Volume One: The Dragon Soul Awakens, Chapter 93: Blood Bond!

Xiaoming frowned, and two dark-gold blades appeared in his hands. With a powerful leap, he sprang up above the Spider Empress.

A tearing hiss burst forth.

The Spider Empress spat out a strand of silk and lunged with a pair of claws, but Xiaoming was far too nimble; he turned into a shadow and slipped behind her in an instant.

Shadow Clone Technique!

Xiaoming raised the twin dark-gold blades and plunged downward, driving them into the Spider Empress’s back. The two blades struck together and resonated, erupting with a terrifying surge of power. When they separated again, purple, web-like filaments flashed and vanished between them, as though static electricity had torn through the air.

“Damn it!” the Spider Empress roared.

Seeing this, Xiaoming quickly pulled the blades free and fled as a shadow. At the same moment, a cloud of purple venom burst from the Spider Empress’s body and spread outward in all directions.

Mo Xing gathered water essence into an ice shield, trying to block the venom rushing toward him, but it was utterly useless; the shield was corroded away at once.

“Oh, hell!” Mo Xing cried in shock. His weapon, Frostless Divine Edge, had been knocked away earlier, leaving him with no way to unleash Frostwater Spiral Storm or make a getaway.

This was a death sentence.

“Light Purification!”

A beam of blinding radiance fell from above, forming a massive halo around Mo Xing and blocking all the venom the Spider Empress had unleashed.

“Mo Xing! Retreat, now!”

Orange, her Burning Wings ignited, waved her staff in midair and drew a pale-green circle of light onto Mo Xing.

Wind Swim Ring!

“Got it!” Mo Xing pushed off with one foot, his body lifting free of the ground and rising into the air like a flea.

“You think you can run? No chance!”

The Spider Empress’s aura surged, several times more horrifying than before. This time, she truly meant to kill.

A new domain was triggered.

Countless strands of silk erupted from the Spider Empress’s entire body. Every limb on her frame convulsed and fell away. The halo of Light Purification was broken through, and the whole space was suddenly bound within layers of webbing.

Eight-Spider Domain!

Within the deathly domain, the silk converged into countless tiny spiders wrapped in dazzling electric arcs, charging straight at Mo Xing!

“Come and fill my hunger!” the Spider Empress sneered. “I’ll tear you apart and offer you to the great King of Ghost Cries!”

Mo Xing was bound by the web, venom crawling over his body. His muscles began to spasm, and the tiny spiders were already about to reach him.

At the very last instant, Xiaoming appeared before him. Gripping his blade, he sliced the silk apart down the middle, then gathered his power and blasted Mo Xing clean off the web.

“Damn it! Are you trying to save me or kill me?” Mo Xing fell beside the altar, his bones cracking with sharp pops as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Yet Xiaoming paid him no mind. He kept swinging the twin blades at the Spider Empress. The air between them was compressed to the limit by their speed, and tremendous force swept through the entire space. Amid thunderous sonic booms, the two sides fought with all they had.

“What...” Mo Xing stared in shock.

Was this really the same chatty Xiaoming he knew?

Had he been hiding his true strength just to infiltrate the Divine Ark?

Still acting mad while spouting nonsense at five curses per second?

No, that made no sense. If he had been hiding his power, Teacher Su Yunzhou and the others should have seen through it.

Besides, he had always looked like a trash-tier fighter who only knew how to run his mouth.

Compared with the man before him, he seemed like a completely different person.

“Mo Xing, are you all right?”

Orange rushed over then. Taking advantage of the opening between Xiaoming and the Spider Empress, she landed on the altar to support Mo Xing.

“I’m... fine... cough!” Before Mo Xing could finish, he coughed up two more mouthfuls of blood.

“My God! You’ve injured your internal organs!” Orange exclaimed. She quickly cast healing magic, and a pale-green glow appeared beneath Mo Xing’s feet.

“I didn’t know you could do so much, Orange...” Mo Xing smiled, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with his hand, then reaching to the side and cleaning it off on the altar. He did not want the girl to see him looking so disheveled.

“Damn it all!”

