Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

Chapter 2024 (Raw 2120): Fighting for First

After entering the five-colored energy ball, Xiao Chen felt the space around him change.

The world spun around, and a starkly different scene appeared before him.

A wide path made of stone tiles lay ahead. A sea of boiling lava churned on both sides of the path.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Occasionally, hot lava shot into the air, looking like pillars of flame.

A hot and arid aura spread in the air. When Xiao Chen probed his surroundings, he found that the gravity of this place was extraordinary.

The gravity here was about ten times that outside.

Xiao Chen did not rush to walk on the stone tile path. He let his physical body acclimate to this space before looking to the end of the wide path.

A huge stone door stood there.

No alternate path was available. After Xiao Chen acclimatized to this place, he took a deep breath and executed Light of Freedom.

He turned into a lightning bolt streaking over the wide path.

Along the way, the lava on both sides occasionally splashed over.

Xiao Chen had to slow down and carefully dodge.

While a lightning bolt, Xiao Chen was very weak. If he touched this lava, parts of his physical body might burn to ashes when he resumed his true form.

Even so, he felt that something was off.

When Xiao Chen reached the halfway point, the dense fire-attributed Spiritual Energy in the surroundings had already squeezed out the lightning-attributed Spiritual Energy, not leaving any behind.

Xiao Chen could only utilize his own Veritable Essence Energy to maintain Light of Freedom.

Clearly, this was not good.

Who knew what other dangers there would be after the stone door?

Depleting his energy here was not wise.

Forced to revert to his true form, Xiao Chen landed gently on the ground. However, the moment his feet touched the path, he thought to himself, Oh no!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The seemingly sturdy, wide path instantly crumbled. A suction pulled Xiao Chen down.

Huge lava waves surged on both sides, looking like the massive mouth of a malicious beast wanting to swallow Xiao Chen up.

“How problematic,” Xiao Chen said. Then, the Veritable Essence Energy all over his body shook.

“Bang!” The Veritable Essence Energy containing his Holy Venerate Will scattered the lava as though sweeping through dead branches.

Xiao Chen smashed his palm down. He soared into the air using the rebound force and landed on the part of the wide path that remained intact.

Then, he broke into a sprint as the path started collapsing from under him. However, the path always crumbled slower than he ran.

Despite the tenfold gravity, Xiao Chen still moved nimbly. He remained calm as he dealt with the various changes.

He survived the daunting experience without any mishap. Soon, he arrived at the end of the stone path, reaching the stone door.

By now, Xiao Chen understood that there would be various trials along the first stage to delay them.

While it did not look dangerous, the small delays would accumulate. In the end, one might discover that others had already gone ahead.

I cannot remain here!

After Xiao Chen made up his mind, the stone door in front suddenly toppled over, casting an immense shadow over him.

This was like a mountain peak suddenly falling on top of him.

“Break!”

Xiao Chen snorted coldly, and one hundred Cauldron Force exploded in his fist light.

His punch crushed the falling stone door into pieces flying everywhere.

“Whoosh!”

He spread his arms wide and traveled through the stone-shard-filled air before landing in a vast hall.

The entire hall was forged of ancient Heavenly Mountain Stones. The dragon patterns carved there gave off immense pressure.

When Xiao Chen took a step forward, he suddenly saw a round pillar towering in the center of the hall.

Just as he felt startled, his heart suddenly skipped a beat. Horror surged in his heart.

Xiao Chen was extremely familiar with this feeling. When he recalled its source, he said, “This is…this is…a Hou! The Dragon Race’s nemesis, the Hou!”

“Boom!”

The moment Xiao Chen remembered, the round pillar shattered, and a ferocious beast appeared before him.

This Hou was different from Xiao Chen’s memories.

This ferocious beast looked like a fierce tiger with a venomous snake for a tail. The snake coiled up and rested on the tiger’s back.

“A Snake-Tailed Tiger!”

Xiao Chen understood. This was a ferocious beast with a Hou bloodline, not a pure-blooded Hou.

The designer of this stage was genuinely deranged. An ordinary Dragon Race cultivator would not be able to put up a fight at all. In two or three moments, this Snake-Tailed Tiger would eat him up, not leaving scraps.

However, Xiao Chen was different. He was someone who had fought a ghost Hou. He also had received pointers from the old Dragon Horse in the Kunlun Realm’s Azure Dragon Palace.

Xiao Chen’s resistance to the Hou was much stronger than any other Dragon Race cultivator’s.

The Snake-Tailed Tiger let out a roar, and immense pressure burst forth from its body.

As the sound waves propagated, the might and pressure from its Huo bloodline spread out as well.

