Boom!
Bolts of heavenly lightning roared through the skies like purple dragons. From their overwhelming momentum, it was clear they wanted to end him completely and utterly.
A triple-layered lightning tribulation.
Ye Zichen didn’t dare even imagine how powerful a triple-layered lightning tribulation would be. He didn’t even want to think about it.
He really wanted to give up.
However, deep in the bottom of his heart, he was still struggling.
He didn’t know why, but this bolt of heavenly lightning seemed much slower than the others. As it fell, countless imaginations rose unbidden in Ye Zichne’s mind.
There was sweetness and bitterness, fury and melancholy.
He’d overcome countless obstacles with the utmost caution to get here, but it seemed… this was really the end of the road.
“I actually hurt Keke.”
His gaze landed on Xia Keke. That girl had stubbornly stuck by his side since the beginning. Her presence had always been deeply rea.s.suring.
Yet she also caused more heart-ache than anyone.
Ye Zichen wasn’t stupid. He could sense Xia Keke’s love for him, but he hadn’t dared respond. Nevertheless, he got Xia Keke’s one-sided sacrifice in return.
Even now, at this moment….
She was still the same way.
“I’m the one who hurt you.” He reached out and stroked her cheek, then struggled to draw in closer and embrace her.
“Let me repay you a little.”
Xia Keke had been lying on the ground, unmoving. However, the instant Ye Zichen embraced her, she somehow dredged up yet another burst of strength and ruthlessly shoved him aside.
“I won’t let Big Brother Zichen die!”
Her beautiful face wore a determined look. When he saw her expression, Ye Zichen’s heart clenched.
“Don’t.”
Xia Keke, her entire body covered in blood, rose, shaking, to her feet. She pressed off from the disc and took to the skies.
“Keke!”
Ye Zichen, who she’d pushed away, reached out. He longed to pull Xia Keke back down to earth.
But he couldn’t do it. All he could do was watch as that purple lightning dragon swallowed her up. The image of Xia Keke soaked in blood yet still smiling tranquilly at him burned into his mind and the sound of her happy yet trembling voice echoed through his ears.
“I was truly fortunate. I’ve loved you for a long, long time.”
Xia Keke returned to her golden dragon form with a roar. Her gaze lingered fondly on Ye Zichen, then ruthless determination flashed through her eyes as she rose to meet the incoming lightning dragon head-on.
Boom!
The two dragons met.
“No!”
On top of the disc, Ye Zichen reached up and cried out mournfully. He watched helplessly as lightning swallowed the golden dragon in the sky up completely, leaving nothing behind
There was a burst of dazzling white light. When Ye Zichen came to his senses, Xia Keke the golden dragon had disappeared without a trace.
“Keke!”
It couldn’t be.
Had the heavenly lightning scattered even her soul?
Ye Zichen collapsed to the disc as if he’d lost his soul too. Meanwhile, that bolt of purple lightning still hadn’t extinguished. It landed directly onto Ye Zichen.
Boom!
Purple light illuminated the world.
When the purple light appeared, everyone, from Black Dragon to the Beast Region experts, covered their eyes. They couldn’t look directly at such dazzlingly bright light.
When the purple light dispersed, the Beast Region experts saw that the giant disc in the sky had completely vanished. Ye Zichen, who’d been there the whole time, had naturally disappeared as well
“Emperor Ye!”
The Beast Region experts cried out in alarm as they stared at the spot Ye Zichen had once been. Then, just as they were distracted, a powerful gust of wind swept over them.
“Cough.”
They hacked up mouthfuls of fresh blood and slammed into ground. It was then that they saw Black Dragon twist his neck, look up to the skies and laugh maniacally.
From this moment on, nothing could stand in his way!
“Keke.”
Above Dragon City, tears flowed from Xia Yingda’s aged eyes. He’d just watched as Xia Keke, his daughter, his own flesh and blood, was swallowed up by heavenly lightning. At that moment, he didn’t want to chastise her irresponsible behavior in the name of righteousness. Right now, he was just a father who’d watched his daughter die beneath the agony of lightning tribulation.
The other sacred beast clansmen were cold. They felt pitied Xia Keke and felt deep grief for all the difficulties she’d endured before she died.
Yet none of that could cancel out the damage caused by her irresponsible departure. Thanks to her, the Four Beasts Formation would come to a premature end.
If the loss of the Four Beasts Formation truly resulted in the annihilation of the entire Three Realms, Xia Keke would always and forever be guilty in their eyes.
“Elder brother, don’t be sad.” Xia Yingqiu walked over to comfort his brother. He, too, was hurt by Xia Keke’s death. She was dead….... But they still had to live on for the sake of the future.
Even if Ye ZIchen fell during the divine tribulation too, they still had to struggle until their last breath.
So long as there was life, there was hope!
“We’ve got a very serious problem now,” said one of the Xuanwu Tortoise clansmen. “Even if Xia Keke did it to block Emperor Ye’s tribulation, that doesn’t erase her irresponsible behavior. Also, Emperor Ye also lost his life during their divine tribulation. What should we do now?”
“The demons are eying us hungrily and Black Dragon is even more invincible than he was before. Our only hope was the Four Beasts Formation, but it fell apart in you dragons’ hands,” said a White Tiger clansmen.
“Enough!” Xia Yingda, who’d been immersed in the pain of losing his daughter, suddenly roared, his eyes bloodshot, “Keke is already gone. Don’t speak ill of the dead. No matter what she did when she was alive, no matter how many mistakes she made, you people ought to shut up about it now.”
“Hmph. The Four Beasts Formation is going to fall apart prematurely. Are you really going to tell us that has nothing to do with her?” a White Tiger clansmen chastised him.
“So what if it falls apart? Emperor Ye fell during the lightning tribulation too. Even if we successfully completed the Four Beasts formation and holed up for one hundred years, wouldn’t the end result be the same?” Xia Yingda smirked disdainfully, “do you really think that, in just one hundred years, we’ll find some sort of miracle? You are the unparalleled geniuses of your clans. Could you use that hundred years to kill Black Dragon? The Four Beats Formations was built on the a.s.sumption that Emperor Ye was alive. Keke went to save him when he was in peril, trapped beneath his lightning tribulation. I don’t think my daughter did anything wrong! On the contrary, despite all your talk about justice and virtue, aren’t you just trying to pin all the blame on my daughter? Isn’t that ridiculous?”
“Xia Yingda.”
“What, do you want to fight?” Xia Yingda arched his brows, “let me tell you, I’m truly not afraid of you. If you’ve got b.a.l.l.s, come and get me!”
“Enough.”
At that moment, an elder of the Vermillion Bird Clan stepped forth, separating Xia Yingda and the White Tiger clansmen. “Xia Yingda is right. That girl’s choice truly was willful and impulsive, but if it had saved Emperor Ye, it couldn’t be considered a mistake. Everyone understands our current situation. Although we’ve lost Emperor Ye, the Four Beasts Formation remains our only hope of turning things around. Although it’s minuscule, we still have to seize this chance. Yingqiu, are there any more pure-blooded members of the Dragon Clan? If we find them we might still have a chance to finish the formation.”
“This…..”
Xia Yingqiu frowned deeply, “you’ve all seen it: even that little girl, Keke joined our ranks. If there were anyone else, our father couldn’t possibly have let her come.”
“That’s somewhat troublesome,” frowned the Vermillion Bird elder, but at that very moment, a flash of golden light swept past them. The next moment, an old man, his temples flecked with white, appeared before them.
“Who says there aren’t any others? There’s still this old man!”