A furious roar suddenly erupted in midair. Mo Xing and Orange both looked up. Xiaoming had been flung down by the Spider Empress’s overwhelming aura and crashed onto the altar.

“Damn it, my shadow state timed out!” Xiaoming cursed as he struggled back to his feet.

“What... what’s going on?” Mo Xing was completely baffled. Hadn’t Xiaoming just been incredibly strong? Why had he suddenly been beaten back to his original form?

“Hahahaha! I thought you were more capable than that!” the Spider Empress shouted as she dropped down along a strand of silk. “So you’re just a paper tiger with a loud bark and no bite!”

“Trash! If you’ve got the guts, wait until I’m back in shape!” Xiaoming snapped.

“You bully me with eight legs while I only have two. Is that fair?”

“Obviously, it’s absurdly unfair!”

“What satisfaction do you get from beating someone like me?”

“Let’s see where you’ll put that smug face!”

Xiaoming had entered his five-curses-per-second mode again, leaving Mo Xing staring blankly. That familiar windbag was back...

“Are you a fly? Buzzing like that is driving me crazy!” the Spider Empress roared, hurling her body at Xiaoming.

“Holy crap! Spare my life, Your Majesty!” Xiaoming shouted in alarm and bolted.

“Blazing Sea of Fire!”

A red magic circle appeared beneath Orange’s feet, and dozens of fireballs like falling meteors crashed toward the Spider Empress, helping Xiaoming escape.

“Pretty lady! That’s playing with fire!” Xiaoming yelled as he ran, feeling the scorching heat of the inferno behind him.

“...” Orange frowned slightly.

“Anyway, thanks!” Xiaoming glanced back, then rolled aside and dashed to the altar, reaching for the Ghost Crying: Wandering Blade.

The moment his fingers touched the hilt, a tremendous force repelled him.

“What the hell? What’s going on?” Xiaoming froze. “Can’t anyone but the owner touch it?”

He tried again. “Let me guess, I’m opening it the wrong way.”

He switched hands and reached out again, only to be thrown back by the same force.

“Why do you insist on getting this blade?” Mo Xing, sprawled nearby, asked with a trembling voice. “Is it really that important? People are risking their lives just to seize it?”

“Those things don’t matter. You only need to know one thing...” Xiaoming tried to touch the hilt again and was still repelled. “Only by getting this blade can we defeat that spider monster!”

“You know about dimensional suppression, right?”

“Exactly, that kind of feeling!”

“One strike, ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine!”

“What can you do about it?”

Xiaoming was back to his endless chatter, and Mo Xing’s ears were practically calloused from it. At that moment, a strand of silk shot over, and Xiaoming was blasted aside instantly.

“I can’t hold it any longer! You all run!” Orange shouted back.

“I’d like to see how fast you two-legged people can run!” The Spider Empress charged forward, venom glands at the tips of her fangs gushing wildly.

“Wood Binding!”

Orange continued waving her staff in place. A pale-green magic circle appeared beneath her feet, and dozens of thick tree vines lunged toward the Spider Empress.

“Useless! Struggle within my web!” the Spider Empress laughed wildly, breaking through the vines’ restraint and pouncing at Orange.

In that instant, Mo Xing rushed between them. With a sweep of his right hand, carrying dark crimson currents and molten-gold radiance, he unleashed a fierce blow upon the Spider Empress.

“Ah!”

The Spider Empress reeled from the heavy strike, her body lurching backward.

“Ghost Crying: Wandering Blade!” Xiaoming cried in shock from the side. “You actually pulled it out?!”

“Yeah, and it feels pretty good too!” Mo Xing said with a sideways smile. Then he leapt into the air and struck down at the Spider Empress.

“How is this possible? You can actually use the King’s divine weapon!” the Spider Empress roared. Silk burst from her body, trying to ensnare Mo Xing, but he moved like a shadow, slipping through the webbing without a trace and severing her front limbs in a single pass.

“You shall repay pain unto the ghost!” Mo Xing lowered his head. The black blade in his hand transformed into a formless wraith, slashing toward the Spider Empress.

“Ah!”

The Spider Empress suddenly dropped to her knees.

