The heavy breathing was deafening here, and even the veil of black light formed by the Tome of Life and Death trembled under its noise.

Lu Yun’s three immortal fires flickered in the din, looking like they were about to go out at any moment. This wasn’t because the Tome or the fires were weak; he was the weak one and couldn’t make use of their true strength.

He could no longer pinpoint the Scaled-Dragon King’s dirt because nascent spirit soil was everywhere. Gaseous grains of sandy dirt surged forward on a torrent of currents.

The Scaled-Dragon King’s soil had been swept up by a much larger stream of its peers,...