207: Chapter 207 Dragon in the Thunderclouds
Qinling Mountains.
In the primitive mountain forests, a human squad was advancing on the beast-infested terrain, walking on thin ice.
The elite squad from Jianghai City did not have Ye Yang's ability to fly and could only travel on foot. Even after marching non-stop for a day and a night, they had only advanced a few dozen kilometers.
After all, even though the powerful beasts along this path had been scared away by the aura emitted by Ye Yang, they still had to advance with extreme caution. No one knew if a pack of man-eating beasts might suddenly rush out from a dense thicket of bushes dozens of meters deep.
"Captain... let's take a break..."
"Alright."
The members of the elite squad were already exhausted. Although they had all used spiritual energy to enhance their physical fitness, they had to maintain their readiness at all times to face any sudden situations that might occur in the wild.
Everyone found an open area suitable for resting, and while keeping watch, they seized the time to recover their stamina.
"I don't know where the Ancient Divine Phoenix has gone... Captain, it's just too dangerous for us to keep going like this!"
A team member said. The evolutionary level of the beasts they encountered here was higher than those on the periphery, and there were even a few creatures of massive size whose emitted aura left them unable to move.
Fortunately, in the eyes of these fleeing powerful beasts, they humans were just weak beasts and were not being targeted; otherwise, they would have long since been reduced to bones.
"You have a point... we can retreat."
The elite squad captain remained silent for a moment before agreeing to the retreat plan.
They were not even in the depths of the Qinling Mountains yet, and so many terrifying creatures had already appeared. Getting any closer to the Qinling Mountains... would truly be courting death. It would be impossible to even send intelligence back to Jianghai City, and no one could accept such a meaningless sacrifice.
"The situation in the depths of the Qinling Mountains is more complex than we imagined. The spiritual energy concentration here is very high; there might be creatures in the Qinling Mountains even more powerful than the Ancient Divine Phoenix!"
"Indeed... I have that feeling too. The Qinling Mountains feel truly too dangerous; it is well-deservedly listed online as the number one forbidden zone in the Great Xia."
If someone had told them before that there were creatures in the world currently more powerful than the Ancient Divine Phoenix, they would certainly have scoffed and mocked them.
But after entering the Qinling Mountains, it was different...
Before the "Super Red Moon" brought changes to the geography of Blue Star, the Great Xia's Qinling Mountains originally spanned nearly two thousand kilometers. Now, some have measured that after the drastic changes, the length of the Qinling Mountains has reached five thousand kilometers.
They had only been in the Qinling Mountains for a few hundred kilometers and had already encountered countless powerful beasts. God knows what terrifying things would appear in the deepest parts of the Qinling Mountains...
The Jianghai City elite squad, having rested and recovered, stood up, intending to retreat along the original path.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of hurricanes coming from the sky.
"It's... the Ancient Divine Phoenix!"
Everyone looked up, and a familiar fiery red figure appeared in the high sky within their line of sight...
The captain, who was still looking up, had a shocked expression in his eyes. "The things in the Ancient Divine Phoenix's two sharp claws... are actually a stone wall and a creature!"
"Such big things... how great must the Ancient Divine Phoenix's strength be..."
Compared to the size of the blood orchid, the stone wall, and the Black Underworld Python Snake Mother, it was completely minor. Although they could not see exactly how large the Black Giant Snake was, the Ancient Divine Phoenix's size was just a tiny dot the size of a soybean in their upward view, while the Black Giant Snake's body looked like a noodle...
"Perhaps this is the reason why the Ancient Divine Phoenix came to the Qinling Mountains."
Soon, the red figure in the sky disappeared from everyone's sight.
...
A few hours later...
Rumble!
There was a thunderous roar in the sky, and a dark cloud drifting from afar rapidly shrouded the sky.
The Jianghai City elite squad happened to be within the coverage area of the dark clouds.
"Captain, it's about to rain; let's find a place to take shelter..."
"No! Xiao Li, are you stupid? Relying on the effects of spiritual energy, our current physical constitution is no longer what it used to be. No matter how heavy the rain is, it cannot affect us... Every second we stay in the Qinling Mountains adds another point of danger."
"Oh, oh..."
"Huh, it seems like there is some creature in the dark clouds..."
A sharp-eyed team member looked up and vaguely saw a creature churning in the black clouds.
"That's impossible..."
"Roar!"
Abruptly.
Accompanied by a huge thunderclap, a high-spirited beast roar containing a peculiar sound emanated from the dark thunderclouds...
The sound pierced through the sky and quickly spread across the entire land. The mountain forest suddenly returned to silence because most of the beasts had already lost their ability to think!
The elite team members who heard this special roar felt their minds go blank!
It wasn't until the sound of that special roar dissipated that they came back to their senses!
"This is a dragon's roar!"
Everyone's pupils dilated, and the same thought popped into their minds!
It was very strange; none of them had ever seen a creature like a "dragon," but when everyone in the elite squad heard this roar, the image of a "dragon" appeared in their minds!
As if to prove the identity of the creature in the dark clouds, the clouds began to churn violently...
A pitch-black, massive creature was exposed to everyone's eyes...
"This is... a dragon!"
"My God! What kind of changes has this world undergone that a dragon has actually appeared!"
"Dragon..."
Even an ordinary person, upon seeing the long, massive creature in the dark clouds, could recognize that it was a dragon!
Although the Jianghai City elite squad saw it somewhat blurrily through the high-altitude dark clouds, that long, massive figure, coupled with that dragon's roar, made them all firmly believe in their hearts that what was in the dark clouds was a dragon!
...
In the dark clouds.
A pitch-black long dragon circled in the high-altitude dark clouds, but it hesitated and did not continue to pursue forward.
It was not that he did not want to pursue, but he was constrained by the surrounding environment and could not continue to advance.
"Damn it... the spiritual energy concentration outside is too low..."
"Fortunately, the ancient spiritual plant still needs some time to mature. During this time, I can think of a way to get out..."
Then, as the pitch-black long dragon retreated, the dark clouds also dissipated.
The elite squad on the ground gradually recovered from their state of shock and soul-loss.
"I'm not dreaming, am I..."
"Even the Ancient Creature known as the Divine Phoenix is only of traditional symbolic significance... A creature like a dragon actually exists in this world!"
"Don't overthink it, brothers. Hurry up and report this news to the leaders of Jianghai City. This is crucial for the safety of our Jianghai City!"
"Yes!"
...
Meanwhile.
After experiencing a day and a night of flight, a fiery red figure dragged the corpse of the huge Black Giant Snake and landed on Divine Phoenix Mountain.
Ye Yang turned around and looked towards the direction of the Qinling Mountains, as if he had realized something.
"In the last few hours, I felt a sense of palpitations from behind... Could it be that the 'big shot' that the Snake Mother mentioned has chased after me?!"