Imperial God Emperor

After a brief hesitation, he decided to dive down to the bottom of the orange lava ocean to find out what it was all about.

This was because he had vaguely felt that a huge secret was very likely to be hiding at the bottom. The enormous winding creature carried whiffs of dragon qi, which Ye Qingyu was most sensitive to having cultivated the [True Will of the Sky Dragon] before. Since he had come to this place, there was no harm in venturing down to take a good look.

Conjuring a thought, a force field of Saint realm laws spread out around him, forming a silver-colored light shield.

He slowly sank down.

The temperature of the orange-colored lava was terrifyingly high, such that a normal Immortal Step realm expert could not last for more than a short time in it before being incinerated and perishing. Afraid of being careless, Ye Qingyu opened up the Saint realm force field so as to keep the orange lava ten meters away from himself.

In only a twinkling, he had already dove several hundred meters deep.

He once again used the [Eyes of the Void] to look downward.

The expression of shock on his face grew even more intense.

"Is that actually... really... a dragon?"

He simply could not believe what he was seeing.

The enormous winding figure at the very depths of the orange flaming lava turned out to be an incomparably-massive dragon, and a real one at that. Sweeping his [Eyes of the Void] across, Ye Qingyu could vaguely see its scales, fins, claws... and head.

A True Dragon?

He remained a little doubtful.

Various legends in the Vast Thousand Domains naturally contained depictions of dragons, while it was also said that the Divine Dragon Race was a long-lasting and mighty race during the ancient Fiendgod Age, when their outstanding battle strength was comparable to that of the fiendgods. And in the legends of later generations of many different races, the Dragon Race was considered to be the embodiment of power, mystery, and invincibility. However, as time passed, the Dragon Race's population shrank until it neared extinction at present. Ye Qingyu himself had never seen a True Dragon, nor had he heard of them appearing anywhere before.

Many years ago, he had seen a snow dragon in the Snow Ground Demon Race's territory, but this was not a progeny of the Dragon Race albeit its body did flow with a little of the Dragon Race's blood, and could not be considered a True Dragon.

True Dragons aside, even the nine legendary offsprings of the dragon had all gone extinct and represented greatness.

The giant figure in front of Ye Qingyu was just as impressive as the artistic depictions of a True Dragon. When Ye Qingyu had dived to approximately three hundred meters away from the bottom of the ocean, he could see with utmost clarity that it was indeed a True Dragon that was sleeping soundly. The shape of every one of its parts was exactly the same as that which Ye Qingyu had seen in many ancient books, proving that it could not be from a sub-race.

The body of this massive creature was several kilometers long, and the smallest scale on it was as large as the roof of a divine temple. It coiled in perfectly round circles with its head facing its tail, reminding one of an Eight Trigrams chart. Completely motionless, it laid dormant within the flaming lava, with a layer of something gray in color covering its body. At first glance, it resembled a giant underground statue, but Ye Qingyu could sense a vitality surging within it and thus knew that it was no dead object.

The Ancient Sky Dragon Domain!

The Ancient Sky Dragon Sect!

These words flashed across his mind.

He suddenly realized that the origin of this ancient domain and Human Race sect might indeed be related to the legendary Sky Dragon. By looking back at history, this domain should probably have some long-standing myths and legends. Unfortunately, he did not pay special attention to this type of information when he first arrived, and only now suspected that there could be some such information that was related to the massive True Dragon that was hibernating below.

Otherwise, it surely could not be such a coincidence for a massive creature like this to appear beneath the main palace of the Ancient Sky Dragon Sect.

Besides, from the look of things, it had been here for an extremely long time, and had certainly been coiled up in hibernation for more than just a few hundred years.

After some consideration, Ye Qingyu continued to draw near to it slowly.

The body technique he had cultivated was the [True Will of the Sky Dragon] which was imparted to him by the mysterious spirit from a million years ago, and so the True Dragon ahead seemed to bear some connection to him, while his instincts did not detect any kind of danger whatsoever. For any warrior, to see a True Dragon was always an exceedingly rare opportunity.

Soon, he was less than a hundred meters away from the hibernating True Dragon below.

He was as small as a speck of dust in front of this unimaginably colossal creature.

At these depths, the orange flaming lava was scorching to a terrifying extent, and even a Half-Saint realm expert would most likely be incinerated at once. Luckily, Ye Qingyu was a true-blue Saint realm expert and had cultivated a wisp of Immortal qi, and thus was able to endure it with some difficulty.

However, his diving route ahead was obstructed by an invisible power.

"What sort of power is this?"

Ye Qingyu reached a hand out to press on it.

He only now discovered that blocking his way was an invisible shield in the Void ahead. Although his palm created a concave palm print on it, it remained firm like no other and easily withstood his might, before returning to its usual form when he retracted his hand.

After several attempts, Ye Qingyu ascertained that although this invisible shield looked soft, it was actually extremely tough and indestructible, such that his strength was not enough to break through it.

"You want to save this old dragon? Hoho, give it up, that's impossible." The new sect master's voice was heard from within the sealed blood pill.

Ye Qingyu was taken slightly aback.

How did this wicked voice pass through the seal on the blood pill once more?

He opened his palm, on which the blood pill then reappeared.

