White mist spread and diffused along the ground and the walls of the cave.

"You bastard... where did you come from?!" Alice the squirrel struggled to stand, her bloody wounds slowly healing. Her eyes were bloodshot as she stared at Li Cheng颐.

"The Shadow Dragons are like this, and so are you... it shouldn't be like this this time!"

"The weak are wailing," Li Cheng颐 said, raising his hand and looking at the squirrel and the three Shadow Dragons struggling to rise.

Whoosh!!

A black light appeared behind him—it was Ying!

He silently emerged from Li Cheng颐's shadow and struck his back with a full-force claw.

The moment he attacked, Ying's entire body rapidly expanded. He had chosen to release his true form at this moment.

A Shadow Dragon's true form was at least several hundred meters long, and this small cave simply couldn't contain it.

But now that the Dragon King Essence had been taken, he couldn't care less.

Roar!!!

A deafening dragon roar exploded.

Ying was surrounded by black mist, breathing out dragon breath.

'Dragon Combat Art—Chaotic Shadow Thunder Kill Fist!!'

All the anger, all the power of shadow, all the dragon breath, everything.

At this moment, everything moved forward, condensed on Ying's right claw, striking towards Li Cheng颐.

Li Cheng颐 only barely noticed and turned around.

Too late!

He couldn't resist! *I can win!!*

Absolute hope surged in Ying's heart. He seemed to see victory already.

Roar!!!!

Boom!!!

The entire cave was suddenly filled with black shadows, and the massive dragon body instantly burst out of the cave.

The garbage meteoroid also couldn't withstand the terrifying explosion and shattered into pieces, exploding in space.

Countless fragments shot out in all directions, colliding with other meteoroids, some being bounced back, some changing direction, but more pushing the other meteoroids away.

A void was instantly cleared in this garbage belt.

Roar!!!

A huge shadow dragon with a body length of over eight hundred meters, coiled and vibrating its wings, opened its bloodshot eyes and slammed a claw at a small space in front of it.

"Die, you arrogant insect!!" He pressed down with all his might.

The body, like an island, surrounded and entangled the space in circles.

The other two Shadow Dragons, Fane and Saar, were also affected and thrown far away.

"There's nothing to worry about anymore! Kill him! Devour him!!" Saar roared, also transforming and reverting to his true form.

Fane followed closely behind, transforming into his true form.

The three Shadow Dragons were of similar size, hovering and rapidly dancing around Li Cheng颐's location.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Three streams of dragon breath, like pillars of fire, converged directly on Li Cheng颐's location.

Under the high temperature and crushing force, that area was completely transformed into a distorted and unstable unknown space.

Alice the squirrel held Zhao Xianrou with one hand, her body covered in a thin, transparent force field.

They had already avoided the impact from the blast, because the Shadow Dragons' main target wasn't them, so they weren't greatly affected.

"I didn't expect to see the no. 1 of the Destiny Garden in this kind of situation... and he shouldn't have been the one who came here in the first place," Alice said, her eyes gloomy and full of confusion.

"That should have been me..." Zhao Xianrou said weakly beside her.

"Don't talk nonsense. The Shadow Dragon raid was destined to happen, but the Dragon King ceremony shouldn't have appeared at this time. The variables caused them to start it early," Alice said coldly.

"Aren't we the ones destined to be different, the blank slates destined to break through the confusion!? Isn't that what you said!?" Zhao Xianrou struggled to retort.

"Yes, but he's different... the Destiny Garden is a variable! It shouldn't exist. But it does, and it has gathered many people who were originally scattered all over the place," Alice said in a deep voice.

"Then we can completely take advantage of the three Shadow Dragons besieging that person and go up and snatch back..." Zhao Xianrou hadn't finished speaking when a sudden jolt came from the distance.

The three Shadow Dragons' dragon breath was first pushed back by a huge white gas sphere.

A violent shock transformed into a circle of white halos, spreading around.

"Impossible!!!"

Ying stabilized his body, and his enormous dragon eyes revealed an unbelievable expression.

In the center of his pupils, the terrifying image directly in front was reflected.

The blood-red dragon breath and the terrifying dragon combat art's giant force hadn't left a single scar on Li Cheng颐.

His body was covered in grayish-white bone armor, and the shadow behind him was like a huge cloak, constantly vibrating and flying.

The most terrifying thing was...

The look in his eyes!

They were a pair of black, ferocious dragon eyes with light golden patterns, and a circle of black flames was burning around the dragon eyes...

"That's... the Shadow Dragon King!!?" Ying recognized it. He recognized the appearance of the Shadow Dragon King from the memory inheritance deep in their bloodline.

He suspected he was seeing things, so he carefully looked at Li Cheng颐's hand again.

That's right, the Dragon King Essence was still floating in his palm, and hadn't been absorbed at all.

Absorbing the essence required time and concentration, and Li Cheng颐 wouldn't have had the opportunity to absorb it at this time.

This was also why they chose to besiege him at this time. But this guy...

"What's going on with his Dragon King bloodline!!?"

Not far away, Fane let out an incredulous roar.

They had worked so hard and schemed for so long, contributing so much of their years of accumulation, just to condense a Dragon King Essence, and even then, the three of them had to divide it.

But what were they seeing now!??

