Edited by RED

Xu Qi couldn’t handle it anymore, and backed off silently. He sensed the terrifying might contained within the crimson flames; they were more than sufficient to reduce him to less than ash!!

On the other hand, the horned black dragon quickly materialized an armored carapace made of ice on itself after seeing the flames. The ice armor firmly secured its gigantic body, and even covered its long, slim tail!

The crimson flames fell upon and enveloped the horned dragon. However, the flames stopped spreading out upon contact with the rainbow energy wall. Xu Qi, who was hiding in a corner, let out a sigh of relief.

The dragon let out a roar from within the sea of flames. Immediately after, layers of blue mist appeared, and transformed into icicles in midair. The flames then slowly faded away, until they vanished completely.

The horned dragon, still covered in its ice armor, turned around and roared, “Gaudy bird! You’re sneak-attacking me again!? Your daddy here will pluck out all your feathers today!”

Follow the dragon’s roar, a human figure covered in flames slowly landed on the ground as the ice around it gradually melted. Curiosity got the better of Xu Qi, and he inched closer in front to observe. There was the rainbow seal separating them, anyway.

“Say, Blackie, it’s been so many years, and we’re considered living under the same roof, too. Can’t you speak nicely?” a delicate voice rang out. The flames covering the figure receded, revealing a petite figure. The figure was actually a woman, and she looked extremely out of place standing in front of the horned dragon. Xu Qi was still quite a distance away from them and couldn’t see her appearance clearly.

“Don’t give me that! You’re even acting flirty and pretending to be human today! Do you think I don’t know it’s because you sensed someone else here? And what about asking me to speak nicely? Since when have you ever spoken nicely to me in all these years!? It was always you who sneak-attacked me while I was resting! If I didn’t have some methods of my own, I’d be long dead thanks to you!” the horned dragon rebuked, and swept its tail at the woman.

“Oh my, you’re forcing this lady’s hand! Fine, I’ll burn you to a crisp!” the woman said and suddenly leapt up, transforming into a huge bird enveloped in crimson flames, and flew at the horned dragon.

A woman? No, a female?1 Could she be the Vermilion Bird?, Xu Qi thought. The huge flaming bird looked exactly like the bird illustration on the stone door outside and he immediately realized the likeliness of her being the Divine Beast, Vermilion Bird. He then shifted his gaze onto the horned dragon. It seems like this is the same as the Black Tortoise Cavern; the dragon was sealed in here to restrict the Vermilion Bird, preventing her from breaking the seal. Though, who knows what exactly this horned dragon is?

Then again, Xu Qi couldn’t fathom where and how did Venerable Ziyan found so many mysterious monsters to deal with the Four Divinities.

While Xu Qi was thinking, the bird and dragon beyond the seal began their chaotic battle. The huge bird enveloped in crimson flames flew to the horned dragon’s side and kept attacking with its talons. Although the bird was huge in size, it was incredibly agile in its movements, the horned dragon was obviously slower. In just a short while, the flaming bird’s talons left several deep claw marks on the horned dragon’s ice armor.

At this moment, blue-colored mist wafted above the horned dragon’s ice armor. Even though Xu Qi was some distance away, he heard cracking sounds from the mist. It was obviously due to the extremely low temperature forming ice from the atmosphere.

Seeing this, the flaming bird quickly flapped its wings to put some distance between them. However, the horned dragon was unwilling to let up and opened its jaws wide, spitting out a huge ice spear at the flaming bird.

The fiery bird wasn’t slow to react, either, and fluttered its wings, quickly forming a fire wall in front of it to defend against the ice spear.

At the same time, the horned dragon rushed up to the ice spear and grabbed it with its claw, stabbing repeatedly at the fiery bird. From Xu Qi’s perspective, it looked to be a powerful style of spearmanship.

The fiery bird dodged the spear thrusts with difficulty and spat out a glowing, spherical object. Three identical flaming birds appeared around it out of thin air and flew at the horned dragon.

Seeing this, the horned dragon immediately abandoned its ice spear and started running away with long strides. As it ran, it kept turning back to look at the three fire birds in fear, and even attempted to flap its featherless wings to try to take flight, although it turned out to be unsuccessful.

Soon, the three fire birds struck the horned dragon and exploded. Xu Qi’s expression turned grave after feeling the energy ripple from their explosions. It was too powerful; if Xu Qi hadn’t defended against the resulting shockwave cautiously, he would have, in the best case scenario, suffered grave injuries from it.

As for the horned dragon, its armor was only cracked in several places after being hit by the three fire birds. It looked at the fiery bird furiously and yelled, “You damned gaudy bird, you’re going at it seriously! Your daddy here won’t go easy on you today, either! Icicle of Origin - Nine Dragons Extermination!”

Following the horned dragon’s voice, nine translucent blue dragons slowly came into existence behind it. They were slightly smaller in size, flying towards the fiery bird.

“Oh my, Blackie, are you going all out on me? You’re even using the Icicle of Origin! Am I a pushover to you?! Eternal Flames - World Incineration!” the fiery bird immediately responded. Immediately after, the flames around her turned blue and were quickly shaped into a fiery bird that was twice its caster’s size, flying towards the nine little conjured dragons.

When the flaming blue bird and the nine little dragons collided, it didn’t result in any explosion. Instead, they disappeared with a whizz. Immediately after, a horrifying wave of energy swept outwards. The nine little dragons and the flaming blue bird vanished, and the horned dragon and fiery bird were sent flying by the resulting shockwave. The horned dragon was thrown deeper into the cavern, while the fiery bird slammed heavily against the incorporeal rainbow seal and dropped to the ground.

Xu Qi was dumbstruck at seeing this. It was too stunning! Even if this fiery bird was the Vermilion Bird, that move alone made Xu Qi realize that he had never felt such sensation from the Black Tortoise. It was too powerful! On the other hand, Xu Qi was shocked by that mysterious horned dragon, too. Although the nine little dragons were small in size, the force it contained was incredibly powerful. Just one of those could easily decimate him!

Xu Qi looked at the fiery bird that had fallen in front of the rainbow seal. The crimson flames on her slowly receded, and she gradually transformed back into that beautiful figure.

Xu Qi flew over to the transformed figure and asked from beyond the rainbow seal, “Are you alright?”

Hearing this, the woman forcefully brought herself up into a sitting position, allowing Xu Qi to take a better look at her appearance.

This woman looked pale, without a hint of healthy pink on her face. Her eyes weren’t big, but they gave off a bright and intelligent feeling. Her nose was high, and her lips small. The most prominent feature of hers was the flaming flower mark on her forehead. Of course, Xu Qi also took notice of the twin peaks on her chest, his gaze lingered on them for a moment too long.

“Cough cough, who are you? And why did you come here?” the woman asked.

Xu Qi thought for a moment and spoke of the Black Tortoise’s name, “Do you know of Ye Guangji?” Black Tortoise had told him before that less than five people in this world knew of his name, and the remaining three Divine Beasts were among them. Thus, Xu Qi mentioned it to test the waters, to see if this woman before him was indeed the Vermilion Bird of legends!

“Hmm? You, who exactly are you?! How did you know of Brother Black Tortoise’s name? Where is he?!” the woman asked urgently after hearing that.

“Alright, you know of Uncle’s name, and even addressed him as Big Brother. It seems like you are indeed the Vermilion Bird, Deity Ling Guang, eh?” Xu Qi chuckled.

“Uncle? That’s right, I am Ling Guang. Who exactly are you? How did you get in here? Where is the cavern guardian, Venerable Ziyan?” the woman admitted to being Deity Ling Guang, the Vermillion Bird straightforwardly, but immediately asked about Venerable Ziyan.

Xu Qi was about to reply to her when he saw the huge horned dragon walking towards them unsteadily.

“That horned fellow is coming this way. It looks powerful; who is it?” Xu Qi asked.

Hearing this, the Vermilion Bird glanced toward the horned dragon and smiled, “Ordinary people will not recognize this guy. Its name is the Ice-Armored Horned Dragon. In the ancient times, Deity Han Huang naturalized into Mishan, his corpse turned into innumerous monsters. The first monster to appear from it, which was also the most ferocious, was the Ice-Armored Horned Dragon. This demonic dragon’s entire body was encased in an impregnable armor of ice. An enormous amount of magical power gathered in its horn, and the Ice-Armored Horned Dragon caused severe damage to the surrounding region. Subsequently, Deity Han Huang reincarnated into an ordinary girl, and while the various outstanding cultivators of the time were hunting for the demonic dragon in the western region of Mishan, she turned a bone needle into a godly weapon, sealing the dragon in the mountains. From then on, the dragon vanished from the world, and peace returned. But due to some unknown circumstances, the demonic dragon was brought here by Venerable Ziyan. The dragon has an affinity to the element of ice, while I am fire. Moreover, we’ve had some minor grudges since the ancient era, and we’ve fought each other in this cavern until now.”

“The Ice-Armored Horned Dragon? I haven’t heard of it before, but it looked really powerful while it fought against you. I have only seen dragons like these spit fire, and never knew of any that spat ice. This is my first time seeing one,” Xu Qi told her, rather puzzled.

Although Xu Qi said that, he was pondering whether the Ice-Armored Horned Dragon was a jackal of the same tribe as the Ominous Beast, Primal Chaos, seeing as it looked to be some vicious monster.

1: Xu Qi is referring to her as a female animal.