Chapter 413: The Trial of Ascension Platform Came Crashing Down!
"What the hell are you?! How can you possibly—ahhh!"
"Stop—stop this at once! I am—urk!"
"You and I have no enmity, let us both step back, I still have to—gah!"
The black flood dragon was completely dumbfounded.
Since the day it had ascended from a mere serpent to a flood dragon, it had never—never—been humiliated like this.
True, it had only manifested here as a split-off true spirit and could not exert its full strength. Even so, it still possessed nearly the power of a Tribulation Crossing expert. That alone should have been enough to crush anyone beneath the heavens.
So why—why was this happening right before its eyes?
Luo Wusheng's blurred figure gripped its tail with one hand, swinging the dragon's massive body—dozens of times larger than his own—around and around until afterimages filled the air.
No, "gripped" wasn't even the right word.
His hand had sunk into the dragon's tail, as though the two were fused together.
In truth, dealing with this black flood dragon wasn't complicated at all.
'The Immortal Aura restrains this thing… or at least restrains its current state. I don't even know what its true cultivation is,' Luo Wusheng thought. 'But it's probably not that high.'
From the very beginning, he hadn't been too worried.
When the Immortal Aura had effortlessly blocked the dragon's opening strike, he immediately realized that its current manifestation likely couldn't harm him.
And even if the true spirit were shattered? So what? At worst, he would lose a single strand of spirit. After a few months of nurturing, his spiritual awareness would recover fully.
Still, he hadn't expected the Immortal Aura's effect to be this outrageous.
'At first, I just thought it was a little mystical. But the moment I touched its tail, I sensed something strange… I never imagined that pushing my hand in would cause this kind of reaction…'
He couldn't help but feel thoughtful.
When he had first faced the flood dragon alone, after sending the two little girls away, he hadn't gone this far.
Not because he couldn't—but because he didn't want them to see through his act. He wasn't sure whether his Junior Sister and Little Yuli had gone far enough, so he deliberately staged a prolonged battle. He tangled with the dragon, let it press him back and forth, even threw in some convincing sound effects for good measure.
At first, the flood dragon probed with a few tentative moves. But after a while, it seemed to lose interest, as if pressed for time. Gathering its strength, it whipped its tail down with full force.
At the same moment, its massive body showed signs of soaring upward, clearly intending to disengage whether the strike landed or not.
But then—everything spiraled out of its expectations.
The hand Luo Wusheng raised to block the attack didn't just catch it. It sank straight into the semi-illusory tail, half his forearm vanishing into the black scales.
And in that instant, the flood dragon lost all ability to fly.
Its momentum, its power, its very body—everything was pinned down by that single hand.
After that, Luo Wusheng felt the Immortal Aura linking him to the abnormal flood dragon, siphoning off some strange energy from its body at a frenzied pace.
The panicked black flood dragon thrashed wildly. To keep it from struggling, Luo Wusheng simply tightened his grip and continued treating it exactly as before—swinging its massive form around like a whip.
And truthfully, he was beginning to enjoy himself.
'By now, Little Yuli and the others should've found the so-called source of the Immortal Aura, right? Hm. When I'm done here, I'll just drag this flood dragon over. The whole scene should be enough of a spectacle to distract everyone from… well, that incident.'
Still, a small doubt crept in. 'What did Little Yuli actually want from me today? Could it be something related to Shuangxue? Maybe my wife has already condensed her sword-body and sent word through her disciple?'
For the first time in a while, Luo Wusheng had a moment of peace to think. He ignored the flood dragon's shouted protests while spinning helplessly in his grasp.
Earlier, he had learned not to let its words sway him—its struggles, though pitiful, had shown they weren't meaningless. If he loosened his grip even slightly, who knew what trouble might follow?
If this was only a strange existence accidentally tied to the Trial of the Ascension Platform, that was one matter. But if it was truly a Netherkin hiding within the capital, then capturing it could yield invaluable information.
Just then, Luo Wusheng froze.
Two beams of light suddenly shot up from the distance, piercing the heavens.
'There's no mistaking it—that's the direction the Immortal Aura indicated earlier… They've already found the place?'
He watched as the beams split apart the thunderclouds. Where they shone, the heavens cleared, scattering the storm. For a brief moment, Luo Wusheng could only stare.
That single distraction weakened his control.
ROAR!
The black flood dragon bellowed, seizing the chance. It no longer cared about anything except escaping the devil clutching its tail.
But worse still—it felt the gaze.
The gaze of a Tribulation Crossing Realm cultivator.
The Immortal Nation's Tribulation Crossing Realm guardian were finally arriving.
If this continued, it wouldn't just lose this strand of spirit—it might even lose the Netherkin Race's secret Artifact it carried.
There was no time left to hold back.
Its massive body swelled violently.
. . . . .
Inside the royal capital—
"Lo—look! What's that?!"
A panicked shout echoed, followed by countless cries of alarm.
"The clouds… they're dispersing? And there's sunlight shining through—"
"No! That's not the sun. At this hour, it shouldn't even be there!"
"Wait—my mind… I think I'm about to see another vision!"
As the words spread, every person within the capital felt their thoughts blur, as if stolen away. Then the vision appeared before their eyes.
Upon the colossal Trial of the Ascension Platform, radiant light bathed every corner. Above it loomed a vast shadow that made their hearts quiver.
The form was long and serpentine, stretching hundreds of zhang, its belly lined with claws, its visage full of ferocity.
"Th-that… what is that? A monster?"
"A flood dragon! That's a flood dragon! I've seen it in my sect's records—any flood dragon is bound to be a Tribulation Crossing Great Netherfiend! That's a Tribulation Crossing Realm flood dragon!"
"Tr-Tribulation Crossing? A Netherkin of that level? Why is it here? What does it want?!"
"Was it behind the earlier disaster with the Ascension Platform? But… why does its gaze feel so strange? I see calmness, madness, pain, suffocation… sorrow?"
"Bah! You can see all that in a single glance?"
"Forget that—what matters is what's happening right now—ah! Look at its tail!"
Another cry rang out. All eyes turned instinctively toward the black flood dragon's tail.
There, standing atop the Trial of Ascension Platform, was a blurred human figure—its hand clamped tight around the dragon's tail.
The vision continued.
The flood dragon writhed frantically, soaring ever higher into the sky. Its immense body stretched taut, but no matter how it strained, its tail remained locked in that shadow's grip. It could not break free.
At last, its serpentine body elongated into a single line, its head thrusting into the heavens, vanishing from sight.
And then—
The shadow gripping its tail gave a mighty heave.
The flood dragon was hurled sideways, as if struck by an unimaginable force. Its vast form slammed down onto the Ascension Platform, the impact echoing like the fall of a mountain.
The vision shattered.
…
On the streets of the capital, a man who had been staring skyward widened his eyes in horror.
"The… the Platform…"
"The Trial of Ascension Platform was smashed down by that strike!"
<+>
Note: Link to the character Illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD[1]
<+>
Tn: I updated the story daily, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 532: What On Earth Is Master Talking About?[2]
Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-532-what-156146549[3]
[1] https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lkIcPnCxeyuyZA4Kkb621dPC05UvWjhD
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-532-what-156146549
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/chapter-532-what-156146549