The SSSSSSSS-level Mad Dragon is released from prison!

The sound of bellows-like breathing echoed within the underground palace.

Each sound was like an invisible hammer, striking Xiao Ruoye and Shen Suxin's hearts.

"Jiang Chen, that thing... is coming."

Xiao Ruoye clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

She had just entered the Grandmaster realm, but in the face of that will, she felt like an ant that could be crushed at any moment.

Jiang Chen's gaze remained fixed on the blood-stained battle report.

"Father... Mother..."

He murmured the two familiar yet unfamiliar titles.

So it wasn't betrayal after all.

It is a matter of entrusting one's orphanage.

It turns out that the so-called crime was just to protect him.

A burning, indescribable emotion surged in his chest.

"I see."

A wisp of dark golden flame ignited at Jiang Chen's fingertip, burning the battle report to ashes.

Boom!

The ground suddenly exploded in the direction of the Jun family ancestral hall.

A gaunt figure broke through the ground and slowly rose into the air.

It was a mummified corpse dressed in ancient burial clothes.

The skin clung tightly to the bone, the eye sockets were deep-set, with only two eerie green will-o'-the-wisps flickering within them.

He exuded an aura of death that could wither even the grass and trees.

"Where are your descendants...?"

The mummified corpse's mouth opened and closed, making a sound like two rusty iron plates rubbing together.

Inside the underground palace, the few surviving members of the Jun family, as if they had seen a savior, scrambled down to their knees.

"Ancestor! Ancestor! The Jun family has suffered a great calamity! The patriarch and the young master... both have been brutally murdered by this man!"

One of them pointed at Jiang Chen and cried out in tears.

The dried corpse, known as the "Ancestor," slowly turned its two ghostly, fire-like eyes toward Jiang Chen.

He only glanced at it.

The bodies of those Jun family assassins who were kneeling and wailing visibly withered away.

Their vitality was instantly drained, turning them into several dried corpses that were no different from their ancestor.

"The bloodline of Junlintian..."

The old ancestor's voice was filled with a deep-seated resentment.

"Twenty years have passed, and you bastard have finally returned."

Jiang Chen raised his head and met the eyes burning with ghostly flames.

An ugly smile appeared on Jun Shanhe's withered face.

"You bastard, you have destroyed the century-old foundation of my Jun family and killed my descendants. Do you know your crime?"

Jiang Chen smiled.

He walked out of the deep pit step by step.

"crime?"

"You family parasites who stole my father's legacy, imprisoned my mother, and robbed me of my destiny, do you even dare to talk to me about your crimes?"

With each step he took, his aura grew stronger.

The ground beneath his feet, where the withered weeds had turned green again under his burgeoning vitality.

The auras of life and death formed a stark contrast within the underground palace.

"presumptuous!"

Junshanhe roared angrily.

He raised his withered claw and made a loose grasping motion towards Jiang Chen.

Within the underground palace, and even beneath the entire Jun family mansion, the Yin energy and deathly aura that had accumulated for hundreds of years were instantly activated.

Black mist surged in from all directions, coalescing into a gigantic, bone-based ghostly claw that slashed down at Jiang Chen's head.

"Master, be careful!"

Jun Yao's purple-gold eyes reflected the enormous bone claw, issuing a warning.

Jiang Chen didn't even glance at it.

He simply blew a breath gently towards the top of his head.

Roar!

A high-pitched dragon roar resounded throughout the heavens and earth.

A solid, dark golden dragon shadow shot into the sky from his body.

The dragon's shadow was no longer an illusion.

Dragon scales, dragon claws, dragon whiskers—every detail is vividly depicted.

It opened its huge mouth and swallowed the white bone ghost claw whole, even letting out a burp.

"Golden Core..."

The will-o'-the-wisp in Junshanhe's eyes flickered violently.

"You actually... condensed a Golden Core!"

"So what if you've condensed your Golden Core? I've immersed myself in this path for a hundred years; how could a mere child like you compare?"

His figure blurred, soared into the sky, crashed through the dome of the underground palace, and hovered in the night sky above the capital.

"Come up here and prepare to die!"

The cold voice echoed for miles around.

Countless martial arts experts who were spying on this place felt a sharp pain in their souls upon hearing this voice, and they all spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Brother Jiang..."

Shen Suxin looked at Jiang Chen with concern.

"You stay here and wait for me to come back."

Jiang Chen left a sentence and lightly tapped the ground with his toes.

His body transformed into a golden streak of light, chasing after Jun Shanhe, and also hovering in mid-air.

