Chapter 92: Ao Longtian

The Spirit Boat continued rapidly toward the Evergreen Sect, and most of the others had settled into their own thoughts.

Ning Ruomei remained quiet, Shen Xueyi sat in meditation, and Mu Qingyao occasionally glanced at Damian for reasons she would absolutely deny if questioned.

Damian, meanwhile, had begun casually sweeping the surroundings with his newly expanded <Divine Sense>.

Two hundred and fifty-two meters was enough to make random scanning ridiculously effective.

Mountains, forests, roads, and even a few distant settlements rapidly passed beneath them.

Then suddenly, Damian’s expression changed as his Divine Sense passed across something very large beneath them.

His eyes brightened immediately.

"Great, I was looking for one of these!"

Everyone looked toward him, and the exact same question appeared across several faces.

Looking for what?

Then the Spirit Boat suddenly tilted and plunged downward like a plane that was shot down.

"Eh?!"

Lin Meiyu grabbed the side while Bo Wen nearly fell from his seat.

Ning Ruomei’s eyes widened, because below them stretched a massive river, broad enough that its opposite bank looked distant even from the air.

The water twisted across the landscape like an enormous serpent, disappearing between forests and rocky hills as it meandered toward the horizon.

And the Spirit Boat was currently diving directly toward it!

............

Deep beneath the river...

Ao Longtian, a Foundation Establishment Late Stage Jiao was having an excellent day!

The morning had begun inside its comfortable underwater cave, surrounded by its hundred serpent wives.

As the powerful ruler of this section of the river, Ao Longtian naturally possessed certain responsibilities and reproduction was one of them.

And being a responsible sovereign, it had performed those duties with magnificent dedication!

Afterward, Ao Longtian became hungry.

Fortunately, one irritating competitor from the northern stretch of the river had recently become too bold.

So Ao Longtian went north, they fought, the competitor lost, and then it ate the fellow!

Wonderful!

Women, victory, and food.

What more could a respectable tyrant of the river possibly request from life?!

The enormous serpentine creature rested comfortably in the dark water, digestive satisfaction combining beautifully with post-coital laziness.

Today was a great day!

Then it sensed humans above, and Ao Longtian’s eyes opened.

Hm?

Humans?

Its spiritual perception expanded upward, seeing several of the annoying two legged fellows.

Worse...

One of them was gathering power!

Ao Longtian’s expression darkened.

AUDACIOUS!

It had not bothered them!

It had spent the afternoon inside its own river, enjoying its own wives and eating its own enemies like a civilized Semi-Divine Beast!

Yet these Humans dared enter its territory and gather power above its head?!

ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!

The river exploded as Ao Longtian surged upward with majestic fury, its enormous body twisting through the depths as water pressure detonated around it.

It would see which suicidal Human dared disturb the great ruler of this river!

It broke toward the surface, its head emerging majestically!

And the first thing it saw was an enormous bolt of lightning hurtling directly toward its face!

Naturally, Ao Longtian’s expression changed greatly!

The lightning arrived before the magnificent Jiao could even finish emerging from the river.

KRAKOOM!!

The enormous bolt crashed directly into its face!

For one brief moment, the entire section of river turned white-blue.

Lightning exploded across Ao Longtian’s head before branching over its long serpentine body, crackling between overlapping dark-blue scales and illuminating the water beneath it.

The impact threw its head backward.

BOOOOOOM!

Several tonnes of river water erupted into the sky!

Mu Qingyao’s hair whipped violently behind her from the resulting pressure wave while Bo Wen and Lin Meiyu immediately grabbed whatever part of the Spirit Boat happened to be closest.

"AAAAAH!"

"What the hell?!"

Damian ignored them, his eyes remaining fixed upon the river.

That had been his brand-new <Lightning Bolt>, a level 3 spell with 150% Lightning Damage.

He cast through a prepared Spell Slot rather than manually constructing from scratch.

