CHAPTER 668 ENTERING THE PALACE

It needed hardly be said that, of the four elders, the strongest one was the Chief Elder who had

acquired seventy percent of the power of Fringe Holy Will.

The Chief Elder raced for Darren with the swiftness of a howling wind and struck him with both palms.

The mighty blow sent Darren hurtling like a meteor down toward the Sea of Sand and Fire.

Not satisfied, the Chief Elder snorted with contempt and followed him down.

He had no interest in playing fair or in prolonging the fight. If he could simply throw his victim into the

sea of fire and incinerate him in an instant, that would satisfy him.

Without hesitation, the Chief Elder fell through the air with the speed of an arrow.

Despite the speed at which Darren was falling, his assailant nimbly caught up to him in a matter of

seconds.

"That bastard," said one of the onlookers, dismayed. "Here's the greatest Chief Elder of the Dragon

Chasing Sect, stooping to the level of killing an ordinary disciple!"

The others who were present agreed and murmured among themselves. The Chief Elder's conduct

struck them as petty and unbecoming of a man of his station. "That young man is doomed, no matter

he is in dragon form or not," another one remarked. "It's unfortunate for him that he had to cross paths

with this merciless old freak."

Standing with the observers, Hobson watched the spectacle with a sinking heart. He hadn't expected

the Chief Elder to attack with such lethal intent. 'Damn it! Darren doesn't stand a chance of surviving!'

he thought ruefully to himself.

The knowledge of his own helplessness tormented him. He wasn't strong enough even to fly above the

raging fire, let alone to help his friend. There was nothing to do but watch.

Just then the Chief Elder closed the distance between himself and Darren, slamming him with a blow

even more terrible than the last one.

An awful lattice of chinks and cracks spread across the armor of Darren's dragon scales.

The air rang with his ear-splitting scream.

Desperately, he spun, lifting his tail to lash the Chief Elder right in the face.

There was no time to dodge. The strike hit the Chief Elder so hard that he blacked out for a brief

moment and fell limply toward the awful fires below. With only seconds to spare, he recovered his wits

and swooped away from the hazard. Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

Meanwhile, the rebound force of the tail strike had propelled Darren away, but he quickly swerved

around and came at the Chief Elder again, picking up speed.

While still approaching, Darren intensified his dragon blood aura and his demonic internal force,

pushing them to their limits.

The Chief Elder saw this, but was too haughty to notice the terrible black flame at Darren's command

as well. 'His skills are insignificant, ' he thought to himself. With his seventy percent of the Fringe Holy

Will, he thought he had nothing to be afraid of.

Thinking it was time to finish the duel for good, the Chief Elder concentrated all his power into a single

palm strike and flung it at Darren as they crashed together.

All the spectators staggered as a thunderous boom smote their eardrums.

Their eyes, too, were dazzled by a terrific blaze as the Fringe Holy Will struck its target.

With the noise of the impact, however, there was another sound.

It was a terrible, blood-curdling scream.

"So much for that young man—poor thing!" bewailed one of the onlookers.

"Indeed," agreed another. "You don't see a dragon very often these days. But in any case, he's dead

now. What a shame!"

The other disciples chattered much the same thing, for they all believed it was Darren who had made

that scream.

Only Ivan was silent, standing among them with an ashen face and trembling lips. He alone recognized

that the voice had been none other than the Chief Elder's!

Finally the light began to ebb, revealing a sight that took everyone's breath away. The dragon was still

up there, looking unscathed and as invulnerable as ever. Before that fearsome form hovered the Chief

Elder. They could barely recognize the man, however—he was scorched from head to foot like a hunk

of meat. Gasping wretchedly, he rolled about in midair with his head in his hands.

After a few futile seconds of clinging to life, the man at last went stiff, fell, and vanished into the fire.

Darren watched dispassionately, temporarily preoccupied with his own thoughts. 'It seems the black

flame loses some of its original potency after being transformed. Otherwise, the Chief Elder's soul

would have been obliterated on impact.'

Meanwhile, the stunned silence continued to reign on the edge of the sea of fire.

Not in their wildest dreams had anyone there ever thought that Darren, an ordinary cultivator, could be

so mighty as to kill the strongest elder of the Dragon Chasing Sect.

Ivan and the still-wounded Queena were more shocked than anyone, though, for they had watched

with complete confidence that their Chief Elder would win.

After such a dramatic reversal as this, their chances of survival looked slim indeed.

As though to confirm all their fears, the very next thing they saw was a gust of black flame, surging out

of Darren's dragon body and straight toward them.

With nowhere to hide, the two frantically summoned their Fringe Holy Will, perhaps hoping they had

some slim chance of warding off the attack.

But the flames went through their defenses as easily as through air, roasting their flesh and burning

their very souls away.

Before either could so much as scream, it was over. Nothing remained except an ashen black stain on

the earth where they had stood.

