Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

After the three massive cracks appeared on the round black platform, the light from the entire magical formation suddenly flashed as the drumbeat-like booms reached a crescendo, beating faster and louder.

“BOOM!” “BOOM!” “BOOM!” “BOOM!”

Like a series of unabated thunderclaps, capped off with one final “BOOM!” the entire round black platform exploded into fragments. Naturally, the magical formation atop of it disintegrated as well. Suddenly, one patterned crack in the air itself after another began to appear, clear and visible to the eye, spreading out in all directions.

……

While the flying dragons of the Foggy Valley were still busy wondering about that man-shaped aberration, they suddenly felt the ground itself tremble. All of the giant dragons were startled, and immediately spread their wings and took to the air. Just a few moments later…

“BOOOOOM!”

The ground for kilometers around suddenly exploded. That entire hill which had sealed off to the underground tunnel was reduced to smithereens.

“Growl…” A deep roar emanated from underground.

Where the round black platform had been, space itself was suddenly ripped apart like a piece of paper, revealing a gaping hole of nothingness. And from within that hole, stepped forth a handsome, devilish looking young man, wearing a long, dark gold robe and carrying three little kittens in his arms.

At this moment, the young man looked to be in quite bad shape, and his face was covered with blood.

“Whoosh!”

That gaping hole in reality suddenly vanished. The space nearby, however, was still very unstable, and wild bolts of energy would occasionally appear and disappear.

“I…have finally escaped.” The young man stared at the unstable space, a look of wild joy on his face.

“Haha…how many years, now? I’ve finally escaped that damnable place.” Right in the middle of the young man’s forehead, there was a slit that appeared almost like a knife wound. Suddenly, that ‘scar’ opened, revealing a gold-colored third eye.

This golden eye radiated light in every which way.

“This is….this is actually the Yulan continent?” The devilish young man began to laugh in amazement and joy. “This is just wonderful.”

“Father, I’m hungry.” One of the little kittens in the young man’s arms suddenly said.

“I’m hungry too.”

The other two kittens also echoed.

Kittens that could speak?

Could they actually be Saint-level magical beasts?

“Alright. Haha, there’s around a hundred or so little dragons flying up ahead. You guys can go and have a good meal.” The devilish young man laughed loudly.

“Oooo!”

Those three little kittens began meowing in excitement. Suddenly, they transformed into three bolts of lightning and streaked into the sky. As they flew, their bodies suddenly expanded as well, growing larger and larger…smiling, the devilish young man took a single step, and appeared in the middle of the Foggy Valley.

…..

Within the Foggy Valley, over a hundred giant dragons were circling in the air. They had no idea as to what caused the earth to explode just then.

“What’s that?”

They saw three huge blurs streak into the air above the Foggy Valley. Each of the three creatures were over thirty meters tall and a hundred meters long. They looked like lions, only magnified by several dozen times. But these creatures were not, in fact, lions, because these three creatures each had a pair of enormous wings, and also had six eyes each.

Six eyes, two wings. Physically as large as one of those legendary Behemoth creatures.

But even Behemoths were not as terrifying as these three creatures.

“RAWR!” Those three strange creatures opened their bloody maws wide and let out a mighty roar. Instantly, their mouths seemed to have turned into a vortex, generating an astonishing pulling force towards the flying dragons.

These hundred-plus dragons wanted to flee in terror, but this sucking force was simply far too strong. The strangest thing was, the pull seemed to only affect them, and didn’t disturb any of the rocks on the cliffs near them in the slightest.

“Roaaaar!”

Those hundred-plus dragons began to bellow in fear and rage, but in the face of that terrifying attractive force, they were helplessly sucked away. One giant dragon after another fell into the gaping maws of those six-eyed monsters.

The thing which scared the dragons the most was…

The bellies of these monsters seemed to have unlimited capacity. Although the dragons were slightly smaller in size than these monsters, one should be more than enough to fill the stomachs of these monsters. But as soon as one dragon was sucked into a monster’s belly, the monster would began sucking in another.

