"AHHHHHHH!" Lin Feng roared, his voice was no longer human; it felt feral, animalistic.
From the top of his head, horns pushed outward. Scales crawled across his skin. His eyes turned bright yellow. His hair lengthened, wild and untamed.
"What's this transformation? Does he have dragon blood?" Elder Zhou whispered, shocked.
"Bo," Wang said sharply. "We've gathered all the information we need. Take the others. I'll capture that dragon-born and the kid he's fighting."
Wang vanished in an instant.
A heartbeat later, he reappeared by the ring.
BOOM!
With a single strike, he shattered the barrier protecting the arena.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
People screamed and scrambled back as Bo began collecting the other children who had participated in the tournament, grabbing them one by one with terrifying speed.
"What the hell is going on!?" Patriarch Xing shouted, standing up so violently his chair toppled over.
"What the hell?" Tianyu's stance shattered as his eyes tracked smoldering fireball that Lin Feng hurled towards him.
Tianyu raised his sword and blocked it. The flames were so hot that even with his affinity to fire, he could still feel the searing heat crawling up his arms.
"What even are you…?"
Lin Feng's head shot up, then vanished.
Tianyu's eyes darted wildly as he searched the arena; Lin Feng suddenly reappeared right in front of Tianyu, his left claw raised high, ready to strike.
"Tchh," Tianyu groaned, blocking the claw slash.
The impact sent him skidding backwards.
"Is he even human…?" His gaze lifted,
And Wang descended from the sky, landing lightly on the stage. Despite the gentle landing, his presence alone sent a crushing outward pressure that caused most cultivators to all fall to their knees.
"We truly will be getting some good spacemen this time around," Wang muttered to himself, his eyes sweeping the arena.
"A dragon-born brat…"
His gaze locked onto Lin Feng, white scales glimmering against the flames consuming the arena.
"Hey, you brat. Come here."
Wang raised his hand. A massive hand formed from Qi, reaching through the air toward Lin Feng.
But before it could grasp him, Lin Feng vanished.
He reappeared behind Wang, unleashing another blast of flames straight from his mouth.
Wang raised both hands, catching the blast. He compressed the fire into a small, glowing sphere.
Then swallowed it whole.
"Ohhh… you have the Space Bloodline of the Azure Dragons," Wang said, amused.
In the next instant, Wang vanished.
He reappeared behind Lin Feng, grabbed his leg, and hurled him high into the sky.
As Lin Feng spun uncontrollably through the air, his body began to grow larger until he filled the sky itself.
"Ahhh! It's a dragon! A real dragon!" the spectators screamed.
"The heavens are being overturned, the world is truly ending!"
Panic erupted. People fled in every direction, but many were crushed beneath falling debris as flames spread across the pavilion.
"I need to get away from here," Tianyu thought, leaping off the platform.
Before he could land, an invisible force seized him. His body froze midair, suspended.
"What the hell?" Tianyu struggled as crushing pressure hit him from every direction.
"Where do you think you're going?" Wang said.
His head turned toward Tianyu, and when their eyes met, Tianyu saw a mountain vast beyond comprehension looming before him.
"What kind of power is this…?" Tianyu thought desperately.
"I'm being held in the air. I can't move. There's no Qi behind it, I'm just stuck."
One thought echoed in his mind.
If I stay here, I'm going to die.
"Just wait there," Wang said calmly. "Don't waste your energy resisting; you might hurt yourself."
With that, Wang leapt into the sky toward Lin Feng.
Lin Feng was no longer speaking. He only roared, eyes vacant, burning everything around him on pure instinct.
Patriarch Xing flew forward, blade drawn.
"Dark Blade!" Xing roared as he launched his attack at Wang, but it missed.
Wang vanished, reappearing above Lin Feng's dragon head.
He clenched his fist and punched downward.
A terrifying force rippled through the air as the blow landed squarely on Lin Feng's head. The dragon's massive body dropped, hurtling toward the pavilion below.
"Elders! We must stop that before everyone below dies!" Patriarch Xing shouted, rushing forward.
He seized the dragon's body, struggling to slow its descent. The momentum lessened but still continued. Xing strained under the immense weight.
The elders hesitated only a moment before shooting into the sky, joining him. Together, they held the beast, forcing it to pause midair as they staggered beneath its mass.
"Oh?" Wang said, looking down at them.
"It seems we have some decent ones here."
Suddenly, pink smoke flooded the sky.
Wang frowned, finding himself enveloped within it.
Soft, tender giggles echoed through the air.
"Kikikiki… hello there, handsome," a silky, alluring voice purred.
From within the fog, a woman's face formed. Barely clothed, her smooth hands reached toward Wang.
"Come now, love," she whispered seductively.
"Stop fighting. Come into my arms."
"Hah," Wang scoffed.
"You'll need to cultivate a thousand more years if you wish to trap me with seductive illusions."
With a sharp motion, he reached out and grabbed Empress Li from the fog.
Wang paused for a moment; Empress Li still held firmly in his grasp.
"Yeah," he said calmly.
"You're right."
Crack!
Empress Li's neck snapped as Wang twisted his hand without hesitation. He released her body, and she plummeted from the sky at terrifying speed.
"You…. you demon! I will kill you!" Elder Zhou roared.
He slammed his hand into the ground, activating a formation.
"Thousand Demon Slaying Array!"
Elder Zhou formed the final seal with his hands. The formation flared to life, glowing a blinding yellow as it activated.
From glowing lines carved into the ground, demonic beast souls burst forth, howling as they rushed toward Wang.
Wang simply stood there, watching. Waiting.
"A senile old man like you should have stopped cultivating long ago," Wang said coldly.
"You're this old, yet your realm hasn't even broken through the Rule Condensations."
With a casual flick of his finger, Wang released a mass of heavy Qi.
It barreled forward.
Bang!
The formation shattered instantly. Cracks raced across it as the demonic beasts lost control, scattering wildly and attacking everything in their path.
"Oh..ohooo…" Elder Zhou coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth as he fell to his knees.
"Truly… a monster."
Wang then turned toward Tianyu Xing.
He opened his hand.
Tianyu suddenly found himself levitating in the air, still struggling to resist, but it was all for nothing.
Wang reached to his waist and opened his universal pocket, performing a hand seal. Instantly, an overwhelming pressure pulled at Tianyu's body. He tried to grab onto anything: the pillars, the ground, anything but his grip slipped.
A moment later, he was swallowed whole.
Inside the pocket, time seemed to lose all meaning.
For what felt like an eternity, there was only a void.
Endless darkness.
Thud!
Tianyu slammed into the ground hard.
"Damn it… what the hell is going on?" Tianyu muttered, brushing his hands against the ground as he struggled to stand.
"Dragons… those terrifying masters… what do those people want?"
Outside the pocket
Lin Feng had gone completely feral.
He swatted the masters aside like insects.