There was no fear in her eyes as she stared deathly at the encroaching monsterized Li En.
“A pity…” Laura’s voice trembled slightly from the pain, yet it remained clear. “If not for the massive exhaustion from my fight with the third seat of the Blood Pillars… how could a mindless beast like you be allowed to act so arrogantly!”
Her pride and her dignity as a Sword Saint did not allow her to show even a hint of cowardice before such an enemy.
At this moment, as the battle progressed and his power was fully released, a strange sliver of clarity actually returned to the monsterized Li En’s lust-clouded mind.
He stopped his approach and no longer just roared aimlessly.
His hideous dragon head tilted slightly, and a glint of the human Li En’s greed appeared in his vertical pupils.
He actually spoke in human tongue, though his voice was raspy and coarse.
“Sword Saint… Laura… Heh, the pillar of the Empire, the Azure Sword Maiden… is only this much, it seems.”
He swayed his thick dragon tail, striking the ground and sending stones flying. His posture was full of mockery and insult.
Laura endured the sharp pain, her cold gaze like a blade. “A beast that has abandoned human dignity and willingly become a puppet for power… I, Laura, was truly blind to think your talent was decent a few days ago, wasting my time to guide your swordsmanship.”
Every word was filled with ultimate contempt.
“Guide? Hahahaha!”
Li En acted as if he had heard the world’s biggest joke, laughing wildly. His laughter was full of madness and triumph.
“To think you are the grand Imperial Sword Saint! Having lived so long, can you still not see through the essence of this world?!”
His voice suddenly rose, carrying a type of hysterical excitement that echoed across the silent battlefield.
“Power! Only power is everything! Morals? Dignity? Companions? Bullshit! Those are all boring tricks used to bind the weak and flatter the strong!”
He opened his dragon claws, feeling the surging, seemingly endless, terrifying power within him. A pathological light flashed in his vertical pupils.
“So what if I’ve become a monster? Look at me now! How strong! How free! I can kill whoever I want! Whatever I want, I use this power to take! To snatch!”
His gaze, like a filthy brush, slowly swept over Laura and then moved past her, his greed landing without reservation on the terrified and angry faces of Sara and Emma in the back.
“It’s just a pity… that brat named Yize is already dead, isn’t he?” His tone was filled with malicious regret. “Otherwise, I would definitely make him watch while I use this new, powerful body to take you sluts who only have eyes for him, one by one…”
He paused intentionally, his dragon tongue licking over his fangs. His voice dropped lower, yet it was heard clearly by everyone.
“…and play with you, humiliate you, and then slowly kill you. I’d make him taste what it means to feel despair, to lose everything! Hahaha!”
“Shut up! You beast!” Sara was shaking with rage, her beautiful face frosty, her staff creaking from the force of her grip.
Emma’s face was deathly pale, her eyes filled with fear and extreme disgust. She subconsciously took a half-step back.
Killing intent almost materialized in Laura’s eyes, but her heavily injured body prevented her from exploding into action immediately.
Swan simply spat on the ground, her small face filled with unhidden loathing and anger. “Li En! You disgusting piece of trash! You pervert! You aren’t even fit to carry Senior Yize’s shoes! No, you aren’t even worth a single hair on his head! You only deserve to rot in the mud!”
Li En’s vertical pupils snapped toward Swan, his greedy gaze turning strange. He seemed to truly ‘see’ Swan for the first time—or rather, something on Swan’s person attracted him more clearly.
“Oh? I almost forgot about you, little sissy.” Li En’s voice carried a blood-curdling sense of investigation. “To be honest, I don’t have much ‘sexual’ interest in a girly guy like you.”
Before his voice even finished, his figure vanished from the spot!
In the next moment, he appeared beside Swan. With lightning speed, his dragon claw savagely seized Swan’s neck, lifting her entirely off the ground!
“Cough…!”
