Chapter 374: Honest Smile
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
Dragon Rearing Sovereign's body was the corporeal body of a god, and with the addition of five dragons coiling around his body and two serving as his weapons, his strength multiplied several times.
Even though Dragon Rider Sect was founded by Dragon Rearing Sovereign, it only had the abilities to control unusual breeds of dragons and snakes; its people didn't have the abilities to borrow strength from dragons. But Dragon Rearing Sovereign's Secrets of Dragon Control could allow one to borrow flood dragons' strength for themselves.
Besides that, his Dragon Rearing Scripture didn't contain all the techniques he had, either. He had held back some information. Even though the Dragon Rearing Scripture in Qin Mu's hand was much more complete than the one passed on to Dragon Rider Sect, the most important battle methods were no recorded inside it.
When using flood dragons as twin truncheons, his strength was so massive that when he struck, the eardrums of Qin Mu and the rest rang loudly, deafening them for an instant.
Not only that, that strike had emptied out all of the air in the surroundings. It was as if a huge chunk of space had crumbled, and all the air around was sucked away.
That was different from the clash of normal strong practitioners.
Qin Mu had seen numerous fights between strong practitioners, the struggles between those of cult master level, and even personally witnessed how Eternal Peace Imperial Preceptor quelled the rebellion. The impact from their divine arts didn't really collapse inwards but would explode in all directions with destructive force.
However, Dragon Rearing Sovereign's body was so strong that the impact actually caved inwards; there was no excess power leaking out. All of the destructive power was concentrated in one area, allowing his strength to burst forth with no restraint!
Even though the impact that burst forth in all directions looked vast and had astonishing destructive power, its energy was scattered. When the divine art hit the opponent, the power had already been weakened by quite some bit.
The fact that it didn't happen when Dragon Rearing Sovereign attacked represented that he had reached extreme control over his strength.
It was the beauty of strength, and that kind of beauty could only be admired by the few who had dedicated their lives to studying strength to its extreme.
In the palace hall, Qin Mu and the rest didn't have the time to admire. The air in the hall was sucked out, and the group immediately felt an immense pressure as even what was in their lungs was pulled out!
The astonishing pressure seemed to be squeezing them, while due to the air having been cleanly sucked away, there was a sense of their bodies trying to expand outwards. Their eyeballs, heart, lungs, bladder were all expanding while their blood and urine nearly flowed out uncontrollably.
They got hit by the air which was trying to leave, and their bodies rose into midair against their will. They flailed as they flew toward the truncheon of Dragon Rearing Sovereign as though they were sending themselves to their deaths.
If they were to be sucked under the truncheons of Dragon Rearing Sovereign, they would be crushed like ants and lose their lives.
Qin Mu hurriedly stretched one hand to grab the thick horn of the buck while his other caught onto Mu Qingdai's hand. The girl's sashes fluttered and coiled themselves around Long Yu's legs, who then grabbed onto Wang Muran.
The force pulled the four people in a straight line, and the buck's footing started to become unsteady as it tried to dig for purchase into the ground. However, that didn't stop them from floating out of the hall.
The huge buck opened its mouth and clamped his teeth onto the dragon qilin's tail, who felt a sharp pain and growled furiously. No matter how astonishing the pulling force was, the dragon qilin remained unmovable.
Boom!
A world-shaking explosion came from outside of the hall. Dragon Rearing Sovereign's strike had to have unleashed its power to clash with Mute, and the resounding tremor shook the four of them violently in midair as though they were struck by countless bolts of lightning.
It wasn't exactly what happened though. When Mute and Dragon Rearing Sovereign's attacks clashed, the strength of their corporeal bodies had created ripples in space, and it undulated up and down violently. The group who was in the air thus moved up and down as well, suffering from the extreme shaking.
Blood leaked out from the corners of their mouths. The ripple in space not only subjected them to the tremors, their bodies also warped along with the space, which resulted in their five viscera and six bowels shifting to wrong places. Their bones also cracked as they couldn't stand the heavy load anymore!
"Too powerful!" the dragon qilin shouted. "I'm close to vomiting!"
Qin Mu and the rest were feeling so terrible that they were about to vomit blood, yet the fat dragon could still speak with plenty of vitality!
At that moment, a bright light burst from the outside, and snow white light dazzled the group's eyes. When brightness reached an extreme level, it would become darkness, even if they had no idea whose divine art it had been that had turned everything in front of their eyes pitch black. Tears flowed out of their eyes, and they immediately executed their pupil divine arts to prevent their eyes from getting damaged.
Thump, thump, thump.
Their bodies landed on the ground; however, the next moment the ripple from the second collision came over. Luckily, it seemed to be much farther away. Yet the tremors still turned the ground into something similar like the surface of the sea, rising up in waves. Even a glutton like the dragon qilin was bounced up.
Pak, pak, pak. There were a few crisp smacks as Qin Mu and the rest were flung against the ceiling.
"Who's the one who constructed these palaces for granny, such sturdiness…" grumbled Qin Mu. Blood leaked out from Qin Mu's mouth due to the collision, and he swallowed down the rest that had bubbled up his throat.
In the past, Great Cult Master Qin had demolished numerous houses and palaces. When had he ever met one that was so sturdy?
The palaces of Heavenly Devil Cult's Saint Arrival Mountain had been demolished without much trouble. Even the imperial palace, Imperial College, and palaces of Rolan's Golden Palace had been demolished when he got his mind to it. What palaces, he had even demolished a dragon vein!
