Chapter 135: Battles between Tigers and Dragons.
Liang Chen and Yan Ling pulled back a little to make it harder to discover them, Yan Ling using her control over wind and water to both wash and waft away any traces of their scent. There was no telling what might happen when the battle started, there was no harm in playing it as safe as they could. Once they made sure that they were properly hidden, they proceeded to quietly wait and watch.
The pack of tigers was doing much the same as them, hiding within the forest and waiting for the opportune moment to strike. The two Rot Dragons had to constantly feed their energy into the egg, the moment the egg had become saturated with energy would be when they were at their weakest. Of course, just how long it would take for them to reach this point was unknown.
The days started to slowly pass while Liang Chen and Yan Ling were waiting, Yumao keeping them updated on what the tigers were doing. Thanks to the control the two had over wind they could eat any food they wanted while waiting, they just had to use the wind to blow away the scent. If any other Demonic beasts were attracted by the scent, Yumao quickly took care of them and added their bodies to Liang Chen's stockpile. Of course, while adding corpses to the stockpile, he also saved quite a few corpses for himself that he could eat to increase his strength.
Two weeks after the two arrived by the swamp, there was finally a change in the situation, the Rot Dragons stopped channeling their energy into the egg. Both of the dragons laid down around the egg, forming a protective barrier using their own bodies. They had finished channeling energy into the egg, but they still had the strength of someone at the middle stage of the Soaring Immortal Realm, their strength not dropping by as much as Liang Chen and Yan Ling had anticipated.
But this was as weak as the dragons were going to get, so the tigers had no choice but to move out immediately, before the dragons got to restore some of their energy. All five tigers charged out of the forest, even the pregnant and wounded one, showing how serious they viewed this upcoming fight. When Liang Chen and Yan Ling first saw the five tigers, they both came to the same realization, muttering quietly.
"So that's why they felt confident that they can take on the dragons."
"Heh, seems like we are in for quite a rare treat now, didn't expect two out of five to appear here."
The tigers were almost five meters long, their claws and fangs gleaming with a sharp light, their bodies rippling with muscles that were as solid as iron. Their fur was a silvery- gray color, their stripes a nearly blinding white in color.
When one talked about Divine Beasts, there were five Divine Beasts one could not avoid talking about, the Azure Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, the White Tiger, the Black Turtle, and the Golden Peng. These five Divine Beasts were rumored to have been amongst the very first Divine Beasts ever born, the progenitors of countless bloodlines, the holders of some of the strongest bloodlines in the universe. Liang Chen even guessed that they weren't Divine Beasts at all, but rather Origin Beasts on the same level as the Heaven Devouring Dragon.
Any beast with a dragon bloodline could be traced back to the Azure Dragon and any beast with a true tiger bloodline could be traced back to the White Tiger. Of course, just like humans could have dormant bloodlines or different bloodline density so too could Demonic beasts, very few Demonic beasts actually had a very strong dragon or tiger bloodline, most only had a few drops mixed into their bloodline. These tigers clearly belonged to that category, ones that had a rather thin White Tiger bloodline.
They probably weren't on the same level as the Rot Dragons they were facing, it was more likely that they had the same bloodline density as the Flood Dragon that Liang Chen and Yan Ling faced in the Myriad Convergence. If one had to properly classify the difference, it would be like one of them having a one-meter-long sword and the other party having a small dagger.
The five tigers charged forward, the swamp beneath their feet turning solid as they ran, giving them a solid place to put their feet. The two dragons, each of them almost four times larger than the tigers, stood up and spread their wings, letting out a loud roar that caused the air around them to tremble.
A ripple moved through the air around them, the remaining trees and the small animals that were hiding in the swamp starting to die and rot after being touched by the ripple. The flesh of the animals turned black and moldy, their bodies releasing a yellow puss as their flesh started to shrivel and dry up, ending up almost looking like black jerky.
The tigers let out a unified roar that created a shockwave that pushed against the ripple of rot, temporarily holding it back. But the wounded tiger wasn't able to roar as strongly as the four others, creating a small weakness in the shockwave that ended up collapsing under the ripple, allowing it to wash over the five tigers.
The tigers were strong enough to resist most of the rotting effect, but some of their hairs still ended up falling out, revealing that their skin had shriveled up slightly. The wounded one was protected by two of the other ones, allowing her and the child she was carrying to remain unharmed for now. The two dragons charged forward after unleashing their roars, not willing to battle right next to their egg.
