NABC Chapter 53 Assault
Chapter 53 Assault
The one-eyed cultivator sneered, stuffed the spirit stone into his pocket, and sat back down by the fire to tear into the beast meat.
"Who cares? There are plenty of rich young masters who are tired of living these days."
"Does he think that just because his family has some trump cards to protect him, he can roam freely in the mountains?"
"Just wait, in less than half a day, he will become a new dried corpse on the Corpse Burning Ridge. Then we can go and collect his body, and maybe we can even make a fortune."
……
For the current Wangdao, the 300-mile journey is merely a warm-up.
As they ventured deeper, the surrounding environment began to change dramatically.
The lush, towering ancient trees gradually thinned out, replaced by large swaths of withered, yellowed, and charred shrubs. The ground beneath our feet became scorching hot, and the soil took on a dark red hue.
The moisture in the air has evaporated completely, and every breath you take carries the smell of sulfur and fire poison. If an ordinary person were here, they would probably die from internal organ burns in no time.
Ahead, a valley shrouded in dark red smoke appeared and disappeared. The space there was slightly distorted due to the extreme heat, and waves of heat crashed over the area, making Wang Dao's black hair dance wildly.
"Burning Corpse Ridge, indeed a good place."
As Wang Dao sensed the restless fire energy in the air, his eyes beneath the mask shone with an alarming brightness.
He could feel the blood in his body beginning to flow faster under the stimulation of the high temperature, like a sleeping dragon smelling the smoke of war.
Without the slightest hesitation, he took a step forward, his figure like an arrow released from a bow, directly rushing into the heat wave that could melt gold and iron.
In the distorted void of heat, Wang Dao's figure had just disappeared, and on the scorched earth that was originally deserted, the air rippled strangely like water.
A man dressed in tight-fitting black night clothes suddenly appeared, as if he had always blended into the shadows.
A cold, silver mask concealed his face, leaving only his eyes exposed. In his hand, he held a longsword that still exuded a chilling aura despite the high temperature. The tip of the sword lightly touched the ground, leaving no mark.
"The seventh son of the Prince of Zhenbei..."
The man in black muttered something under his breath, a chilling, eerie laugh escaping from deep within his throat:
"Those old guys at the Hall of Rebirth are greedy, but the price they offer is indeed tempting."
"The thought of hunting down a powerful figure with royal blood, just imagining the feeling of hot blood spraying onto your hands, is enough to make your blood boil."
Before he finished speaking, he transformed into a black streak of light, instantly tearing through the heatwave and shooting off in the direction Wang Dao had gone.
……
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, at the Zhenbei Prince's Mansion.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the magnificent glazed tiles of the Prince's Mansion, but could not penetrate the deep, sea-like courtyard.
Princess Zheng Wanqing was sitting by the window, holding a warm jade cup in her hand. The tea had long since gone cold, but she was completely unaware of it.
She wore a bright red peony and golden phoenix robe, and her usually elegant and noble face was now etched with a deep and unyielding sorrow.
"Your Highness, you've been sitting here all afternoon."
The old nanny beside her tiptoed up, wanting to get her a fresh cup of hot tea.
Zheng Wanqing waved her hand, but her gaze remained fixed on that direction—the direction of the Ten Thousand Mountains.
"I don't know why, but I'm having trouble calming down today." Zheng Wanqing frowned slightly and sighed softly, "Although Dao'er seems unruly on the surface, I know he's proud and arrogant."
"Those Hundred Thousand Mountains are such a dangerous place. Even the prince himself had a near-death experience when he went in. How could he possibly survive alone..."
She paused here, a complex look flashing in her eyes.
……
Turning our attention back to the Ten Thousand Mountains, to the core area of the Corpse Burning Ridge, this is a true hell on earth.
The earth cracked open, and within countless fissures tens of feet wide, dark red magma roared and churned like angry dragons, occasionally bursting into huge fire bubbles. The splashed magma was enough to instantly turn fine steel into molten iron.
