Chapter 65: The Shapeshifter

"A god? I'd like to see about that!" The Black Flood Dragon roared with laughter. "It's been a long time since I've had a proper fight!"

Before he even finished speaking, hundreds of huge fireballs suddenly descended from the sky, crashing onto the ground where the two stood.

These fireballs glowed white amidst the golden-red, indicating an alarming temperature. Each contained obsidian meteorites over ten feet in diameter, striking with such immense force and creating such a violent sound that it seemed they would punch through the surface.

Each impact triggered a massive explosion, gouging deep craters into the ground and melting the soil surface into a glazed, glassy state due to the high temperature.

All these collisions were concentrated within a one hundred-foot radius, turning even the golden-armored soldiers into molten bronze.

Could those two still be alive? Not far away, He Lingchuan tightly covered his ears to prevent his eardrums from rupturing.

The more powerful a divine ability, the longer its preparation time. The Black Flood Dragon could summon a meteor shower with a mere flick of its tail, seemingly effortless. Aside from this world being its home ground, it was likely that its earlier chatter with the two men was a cover for secretly activating its divine power.

What made this artifact spirit even more troublesome than other divine artifacts was its cunning, much like a human's.

The Black Flood Dragon seemed to know exactly what was happening below. With a low growl, one figure after another emerged from the black smoke swirling across the ground.

The demonic apes got back up, and, replenished by the heavenly fire, they appeared larger, stronger, and faster. Lava even streamed from their bodies, hissing with every drop that hit the ground.

As soon as they materialized, they rushed off in another direction.

It was a pile of rubble; the vast amount of earth and stones that had previously fallen from the south city wall provided the best cover.

Unfortunately, this tactic was useless against the Black Flood Dragon. It could accurately pinpoint the location of the two enemies without even using its eyes.

They were not at all at the meteor strike location. Sun Fuping had probably used an earth evasion spell, dragging the two of them over two hundred feet away in the nick of time.

But just as the two reappeared, ten pieces of military equipment on the city wall suddenly turned on their own, aiming at their location. The Black Flood Dragon leisurely remarked, "Did you enjoy blasting my dwelling earlier?"

Crossbow bolts, fire stones, and nail pellets all fired at once, raining down on the two of them.

However delighted Nian Songyu had been when he previously used nail pellets, he was now just as disheveled. His tortoise shield was covered in tiny nail fragments, and he even had two embedded in his leg.

His body emitted a faint green light, having already withstood two rounds of flying crossbow bolts and one round of thrown fire stones. Unfortunately, Sun Fuping had been absolutely right: not only was the effectiveness of the *Sheji* Order greatly diminished here, but his expenditure of true energy in combat was also multiplied.

Fortunately, he still managed to buy Sun Fuping some time, and the earth evasion spell was used again, shifting the two of them over one hundred feet away.

The Black Flood Dragon rubbed its head against the gate tower. "Don't rush," it said, "this is just a warm-up. There's more fun to come."

As soon as it finished speaking, bats flew out one by one from the air vents on the city wall. Circling once above the south wall, they formed a swarm so vast it blotted out the sky.

There must have been tens of thousands of them.

Immediately after, half the bats dove to the ground, transforming into five agile sand leopards. The remaining bats split into groups in the air, turning into monstrous birds with pointed beaks and bat wings.

The demonic apes, though powerful, were slow, giving Nian Songyu room to maneuver. The Black Flood Dragon, noticing this, summoned the agile sand leopards to compensate for the deficiency in offense. With the addition of demonic birds launching aerial attacks, it wanted to see if these two could possibly escape such a coordinated ground and air assault.

At this point, it also became clear that Nian Songyu indeed had some real skill. Once the sand leopards joined the fray, holding the shield with one hand became inconvenient, so he simply put away his tortoise shield and drew a long saber. Standing from a distance, He Lingchuan watched two streaks of green light darting up and down, agile as swimming dragons, embodying speed, precision, and ruthlessness. Neither the sand leopards nor the demonic apes could get close.

But in the Black Flood Dragon's world, how could he avoid paying a price? In that short time, Nian Songyu had sustained at least a dozen external injuries, big and small, with blood soaking his clothes. The most severe blow came from a diving demonic bird. Although he cleaved the demonic bird in two, its pointed beak had disfigured him, leaving a wound stretching from his temple to his chin, almost bursting his eyeball.

Seeing this scene, He Lingchuan muttered, "That's ridiculous. How can demonic beasts transform like that?"

Although his original body had little education, he still knew there was an iron rule in this world: neither humans nor demonic beasts could completely transform into other creatures, unless they inherently possessed mimicry or transformation abilities.

Simply put, humans couldn't become monsters, and monsters couldn't become humans. A bat was a bat; it couldn't turn into a leopard or a bird. However, a toad demon could still grow from a tadpole because that was its natural progression.

Humans could use certain divine abilities or methods to achieve partial transfiguration, but it wasn't lasting, and the resulting depletion and side effects were significant.

This so-called iron rule was a universally applicable law. For these bats to be able to arbitrarily change form, wasn't that completely against the rules?

Maotao gave a wry smile. "In this place, can anything truly be considered strange?"

He Lingchuan suddenly heard a whooshing sound from above and quickly gestured for Maotao to be quiet, but it was too late.

A demonic bird landed on the rubble, less than ten feet away from them. They stared at each other, wide-eyed.

Only after it landed did its enormous size become apparent; its upright height was nearly as tall as He Lingchuan.

This creature had bat-like wings, thin and membranous. Its breastbone protruded like a keel, and when its wings were folded, the front tips bore hooked claws, the black, pointed talons alone longer than a human finger.

Its beak was scythe-shaped, long and sharp, capable of shattering a prey's skull with a single peck.

Frightened, Maotao drew his waist knife. He Lingchuan subtly wiggled his fingers, his voice barely a whisper, "Don't move!"

Being stared at by those earthy-yellow eyes, he felt his scalp tingle. This thing was a composite creature itself; besides being a sand leopard and a demonic bird, who knew what else it could transform into?

Besides, these creatures couldn't be killed, so no matter how hard he tried, it would be useless.

As He Lingchuan tried to devise a plan, the demonic bird also tilted its head, as if it too were thinking.

Of course, neither of them dared to move an inch.

After roughly a few breaths, the demonic bird lost interest in them, turned its back, flapped its wings, and flew away.

Maotao's forehead was slick with sweat. He couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. "If I can get out of here, I'll definitely burn extra incense and tell my wife to offer more meat dishes. It's truly our ancestors' blessing!"

That was a monster even the Imperial Advisor and Captain Nian couldn't handle.

"It has nothing to do with your ancestors. Why wasn't it hostile towards us?" He Lingchuan looked at the Black Flood Dragon on the gate tower. These monsters were all summoned by the Black Flood Dragon, serving as both its eyes and ears and its enforcers, their actions controlled by it. The fact that this demonic bird saw He Lingchuan but didn't react could only mean the Black Flood Dragon had no desire to attack them.

They, like Nian Songyu, had also been setting fires throughout the illusion. Why would the Black Flood Dragon let them go?