The two groups met a short distance away from the mountain, the three frontmost tigers raising their claws high and slamming them down onto the oncoming dragons. A layer of silvery ice started to cover the claws of the three tigers and causing them to grow a little longer. The two tigers in the back let out a deafening roar, causing a thin layer of gray metal to cover the layer of ice that had already covered the claws, further enhancing the power of the attack.
The two dragons growled deeply, the swam all around them starting to roil and seethe, waves of foul-smelling muck rising up and blocking the claws. The claws crashed into the waves, immediately freezing them and cutting them apart, the paws of the tigers clashing with the horns of the two dragons.
The smaller of the two dragons, the one that was a little smaller than 20 meters in length, took the brunt of the attacks, two of its horns shattering under the power of the two tigers' paws that it blocked. The larger dragon, the one that was almost 25 meters long, only lost one horn, retaliating in the process by opening its maw and biting down on the closest tiger paw.
The tiger's paw started to rot the moment it was bitten, its flesh turning black and shriveling up, the rotting quickly spreading up the tiger's left front leg. At the same time as it bit down on the tiger's paw, the larger dragon also caused the swamp behind the tigers to rise up, forming a large maw out of the rotting muck. The maw bit down on the two tigers that were residing in the back, aiming to weaken the entire group by targeting the weakest link and her guardian.
The tiger guarding the weakest link quickly let out a roar that caused the hair on its back to shoot out and grow in size, a layer of metal covering them an causing them to grow into thick iron bars that formed a shield against the maw. The tiger that was being bitten reacted at the same time, biting down on its own left front leg and severing it, preventing the rot from spreading to the rest of its body.
It then let out an ear-piercing roar that spewed blood through the surrounding air. The blood froze under the roar, forming large crimson claws that struck down on the smaller dragon. The smaller dragon used its three-pronged tail to block two of the bloody claws, but the last three still managed to leave three deep wounds on its right hind leg.
The maw of rotting muck caused the metal bars to rot at a rapid pace, almost acting like acid that caused the metal to grow weaker and weaker before simply falling apart into tiny pieces of rubble. The maw continued to descend, albeit a bit weaker than before, heading directly for the pregnant tiger. The guardian tiger quickly jumped over the pregnant tiger, blocking the attack with its own body. The places pierced by the maw started to quickly rot, the pregnant tiger assisting the guardian tiger by using her maw to bite out the rotting parts, preventing the rot from spreading uncontrollably.
After just a short few seconds, one tiger had lost its left front paw, another tiger was bleeding heavily and had small traces of rot still spreading through its body, both dragons had lost at least one of their horns, and the smaller dragon had three large gashes on its right hind leg. Battles between Demonic beasts were much like battles between cultivators, they could end in only a few seconds if either party made a single mistake, so despite their wounds, none of the Demonic beasts lowered their vigilance, using the pain to stay fully focused.
The tigers didn't give up just yet, the two that were unharmed quickly launching a counterattack against the larger dragon. One of the tigers charged forward with open maw, biting onto the throat of the larger dragon before it managed to spit out the tiger paw that was still within its mouth. The larger dragon slashed out with its tail, a whistling sound ringing out as the three-pronged spike cut through the air and aimed for the incoming tiger.
The second tiger had prepared for this, jumping forward and intercepting the tail, biting down on the three-pronged spike. The tail was so tough and moved so fast that several of the tiger's teeth shattered when it bit down, its entire body following the tail as it continued to move. The tail continued to move but was forced into a lower trajectory thanks to the weight of the tiger, causing it to go so low that the other tiger could jump over it and sink its fangs into the throat of the larger dragon.
The throat of the larger dragon started to bleed heavily after the tiger bit into it, frost starting to form on its scales as the drops of blood started to freeze the moment they poured forth. The smaller dragon lunged forward with open maw, its tail following right after. The smaller dragon bit down on the waist of the tiger that was currently biting down on the other dragon's throat, the tail of the smaller dragon slicing a wound into the side of the other tiger that was biting down on the larger dragon's tail. Both tigers were forced to let go and jump back, the two groups putting some distance between each other.
