Youfeng remained motionless.
Yanmo's voice gradually grew low and grim. "You just want to watch us die, don't you?"
Youfeng answered with only a cold sneer.
In the distance, Ronglong suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar. A long tear slashed open across his serpentine body, nearly severing his entire tail! Ronglong whipped his dragon head around and spat a mass of magma, blasting a Heavenly Shaman-level flame demon out of concealment.
Enveloped in the bizarre magma, the flame demon let out a shrill shriek, fleeing into the distance in an instant before vanishing. Ronglong had repelled one Heavenly Shaman-level flame demon, but he had sustained severe wounds himself. More and more wounds soon racked his body; the remaining two Heavenly Shaman-level flame demons had gained a clear upper hand, while the giant black-and-red cone in the sky continued to spiral downward, drawing ever closer to the earth.
With the emergence of the fourth Heavenly Pillar, the strength of all the flame demons began to rise sharply, and casualties among the Power Shamans in the fortress mounted drastically.
Yanmo was visibly growing frantic. With an abrupt roar, a fireball tens of zhang across tore through the sky, hurtling violently straight at Youfeng!
The colossal bird let out a cry, spewing gloomy dark flames from her beak that washed relentlessly over the fireball, scouring it down smaller and smaller until it dissipated completely. This was a strike unleashed in Yanmo's fury, and parrying it proved somewhat strenuous even for Youfeng.
"Yanmo, you actually dare raise a hand against me? Haha! Didn't you want me to deal with the flame demons? Then I shall make my move!"
Youfeng suddenly opened her beak and breathed out a sheet of dark flames like black water, letting it rain down toward Fengmang Fortress! This deluge of fire encompassed the entire fortress, making no distinction between friend and foe. As the flames hung in the sky above, Wei Yuan felt sharp stinging pangs across his body, blister after blister bubbling up upon his skin!
No heat could be felt from this dark fire, yet its power was terrifying in the extreme—even Wei Yuan could not withstand it. Before it had even truly descended, a swath of flame demons and Power Shamans in the fortress collapsed, wailing in agony!
One Power Shaman after another saw their body melt, liquefying like wax figurines exposed to searing heat, turning into unidentifiable puddles of matter.
Wei Yuan felt his surroundings abruptly plunge into darkness. The descending dark fire rolled backward in reverse, drawn entirely into a colossal maw in the sky. A massive dragon head manifested amid the heavens, swallowing every trace of the dark fire in a single gulp, then blasting it right back at Youfeng.
When the dark fire was spat out anew, it had condensed into a small fireball wreathed in blood-red lightning. As it flew, it continually absorbed stray sparks, swelling ever larger; space warped wherever it passed, carving a distinct trail through the void.
In the blink of an eye, the fireball expanded to a thousand zhang across, its surface densely covered in blood-colored bolts of lightning!
Youfeng sneered, sweeping a wing directly at the dark flame!
Yet the heavens and earth of the entire Desolate Realm suddenly jolted. Youfeng's aura plummeted abruptly, while a speck of golden light bloomed from within the fireball of dark flame. It detonated with tremendous violence, blasting Youfeng back a hundred li. Countless black feathers drifted down, turning into patches of inexhaustible black flame the moment they struck the ground.
Youfeng shrieked in lamentation; a gaping hole had actually been blown through her wing! In sheer disbelief, she shrieked, "How could the Desolate Realm suddenly turn against me?! Ronglong, you aren't even a Heavenly Shaman—how could you injure my Dharma body?! No, you..."
Before Youfeng, that colossal dragon head slithered forward, drawing out a long serpentine body that stretched for several hundred li without revealing its full length. Clamped in the dragon's jaws were two Heavenly Shaman flame demons, completely motionless, seemingly already dead.
Youfeng slowly beat her wings, retreating step by step.
The great dragon slithered for a good while before finally revealing its entire length—nearly a thousand li! At the very end of the dragon's body was a massive wound, missing its tail; had the tail remained, it would certainly have exceeded a thousand li.
"You're Ronglong... You, you're already a Heavenly Shaman?! How is that possible? Who granted you your seat? When did you see the Ancestral Shaman?" Youfeng cried out in shock, one exclamation after another.
A low roar rumbled from the dragon's maw as it swallowed the two Heavenly Shaman flame demons whole. Then it spoke: "My seat as a Heavenly Shaman was not bestowed by the Ancestral Shaman, but granted by heaven and earth."
"That's impossible... You—you severed the Desolate Realm away? This is rebellion!" Amid Youfeng's furious roar, a tremor of panic leaked out for the very first time.
Ronglong said slowly, "To become a Heavenly Shaman does not require the favor of an Ancestral Shaman. By standing on our own feet, we too can win the recognition of heaven and earth."
Youfeng said, "The Ancestral Shaman will never spare you!"
"That no longer matters. Whether it spares me or not, you all desire nothing less than the extinction of the Power Shamans. But the agony of the Desolate Realm's heaven and earth just now—did you feel it? No, you did not."
Youfeng suddenly snapped her beak open, spitting a thread of fire that shot like an arrow straight into Ronglong's dragon head!
Though fine as a thread, the line of fire possessed tremendous power, piercing clean through the dragon head in a single strike. Yet this also incensed Ronglong. The great dragon parted its jaws, instantly unleashing a terrifying pillar of fire several li wide, blasting Youfeng a thousand li away in a single breath!