Li Cheng颐, before even absorbing the essence, was already the Shadow Dragon King!?

"Impossible!! It must be a mistake, or some kind of similar disguise! I'll expose this liar!!"

Saar exploded first.

His body flew, bringing with it a terrifying impact. The dragon body, several hundred meters in size, accelerated madly from top to bottom, pouncing towards Li Cheng颐.

Ten times the speed of sound, twenty times, thirty times!!

This kind of straight-line impact, which didn't require changing direction, instantly surpassed their maximum speed in the atmosphere in the airless vacuum of space.

"Kill!!"

"Kill you!!!"

'Dragon Combat Art—Instant Shadow Myriad Dragon Formation!!'

Saar's entire dragon body suddenly decomposed and exploded as he approached Li Cheng颐.

His entire body transformed into countless small black Shadow Dragons, which shuttled and pounced towards Li Cheng颐 from all directions.

The power carried by each of them was only half as weak as Saar's initial pounce.

Although the concentrated power was weakened, the overall output was magnified dozens of times at this moment.

As long as they could break through his defenses, then tens of thousands of small Shadow Dragons could complete the encirclement attack formation.

"Facing absolute disparity, no matter how much you struggle, you'll only bring ridicule."

Li Cheng颐 stretched out his right hand, and the bone armor on his body grew rapidly, forming sharp thorns on his fist.

Chi!!

In an instant, his right hand disappeared, instantly transforming into a wall of fist shadows beside him.

'Yin Scripture—Candle Wind.'

The wall of fist shadows only appeared for an instant, but in that instant, it devastatingly struck every small Shadow Dragon that flew close.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!!

The densely packed Shadow Dragons were all blown away head-on, completely exploding from head to tail, turning into shadows and disappearing.

He didn't need precision, only coverage.

"Ah!!! I'll fight you to the death!!" Ying's dragon body opened its mouth from below, revealing sharp fangs, and bit towards Li Cheng颐.

Under the body of several hundred meters, his mouth alone was tens of meters wide. When opened and lunged, it was like a huge black pocket, wrapping towards Li Cheng颐 from below.

'Yin Scripture—Twisting Hand.'

Li Cheng颐's left hand was covered with a massive amount of white blood essence, and in the blink of an eye, a giant blood essence hand, hundreds of meters in size, condensed beneath him, pressing down with a palm.

It wasn't a killing move, nor a secret technique, just a common technique in the Yin Scripture's three skills, using blood essence.

But it was such a casual move.

Before the giant white hand even got close, the terrifying suppression contained in the blood essence caused Ying's entire dragon body to ache as if pierced by needles.

Now, Li Cheng颐's blood essence power wasn't just the martial arts from before, but also the blood essence of the Yin Scripture and the Void Night Walker mixed in.

Its lethality had been greatly enhanced.

Although each technique wasn't mainly focused on lethality, the power was somewhat increased by stacking them.

This level of additional power might not be enough to deal with other Yin Gods, but dealing with these three little dragons...

It was crushing.

Boom!!!

With a violent tremor, another patch of black shadow exploded in space.

It was like a white giant hand hitting a black mud pit, splashing out large patches of muddy spots.

Ying howled, his mouth was knocked crooked, half of his head was completely collapsed inward, and a large amount of grayish-white brain matter spurted out from his ears and nose.

Now, if Li Cheng颐 counted the merged imprint as two, then he was a four-imprint powerhouse, only one away from reaching the five-imprint qualitative change.

In addition, his life force had been increased tenfold repeatedly. Perhaps his accumulation of life force wasn't as good as the three Shadow Dragons before, after all, those three had lived for so long, and their total intake and development were far greater than his.

But under the amplification of life force, he had now caught up.

Bloodline suppression, similar life force, plus the most critical imprint...

Four imprints against a single imprint.

If this were in Shao Yin, other top martial artists would probably laugh at the three Shadow Dragons for being stupid to the core.

If a single imprint could fight against four imprints, the order of Shao Yin would have been in chaos long ago.

The difference in the quality of life could only allow the three little guys to become top experts among the single imprints.

But encountering multiple imprints... or four imprints...

Immediately kneeling and begging for mercy, claiming to have a thousand-year-old mother at home, might still earn some pity and survive.

Unfortunately, the three Shadow Dragons' knowledge limited their decision.

So now...

Boom!!!

Li Cheng頤 slapped Fane, who was rushing over from the side.

Then, he turned his head and opened his mouth, spewing out scorching Dragon King breath.

The black breath, which was initially only the size of a palm, rapidly expanded after leaving his mouth.

In the blink of an eye, it absorbed the surrounding black light spots and expanded into a terrifying black fire pillar dozens of meters thick, engulfing Saar, who had flashed to his back and tried to rush up to breathe.

The terrifying black fire instantly spread to his entire body. The intense shadow burning caused severe pain, causing Saar to roll around in space in agony.

Before long, the three Shadow Dragons' bodies became smaller and smaller. The injuries on their bodies were covered with blood essence and dragon breath, continuous damage, leading to a huge consumption of the shadow in their bodies.

At this time, they couldn't even maintain their original size.

They floated weakly in space, no longer had the strength to struggle, and could only make puppy-like pleas.

The sound entered the minds of everyone around through consciousness resonance.

(End of chapter)