No way… He couldn’t just wait for death. Jared forced himself upright and pulled a pill from his Storage Ring. It was a Dragon Essence Elixir he had taken from Dragonmere, famed for mending wounds.
The moment it slid down his throat, warmth surged through every vein. Cuts knitted before his eyes. Broken ribs clicked together, fractures sealed, organs drew taught once more. Moments later jared was on his feet, his aura more than halfway restored. He looked to the battlefield.
Darian had revealed his true form, a golden dragon a thousand feet long, coiling with three Demon Dragons in mid-air. Five titanic dragons rolled above the forest canopy. Dragon roars split the sky, demonic aura billowed like a bloody sea.
Jared’s gaze sharpened, his bloodline power rushing awake.
The Five-Clawed Golden Dragon phantom sprang out again, brighter and firmer than before. Its outline sharper and more tangible than it had been moments before.
He filled his lungs with a single steady breath, then shot toward the roiling fight ahead.
“Elder Darian, I’m coming to help!”
Darian’s eyes flew wide. “Your Majesty, your wounds aren’t healed yet…”
Jared ignored the warning and drove a straight-armed punch at Morven.
Morven, still locked in combat with Darian, never sensed the approach. Jared’s fist smashed squarely between his shoulder blades.
Boom!
Morven’s frame pitched forward, and a jagged crack split the dark-red scales running down his spine. He whipped around to stare at Jared, eyes widened, pupils quivering in protest. “You… Your injuries…”
Jared let out a cold chuckle. “Credit your own Draconian elixir for that.”
He struck again. The Golden Dragon phantom roared and barreled straight for Morven.
Morven’s face tightened, he met the charge with a vicious palm strike. Scarlet light collided with the golden dragon. The blast shoved Jared three steps back and forced Morven back one.
Jared still carried the weaker side of the exchange, yet he was no longer the helpless target he had been earlier. Darian straightened, fresh vitality charging through his stance. “Your Majesty, magnificent!”
With a thunderous roar, Darian hammered his attacks even harder. Quentin and Silas found themselves tangled in his sweeping coils, unable to wrench free.
Seeing this, Morven ground his teeth and pulled a dark-red orb from inside his robe.
The instant the bead appeared, the surrounding air warped and rippled. Color drained from Darian’s face. “The Demon Dragon Orb?! Are you mad?!”
Morven’s grin twisted. “Elder Darian, did you really think the three of us came unprepared?”
He crushed the orb. A torrent of terrible demonic aura blasted outward. The foul power was at least ten times stronger than anything they had shown before.
Morven’s presence ballooned, climbing higher with every heartbeat.
Top Level High Immortal Realm Level Nine…
He threw back his head and howled while dark-red radiance burst from every scale. He fixed Jared with a razor-sharp stare. “Jared, today you’re not getting away!”
Jared held his features steady, though a tightness gripped his chest. Darian roared and hurled himself at Morven with everything he had left.
Morven simply flicked his wrist, a single scarlet beam slammed Darian backward. “Old fool, stay out of my way!”
He advanced on Jared, step by leisurely step, a slow curl lifting at the corner of his mouth. “Jared, any last words?”
Jared studied him and suddenly broke into a grin. “Yeah…”
Morven arched an eyebrow. “Speak!”
Jared pronounced every word with care. “You are ugly as hell…”
Hearing this, Morven’s expression froze. A pulse shuddered through his scales, and scorching heat poured off him.
“You’re courting death!” He slammed his palm downward, dark-red light flooding the sky like a collapsing tide.
Jared shut his eyes.
There was no space left to dodge this time. Right then, a clear, fierce voice cut through the clamor, and a lone figure sprinted into the fray. “Stop!”
Jared’s eyes snapped open, and his body stiffened.
Vivian? Why is she here?
A flicker of disbelief crossed Jared’s face. Vivian stood covered in blood. Her skin had lost every trace of look of someone who home a path here by force.
She planted herself in front of Jared, fixed an unblinking stare on Morven, and said, “You can’t kill him!”
Morven stopped in place. An instant later he let out a low laugh. The curve of his mouth dripped with mockery. “Miss Chance, your father locked you in the ancestral hall. How did you slip out?”
Vivian kept her eyes nailed to him. “I said, you can’t kill him!”
Morven gave a small shake of the head. “Miss Chance, you’re far too naïve. Do you really think you can stop me?”
He lifted his hand, ready to bring it crashing down. Vivian suddenly drew a golden pendant from inside her robe and thrust it high above her head. The pendant glowed gold from edge to edge, and a Five-Clawed Golden Dragon was carved across the face.
Morven’s pupils contracted. “The Dragon Sovereign Seal?!”
Vivian’s voice rang out. “For you Draconians, the seal is the Dragon Emperor himself. Will you dare defy it?”
Uncertainty tightened Morven’s features, how the seal had landed in Vivian’s grasp made no sense to him. He locked onto the pendant, a wary flicker spreading behind his eyes.
The Dragon Sovereign Seal was the greatest Draconian relic, a symbol of the Emperor’s authority. Every Draconian who saw it was bound to obey, refusal branded the offender a traitor.
They had thrown in with demons, yet the instinct buried in their blood left them shrinking from the seal same.
After a drawn-out silence, Morven finally snorted. “Miss Chance, you think a scrap of jade can shield him?!”
He flicked his wrist. A streak of dark-red light smashed against Vivian’s forearm. Vivian cried out, and the seal spun free of her grasp. Morven snatched it from the air, turned it over once, then tucked it into his robe.
“Now the seal belongs to me…” He glanced at Vivian, a cold gleam sliding across his eyes. “Miss Chance, you ruined my plans… Again and again… Today you die with him.”
He raised his palm, dark-red energy thickened there, churning for release.
Vivian’s face stayed bloodless, yet she never stepped back. She pivoted toward Jared, an unmistakable apology filling her gaze.
“Young Master Chance, I’m sorry… I dragged you into this…”
Jared looked at her and, out of nowhere, smiled. “Miss Chance, why would you be this foolish?”
Hearing this, Vivian blinked, caught off guard. Jared went on, “You could have walked away and left me.” Vivian shook her head; tears slipped down. “I don’t want you to die…”
Jared held silent for a beat, then reached out and wrapped her hand in his. “Then we stay alive together.”
He lifted his head, met Morven’s gaze, and let the resolve in his own eyes speak. “Come on…”
Morven gave a cold laugh and slammed his palm downward.
