Chapter Forty-Eight: Departure

“Beast Core? Clone?”
The short, middle-aged man shot Thunder Tiger a cold glance, murderous intent flickering across his face. “With your mere beginner-level Beast Core strength, you think you can block me?”
“If you were at your prime, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But you’ve already got one foot in the grave, and you still dare boast?” Thunder Tiger retorted with a harsh laugh. He transformed into a bald, middle-aged man, gazing down at his opponent with a mocking sneer.
“Then die!”
The short, middle-aged man roared, conjuring a sphere of lightning in his palm and hurling it at Thunder Tiger.
“You want to play with thunder against me? You’re far too green!” Thunder Tiger also burst out laughing, swinging his arm forward.
Suddenly, a massive tiger’s claw appeared in the void, crackling with purple lightning as it clashed against the middle-aged man’s thunderball.
The air trembled instantly. The short man’s expression changed, his figure shuddering violently.
But Thunder Tiger fared no better; a flush spread across his face as he staggered back several steps.
“Again!”
Thunder Tiger roared. A giant phantom tiger appeared behind him, hurling a torrent of a thousand punches at the short man, each one wreathed in purple lightning, as if embodying the wrath of heaven.
The short man’s face changed drastically.
Thunder Tiger’s speed was terrifying, and every blow carried devastating power. Even a glancing hit would sap his life force—something more precious than ever at this moment.
Unless he revealed his true Divine Form, there was simply no way to block every attack!
But his current body could no longer withstand the force of his true form!
Within moments, his face turned deathly pale, and his aura began to wane.
“Mo Lei!”
Just then, the hook-nosed elder bellowed. The short man jolted, glancing back to see Gongsun Yan’s entire body shudder violently!
“Return, Dragon Soul!”
At her shout, a black light shot from within the Tianlong Workshop!
“No!”
Both men shouted, trying to intercept.
But the departing dragon soul, as if sensing its mother, turned into a streak of lightning and soared into Gongsun Yan’s body!
“You—you’re that escaped dragon soul from years ago!”
The short, middle-aged man suddenly froze, as if recalling some long-buried past, terror contorting his face as though he’d seen a ghost.
Gongsun Yan hadn’t paid him much attention before, but now her gaze snapped to him, a murderous glint in her eyes.
“To think I’d meet a face from the past here… Die!”
In that instant, her aura surged, breaking through several levels in a row, instantly reaching the pinnacle of the Violet Palace realm!
She reached out, and the space where the short man stood twisted, as if gripped by an invisible hand.
He felt his scalp tingle, his body warping with the space. Yet he still managed to shout, “Ku Zhangren! Now! Don’t worry about gains or losses—use your last reserves, summon the Ancestor! She is that dragon soul from the past—she must not escape! I’ll go on ahead!”

