MMB Chapter 540 - 528: The Dragon’s Roar!
Chapter 540 - 528: The Dragon’s Roar!
Seeing Lai Zhuge stunned and hearing the other Magicians’ astonished cries, Hua Xiaotian knew without guessing that these reinforcements had run into trouble. He smiled bitterly. I had thought these Masters could use their specialized expertise to create an opening. But now, it seems they might perish before their mission is even underway!
"Gentlemen, please retreat to the riverbank! Let me test the waters!" Hua Xiaotian, also hovering above the river, called out to Lai Zhuge and the others.
The moment his words fell...
GURGLE! GURGLE! GURGLE!
Those eerie gurgling sounds, absent for over an hour, started up again—incredibly loud and urgent. In the next second, the entire surface of the river began to bubble. The *entire* river! At a glance, it looked like a boiling cauldron of volcanic magma.
"Retreat! Retreat, quickly!" Feeling a formidable aura instantly saturate the entire riverbed, Hua Xiaotian roared in panic.
Without needing an order from Lai Zhuge, the Evil Spirit Zen Stick, which had sensed the danger first, was already flying back toward the riverbank. As for the others, they turned pale and scrambled back in a panic the moment Hua Xiaotian shouted. In an instant, Hua Xiaotian was the only one left hovering over the vast river.
Beneath his feet, the river’s gurgling and bubbling grew faster and more violent, as if the entire Qiantang River was about to be overturned. Feeling that boundless aura swell, Hua Xiaotian’s mind suddenly fell into a state of deathly calm.
Was it dangerous? Extremely. Did he know that? Of course. But what he knew even better was that no matter how dangerous it was, he, Hua Xiaotian, could not retreat! Because he was the director of the Guardian Institute!
His aura rapidly coalesced around him as the bones throughout his body began to emit a series of sharp cracks. At this moment, Hua Xiaotian prepared to fight to the death.
Just then, a world-shaking, soul-crushing cry erupted from the depths of the river! That one cry jolted countless people from their sleep within a radius of hundreds of miles from the Qiantang River. It sent countless infants into fits of terrified, inconsolable crying. It drove livestock into a frenzy of panicked howling and scurrying!
The group of Magicians and Guardian Institute members on the riverbank were thrown back several steps by the force of the cry. Some of the less experienced cultivators collapsed, their legs giving out. A deafening ring, as if from a powerful blow, left them all momentarily deaf. Terror filled every face, and beneath their deathly pallor, an instinctive urge to flee began to surface.
At the center of this sonic storm, Hua Xiaotian clenched his jaw, but the violent trembling of his facial muscles betrayed his struggle.
A single cry possessed such terrifying power. One can only imagine how monstrous the creature in the riverbed must be! Damn it! What in the world is this thing?! he roared internally.
Before Hua Xiaotian could compose himself...
WHOOSH!
ROAR!
In the next second, the bubbling river suddenly erupted, sending waves several meters high crashing toward the riverbank! The overwhelming force was like a sky-blotting cataclysm. This was the prelude to disaster.
"Damn it, disperse!" His clenched fists flew open as Hua Xiaotian let out a hysterical roar. The Gang Jin in his body erupted outward without reservation.
CRASH!
Struck by his unrestrained wave of Gang Jin, the towering waves paused mid-charge. Unable to withstand the force, they collapsed and fell back into the river.
On the riverbank, everyone who witnessed this swallowed hard. The terror on their faces, far from subsiding, only intensified. Had those monstrous waves continued relentlessly toward the riverbank, what would the consequences have been? No one dared to imagine it; no one wanted to.
As the ringing in their ears finally subsided, a single thought arose in everyone’s mind. Given the dragon-like cry, could the creature causing trouble in the river be a legendary Demon Dragon? Everyone, from the Guardian Institute members to the Magicians, began to suspect it was the mythical Demon Dragon.
CRY!!!
The great wave had just been dissipated by Hua Xiaotian’s Gang Jin when another cry vibrated up from the riverbed. Fortunately, this cry lacked the ferocious, destructive power of the first. His mind trembled for only a moment before stabilizing. Hua Xiaotian’s deeply solemn and tense expression shifted, taking on a grim, tragic resolve—the look of a man embarking on a fatal mission.
The sense of dread was far more intense than when he had faced Orochi in Japan! Back then, Qin Fan had been there, and he himself had been a mere spectator throughout that battle. This time, however, he was fighting alone.
Fixing his gaze on the source of the cry, Hua Xiaotian descended from mid-air. He then shot across the water’s surface, dashing toward the sound’s origin.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Under the influence of his Gang Jin, the river surface beneath his feet instantly froze over wherever he passed.
In just a few fleeting breaths, Hua Xiaotian, having dashed hundreds of meters, suddenly soared up. As he leaped into the air, he extended his right arm, channeling all of his Gang Jin into his hand. Forming a Qi Blade, he raised it high and brought it down in a ferocious chop toward the river’s surface!
There was a moment of silence as the Qi Blade, saturated with Gang Jin, fell.
BOOM!
The blade of energy tore the river’s surface apart, and the fierce, formidable power plunged deep into the water below.
HISSSS!
A thin, straight curtain of water erupted from where the Qi Blade had struck, soaring several meters high in a spectacular display. But the wall of water contained no trace of blood. This caused Hua Xiaotian’s tense expression to darken.
No blood, no other disturbance... it means my all-out attack missed. It completely missed!
As the wall of water collapsed, before Hua Xiaotian could prepare a second attack, a vortex began to form on the river surface not far from him.
WHIRRR!
It spun faster and tighter with each passing moment.
WHIZZ! WHIZZ! WHIZZ!
In the blink of an eye, the vortex exploded into a sky full of water droplets that shot toward Hua Xiaotian like deadly projectiles. Faced with this sudden onslaught, Hua Xiaotian dared not be careless and reflexively dodged.
However, just as he began to dodge, a giant wave surged up without warning! Through the misty spray of the wave, a shadow leaped forth. It was a blood-red creature, over ten meters long, covered in gleaming scales. It had whiskers sprouting from its head and four powerful limbs. Riding the crest of the immense wave, it shot him a glance filled with utter contempt.
While Hua Xiaotian was still evading the barrage of water droplets, it gave a slight twitch of its body. Instantly, its hard, red-scaled form swept toward him.