Chapter 3517 — Zhang Nai Pao Is Crippled

The moment Zhang Nai Pao opened his mouth, his true qi leaked out, and the defenses within his body collapsed at once. His true qi surged toward Wang Xinyan in a single rush, and before long he had slumped helplessly to the ground!

Hearing Zhang Nai Pao say that Wang Xinyan also knew the Bee-Devouring Art, Zhong Yongliang was briefly stunned. But before he could react, Zhang Nai Pao was already lying on the ground!

Wang Xinyan was still kind and merciful at heart, and she did not simply kill Zhang Nai Pao outright. Although she knew he was an enemy, she had never taken a life with her own hands, and she found it very hard to bring herself to do it!

So she let Zhang Nai Pao off the hook after all, leaving him with his life!

"Paozi!" Zhong Yongliang turned pale with fright and hurried over. He lifted Zhang Nai Pao from the ground, then pulled a pill from his bosom and stuffed it into Zhang Nai Pao's mouth!

Zhang Nai Pao swallowed the pill, his eyes rolled, and he could just barely be counted as having scraped his life back. Even though Wang Xinyan had held back, a master at the peak of the late heaven tier wielding the Southern Nether Art was domineering and ferocious beyond measure. She had not meant it so, yet Zhang Nai Pao could not withstand it and nearly died on the spot.

But even though his life had been saved, Zhang Nai Pao had lost every ounce of his strength. He was utterly powerless now, reduced to a cripple who was not even fit to be called a yellow-tier master!

"Brother Liang, I'm finished. I'm crippled!" Zhang Nai Pao's face was ashen. "The Cloud-Tier Island plan... I can't go."

"What?! You're crippled?" Zhong Yongliang was thrown into a panic. Zhang Nai Pao was a key member for opening the Cloud-Tier Island plan. If he was done for, Cloud-Tier Island would never open, and none of them would have any hope of ascending to the heavenly dao!

When the time came, he was to play a vital role as guardian of Tagan Long, every bit as important as the legacy-bearers. Though without Zhang Nai Pao, if Tagan Long were a little more steadfast, the plan might still succeed.

But the crucial problem was that Tagan Long was not very steadfast at all! True, under the aid and cultivation of Patriarch Xuanchen, he had smoothly ascended to become a master at the heaven tier's great perfection, and he could serve as the most important piece on the board in the Cloud-Tier Island plan. Yet because of an injury he had suffered earlier—healed though it was—Tagan Long had lost his former drive and perseverance.

If that were so, then during the opening of Cloud-Tier Island, should Tagan Long falter and Zhang Nai Pao be unable to guard him, he would likely be finished.

Zhong Yongliang was the Zhong Yongliang who bore a grudge against Wei Zhao, but he was also the Mad Dragon Patriarch of the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow sect, and he naturally understood just how important Zhang Nai Pao was to this plan.

If Zhang Nai Pao were gone, would Patriarch Xuanchen fly into a rage? At that thought, Zhong Yongliang could not help but feel a splitting headache. He had never imagined that Wang Xinyan could actually cripple Zhang Nai Pao!

"That's right. This Wang Xinyan knows the Bee-Devouring Art too, and her strength is no less than mine!" Zhang Nai Pao said gravely.

"Wah yah yah yah yah, she's asking for death!" Zhong Yongliang was beside himself with fury. The plan was ruined, so they might as well all be ruined together. He raised his Golden Dragon Soft Whip, ready to unleash his strongest martial skill, the Mad Dragon's Tail Sweep, and beat Wang Xinyan to death to vent his rage!

"Wait!" Kang Jingming suddenly cried out.

Zhong Yongliang frowned at once and looked at Kang Jingming with some displeasure. "Assistant Kang, what's the meaning of this? What are you doing?"

"Don't kill her. She's still useful!" Kang Jingming said hurriedly.

"What do you mean? First you want her dead, now you don't—what on earth are you playing at!" Zhong Yongliang snarled.

"Zhang Nai Pao is crippled, so the Cloud-Tier Island plan is bound to suffer greatly. But since Wang Xinyan knows the Bee-Devouring Art as well, she can also absorb the demonic qi among the Five Malevolences' qi and serve as guardian for Tagan Long and the other legacy-bearers!" Kang Jingming said.

"Hm?" Zhong Yongliang was taken aback, but on reflection it was indeed so. That was Zhang Nai Pao's role, and that was Wang Xinyan's role too, so replacing him with her was not out of the question. Only, in doing so, the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow sect would be demoted from the leading sect to a subordinate one, and there would be no part left for him to play!

This made him secretly regret having listened to Kang Jingming and sent Zhang Nai Pao to kill Wang Xinyan. Now look at the mess—Wang Xinyan had not been killed, and Zhang Nai Pao had been thrown away for nothing.

"Fine, I'll spare her! But Wei Zhao cannot be spared!" Zhong Yongliang's heart had hardened; he was prepared to take the field himself and do away with Wei Zhao!

The Mad Dragon's Wrath of the Mad Dragon Divine Art was Zhong Yongliang's ultimate move. It could overpower cultivators of unsteady mind into submission, and of course it could overpower spirit beasts into submission as well! But whether it would work dragon against dragon, Zhong Yongliang was not quite sure. He meant to bring his oppressive might to bear on the Five Malevolences Dragon and rouse its fury.

As it stood, the battle between the Five Malevolences Dragon and Wei Zhao looked fierce enough, but look closely and you would find it was more like an eagle chasing a chick—one ran, the other chased, and neither seemed to be fighting in earnest.

The Five Malevolences Dragon was not, and neither was Wei Zhao. And so Wei Zhao conserved his stamina and true qi, and it would all come to nothing even after the legacy-bearers' empowerment was complete.

To make the Five Malevolences Dragon finish off Wei Zhao, it had to be driven into a rage! Such ferocious spirit beasts were, by all accounts, hot-tempered creatures. Leave them be and they would not trouble you; provoke them, and their counterattack would come like a violent storm!

So Zhong Yongliang intended to put some pressure on the Five Malevolences Dragon, rouse its savage nature, and let it go finish off Wei Zhao!

The Five Malevolences Dragon was a kind of dragon, true, but it was a mutated dragon and no longer counted as a true dragon. So Zhong Yongliang was still confident he could overpower it—after all, his was the true dragon's heart method and oral formula!

"Mad Dragon's Wrath! Dragon Totem!" Zhong Yongliang stepped forward and bellowed. His soft whip lashed out like a mad dragon, gleaming with dazzling golden light as it struck toward the Five Malevolences Dragon. At the whip's tip, it was as though a dragon's head were breathing fire; the searing heat was such that even the thick-skinned Five Malevolences Dragon felt somewhat roasted.

With Zhong Yongliang's roar, a phantom dragon totem suddenly flared behind him. To be doubly sure, Zhong Yongliang unleashed the Mad Dragon's Wrath and the Dragon Totem together, all to make the Five Malevolences Dragon submit outright!

"Roar—" The Five Malevolences Dragon let out a cry of agony and dropped to its knees on the ground. Zhong Yongliang's guess had been right: the dragon clan of spirit beasts had indeed vanished! (There will be a weekend bonus chapter today, likely finished and posted before midnight.) (To be continued)