Pretending To Be A Boss
Chapter 921 - 68: The Descent of the Ancestral Dragon_2

After delivering the extremely official-sounding warning, Qing Jiuyu was horrified to realize that the storm had frozen in place once again.

The scene resembled a moment of time stopping. She could no longer move—not just her own body, but everything around her too. The burning flames stood still as if trapped in a photograph, wholly frozen in place. The wind and rain in the sky, every droplet held suspended.

Even the wind itself. This terrifying force seemed to have made raindrops forget gravity and caused the swaying trees to forget the storm.

The entire world sank into absolute silence.

Shiling!

Qing Jiuyu immediately thought of that exceptionally powerful Judgment Chief who had served under the Judge in the past.

If it hadn't been for Shiling's unbelievably bad luck—encountering Tang Xian, whose powers countered it perfectly—humanity's alliance army might not have managed to escape at all.

Lightly, the Divine Envoy of Order approached Qing Jiuyu and spoke:

[The Divine King's command: leave no survivors.]

The Divine Envoy of Order raised an arm, palm facing the sky.

In the next moment, Qing Jiuyu felt an enormous power lock onto her.

High above, the dark clouds parted once more, revealing a crack. Through it, she could make out a tiny speck slowly descending.

Its speed was slow, yet even from such a distance, Qing Jiuyu could sense the aura of annihilation that accompanied it.

Even though humans could easily avoid it, no one could move.

Under the Divine Envoy of Order's abilities, everyone was pinned—utterly and immovably, as though it alone strode outside of time.

While the Divine Envoy of Order was not Shiling, it was unquestionably more perfect. It wielded far stronger restraining powers, and its domain covered a much wider area.

Above all, it possessed far superior close-quarters combat ability and resistance in every aspect.

The six Divine Envoys, ultimate lifeforms crafted by Eden's ruler using the worshipful beasts of the Myriad Beasts Realm, were entities of unimaginable strength. Although Gu Yin refused to admit they surpassed Junlin in terms of potential, in terms of initial stats, they already stood far above all apocalypse-level creatures.

Eden's ruler could not leave the Holy Mountain, so beyond its borders, its greatest trump card was these six Divine Envoys.

Qing Jiuyu didn't even have the strength to resist.

As the tiny speck in the sky grew closer to the ground, Qing Jiuyu felt it akin to the sun slowly approaching her, threatening to melt her.

Destruction stretched across the heavens and earth.

Yu Xiaozhe, Lin Sen, and the survivors from Baichuan City all deeply regretted their decision. In hindsight, they should have fled through dimensional fissures rather than hiding inside shelters.

The fear of death gripped everyone's hearts. Within this frozen slice of time, it was as though life had entered the final countdown to oblivion.

Even Qing Jiuyu couldn't muster an expression of fear.

On the brink of death, she instinctively thought of Tang Xian and wanted to call his name. Gold light dazzled the scene, like a divine kingdom manifesting into the world, transforming the previously storm-battered island into a realm of luminous order.

Trees began to melt away slowly, mountains and stones crumbled into decay, and wherever the golden light reached, everything gradually withered.

As though the very world itself—lifeless, unaware—was being consumed piece by piece.

Feeling that ominous aura close in, Yu Xiaozhe thought to himself with a mixture of relief and embarrassment: At least I'm frozen in place; dying and wetting myself would be more humiliating.

He felt death closing in.

Turns out, all of that was false—there's no cinema reel of your life flashing before your eyes, no dramatic power-up through memories before death. Those are all reserved for protagonists. He was nothing but cannon fodder—not even qualified for those moments!

Not even the last sound he heard was some tender, long-awaited whisper—just the roar of some terrifying beast.

Within this eerily quiet realm of death, a sudden growl resounded. Yu Xiaozhe convinced himself he must have misheard it.

After all, he was about to die.

"Did you hear that?" he said instinctively.

"You heard it too?" Lin Sen nodded; his legs were trembling uncontrollably.

The people behind them were all the same.

"Wait a minute, how are you able to move again? Wait, how am I moving too? And speaking?!"

Yu Xiaozhe was shocked to realize the world had become noisy once more.

The golden light descending slowly from the sky… had paused.

The beast's roar came again, deeper, more authoritative this time, shaking the island with tremors. Surrounding waves crashed and surged more violently, as storms and heavy rains became even fiercer.