However, the palace that belonged to Granny Si seemed to be unimaginably durable. When they crashed against the ceiling, their bones almost shattered, yet the roof didn't have a single crack, let alone signs of it collapsing.
The ripple produced by the third clashed caused Qin Mu and the rest to fall back onto the ground, piling up together. Mu Qingdai was squashed at the very bottom, followed by Wang Muran, Long Yu, Qin Mu, the buck, and the dragon qilin at the top.
Everyone got up in a hurry only to see that the big senior sister of Little Jade Capital had already rolled her eyes. Qin Mu immediately pinched her mouth open and fed her a bottle of dragon saliva. Only then was she rescued.
The fourth ripple was even farther away from where they were, but it still wasn't small. The movement in space stretched their bodies up and down, then pulled to the sides and pushed within. When they were stretched to the sides, even Mu Qingdai who was the thinnest looked like a plump and round girl in the condensed space. When they were pushed into themselves, even the fattest dragon qilin looked very slim. His tummy was gone.
When it came to the fifth ripple, its effect was already very small, and everyone finally let out sighs of relief.
The fight of immortals could only make mortals suffer. Even though they were the more outstanding ones among the divine arts practitioners, they would die miserable deaths if they were the least bit careless when faced with a clash between such strong practitioners.
"Ma ha! Ma ha!"
Strange cries came from outside, and Qin Mu who had just let out a sigh of relief was once again on tenterhooks. While he took out his golden flute, his sight filled with blood flood dragons jumping down from the roof. Their long limbs landed on the ground, and several hundred creatures encircled the group, blocking them from all directions.
Qin Mu played the flute, and the flood dragons coiling around the bronze pillars slowly slithered down to stand guard in front of the hall.
Inside, everyone was indescribably nervous.
The blood flood dragons transformed from the blood of a god were numerous. On top of that, even the Little Jade Capital had heard about the power of a god's blood. The youths were successors of Eternal Peace Empire's number one sacred ground, so the secrets they knew were no lesser in number than those that Qin Mu knew.
It wasn't the first time Qin Mu had seen the blood of a god or a devil before. He had seen its power when he was with Village Chief in Great Ruins, and he had also seen the Lonely Mountain Ridge Root Demon who had been nourished by the blood of a god and devil. He had also seen the pool of god's blood left behind from the fight of Imperial Preceptor and a god from High Heavens.
Yet exactly how strong were the blood flood dragons formed from Dragon Rearing Sovereign's blood, he had no idea.
Even though he had borrowed the golden flute to sense and control the flood dragons, he had no confidence in them blocking the attacks. The most dangerous thing was the peculiar energy contained in the god's blood that formed the blood flood dragons!
They moved rapidly outside the hall, leaping here and there. They were like a pack of hyenas, waiting for their chance to strike.
Suddenly, a blood flood dragon roared twice, and its brethren ponced into the huge hall in an instant.
The sound of Qin Mu's flute rang loudly, and the guarding flood dragons roared as they pounced on the blood flood dragons!
The creatures that Qin Mu controlled were incomparably powerful. They were the dragons that Dragon Rearing Sovereign had spent numerous years raising, so their abilities were extremely high, blocking hundreds of blood flood dragons.
Those creatures were shredded by the dozen or so genuine flood dragons, turning into balls of blood mist. Compared to the flood dragons that were raised up by Dragon Rearing Sovereign, the abilities of the blood flood dragons were still too weak.
Outside, the roars gradually quietened down. Only the pattering of rain and the melodious melody of Qin Mu's flute could be heard.
The flute quietened down.
The pattering of the rain became even more resounding. Everyone in the hall stood with nervous expressions, not daring to relax. They looked out of the hall and saw lightning flash through the sky, bolt after bolt, lighting up the darkness. The expression of Qin Mu and the rest flickered between light and darkness.
A flood dragon slowly retreated and moved from the entrance of the hall to the inside.
Qin Mu's heart sank. He saw the second flood dragon retreating into the hall, followed by the third, the fourth…
The dozen or so flood dragons seemed to have met their nemesis, something that terrified them. They retreated one after another while passing by the group.
"Who's outside?" Long Yu croaked.
The sound of something satiny rolling around came from the outside. It was followed by heavy footsteps, which sounded as though they were stepping on their hearts as the person got closer, step by step.
Qin Mu played his golden flute again, but the dozen or so flood dragons lowered their heads onto the floor, not moving.
Cold sweat formed on Qin Mu's forehead, and a tall and sturdy figure appeared at the entrance of the hall, blocking it. That figure belonged to Dragon Rearing Sovereign who was made purely of blood.
When the dragon qilin saw him, his muscles went limp. He sprawled out on the ground and didn't dare to move.
The corners of Qin Mu's eyes twitched. Dragon Rearing Sovereign had a natural suppression over flood dragons he had raised. On top of that, there was a kind of special aura about his body which made the dragon qilin afraid to resist.
"The blacksmith you called over had truly strong abilities." Dragon Rearing Sovereign who was formed by god's blood revealed his crimson teeth. His blood-red eyes stared at Qin Mu when he said coldly, "However, he can't protect you. Little thing, show me another honest smile."
Qin Mu forced out a smile and shouted out to the others, "Merely a pile of god's blood, let's team up and destroy him!"