Chapter 520: Dragon
"Don't be a scaredy-cat," Huli laughed as she ran in front of Hui Yue dragging him behind her. "Even if it is a real dragon, this is Skydragon Fortress. It is filled to the brim with experts especially now that the trials will happen soon. Not to mention the City Lord and all the guards as well."
"Although it might be dangerous, it should not be life-threatening; we will just observe. If it really is the dragon, it will probably attack the ones keeping it captive, and thus we should be fine. If worst comes to worst, just hide us in the Universe Box and we will stay in there for a few days before we return to Skydragon Fortress. I doubt that this place will stay dangerous for long."
Huli was pulling out all the stops to convince Hui Yue that it would be a great idea to visit the mansion to see what was happening and deep inside he was incredibly curious too. If it was a real dragon, then he wished to see what this dragon looked like. He had seen the corpse of the Azure Dragon once before, but besides that he had never seen a real dragon before.
Noticing that Hui Yue had finally given in, Huli grinned slightly, "Come on then!" She said as she dragged him with more and more excitement.
"Rumor has is that the dragon below this city will one day join Yanluo when he needs to protect the Netherworld against outside forces and that no one apart from Yanluo can control him."
"Maybe the dragon had a breakthrough and is trying to break free of his beast contract placed on him by Yanluo. As a beast, they are bound by the beast contract, or slave mark, to their master, but if they become strong enough, they will be able to forcefully remove it. But to do that they would have to be stronger than their master."
"The dragon is most likely spending all his time underneath the city in deep meditation as it is trying to increase its strength. After a breakthrough, it is only natural that it would fight the beast contract in an attempt to remove it. Any beast who has not voluntarily entered a beast contract would do that."
"Now when he starts to attack this seal it is only natural that he will move, twist, and turn. Therefore it is natural that the entire city would tremble. It is not even certain that we'll get to see the dragon, but it would be exciting to see it," Huli said with a grin on her face, and although Hui Yue shook his head, he was smitten by her mood and followed close by.
Huli's knowledge about Skydragon Fortress was greatly beneficial to the both of them, and without wasting time, Huli took the fastest road leading to the mansion. They quickly arrived in no time only to see a breathtaking sight.
In front of them rose a gigantic mansion. It looked just like a fortress with walls surrounding all the many layers of buildings, and on each wall were thousands of guards stationed with swords or spears in their hands. All of the guards were looking at the sky with solemn expressions.
The sky above this mansion was also filled to the brim with experts. There was not even one place with free space for another cultivator.
All the cultivators were looking at something within the mansion, and their faces were anything but cheerful. Danger was lurking everywhere, and Hui Yue spread out his consciousness to sense what was going on behind the walls only to find that he was blocked every time he tried to reach out.
"This mansion is the most guarded area within Skydragon Fortress; it would be strange if you could see through that many layers of protective formations." Huli chuckled as they got closer and closer to the mansion.
When they got closer, they suddenly realized that there were energy ripples being emitted from within the mansion causing the ground to shake slightly. However one had to look closely to be able to notice them.
"This is a serious fight," Huli said with a frown. "The mansion is full of formations so no energy ripple should be able to leave the stone walls. For them to reach this far, there truly must be a terrifying amount of energy being released!"
Hearing this, Hui Yue was surprised but nodded his head. Although he was excited and curious about this dragon, he dared not be too impulsive. He squeezed Huli's hand after which they arrived next to the mansion.
"Jumping up the walls will not be possible as the formations will trap us, but the buildings just outside are not included in the formations. Let's climb them, and we'll be able to look into the mansion and get an idea of what is going on!"
Huli was filled with excitement, and adrenaline was rushing through both her and Hui Yue's bodies as they quickly scaled the building and stood at the top. Reaching high above the ground, they were capable of looking into the mansion in front of them.
Although they were not as high up as the mansion itself, they were now above the wall's height and could look at the ground level of the mansion, and as they did, Hui Yue's eyes widened in surprise.
The entire pavement was ripped open, and the head of a dragon was pressing through this large hole that filled up the entire courtyard. The head alone was at least twenty kilometers long and looking at it; one could only guess how long the body was.
While the dragon released a roar tremors ran through the entire city, but no sound escaped the mansion. All of it was blocked by the formations, yet the strength behind could not be blocked completely.
In the air, many guards were throwing one attack after another at the dragon that was slowly ascending from the stone prison beneath the city, and even the guards on the walls were launching one lethal attack after another.
