Yang Feng staggered as he emerged from the ragged plains, gasping for air. His breaths came shallow and ragged, his chest heaving as the metallic taste of blood lingered on his tongue. His once pristine robes were torn and stained with dirt and blood, and his body, now battered and bruised, screamed in protest with every movement. He ran a hand across his mouth, wiping away the streak of blood that trailed from the corner of his lips. His fingers trembled, but still, he managed a faint smile—a smile tinged with exhaustion, but also with determination.
He had survived.
The air around him still crackled with residual energy, the aftermath of his desperate battle with the Earth Azure Dragon—the mighty Di Lóng. The colossal beast was still visible in the distance, its enormous serpentine form coiling around the broken landscape. Its scales shimmered under the pale light, gleaming like molten iron as they caught the remnants of sunlight filtering through the clouds.
But something was wrong. Yang Feng's heart skipped a beat as he noticed the dragon's gaze.
The beast's ancient, reptilian eyes were fixed on him, seething with an unrelenting fury. Those cold, slitted eyes burned with a light so intense that it made Yang Feng's blood run cold. For the briefest moment, he had thought that the battle was over—that he had gained the upper hand—but now, standing before the enraged Di Lóng, he realized that he had only scratched the surface of its true power.
Yang Feng's body instinctively tensed as he took in the sight before him.
The dragon's eyes—those unnatural, snake-like double pupils—glowed brighter than before, the light within them pulsating as if they were alive, driven by some ancient force. Brown lightning crackled around the Di Lóng, wrapping around its massive form in a terrifying display of raw power. But this lightning—it was different. Yang Feng's sharp gaze quickly registered the difference in the energy surrounding the dragon.
"This isn't ordinary lightning…" Yang Feng muttered under his breath, narrowing his eyes.
He knew lightning better than anyone. His own powers were rooted in the very essence of lightning, harnessed from the Qi of the Thunder God himself. But this… this was something far more potent, far more dangerous.
The lightning surging around the dragon's form wasn't the bright, electric blue he was familiar with. It was **Earth Qi Lightning**, a rare and destructive force born from the planet's natural energy. Unlike Yang Feng's positive lightning, which harmonized with the heavens, this lightning was infused with negative Qi, the destructive, chaotic energy of the earth. It carried the weight of centuries of natural forces, compressed into a devastating form that could unravel the very fabric of any living thing it touched.
Yang Feng could feel it—the overwhelming pressure of the dragon's power weighed down on him like an anvil, suffocating and crushing. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to move, to act, to do something—but it was already too late.
A low rumble echoed through the plains as the ground beneath Yang Feng's feet began to tremble violently. He staggered, fighting to maintain his balance, but before he could react, the Di Lóng's massive tail shot out from beneath the earth, striking with the speed of a viper.
The force of the blow hit Yang Feng squarely in the chest, the impact so powerful that it drove the breath from his lungs in a painful gasp. His vision blurred as his body was hurled through the air, helpless against the raw force of the dragon's attack. His chest throbbed with an excruciating pain, the bones groaning under the strain as blood poured from the deep wound left by the strike.
Yang Feng's thoughts raced as he tried to regain control, his mind clouded by the overwhelming pain and shock. "So fast…"
He barely had time to register the next attack.
In an instant, the dragon was upon him, its colossal form closing the distance with terrifying speed. Its eyes glowed even brighter, and without warning, the entire sky darkened as if the heavens themselves had been summoned to bear witness to its power.
Suddenly, a massive bolt of brown lightning—far greater than anything Yang Feng had ever seen—shot down from the sky, its descent accompanied by a deafening roar of thunder. The heavens split open, and the lightning crashed into Yang Feng with the force of a thousand storms.
His body convulsed violently as the lightning surged through him, tearing through his flesh and bones, ripping through his Qi channels like wildfire. Every nerve in his body screamed in agony as the raw energy ravaged him, pulsing through every fiber of his being, searing him from the inside out.
Yang Feng's pupils dilated, then disappeared altogether. His eyes turned a milky white as the lightning overwhelmed his senses, blinding him to everything but the unbearable pain. His entire body glowed red, the flesh burnt and twisted by the intense heat. The lightning ripped through him, leaving trails of scorched skin and charred muscle in its wake. His left hand, exposed to the full force of the strike, crumbled to ash before his eyes, disintegrating in a cloud of dust.
He could feel his life force draining away, his Qi unraveling as the lightning consumed him. His body, now nothing more than a vessel for the Earth Qi Lightning, acted as a conduit for the power of both the heavens and the earth. The energy that had once flowed through his veins was now being siphoned away, leaving him empty, hollow—hopeless.