One dragon….another dragon…

The pulling force from the maws of those three monsters was simply too terrifying. The eight-ranked dragons were totally unable to resist it. One dragon after another was sucked into the bellies of those six-eyed aberrations. In a short period of time, every single one of them had been devoured by these three monsters.

“That was great!” One of the aberrations laughed loudly. “It’s been so many years since I’ve had a proper meal.”

“I thought I was going to die in that damnable place and never come out again. Unfortunately…number four and number five…” Another one of the aberrations said with a low sigh.

All three of the aberrations fell silent.

They thought back to the thousands of years they had spent in that damnable place. They couldn’t help but feel their hearts grow cold. No future. No hope. They could’ve died at any time. If it hadn’t been for their father, the three of them most likely would’ve been killed long ago. But even despite the efforts of their father, their fourth brother and fifth brother, the weakest of the five, had both died.

“Father’s coming.”

The three aberrations watched as that devilish young man walked towards them in midair. Their bodies shrinking, they once again transformed into three ordinary little kittens. The only thing was, their fur was now rainbow-colored and beautiful to behold. Their two little wings were also much more beautiful than the wings of the dragons.

But those three sets of eyes still would shock anyone who saw them.

“Father.” Those three aberrations excitedly flew to their father’s side. By now, there was no longer a hint of blood on the devilish young man’s face, and the dust on the dark golden robe he was wearing had all disappeared as well. A smile was still on his face.

“Did you have a good meal?” The devilish young man laughed. “Oh, and there’s two more magical beasts of the eighth rank here as well.”

The devilish young man looked towards the west side of the Foggy Valley, while at the same time, a burst of quad-colored energy radiated west. In a short time, the burst of energy had wrapped around those two giant Velocidragons, and pulled them over in mid-air.

Those two Velocidragons seemed to know that the end was nigh. All they did was moan in a low voice, begging for mercy.

They were Velocidragons. Although they were also magical creatures of the eighth rank, like Emerald Dragons and Fire Dragons, due to the fact that they were different races of dragons and also did not fly, they usually stayed far away from the Emerald and Fire Dragons.

When those three aberrations had been happily devouring the flying dragons, they hadn’t paid any attention to those two far-away Velocidragons.

“Over a hundred flying dragons were just devoured.” The hearts of the two Velocidragons were trembling.

Their opponent was far too strong, and those three kittens, now at a ‘normal’ size, could even talk.

“You wanted to flee?” That devilish young man smiled at the two Velocidragons.

The two Velocidragons were physically huge. That devilish young man was just a tiny speck by their side. And yet, the hearts of the two Velocidragons were quailing, and they were panting hoarsely nonstop. In the language of the dragons, they said, “Lord, we wouldn’t dare, we wouldn’t dare.”

The devilish young man seemed to understand the draconic tongue. Smiling, he nodded. “Very good. I’ve just arrived in this plane, and I’m in a very good mood. I’ll spare you two. You two…shall serve me now.”

The energy chains around the two Velocidragons disappeared, causing the two of them to land heavily on the ground. Upon smashing into the ground, they traded glances, then immediately prostrated themselves flat on the ground, their heads lowered in a sign of obedience.

Dragons were extremely arrogant creatures, but in the face of such overwhelming power, they had no choice but to submit.

Facing this devilish young man, these two Velocidragons strongly suspected that they could be killed with a single wave of his pinky.

“The Yulan continent.” The devilish young man surveyed his surroundings, his face all smiles. “What a wonderful place. I trust that I won’t be as unfortunate as I was, five thousand years ago.”

……….

Within the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

Having returned to his human form, Linley was only wearing a pair of slacks and an undergarment. This was the beginning of February, when the temperature was extremely low. But Linley was only carefully inspecting the violet sword.

Right now, Linley had no idea what a huge calamity he had unleashed upon the world by pulling out this violet longsword!

The ignorant knew no fear!

But while Doehring Cowart did have some idea as to what would happen, to Doehring Cowart, no matter how great the disaster might be, it wouldn’t have too much impact on Linley. After all, even if the heavens collapsed, the ultimate experts of the Yulan continent would be able to stave off calamity. What was there to fear?

Only an idiot would see a treasure there for the taking and not take it.