This was a proper offensive spell, and against a creature currently surrounded by enough water to make an electrician develop religious trauma?

Damian expected great results!

The lightning gradually faded and smoke rose from the river.

Then...

ROOOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!

A furious roar blasted upward!

Ao Longtian’s head emerged from the smoke.

"...Oh."

Damian’s eyebrows rose.

The Jiao was definitely hurt, as several scales around its forehead had cracked, and one side of its face carried a blackened trail where the Lightning Bolt had struck directly.

But that was it.

Ao Longtian looked considerably more offended than injured.

Its enormous golden eyes locked onto Damian.

"INSOLENT HUMAN!!"

The voice did not come through ordinary speech.

It thundered directly across the surroundings, carrying spiritual pressure alongside every word.

The younger Evergreen disciples immediately paled.

Shen Lian’s knees bent.

Bo Wen’s breathing stopped for half a second.

Even Jian Rui’s face changed.

Then Mu Qingyao turned toward the creature properly, her expression freezing.

"...Ao Longtian."

Shen Xueyi’s eyes snapped toward her, then toward the Jiao.

"You know it?" Damian asked without looking away.

"Know it?! That is Ao Longtian! The Jiao ruler of this river system! Late Foundation Establishment and a Semi-Divine Beast!" Mu Qingyao’s voice rose sharply.

Damian blinked. "Oh."

There was a short pause.

"Nice!"

Mu Qingyao looked at him like she had just discovered a second Jiao aboard the boat.

"Nice?!"

Shen Xueyi had already risen from meditation.

Her usual cold composure cracked slightly as her gaze followed the enormous serpentine body still rising from beneath the river.

"Lord Damian, ordinary cultivation comparison is misleading here. Semi-Divine Beasts possess stronger bodies, bloodlines and innate abilities than human cultivators of the same realm. Ao Longtian is technically late Foundation Establishment, but its true combat power is capable of threatening cultivators who have only recently entered Golden Core."

Ah, well that explained the barely harmed face.

Damian’s smile faded by approximately ten percent.

So in Valorian terms, the fellow was somewhere around the ugly border between what Damian would call extremely high Adept and Master-level combat power.

It was not perfectly equivalent, as cross-system comparisons never were, but close enough to understand one thing.

This bastard was strong!

Extremely strong!

Which was exactly why Damian’s blood began heating up.

Finally!

The Nightmare Corpse Sect disciples had been useful targets, but useful targets and worthy opponents were not the same thing.

Damian had recently acquired and upgraded an almost stupid number of combat abilities.

He possessed <Myriad Beast Slayer> specifically for monsters and Beast-type creatures.

He had new Spells, Grandmaster Spells, Signature Spells, a Perfection-level Martial Art, improved Attributes, divine magic and Shengyuan cultivation.

And until now, he had mostly been using this ridiculous collection of powers to bully people weaker than himself.

Was it useful for growth? Yes.

Was it educational? Well... somewhat.

Was it a true stress test of his abilities? Not even remotely!

Ao Longtian stared upward while Damian stared downward.

"Heh heh..."

Mu Qingyao heard the laugh, and her face changed greatly.

"No... Lord Damian, you..."

Damian slowly turned with raised eyebrows. "What?"

"I know that expression."

"What expression?"

"The one you make immediately before doing something ridiculous!"

"...Slander."

Ao Longtian had apparently heard enough.

The river exploded!

Damian’s <Divine Sense> screamed before his eyes even finished processing what happened.

Water compressed beside the Jiao, and not ordinary river water too.

Refined power flooded through it, forcing thousands of liters into a twisting spear thicker than a tree trunk.

<Perfect Combat Instinct> activated instantly.

Damian’s left hand snapped toward the Spirit Boat’s controls.

"Hold on!"

WHOOOOOSH!!

The boat shot sideways and a fraction of a second later...

BOOOOOOM!!

