Lei Long charged out, lighting up the sky. It pounced on the Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards, and its powerful thunderforce caused them to explode one by one.

Long Chen was unaware that the Devil World’s creatures were all restrained by thunderforce. That was especially true since his thunderforce came from the nine heavens’ tribulation lightning. It was the most supreme Yang existence, and so its effect was even greater than the flame dragon’s.

Lei Long’s arrival immediately reversed the tides. Under Guo Ran’s command, they tightened their battle formation and focused on defense.

Lei Long had filled the void left by Huo Long. Now they were safe, but when they clearly saw how many of them were left, all their eyes turned red.

From the moment Huo Long had been attacked, which caused their defensive line to be broken, until Long Chen returned, only a few breaths had passed. But during that time, half of them had died.

Some of them couldn’t help but let out bestial roars and weep tears as they looked at the corpses on the ground. Those people were their brothers. These fallen comrades had sacrificed their own lives to protect them.

They had only just learned what it meant to entrust their lives to others, what it meant for them to protect each other. But in the blink of an eye, these people had thrown away their own lives to keep their promise. Seeing them lying there, never to move again, an unprecedented pain filled the survivors’ hearts. They even wished the ones to die had been them.

The Dragonblood warriors profoundly understood this feeling, as they had been life and death brothers for a long time. They knew how this kind of relationship felt, so they understood that pain very well.

Long Chen’s eyes were icy as he charged at the distant flame beast. That flame beast had its mouth clamped over Huo Long’s neck, and it was rapidly absorbing its energy.

Without a word, Long Chen slashed down with his saber. His fury had reached a peak.

The flame beast was struck in the neck, and the immense power blew it away, allowing Huo Long to escape. With a furious roar, it charged at the flame beast.

Huo Long was infuriated. Because of the sneak attack, it had been stuck in a disadvantage and unable to reverse the tide nor release any of its power. Now it had to get revenge.

“Get back. You’re not its match right now. Work with me,” said Long Chen hastily. The flame beast had already absorbed too much of Huo Long’s energy. The flame beast had originally just been a bit stronger, but now the difference was too great.

The flame beast roared at Long Chen. That roar seemed to contain a trace of mocking.

Long Chen knew that this flame beast was connected to Que Xinyan’s mind. Everything that had happened was at Que Xinyan’s will.

Que Xinyan had originally been thinking of devouring Long Chen’s flame dragon while he fought for the core disciple spot. But he hadn’t expected Long Chen would actually give up his core disciple spot and return to save these ordinary disciples.

“You think you can leave now? Keep dreaming!”

Seeing the flame beast turned around, Long Chen sneered and formed hand seals.

“Raging Flame Prison!”

Flame chains descended from the sky and stabbed into the ground. The flame beast was instantly bound within it.

This was why Long Chen didn’t let Huo Long attack. It was to prevent the flame beast from escaping. Only when Huo Long was cooperating with him could he capture the flame beast.

Space constantly twisted. The flame beast crazily attacked the prison, but this prison was the combination of Long Chen and Huo Long’s power. Its own energy was unable to rattle it.

The flame prison rapidly shrank. The flame beast was now being compressed into a ball and unable to move. Its struggling was of no avail.

“Die!” The flame prison continued to shrink, and the flame beast had now gone from five miles long to three hundred meters. And it was only continuing to shrink.

“Long Chen, you dare?!”

A furious roar came from a distant light barrier. It was Que Xinyan.

Right now, he had completely suppressed his silver lizard and was about to kill it. But at the same time, Long Chen had bound his flame beast. At this time, he was unable to help his flame beast escape.

Previously, he had forced Long Chen to make a difficult decision. Now Long Chen had placed him in a similar situation.

If he wanted to save his flame beast, he would have to give up on killing the silver lizard before him. Just like Long Chen, he would have to give up his core disciple spot. But a core disciple spot was incredibly important.

One reason was because of the rewards given out, while the other reason was that within the Xuantian Dao Sect, only a core disciple had the qualifications to form their own faction.

“Flame Prison Deathblow!”

