The altar was already shattered, leaving almost only a single platform. Although Lingxiao Academy was divided into Divine and Immortal cultivators, it did not worship deities. The academy's altar was built to worship heaven and earth.
It means that no matter how far a person cultivates, they must hold reverence and gratitude toward the heaven and earth that gave birth to them.
Every hundred years, Lingxiao Academy holds a heaven worship ceremony, and every thousand years, a grand ceremony. However, the sacrifices do not involve offerings, which is different from other sects' rituals. However, from the dean to the disciples, bowing to heaven and earth is a ritual.
The appearance of this altar stirred a surge of excitement in Long Chen's heart. Seeing it, he knew that the front of the altar was not far away—it was the cornerstone of the Seventh Academy. It was the first stone to establish the academy and its most important foundation. Long Chen's task was to build a divine tower on the cornerstone.
"Pfft"—
just as Long Chen was distracted, an arrow sliced across his shoulder. Long Chen's dragon-scale armor was instantly pierced, blood splattered, and the intense pain snapped him awake.
"The attacks contain spatial laws, ignoring defense." Long Chen was injured and felt the intense pain radiating from his wound, his heart tightening.
This Demon-Eyed Water Lily truly lives up to its legendary status. If its pod hadn't been severed, with its full power erupted, no one here could withstand its impact.
The Demon-Eyed Water Lily has two important parts: one is the pod, the other is the lotus. The lotus is its weapon, and the pod is the source of its power.
It was in a state of slumber. Long Chen woke it up, making it feel threatened. When he infused his power into the lotus, the pod lost its defense, allowing Bai Shishi to land a sword strike.
Without the lotus pod, it was like a person losing the power of their dantian. But even without a source of power, it could stretch its body and absorb the power of the Heavenly Dao with its lotus leaves, still possessing such terrifying strength.
Long Chen's shoulder was injured, and he stared at the sword rain as it sprinted forward. At that moment, an endless roar rang out as endless black dragons lunged at him.
They seemed to have gone mad, ignoring the attacks of the demon-eyed water lilies and charging at Long Chen. Their eyes were blood-red, like hungry wolves seeing flesh and blood, desperately charging forward.
"Trying to devour me?"
Long Chen snorted coldly, ignoring the giant dragons and instead quickly searching for the foundation stones. His sword of light was as sharp as jade; wherever Long Chen went, they followed. Wherever Long Chen passed, the earth shattered into pieces.
"Clang...
Suddenly, a strange sound rang out. The lightsaber pierced through the earth, seemingly slashing at something hard.
"Found it!"
Long Chen was overjoyed. Looking down through a hole pierced by a lightsaber, he saw a flat rock with ancient patterns on it. The lightsaber was unmatched but couldn't harm it in the slightest.
"This is the cornerstone. Its fortune is connected to the main hall of Lingxiao Academy, so it cannot be destroyed."
Long Chen then took out a jade talisman and threw it into the giant cave. When the talisman touched the foundation stone, it instantly exploded into powder and then merged into the foundation.
Just as Long Chen was about to throw another jade talisman in, a fierce wind suddenly surged overhead, and a huge mouth lunged at Long Chen, trying to swallow the dirt on the ground along with it.
"Boom!"
With no other choice, Long Chen lit up his bone blade, radiating a soaring blade light as it slashed toward the Heaven-Swallowing Maw. With a loud explosion, the giant dragon was slashed down, its head slashed open in a large gash, nearly sliced apart by a single strike.
Long Chen, on the other hand, was shaken so hard his blood surged that he was sent flying backward. At that moment, another demonic dragon struck, its wings covering the sky, slamming down fiercely at Long Chen. The howling gale tore through the sky.
At this moment, Long Chen was in a state of Dragon Blood Battle Body. The dragon blood on his body drove these demon dragons mad. Devouring Long Chen would trigger a shocking transformation, which was a fatal temptation for them.
Long Chen looked up and saw the entire world surrounded by demonic dragons. Endless lightsabers rained down, and even the terrifying bodies of these dragons were pierced by them.
