Cultivating a Aeon of Destruction divine beast comparable to a First-Class God was no easy task, even for an Emanator of Destruction like Phantylia.
It was essentially equivalent to using Xu Tianran as a perfect nutrient vessel, draining him—along with every drop of negative emotion bred within—all at once to trade for this Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon.
As a First-Class Divine Beast wielding the power of destruction, its strength was far beyond that of any ordinary First-Class God.
Lu Jingming had no doubt that with the power it displayed now, even if it faced five First-Class Gods of the same rank simultaneously, it could likely suppress them with ease and hunt them down one by one.
However, facing this destruction dragon that would make any deity turn pale, Lu Jingming's face showed no sign of gravity. Instead, deep within those eyes that always carried a hint of lethargy, a burning light slowly ignited.
It was excitement.
Pure, unadulterated longing for a powerful opponent, and anticipation for the coming, exhilarating battle.
Aside from seeking amusement, combat was one of the few interests he had that could truly make his blood boil.
"Come then. Let me see just how much weight this legend, personally erased by the Dragon God, truly carries."
He muttered to himself, his right hand grasping at the void.
A bizarre long spear appeared out of thin air in his hand.
One half of the spear's shaft was as black as ink, as if it condensed all the world's wither and finality. The other half was white as jade, radiating the purest, most primitive creation and vitality. Two diametrically opposed yet perfectly fused concepts formed a strange yet harmonious unity upon this spear.
The Divine Key: Abyss Flower.
"ROAR—!!!!"
As if sensing the undisguised battle intent emanating from Lu Jingming and the aura of the Divine Key that it instinctively loathed and felt threatened by, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon's eyes—composed entirely of destructive lightning—instantly locked onto Lu Jingming.
It swung open its massive maw, capable of swallowing mountain ranges.
A beam of pure, condensed violet-black destruction light, seemingly capable of punching through space itself, blasted toward Lu Jingming with violent force.
Wherever the light beam passed, whether it was the ruins of the imperial palace or the solid earth, everything was silently erased the moment of contact.
Facing this strike capable of instakilling any Limit Douluo, Lu Jingming's figure vanished abruptly just a split second before the beam hit.
In the next instant, he appeared directly above the dragon's head.
However, before he could make a move, the dragon's disproportionately massive tail, as thick as a mountain range, swept toward him with a terrifying sonic boom that tore the air apart. The power of this sweep caused the very space to ripple like water. If struck, even a true god would likely have their divine body shattered on the spot.
"Interesting."
Lu Jingming laughed instead of showing alarm. He didn't meet the blow head-on but lightly tapped the void with his toe, floating toward the high heavens like a weightless feather.
He knew that fighting here would completely erase New Ming City from the map. The civilians and soldiers who hadn't had time to evacuate would all be turned to dust by the aftershocks of a god-level battle.
"Big guy, your opponent is over here."
Lu Jingming's figure turned into a bolt of black-red lightning that pierced through the heavens. He didn't attack the dragon but instead sped toward the continuous mountain ranges to the east, far away from New Ming City.
That black-red bolt of lightning seemed so tiny yet so conspicuous beneath the violet-black doomsday sky.
As expected, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, driven only by destructive instincts, let out a furious roar when it saw its only target moving away. Its massive frame began to move.
Rumble... Rumble... Rumble...
Every step that fell triggered a terrifying earthquake exceeding magnitude ten. The remaining buildings of New Ming City collapsed in rows like dominoes under the violent tremors. Deep, bottomless footprints were stamped into the earth, and subterranean magma was even squeezed out from the cracks by the horrific pressure.
It abandoned the destruction of the city. Pushing off with its four limbs, its massive body took to the air, the resulting gale peeling a layer off the ground. It spread its sun-blotting wings and transformed into a moving violet-black doomsday calamity, madly chasing after that streak of black-red lightning.
A running pursuit across the entire continent as a battlefield thus began.
Lu Jingming's speed was pushed to the limit, but he didn't pull away completely. Instead, he maintained a subtle distance—one where the gargantuan beast behind could see him but could not touch him.
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon continuously fired destruction beams and webs of lightning from its mouth, its eyes, and even the gaps in its scales, attempting to shoot down the tiny "insect" ahead.
None of these attacks hit Lu Jingming.
However, when they struck the ground, they caused unimaginable devastation.
One beam instantly leveled a thousand-meter-high mountain from peak to base, leaving behind a terrifying, bottomless pit with edges as smooth as glass. A lightning web covered a wide, surging river; in just a moment, the entire river—along with the water, the riverbed, and all life within—was completely evaporated, leaving only a parched trench hundreds of kilometers long, billowing with thick black smoke.
Everything along the path—peaks, forests, rivers, lakes—was utterly destroyed by the violent energy aftershocks of this chase, turned into scorched earth and nothingness.
In just the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, they had crossed thousands of kilometers and arrived at a desolate, frigid plateau composed of countless snow-capped mountains.
"This is the place."
Lu Jingming stopped abruptly, hovering above the peak of a ten-thousand-meter-high snowy mountain. Here, far from civilization and with open terrain, he could finally cut loose and have a proper battle with this legendary beast.
"ROAR—!!!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon finally caught up. Its massive body crashed onto the plateau, the resulting shockwave instantly triggering a terrifying avalanche that swept across the entire region. Countless snow mountains collapsed before this man-made disaster.
It ceased its long-range attacks. Those massive eyes burning with destructive lightning stared deathly at the tiny figure atop the snowy peak.