The tiger that had lost one paw let out a deep and unwilling growl, the other tigers quickly following suite. They started to slowly pull back, clearly intending to retreat before the entire pack ended up dying. The two dragons didn't seem like they were going to chase, clearly not willing to leave their egg behind. Liang Chen's eyes narrowed slightly, two arrows of wind forming over his hand. One arrow quickly filled up with a yellow acidic poison while the other one was filled with concentrated wind moving at high speed, he also had Yan Ling filled the wind arrow with a bit of her water. He kept his eyes on the dragons, muttering quietly.
"Little Yuma, do me a favor and deliver this to them. The yellow arrow is for the tigers in the backline and the transparent arrow is for the dragon egg."
Neither the tigers nor the dragons were weakened enough just yet, so Liang Chen could only encourage them to keep fighting each other. Yumao popped out of Liang Chen's shadow, dragging the two arrows into the darkness and vanishing. He first appeared by the dragon's egg, the transparent arrow filled with wind shooting out of the darkness and heading directly for the egg. He then vanished into the darkness again and appeared behind the retreating tigers, unleashing the arrow filled with poison.
The wind arrow hit the egg and exploded, unleashing the concentrated wind within it and catapulting the egg away. The water within the arrow was also unleashed, making it seem like some ice had been used to launch the egg before melting. As for the arrow filled with poison, it hit the pregnant tiger and started to eat away at her old wounds, making it seem like she had been hit by an attack that carried a rotting characteristic.
The dragons and tigers quickly reacted, the dragons rushed to the egg and the Tigers rushed to aid the one who had been hit by the poisonous arrow, freezing the affected parts. The two groups faced each other again after dealing with their own problems, roaring loudly at each other. The dragons thought the Tigers targeted the egg and the Tigers thought the dragons targeted them while they were retreating, both groups quickly growing furious.
Both groups were already wounded and tired, becoming furious was enough to cloud their judgment and cause them to start fighting again. The smaller dragon placed the egg a bit behind it, in the place it felt the egg would be safest, it then joined the larger dragon and charged at the tigers again. The battle started again, Liang Chen and Yan Ling staying in their hiding spot and observing, waiting for the right moment.
Both sides were already wounded so it didn't take long for the first casualty to appear. The tiger that had lost one of its front paws made a mistake due to its missing leg, allowing the larger dragon to bite down on its head and completely crush it. The tigers quickly retaliated, however, launching a unified attack that not only left a large gash on the side of the smaller dragon but also ended up grazing the egg and shaking it pretty badly.
This only caused both sides to grow even angrier, the battle growing fiercer as more and more of their blood was spilled into the swamp. Another tiger fell after not too long, the tiger responsible for guarding the pregnant one unable to resist its growing wounds, collapsing into the swamp and allowing the smaller dragon to stomp on its spine. The next to die was the pregnant tiger, the swamp beneath her rising up and forming a small prison filled with sharp spikes that caught her head and pierced it clean through with its rotting spikes.
At this point, the smaller dragon also collapsed into the swamp, unable to keep itself standing due to the large amount of blood it had lost so far. The larger dragon faced the last two tigers, all three of them heavily wounded, so blinded by rage and fury that they lost sight of everything around them. Liang Chen glanced sideways, locking eyes with Yan Ling, who nodded her head in return.
Liang Chen's spear appeared in his grasp and Yan Ling's sword appeared in her's, their shadows suddenly rising up and swallowing them up. Yumao dragged both of them through the darkness, which was practically a separate dimension where they were not only unable to see anything, they couldn't even breathe. Only people who could control the law of darkness could enter or live in this dimension so the two of them had to rely on Yumao to move them around.
Yumao quickly brought them to their destination, Liang Chen appearing above the large dragon while Yan Ling appeared above the two tigers. Yumao appeared above the smaller dragon, quickly finishing it off by tearing open her throat and drilling his way into her body, tearing her apart from the inside with his razor-sharp teeth.
Yan Ling activated her strengthening technique while Liang Chen activated his bloodline, both of them immediately unleashing their strongest techniques. Liang Chen used the second part of Dragon Lord's Three Steps, Second step splits the waterfall. The tip of his spear unleashed a multicolored light, crimson lightning, white poison, and concentrated wind all gathering into a single small point that clashed with the neck of the dragon and then exploded, unleashing a thunderous explosion.
