In front of Mo Lingtian was a chaotic ocean brimming with thunder and violent air forces that could tear apart practitioners even at the early and mid-levels of the Qi Refining stage. Moving forward was logically a dead end, and moving backwards meant a clash with the unveiling beast. But still, his face showed no sign of fear, anxiousness, or unsettlement.
His face wore a disturbing calm, and his green pupils added a bone-chilling accent to that stillness.
The ravaging demonic beast slowly and majestically arose from the deep, parting the ocean with the enormous size of its full body. Its eyes alone were the size of a regular mountain cave, and its bulk was enough to cover one-fifth of the entire ocean. Its massive, slender frame bore extremely dark scales, with dark red mist escaping from its jaws.
This demonic beast was an ancient mythical dragon known as the First Breath of Disaster. They were once the personal beasts used by Lucifer in the Great Chaos, but this was obviously a far weaker dragon than the ancients.
As its head rose higher, touching the very clouds in the sky, the dragon looked at Mo Lingtian's back and felt threatened by a terror it couldn't explain despite the staggering difference in size, strength, realm, and mastery of qi. The dragon was a step away from the Dao Realm while Mo Lingtian had just entered the Vessel Cleansing Realm yet the dread it felt was almost tangible.
"You... you are the one who absorbed my crystals?" the dragon asked with a thunderous echo, still gazing at Mo Lingtian's back, its voice causing more violent tides to traverse the ocean.
Mo Lingtian refused to turn around to answer this terrifying beast. He deliberately ignored the dragon despite its dramatic appearance, continuing to slowly move his canoe forward.
"How dare you?" the dragon roared in annoyance.
Mo Lingtian offered no acknowledgment. He simply continued navigating his canoe forward in a deathly silence.
That silence scared the dragon.
What if there was more to this brat than it could actually see?
If it acted rashly, its thousand-year-old efforts and sacrifices to begin its bloodline's revival could come to a sudden stop with its death.
"Forget it. This seat will not bully the younger generation. I will let you go just this time. Scram before I change my mind," the dragon said, shifting the ocean currents more violently to frighten Mo Lingtian.
Mo Lingtian still didn't answer or acknowledge its presence, continuing to move his canoe slowly and gently. For a beast that proud and lofty, the blatant humiliation was too much to bear.
"It seems this seat will have to teach you a lesson!" the dragon roared in a fury. It lifted itself higher into the sky, throwing the natural order of the ocean into disarray. A massive and perilous whirlpool, comparable in size to an ancient mountain, formed directly under Mo Lingtian's boat, threatening to suck him down into the forgotten depths.
Up in the vast, dark sky behind the dragon, a vortex of thunder, mist, and gloomy dark red clouds suddenly appeared, releasing crushing air pressure onto the ocean below.
Out of the massive vortex descended a colossal, glowing red palm print. It came down majestically, rallying the energy of the night as it pushed against the atmosphere. The descending palm print was ten times the size of the dragon and possessed enough force to destroy Mo Lingtian's core at the very least.
Mo Lingtian stopped moving the canoe.
He slowly turned around. The air currents around him grew hyperactive, swaying his robes in resonance with his qi.
He lifted his glowing, dark green-hued pupils to the sky and locked eyes with the dragon. The moment the dragon met his gaze, its entire resolve, power, and qi broke under a certain will it had never witnessed before.
The dragon's mind was sucked violently into Mo Lingtian's consciousness. Right above it, in the boy's sea of consciousness, was a silhouette very similar to Mo Lingtian but exuding a far more powerful, horrifying, and overbearing aura.
The dragon felt so little, so insignificant, so unworthy.
Behind the silhouette loomed a heaven-defying four-headed beast. Gray mist poured from its mouths, coating its gray scales and elongated, massive body. It was marred with scars and old cuts that told of ancient battles.
The dragon couldn't fathom the true magnitude of its entire body; its sheer scale felt unlawful to perceive, even to utter, so the only thing it could truly witness were its four distinct heads.
The silhouette was a mere dot compared to that four-headed beast, yet the monstrous entity cowered like a pet behind him.
The silhouette, bearing every resemblance to Mo Lingtian, glared at the dragon with those striking, dark green-hued pupils. Immediately, an overbearing pressure pushed the dragon down to the very depths of the sea of consciousness.
If the silhouette was a dot compared to the four-headed beast, the mighty dragon was a speck of dust in comparison.
"Get out!" the silhouette echoed harshly, jerking the dragon out of Mo Lingtian's sea of consciousness.
The beast slammed back into its own body. It was still releasing the mighty palm seal halfway from the vortex in the sky, and still locking its gaze with Mo Lingtian's terrifying eyes.
"From today, you'll be my beast. My companion in joy and in grief," Mo Lingtian said softly, pointing at the dragon and the enormous descending palm seal.
Like an absolute command, the dragon felt an invisible force swat it from the heights of the sky down to the surface of the ocean, forcing it to bow in supreme humiliation.
Mo Lingtian moved his hand from left to right. A slash tore through the air—quick and powerful—decimating the colossal, red palm print into two clean-cut halves.
The dragon struggled, forced down by the crushing pressure Mo Lingtian exerted on its gigantic body.
"You have two choices, become my soul beast or cease to exist!" Mo lingtian said as his voice echoed all over the raging ocean.
"Thi... this... this seat will not be bullied by a young brat," the dragon ground out, its voice cracking under the intense strain.
"Is that so? I haven't even used my qi on you," Mo Lingtian said. With a mere glint of the green glow in his pupils, he multiplied the intense, overbearing pressure on the beast tenfold.
"What?" the dragon thought, its heart palpitating in raw terror.
"Surprised?" Mo Lingtian asked, looking down at the suppressed beast.
"But... but..." the dragon tried to speak, but couldn't muster any strength to do so. Its very life was slipping away just from the pressure alone.
"Old thing, strength doesn't rely on cultivation stages. Even if a master at the peak of the Dao Realm suddenly shows up, no one can save you," Mo Lingtian said. Each word he uttered bore a weight of certainty that simply could not be questioned.
"I submit!" the beast suddenly cried out as its thousand-year-old demon core began to fracture under Mo Lingtian's weight.
"I could stand my ground against an early expert in the Dao Realm, and even escape the claws of a mid-stage cultivator in the Dao Realm if I were to burn my core essence," the dragon thought frantically. "But for him to absolutely subdue me without using the slightest bit of qi... his true strength has surpassed the very limits of the Dao Realm!"