The water spear tore through the space they had occupied!

It continued another hundred meters into the sky before bursting apart into rainfall.

Everyone aboard went silent, and even Damian did too.

He had felt that through <Divine Sense>.

The water did not merely contain force, there was also something frighteningly dense inside it.

Demonic Qi and Draconic Bloodline power.

This was the innate control of a creature that had spent who knew how many years ruling an entire river.

Had that attack struck the Spirit Boat directly...

Damian glanced at the younger disciples.

Yeah... no.

He suddenly had another problem.

He was not fighting alone!

Eight people were aboard this thing and several of them could not survive even the collateral damage from Ao Longtian, much less one of its serious attacks.

Worse...

Damian himself could not fly.

He could levitate and teleport, but actually fighting freely in the sky after abandoning his only stable platform?

Cough.

Not yet!

Which meant the Spirit Boat was simultaneously his battlefield, his transportation, his foothold and the object containing several people he absolutely did not want transformed into human salsa.

"Everyone stay inside the boat! Qingyao, Xueyi, protect the others if anything gets past me!" Damian ordered.

Mu Qingyao stared. "Lord Damian, perhaps we should simply leave?!"

Ao Longtian roared again, the river beneath them began churning.

Damian glanced downward. "...it might be a bit late for diplomacy dear."

"YOU ATTACKED HIM FIRST!" Mu Qingyao fumed.

"Circumstantial detail!" Damian responded shamelessly.

Shen Xueyi nearly stumbled despite herself while Ning Ruomei slowly turned her head toward Damian.

For the first time since becoming his prisoner, the woman appeared less afraid of Damian than she was genuinely questioning his sanity.

This man deliberately attacked that thing?

Without provocation?

After already fighting an entire battle?

Was this how righteous cultivators behaved now?!

Damian ignored his peanut gallery, his attention narrowing.

<Divine Sense> spread across the full 252-meter radius, encapsulating the river, Ao Longtian, the Spirit Boat, every passenger, every surge of water, and every movement of the Jiao’s muscles beneath its scales.

Everything entered his awareness at once, then <Perfect Combat Instinct> began sorting that information.

Ao Longtian moved and Damian immediately reacted as the Spirit Boat climbed sharply.

A massive tail exploded from beneath the water!

WHAM!!!

It missed the vessel by barely several meters, but the sheer displaced air still struck like a hammer.

"AH!"

Lin Meiyu slammed into Jian Rui.

Bo Wen nearly flew overboard before Shen Lian grabbed his belt.

Mu Qingyao immediately released a wave of Refined Qi to stabilize the younger cultivators while Shen Xueyi did the same on the opposite side.

Damian’s expression hardened.

Fast!

That bastard was fast!

And because Ao Longtian moved partly underwater, ordinary vision was practically useless until the attack had already begun.

Fortunately...

Damian possessed <Divine Sense>.

"Heh."

Ao Longtian dove again and Damian followed it beneath the surface without moving his eyes.

There!

A long shadow twisted, causing Damian to point as <Firebolt> activated and the Grandmaster Cantrip launched!

"Ignis!"

Unlike the little projectile he once used against rats and goblins, the current <Firebolt> carried 100% Fire Damage!

FWOOSH!

The blazing projectile struck Ao Longtian’s exposed upper back as it surfaced.

BOOM!

Flame erupted across several scales and Ao Longtian snarled, then immediately dove beneath the river.

Damian smiled. "Yeah, good luck with that, Buddy."

Several seconds passed before Ao Longtian resurfaced.

The fire was still burning on its back, and its expression had become considerably uglier.

Persistent Sear!

Water had done absolutely nothing!

The magical flame continued clinging to the affected scales even after complete submersion.

Ao Longtian twisted violently before a claw ripped across its own back.

SCRRRAAAPE!

Several burning scales tore free and fell into the river while still burning.

Damian’s smile widened.

"Hoh?"

Interesting!