Foxfire burst forth; Qing Jiuyu retreated rapidly.

She felt an unimaginable pressure.

Despite arriving first, she reluctantly admitted that Tang Xian's adventures with the little white snake far outnumbered her own.

Thus, she lacked encounters with many formidable monsters.

This terrifying aura felt even more menacing than the Divine Envoy of Order standing before her. The voice that followed carried sovereign dominance and a brutal nature, like some beast from the depths of the ocean.

[How dare you obstruct this envoy's judgment! What manner of demon dares show itself?!]

Qing Jiuyu trembled slightly, feeling a flicker of fear. She glanced behind her, intending to signal the humans to retreat quickly.

But before her gaze could convey her intentions, an instinctive excitement overtook her senses, raising her fur on edge. She heard something, prompting her to lift her head skyward.

Above, amidst immense clouds, an arc of cyan-green lightning swirled through the stormy banks.

Qing Jiuyu had seen many enormous creatures, and she had encountered dragons. Yet never had she seen one of such staggering size.

[Foolish, lowly little fox! In the end, you still needed me to save you? How laughable!]

Accompanying the mighty dragon's dignified cry was the arrival of more tempestuous winds and torrential rain across the island.

Qing Jiuyu flinched reflexively, her feelings a tumultuous blend. That dumb dragon had disappeared for ages, leaving her, Bai Mansheng, and Li Xiaoyu speculating that Tang Feiji was most likely dead.

The so-called contingency plans left by Tang Xian were all lies. That arrogant, foolish dragon must have done something recklessly stupid—and died as a result.

But who else would address her in such a provoking manner besides Tang Feiji?

For the first time, Qing Jiuyu didn't find encountering that dimwitted dragon an annoyance.

The realization struck: It wasn't the Divine Envoy causing the storm; it was him!

Yes, that idiotic dragon was always like this—every appearance accompanied by glaringly ostentatious theatrics of heaven and earth's upheaval.

The Divine Envoy of Order raised its gaze, its expression one of astonishment.

When Gu Yin had crafted the six Divine Envoys, he had designed them with an exhaustive knowledge of beasts—spanning the entirety of known beast history.

In theory, there would be no creature unknown to them.

Yet the bellowing entity in the heavens defied recognition.

It was an enormous dragon beast, far beyond the bounds of imagination—a sacred beast undoubtedly of the Azure Dragon lineage.

But why was it so colossal?

If Qing Jiuyu's nine-tailed form already counted as a massive creature, then compared to this colossal dragon beast, Qing Jiuyu's size might well equal that of its pupil.

This immense dragon beast was none other than Tang Feiji.

Except, it was no longer an Azure Dragon—it had become an Ancestral Dragon.

Among the oldest beings in existence, ancestral dragons predated even Eden's ruler's arrival. They had existed far before the birth of this world.

The last time an Ancestral Dragon appeared had been during the distant, unremembered era of the Myriad Beasts Realm's primordial age.

Through countless millennia since, no Ancestral Dragons had been seen.

Each creature's conditions for evolution are unique.

For some, the requirements are so stringent as to be nearly impossible.

Yet no beast in this world had ever devoured a Soul Crystal before—let alone one that ascended forcefully to become a Beast God purely through unyielding defiance.

Horizontal power brought endless potential; vertical power was an audacious gamble.

Tang Feiji admitted he had gambled, but now he had transformed from a dilapidated building to prime real estate.

The Divine Envoy of Order spread wide its arms.

The world seemed on the verge of freezing again. The clouds concealing the dragon were chased away by streams of golden light.

Qing Jiuyu knew Tang Feiji must have experienced some sort of transformation, yet she instinctively worried for him.

The overwhelming, shackling strength of the Divine Envoy of Order could shift any battle dramatically.

Gradually, the scattered clouds in the sky froze solid; storm, rain, and lightning all ground to an unnatural halt.

Everything reverted to the bleakest moment of despair.

Except for the colossal Ancestral Dragon high above, which regarded the Divine Envoy with disdain.

Dragons have always possessed extraordinarily high elemental resistance.

And as for Ancestral Dragons—

What they hold in their veins is the realm-immune bloodline, coveted by all creatures, even Beast Gods.

[Under the apocalypse, all are mere ants!]

Amidst the dragon's contemptuous roar, devastating heavenly thunder erupted with overwhelming ferocity, bombarding the utterly bewildered Divine Envoy!