The night in the capital was completely disrupted.

Countless people were awakened from their sleep, staring in horror at the two figures confronting each other in the sky.

One of them, surrounded by a dense aura of death, looked like a demon god crawling out of hell.

One of them radiated a dark golden light, like a rising sun.

"What...what is that?"

"A fight between gods?"

Countless ordinary citizens knelt on the ground, trembling.

Those from martial arts families, on the other hand, all looked ashen-faced.

They knew this wasn't a god.

This is a legendary realm that transcends even the grandmaster level and all martial arts knowledge beyond the realm of the great masters.

"The Jun family... is finished."

At the Song family mansion, Song Yuzhi stood on the terrace, looking at the scene in the sky, and softly uttered these four words.

The old man beside her had already been forced to his knees by that oppressive aura.

In the sky.

Jun Shanhe formed a hand seal, and the black energy behind him condensed into an enormous skull composed of countless agonizing, wailing faces.

"With the century-old resentment of your family, I have condensed this 'Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.' Today, I will annihilate your soul and spirit!"

The enormous skull opened its massive jaws and lunged at Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen's face remained calm and expressionless.

"A trivial skill."

He raised his right hand.

The dark golden dragon shadow coiled behind him roared, transformed into a stream of light, and merged into his right arm.

Jiang Chen's entire right arm was instantly covered with fine, almost tangible, golden dragon scales.

The five fingers came together, transforming into a ferocious dragon claw.

It slammed its claw down on the giant skull.

There were no earth-shattering explosions.

That golden dragon claw was like popping a bubble.

With ease, it crushed the skull composed of countless vengeful spirits into dust.

The black mist that filled the sky was quickly purified and evaporated by the pure masculine energy on the dragon's claw.

"puff!"

Junshanhe was severely injured and spat out a mouthful of black blood.

The will-o'-the-wisp in his eyes dimmed.

"Impossible... Why is your golden core so solid!"

He didn't understand.

Why is the foundation of this young upstart who has just broken through more solid than that of this old monster who has cultivated for a hundred years?

"Because you're building a dead end."

Jiang Chen's voice rang in his ears.

Jun Shanhe's pupils contracted, and he was horrified to find that Jiang Chen had appeared in front of him at some point.

The two were no more than three feet apart.

"And I am destiny itself."

Jiang Chen's right hand, still in the shape of a dragon claw, gently pressed down on Jun Shanhe's crown.

"Soul Search".

Those two words are like a judgment from the deepest hell.

"ah--"

Junshan River let out a scream that sounded inhuman.

His memories, everything about him, were forcibly torn open and examined by a savage and domineering force.

Scenes flashed through Jiang Chen's mind.

twenty years ago.

Luo Qingluan, the Holy Maiden of Tianji Island, was surrounded and attacked by dozens of men in black while holding him, who was still in swaddling clothes.

Jun Lintian fought a bloody battle, carving out a bloody path through the enemy lines.

Jun Shanhe, the patriarch of the Jun family who should have been their strongest support, stabbed Jun Lintian in the back at the last moment.

"Brother, for the sake of the Jun family's bloodline, and for my own breakthrough to the Divine Realm, I have no choice but to ask you to make this sacrifice!"

"Your son has a good destiny; he'll be perfect as a tonic for Aoshi!"

"Luo Qingluan... Holy Maiden of Tianji Island, once I reach the Divine Realm, I will go to Tianji Island to welcome you back!"

The cold, malicious words still echoed.

The image is shattered.

The calm in Jiang Chen's eyes was finally replaced by an overwhelming killing intent.

The dragon claw that he pressed on Junshanhe's head suddenly tightened its grip.

"Click."

Junshanhe's skull was crushed in response.

His soul had already been reduced to its purest fragments by Jiang Chen's soul-searching technique.

The withered body, having lost its last support, plummeted toward the ground.

Jiang Chen reached out and beckoned.

An invisible force pulled the corpse back.

He bit his fingertip and, using the blood of a true dragon as a guide, drew an incredibly complex golden rune on the corpse's brow.

"In my name, I grant you new life."

"From this day forward, you will be my first puppet until your soul completely dissipates."

Golden runes disappeared into the corpse's brow.

The dim will-o'-the-wisps on Junshan River rekindled.

This time, however, there was no emotion in it.

Only absolute, cold, obedience.

He knelt down on one knee and lowered his head in front of Jiang Chen.

After Jiang Chen finished doing all this, he withdrew his hand.

He looked up at the deep, starless night sky.

His gaze seemed to pierce through the endless void.

"Tianji Island..."