Chapter 1216

The dragon breath is so sharp that Wu Yi Hai feels it like needles before it even lands. He has no time to dodge. A small, round golden shield appears before him and shatters on impact, but it buys him just enough time. A renowned rank seven Gu Immortal in Eastern Sea and a transformation path cultivator, he transforms, and a horned divine tortoise, one of Eastern Sea’s top ten ancient desolate beasts, appears in his place. Even so, the dragon breath leaves a deep mark on its shell. ^{ch. 1216}

Very shocked, Wu Yi Hai judges the enemy stronger than every earlier ambush. The tortoise moves fast underwater but far slower on land, and its battle strength falls by a lot, its strong defense costing him almost all offense. Even saving his life costs him the initiative. He does not panic, since two rank seven escorts, Uncle Zhang and Brother Leng, travel with him, already proven reliable through many hurdles. ^{ch. 1216}

Transformation path carries a major weakness. A Gu Immortal cannot switch forms freely, since each change first needs the old form’s dao marks shed. Fang Yuan’s sovereign immortal body is the special case. ^{ch. 1216}

That golden shield was Uncle Zhang’s defensive killer move, cast to save Wu Yi Hai. The backlash makes Uncle Zhang spit blood at once. He too is badly shocked, since the dragon breath pierced the miasma that should weaken every immortal killer move. ^{ch. 1216}

Brother Leng, a younger Gu Immortal, charges forward fiercely while Uncle Zhang recovers. He transforms into a lightning flash giant wolf, an ancient desolate beast whose blue, crystal tipped fur lights the dark purple miasma. Streams of lightning gather and shoot from its head, its own immortal killer move. Seeing this, Uncle Zhang suppresses his injury within a few breaths and transforms too, into a golden sword teeth tiger twice the wolf’s size. ^{ch. 1216}

This was Wu Du Xiu’s own arrangement. Regional walls favor transformation path fighters, since an immortal killer move first injures the caster’s own aperture before reaching an enemy, while a fierce beast’s raw body avoids that weakness and gives sustainable strength. Both bodyguards are transformation path Gu Immortals precisely for this reason. ^{ch. 1216}

Trusting the tortoise’s defense, Uncle Zhang charges off after the wolf. He soon sees Brother Leng running back instead, chased by streams of dragon breath through the miasma. Brother Leng shouts to retreat. Uncle Zhang is shocked, since Brother Leng never retreats without cause, and then sees the cause himself: a sword dragon breaking through the miasma, carrying the aura of many Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 1216}

Uncle Zhang reads it as a wild ancient sword dragon from white heaven or black heaven, not the five regions, since only such a creature crosses a regional wall unresisted. Gu Immortals display only about fifty to sixty percent of strength in a wall. Uncle Zhang has no confidence even in the open world, so he turns and flees at once. ^{ch. 1216}

The three retreat. They guess the dragon was deliberately lured here to drain their strength. They settle on a plan: retreat without provoking it further while showing enough strength that a beast of little intelligence gives up. ^{ch. 1216}

Already both injured, Uncle Zhang and Brother Leng hold the line. They absorb the dragon breath without striking back. Wu Yi Hai hides behind them, returns to human shape, sheds the tortoise form’s dao marks, and prepares a killer move meant to calm the beast. ^{ch. 1216}

His killer move is almost ready when the golden tiger’s head is suddenly pierced through, with no warning. Uncle Zhang dies on the spot. The killing blow is a sword path killer move, Dark Assassination. The sword dragon then bursts away at unmatched speed and vanishes, and Brother Leng, realizing they fell into a trap, turns to find Wu Yi Hai’s head shattered, his headless corpse already seized into the dragon’s immortal aperture. ^{ch. 1216}