Wang Dao stood solemnly atop a massive obsidian rock protruding from the center of a river of lava.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
A deep, powerful heartbeat emanated from his chest, like the beating of a war drum, overpowering the roar of the surrounding churning lava.
The dormant, powerful energy within him began to surge wildly, emitting a terrifying roar like a great river bursting its banks.
Wang Dao sat cross-legged, formed hand seals, and assumed an ancient and domineering boxing stance—the "Burning Heaven Crimson Emperor Fist".
"Boom!"
The fiery energy from within a radius of several miles converged wildly on him, forming a huge funnel of flames that poured into the top of his head.
Wang Dao's body instantly transformed into a bottomless furnace, greedily devouring this violent energy.
And in a dark crevice dozens of miles away.
The silver-masked man in black who had been tracking them was now pressed tightly against the scorching rock wall, holding his breath and suppressing his heartbeat to the extreme.
His grip on the sword tightened involuntarily.
Through the layers of heat waves, he gazed at the figure in the distance bathed in lava and fire rain. The contempt that had been in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a deep sense of apprehension.
"Is this the Dragon Spine Realm?"
The man in black roared inwardly, a fine layer of cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"Who provided this intelligence? This isn't a lamb to the slaughter; it's clearly an ancient beast awakening!"
Even from hundreds of meters away, the aura emanating from Wang Dao was scorching, domineering, and destructive. It seemed that anyone who got close would be swallowed whole by that monster, leaving not even a bone fragment.
"Those useless accountants from the Rebirth Hall almost got me killed!"
The man in black took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urge to turn and run away.
As a top assassin, he understood the principle that fortune favors the bold.
"His body must be under tremendous strain from consuming the earth's fire so frantically."
"He's gambling, gambling that he can survive that violent energy."
"And I only need to wait for the moment he loses his gamble, or..." A ruthless glint flashed in the man's eyes, "...wait until he breaks through to the most crucial point, and then deliver the fatal blow!"
He suppressed his killing intent, as if he had completely turned into a lifeless stone, his gaze fixed on the figure in the distance that was frantically devouring the earth fire.
Half a day is but a fleeting moment for a cultivator.
At the core of Burning Corpse Ridge, the enormous funnel of flames that had poured into Wang Dao's body gradually dissipated.
As the subterranean fire receded and the lava subsided, Wang Dao's figure reappeared atop the giant rock.
His upper body has well-defined, powerful muscles that flow smoothly. Every inch of his skin has a faint, dark golden sheen, and beneath his skin, there seem to be divine patterns that move, echoing the rhythm of the dragon on his spine.
The ghost mask had long since turned to ashes in the terrifying heat, revealing a face with distinct features, slightly childlike, but with its eyes tightly closed.
He sat quietly cross-legged, the originally violent earth fire power within his body now as docile as a lamb, perfectly blending with his own domineering blood and qi, flowing slowly along the cultivation path of the "Burning Heaven Crimson Emperor Fist".
[Ding! The cultivation progress of "Burning Heaven Crimson Emperor Fist" has reached its peak, advancing to the final stage of Lesser Completion!]
[Source point +3]
"This is the ultimate form of the Burning Heaven Crimson Emperor Fist..."
Wang Dao felt a surge of inspiration, as if an ancient emperor wearing a crown and a robe of fiery clouds was practicing martial arts in his spiritual world, each move containing the supreme truth of burning mountains and boiling seas.
Meanwhile, in the shadowy crevice hundreds of feet away, the black-clad man, who had been lying dormant like a withered tree for half a day, suddenly gleamed with light in his eyes.
"Now!"
Just as the old strength has been exhausted and the new strength has not yet arisen, the mind shifts from extreme stillness to relaxation.
The man in black seemed to have traversed the distance of space directly. A jet-black sword light, like a poisonous thorn growing from nothingness, appeared silently three inches from the back of Wang Dao's neck.
This was a fatal blow, a blow that would cost the man in black his entire career.
However, just as the sword tip was about to pierce the skin...