Lu Xingzhou’s rescue was a spontaneous act. If he had thought it through, he might not have moved at all.

Because if he didn’t intervene, Long Qinghuang’s dragon body was extraordinary; she wouldn’t have sustained serious injuries from Pudu’s attack, certainly far less severe than his own, and her recovery ability was incomparable to his. At most, it would have led to the failure of the Battle of Shengshan, but Long Qinghuang could still have retreated and returned another day. As for a small fry like him, it would have taken his life to even attempt to block that attack. Was it comparable? Was it worth it?

However, instinctive actions are not controlled by reason. With his woman in danger, no man would be able to calmly weigh the pros and cons; he would instinctively spring into action. It was only at this moment that Lu Xingzhou recognized that his feelings for Long Qinghuang were no longer just about taming her or running away. He knew how good Long Qinghuang was to him. A heart could be warmed.

And facts proved that Lu Xingzhou’s rescue was far more significant than he realized. Previously, Long Qinghuang’s inability to move was a classic symptom of being caught in a spiritual battle, momentarily unable to focus on anything else. Long Qinghuang’s cultivation was specialized; otherwise, with a body a hundred times stronger than Ye Tinglan’s, why would she still consider her overall strength slightly inferior to Ye Tinglan’s? It was because her spiritual cultivation was a relative weakness, and her understanding of Xuanmen profound techniques was relatively poor, especially in areas like qi observation for divination, Fengshui ley lines, alchemy, and talisman crafting, where she was basically inept. This had nothing to do with age; if she didn’t know, she didn’t know. If the supposedly all-rounder Ye Tinglan were to forge a body like hers, Ye Tinglan wouldn’t know how either. Previously, the demon realm mostly relied on the assistance of demons from Shengshan for these projects, but what if Shengshan was the enemy?

When a cool breeze brushed the back of her neck and Long Qinghuang reached back to grab, Sanskrit chants simultaneously filled her ears. It was as if a grand bell echoed in her heart, and countless Buddhist chants resounded through her soul sea. The voice of a divine being questioned from the void: “Long Qinghuang, do you admit your sin?” This was no ordinary divine voice… it seemed to carry dragon intent.

Long Qinghuang seemed to see a golden dragon emerging through the clouds, an ancient aura permeating the air. A profound sense of touch and reverence, stemming from her bloodline, spontaneously arose within her. Was that… an ancient ancestor becoming a Buddha? So ancient dragons also believed in Buddhism? Was it really like the Eight Legions of Devas and Nāgas?

“What sin have I committed?” Long Qinghuang responded coldly.

“Since your ascension, our dragon clan has decreased by twenty percent. Even other clans, after being defeated in battle and massacred, have not suffered losses as severe as those under your rule. Is this not a sin?”

Long Qinghuang fell silent. Although this was caused by manipulation, and the origin might not even have started with her, it could have begun even earlier. But it did indeed run through her entire reign since her ascension, and as the Dragon Emperor, she was undeniably responsible.

“It is my fault,” Long Qinghuang frankly admitted. “It’s never too late to mend the fold after the sheep are lost. I am already working on solving this problem.”

“It’s good that you know your mistake. This is the first sin.”

Long Qinghuang did not argue. In reality, this was a subtle form of spiritual invasion, starting with directions that she found reasonable to gain her approval. Once the first step was approved, subsequent steps would lead to increasing brainwashing, drawing her deeper into its mental trap. When Long Qinghuang “confessed,” the mental suggestion had already taken effect.

The dragon’s voice continued, “Disregarding Buddhist teachings, disrespecting the Buddha, wantonly engaging in conflict, and defiling Shengshan, are these not sins?”

If she were to logically debate this under normal circumstances, Long Qinghuang would realize that her campaign against Shengshan was precisely to rectify the first sin. Yet, here, the two were separated, making it seem as if the first sin was entirely her fault, and her campaign against Shengshan became her second sin. But under the influence of mental spellcraft, it was difficult to distinguish such a logical trap at once. Once she started to doubt herself about the campaign against Shengshan, her mind would become even more chaotic.

Long Qinghuang’s mind indeed failed to break free from the spell’s influence and couldn’t distinguish the logical trap. But after a moment of silence, her answer was, “So what?”