For a moment, Yang Feng's world was nothing but darkness and pain. His mind was lost in a sea of suffering, his body no longer his own. He felt himself slipping away, fading into the void as the lightning continued to tear him apart.
The lightning bound him to the heavens, connecting him to the earth and sky as though he were nothing more than a conduit for the raw, untamed power of nature. His body spasmed uncontrollably as the lightning entered and exited him repeatedly, each time taking more of his energy, more of his strength.
Finally, the storm ceased.
Yang Feng's charred body plummeted from the sky, his clothes singed and burnt away, leaving little more than ash and rags. His skin was blackened, glowing faintly as though he were a piece of burning charcoal. His left hand had been entirely disintegrated, reduced to nothing but ash, and his face was twisted in pain, glowing with the deep red of freshly burned flesh. His body hit the ground with a heavy thud, motionless, lifeless. The great Yang Feng had fallen.
The Di Lóng reared back, letting out a triumphant roar that shook the entire battlefield. Its cry echoed through the mountains, through the plains, even down into the depths of the ancient underground tunnels where Xiao Mei continued her desperate search for the **Slumbering Liquid**.
---
Meanwhile underground.
Xiao Mei gasped as she finally reached the hidden chamber where the ancient elixir was stored. Her heart raced as she stepped inside, but the sight that greeted her filled her with dread. The ancient storage chamber had been completely destroyed. The shelves were in disarray, shattered vials and broken jars littered the floor, and the faint traces of the elixir's scent filled the air.
But the elixir itself—**the Slumbering Liquid**—was nowhere to be found.
"Where… where is it?!" Xiao Mei cried, her voice trembling with shock and fear. She dropped to her knees, her hands searching frantically through the rubble. But it was useless. The elixir was gone.
---
Back on the surface.
Yang Feng's motionless body lay in the crater where he had fallen, the charred earth still smoking around him. His once vibrant and powerful frame was now burnt, broken, and lifeless. But then, something strange happened.
From the stormy skies above, a new energy began to gather. This time, the lightning wasn't brown—it was a brilliant, blinding blue.
A massive bolt of blue lightning shot down from the heavens, striking the earth directly where Yang Feng lay. The impact was deafening, and the ground shook violently as the lightning surged into Yang Feng's body.
But this time, something was different.
Yang Feng's burnt skin began to heal, the scorched flesh mending as the blue lightning repaired the damage done by the dragon's negative energy. His charred arm reformed, the ashes swirling together as his hand was rebuilt, piece by piece, as if by the will of the lightning itself.
His eyes snapped open, now glowing with a deep, electric blue. The pain that had consumed him moments before was gone, replaced by a feeling of immense power—a power unlike anything he had ever felt before. The blue lightning coursed through him, filling him with energy, and for the first time, Yang Feng understood what had happened.
The Earth Qi Lightning had drained him of his positive Qi, but in doing so, it had created a perfect vessel for the positive lightning of the heavens to fill. The storm had responded to the dragon's negative energy with an even greater force—a force that had now become Yang Feng's own.
With newfound speed and strength, Yang Feng shot upward, propelled by the raw power of the lightning coursing through him. His body blurred as he moved faster than the air around him could keep up, leaving nothing but a faint crackle of energy in his wake. In an instant, he reappeared above the dragon's head, his right hand raised and crackling with blue lightning.
"I am not done yet!" Yang Feng roared, his voice filled with defiance.
With a swift motion, he extended two fingers and unleashed a torrent of blue lightning directly into the dragon's skull. The Di Lóng howled in agony as the lightning tore through its body, its massive form convulsing as its own Qi was drained, just as it had done to Yang Feng moments before.
The beast thrashed wildly, but Yang Feng didn't relent. His body pulsed with energy, his veins surging with the power of the heavens as he continued to unleash wave after wave of lightning into the dragon. The once invincible beast was now helpless, its mighty form crumbling under the relentless assault.
But Yang Feng could feel the strain. Even with the power of the blue lightning flowing through him, his body wasn't accustomed to such overwhelming force. His muscles burned with exertion, his Qi channels screaming in protest as they struggled to contain the sheer volume of energy coursing through them.
Still, he pushed forward.
He took a deep breath, gathering every ounce of strength he had left. With a final, desperate surge of power, he conjured a massive **lightning blade** in his right hand, the blade glowing with a brilliant electric blue that pulsed with raw energy.
In one swift, blinding motion, Yang Feng descended upon the dragon's head.
His blade sliced through the Di Lóng's skull with ease, cutting through the beast's flesh and bone like a hot knife through butter. The dragon let out one final, earth-shaking roar before its massive body collapsed, lifeless, to the ground.
Yang Feng stood over the fallen beast. As the storm above cleared, and the battlefield fell silent.