This placed immense pressure on Xiao Chen.

However, Xiao Chen did not panic. He moved back and put a distance between himself and the Snake-Tailed Tiger.

“Whoosh!”

After the Snake-Tailed Tiger suppressed Xiao Chen with its aura, it pounced at him at lightning speed.

This pounce brought out its Hou might and pressure to the maximum.

Breathing became difficult; Xiao Chen’s throat nearly seized up.

A strong wind blew, and it felt like a mountain moving through the air, bringing enormous pressure.

Xiao Chen gently pushed off the ground, shifting away in the time it took for a spark to fly.

He dodged this fatal attack. However, the long snake tail of this ferocious beast spat a mouthful of extremely potent venom.

Xiao Chen had to dodge again in a somewhat sorry state.

“Pu ci!”

Black smoke wafted up from where the venom splattered the ground. The horrifying toxins immediately spread in the air.

Even if one held one’s breath, this toxin could penetrate a Veritable Essence Shield and enter the body.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

The situation turned extremely dangerous. The Snake-Tailed Tiger’s strike flustered Xiao Chen. The ferocious beast’s might and pressure immediately flourished, and its roar sounded like thunder.

The Snake-Tailed Tiger’s attacks became extremely sharp.

Xiao Chen found the combination of the toxins spreading in the air and the Hou bloodline in the Snake-Tailed Tiger’s body quite difficult to bear.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Lightning-quick attacks shot out continuously. The aura that pressed down with the thunderous roars felt like horrifying waves, with each wave increasingly stronger.

Xiao Chen was like a small boat that could capsize at any moment. If others were here, they would tremble in fear, scared witless. They would not even dare to breathe deeply. This situation was simply too dangerous.

The Snake-Tailed Tiger nearly knocked him over on several occasions and would have succeeded if he had been even the slightest bit slower.

Once Xiao Chen fell, he would not be able to turn things around, given the Snake-Tailed Tiger’s Vital Qi of over two hundred Cauldron Force.

“Huff! Huff!”

The Snake-Tailed Tiger found Xiao Chen hard to catch after he managed to slip out from under its mouth so many times. Its sharp attacks started to falter.

The somewhat fatigued Snake-Tailed Tiger looked at Xiao Chen, who was in a sorry state. It did not feel any panic at all.

It thought that its attack had panicked the other party, that the other party was now a spent force.

The Snake-Tailed Tiger felt that its opponent was already fatigued and would become its meal eventually. Thus, it wanted to slow down its attacks and rest for a while. After that, it would pick up the pace and kill this person.

With this thought, a greedy and crafty look flashed in the Snake-Tailed Tiger’s eyes. It seemed extraordinarily sinister and cold.

The coiled snake tail on its back flicked its forked tongue, hissing—a very disturbing sight.

However, the Snake-Tailed Tiger failed to notice that while the white-clad youth was in a sorry state, he never evinced any panic in his eyes from the start to the end.

Xiao Chen’s clear eyes gleamed with an even colder light than the Snake-Tailed Tiger’s ferocious gaze.

The Snake-Tailed Tiger landed on the ground, and the stormlike attacks finally paused for a moment.

“Five Element Divine Lightning, Thunder Monarch Spear!”

Suddenly, electric light burst out of Xiao Chen’s palm. Infused with Great Dao Energy, the Five Element Divine Lightning materialized into a resplendent spear shining with bright, electric light.

Having just landed and relaxed, the Snake-Tailed Tiger could not react before that white-clad youth hurled the electric spear at it.

A brilliant Dao Might surged out.

The Thunder Dao’s Dao Might spreading from the speartip knocked the Snake-Tailed Tiger into the air in an instant while the dragon-like spear remained embedded in the ferocious beast’s body.

Electric light exploded in the Snake-Tailed Tiger’s body. The five-colored light turned into electricity shooting out relentlessly.

In the next moment, the Snake-Tailed Tiger lost all lifeforce, utterly lifeless.

When Xiao Chen withdrew his hand and landed, only a large and hard skeleton remained.

The Five Element Divine Lightning contained in the Thunder Monarch Spear had blasted all of the Snake-Tailed Tiger’s internal organs, skin, and flesh to nothing in an instant.

Xiao Chen remained expressionless, appearing calm, as though he had done nothing remarkable.

He looked to the front and muttered to himself, “Killing this Snake-Tailed Tiger in one move should make up for my earlier delay. The others definitely could not have killed it as quickly as I did.”

A brilliant light flashed in his eyes as he charged ahead.

Xiao Chen’s calm, decisiveness, and past experiences gave him the chance to take first place.

Charge! Charge! Charge!

With an opportunity in hand, I will never give up!