Although these many dao imbued attacks rained down upon the dragon none of them seemed to faze him as he wriggled his head. His struggles caused the hole in the ground to increase and soon a front claw gripped the crushed pavement and finally a roar so loud that the mansion's formations could no longer contain it reverberated throughout the city causing every expert present, no matter how strong, to shiver unwillingly.
"We should join the fray," Huli said after a small pause after having looked at the situation in front of them. "Although this battle is somewhat more serious than I thought, it could be a way to teach you how to use the daos while fighting." She continued hesitantly.
"I will let you fight on the condition that you stay right by my side,” said Huli. “If it becomes too serious, then we will hide in the Universe Box right away. I do not want to see you risk your life and die for me once again."
As Huli spoke the pain in her eyes was clear, and it touched Hui Yue deeply because this was a pain he knew all too well. The pain of losing a loved one was equally hard for Huli as it was for Hui Yue. Both had lost someone incredibly important to them.
Gently stroking Huli's hair, Hui Yue seemed to be in his own world and placed a sweet kiss on her forehead, "I'll be careful," he promised with a gentle smile and a painful but caring expression in his eyes. Knowing that Huli had gone through the same loss he had, Hui Yue's heart ached even more than it had done before.
Pushing these emotions back, Hui Yue focused on the dragon in front of him as he opened his mind and sensed the daos surrounding him. Using the dao for combat was something he had never before tried to do, and thus he was rather nervous. But the moment he felt the dao invade his body, and how it changed his Ancestral Worldpower from normal energy with no affinity to suddenly containing the dao of Inferno as well as the dao of devouring and a slight bit of the dao of space, Hui Yue was ecstatic. He was excited to try out the strength of his abilities.
"I have to try the attacks that the red wolf left for me," Hui Yue said with excitement as he allowed for the Ancestral Worldpower to surround him. He formed a massive wolf head right behind him, and with a soundless roar that caused shockwaves to run through the area surrounding him, he started to attack. The sudden shockwaves caused everyone to glance at what had caused this massive influx of energy outside the mansion. Even the dragon glanced at Hui Yue with an indifferent look before it too roared out loud causing the incoming attacks to falter.
A majestic blood-red energy billowed out from within Hui Yue's body like a tidal wave, and the intensity of this energy did not lose out to any expert present, in fact, it was stronger than quite a few of the experts’ attacks.
The many surrounding experts who were observing the battle were shocked by this sudden powerful energy which exploded from Hui Yue’s body, but even so, they only divided a fraction of their attention to see what was going on. They were all veteran fighters and knew that in a life and death battle one could not afford to be negligent, and thus their attention stayed on the dragon where their attacks constantly rained down.
Their attacks slowed down the dragon but even so it was not enough to stop it from advancing. By now it had two claws, and its head free from the stone prison underneath the ground and its long snake-like body slithered underneath waiting to be fully released.
"Has it broken the beast contract?" Hui Yue asked worriedly as he saw the advancement of the beast, but Huli shook her head, "The reason it isn't behaving is because Yanluo is not around. If he were here, it would have to follow his every order, but it seems that for now he is not so it can do as it pleases. Right now it clearly wants to take revenge on the humans for having captured it in the first place."
Hui Yue secretly heaved a sigh of relief. If it had broken the beast contract, then it would have been even stronger than Yanluo and if that were the case how could anyone fight it?
As Hui Yue released the red energy wolf head wild and violent energy erupted from his body and the leaves on the ground were blown into dust and swept away by the force behind his attack.
Unleashing the attack, the wolf head traveled rapidly towards the dragon, and just as it did, Hui Yue realized that he might have made a mistake. The building he was standing on was likely to be within the formation of Skydragon Fortress meaning that it would attack him if he were to unleash an attack of his own.
Seeing Hui Yue suddenly become alert, Huli also realized that they might have made a mistake, but the attack had already been unleashed and they could not take it back.
A human figure floated towards them from atop the City Lord’s mansion, and he waved his hand after which he spoke up, "Anyone who wishes to join the battle, feel free to do so. I have deactivated some of the battle formations around the City Lord’s mansion so please help us suppress the dragon. We need to force it back into the ground, and those who work the hardest will be granted military rewards from the Skydragon Fortress' Guard."
Hearing the voice, Hui Yue felt more relaxed. It seemed that they were not going to be killed by the formations, and even more practical it was now possible for them to fly around making it easier to deal with the dragon below.
While the expert spoke, the wolf head energy attack reached the ground where the dragon was awaiting the next round of attacks. Just as the red wolf made contact, a large boom sounded out followed by a shockwave so strong that everyone, including the dragon, staggered backwards slightly.