Chapter 158: Ten Thousand Dragons Across the Heavens

Ten Thousand Dragons Across the Heavens

But now?

Everything had collapsed.

Rafael Bluestone finally raised his eyes.

His cold voice cut through the argument.

"And yet, who has lost their granted character now?"

Silence.

Complete silence.

The entire assembly froze.

Those words were enough.

No explanation was necessary.

The Dawn Empire’s inheritance Heavenly Secret Realm had not yet closed.

Yet every participant from the Azure Sovereign Kingdom had already died.

The Empire Title War had ended before they could even withdraw.

The Azure Sovereign Kingdom had lost.

And only moments ago, the Dawn Empire had officially proclaimed to the heavens that the Azure Sovereign Kingdom’s granted character had been revoked.

The invisible fortune that had once surrounded the Azure Sovereign Kingdom had silently disappeared.

It was almost impossible to see.

Yet every powerful cultivator could feel it.

Something fundamental had been taken away.

The Azure Sovereign Kingdom had lost the protection of the Divine Kingdom that ruled the heavens.

The consequences would be enormous.

The other empires that had been suppressed by the Azure Sovereign Kingdom for countless years would not remain quiet forever.

They would smell weakness.

And once they did, they would attack.

The throne room became colder.

Everyone understood the same thing.

The root of all this was—

"The Salvatore Family!!"

A Stellar Sovereign expert ground the words out through clenched teeth.

His fists tightened so hard that his knuckles turned pale.

"We thought this would be a simple task. But never—never did we expect this!"

His voice was filled with venomous resentment.

The plan had been flawless.

At least, that was what they had believed.

They had never imagined that a single family could possess such terrifying depth.

They had never imagined that the Salvatore Family would have monsters capable of changing the entire balance of power.

A red-robed civil official stepped forward.

He lowered his head toward Rafael.

"Your Majesty, I suggest we spare no expense in destroying the Salvatore Family. If we complete the task, that great one will surely shelter us."

He paused.

Then his voice became firmer.

"Even without our granted character, the Azure Sovereign Kingdom can slowly rebuild!"

Several people immediately nodded.

It was desperate.

Perhaps even reckless.

But they had no better option.

If they simply waited, the Azure Sovereign Kingdom would slowly be surrounded by enemies.

Destroying the Salvatore Family was their only chance.

Rafael heard this.

For a moment, his eyes remained still.

Then he gave a slight nod.

His hand tightened around the golden-glowing rice paper resting beside his throne.

The paper crumpled slightly beneath his fingers.

He opened his mouth to speak—

But the heavens answered first.

ROOOAAAR!!

BOOM—RUMBLE!!!

A dragon’s cry shook the entire heavens.

The sound rolled across the Azure Sovereign Kingdom like a storm.

The palace trembled.

The golden pillars vibrated.

Several lamps hanging from the ceiling shattered from the sheer pressure.

Countless citizens of the Azure Sovereign Kingdom looked upward.

Above them, an enormous shadow was slowly spreading across the sky.

At first, it looked like a cloud.

Then the cloud moved.

BOOM—RUMBLE!

BOOM—

Every movement of that enormous shadow seemed to crush something between heaven and earth.

The night itself appeared to bend beneath its presence.

People stepped into the streets.

Children cried.

Ordinary citizens stared upward in confusion.

Cultivators were different.

They felt the pressure immediately.

Their instincts screamed at them to run.

It was as if some primordial beast of unimaginable terror was slowly crawling across the heavens.

Then the moon changed.

The pale moonlight vanished.

The moon itself turned crimson.

It looked like a gigantic sphere floating in a sea of dead blood.

Cultivators stared upward.

Their faces slowly lost their color.

A martial artist standing on the verge of the Heavenly Genesis Realm suddenly staggered backward.

"AAAAHHH!!!"

His scream ripped through the street.

His body trembled violently.

His eyes bulged as he clutched his chest.

The blood inside his body was slowly becoming cold.

Not merely cold.

It was beginning to crystallize.

"Sect Master! What’s wrong?!"

His disciples rushed toward him.

One caught his shoulder.

Another reached out to inspect his spiritual power.

But the Half-Step Heavenly Genesis Realm cultivator could barely breathe.

His trembling hand slowly rose.

His finger pointed toward the blood-red moon.

"An eye... it’s an eye..."

Those few words drained what little strength remained in him.

Everyone looked upward.

Nobody moved.

Nobody dared to breathe too loudly.

The moon...

Was an eye?

Then what kind of creature possessed an eye that massive?

What kind of existence could make the moon itself resemble a pupil?

Before anyone could find an answer—

The crimson moon moved.

A vertical pupil emerged from its depths.

Slowly.

Silently.

Then the entire sky seemed to shift.

The moon wasn’t the moon.

It had merely been covering the eye of something far more terrifying.

The creature moved forward.

Its enormous body writhed across the heavens.

The sight was enough to make countless people scream.

They let out screams of primal terror, as if they were witnessing the end of the world.

A colossal azure dragon formed the front half of the terrifying creature.

Its scales were larger than houses.

Each one shimmered with cold azure light.

Its aura was ancient.

So ancient that merely sensing it made countless cultivators feel as though they were standing before something that had existed before their ancestors’ ancestors had ever been born.

Its crimson pupils replaced the moon itself as the master of the night.

Behind it stretched countless serpentine dragons.

One.

Ten.

A hundred.

Thousands.

Their bodies intertwined across the heavens.

Their scales reflected the crimson moonlight.

Their mouths opened.

Their savage howls rolled through the empire.

All creation seemed to tremble beneath their voices.

An azure dragon at the head.

Ten thousand serpents forming its body.

What kind of terror was this?

And what made the sight even more inconceivable was what floated above the dragon and its army of serpents.

A palace.

It radiated boundless treasure light.

Its walls were covered in ancient inscriptions.

Its golden light pierced through the crimson darkness.

Ordinary citizens only felt that tonight’s night seemed especially deep and dark.