Chapter 672 - 70: Dao Transformation Level 130%, Physical Sanctification

Chapter 672: Chapter 70: Dao Transformation Level 130%, Physical Sanctification

The hand was skeletal, like that of a corpse, but it was not bestial, retaining a human form.

Moreover, the owner of the hand was also humanoid, with no bestial features.

He stepped out from behind Mira. The moonlight fell upon him, revealing a withered, almost fleshless face.

His skin, like dried parchment, was stretched taut over his cheekbones and jaw. His eye sockets were deep-set, and his eyeballs were murky and yellow, like discolored glass beads.

He wore a tattered robe of an unrecognizable color, its hem shredded into strips. Below it, two shins as thin as dead branches were visible.

But his spine was ramrod straight, like a stone monument planted in the earth.

Mira whirled around, her gray-blue eyes wide. "Who are you?"

The old man didn’t answer her question.

He stood before the writhing mass of flesh, his murky eyes fixed on the crimson sword light in the sky. After a moment of silence, he spoke, his voice hoarse, the language ancient yet familiar. "Three thousand years have passed... Do people from the Wizard World still exist? It seems our efforts back then were a failure."

Mira’s pupils constricted violently. A thought exploded from the depths of her mind, and she blurted out, "Are you one of the ancestors who fought the invaders from the Nightmare World three thousand years ago?"

The old man turned to look at her, his brow furrowing to form three deep creases on his forehead. "Nightmare World? What is that?"

Just as Mira was about to answer, she saw the mass of flesh convulse violently in her peripheral vision.

The Sword Qi slashed down from on high, its crimson radiance illuminating the entire cliff base.

Before the Sword Qi even struck, the sheer pressure made a large section of the flesh-mass cave in. Countless tiny gashes split open across its surface, oozing black blood. It looked as if it were about to be cleaved in two by the single strike.

"We can talk about that later!" Mira shouted urgently. "Look out!"

The old man didn’t look up at the sword light; he didn’t even move.

He just stood there, spine erect, his withered hands at his sides, like a stone statue weathered by the ages. He didn’t even blink.

"It’s nothing," he said, his voice calm. "Even if the Wizard World still exists, this enemy hasn’t become a Dawn Wizard. Now that I have awakened, his death is at hand."

Mira’s lips parted as if to speak, but she swallowed her words.

She watched the sword light draw nearer. Its crimson glow had already dyed the entire base of the cliff blood-red, and a wave of heat pressed down from above, making her face flush.

She glanced again at the emaciated old man beside her, who looked as if a strong gust of wind could scatter him to pieces, and her heart remained filled with anxiety.

The old man seemed to read her mind.

He suddenly chuckled, his withered face twisting into a smile more ghastly than a grimace. "For I am Saladin, the Spine-Shatterer, who followed the Demigod Orestes three thousand years ago."

The moment Mira heard the name, she froze as if struck by lightning.

Saladin the Spine-Shatterer.

That name was carved into the stone wall in the deepest sanctum of the Holy Hall. It was at the very top of the list every High Priest for the past three thousand years had been required to memorize.

He was not a Demigod, but he was the closest anyone had ever come.

Legend told that he possessed twelve different forms, and in each one, he maintained his complete self-awareness, unlike those Warriors who lost their human form when their bloodlines turned against them.

And what made a Demigod a Demigod was precisely this ability to change into countless forms while retaining one’s self.

’No wonder that after being buried for so many years, Saladin was still in his human form when he crawled out of the earth.’

Saladin said nothing more.

He turned to face the mass of flesh, which had already shrunk considerably under the sword light’s assault, and spread his arms wide.

"I, Saladin the Spine-Shatterer, right hand of Orestes, who drank the Divine Blood three thousand years ago and shattered the bones of ten thousand invaders, awaken today from my long slumber! By all that my blood has touched, by all my brothers-in-arms who lie buried here, by all the will and fury that have not dissipated in three millennia—come to me!"

At his words, the mass of flesh stirred.

It was like a long-lost child leaping into its father’s embrace.

The flesh and blood surged up from the ground, climbing Saladin’s shins to envelop his knees, thighs, waist, and chest.

The shattered bones, minced flesh, malformed organs, and twisted limbs flowed into his body, piece by piece, like a puzzle assembling itself, like rivers returning to the sea.

His body expanded, grew. His atrophied muscles swelled with new life, his sallow skin grew taut and full, and his murky eyes became clear and bright once more.

Then, a great dragon rose from the mass of flesh and blood.

This was no malformed, twisted monster cobbled together from scraps. This was a true, whole, and magnificent dragon.

Its scales were a deep Dark Gold, each the size of a palm, arranged in perfect rows that gleamed with a metallic luster under the moonlight.

A pair of enormous wings sprouted from its back. When unfurled, their membranes blotted out half the sky. The bones were thick and the muscles corded, and every beat stirred up a furious gale.

Its four limbs were thick and powerful, claws digging deep into the soil. Its long, thick tail, tipped with a cluster of barbs, made a WHOOSHING sound as it whipped through the air.

It held its head high. Two horns swept back from above its brow ridges, their tips as sharp as a pair of Curved Sabers.

Its eyes were vertical golden pupils, ignited with a fire that had slumbered for three thousand years.

The dragon lowered its head to look down upon the crimson sword light, which now hung in midair far below it. It let out a low, guttural roar.

"You from the Wizard World, are you prepared to meet your doom?"