With that, he gritted his teeth. His body shattered, all his vital energy surging into his heart, condensing into a seal that shot forth!
“Die!”
A furious shout echoed from the void.
Thunder Tiger’s expression changed in an instant. He leapt in front of Gongsun Yan, focusing all his demonic power into a single point to meet the blood seal head-on!
With a thunderous crash, his face turned ashen. He spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying.
The blood seal barely dimmed, then shot straight toward Gongsun Yan’s body atop the great ark!
This was the last of the short man’s vital blood, as powerful as the peak of his strength!
“Return, my clones!”
Gongsun Yan showed no fear, shouting coldly. Eighteen figures instantly merged into her, her aura soaring again—reaching the Nascent Soul level!
“Disperse!”
She shouted, countless runes flickering in her eyes, resonating with some unfathomable law. The blood seal instantly dimmed, so weak by the time it reached her that it all but dissipated!
“Die!”
With a fierce cry, she shattered the blood seal with a single punch!
“Brother Mo!”
The hook-nosed elder’s eyes reddened as he roared. But instead of striking, he seized the moment when her clones were gone and fled straight toward Divine Wind City!
Within the city, everyone was stricken with fear.
They didn’t know exactly what had happened, but they’d seen with their own eyes: Gongsun Yan and Thunder Tiger joined forces, and the two great cultivators of the Tianlong Workshop—one dead, one fled!
Tu Lu knew even more, and his heart quaked with terror.
A soul fragment?
From their words, could it be Gongsun Yan was actually a fragment of the Rainbow Dragon’s soul?
“Master Lu!”
“Here!” Tu Lu started in fright.
“Time’s up. I’ll send you away now—farewell!”
With that, Gongsun Yan’s right hand transformed into a dragon’s claw, which she raked through the void!
A tearing sound.
The sky darkened abruptly. Where the claw passed, countless bolts of lightning fell, striking her claw as the void shuddered violently.
“Open!” Gongsun Yan shouted.
All the falling lightning shattered. By sheer force, she tore open a rift in space.
But just then, the entire sky suddenly dimmed—not just over Divine Wind City, but over Thunder Mountain, Obsidian Mountain, and even the distant Thunder Mountain Range. Black clouds swept across the heavens.
Anxiousness flickered in Gongsun Yan’s eyes. From the moment she noticed the hook-nosed elder’s actions, she knew grave danger was at hand. But no matter how quickly she moved, it was still too late!

“Thunder Tiger, escort them—go, now!” In desperation, Gongsun Yan shouted toward the distant sky.
A thunderous boom resounded, and Thunder Tiger arrived in an instant!
But before he could act, everyone’s expression changed dramatically!
From above, a colossal hand descended, its vast palm covering all of Divine Wind City. In that moment, space, time—everything—seemed to freeze.
Only the titanic hand fell from the heavens, as if ready to reduce all to ashes!
Tu Lu was paralyzed with terror, his eyes wide, but he couldn’t move at all.
Not only were his limbs frozen, but even his vital energy was blocked. The Nine-Locked True Spirit Technique failed completely, returning him to his original state!
He could only watch helplessly as the giant hand approached!
In that instant, Gongsun Yan let out a piercing shriek!
Within Divine Wind City, in the City Lord’s treasury, the mountain of Thunderstones—and that other Thunderstone mountain whose origin Tu Lu did not know—exploded, releasing an inexhaustible surge of energy that flooded the entire city. Divine Wind City trembled violently, countless runes on the ground flaring to life.
Fueled by this boundless energy, a massive pillar of light suddenly shot from the mirror in the City Lord’s main hall!
With a deafening roar, the beam pierced through countless buildings, striking the Tianlong Workshop.
The Tianlong Workshop shattered, and in an instant, all of Divine Wind City collapsed. The earth split asunder, countless cultivators and mortals perished in misery, and the very sky was stained red.
Yet at the very instant when the Tianlong Workshop and Divine Wind City were destroyed together, the suppressed void abruptly recovered!
Everyone regained their movement!
Gongsun Yan let out another shrill cry.
Then, Tu Lu witnessed the most shocking sight of his entire life!
A rainbow dragon soared into the sky. Though its form was somewhat dim, it was unmistakably a rainbow dragon, its body even larger than Divine Wind City itself, surging directly at the colossal hand!
Eighteen dragon chains shot from the dragon’s body, binding the heavenly hand, and dragon and hand collided with a world-shaking crash!
“Go!”
In the moment when Tu Lu was still stunned, Thunder Tiger seized him and the two little girls and dashed into the rift!
But just as they escaped, from the ruins of the Tianlong Workshop, two elders radiating a withering aura emerged. The power they exuded was almost at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage!
“After them!”
One elder shouted. But the other quickly interjected, “No! They are mere riffraff. Remember their faces and spread word to every market in the land!
Now that the Tianlong Workshop is destroyed, the Ancestor’s descent is imminent. We have but a moment of life left—this is not the time to waste it on such trivialities. The urgent task is to capture that dragon!”