High in the sky over Donghong.

Vast, surging silver-white dragon qi had gathered into clouds, blotting out the sky as it spilled toward the other three Hongs.

It was the upheaval of a Dragon Lair that had lost its guardian.

It should have been an event to shake all four Hongs, yet right now no one had the heart to pay it any mind.

“Hhhh——”

A giant ape of terrifying size stood hunched over, breathing hard, its long arms plunged into the water, throttling the neck of a ferocious beast.

“This Exalted One said let go!”

In the heavens, a huge black dragon burst out of the clouds and, beside itself with rage, brought its tail sweeping down.

The gap between their realms was the gap between cloud and mud.

Yet facing that whistling dragon tail, a savage, mocking grin spread across the giant ape's face. It bore down once more and at last snapped the beast's neck, then turned its eyes aside to look.

It was an ugly ape's face covered in scars. It stared straight at the black dragon with not a shred of fear in its eyes, only an indifference to death.

In that instant came a violent boom.

The huge ape body, its feet in the surging green waves and its head among the white clouds of the sky, was split apart by the dragon's tail with ease. It shattered into boulders that filled the sky and came down like rain, to be swallowed by the churning water.

The black dragon took human form. It was Qi Tianchuan, who led the army in the North Dragon King's place.

He stood there, face blank, and said nothing for a long time.

His strength fell short of his elder brother Qi Tianya's, so he had not become Dragon King of Beihong, but he was still a dragon at Heaven Realm Perfection, and widely experienced. Only days ago he had even taken part in something as appalling as capturing a merit immortal.

His composure went without saying.

But right now, that ape demon's last look still kept surfacing in…