Chapter 328: I Wish to Transform into a Dragon

Boom!

A muffled explosion startled the Great King of Black Horn, who had been heading straight home. To his surprise, a Formation had been set up at his doorstep. A pale blue light surged upward, disorienting him. The familiar spiritual energy emanating from the Formation enraged him.

This Formation was draining power from his family’s spirit meridians!

“Who dares to infiltrate this venerable one’s Cave Abode?!” His furious roar echoed like thunder through the Water Mansion. A dark shadow circled in the air before transforming into a burly man. His blade-like eyebrows radiated an overwhelming aura of authority, but anyone could see he was consumed by rage.

Outside the courtyard, the shrimp soldiers and crab generals immediately knelt upon hearing the roar.

“His Majesty has returned!”

“Your Majesty, Marauder Cultivators are causing trouble. The First Madam and Zuoqiulong are trapped inside.”

The trapped shrimp soldiers quickly relayed the events that had unfolded within the courtyard.

“It seems this Great King has been too discreet, allowing these Human Race Marauder Cultivators to forget my legendary might.”

When the Great King of Black Horn heard that a Marauder Cultivator dared to target his Treasure Vault, his fury burned even hotter. He couldn’t believe anyone would be so audacious as to disregard his reputation. Soaring into the air, his right arm transformed into a pitch-black dragon’s limb, and he slashed at the Formation barrier blocking his path.

Cyclical power erupted from his palm, creating concentric rings of dark light. Chen Luo’s outer Formation instantly collapsed under the assault, its layers of light buckling like eggshells, on the verge of shattering. But a Formation draws power from the heavens and earth, not individual strength. A second-rank Formation Master could use a Formation to surround and kill a Core Formation cultivator. At the peak of second-rank mastery, Chen Luo had easily set up a Formation to withstand the Great King of Black Horn’s attack.

Boom!

The terrifying force traveled along the Formation’s nodes, radiating outward in all directions. The entire Water Mansion trembled, the surrounding waters churning as if boiling, bubbles rising relentlessly. The third-rank spirit meridians beneath the Water Mansion surged with spiritual energy, clashing against the Great King’s strike. Though it appeared the Great King was attacking a single Formation, he was actually battling the combined power of the Water Mansion’s space and the underground spirit meridians.

The suppressed power erupted violently, rebounding to form a massive halo of light.

Several shrimp soldiers standing too close were instantly vaporized into a bloody mist by the rebounding force. The shockwave radiated outward, knocking down vast numbers of low-tier shrimp soldiers. They hadn’t fallen to the invading Marauder Cultivator’s hands, but rather been slaughtered by their own Great King’s single strike. The survivors lay scattered across the ground, grievously wounded and wailing in agony. Farther away, the remaining shrimp soldiers fled in disarray, terror etched in their eyes.

The Great King has gone mad!

The Great King of Black Horn cared nothing for the lives of these minor demons as he relentlessly attacked the Formation.

Within the Water Mansion, low-tier Qi Refining realm monsters were plentiful and easily disposable. As long as the spirit meridians remained intact, these low-tier monsters would naturally replenish over time.

“Formation Master? You think I can’t deal with you?!”

Hovering in mid-air, the Great King of Black Horn hadn’t expected the tortoise shell to be so resilient. On the surface of the Formation, he sensed the traces of Xuanwu.

The Yin-Yang Black Tortoise Formation was a Third-Tier Formation Chen Luo had learned at the Qiong Hua Sect. He hadn’t fully mastered it, so Hanging Brother had only set it up according to the description, making it a static formation. Such a pseudo-Third-Tier Formation should be easily broken by a true Formation Master, but the Great King of Black Horn clearly wasn’t one of them.

Resorting to brute force, the Great King of Black Horn roared, his body erupting with scales as he transformed. His form elongated, and he coiled once in the water, revealing his true form as a Flood Dragon. A menacing black horn atop his head glinted with a chilling light.

Inside the courtyard, at the entrance to the Dragon Tomb, Chen Luo and the others heard the commotion outside. Hong Madam’s expression grew even more troubled. This situation had completely spiraled out of control. Whether it was the Marauder Cultivator before her or the Great King of Black Horn returning soon, both posed a lethal threat.

Hong Madam found this outcome utterly incomprehensible. She had simply wanted to settle her debts by finding a few “Marauder Cultivators.” How had things escalated to this point? It was all the fault of her incompetent subordinates! She turned to shoot a fierce glare at Zuoqiulong beside her—the fool who had summoned this “death substitute.”

You were supposed to find some Foundation Establishment cultivators, and you actually brought a Core Formation expert?

Zuoqiulong looked equally frustrated, but knowing he was the one who had introduced this disaster, he could only shoulder the blame.

The Restriction flickered, revealing a tiny gap in the Fourth-Tier Formation sealing the well. Though not fully opened, the breach was enough for Chen Luo’s purposes.

“Perfect,” he murmured.

Chen Luo, who had been studying the Formation, breathed a sigh of relief. The Formation was exceedingly complex, and conventional methods of breaking it would have been futile. Fortunately, he possessed a Fourth-Tier Chessboard. After tapping into the Mummified Brain’s knowledge, he had devised a clever workaround: pressuring the Formation’s nodes.

Using the Chessboard—a Fourth-Tier Magic Artifact—to suppress the nodes of a similarly ranked Formation required only targeting a single point, not the entire array. This would create a minute flaw in the Formation’s operation, a flaw insignificant enough to leave the Formation functional but sufficient to allow a single person to pass through.

With a swift motion, Chen Luo stepped into the Dragon Tomb.