The dragon’s voice: “?” It was caught off guard by her response.

“I am the Demon Emperor, sweeping across thousands of miles, scourging the world. Let alone a mere mountain and a few bald monks who dare to conspire against me and collude with rebels… even the Emperor of Gan and the Heavenly Sovereign of Tianyao, I will defeat them sooner or later, herd horses in Gan Du, and raise eagles in Tianyao. Gods and Buddhas? I will not revere them. What will you do? If this is a sin, who can judge me!”

The dragon’s voice: “??”

“You are an ancestor of the dragon clan; I can give you some face when discussing the reproduction of the dragon clan, and allow you to judge my merits and demerits. However, if you were to return to the Dragon Court, you would merely be a subordinate standing at my feet. Who gave you the confidence to think you could judge me on external affairs?”

The spiritual exchange seemed lengthy, but in reality, it was completed the moment of contact. At this time, Pudu was returning from the empty sky, striking at Long Qinghuang’s back ribs. Long Qinghuang clearly knew someone was attacking, but due to the ongoing spiritual battle that she couldn’t break free from, she was momentarily unable to divert her attention. She only planned to endure the blow with her strong body and then deal with it. At the same time, her spirit also exerted more force, attempting to violently break through the spell directly.

In fact, this led her into the second layer of Shengshan’s trap. Although Pudu and his group hadn’t expected Long Qinghuang’s method of breaking the mental guidance to be like this… they also hadn’t expected a single layer of spell guidance to solve an opponent of Long Qinghuang’s caliber, a ceiling-level expert of this era. Thus, they had secretly laid a second effect – using Shengshan’s ley line characteristics to trigger the berserk factor within the demon clan’s genes. Once Long Qinghuang entertained the thought of a violent breakthrough, combined with the irritation and rage of being ambushed and injured at such a time, the inherent berserk factors would be increasingly stimulated by the spell, gradually leading to a loss of reason. Therefore, their attacks, from beginning to end, were aimed at the inverse scale, specifically to induce the dragon clan’s fury.

When an intelligent being loses its reason, no matter how powerful, it no longer poses much threat in the eyes of experienced cultivators. They could even guide the berserk Dragon Emperor to go on a dragon-slaying rampage, which would be a complete victory.

The bad news was that this attack was blocked… the Dragon Emperor was not injured, so the desired berserk outcome was not achieved. The good news was… the Dragon Emperor still went berserk.

“Roar!” A earth-shattering dragon roar erupted as Long Qinghuang’s true form manifested. The surrounding mountains were directly exploded by her transformation; several peaks were leveled, the ground sank, and the sky tilted. No matter what Fengshui or ley line power, its effect was halved when several mountains were razed.

At the same time, a berserk and utterly unreasonable spiritual impact violently tore through the spell illusion. A small cuckoo phantom shrieked into existence from the void, its image becoming increasingly faint, then darting directly towards a certain spot within the mountain, unable to survive under the dragon’s might. One force breaks ten thousand!

The dragon’s eyes looked back. Pudu, who was fleeing frantically, felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. He instinctively looked back and saw the blood-red dragon eyes in mid-air, like a crimson sunset.

“You… are courting death!”

With the incredibly violent dragon roar, the massive body of the dozens-of-zhang golden dragon moved faster than lightning, swiftly sweeping over Pudu. By the time it left, only a mangled, headless corpse remained on the ground, while a bald head was clutched in the soaring dragon claw in mid-air, its eyes still wide open, frozen in disbelief.

“Crack!” The bald head was completely crushed, blood splattering everywhere.

Outside the mountain, Long Lie, Long Ao, and others, who were leading their troops in battle against the monks, watched in stunned silence. Even the Dragon Clan Imperial Guard and the Shengshan monks stopped fighting, all trembling with fear.

The Dragon Emperor, among the super-grade cultivators, even if not at the peak of perfection, was only a hair’s breadth away, a definite upper-tier among the upper-tier. And a berserk Dragon Emperor, at this moment, had a strength infinitely close to the legendary Qianyuan realm. It would even be no exaggeration to call her Qianyuan; in this world, she was invincible! Let alone the monks, even the dragon clan worried that the berserk Dragon Emperor would indiscriminately crush them all.