Persistent did not mean Ao Longtian had to sit there and politely burn forever.

The effect itself would not disappear naturally.

But if the bastard simply removed the material currently carrying it?

Problem solved.

Painfully solved, but still solved.

Shen Xueyi saw the same thing, and her expression became grave.

"That flame cannot be extinguished by ordinary water..."

Mu Qingyao looked toward Damian.

"Was that a... what did you call it... ’Cantrip’?"

"Yup."

"..."

Damian pointed again, and this time pale-blue energy gathered.

Ao Longtian’s eyes widened as it remembered what happened last time Damian pointed at it.

The Jiao immediately twisted aside, but <Perfect Combat Instinct> read the movement.

Damian adjusted before conscious thought fully completed.

<Spell Sniper> handled the distance.

<All Element Heavenly Body> made the transition from Fire to Frost feel effortless.

<Martial Adept> was irrelevant here.

<Myriad Beast Slayer>?

Oh, that fellow was absolutely working!

Damian could feel the subtle difference now that his opponent properly qualified as Beast-type.

His attacks landed with additional viciousness.

Ao Longtian’s spiritual pressure felt slightly less oppressive than it logically should.

"Glacies!"

<Frost Ray> fired!

Ao Longtian dodged its head out of the way, and the ray struck its neck instead.

CRACK!!

Ice spread across the scales, and not ordinary frost, but Persistent Freeze!

The freezing effect immediately began expanding around the impact point, threatening to cover its whole body!

Ao Longtian roared, its body twisting with force.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Raw physical power shattered the frozen exterior, pieces of scales and ice exploding outward.

Damian’s expression became increasingly excited.

This was what he wanted!

His upgraded Cantrips were horrifying against ordinary enemies, but against Ao Longtian?

They were dangerous, but not decisive, and that difference mattered!

Ao Longtian stopped attacking for several seconds, its gaze changing.

Earlier, Damian had been an insolent Human throwing strange tricks from above.

Now? The creature was actually studying him.

Smoke rose from its face, several scales were missing from its back, and a few broken ice fragments clung around its neck.

And the Human responsible...

Was still smiling?

Ao Longtian’s anger cooled, and that was somehow worse.

"You are no ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator."

Damian shrugged. "I get that a lot."

"You conceal your cultivation."

"Nope."

Ao Longtian stared.

Damian stared back.

The Jiao seemed genuinely offended by the answer.

"Human... do you take this King for a fool?"

"Honestly? We only met like thirty seconds ago. Feels premature to judge."

Bo Wen made a strangled sound behind him.

Was Lord Damian...

Trash-talking a Late Foundation Establishment Semi-Divine Beast?!

Ao Longtian’s whiskers began trembling.

Ning Ruomei closed her eyes in acceptance.

We’re going to die.

Suddenly, the river changed and Damian noticed immediately as his amusement disappeared.

The water level dropped beneath Ao Longtian as massive volumes of river water began spiraling upward around the Jiao’s body.

One coil, then another... then another!

Within seconds, enormous rings of water rotated through the air around Ao Longtian, carrying enough spiritual pressure that the Spirit Boat itself began shaking.

Mu Qingyao’s face went white.

"Lord Damian!"

"I see it!"

"No, you don’t understand! Ao Longtian was playing with you!" Mu Qingyao responded desperately.

Ah, well...

That was a bit... concerning.

Ao Longtian rose higher, and for the first time, its entire front half left the river.

Dozens of meters of scaled body towered upward as water gathered around it like an artificial storm.

The spiritual pressure increased again.

BOOOOM!

The air itself seemed to sink.

Shen Lian fell to one knee while Lin Meiyu coughed blood, forcing Mu Qingyao and Shen Xueyi to immediately expand their Qi around the younger disciples.

Even Ning Ruomei’s face became deathly pale.

Damian felt the pressure too, but <Myriad Beast Slayer> resisted part of it and his ridiculous Constitution handled another portion.

