Astral Dragon Monarch

Loud roars and the pandemonium of running people jolted Shen out of his impromptu sleeping bench in the noodle shack.

"What the hell is going on out there?..."

However, as he poked his head out of the small window, he almost wet himself.

In his line of sight, a gargantuan multiple legged monstrous abomination of a strange worm like creature was running amok in the city.

How the hell could a worm have legs, even?!

The screams of countless people being devoured by its toothy maws were deafening, but that did not even remotely affect Shen as he immediately dashed out of the shack.

Nothing on Earth and up till the ninth heavens did Shen value as much as his own life, and he was trying to get as far away from the monstrosity as was humanly possible.

"Nope, I'm not dying as soon as I get another chance at life!"

He had finally managed to transmigrate and would never risk his neck for any reason, not even if this could be the very moment that he could get his own cheat.

He would rather wait for a bit more time to obtain his own hidden cheat, rather than die at the maws of a dreadful monstrosity while trying.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which was not very far as he had never really been an athletic person but was forced to halt his steps as he saw a group of people confidently walking over to the scene of absolute, horrifying destruction.

"Do you guys have a death wish or something? Run!"

Shen gave them a strange look as he watched them ignore him and go by anyways. Their auras alone gave away the fact that they were extremely strong cultivators and at the fore front, Shen could spot a familiar face.

'The girl that bought noodles and forgot to pay, then beat me up?!'

Come to think of it, he did not manage to catch her name.

"They called her Xin, right?"

***

Xin confidently walked to the front of the ensuring chaos then opened her mouth and shouted.

"Phoenix Terror!"

The Phoenix Terror was a magnificent red sword that flew by itself into her palms. Feeling the familiar hilt graze the inside of her hand, Xin smirked darkly and turned to face the woman closest to her.

"Han sister, make sure to aggro the beast and divert it's attention from the city. Gu brother, please protect Han sister..."

Then she turned her head to face two men behind them.

"Elder Su, please cover me as I attack the beast and bring it down, and Zhang brother, could you please make sure that no person crosses past you and gets caught in the chaos?..."

It was very obvious that Xin was a natural born leader.

They all nodded in unison.

"Got it, Xin sister!"

Xin nodded and took a battle stance.

"Then, GO!"

Shen's eyes grew into gigantic orbs as the group of five, excluding the baldie Zhang that had to protect the citizens, took on a creature the size of a three storey building all by themselves.

It was very impressive to finally see the kind of battles that he had been reading about in web novels all his life.

The Han lady punched the sturdy creature a few times to attract its attention, then she successfully held her ground despite the resulting onslaught. She was a peak Rank 5 cultivator of the first stage of the lower mortal tier and was not to be trifled with.

"Iron body technique!"

Behind her, deflecting the stray attracts that threatened to throw the Han woman off balance, was the Gu person.

The Gu guy was still an early Rank 4 cultivator of the first stage of the lower mortal tier, but he was definitely almost as good as she was.

Elder Su and Xin dashed towards the beast in a naruto run while avoiding all the attacks the beast made at the Han woman using it's tail, claws, and even teeth.

It was a worm, damnit, why did it even have those?!

Xin was much faster, and she managed to get on top of the beast in a matter of minutes, while Elder Su stood at the floor in case anything went wrong.

The Phoenix Terror was clutched tightly in Xin's palms as she cried out with a loud voice.

"Phoenix slash, tearing the heavens!"

The beautifully crafted sword whistled quietly as it sliced through the air and landed on the head of the creature and the sheer amount of sāi energy and immolating heat emanating from the single sword strike was enough to ripple the skies and send shivers down Shen's spine.

Shen, watching from very, very, very far behind, could not help but leak out a gasp of admration.

Could he perhaps have that much power one day when he found his own Cheat, whatever it was?

Anyways, he heaved a deep sigh of relief.

In his eyes, the beast was already as good as dead as nothing could have possibly survived such an attack head on.

However, Xin did not seem to share his thoughts as her complexion paled considerably.

'It's regeneration rate is insane!'

Indeed she had used a massive amount of sāi to supplement her sword and make the beautiful jian almost a thousand times sharper than usual but the beast had regenerated its lost flesh almost as quickly as it had been destroyed!

Then it happened that Elder Su dodged another one of the beasts attack and shot threw his dagger at the tail of the beast swiftly approaching the disadvantagely positioned Xin, that he could see his own arm flying in the air instead.

The Gu person gasped as his complexion paled.

"Elder! Your arm!!"

Indeed, Elder Su's entire arm from the shoulder downwards had been cleanly sliced off by one of the beast's deadly claws. The fact that he was a peak Rank 9 cultivator under the first stage of the lower mortal tier made it far worse, as his body was far sturdier than all of theirs combined.

Except for Lady Xin's of course...

The old man had reached the pinnacle of the first stage of the lower mortal tier and was just a stage away from breaking through into the early Rank 1 section of the second stage lower mortal tier, meaning that which his aged body was always covered with an impenetrable layer of solid sāi.

It was almost impossible to injure someone at this tier, but not only had Elder Su been injured, but his whole arm was sliced off from the shoulder.

The Han woman frowned deeply, then turned her head to face the Zhang guy in the distance.

"Zhang brother! We need backup."

The bald Zhang guy was not left behind to watch the citizens because he was weak, no.

In fact, he was at the peak Rank 8 section of the first stage of the lower mortal tier and was about to breakthrough into the early Rank 9 section.

It was because he was a healer.

Xin had managed to foresee such a situation happening, and made the Zhang guy wait in the background just in case one of them got injured. With Elder Su's debilitating injury, the battle had only just begun.