right at that razor-thin instant between life and death, a world-shaking blast broke loose from the highest heavens.
Boom! The sound hit like the sky splitting apart, like stars falling out of the dark. The shockwave rolled across heaven and earth. Everyone’s ears rang. Blood churned in their chests, and even the spiritual power inside their bodies was thrown into disorder. Both sides, right in the middle of killing each other, stopped at the same time. That terrifying crash locked every movement in place.
Up in the sky, everyone who had been fighting moments ago stopped on instinct. The Celestial Palace disciples who had been pressing the attack and the Sky Dragon Clan clansmen who had been resisting with everything they had all lifted their heads and stared toward the source of the blast, shock written plain across their faces.
At the far end of the horizon, an endless dark-red light came rolling in like a monstrous tidal wave. Inside that light, demonic aura boiled and churned, savage enough to drown out the world. Countless massive shapes moved in and out of the demonic aura, half-hidden and half-revealed.
The pressure pouring off them was so terrible it made breathing hard—the kind that could drive a soul out of the body. As it swept over the battlefield, every cultivator there went weak in the legs. It was demonic aura! A towering demonic aura, pure and domineering. It belonged to the Demon Dragon Lineage!
Everyone froze. Disbelief and suspicion spread across every face. No one had expected the Demon Dragon Lineage to show up out of nowhere at the most critical moment of the bloodbath in Cloudhaven City. At that moment, Godric stood at the bow of the golden warship, his face cold as he directed the battle below.
But the instant that familiar, terrifying pressure of the Demon Dragons hit him, and he saw that dark red flood at the edge of the sky, his expression changed on the spot.
The coldness on his face tightened into gravity, then broke into outright shock. Even his voice shook. “The Demon Dragon Lineage… it’s the Demon Dragon Lineage… how are they here?!”
The dark red light rushed closer and closer, growing clearer by the second. Countless enormous dark red Demon Dragons filled the sky above Cloudhaven City, wheeling through the air so densely that they blotted out heaven itself, with no end in sight no matter how far one looked.
The vast Demon Dragon host faced the army of the Celestial Palace from afar. Dark demonic aura and golden light pressed against each other, and the air between heaven and earth locked solid in an instant.
At the very front, atop the head of the largest supreme demon dragon, two figures stood side by side. A man and a woman. Both stood straight, carrying themselves with a presence that set them apart at a glance. The man wore black.
His face was strikingly handsome. He stood there with his hands behind his back, calm and unbothered, as if all the killing and all the chaos in the world below were not worth a second look from him. And yet the aura he kept tightly restrained still made even a True Immortal Realm expert like Godric register one thing clearly: death.
The woman beside him wore flowing purple robes. She looked cold and distant, almost unreal, with beauty that stopped the eye. She said nothing. She only stood quietly at his side, but that alone gave her an air untouched by the world around her.
They were Skylar and Josephine. The Demon Dragon host came to a steady halt over Cloudhaven City. Dark red demonic aura covered half the sky and stood in open opposition to the Celestial Palace’s golden light. Darian shot out from the Demon Dragon ranks and landed beside Skylar.
He wore a dark-gold dragon robe; dragon might and demonic aura twisted together around him, and his gaze swept coldly across the battlefield with open mockery and contempt in his eyes.
The sky fell into dead silence. Everyone had stopped moving. The faces of the Celestial Palace disciples had gone stiff and ugly. The Sky Dragon Clan clansmen stared back in shock and uncertainty. Every eye on the battlefield gathered on this Demon Dragon host that had appeared without warning, and no one could tell whether they had come as enemies or allies.
Roland slowly changed back into human form. His whole body was soaked in blood, his clothes torn to shreds, as he stood atop the ruined city walls and fixed his eyes on Darian. Something complicated passed through his gaze. They were both Draconians, but they had been born enemies.
The Demon Dragon Lineage had thrown in with the demon side and fought the Sky Dragon Clan for thousands of years. The hatred between them ran deep as the sea. And now, at the exact moment the Sky Dragon Clan had been driven to the edge, the Demon Dragon Lineage had shown up. Standing on the broken wall, Roland couldn’t tell what they had come here to do.
The faces on the Celestial Palace side looked even worse. They all knew the Grand Elder of the Celestial Palace had died at the hands of the Demon Dragon Lineage. Old hatred and fresh blood had piled together, and with the Demon Dragon host appearing now, it only made this disaster heavier.
Godric drew in a slow breath and forced everything down. He locked his eyes on Darian and said in a low voice, “Darian, why has your Demon Dragon Lineage left the Demon Marches and suddenly brought an army to Cloudhaven City? What exactly are you here for?”
Darian looked at him, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile that didn’t hide the mockery in it at all. His voice came out flat and arrogant. “Godric, you really don’t know what I mean? You led the entire Celestial Palace army out to surround Cloudhaven City and made things this lively. Of course I had to come join the fun. Why would I miss a show this good?”
Godric still held it in and did not move. His gaze swept past Darian and landed on Skylar beside him. The black-clad young man looked plain and quiet, but the pressure coming off him gave Godric a sense of danger he had never known before.
It was like facing some sleeping ancient beast, and that alone kept his hand from moving lightly. A heavy unease kept rising in him. One thought pressed forward over and over: had the Grand Elder of the Celestial Palace and several core elders died at the hands of this young man in black?
Godric forced down that guess along with the killing intent building under it, then spoke again in the same deep voice. “Darian, your Demon Dragon Lineage may have grudges with the Celestial Palace, but what happens today is between the Celestial Palace, Jared, and the Sky Dragon Clan.
It has nothing to do with your Demon Dragon Lineage… today, I only want Jared. I don’t want to make an enemy of your Demon Dragon Lineage and stir up another war for nothing.
If you take your people and leave the Demon Marches right now, then what happened to the Grand Elder before can be let go for the time being. We can settle the rest another day…”
Darian went still for the briefest moment when he heard that. Then he threw his head back and burst out laughing. The sound rolled across the sky over Cloudhaven City, packed with ridicule and disdain.
“Let it go?” Darian’s laughter cut off all at once. His face turned cold. Looking at Godric with open contempt, he said with sharp ridicule in every word, “Godric, has this war smashed your head that badly?
Did you get something mixed up here? I brought the full Demon Dragon force here today, but I didn’t come to bargain with you or talk through old grudges. You don’t have the right to bargain with me.”
He lifted a hand and pointed straight at Godric. Word by word, in a cold, domineering voice, he said, “I’m ordering you now: take your Celestial Palace trash and get out of Cloudhaven City. Go as far as you can… otherwise…” A cruel, savage smile pulled at the corner of Darian’s mouth. “Then don’t blame me for showing no old ties at all and burying every last one of you here in Cloudhaven City.”
With Skylar standing behind him, Darian carried himself with a lot more swagger. Without Skylar, he wouldn’t have even dared come here.
