“What is your relationship with the Dragon Race?” Xu Zimo asked.
One must know, the Nine Heavens were different from the Primordial Heartlands.
On the Primordial Heartlands, most of the Dragon Race had already perished at the hands of the Sky Shroud War God. Those who survived were few, perhaps only the Dragon Tree in Xu Zimo’s God World.
That Dragon Tree bloomed and bore fruit, giving birth to millions of dragons.
But in the Nine Heavens, the Dragon Race was one of the Eight Lower Beast Races of the Azure Mystic Heaven, extremely powerful and untouchable by ordinary beings.
The dragons that appeared nowadays were often false dragons, creatures with fragmented traces of true dragon blood, or impure hybrids.
Some even cultivated techniques modeled after dragons, allowing them to manifest dragon forms like the Dragon Guards earlier. Yet these, too, were not true dragons.
After all, true dragons would never appear in the Mortal Ascension Heaven.
Among the Sixteen Beast Races, the emergence of a fierce Roaring Beast like the Elder Fiend was already a miracle of the ages.
“That is not something you should concern yourself with,” the Dragon Maiden said coldly.
“It seems you hold some resentment toward the Dragon Race,” Xu Zimo said with a faint smile.
The Dragon Maiden said nothing. The Torch Dragon Staff in her hand slowly spun, and from within came the low, resonant roar of a true dragon.
Boundless dragon might burst forth, stirring waves that surged through the entire sea.
As one of the Grand Thousand Treasures, ranked twenty-ninth, the Torch Dragon Staff’s power was beyond question.
Artifacts of the Grand Thousand Treasures were very rare in the Mortal Ascension Heaven.
Their near-infinite power was not limited to offense; many possessed defensive or self-enhancing properties, or mysterious effects beyond comprehension.
The Torch Dragon Staff blazed with golden light, transforming into a rushing torrent that struck straight at Xu Zimo.
Xu Zimo gripped Shadow Tyrant, his body surrounded by the Nomological Truth of Water, and slashed forward.
With a thunderous boom, torrents exploded in all directions. The water itself shattered, two dull shockwaves resounding one after another.
Xu Zimo staggered back several steps, while the Torch Dragon Staff returned to the Dragon Maiden’s grasp.
With a sharp cry, her aura surged upward like a rainbow piercing the sun, limitless and unstoppable.
Her power had already surpassed the level of a Grand Emperor of the fifth stage.
“A Saint Sovereign?” Xu Zimo frowned slightly, then shook his head. “No… a Saint Sovereign’s soul transcends even the divine, gaining independent consciousness and self-growth. Their life and death souls can exist outside the body, so even if their God Soul perishes, they remain undying.”
But what he sensed from her wasn’t that.
The energy the Dragon Maiden wielded was Primal Dao.
Everyone knew, a Grand Emperor comprehends Nomological Truths, a Saint Sovereign forges Primal Dao, and an Infinite Dao cultivator shakes the Primordial Edicts themselves.
The power of Primal Dao indeed belonged to a Saint Sovereign.
Yet the Primal Daos of a Saint Sovereign differed from those of a Nirvana Void cultivator.
On the Primordial Heartlands, stepping into the Zenith Immortal realm in the Path of Immortality marked the beginning of the Nirvana Void Realm, when one could grasp Primal Daos.
But those were the Primal Daos of the Primordial Heartlands.
A true Saint Sovereign, however, cultivated the Primal Daos of the Nine Heavens, a vast and higher world.
Between the two, the difference was not merely one of magnitude, but of essence.
The Dragon Maiden was wielding Primal Dao, yet her foundation had not reached that of a Saint Sovereign.
There was only one explanation, she was a Pseudo-Saint.
What was a Pseudo-Saint?
One who comprehended Primal Dao but had not undergone the Heavenly Tribulation required for sainthood.
Their law had not been recognized by Heaven and Earth.
Thus, they could only be called a Pseudo-Saint.
“Interesting,” Xu Zimo smiled. “No wonder you dared to wager with me. Aside from Saint Sovereign Brahma, you must be the closest one in this realm to true sainthood.”
“Enough talk. Fight,” the Dragon Maiden said coldly.