In the next moment, it stomped the earth. Its disproportionately massive body erupted with a terrifying, teleport-like speed completely at odds with its size. A gargantuan claw covered in violet-black scales, as large as a small hill, slammed down toward Lu Jingming.
This claw strike sealed off all space—up, down, left, and right—as if even light could not escape the shroud of the claw's shadow.
"Coming in hot."
Lu Jingming charged forward instead of retreating. The pitch-black half of the Abyss Flower's shaft suddenly erupted with a profound, soul-consuming black light.
The Power of Destruction
He didn't choose a head-on collision. Using an incredible technique, at the moment the claw slammed down, the spear in his hand shot out like a venomous snake, striking with incomparable precision into the gap of a single scale in the center of the giant palm.
Chii—!
A soft sound.
The indestructible dragon scales, capable of withstanding the attacks of a God-King, were like wet paper before that spear tip imbued with the concept of Destruction. The tip pierced through easily, and the black power of wither spread frantically into the dragon's body through the wound like a lethal virus.
"AWOOO—!!!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon let out a pained roar. It wasn't physical pain, but a profound agony originating from the erasure of its very existence.
The massive claw that had been struck began to lose its vitality starting from the palm. Flesh, bone, and scales rapidly turned into ash-gray, brittle sand, falling away in clumps. Under the intense pain, the dragon madly thrashed its claw, trying to shake off the loathsome insect.
Lu Jingming used this massive force to leap into the air. With a graceful mid-air flip, he landed steadily upon the dragon's massive arm, which was as winding and rugged as a mountain range. He didn't stop. With a flash of black-red electricity beneath his feet, he charged like an arrow along the dragon's arm toward its spine.
Sensing his intent, the dragon's other intact claw swept toward Lu Jingming on its arm with the force of ten thousand tons.
"Too slow."
Lu Jingming sneered. His speed surged again. A second before the claw hit, he successfully mounted the dragon's incredibly broad back.
Standing upon this terrain of violet-black scales, Lu Jingming took a deep breath. Grasping the Abyss Flower with both hands, he pushed the wither power within the spear to its absolute limit. He lowered his stance and slanted the spear tip, piercing it into the hard dragon scales beneath his feet.
Then, he began to run.
Starting from the dragon's nape, he sprinted madly all the way toward its tailbone. The black spear in his hand acted like the sharpest plow, carving a deep trench across the dragon's back.
SCREECH—!!!!!
An ear-piercing sound, like metal being forcibly torn apart, echoed through the clouds. The indestructible violet-black dragon scales were peeled back in sheets under the erosion of the wither power. Black blood gushed out from the wound like a fountain. A terrifying, bone-deep bloodline hundreds of meters long appeared across the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon's spine!
"AWOOO—!!!!!!!"
This was no longer just pain; it was ultimate fury and madness. The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon let out the most piercing roar since its birth. Its massive body rolled, twisted, and crashed madly across the plateau, attempting to throw off the ant on its back that had caused such immense trauma.
Rows of majestic snowy mountains were easily smashed and leveled like sandcastles under its frantic rolling. The entire topography of the plateau was completely altered in these few dozen seconds, turned into a mess of desolate wasteland filled with giant gouges.
Finally, amidst a violent roll, Lu Jingming's figure was hurled off the dragon's back. Before he could steady himself in the air, a destruction beam several times thicker than the previous ones arrived in an instant, striking him squarely in the chest.
BOOM—!!!
Lu Jingming felt an irresistible, terrifying power capable of annihilating stars. The black-red lightning shield on his body couldn't hold for even a second before shattering inch by inch. Subsequently, his body was sent flying back like a ball hit by a high-speed train, moving even faster than he had come.
Like a meteorite, he smashed through seven or eight remaining snowy peaks before finally embedding himself deep within the body of a ten-thousand-meter-high mountain, leaving a bottomless human-shaped tunnel. The entire snowy peak groaned under the burden of the impact, as countless massive cracks spread from the point of collision across the mountain.
"Roar?"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon stopped rolling. Its massive head turned slowly, its eyes burning with destructive lightning looking toward the mountain it had punched through, as if confirming whether the ant had died. In its perception, that loathsome aura had become weak to the extreme, like a flickering candle in the wind that could be extinguished at any moment.
However, in the next second.
In the darkness deep within that snowy peak, a tiny, pure white speck of light ignited.
It was a drop of blood.
A drop of crystal-clear blood that had splashed from Lu Jingming's body during the impact. At this moment, this drop of blood radiated an incomparably holy and boundless aura of life.
A flash of light, and countless thin white threads composed of pure life energy burst forth from this blood. They moved in a manner that transcended the laws of matter, weaving and darting through the void at high speed. First, they outlined a complete and complex nervous system, then bones as white as jade, followed by fresh red muscles full of explosive power, and finally, smooth, unblemished skin...
In less than a second.
A perfectly intact Lu Jingming was re-woven within the darkness.
He flexed his newborn limbs, feeling the power within his body that was even fuller and more fervent than before. A satisfied smile appeared on his face.
"As expected of the power of destruction. That hit really packed a punch."
He took a step forward, his figure vanishing instantly from the interior of the mountain. When he reappeared, he was outside the snowy peak, hovering in mid-air once more, facing the destruction dragon from afar.
Within the instincts of the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, for the first time, an emotion called confusion appeared. It could not understand why the ant it had clearly mortally wounded could become perfectly intact in an instant—and with an aura even stronger than before?
But the instinct of destruction soon overrode that confusion. It only knew that the enemy before it was not yet dead.
Then, kill him again.
"AWOOO—!!!"
The Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon took a deep breath. The air across the entire plateau seemed to be sucked dry at this very moment.