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The moment Riku left, the Black Dragon and White Dragon nearly simultaneously unleashed their breath attacks.
In an instant, the black and white dragon breaths tore through space, colliding fiercely.
At this point, both dragons were giving it their all.
The white and black breaths twisted and slammed together, their friction and impact creating a black energy orb crackling with black lightning.
The power inside that black orb was terrifying, like it could destroy everything.
The shockwave caused the ground within millions of meters to tremble, cracks appearing everywhere. The closer you got, the worse it was.
Within 100,000 meters, it was like a magnitude ten earthquake had struck — the earth collapsed crazily, forming bottomless chasms. Mountains crumbled, boulders rolled endlessly — the crust seemed unable to bear the pressure! Even the surrounding space showed tiny cracks.
As the black energy orb reached its limit, it exploded violently. The terrifying blast engulfed everything nearby, the world churning as the destructive energy surged outward, smashing everything in its path.
The White Dragon and Black Dragon vanished into the eye of the storm — their fates unknown.
Riku, tens of thousands of meters away, didn't hesitate to activate the Sixth Gate, the "View Gate," punching out thousands of blows to hold back the shockwave.
Still, the energy leaked out.
At the crucial moment, Zhu Bi acted, forming a protective barrier that finally blocked the leaking aftershocks — but that also revealed her presence to K'er and the other humans.
Everyone was scared stiff, staring at Zhu Bi in awe and fear. Only Korone stayed calm, realizing Zhu Bi meant no harm to humans — she was protecting them.
"Um…" Korone suddenly thought of Riku's image and decided to greet Zhu Bi.
On the other side, after the energy flood died down, Riku finally exhaled, breathing hard as he silently stared at the bottomless, abyss-like scene ahead.
This was a fight between upper-tier species — a total world-ending scale battle. Lower-tier species faced nothing but slaughter when facing such opponents.
"Hopefully they both got hurt badly... and at least one corpse remains," Riku's eyes flickered as he moved toward the battlefield's center.
The scene became clearer — in midair, two mangled dragons slowly fell.
The White Dragon still showed the majesty from before, though many scales were blasted off. The Black Dragon Demon King was even worse — covered in blood, with a chunk missing from its head.
Yet despite the explosion, both dragons were still alive, barely clinging to life.
Riku's lips curved up a little. Was fate smiling on him? He'd hoped for both to be seriously hurt, but this was even better than he expected.
"So... who to finish off first?" Riku squinted, focusing on the White Dragon. The Dragon Essence's healing ability was ridiculously overpowered, so it made sense to take that one out first before it recovered to full strength.
But a vague feeling warned Riku of danger.
He always trusted his gut. After a moment's thought, he didn't get greedy and instead targeted the Black Dragon.
"Seventh Gate, Shock Gate — Open!" Deciding quickly, Riku didn't hesitate but activated the Seventh Gate. Blue flames engulfed his body as he tore through the air, his movement too fast to see even a blur.
In a flash, Riku was in front of the Black Dragon's huge head, throwing a punch.
"Bang—!"
"Pft—!"
That single punch, with zero mercy, exploded the Black Dragon's skull. The Black Dragon was dead for good.
The huge pupil of the Black Dragon looked at Riku with bitter resentment and hatred. Dying to a Dragon Essence he could accept — but to have a human steal the kill? Unforgivable.
"System, recycle!" Riku said without hesitation.
"Understood. Recycling Black Dragon Demon King. Value: 50,000 redemption points."
Ding — Recycling successful.
"This time I really got a bargain."Hearing the system's prompt in his mind, Riku's lips curled up into a satisfied smirk.
"Who the hell is this unknown guy, snatching my loot like that? Isn't that a bit too arrogant?"A deep, dull voice sounded, making Riku glance over.
On the other side, the once badly injured White Dragon was now completely healed, staring fixedly at Riku with cold, indifferent eyes.
"So, you were faking it just now, huh? If I had gotten close to you casually, I guess I'd be dead or crippled by now."Riku squinted slightly, answering without really answering.
"Heh, do you really think I wouldn't be on guard after noticing someone spying on my fight? I'm surprised you figured it out. But honestly, I wasn't faking on purpose — with injuries that bad, even I almost died. It just took me a bit longer to recover."The White Dragon, Zhuyue, explained with surprise.
"....."