She had never knelt before. She was one of the strongest of the alien dragonkin and would bow to no one—unless it was... the King of Ghost Cries!

And this youth before her, wielding the Wandering Blade and exuding black mist, looked just like the King of Ghost Cries descending once more upon the mortal world.

“You shall repay blood unto the cry!”

Mo Xing gave a cold laugh and instantly shattered the Spider Empress’s eight legs. Then, like a ghostly shadow, he rose through the air, flashed behind her, and aimed at her head. With a right-handed cleave, he split her iron-hard skin open, and blood surged from the cross-shaped wound like molten lava.

Mo Xing turned around to face Orange and Xiaoming, wearing a strange smile.

“This...” Orange frowned, as if she had guessed something.

“Oh, hell! I get it now!” Xiaoming noticed the streaks of blood at the corner of Mo Xing’s mouth and suddenly understood everything.

“No wonder I couldn’t pull that blade out! It already recognized its master through blood!” Xiaoming cursed. “Damn that stupid setup!”

“You shall repay soul unto the king!”

Mo Xing’s eyes turned completely black. His right hand swept through the air as his entire body bled black mist, and he charged at Orange and Xiaoming.

“We’re done for! He’s lost control!” Xiaoming shouted in panic. “Kid, calm down! We’re brothers, don’t slash me!”

Suddenly, a blue light burst from within Mo Xing’s body, interrupting his movement.

Blue and black powers collided and pressed against each other, unleashing a violent wave of energy. Everything around them rippled, and even Mo Xing was blasted backward. The rock walls of the entire space began to collapse, stones raining down in all directions.

“Mo Xing!”

Orange cast a barrier spell and ran toward him.

“Ugh—” Mo Xing shook his head and looked around at the slain Spider Empress and the swaying, crumbling space. He paused. “What... what happened? What just happened?”

“I’ll explain later! This space is about to collapse! First we need to save the senior disciples from Crimson Moon Academy!” Orange helped Mo Xing up and cast Wind Swim Ring. The two of them floated into the air together.

“Wait! What about me?” Xiaoming shouted. His body was still bound in silk, leaving only his head to sway helplessly from side to side.

“This...” Mo Xing turned back to look at him.

“I know you want to save him, but we don’t have time!” Orange shook her head. “One person or more than twenty people—which do you choose?”

The moment she finished speaking, a cannon shell slammed down and blasted a huge crater into the altar. Two figures fell from the sky!

At the same time, the silk binding Xiaoming was somehow cut apart!

“Zuo Zuo, take them to the safe zone,” said one of the men, a short-haired black-haired young man, before leaping down into the huge pit.

“Yes!” the other, a man with braided hair, nodded. Then he grabbed Xiaoming by the collar and sprang upward with a single bound, as light and agile as a martial artist leaping several feet at once.

“Too much! I suffer all this, and you treat me like this?” Xiaoming shouted in rage. Being hauled by the neck was unbearable. “Zuo Zuo! Lin Ao! You two idiots!”

“Bounty hunters? This is getting complicated...” Orange frowned as she studied the two sudden newcomers, but Mo Xing did not answer her. When she turned, she discovered that the fellow had already run below.

“Mo Xing, where are you going?”

Orange shouted anxiously at him as he raced across the altar. The space was about to collapse—what was he doing running down there now?

Mo Xing looked back, waved, and then leapt into the huge pit. His voice echoed through the wavering chamber:

“Don’t worry! I know what I’m doing!”

A Word from the Author

For those still following along, please leave plenty of comments, show your support, and recommend the story with your votes!

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All are welcome to join!

By the way, I’m planning to take a day off tomorrow, the 29th, to prepare the finale of Volume One.

Monthly anniversary of the novel’s updates, March edition (1.29 to 4.29)

Volume One is about to draw to a close!

Today marks the ninety-first consecutive day of updates.

With just 5,000 words left, the first volume, Awakening of the Dragon Soul, will come to an end, and the story will move into preparation for the second volume, Blossoming Stars. During that time, I’ll rest for a while, make adjustments, and study relevant writing knowledge and techniques. I’ll return when the time is right!