But they remained frenzied, completely ignoring the lightsabers and desperately trying to devour Long Chen.
Long Chen's thunderous wings trembled behind him, and he moved like a bolt of lightning, darting left and right, dodging both the lightsaber and the demon dragon's attacks.
He was about to charge toward the cornerstone, but he still had many steps left unfinished. But the fierce winds howled, the dragons charged, and terrifying swords of light rained down. Long Chen was forced to retreat again and again, getting farther and farther from the cornerstone.
Long Chen was furious. If this continued, all his efforts would be wasted, but there was nothing he could do. The demon dragons had all gone mad. Many were smashed into sifs by the lightsabers and fell to the ground, yet they still charged at Long Chen madly.
If the Demon-Eyed Water Lily wanted to kill it, the dragons would kill him too. Neither would back down, and they didn't know how to cooperate. As a result, a large number of dragons were slain by the Demon-Eyed Water Lily.
In the chaos, Long Chen desperately charged forward, reaching out to collect some of the Dark Demon Dragon's corpses into the chaotic space.
"Kill, kill! Kill all these demon dragons, and I'll have a chance." The lightsabers rained down, the demon dragon's attacks chaotic. At this moment, Long Chen was in extreme danger, having been struck by the lightsabers several times in a row and unable to dodge.
Fortunately, Long Chen was cunning. The black dragons were huge, so he tried to hide beneath them. His lightsaber pierced through their bodies, draining most of his strength, and then slashing at him wouldn't be as terrifying.
Yet even so, Long Chen was already covered in blood from being hacked. The terror of this Demon-Eyed Water Lily was beyond his imagination.
Fortunately, the Jianmu Divine Tree in the chaotic space could provide him with endless vitality, continuously healing his wounds.
Moreover, the energy consumed by continuous recovery was a drop in the bucket for the Life Divine Tree at present, so Long Chen wasn't panicking at this moment—as long as he wasn't hit by the dragon's ultimate, it was fine.
These dragons had gone mad, fighting and biting wildly, even fighting and killing each other over the battle. Long Chen darted back and forth between their gaps, temporarily safe.
Long Chen kept picking up dragon corpses. In the time it takes to burn an incense stick, he had found over a hundred dragon corpses. Most of these dragons were killed by the Demon-Eyed Water Lily, with only a small portion bitten to death by other mad dragons.
The black dragon controlled by Bai Xiaole prostrated itself in the distance, pretending to be dead. They looked out from the dragon's mouth and saw the lightsabers tearing through the sky, the giant dragon charging madly. Their faces turned pale with fear.
They had joined forces against a single black dragon, barely surviving, while Long Chen was locked onto by the terrifying lotus and faced the slaughter of over a thousand black dragons. This was a doomed situation.
"Let's go! Long Chen is beyond saving. If we don't leave now, everyone here will die." The Blood Oath Alliance leader's voice trembled.
"Shut up! You have no idea how strong the boss is. Since he dares to go, he must have the ability to come back." Qin Feng shouted.
"You ..." The Blood Oath Alliance leader was both shocked and furious, gripping his weapon.
"If you don't want to die, then shut up. Even if Long Chen isn't here, we still have the strength to kill you. Do you want to give it a try?"
Bai Shishi pressed her jade-like hand on her longsword, coldly staring at the Blood Oath Alliance leader. She could tell Long Chen was in danger—these guys were plotting rebellion.
"Let's talk this out calmly. Internal strife now is truly unwise." Jiang Yuhe hurriedly tried to persuade him. The leader of the Blood Oath Alliance was just a fool, and at a time like this, he wanted to seize power—how could that be possible?
Setting aside whether they could defeat Bai Shishi and the others, even if they were killed, without anyone controlling the dragon, could they escape alive?
"Buzz"
At that moment, a faint divine light descended from the void, enveloping the space spanning tens of thousands of miles, like a cage that trapped Long Chen and all the dragons together. When the cage appeared, Long Chen's expression changed. He no longer cared about the foundation stone and desperately charged outward.