Long Chen seemed to not hear Que Xinyan. His spiritual yuan erupted, and the flame prison condensed to its peak. The flame beast had completely deformed and was unable to even roar.

“Long Chen, if you dare to hurt my Earth Flame Beast, I will definitely make you die without a grave!” roared Que Xinyan.

Bang!

The flame beast had been compressed to the peak, and it suddenly exploded into flame runes.

Huo Long flew out and devoured all those runes. They were the essence of the flame beast, equivalent to its flesh and blood. They were treasures to Huo Long.

“AHHH! Long Chen, just wait! I will definitely kill you!” Seeing his own flame beast being killed, Que Xinyan almost exploded. It had to be known that he only had two Earth Flames, and those two Earth Flames had cost his family countless resources just to obtain. Furthermore, raising them had exhausted endless manpower and effort.

Having one of his flame beasts killed was like having his arm severed. It filled him with pain, and he almost went insane.

BOOM!

Suddenly, heaven and earth shook. The light barrier where Hua Shiyu was exploded. It transformed into runes that flew toward the Heaven Female Alliance.

“Big sister Shiyu is the most amazing! She’s the first to become a core disciple! Everyone, hang on. Victory is in sight!” shouted Zhao Ziyan.

The Heaven Female Alliance was heavily injured right now. They were down to eighty thousand disciples from their original one hundred and thirty thousand. But with these runes flying over, they had finally reached the end.

The runes fell into their midst. When they landed on their bodies, they would instantly vanish. In just a few breaths, the eighty thousand disciples of the Heaven Female Alliance disappeared from the battlefield.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Hu Guishan, Fan Song, and Wang Zhen’s light barriers exploded at almost the same time. The light barriers turned into runes that flew amongst their factions.

Those disciples let out a burst of cheering, but those cheers had only just appeared when they became miserable again. By relaxing, they had left an opening for the Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards. Quite a few people died instantly.

The flying runes needed a few breaths to send them away. In their excitement, they had actually made such a fatal mistake.

Fortunately, they managed to endure the last few breaths. Once they were transported away, there were over a thousand more corpses on the ground.

Once those people were killed, another explosion erupted. Que Xinyan had defeated his silver lizard.

Just as his light barrier exploded, Que Xinyan roared and charged at Long Chen. But the light barriers runes landed on him and he vanished. His faction also vanished in just a few breaths.

Now, the only ones left on the battlefield were the Dragonblood warriors and the surviving ordinary disciples.

After devouring the other Earth Flame’s essence, Huo Long had transformed once more. It had gone from faint blue to scarlet. When its runes circulated, powerful heat waves roasted the heavens.

It had only just devoured the Earth Flame’s essence and hadn’t had time to digest it. It had no time for that, and it worked together with Lei Long to form a defensive perimeter that protected everyone. Even the sea of Bloodthirsty Devil Lizards was unable to harm the people inside any longer.

“Sorry, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen. We caused you to lose your core disciple spot.” The disciples came before Long Chen, ashamed.

For them, he had ordered the Dragonblood warriors to be their shield, which was why so many of them survived. Later, he had established their trust in each other, and he had found the devil monsters’ fatal weaknesses to help them.

He had shown them how to get stronger, and they were endlessly grateful. Even if they died, they would still be eternally grateful. But now, he had sacrificed the most precious core disciple spot in the Xuantian Dao Sect to help them. They had implicated him.

Long Chen shook his head and didn’t reply. He checked their numbers. The Dragonblood warriors were all fine, and so was Qian Duoduo. But now, the ordinary disciples had dropped from thirty thousand to thirteen thousand. That number made his eyes turn cold.

This was not a mere number, but lives. Each one of them had been carrying their own aspirations. But now they would never be able to achieve those dreams.

Long Chen’s expression was frighteningly dark. No one dared to say anything. Guo Ran and the others who were familiar with him knew that he had reached the edge of exploding.

After an incense stick’s worth of time, runes fell from the sky. Long Chen felt his body lighten, and he vanished from the battlefield, appearing in a huge plaza.

“Long Chen, hand over your life!”

Long Chen and the others had only just appeared when a furious roar rang out. A large hand reached toward Long Chen’s throat.