*Buzz—!*
The sword spirit looked slightly surprised. With a flick of her hand, an enormous dragon egg appeared before Li Guanqi.
"Oh, my dear sister... why are you taking it out right now?"
The sword spirit shrugged. "It wanted to come out on its own."
As soon as the words left her lips, the scales covering the ten-foot-tall dragon egg began to shimmer with an eerie purple radiance.
*Crack! Crack, crack!!*
Countless visible fissures webbed across the scaled shell of the dragon egg.
*Thump! Thump-thump!*
A strong, powerful heartbeat resonated in Li Guanqi's ears.
Li Guanqi swallowed hard. He could sense an incomparably immense vitality surging rapidly into being!
At the same time, the uncanny light radiating from the dragon egg began furiously absorbing the surrounding sea of fire!
As it devoured the flames, the dragon egg expanded at an astonishing rate!
Pulsing and throbbing like an actual heart, every beat swallowed vast swathes of flame power.
That eerie purple radiance enveloped Li Guanqi as well, immediately walling off the blistering heat around him.
Looking down at the layer of purple light covering him, Li Guanqi was slightly startled, a strange warmth stirring in his heart.
"Is it... protecting me?"
Just as he stood dazed, a furious roar from the colossal dragon echoed from the sky above!
For it had sensed the arrival of an aura that filled it with dread—an aura that was actively devouring the power that belonged to it.
*Roar—!*
The enraged dragon swooped down in an instant!
Its terrifying momentum overwhelmed the heavens and the earth, stifling Li Guanqi's breath.
Yet he could not afford to yield an inch!
*Boom—!*
With a burst of pressure, Li Guanqi's tattered robes whipped in the air as his aura surged to its pinnacle!
Gripping Red Lotus, he flashed upward in an instant!
With a wave of his hand, a thousand high-grade spirit stones rained down around the dragon egg.
He cast out several formation plates in succession, whipping up a tempest of spiritual energy in the center of the fiery sea!
The sword spirit spoke with urgent speed: "This dragon is the fire spirit of the Purple Dragon Thunder Flame! Ordinary methods cannot harm it at all—try infusing the power of your divine sense into your sword momentum!"
Li Guanqi understood immediately. His Dao platform within his sea of consciousness trembled violently as his divine sense surged forth like an overwhelming tidal wave.
At the same time, he drove the Flame Devouring Art to wild circulation within his body, and within the Nascent Soul seated in his dantian, countless specks of light began slowly coalescing.
Sword Prison opened! Thunder detonated!
Infused with boundless destructive might, Li Guanqi's thunderous energy lashed out as he slashed seven consecutive strikes!
The dragon roared, its gaze vividly alive yet chillingly cold as it glared at Li Guanqi.
Opening its jaws wide, it spewed a ferocious breath of fire!
The searing blast scorched even the empty void along its path.
Seeing this, Li Guanqi released the Seven Fiends strikes, forcibly twisted his body midair, and swooped down to deliver another slash!
"Red Lotus: Heaven Shatterer!!"
*Boom—!*
The power of the Sword Ruins erupted with a roar, and a mighty sword intent tore upward from the ground.
The fiery sea beneath him collapsed across a hundred zhang as an exceedingly sharp sword light shot forth like lightning!
*Boom—!*
The sword light of the Seven Fiends was swallowed almost instantly by the dragon's fiery breath.
Li Guanqi's heart clenched. He had never expected a mere fire spirit to possess such terrifying power!
*Squelch!*
The Heaven Shatterer slash flashed across the sky, slicing diagonally into the dragon's body the instant it cleared the fiery breath!
*Crack!*
One of the dragon's razor talons was severed clean off, and a long laceration ripped across its chest, refusing to close.
*Boom—!*
Li Guanqi exerted his movement technique to the limit, dodging the direct brunt of the breath.
Yet a blistering, agonizing pain flared across his back.
*Sizzle, sizzle!*
The sound of searing flesh hissed out, and the pain twisted Li Guanqi's features.
*Bang! Bang, bang, bang!!*
Deep within the sea of fire, the dragon egg seemed to sense something, and rapid, violent knocking sounds suddenly erupted from inside.
The dragon egg quivered, and then several scaled fragments were blasted away!
A purple dragon claw suddenly burst through the shell!
The claw slowly retracted, leaving a single golden, slit-pupiled eye staring unblinkingly at Li Guanqi with an unfathomable expression.
For no clear reason, Li Guanqi felt that in that gaze, there was a kind of... reliance?
Before he could think further, a sudden shudder ran through him. In the abdomen of the tiny Nascent Soul in his dantian, an exceedingly minute wisp of flame emerged!
The flame seed was formed!
Li Guanqi suddenly sensed that his perception of fire-attribute spiritual energy had skyrocketed.
Not only that, when he raised a hand, the drifting flames around him obeyed submissively, leaping onto his fingertips and dancing there.
Li Guanqi's eyes hardened. Glancing at the sea of fire surrounding him, he snarled in a low voice:
"Devour it all for me!"
*Boom—!*
As his words fell, his primal energy roared, churning the surrounding sea of fire into a frenzy.
His body became like a massive swirling funnel, devouring the surrounding flame power with the same wild abandon as the dragon egg.
With each wave he absorbed, the flame within his Nascent Soul burned brighter, no longer looking as though it might flicker out at any moment.
*Roar—!*
A roar of fury shook the air; the fire spirit was enraged.
It had never imagined a second being would show up to devour its power!
*Buzz—!*
The entire realm suddenly crackled with lightning and flame, the void's temperature climbing higher and higher!
Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed slightly. Behind him, the Thunder Dragon egg had still not completely broken open; after all, its shell was exceedingly tough.
Inside the egg, the little Thunder Dragon sensed Li Guanqi's perilous plight. It began slamming its hornless head furiously against the shell.
Before long, its head was bruised and bleeding, pale-golden blood trickling down its brow.
Yet the little creature's eyes reflected nothing but Li Guanqi's figure.
Facing the enraged fire spirit dragon, Li Guanqi felt tense as well, yet he chose to strike first.
The surrounding space had already begun to distort unnaturally; he could not allow the fire spirit to continue!
*Rumble—!*
The fire spirit's massive frame surged directly at Li Guanqi. With nowhere to evade, he had no choice but to meet it head-on!
Yet the moment they clashed, he was driven into a disadvantage. The dragon's body had grown increasingly solid.
Even the strength he took such pride in was faintly overpowered. Sword light flickered, leaving scattered gashes across its form.
Moreover, with every strike, Li Guanqi tore a chunk of illusory flesh from the fire spirit and shoved it into his mouth.
The enraged dragon feinted with a claw strike, but in the next instant—
A massive dragon tail lashed around violently!
A piercing sonic boom detonated as the dragon tail, cloaked in the flame power of the Purple Dragon Thunder Flame's origin, closed in on Li Guanqi's head in the blink of an eye!
The horrific flame power seemed capable of reducing all creation to ash. Before it even made contact, the blistering heat incinerated all the clothes off his body.
Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed. Twisting his waist, he raised his left knee and crossed both arms before him.
Suddenly—!
A deafening blast exploded behind him, accompanied by a deep, resounding dragon roar!
*Roar—!*
Chapter 338