When the dragon flame dispersed, scorch marks covered Youfeng from head to toe, her feathers ragged and scattered with less than one in ten remaining; she had been reduced to a roasted bird. Bearing the cling of dragon flame all over her body, Youfeng turned and fled without looking back, tossing a final threat over her shoulder: "The Ancestral Shaman will never spare you!"
Seeing that the tide had turned, Long Zhe and Huiye had long since quietly slipped out of the Desolate Realm. With Ronglong recognized by the Desolate Realm as a Heavenly Shaman, the authority of heaven and earth he commanded was immense beyond imagination—even Youfeng was no match for him. If the two of them stayed behind, they would be walking straight to their slaughter.
Ronglong did not pursue them. Instead, he turned back, snapping up and devouring the flame demons locked in combat with Jiumu one by one before rescuing Yanmo.
Then Ronglong drew a deep breath and spewed a torrent of scorching magma toward the ground. Surging lava swallowed countless flame demons, cutting off the approach of subsequent attackers marching toward Fengmang.
Ronglong steadily spat balls of magma. Each time a sphere of molten rock hit the ground, it created a zone of death spanning dozens of li, obliterating every flame demon within.
Yanmo and Jiumu hurried over to assist. With three Heavenly Shamans striking in unison, they swiftly cleared out the ocean of flame demons. An awkward silence then fell between the three Heavenly Shamans. A moment later, Yanmo broke the quiet, asking, "How did you become a Heavenly Shaman just like that?"
"I could feel the agony of the entire realm, so I hesitated no longer and took that step. The Desolate Realm is at a critical juncture of life and death, so it granted me the greater part of the authority it could bestow. Even if the Ancestral Shaman establishes another Heavenly Shaman seat in the Desolate Realm in the future, its authority will not equal this one."
Jiumu took a deep breath and asked, "So, you severed the Desolate Realm from the Wu domain?"
"More precisely, from the Ancestral Shaman's kingdom."
Jiumu sucked in a cold breath. "Good heavens! Does this mean your Heavenly Shaman seat isn't under the Ancestral Shaman's control at all?"
Ronglong nodded.
Jiumu asked, "What happens to this place from now on? What about the Power Shamans?"
Ronglong said, "You will remain the guardian of the Desolate Realm, and Power Shamans will come here to train and temper themselves as before. Only, it will be hard for the Ancestral Shaman to meddle in the Desolate Realm's affairs any longer."
"Will there be war?" Jiumu asked.
"If the Ancestral Shaman does not provoke me, I naturally will not make things difficult for him. The Flame Storm is not over yet. Before the fourth Heavenly Pillar is complete, I must find a way to uproot it."
Yanmo said, "Don't be reckless! That's likely impossible. With both you and Jiumu in the Desolate Realm now, we can hold out even if the flame demons grow a bit stronger."
Ronglong shook his head. "Every Heavenly Pillar is a wound slashed into the Desolate Realm, siphoning away its origin without cease. I could do nothing about the first three, but there is still a chance with the fourth! This is the very reason I became a Heavenly Shaman! I am going."
A great dragon a thousand li long soared through the sky, arriving near the fourth Heavenly Pillar moments later. By now, the tip of the new Heavenly Pillar's cone was only several dozen li from the ground!
Ronglong flew straight up, coiling his dragon body around the fourth Heavenly Pillar. His thousand-li length could wrap around it barely twice.
The great dragon let out a long, resonant roar and exerted all his might, actually dragging the fourth Heavenly Pillar into a slow bend! The pillar shuddered violently at once, yet no matter how it shook, it could not cast Ronglong off. Instead, the arc of its curvature grew increasingly pronounced.
With a sharp crack, fissures spiderwebbed across the surface of the pillar.
Emitting a whistle that sounded almost like a wail, the Heavenly Pillar began to spin. Layers of its conical shell spiraled open, suddenly shooting forth countless razor-sharp spikes that pierced clean through Ronglong's body in a single burst!
Ronglong let out an agonizing roar that shook heaven and earth, yet he did not release the pillar. Instead, he continued straining to bend it. The Heavenly Pillar spun with even greater violence, suddenly retracting all its massive spikes before thrusting them out once more, opening countless more wounds across Ronglong's flesh!
Blood like molten lava showered down upon the earth in vast swathes. Enduring the searing agony of giant spikes skewering his body, Ronglong refused to loosen his grip in the slightest!
Jiumu shouted, "Don't push yourself! Leave it be! Come back, quickly!"
Neither he nor Yanmo dared approach the nascent fourth Heavenly Pillar. Before the pillar solidified, its attacks were simply more than they could endure.
But Ronglong did not heed him. Straining his entire body in a constricting coil, he bent the Heavenly Pillar into an even steeper angle in an instant. Ronglong's wounds were ground and torn open by the giant spikes, leaving hideous gashes behind.
As if sensing a mortal threat, the Heavenly Pillar shrieked while repeatedly ejecting spikes, piercing Ronglong's body again and again! Ronglong was covered in horrific wounds; around the middle of his body was a mangled blur of shredded flesh, his lower half nearly torn away from his torso.
Jiumu roared, cursed a string of profanities, and charged forward anyway. Yet the moment he drew near the fourth Heavenly Pillar, a flexible barb thousands of li long shot out from within it, striking like lightning to impale Jiumu instantly and pin him in midair!
At that moment, Ronglong unleashed all the vitality left in him. With a dragon roar that shook the entire Desolate Realm, he pulled with all his might, finally snapping the Heavenly Pillar off at its base!
The colossal dragon body plummeted alongside the broken Heavenly Pillar, crashing down into the dust of the Desolate Realm.
Chapter 931