“Grandpa Doehring, what do you think these two words here mean?” Linley asked Doehring Cowart.

On the hilt of this violet longsword, there were two angular characters, written with many complicated strokes.

“This…” Doehring Cowart’s eyes lit up upon seeing these two words. “These words are from the common tongue used in the Infernal Realm. Years ago, shortly after I became a Saint-level magus, I studied this tongue. These two words should be ‘blood’ and ‘violet’, respectively.”

“Blood Violet?” Linley murmured quietly. “Can it be that the name of this longsword is Bloodviolet?”

Linley carefully inspected this flexible sword, Bloodviolet. Bloodviolet was as thin as a cicada’s wings. Precisely because it was so incredibly thin, even though it was made from special materials, it was quite light, perhaps only five pounds or so. To Linley, a five pound sword was absolutely nothing at all.

As he channeled the Dragonblood battle-qi from his body into the sword, Bloodviolet instantly became hard and straight.

With a wave of the hand…

“Swish!” The whisper-thin Bloodviolet very easily sliced through a huge tree with a trunk which would require three men holding hands to surround. Despite being cut through, the tree didn’t budge at all. But Linley knew very well that in reality, the tree had been cut into two halves.

But Bloodviolet was too fast, too sharp, which was why the tree didn’t move at all.

With a mighty leap, Linley flew into the air, and then kicked at one of the branches of the tree in mid-air. Immediately, the tree began to tremble. After smashing several large branches, the entire tree slowly slid and fell to the ground.

Linley took a glance at the place where Bloodviolet had made its cut. “How smooth.” The cut area didn’t have any coarseness or any splinters.

“That sword is awesome.” Munching on a roast duck he was carrying, Bebe stared with wide eyes.

Linley chuckled, then turned to stare at the flexible sword, Bloodviolet. In his mind, he said, “With such an agile, sharp weapon, even if I encounter a thousand or ten thousand foes, I won’t fear them.” Linley immediately began to brandish the flexible sword about.

With incredible agility, Linley danced amidst the forest, easily waving Bloodviolet to and fro amongst the trees.

Sharp! Fast!

As thin as an insect’s wings! This caused Bloodviolet to be virtually unimpeded by air resistance, allowing its speed to reach terrifying heights. And its lightness allowed Linley to transform even more of his physical strength into a fast swing speed.

“Linley, although this flexible sword, Bloodviolet, is quite sharp, its sharpness isn’t all that shocking.” Doehring Cowart’s appraising skills were much better than Linley’s. At one glance, he could tell what the true strength of this Bloodviolet sword was.

Linley couldn’t help but stare suspiciously at Doehring Cowart.

Doehring Cowart laughed. “If you just want to use this Bloodviolet sword to chop down an ordinary tree, then of course it would be unstoppable. But in facing an expert opponent, such as a warrior of the seventh rank using a shield infused with battle-qi, I’m afraid you wouldn’t be able to cut through it so easily.”

Linley was startled.

“The true value of this Bloodviolet longsword lies in two different areas. The first is that it can be either firm or flexible, and thus it would be extremely hard for an opponent to defend or protect against it in battle. And the second is….its durability! Most weapons aren’t able to withstand too much battle-qi, as they would crumble. But this precious sword of yours will not.” Doehring Cowart explained.

Linley nodded slightly.

A sword that was very sharp and very hard probably would also be fragile and unable to take too much force. This Bloodviolet flexible sword was very sharp, but not ridiculously so. Its true strength lay in it being both flexible and firm, while possessing astonishing speed and innate durability.

“Speed? Flexibility?”

Linley’s heart was moved. He no longer channeled his Dragonblood battle-qi into the sword, and instead began to channel his wind-element mageforce into it.

At the same time, he began to brandish the sword about. After having been filled with wind-style mageforce, the already fast Bloodviolet sword was able to reach an even higher level, while also the trajectory of its movement became erratic and unpredictable. The sword was sometimes straight, sometimes curved, causing one to not know how to handle it.

Linley instantly understood.

“For me right now, this is perhaps the most suitable way to utilize this flexible sword, Bloodviolet!”