Desolate Era (Book 1 - Book 5)

Zhan gritted his teeth. With a thought, he caused the black and white energy streams binding the Azure Skysnake to begin to dissipate.

“Azure Skysnake!” Zhan pointed at the wounded, exhausted Diremonster. “I relied on the formation to suppress you, so most likely, you aren’t convinced! Then you and I shall do battle. I won’t rely on the assistance of the formation…as long as you can defeat me, I will release you. But if you lose, then you’ll submit to me. Agreed?”

“Yaaaaaa!”

The Azure Skysnake let out a few vicious sounds, then transformed to a length of ten or so meters. This was the most powerful form it could transform into. And then, it pounced towards Zhan!

“Hmph.” A long black whip appeared out of nowhere in Ironwood Zhan’s right hand. The whip had multiple natural-growing sharp nails embedded into it. This long black whip was the magic treasure, “Blackwood Vinewhip”. It was one of the famous magic treasures of the Ironwood clan. With a powerful whipping motion, he sent the whip towards the Azure Skysnake, and it transformed into an enormous black blur.

Shua! Shua!

The Azure Skysnake rapidly dodged, managing to move past this whip.

“Huahuahua…” Ironwood Zhan continued to brandish the long whip in his hand. The whip spun in circle upon circle, covering the skies in countless enveloping circles towards the Azure Skysnake. And then, with a ripping sound, the Azure Skysnake lost yet another piece of scale and flesh from its body.

“Sssssssssssss.” The Azure Skysnake let out a furious hiss. Despite being wounded, it still pounced forward.

Zhan only smiled coldly, continuing to brandish his Blackwood Vinewhip. This wasn’t the first time for him to fight against the Azure Skysnake. He was an expert at using the whip, and was completely able to counter the Azure Skysnake’s agility! However, the Azure Skysnake was capable of fleeing very quickly. In the past, Zhan wasn’t able to do anything about it, but now that the Azure Skysnake was trapped within the formation, there was nowhere for it to run.

“What do you think?” Zhan stood there, long whip dancing, with each whipping blow containing a power capable of cracking a small mountain, causing the Azure Skysnake’s body to crack open on multiple locations. “My strength is greater than yours. You had best obediently submit.”

“Pa!”

The magic treasure’s slammed against its body. Given that Zhan himself was a late-stage Xiantian expert, he was completely capable of suppressing it.

“Swoosh!”

This time, as it dodged past through dancing long whip, the Azure Skysnake suddenly disappeared, and then reappeared a few dozen meters away.

Ironwood Zhan was astonished, but immediately afterwards, his face changed greatly.

“Sssssss…” The Azure Skysnake called out in excitement, while at the same time, with every single slithering motion of its body, it seemed to teleport dozens of meters, if not even farther.

“Die!” Ironwood Zhan’s face was ferocious, and he seemed to have gone insane.

Rumble….

The formation shuddered, and large amounts of black and white energy vicious slammed down towards the Azure Skysnake, but the Azure Skysnake only glanced icily at Ironwood Zhan, then disappeared with another slither.

“Bang!” The black and white energy collided, transforming into large amounts of chaotic energy.

“Damnable!” Ironwood Zhan howled madly, fists waving furiously. “Damnable!!!”

“Void Blink! Void Blink!” Ironwood Zhan’s face was ferocious, and his eyes were red and insane. “This Azure Skysnake is actually capable of using Void Blink. Right. It is due to that child of the Ji clan. That child of the Ji clan has battled against the Azure Skysnake repeatedly…it must be that this has caused the Azure Skysnake to improve, allowing it to reach the ‘one with the world’ level and be able to utilize the Void Blink!”

Ironwood Zhan was utterly enraged.

Although there was only a single Azure Skysnake in the Swallow Mountain area, there were quite a few in the boundless territory ruled over by the Grand Xia Dynasty. Thus, Ironwood Zhan knew very well how powerful Azure Skysnakes were, which was why he so desperately wanted to tame this one.

Generally speaking, Diremonsters were capable of controlling water, or poison, or fire, or son on and so forth.

Even the likes of the Aquatic Rhino King and Serpentwing, non-Godbeast creatures, had this ability. But as a Godbeast, the Azure Skysnake King didn’t have a special ability…

But actually, it still had something!

Only, the Azure Skysnake King’s natural ability was simply too powerful. While it was at a low level of power, it wasn’t capable of utilizing it. Much like how a normal monstrous beast wasn’t capable of controlling water at the Houtian stage but was able to at the Xiantian stage, this Azure Skysnake King’s natural ability had to do with the ‘Void’. Even after it reached the Xiantian lifeform level, it still had to reach the ‘one with the world’ level before it was capable of instantly becoming one with the void, allowing it to utilize the Void Blink technique!

“Void Blink!” Ironwood Zhan ground his teeth. “A Azure Skysnake King capable of developing the Void Blink technique will quickly become incomparably powerful!”

The Void Blink…

This allowed the Azure Skysnake to be capable of going to some very secretive places, and even go steal some of the world’s spirit fruits. This represented that its growing speed was about to enter a phase of explosive growth! Without question, this Azure Skysnake King was about to leave Eastmount Marsh and begin an adventuring journey. After all, only by going to other places would it be capable of acquiring more natural treasures and grow more rapidly in power. If it always stayed here comfortably, it would be a waste of its talent!

“Given the amount of hatred it bears me, in the future, when it returns to Swallow Mountain, it might come looking for me seeking revenge.” Zhan was both furious and frightened.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!”

Ironwood Zhan bellowed in fury, the sound of his roars causing even the water to explode!

He was furious.

“All because of that Ji clan child!” Ironwood Zhan ground his teeth, filled with utter hatred.

If Ji Ning hadn’t caused the Azure Skysnake King to advance so rapidly, how could it have suddenly made a breakthrough during this battle? Most likely, Zhan would have already tamed the Azure Skysnake. Now, he not only had been unable to tame it, he had also offended a powerful future enemy. The Azure Skysnake would definitely remember this grudge!

––––––––

The massive formation vanished. Ironwood Zhan collected all eight of the formation flags, then walked out atop the water, a sinister, shadowy look on his face.

“Master.” The Bi’An Tiger transformed into a black-clothed man, flying over. Seeing the look on his master’s face, he knew that the taming attempt had failed. He hurriedly said, “Master, don’t be angry. This Azure Skysnake was simply too foolish. It was its own fault that Master killed it!”

“It didn’t die!” Ironwood Zhan said coldly.

“It didn’t die?!” The black-clothed was astonished. “Then it?”

Ironwood Zhan shook his head. “It actually managed to comprehend the Void Blink technique. It fled.”

“Butbutbut…” The black-clothed man found it hard to believe as well. The Azure Skysnake had actually managed to comprehend the Void Blink technique at the critical juncture.