The scales covering the dragon's body completely shattered under the might of the explosion, pushing its entire body into the swamp as it unleashed a strong shockwave that caused the swamp around it to evaporate and even reached the distant egg, causing large cracks to form on it. The neck of the large dragon was unable to resist the force of the attack and ended up exploding, its head flying away. The dragon was able to resist Liang Chen's poison thanks to its control over rot, but it was unable to resist the force of the lightning and the wind.
Compared to Liang Chen's attack, Yan Ling's caused far less noise. She gathered all her might at the edge of her sword and sent out a sideways slash, a short thin line appearing in the air and heading for the two tigers. The line looked short and thin, but the moment it struck the unprepared tigers, its full might was unleashed.
It cut clean through the tigers, a two-kilometer-long cut appearing in the swamp and separating the two parts from each other. The attack didn't stop there, the moment the cut appeared, everything around it was crushed downwards by a horrifying pressure. The bodies of the tigers released a crunching sound, all the bones in their bodies shattering as they were crushed flat into the swamp. Having gained some insight into the laws of crushing, piercing, and slicing, Yan Ling now had a terrifyingly strong offensive power.
In the future, if she continued to deepen her understanding of the laws, she could even use her law of piercing to pierce through space, giving her nearly unprecedented speed. But even though she knew this, she was not yet content, she wanted even more. She did not for even one second believe that just this would be able to keep up with the future Liang Chen, she needed even more strength, she needed to become even more freakish if she wanted to keep up with someone like her Little Freak.
Liang Chen stood on the corpse of the dragon, a few drops of its blood dripping down his face after having splashed him. He cast a glance at the smaller dragon, which had a large hole in its throat and chest, Yumao's entry and exit point. He then cast a glance at the shattered bodies of the two tigers, opening his mouth.
"Let's pick up the bodies and then take t..."
Before Liang Chen got to finish his sentence, a soft sound came from behind him. He quickly turned his head, his gaze landing on the dragon egg, which was now covered in large cracks. The egg moved slightly, the cracks on it suddenly unleashing a strong suction force. The suction force drew in all the blood in the area, even the corpses of the Demonic beasts were being drawn towards the egg at a high speed. Both Liang Chen and Yan Ling quickly reacted, locking eyes.
"The bodies!"
"Grab one!"
Liang Chen quickly stored the dragon corpse beneath him into his interspatial ring, Yan Ling doing the same for the two tiger corpses beneath her. They wanted to grab the others, but it was already too late. The suction force of the egg had pulled all the other corpses close and crushed them so small that they were sucked in through the cracks, absorbed into the egg. It seemed like the suction force worked even stronger on the child within the stomach of the pregnant tiger, her stomach torn open as the dead child was pulled out and absorbed into the egg alongside the dead mother.
The suction force absorbed the remaining corpses and all the blood, but it didn't affect Liang Chen or Yan Ling, it didn't even touch Yumao, who was closest to the egg. The moment all the corpses and blood were absorbed, the cracks on the egg closed up, as if it had just used all the corpses and blood solely to repair itself. The area then descended into silence, both Liang Chen and Yan Ling staring dumbfoundedly at the quiet egg, Yan Ling scratching her head.
"This... what?"
She didn't even know what to say, how was one supposed to react to something like that taking place? Liang Chen also scratched his head in confusion, he had read a lot of books in the Storm Wolf sect, but he had never read about something quite like this. After a bit, he could only shrug his shoulders and give a slight shake of his head.
"I have no idea what that was. Let's quickly grab the egg and perform the bonding ceremony, we'll find a quiet place to cultivate after that. If there is any dragon blood left after feeding it to your bloodline, there's something I want to try with it."
The bonding ceremony was rather simple actually, it was the act of a cultivator nurturing a Demonic beast egg or fetus using their Qi and blood, it was the same thing that Liang Chen had done to Yumao's egg. As for the thing he wanted to try with the dragon's blood, he wanted to see if he could fuse the rot element with his poison element. Both were rather similar so he thought that it might be possible to fuse the two, using the fused element to cultivate his soul.
He might even find other similar elements he could fuse with his poison in the future, adding them onto it. At that point, he might end up having an Endless Storm God Physique and a true Scourge God Soul, a concept he found somewhat novel. Yan Ling nodded her head, putting away her sword and skipping over to the egg, storing it into her dantian and diverting some of her blood into it, nurturing the child within it. The two then quickly left the area to find a hidden place they could cultivate, neither of them noticing that the mottled purple spots on the dragon egg had gained an additional shade of white.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone