Prologue

A gray sky, crimson clouds swirling. Along the layered edges of the clouds, lightning flickered. Waves of lightning surged swiftly across the heavens, yet not a sound could be heard.

At the summit of the Celestial Pillar, the great god Qiangliang gripped a stone axe, his foot pressed upon the freshly slain head of a venomous serpent, staring in astonishment at the sky. From the far east to the far west, nearly covering the entire firmament, a purple serpent’s tail was winding and moving at dizzying heights.

The serpent’s body was so enormous that neither its head nor tail could be seen, yet it blocked out the sky wherever the eye could reach.

Its body, obscuring heaven and sun, occasionally slipped into the clouds, blending with the crimson mass. When lightning struck the serpent’s body, a dreadful aura fell from the sky, pressing so heavily that Meng Ming, a hundred feet tall, grimaced and swayed.

“That terrifying woman has lost her temper again—who provoked her this time?!”

An ancient, three-legged cauldron, weathered and patinaed, descended slowly from the clouds. Inside, a thunderous boom erupted, and countless bolts of lightning surged outward. When the flashes faded, all anomalies had vanished—the gigantic serpent body in the sky disappeared without a trace.

…

The sky was dense with black clouds, and torrential rain lashed the earth, splashing up countless droplets.

A pyramid made of crystal glass blazed with light, illuminating the pitch-black night. Dozens of heavily armed men gripped their weapons, clad in raincoats, circling the pyramid with vigilance, their eyes scanning the surroundings.

Suddenly, the splashing raindrops began to leap rhythmically, like a heartbeat, each crystal droplet rising over a foot high. The falling threads of rain twisted and twined, forming dozens of silent water ropes that slipped around the necks of the armed guards.

With a violent jerk, the ropes snapped their necks before a single sound could escape.

A shadow, murky and indistinct within a shimmering water vortex, appeared abruptly, walking step by step toward the pyramid’s main entrance. With each step, the figure grew clearer, and by the time it reached the door, the misty silhouette had transformed into a transparent water-man.

With a slight tremor, the water-man suddenly changed. Tall and slender, clad in black, with sharp, handsome features, Azure Dragon revealed himself.

Countless water-ropes, writhing like frenzied snakes, burrowed into the pyramid through window cracks, slicing through every line in the security system as if they were razor-sharp blades. Sparks burst out, and only the pyramid’s lighting remained intact.

Pushing open the three-foot-thick crystal glass doors, Azure Dragon entered the exhibition hall.

Over a hundred crystal display stands stood silent under the dazzling lights. Around the perimeter, dozens of seated skeletons were arranged, and at the center, beneath a thick bulletproof glass shield, sat a human-head-sized cauldron entwined by dragons and phoenixes, shimmering in iridescent, near-transparent colors.

Azure Dragon approached a display on the outskirts, quietly observing a seated skeleton.

The bones resembled human skeletons, but were dark gold and semi-transparent, like glass, gleaming under the lights. If upright, each would stand well over two meters tall. Most striking of all, aside from the two black holes where eyes should be, a third, larger eye socket pierced the forehead.

“Three-eyed people?” Azure Dragon drew a dagger from his boot and tapped it against the skeleton.

The bone resounded with a metallic ring. The dagger, forged of special alloy and as hard as diamond, could not leave even a scratch. Azure Dragon’s expression grew solemn. Humanoid bones harder than diamond—these held unimaginable value.

“This trip was worth handling personally.” Azure Dragon turned and walked to the central display, smiling: “Hey, if you don’t show yourselves, I’ll just take these treasures back with me.”

The side door opened. A group of more than twenty men and women, clad in long black coats and surrounded by flames, lightning, hurricanes, and other supernatural phenomena, emerged. Leading them was a cold, stern young woman, tall and slender, golden-haired and blue-eyed, holding a strangely shaped jade sword.

“Mr. Azure Dragon, your reputation precedes you,” she said, bowing slightly. “Over the years, more than a hundred of our colleagues have fallen by your hand—including three previous directors of Special Operations. Yet, astonishingly, we are seeing your true face for the first time.”

“Oh, that’s not really important. I’m not particularly handsome!” Azure Dragon joked, pressing his right hand to the bulletproof glass. His palm twitched, and the two-foot-thick glass shattered into countless grains.

“My God!” The group behind the woman gasped, recoiling in shock. They had heard tales that Azure Dragon, the Eastern champion, was the strongest human alive—but never imagined he could be so powerful!

Two feet of specialized bulletproof glass, impervious even to tank shells, shattered with a casual blow? This power was beyond their imagination—could humans truly become so strong?

Lifting the three-legged cauldron in both hands, a strange sensation welled up within him. Holding the cauldron, Azure Dragon felt as if he were cradling the entire universe.

He carefully tucked it into a pouch at his waist and smiled: “These treasures come from my country’s ancient Liangzhu City. I must reclaim them. As per our rules, might makes right—surely you have no objections to me recovering my nation’s artifacts?”

The young woman smiled softly at Azure Dragon. “Mr. Azure Dragon, perhaps you’d be interested in some of our research findings on these mysterious relics? You may not have guessed—the soil layers burying them, according to our measurements, are over a hundred thousand years old.”

Azure Dragon instinctively touched his pouch. Artifacts from a hundred thousand years ago? Humanity then was still hunting and gathering, weren’t they? Could they truly craft such exquisite, mysterious objects?

With a flourish, the girl revealed her jade sword.

Three feet long and the width of a palm, the sword was carved from a single block of jade. Near the hilt was a strange emblem—a tall tower with a vertical, blood-red eye suspended above it, staring at Azure Dragon with a chilling, sinister aura.

“We tested this sword, carved from Hetian sheep-fat jade. Everyone knows sheep-fat jade is a soft stone, very fine in texture,” the woman smiled. “But whether natural diamond or the hardest alloys synthesized in our lab, it slices through them as easily as cutting tofu.”

She twirled the sword and smiled, “With it, I personally cleaved a strategic bomber in two—from two kilometers away, with my strength, I could split a bomber. If you wielded this sword, Mr. Azure Dragon, I truly cannot imagine its destructive power.”

Azure Dragon’s expression changed again. The girl and her followers were insignificant to him—a mere blow could destroy them. But if the sword truly possessed such power, escaping today might be impossible.

“So, this place was a trap all along?” Azure Dragon rotated his neck, loosening his joints.

“We simply wanted the chance for a face-to-face negotiation,” the woman said with a charming smile. “You have caused us immense losses these past years. We hope you’ll join us. My position, even my superior’s position—if you ask, it’s yours.”

“As exchange, we want your complete loyalty—and your creation, the Nine-Syllable Mantra Elixir Scripture!” As she uttered these words, her own breath and that of her followers grew wild and uneven.

The Nine-Syllable Mantra was an unparalleled secret art, unlocking human potential, connecting with the universe’s mysterious forces, wielding unimaginable power.

Azure Dragon’s unique Elixir Scripture, founded on this mantra, was his own creation. With it, he commanded earth, water, fire, and wind, traversed the world unseen, and was famed as the strongest human alive.

“Of course, that’s impossible!” Azure Dragon patted his pouch and grinned strangely. “You know my reputation—I am known for vengeance, and also for never betraying my ancestors!”

With a wild laugh, Azure Dragon’s body flickered, splitting into dozens of afterimages, unleashing countless razor-sharp wind blades upon the girl and her entourage. The afterimages and wind blades whirled into a hazy vortex, engulfing the entire pyramid hall.

The girl sighed, shaking her head in resignation. “I knew it would come to this—but those damned fools in command insisted on wasting their efforts!”

With a cold sneer, she drew out a golden bamboo slip and hurled it overhead. Thunder exploded in the sky. Nearly a hundred seated skeletons’ dark eye sockets erupted with bloody light.

The bloody radiance gathered into a sea, and with a humming sound, transformed into a massive crimson shield, imprisoning Azure Dragon within.

Countless afterimages and wind blades struck the barrier, but it remained unmoved—while the afterimages and blades shattered like eggs against stone.

Lightning and thunder raged overhead—the black clouds suddenly transformed into overlapping scales, rippling with electric light. Thunderbolts exploded across the sky, each more earth-shattering than the last.

Shouts echoed from the streets below, night travelers looking skyward, glimpsing through the thick clouds the outline of a vast writhing serpent.

Inside the pyramid, Azure Dragon knelt in misery, blood pouring from his body. Within the blood-red barrier, ninety-nine crimson spears hovered, silently pointing at him. Dozens of wounds pierced his limbs and organs, each impaled by a blood-colored spear.

“Damn it, do these ancient things really wield such power?” The girl clutched the golden slip, shrieking in excitement: “Azure Dragon, do you see? The strongest human—still helpless before us!”

“These skeletons and this bamboo slip, like the three-legged cauldron, all come from the same place! A hundred thousand-year-old relic! Incredible—according to the instructions on the slip, arranging these bones in this peculiar pattern truly unleashes god-slaying power!” The girl laughed hysterically.

“What the hell is this?” Azure Dragon roared, struggling to lift his head.

“The slip records an ancient formation. Its exact name—I’m sorry, our linguists haven’t deciphered it yet!” She shrugged, helpless. “But these bones—they are called…”

A purple bolt of wild lightning struck from the sky, straight onto the crystal pyramid.

All the glass instantly vaporized. The girl and her followers were obliterated in an instant. The three-legged cauldron in Azure Dragon’s pouch emitted a faint iridescent glow, enveloping him entirely. Azure Dragon howled madly, his body convulsing as the cauldron extracted his blood, the essence of his organs, and even his soul.

All around, the three-eyed skeletons raised their hands, as if striking back at the sky. The blood light from their eyes coalesced into a giant crimson dragon, clawing at the purple lightning.

The purple lightning descended, the bloody dragon dissolved, and all ninety-nine skeletons shook violently and exploded into golden dust.

The purple lightning wrapped around Azure Dragon. Endless thunder poured from the sky, dissolving everything within a mile. The lightning compressed into a head-sized sphere, and finally, with a flash, all was calm.

The plaza where the pyramid had stood was utterly annihilated—nothing remained.