Liu Mei's eyes were wide open, as she saw a huge black dragon, almost 10m (33ft) tall, standing behind Hao Ping.
The dragon had plunged his huge claw in Hao Ping's back, as he tore a huge hole through it.
Blood and guts, along with Hao Ping's internal organs were hanging from Little Black's claws.
Little Black's size had grown by almost 3 times, once he broke through from the peak of rank 4 to rank 5.
While Liu Mei was looking at the black dragon with a shocked look on her face, a feeling of disbelief had filled Hao Ping's eyes when he saw the huge claw that had pierced his back and chest.
He wanted to turn his head around and look behind him, but he could feel that something had already pierced his heart, as his strength was now leaving his body.
Even for a Dao King realm expert, once their heart was completely crushed, their body couldn't stay alive any longer.
''AHHHHHHHHHH''
Hao Ping roared madly, as he tried to summon the last bits of his strength in an attempt to escape, when suddenly his vision turned black.
Little Black had spat a wave of black flames from his mouth, that had completely engulfed the Dao King's body!
The flames were so powerful, that Hao Ping could even feel his soul being eroded, while an insufferable pain made him feel like he was better off if he died.
Sparks of lightning were coursing through his body, in an attempt to jolt little Black's claw, but the black dragon didn't even flinch, as if he had never felt the lightning on his body.
Gritting his teeth, Hao Ping sent his soul outside of his body, completely abandoning what seemed to be a former shell of the Dao King's glory, as a wisp of white smoke shot towards the sky.
However, even after leaving his body, Hao Ping was horrified to see that the black flames were still bringing endless pain to his soul.
Lowering his head to look at the ground, Hao Ping was stunned when he saw the 10m (33ft) long black dragon, staring at him with his expressionless blue eyes.
Hao Ping couldn't understand what had happened.
''Why is there a dragon here? A real dragon? Why did he attack me all of a sudden?''
Suddenly, a terrifying possibility flashed through his mind, as the Dao King turned to look at Shun Long, when his previous words reverberated in his mind
<I knew that you were tailing us even before we left the Heaven's Dome city. And yet, I still chose to leave, even though I knew that 2 Dao Kings were chasing after us. Don't you want to know why?>
Hao Ping looked at Shun Long with a terrified expression on his face, while the constant erosion from the black flames, finally burned his soul into a wisp of nothingness.
Shun Long heaved out in relief once he saw that Hao Ping's soul had completely dispersed.
Although Little Black had already told Shun Long that he could take care of the 2 men that were following them, it was better to take care of the 2 Dao Kings one by one, rather than both of them together.
After all, Little Black was still a peak rank 5 magic beast, and Shun Long knew, that even if he had the strength to fight against a peak rank 3 Dao King, it wouldn't necessarily mean that he would get out unscathed from this battle.
However, with Hao Ping who was chasing after them with wild abandon, and had put his complete focus on the black panther in front of him, it was the perfect time for Little Black to kill the middle rank 2 Dao King realm expert.
Liu Mei looked at the black dragon in shock, before her eyes turned to look at Shun Long.
Seeing the confusion on her face, Shun Long smiled lightly as he said
''This is my partner, Little Black. He is an important friend to me.''
It was a simple introduction, and yet, it was all that needed to be said.
Liu Mei looked at the black dragon in front of her, and involuntarily nodded her head.
The black panther was also staring at Little Black with a confused look, before he turned his head to look at Shun Long.
Shun Long patted the black panther's head, when Little Black let out a small roar.
After all, the black panther's soul wasn't strong enough to communicate with Shun Long the same way that Little Black did.
Due to both of them sharing a connection with Shun Long however, both the black panther and Little Black, could feel each other's existence, and as magic beasts, they could also communicate between themselves.
After Little Black returned to the 'Stone of Time', Shun Long walked over to Hao Ping's body in order to collect his spatial ring.
After all, there was no way that he was going to ignore the wealth of a Dao King.
However, only black ashes remained in place of Hao Ping's corpse, along with a spatial ring and a long and thin white sword.
Shun Long was pleasantly surprised when he noticed that the sword was a rank 1 gold grade weapon.
Although its quality wasn't as good as his 'Purple Blossom staff', it was still a rank 1 gold grade weapon after all.
''Indeed, since Cui Guoliang had so many weapons, its only natural for most Dao Kings to wield gold grade weapons as well'' Shun Long mumbled for a while before his attention was focused on the black spatial ring.
As soon as his spiritual strength entered inside the ring, tens of thousands of middle-grade spirit stones instantly greeted Shun Long's eyes.
There were more than 150.000 middle-grade spirit stones inside the spatial ring, along with many bottles of alchemy pills and some medicinal herbs.
In addition, a familiar-looking bronze badge was also placed in an unassuming corner of the spatial ring, along with more than a dozen scrolls around it.
However, the most unexpected thing to Shun Long, wasn't the tens of thousands of middle-grade spirit stones, nor the 'Dragon Lord's medallion', but it was an orange-colored medicinal herb with contorted lines on its surface.
''Rank 4 'Spirit cleansing fruit'!''