But from beginning to end, Lu Xingzhou’s semi-conscious figure lay quietly on the inverse scale of the dragon’s back, carefully covered by scales. No matter how violent the turbulence, he remained as steady as on flat ground.

“Stealing the dragon clan’s veins, committing acts of deception, lacking internal cultivation, and externally plotting rebellion, what kind of Shengshan is this!” The dragon’s roar resounded through the sky, and the dragon’s body violently swung, crashing into the core of Shengshan’s main peak: “Let it be annihilated!”

Well, Tianyao Holy Land merely burned the mountain, but the Demon Emperor herself was going to destroy the entire Shengshan!

Another dragon roar came from within the mountain. A formation had appeared in the mountain’s core at some unknown point, and another golden dragon, dozens of zhang long, appeared outside the mountain, its body withstanding Long Qinghuang’s impact. The dragon clan stirred with emotion: “An ancient golden dragon? A living one?”

“Let alone a mere cuckoo, stealing a dragon’s body and wearing a crown like a monkey,” Long Qinghuang raged, sweeping: “Even if it’s a true ancient golden dragon, standing with this so-called Shengshan, you will die!”

“Bang!” The two dragons clashed again, energy surged, and the weather changed. The dragon’s might alone forced everyone to retreat several miles, unable to watch. But in this scene, a small figure, riding a flying pig, moved against the wind, quietly approaching.

In fact, there was no need to approach much; the two dragons were too large. Everyone had originally been far away, but when the dragon’s true body appeared, they suddenly felt so close, within arm’s reach. Anu, enduring the energy impact and pressure, stealthily pulled out the God-Beating Whip. The God-Beating Whip specifically struck the Primordial Spirit. This ancient dragon body was strong, but the cuckoo’s soul within was not that strong… and because it had just been violently broken by Long Qinghuang’s spiritual technique, it should be weak now.

However, in her current berserk state, Long Qinghuang’s mind was not sharp or meticulous enough to perceive the opponent’s weakness; otherwise, it shouldn’t have been difficult to defeat. No matter, Dragon Sister was crazy, but Anu was not.

“You hurt my master, take this whip!”

Amidst the clash of the two dragons, one berserk and the other anxious and tense, neither noticed a little girl riding a pig, raising a steel whip high. The whip glittered golden in the sunlight, faintly divine. Then it grew rapidly against the wind, becoming a ten-zhang long steel whip, which was fiercely slammed onto the side of the ancient golden dragon’s waist. It didn’t matter where it struck, it was aimed at the Primordial Spirit.

The ancient golden dragon suddenly let out a heaven-shattering, tragic roar. A small cuckoo phantom was almost directly ripped from its spiritual platform by this whip. No matter how berserk Long Qinghuang was, she couldn’t miss such a serious flaw. Her dragon mouth opened, and terrifying dragon breath spewed out, hitting the cuckoo phantom. The phantom let out a scream, was forcibly peeled away from the ancient golden dragon’s body, and then swallowed whole by Long Qinghuang.

The ancient golden dragon crashed to the ground, creating a deep dragon pit. The weakened cuckoo’s remnant soul and the frenzied Long Qinghuang were still tearing at each other within her body. Long Qinghuang became even more insane, her massive dragon body crashing around, actually heading towards the dragon army. Long Lie and the others looked at Long Qinghuang’s blood-red dragon eyes, their hands and feet cold. It was over. Her Majesty was truly mad.

Anu, riding her pig, ventured to her side. She didn’t know what to do, hoping her master would say something. Lu Xingzhou had been semi-conscious, aware of what was happening around him. At this moment, he勉强opened his eyes and sent a thought: “The whip… give it to me. I’ll hit the Primordial Spirit too.”

Anu suddenly understood and threw the God-Beating Whip with all her might: “Master, catch the whip.” Lu Xingzhou reached out and caught it. The steel whip shook and turned into a soft whip. Then, with a “smack,” it struck the dragon’s rear: “Still not stopping?”

Above and below Shengshan, the collapsing mountains, the chaotic situation, monks and dragons, pigs and Anu, cuckoos and the Dragon Emperor, all became a static picture. Only the scene of a human riding on the Dragon Emperor, striking the Dragon Emperor’s rear with a soft whip, was eternally etched.