Swan was instantly suffocated. Her eyes widened, and her hands tried in vain to pry away the iron-clamp-like claws while her feet kicked helplessly in the air.
“However…” Li En brought his hideous dragon head close to Swan’s face, which was flushing from the lack of oxygen.
His vertical pupils stared at her intensely, his nostrils flared as if he were sniffing something. A light more intense and pure than his previous greed suddenly erupted in his eyes!
“There is something… on you… it smells good… something I need! I need it very, very much!”
He could clearly feel that within Swan’s body, there was a source of Dragon Power that was purer, more noble, and more alluring than the chaotic Dragon Blood within himself! If he could devour it…
‘Begone!!!’
A cold, majestic, and terrifyingly oppressive will exploded directly from the depths of Swan’s soul.
Following the path of Li En’s probing power, it slammed violently into the depths of his consciousness!
“Agh—!”
Li En felt as if he had been struck by lightning. The claw gripping Swan’s neck let go as if electrocuted, and he was blasted backward, flying over 100 meters before hitting the ground hard.
He stumbled back several more steps before barely managing to steady himself.
He lifted his dragon head, his vertical pupils filled with shock, confusion, and a trace of instinctive fear that had not yet dissipated.
He stared fixedly at Swan, who was slumped on the ground in the distance, coughing violently.
‘Just… just what was that?!’
His heart was shaking. In that split second, he felt as if he had seen a pair of indifferent, golden dragon eyes looking down on him with infinite majesty!
That single clash of wills had made his soul tremble, and even the arrogant, chaotic Dragon Power in his body froze for a moment!
Why… why would this girly kid have something so terrifying inside them?!
“Junior Swan! Are you okay?!”
Only now did Sara, Emma, and Luke react to the lightning-fast sneak attack. They rushed around Swan, their hearts still pounding.
Emma hurriedly began casting a Healing Spell on the clear, purple-black finger marks on Swan’s neck.
Swan sat on her knees, coughing as if her lungs would tear. Tears and snot were running down her face, and it took a while before she could catch her breath.
She shook her head weakly to indicate she was fine, while her heart was filled with gratitude toward Iguneel.
‘Iguneel… thank you…’
Iguneel let out a ‘hmpf’ in her consciousness, her tone still carrying lingering anger and disdain. ‘A filthy insect that doesn’t know the height of the heavens! After luckily stealing a trace of my dissipated power, he dares to covet my origin?’
‘He isn’t even afraid of being blown apart by my power.’
Li En, having regained his composure, quickly suppressed his fleeting fear. He rapidly adjusted his target priority.
First, kill the most eyesore and noisy one, Luke! Then, get rid of Dio, who always looked at him with those strange eyes! Afterward… capture Sara, Emma, Laura, and this little sissy Swan who was hiding a secret, and lock them all up!
He had plenty of time to ‘interrogate’ and ‘enjoy’ them slowly… especially that ‘thing’ inside Swan. He had to get his hands on it!
Thinking this, his vertical pupils, burning with desire and killing intent, slowly turned back toward Luke, who had just helped Swan up.
Luke met that gaze and felt a jolt run through his body. He was all too familiar with that look—Li En wanted to kill him again! He stepped back twice in terror, his legs starting to shake uncontrollably once more.
Just as the monsterized Li En was about to launch a fatal pounce toward Luke with a sneer—
Swan, on the other side, also had a flash of resolve in her eyes. She broke free from Emma’s supporting hand and stood firm.
She began to gather Dragon Power. Even if she was no match, even if she was exposed, she could not just stand by and watch her companions be killed!
However, at this critical juncture, a third power intervened!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three blood-colored figures, moving with extreme speed as if by prior agreement, formed a perfect triangle.
They surrounded the monsterized Li En, who was just about to pounce on Luke, right in the center!
Swan, who had been prepared to fight to the death, froze. The power she was gathering slowed down involuntarily.
Li En: “???”