"Hobson, let's go!" Darren shouted.

Transforming back to his normal body, he dropped to the ground.

Hobson gawked at him, still amazed at what had just happened. "My friend... I have no words! Your

strength is unbelievable."

"Don't be so impressed," Darren replied. "These elders' cultivation bases were suppressed before the

fight even started. If they hadn't been, I'd be dead right now. But enough of this. We need to get to the

bronze palace."

The other man's look changed from admiration to perplexity. "The bronze palace?"

"Yes. Come with me."

Saying this, Darren grabbed Hobson by the shoulder and took off, soaring over the raging fire.

The onlookers watched the pair shrink into the distance, more astonished and confused than ever

before.

"Why is he going that way?" one of them asked. "Doesn't he know of the danger?"

"Even the leader of the Dragon Chasing Sect can't fly to the bronze palace," said somebody else. "But

he's going to try and go, dragging that poor sap along with him while he's at it?"

After seeing Darren's fight with the Chief Elder, the people had held him in awe and respect. Now,

though, seeing him rushing straight toward certain death rather than trying to get away, they started to

have second thoughts. It seemed now that Darren was just as foolhardy as he was brave.

A moment later their chatter ended, giving way to dead silence yet again.

They saw that Darren and Hobson had reached the Spiritual Boat.

The Spiritual Boat was supposed to be protected by an aura of scorching heat which would melt

anyone in the vicinity. Yet they saw both Darren and Hobson standing inside, safe and sound.

In fact, among all of these people, the cultivators from the Divine Mountain Sect were the most

astonished ones. They had special methods to maintain their strength so even in this place, their

strength was not suppressed much. In addition, they had various kinds of magic weapons to protect

themselves. But even so, the possibility of their making to the Spiritual Boat was still doubtful. Who

would have guessed that Darren would succeed?

"Look closely!" one of them observed. "They are wrapped in faint black flames."

"Indeed!" exclaimed another. "That's the soul black flame! The fiercest flame of the burning sea of fire."

At this point, they finally understood that the black flame was protecting Darren from being burned.

It seemed, then, that he would indeed be able to enter the bronze palace.

Suddenly one of the elders from the Heaven Lake Sect called out to Darren. "Young man, please take

me with you!"

"Take me with you too!" someone else added hastily. "I will repay your favor one day!"

Still others spoke up, adding their own pleas, some of which were quite shameless. "Brother, let me go

with you!" cried one of them as if he had known Darren his whole life. "I will give you a million magic

herbs. No, wait, ten million!"

They continued to beg and humiliate themselves, but Darren refused to pay them any attention. Instead

he made for the bronze palace with Hobson at his side.

"Hobson," he said. "Take out your blood essence. We'll use both of ours on the palace."

"Okay!" Hobson was too excited to say anything more.

As their blood essence spilled out and sprayed against the palace, two streams of gentle light

emanated from it and enveloped them. Gradually, the light over the sea of fire faded.

Soon enough, Darren and Hobson could see blackened ruins in front of them.

"Even this palace had been destroyed?" Darren murmured.

He knew no more than anyone else about what had happened in the ancient times. But judging from

the scattered Holy Will Crystals outside and the barren, ravaged landscape, he could guess that the

war of annihilation there had been truly unprecedented in its cruelty.

Still, he hadn't expected to find that its effects had spread to the inside of the bronze palace as well.

For a long time Darren and Hobson simply stared at the devastated remains, unsure of what to do next.

In fact, there was little even that was recognizable, except for a huge, lone pillar that loomed off in the

distance.

For some minutes, Hobson studied the ground. "Darren, look at this!"

Saying this, he took a multicolored crystal out of the dirt.

Darren took the rock from his friend and studied it. He soon recognized it as a Holy Will Crystal, clearly

one from ancient times.

"I have no use for this. You can keep it," he said, handing it back.

Hobson accepted the crystal gladly, regarding it as a great treasure. "What should we do now?" he

asked, staring into its mesmerizing glow.

"We fly north," Darren said after thinking it over.

"Why? Did you sense something up there?"

Darren shook his head and pointed at the earth. "Look, there are no tracks going that way. That means

that the five sect leaders who came here before us all went in other directions. So we need to go north

if we want to avoid running into them."

"Oh, I get it," replied his companion. Hobson smiled awkwardly, realizing he ought to have noticed

something so obvious himself.

Without trading any more words, they confirmed the direction and took flight, aiming north.

After several days of travel, they seemed to reach the boundary of that land. Before them they caught

sight of a great, lofty wall. On closer inspection, though, it appeared to belong to the outskirts of a

palace.

Then, without warning, Hobson cried out in pain and fell from the air.

He struck the ground and rolled about, covering his eyes as though he was in great pain there.

Without wasting a second, Darren hurried down to his side. "Hobson, what's wrong?"