She wielded the Torch Dragon Staff like a divine war goddess clad in armor, charging straight toward Xu Zimo.
From the staff poured not only immense dragon might, but also a mysterious power, one that seemed to counteract demonic energy itself.
Wherever this power flowed, the surrounding demonic energy melted away like snow under spring sunlight.
“The Art of Subduing Demons!”
The Dragon Maiden’s voice rang out as she swept her staff, her aura surging mightily.
Her blows came down like thunder, pressing Xu Zimo onto the defensive.
Even when Xu Zimo invoked the War God’s Power, momentarily elevating himself to the Sovereign Lord stage of the Grand Emperor Realm, he still could not gain the upper hand.
The Heaven-Unity Three-Lives Gates opened within him, power circulating endlessly through his body.
Their figures streaked across the depths of the North Sea, the entire ocean trembling with their battle.
Xu Zimo’s Nineteen Forms of Dao-Seeking evolved continuously, each move sharper than the last.
Even so, the pressure on him remained immense.
The clash between Nomological Truths and Primal Daos was not merely a difference of strength, it was a difference of reality itself.
“Yield,” the Dragon Maiden said evenly. “You have no chance of victory.”
“Not yet a Saint Sovereign, and already so arrogant?” Xu Zimo laughed.
His curved blade clashed against the Torch Dragon Staff again, waves of energy rippling outward.
“One of the Ten Primordial God-Scriptures, Aryan Swastika God-Seal!”
Xu Zimo held his blade in his right hand, forming a sacred seal with his left.
A massive golden卍 sigil manifested, surging forward toward the Dragon Maiden.
The Dragon Maiden countered with her own palm strike.
“Dragon Hidden Within Palm!”
A golden dragon burst forth from her hand, colliding with the Aryan Swastika God-Seal.
Thunder roared!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Waves exploded, shaking the sea for billions of miles.
Both figures were forced backward by the impact.
“Azure Dragon Spirit Infusion!” the Dragon Maiden shouted.
With a sweep of her arm, a long azure dragon flew from her hand and fused into the Torch Dragon Staff.
Dragon cries echoed through the ocean, their might radiant and supreme.
“Battle!”
Like a war goddess unyielding to any man, the Dragon Maiden charged again, her staff entwined with living dragons.
Each strike carried the spirit of the dragon itself.
Xu Zimo’s eyes narrowed, hundreds of billions of Power Vortexes of the Heaven-Shattering God-Scripture within his body spinning wildly.
The azure dragon’s advance was unstoppable, its aura suffused with the power to suppress all beneath Heaven.
One strike of her staff lifted ten thousand waves, overturning the entire sea.
Xu Zimo rose above the North Sea, his feet stepping lightly on the water’s surface.
The Dragon Maiden pursued him relentlessly, within the ocean, she was unmatched, moving like water itself.
“Ten Forms of Demon, Third Form: Terrestrial Demon. The embodiment of all calamities.”
Xu Zimo raised both hands, summoning the disasters of nature.
In the ocean, the greatest disaster was, of course, the tsunami.
With a wave, the entirety of the North Sea erupted in furious motion.
The waves rose like mountains, threatening to swallow the world.
Above, thunderclouds gathered, purple lightning streaked across the heavens, crashing down into the sea.
The force of nature, unstoppable by man.
The tsunami roared forth, engulfing the Dragon Maiden.
Her gaze remained calm as she raised her hand once more. A massive water dragon coiled around her, born from the sea itself.
“Sea Dragon Guard! Flame Dragon Descent!”
From the thunderous clouds above, a crimson dragon of fire emerged, roaring as it descended upon Xu Zimo.
At the same moment, the tsunami surged toward the Dragon Maiden.
The Sea Dragon met the wave, and the Flame Dragon struck Xu Zimo.
The ocean surface exploded in chaos.
The shockwave spread for tens of millions of kilometers, shaking the entire North Sea. Billions of sea creatures perished in an instant.
When the deafening explosion finally faded, silence fell once more.
Neither Xu Zimo nor the Dragon Maiden could be seen.
Far away, millions of kilometers from the battlefield, the two had already clashed once more, rising into the sky, then plunging back into the depths of the sea.