Xiang Shaoyun felt he was going to die for real this time. The thick vicious gold aura surrounded him and shredded his skin, as if he was swimming in a lake of blades. Numerous cuts were left on his newly grown flesh, which was as tough as steel, and his blood sprayed everywhere. The intense pain of being cut alive was unbearable.
"Ahhhh!"
Xiang Shaoyun wailed madly. The pain was even worse than being struck by lightning. During this critical moment, the purple dragon hidden in his lightning bone woke up. It charged out and formed a clump of innate purple lightning that shrouded Xiang Shaoyun's body and protected him.
"Roar! Roar!"
As the purple dragon roared, Xiang Shaoyun's presence of a king surged out. At the same time, the projection of a tiger appeared around him as well. Meanwhile, the Overlord Skyslaying Saber in his astral cosmos sea started emitting clumps of lightning energy that reinforced the tiger, strengthening the tiger to the point it was comparable to the purple dragon.
Presence of dragon and tiger!
The dragon and tiger surrounded Xiang Shaoyun like guardians. They roared repeatedly as they protected Xiang Shaoyun with all they could, preventing him from being sliced to death.
Alas, there was a limit to their strength. This was a place with concentrated vicious gold energy. Strains of destructive energy sliced the dragon and tiger, leaving wounds all over them. If this continued, Xiang Shaoyun would turn into mincemeat before long.
Xiang Shaoyun tried his best to save himself. He even fully activated his nine stars. But his struggles seemed pointless.
"I am not willing to accept this! I am not willing!" Xiang Shaoyun howled madly. Finally, when all his defenses were shredded apart, including his king armor, he finally sank into despair.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, a roar sounded from below him. Then, the boundless vicious gold aura started splitting apart, forming a tunnel free of the vicious gold aura, allowing Xiang Shaoyun to fall straight down through the tunnel.
Bang!
Xiang Shaoyun's badly cut body crashed onto the ground, giving him a feeling like his bones had broken from the fall.
Is it Little White? Xiang Shaoyun wondered with the final bit of consciousness he had. He then fainted.
...
Meanwhile, the Battle of Towns had been put on hold because of the gold serpentine crocodile stampede. The disciples had no way of resisting the stampede and more than half of them had been killed. If it had continued, all the disciples would turn into beast fodder before the month ended.
Because of that, the academies were forced to withdraw their disciples from the competition. Naturally, some of them also had an inkling that the real reason for this was because the secret of Golden River Valley was about to show itself.
Regardless of the reason, the elders of the numerous academies withdrew their disciples to prevent even greater losses. Tan Guanghua and Jie Shi were only able to save a little over 20 of their disciples from the valley.
Only half survived? Tan Guanghua questioned inwardly, his heart in pain. He knew each Battle of Towns was incomparably cruel, but they had never suffered such disastrous losses. One ought to know that it hadn't even been 10 days since the start of the competition.
"Vice palace master, there are too many gold serpentine crocodiles. Even Demon Kings have appeared. We're lucky even half of us survived," said Mo Zhu with a grim expression. Following that, the other disciples started complaining.
"Everything was fine, but suddenly, the gold serpentine crocodiles went crazy. Wave after wave of them charged out. If we were a tad bit slow, we would have been stampeded to death as well."
"I think I heard the roar of a tiger. The roar is like a nightmare. It's so scary my legs went limp when I heard it. I suspect that roar scared all the gold serpentine crocodiles into a stampede."
"I heard that roar too. It sounded like a Demon King tiger. It's really, really scary, and the sound wave spread like a tsunami. That was when the gold serpentine crocodiles started going crazy."
"I don't know what happened, but I do know that I am never participating in another Battle of Towns. How is this different from suicide? A gold serpentine crocodile had ripped off one of my arms. If Senior Sister Gong had not rescued me...I...sob sob!"
...
These surviving youths were all filled with fear. Both Tan Guanghua and Jie Shi both smiled bitterly. They were clear that the surviving disciples had all lost their courage. A cultivator without courage was as good as a cripple.
In this situation, the disciples capable of remaining fearless in face of death would forge ahead vigorously and boldly in their path of cultivation, and their future would thus be bright. Just as the ship was about to set sail, a voice rang out, "Vice palace master, first elder, can we wait longer? M-my boss is not back yet!"
The speaker was Xia Liuhui. He was in a miserable condition as well. His entire body was riddled with wounds, but fortunately, he still had all four limbs attached.
After he said that, Lu Xiaoqing also spoke anxiously. "Yes, yes, Shaoyun is not back yet. We have to wait for him!"
Tan Guanghua and Jie Shi exchanged glances before Jie Shi said, "It has been a day. All the ships have already left. The surviving disciples would all have appeared by now. I'm afraid..."
"No, no! I refuse to believe he would die! I am going back there! I need to look for him!" Lu Xiaoqing could not accept that Xiang Shaoyun had been killed. In her agitation, she tried jumping off the ship.
Beside her, Chen Xin quickly hugged her and said, "Calm down, junior sister. Going back is tantamount to suicide."
Xia Liuhui had the urge to head back in as well, but stopped when he heard Chen Xin's words. The current Golden River Valley was flooded with gold serpentine crocodiles. Not to mention looking for Xiang Shaoyun, he would probably die the moment he entered.
"Junior Sister Lu, calm down. Junior Brother Xiang went missing the moment we entered. Perhaps he has gotten lucky and stumbled upon some fortuitous encounter," Mo Zhu comforted Lu Xiaoqing.
"Alright. Let's leave," Tan Guanghua commanded with a resolute light in his eyes. He was regretful for the loss of Xiang Shaoyun, but he could not allow everyone to die here for Xiang Shaoyun. "If we stay any longer, the gold serpentine crocodiles will surround us. At that time, I won't be able to protect all of you."
"Shaoyun! You must stay alive! Sob, sob..." Lu Xiaoqing started crying bitterly. Her sorrow seemed to be contagious as the other disciples' eyes turned misty as well.
"Boss! You must return! You told me you would take care of me in the future!" Xia Liuhui clenched his fists and howled in the direction of the Golden River Valley.
In a corner of the ship, Gong Qinyin had a look of regret on her face as well. Inwardly, she sighed, Just like that, he had died an untimely death?
"Vice palace master, first elder, I need to report something. The Gateflag Academy people and Blackhill Sect people once joined hands against us. If the gold serpentine crocodile stampede hadn't erupted when it did, I'm afraid...," Mo Zhu reported.
"Gateflag Academy? We won't forget this!" Tan Guanghua said, a sinister glint in his eyes.
"After returning, I think we need to get Elder Zhen Peng to take a trip to the Gateflag Academy. Otherwise, they would think they can bully us anytime they want!" Jie Shi proposed. He paused before adding, "We can even blame them for Xiang Shaoyun's death."
"But..." Tan Guanghua hesitated, not knowing how he should go about doing this.