Chapter 77 - Dragon Will Unleashed
At the Qi front, the stone wall was shorter, looking out over a sloping valley that led into the southern wilderness. Pine-scented air carried the smell of oncoming rain. Standing at the parapet, General Lu and Han Chen, the Golden Core elder of Green Pine Peak, watched the mortal soldiers retreat as a thunderous rumble shook the ground.
"This is not a random stampede," General Lu said, his voice tense. "The scouts report the beasts are moving in a structured pattern, using the natural ridges to cover their advance. They are bypass-guarding the choke points. There is a high intellect coordinating this march."
Han Chen nodded slowly, his eyes scanning the dark forest at the valley’s end. "The Abyss Earth Tyrant. It is a beast of chaos, known for its intelligence. If it breaches this front, the entire eastern basin will be exposed."
Standing behind them, Su Ming quietly activated his Essence Sight. In his vision, the valley filled with rolling flows of crimson and dark violet Qi.
’Their energy is too erratic,’ Su Ming thought, observing the jagged flows of their Qi. ’This is no simple stampede. The Abyss Earth Tyrant is controlling their minds, but the pressure is too coarse. And that signature... it has mutated from the standard breed.’
From the forest, thousands of beasts erupted—drakes, scaled lizards, and heavy mud-boars charging in a silent, coordinated wave. The pressure of the approaching horde pressed against the wall, making several younger disciples behind Han Chen grip their weapons with trembling hands.
To break their momentum before they reached the gates, Su Ming stepped forward and rose into the sky, his white robes fluttering.
Han Chen looked up in surprise. "Peak Master Su?"
Su Ming did not answer. He closed his eyes, channeling his soul energy into the Void Dragon Soul within his dantian. The spectral void dragon soul stirred, and Su Ming released his Dragon Will at full scale without holding back.
*BOOM!*
A silent, invisible shockwave of spiritual pressure erupted from Su Ming, expanding across the valley in a massive dome of gold-rimmed energy. The air itself seemed to grow heavy, the wind dying down instantly as a suffocating, ancient majesty filled the valley.
The gold-rimmed ripple left the allies unharmed, but Han Chen’s breath caught, his hands freezing in mid-air. His spiritual senses instantly recognized the supreme quality of the energy.
’A spiritual attack?’ Han Chen thought, his soul shivering under the invisible pressure. ’No, it is the aura of a supreme, ancient being. It makes my own Golden Core cultivation feel like a speck of dust.’
Below the wall, the stampede came to a sudden, violent halt.
Eighty percent of the charging beasts instantly collapsed onto their chests, their legs giving way as they cowered in absolute terror. The drakes and heavy lizards pressed their noses against the wet dirt, their bodies trembling violently under the weight of the draconic aura. The silent, coordinated march was shattered in a single second, the beasts completely paralyzed by the instinctual dread of a high-tier ancient predator.
"Elder Han, strike now," Su Ming’s calm voice drifted down from the sky. "Do not hold back."
Han Chen snapped out of his daze. His hands blurred into complex seals, channeling his earth element Qi to its absolute limit. With a flushed face, he thrust his palms forward toward the valley.
"Earth Dragon Spikes!" Han Chen roared.
The ground of the valley floor erupted. Dozens of massive, jagged stone pillars and granite spikes shot upward from the earth, tearing through the cowering, paralyzed beasts.
Normally, these high-grade drakes and mud-boars possessed tough, Qi-reinforced hides that would easily deflect such spells, but Su Ming’s Dragon Will had left them completely helpless and unable to circulate their defensive energy.
The stone spikes pierced through their unprotected scales and heavy plates with ease, turning the front rows of the stampede into a forest of broken stone and dark blood. In a single breath, Han Chen’s strike wiped out one-third of the entire stampede force, a feat made possible only by the total suppression of the incoming horde by Su Ming’s Dragon Will.
A collective gasp rose from the Green Pine Peak disciples behind Han Chen. To them, it looked as if their peak master had single-handedly halted the massive horde and annihilated a third of it with a legendary, earth-shaking display of power.
"Elder Han is mighty!" a young disciple cheered, eyes wide with awe. "A single blow destroyed them!"
Han Chen cleared his throat, hiding his embarrassment behind a strict, authoritative nod. He knew the truth, but the sudden adoration from the younger generation was gratifying, his popularity instantly climbing to new heights.
As the remaining beasts struggled to recover, Su Ming floated down to the right sector. Desiring to clear the field quickly without revealing the full depth of his cultivation, he drew his steel sword. After deflecting a few projectiles with some sword qi, he pointed his blade forward.
Deep in his dantian, the Golden Core Spinned. Su Ming conjured a twenty-meter-long Yang Flame Sword in the sky, its heat drying the rain-heavy air in an instant. With a flick of his wrist, he launched it.
*BOOM!*
The giant Yang Flame Sword slammed into the center of the valley floor. A massive shockwave of golden flame rolled outward, vaporizing the wet soil and decimating another one-third of the remaining horde.
Stunned silence fell before cheers erupted again. "Peak Master Su is mighty!" the disciples shouted, their awe redoubled. Lin Yao and Wang Tian exchanged a proud smile, while Qing Luan watched Su Ming with newfound respect.
Han Chen watched the boiling trench, his hands trembling. The size and purity of the Yang fire were far beyond any ordinary Golden Core.
’He is indeed worthy of being a peak master,’ Han Chen thought in awe. ’That strike carries the weight of at least a Nascent Soul expert. His potential is terrifying. It is fortunate that I have treated him with respect.’
Su Ming extended his divine sense to the maximum, sweeping the forest ridges. Near the eastern ridge, he detected the Mutated Abyss Earth Tyrant withdrawing. Seeing two-thirds of its force wiped out in minutes, the Tyrant had immediately turned back to reposition itself deeper in the wilderness.