The black snake-like creature rapidly wandered and flounced about inside the blood pill while its voice was intermittently heard, "Junior, do you really think you could've defeated me if it wasn't for the fact that I used more than half of my power to maintain the [Great Captured Dragon Glimmering Array] for the sake of devouring this old dragon? You must be dreaming if you think you can rescue it when it's already near death and will die even if rescued. Hehe, besides, you can't break through my array anyway. Hahaha, give it up."

It turned out that the array below had been set up by this Black Snake Demon.

Did it really intend to devour a True Dragon, like what it said?

Its ambition certainly ain't small.

Realizing that it had to possess some really frightening techniques for it to be able to keep the True Dragon in captivity all this time, Ye Qingyu developed a cold sweat on his back. The Black Snake Demon was unlikely to be lying, and if it had not been preoccupied with this True Dragon, perhaps he would not have been its match.

However, at present...

"If it was set up by you, perfect. Now, tell me how to break it." Ye Qingyu transmitted a streak of divine consciousness across.

"Kekekeke... Junior, that's not something I'll tell you, forget it." The voice in the blood pill sounded a little pleased. "Unless you release me, otherwise..."

Hearing this, Ye Qingyu did not know whether to laugh or cry for a moment.

He felt that the Black Snake Demon's IQ was a little on the low side.

Unfortunately for it, it only had a small amount of the wonderful thing that was brains.

As he conjured a thought, a wisp of Immortal qi shot forth from his palm and pierced into the sealed blood pill, after which it burst out a power of annihilation, intent on killing the Black Snake Demon.

"Ughh... what are you doing... How dare you... No... Junior... You're truly cruel... I said it, I said it... Now stop."

Squealing like an old hen that was being cut up, the Black Snake Demon soon yielded.

It had no choice, for divine weapons were absolutely its nemesis.

The reason why it was so thoroughly defeated by Ye Qingyu today was that he had cultivated a wisp of Immortal qi which suppressed it completely and rendered its puppet bloodworms and true life core unable to hide. As a result, it was unable to utilize many of its methods. Had it instead faced any other Saint realm expert, even a pinnacle Saint realm one, it would certainly have had a fair chance of winning.

After obtaining the method of breaking the array, Ye Qingyu gave it a quick try and found out that it truly worked.

However, he was in no hurry to break the array.

"You said earlier that you set up the array here because you wanted to devour this True Dragon. What was that about?" Ye Qingyu asked by transmitting another streak of divine consciousness.

"Devouring a True Dragon naturally strengthens one's body. There's nothing odd about it. This old dragon has been hibernating in the Ancient Sky Dragon Domain for countless years and should've died long ago, having lost its former power due to old age. It's fortunate to have been discovered by me. After consuming it, I'll be able to truly control and devour the power of the Ancient Sky Dragon Domain, hahaha..." The Black Snake Demon laughed wildly.

Devour the power of a domain?

Ye Qingyu suddenly understood a few things.

Tian Huayu had said that the Ancient Sky Dragon Domain still had a thousand years or so to go before it was completely destroyed. However, when Ye Qingyu himself entered the domain and saw to his astonishment how rapidly the situation within was declining, he estimated that it would not last for more than a few hundred years. He now wondered if that was because this Black Snake Demon had devoured its domain power behind the scenes.

What kind of monster is this exactly?

How is it able to devour a domain's power to speed up its destruction?

He could not help feeling a bout of fear.

I've never read about such a creature in the ancient books and records... Could I be overthinking?

Although the Black Snake Demon possessed sentience, it was nothing special, and the fact that it was acting so arrogantly despite being held in captivity indicated that it could never amount to anything great. Therefore, Ye Qingyu was not too worried about it.

Without asking further, Ye Qingyu conjured a few more strands of Immortal qi power and sealed the blood pill completely, amid the crazy roars and curses of the Black Snake Demon.

Subsequently, he broke the [Great Captured Dragon Glimmering Array] using the technique which the demon had revealed.

As ripples flickered within the orange flaming lava, the invisible light shield disappeared and booming blares were heard. A near-substantial True Dragon aura swept head-on at him, shocking him and causing him to hurriedly step back. The fiery flowing light below boiled gurglingly and surged toward the incomparably-massive dragon body, on which the layer of gray dust-like material was visibly dropping off in flakes, and into which the lava was flowing.

Subsequently, scarlet dragon veins began to flicker bit by bit on the dragon body, and in a twinkling, the scales across several dozen kilometers of the body lit up in brilliant splendor. An even more terrifying and vigorous True Dragon aura began to surge and seethe as the flaming lava all around it gathered with increasing frenzy on the dragon body and flowed within, as if wanting to ignite the entirety of it.

The situation was shocking like no other.

Ye Qingyu took continuous steps backward.

This process went on for thirty minutes.

More than seventy percent of the lava from this vast underground orange flaming lava ocean was absorbed into the giant dragon's body, which, despite its size, did not seem able to accommodate such a huge volume.

Like a drying-up lake, the level of the orange flurry ocean was falling, and had reached a point when it no longer submerged the dragon's back.

Ye Qingyu was hovering in mid-air.

Whoo...!

A breath spurted from the nostrils of the giant dragon, instantly forming a cyclone.

As the dragon revived, two columns of light abruptly appeared from below.

It opened its eyes.

Like divine swords, its eye beams fell upon Ye Qingyu.