But enough remained for every instinct in his body to start ringing alarm bells.

Then Ao Longtian moved one claw, and the river answered as three gigantic serpents made entirely from compressed water rose around it.

Each was nearly as thick as the Spirit Boat itself!

Damian’s eyes narrowed.

Okay then, buddy.

No more Cantrip testing!

He could feel <Battle God> beginning to stir inside him.

The longer this continued, the more that strange combat momentum connected his thoughts, body and aggression into one increasingly coherent whole.

But that worked both ways.

A long battle helped Damian, but a long battle also meant spending resources.

His Mental Energy capacity was 150.

That sounded comfortable until one remembered his stronger manual magic consumed increasingly obscene portions of it.

<Misty Step> alone historically cost 25 Mental Energy before its ridiculous growth.

His Signature Spells were easier and more efficient to construct than ordinary magic, but ’more efficient’ did not mean ’free’.

And controlling the Spirit Boat while maintaining <Divine Sense>, protecting seven passengers and fighting something flirting with Golden Core combat power?

That was pushing his ’gaming’ skills to the limit!

Thank God he bought the premium Dual Realm Exchange System ’gaming chair’ before this!

Damian inhaled slowly, and his mind began separating resources.

Spell Slots first wherever possible, cantrips for pressure, divine magic where efficiency mattered, and Manual casting only when the situation justified the Mental Energy expenditure.

Do not blow everything because the enemy looked impressive!

Do not abandon the Spirit Boat!

Do not let Ao Longtian force the fight underwater!

And most importantly...

Don’t fucking die!

Golden divine light flashed around Damian.

<Guidance> activated.

His Attributes surged by 15.5%.

Then he followed immediately with <Resistance> as Ao Longtian’s three water serpents screamed forward.

"Everyone brace!"

The first serpent came from the left and Damian forced the Spirit Boat down.

WHOOSH!!

It passed overhead while the second attacked from below, but <Divine Sense> caught it early.

Damian twisted the controls and the Spirit Boat rolled sideways so violently that everyone screamed.

BOOOOOM!!

The water serpent missed by less than 3 meters and exploded into spray.

The third was...

Holy shit!

Damian’s pupils contracted.

It was too close!

<Perfect Combat Instinct> made the decision.

There was no space to dodge!

His hand came up and the magical structure formed almost reflexively.

Grandmaster Signature Spell!

A spell he understood almost as naturally as breathing!

<Mage Armor> erupted over Damian’s body!

At the same moment, he drove himself between the incoming attack and the passengers behind him.

"Lord Damian!" Mu Qingyao screamed.

The third water serpent struck.

KRAAAAAAABOOOOOOM!!!

The entire sky seemed to explode as the Spirit Boat vanished inside a sphere of water.

For several horrible seconds, nobody could see anything, then the spray fell away.

The Spirit Boat remained airborne, though barely.

Its formations flickered, several sections of its railing had cracked, and everyone aboard was soaked.

Damian remained standing at the front, his semi-corporeal <Mage Armor> shimmering violently around him.

The 30% Resistance had stripped away part of the incoming force and the armor had absorbed more.

Yet Damian could still feel the remaining impact vibrating through his bones.

His boots had carved grooves into the deck and a thin line of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Silence.

Mu Qingyao stared at it.

Shen Xueyi stared at it.

The four youngsters stared at it.

Ning Ruomei stared hardest of all.

Since meeting Damian...

This was the first time any of them had seen him bleed.

Damian raised one hand and wiped the blood from his lip, then looked at his fingers.

After this, he slowly raised his gaze toward Ao Longtian and the Jiao stared back.

For once, neither side looked amused.

Damian smiled anyway.

It was not one of battle lust, enjoyment or mockery.

It was a smile that said:

"...Alright, we’re doing this then."

His <Battle God> stirred harder.

"Now we’re fighting."