The dragon, watching the sky from afar, sensed something was wrong.
It saw that the human above was not being dissipated.
This enraged it deeply.
Without waiting any longer for its attack to kill him, it shot upward.
It spun its tail and whipped it with force.
Jin Yun, who was in agony, seeing the tip about to hit him, did nothing.
He simply let the strike land.
A dull sound echoed as the tail struck his back.
With the impact, he was hurled downward, piercing through the clouds.
His bones, which were struggling to refine that energy, shattered, turning into dust particles.
The spiritual root in his body trembled, and in the next second, the refining process accelerated even further.
"Hahaha! Who would have thought this bastard would help me so much!"
Even plummeting and at risk of dying upon impact with the ground, he did not stop laughing.
Shhhhhh...
Continuing in free fall, like a lightning bolt, seeing only blurs around him, he felt that the refining process was complete.
In the next moment, an explosion of energy was released into his bones.
"Kekeke!"
Jin Yun controlled his breathing and began injecting spiritual energy into his skeleton.
His body started regenerating.
Unlike before, something new appeared—on his spine, a golden bone was born.
"...?"
Jin Yun was confused, not understanding anything.
"Is this crazy refinement causing a transmutation in my bones? Is this good or bad?"
He was deep in thought.
A stronger physique could be beneficial for normal cultivators...
But he was different.
Because his difficulty in breaking bones would become even greater.
"Shit! Do I have to change my entire method? Or keep being crazy, breaking these bones in even more insane ways, and going through nirvana?"
This thought passed through his mind as if it were a daily concern.
"I'll think about it later. For now, I need to start fighting back... I've been on the defense for too long."
Jin Yun spun his body and, using his sword, slashed downward, propelling himself upward.
The dragon, expecting that this time Jin Yun would finally die, saw him rising once again.
This time, Jin Yun's eyes were icy, his mood entirely murderous.
And at the same time, they burned with vivid flames.
The side effect had arrived.
Explosive temper.
"Bastard!" he growled, accelerating his speed and launching several random slashes.
Toward the dragon, a red streak advanced with full force.
The dragon, seeing this crazy initiative, went into a defensive state, but before it could react, its tail was struck.
Jin Yun, without slowing down, used his overheated blade to slice through the dragon's tail as if it were paper.
The opponent let out a heart-wrenching scream.
After howling in pain, the dragon began attracting lightning around itself with its ability.
It wanted revenge!
With its body covered in orange lightning—a manifestation of its primary Fire and Lightning Qi—it vanished and charged at Jin Yun with a claw strike.
He had no time to dodge and was once again hurled downward.
But this time, the dragon pursued him like a trail of fire, closing in like a bolt of lightning.
"You think you can be faster than me?" Jin Yun smirked and extracted energy from his eight cyclones, which began spinning simultaneously.
Pushing his state to the limit.
It was all or nothing.
Jin Yun, using his spiritual soul, slashed to the left, launching himself in a straight line.
Qi threads formed a net.
The dragon immediately stopped upon seeing that and looked at Jin Yun, who slashed upward and then downward, trapping it in a perfect triangle.
"Roarrrrrrr!"
The dragon roared in an attempt to break the formation, but it was in vain! It was resilient.
"Idiot! Unless you're at the Origin Transformation stage, how could you break my manifestation?" Jin Yun mocked.
He positioned himself at the top of the formation.
He placed his sword forward.
"Burning Triangular Slash!"
Upon uttering this technique, which he had just invented, the entire formation emitted flames.
The dragon struggled with all its might to escape, but it was futile.
In the end, its only choice was to use all its cultivation to defend itself.
It formed armor covering its entire body.
In the sky, Jin Yun, who had no more support, began to fall.
Above, his sword moved at the same time as the triangle shrank in size.
The dragon was pressed within the prison.
It howled even more.
Even with its scales, the pressure was immense.
Clack!
Something inside it broke.
Every second, more cracks appeared.
But that wasn't the worst.
The sword pierced its stomach.
"Roaarrr!"
It tried to roar once more to break free, but it was in vain.
It lost.
Its body was crushed like a squeezed toothpaste tube.
Red blood fell from the sky, resembling a crimson rain.
Jin Yun, who still lacked the ability to fly, closed his eyes upon seeing that.
Preparing for the worst.
The possible death from falling from such a height.
But before he hit the ground, he was caught by something.
Huo Lie, mounted on Felix, caught him in the air.
Falling onto the eagle's back, Jin Yun still broke a few bones, but he was not at risk of death.
"Thanks... I thought I was—" He coughed, spitting blood, and didn't finish the sentence.
"Stop talking, idiot, unless you want to die faster." Huo Lie grumbled.
"How could I abandon you? Wouldn't that be the same as working in vain? I almost died, my talismans didn't do any damage... But who would have thought you'd actually kill a dragon?"
He sighed, disappointed.
"What a shame... The corpse disappeared. Money lost."
Throwing a bottle with a talisman attached, he began absorbing the blood from the air and then retrieved it.
"...?"
Jin Yun rolled his eyes at the sight.
"My blood is mixed in there."
"It's easy to purify."
Hearing those words, Jin Yun coughed more blood.
At that moment, he wished he was deaf again.
But unfortunately, with his transformation, his eardrums had been restored.
"Land on the ground." He gasped, feeling his patience wear thin.
Huo Lie said nothing, just gave the command for Felix to land in the valley.
Jin Yun got off with difficulty, his feet burning due to the lack of Qi.
He picked up the oyster, which jumped joyfully upon seeing him.
"Little guy, for the next three months, you're going to help me form the ninth cyclone."
He wanted to break through immediately, but he knew it was impossible.
Both due to the lack of resources and his unstable cultivation.
It hadn't even been a week since he had broken through the eighth level.
"Huo Lie, let's go back, I'll deliver the things at the sect."
Jin Yun said with difficulty and returned to Felix.
Lying on its back, holding the oyster.
"Okay."
Huo Lie respected that decision.
He wasn't afraid of being deceived.
This guy in front of him could be an opportunist, but he wasn't a liar.
Climbing aboard, they departed from that valley.