Water flowed past his body. When his feet found solid ground again, Chen Luo found himself in a vast, hazy chamber roughly the size of the platform atop Wu Dao Peak at the God Lake Immortal Sect. Stretching before him were two rows of towering stone pillars, each coiled with ashen dragon corpses.

Even from a distance, Chen Luo could sense the overwhelming aura emanating from the dragon corpses.

Click.

He took a step forward but immediately realized something was amiss—the bridge leading to the stone pillars was severed. Looking up, he saw lightning flickering amidst the gray mist above, along with intricate patterns of anti-air formations—more complex than any he had ever studied.

“If I can’t fly, how am I supposed to get across?”

Chen Luo paced along the edge of the bridge and discovered the skeleton of a Flood Dragon nearby. The gray-white bones had lost all spiritual energy, as if it had been drained away by someone.

“Is this the Great King of Black Horn’s stroke of fortune?”

He picked up the Flood Dragon’s skull.

The familiar interface popped up, just as he’d expected. Even after tens of thousands of years, the brains of accomplished cultivators retained residual energy that he could capture and absorb.

“Retrieve!”

Gray power surged up his arm and into his body.

“I wish to transform into a dragon!!”

The Flood Dragon’s power was immense. In life, he had been a peak Nascent Soul cultivator, just like the Seven Patriarchs of Jade Purity, a genuine Fourth-Tier Demonic Beast. Tragically, this Fourth-Tier Flood Dragon never found a way to transform into a true dragon before his death. This Dragon Tomb was both his final encounter and his despairing legacy.

Through the Flood Dragon’s lingering obsession, Chen Luo gained a rough understanding of this space.

This wasn’t actually a “Dragon Tomb,” but a Spatial Rift.

The true Dragon Tomb existed beyond this realm, a place visible yet unattainable. The familiar scene reminded Chen Luo of the Great Tomb of the Stars he had encountered before. Just like this place, countless tomb chambers had been arrayed before him, yet he couldn’t cross the barrier.

This involved advanced Formation knowledge. To find a solution, he would need to consult a higher-level Formation Master.

The Flood Dragon had died here in despair.

Amidst the countless dragon corpses within the Dragon Tomb, the Flood Dragon never managed to overcome the final barrier. In the end, he died alone in this place, his fate unknown to all. Later, a Black Fish Spirit stumbled upon the tomb by chance and obtained the Flood Dragon’s blood, giving rise to the current Great King of Black Horn.

This was the greatest secret hidden within the Great King of Black Horn’s heart.

Over the years, he had ventured out periodically, each time seeking the true entrance to the Dragon Tomb. Through countless calculations and attempts, he had yet to succeed.

“How could such crude work be entrusted to the Great King of Black Horn? It is our duty as cultivators to fulfill the unfinished wishes of our peers.” After absorbing the Flood Dragon’s Obsessive Skull, Chen Luo’s understanding of the Dragon Tomb surpassed even that of the Great King of Black Horn.

Compared to the Great King of Black Horn, the Flood Dragon had lived for a full 1,900 years. During that time, he must have tested countless locations. The remaining places that might conceal the Dragon Tomb, yet remained inaccessible, were now few. The Qiong Hua Sect was one such place.

After retrieving the mummified brain, Chen Luo searched the surroundings. He found the Broken Bridge area remarkably clean, devoid of any debris except for the Flood Dragon’s remains. Even these were merely discarded remnants, drained of all bloodline energy.

The valuable items had long been looted by the Great King of Black Horn.

Approaching the bridge, Chen Luo glanced downward.

Jump down. Tear through the space to reach the Upper Realm.

The mummified brain’s thought surfaced in his mind.

Tear through space?

If he had that ability, he would have ascended long ago.

“So many dragon corpses… How many brains could that be?”

Chen Luo looked back at the Dragon Tomb across the way. The coiled dragon pillars stood motionless, adorned with icy dragon corpses. Reluctantly tearing his gaze away, he departed the Dragon Tomb.

“Die!”

The moment he stepped out, Chen Luo saw that the Foundation Establishment cultivators who had been waiting outside the Dragon Tomb were now all kneeling to one side, along with Hong Madam. Ao Ye was cowering in a corner, trembling violently. Before he could examine the scene further, he sensed a black streak hurtling toward him from the upper air.

Boom!

Bone patterns rippled across his skin as Chen Luo raised his fist to meet the attack.

Two forces collided violently, a pure Flood Dragon physique clashing against a Body Refinement Cultivator. Arm met dragon claw, releasing a shockwave that sent ripples through the air. A fierce gale whipped up, making their robes billow wildly.

“You wily bandit! You actually have some skill!”

The Great King of Black Horn felt a tingling numbness in his arm as he was sent flying backward. His feet carved two deep furrows in the ground as he skidded to a halt. A flicker of wariness appeared in his eyes as he looked at Chen Luo. He had initially dismissed him as a brazen thief, but now he realized he was facing a formidable opponent of equal standing.

Ever since obtaining the Flood Dragon Bloodline, the Great King of Black Horn hadn’t felt the pressure of an equal cultivator in ages.

Before his breakthrough, he had been just an ordinary third-rank Black Fish Spirit, on par with early-stage Core Formation cultivators who had only reached the Blood Pill stage. But after acquiring the Flood Dragon Bloodline, his strength underwent a cataclysmic transformation. Not a single Core Formation cultivator in the entire sea realm could now stand against him.

This was the innate advantage of the Demon Clan: inheritance.

Zzzt!

Chen Luo raised both hands, and Yin Thunder crackled like serpents, unleashing over a hundred dense bolts of lightning that descended in a torrent. The raging tempest instantly engulfed the entire courtyard, indiscriminately striking toward the Great King of Black Horn.