As soon as Long Chen walked out of the palace, he met Xiong Tianba’s powerful attack. The sound startled the other experts awake. When they saw Xiong Tianba’s manifestations, their hearts shook.

“How is that possible?!”

Xiong Tianba’s manifestation had been crippled! How was it possible for him to truly awaken it?

“It’s definitely something that Pill Valley did. Otherwise, there’s no way he could have fixed his manifestation,” guessed someone.

From Xiong Tianba’s tone, there had been a few clues to this. It seemed that he had been very confident in fixing his manifestation here. Now that his manifestation was truly awakened, this guess was the likeliest possibility.

“Now this’ll be a real fight between a tiger and dragon.”

“Long Chen is an unrivaled monster, but he isn’t an Empyrean. Now that Xiong Tianba’s manifestation is truly awakened, it’s difficult to say who will win this battle.”

More and more experts awoke from their meditative states, and they found that the surrounding Grand Dao energy had grown extremely sparse after being absorbed by so many people. But they had made great gains. They all felt like they had taken a step forward toward fully awakening their manifestations. Although there was still a great distance to close, they were further along than when they had first arrived.

Looking at the arrogant Xiong Tianba, Long Chen shook out his arm and kneaded his shoulder. “Who would have thought that you would also run into such dogshit luck. Looks like you’re slightly stronger than I expected.”

“Long Chen, provoking me will only make your death worse,” sneered Xiong Tianba.

“No, I have no intention of provoking you. I’m just saying what I think. Xiong Tianba, I said that after taking your money, I wouldn’t view you as my enemy. But you’ve made the foolish decision of throwing away that life-protecting talisman.”

“Hahaha!” Xiong Tianba laughed wildly. Suddenly, his manifestation shook and the Heavenly Dao energy within it surged toward him. At the same time, his world energy was merging with his Heavenly Dao energy. It was clearly possible to see the Grand Dao energy of this world whirl around Xiong Tianba.

“This is the true power of an awakened manifestation. It’s incredibly terrifying.”

The experts watching were all amazed. They felt that their own manifestations were suppressed in the face of Xiong Tianba’s manifestation. They were unable to absorb more Heavenly Dao energy.

It was like all the surrounding Heavenly Dao energy had been occupied by him. Most terrifying of all, they felt like the energy from their manifestations was leaking out and being consumed by Xiong Tianba’s manifestation.

The only thing they could do was pull back their own manifestations. That was the only way they could cut off Xiong Tianba from their energy. However, in that way, they were unable to support themselves with Heavenly Dao energy.

Wouldn’t this mean that in the future, they would face an absolute suppression from fully awakened Empyreans? If they couldn’t even keep up their manifestations, how were they supposed to fight them? The distance between them was immense.

“Long Chen, I’ll let you see the power to rampage through the heavens!” shouted Xiong Tianba. His rod smashed toward Long Chen, and two glowing balls of light appeared within his manifestation, merging with his rod.

“He’s resonating with the Dao!”

This was the true power of an Empyrean, the power to merge the Heavenly Daos with the world energy within them.

Facing Xiong Tianba with his fully awakened manifestation, Long Chen couldn’t be careless. He immediately summoned the Five Star Battle Armor.

BOOM!

Once more, Long Chen was knocked back by Xiong Tianba. The entire world shuddered from the impact.

“What terrifying power!”

“Xiong Tianba specializes in power. Before this, he had to be in contact with the ground to use his full power, but with his manifestation awakened, he can draw out the earth’s power from anywhere. Then by combining that power with his world energy, he really is unstoppable.”

“He’s already familiar with controlling his world energy. Even if someone else awakens their manifestation today, they wouldn’t be able to fight like him. He might really be unrivaled now.”

People could only sigh in the face of this power. They didn’t have a good impression of Xiong Tianba, but they had no choice but to admit that none of them was a match for him.

“But look, Long Chen hasn’t used his top abilities yet. There will definitely be a good show to watch,” said someone.

After fighting in front of countless people many times, most people were already familiar with Long Chen’s most eye-attracting abilities. He wouldn’t be defeated so easily.

Long Chen patted some dust off of his clothes as he flew back into the sky. His expression was still calm. Only after cleaning himself did he say, “Not bad. So this is the power of an awakened manifestation. It’s truly strong. I haven’t gone all-out since I killed Ji Wuming during my tribulation, so I feel like my body’s getting rusty.” Long Chen stretched his arms and neck. “It seems I can finally go all-out today. Let me see just how great your so-called unrivaled power is. Azure Dragon Battle Armor!”

A dragon cry rang out, and a will that looked down on all else soared. Long Chen suddenly roared as white scales covered his body. His roar resonated with the dragon cry, and the sound grew louder and louder until people’s ears were shaking. The experts of the ancient races and the Xuan Beasts were particularly shaken. Long Chen’s dragon might made them feel a powerful pressure.

Covered in white scales, offset by his divine ring behind him, Long Chen appeared like a god of war yet also like a dragon. It was like even the heavens would have to lower themselves before him.

Some of the women couldn’t help feeling attracted to his current appearance. He was handsome, wild, powerful, and domineering.

With a casual swing of Evilmoon, a space-tearing sound rang out. Although it was just a casual swing, it made people’s hearts shake.

No one made a sound. They simply stared in shock at Long Chen. He wasn’t an Empyrean and had relied on his own power to reach his current level.

Perhaps the only one capable of such a thing was Long Chen. He did things that no one else could imagine. He didn’t have a powerful background, but through his own efforts, he had reached the peak of his generation. This was an irresistible attraction.

“Although my power hasn’t really grown during this time, it fortunately hasn’t regressed. It should be enough for you,” said Long Chen, sensing his current power.

The feeling of being filled with power was very satisfying. His 108,000 astral spaces were circulating, making his world energy resonate with his azure dragon energy. Although the two kinds of energy weren’t merging, they were assisting each other. They formed a cycle of power that filled Long Chen.

“If an inferior human like you didn’t have the dogshit luck to obtain the azure dragon’s essence blood, you’d have long since died. Your current power isn’t the human race’s power. Your human race really has no sense of shame,” said Xiong Tianba. He couldn’t help feeling jealous.

News of Long Chen possessing the green dragon essence blood had reached the Xuan Beasts a long time ago. But they hadn’t cared too much about it as it wasn’t worth offending the Martial Heaven Alliance over it.

However, now it was the azure dragon essence blood, a heaven-defying treasure. The dragon might Long Chen was unleashing caused all those with any beast blood to go crazy. If they had obtained the azure dragon essence blood instead, then just by merging with the slightest bit of it, their bloodlines would have transformed and grown far stronger. They might even be able to awaken some of the true dragon’s divine abilities.

However, it was too late now. Long Chen had already matured, and he wasn’t someone they could capture just because they wanted to.

Long Chen couldn’t help smiling and shaking his head. “Xiong Tianba, it seems that you really are an idiot. What is the human race? What does it mean to be the most spiritual of all lifeforms? It means to comprehend all Daos and laws. Everything that exists within heaven and earth exists for me. There is nothing in this world that I cannot control. As long as I can control it, it is my power. Can a dumbass like you understand what I’m saying?”

“Twisting words and spouting lies is the trademark of the human race. Today, I’ll kill you to show the world that the Xuan Beasts are the strongest in this world!” Xiong Tianba’s body suddenly grew explosively as he summoned his true body. His rod transformed into a heaven-splitting pillar that smashed toward Long Chen.