Hua Yang Zhenjun's reconstructed body trembled like a marionette with severed strings, his dragon-tiger hybrid meridians glowing through translucent flesh like poisoned rivers. The volcanic island groaned beneath their feet, its magma veins pulsing in time with Zhao Rui's ascending power.
"You... gutter ant..." Hua Yang's voice fragmented into bestial growls and celestial harmonics. "How dare you stand where gods kneel!"
Zhao Rui's second The Spirit materialized in a corona of golden light, its armor etched with anti-cultivation sigils that burned Hua Yang's remaining eye. The Nine Heavens Thunder Lance crackled in his grip, every spark rewriting the island's gravitational fields. "You mistake stolen power for divinity," Zhao Rui said, levelling the weapon. "Today, you learn the difference."
Symphony of Shattered Hubris
The battle defied mortal comprehension. Hua Yang's attacks manifested as fractal nightmares - tiger-headed dragon constructs vomiting alchemical fire, spatial distortions mimicking Zhao Rui's teleportation. Each assault met the lance's purifying lightning, their collisions birthing miniature supernovae that scorched the island's remaining vegetation to glass.
Dun Che crouched behind a smoldering obsidian monolith, his shredded paws clutching the broken Mirror of Dongli. Through cracked lenses, he witnessed the truth of Zhao Rui's ascension - his brother's movements intertwined with the second The Spirit's golden threads, every dodge and strike resonating with the Ten Thousand Laws Tome's prophecies.
"Finish him!" The fox demon's hoarse cry mingled with magma bubbles. "Before his corruption spreads!"
Dragon's Final Teaching
Hua Yang's desperation manifested as a colossal hybrid avatar - part dragon scales, part tiger stripes, entirely unstable. Its tri-clawed hand swept toward Zhao Rui with reality-rending force.
Zhao Rui didn't flinch.
The second The Spirit's armor reconfigured into aerodynamic plating as he channeled the Golden Blood's primal essence. Time dilated.
First Principle: All stolen power carries the thief's stench.
The lance pierced the avatar's palm, anti-cultivation sigils burning through corrupted meridians.
Second Principle: True divinity cannot be grafted.
A spinning kick shattered the hybrid's knee, Zhao Rui's heel trailing golden fire that consumed tiger marrow.
Final Principle: Dragons always reclaim their essence.
The coup de grâce came as a whisper - the lance's tip resting against Hua Yang's reconstructed golden core. "Your masters forgot to teach you," Zhao Rui murmured. "Power borrowed..."
Lightning erupted.
Ashes of Arrogance
Hua Yang's scream outlasted his disintegrating body. Dragon scales peeled away like burning parchment, revealing the Celestial Masters' gruesome handiwork - tiger bones wired with celestial steel, dragon essence fermenting in alchemical vats.
"NO! This... was promised..." The dying tyrant clawed at his unraveling chest. "I was to be... perfect..."
Zhao Rui watched impassively as the hybrid abomination dissolved into bioluminescent ash. "You were never their champion," he said, crushing a glowing remnant underfoot. "Merely another failed prototype."
The Tome fluttered open, its pages illustrating Dragon-Tiger Mountain's pagodas crumbling under dragon-shaped storms.
Epilogue: Bonds Forged in Crimson
Dun Che limped forward, his remaining eye reflecting the devastation. "Took you... long enough..."
Zhao Rui caught the collapsing fox demon, Golden Blood already knitting shattered bones. "Rest, brother. Our hunt has just begun."
As the island sank beneath vengeful waves, the Tome's final illustration glowed - two silhouettes standing against a storm-racked mountain, one armored in lightning, the other wreathed in phoenix flames.