This strike came crashing down with the force of the Yong River itself, compounded by the mighty magic power unleashed by the Blind Elder. Before it had even descended, Lord Dragon-Rearer already sensed an overwhelming peril. "How can a tiny place like the Kingdom of Jingping have so many experts?" Lord Dragon-Rearer had no time to alter his move. Gritting his teeth, he summoned every ounce of magic power and met the Blind Elder's attack head-on. The column of water spun like a whirlwind, turning so swiftly that even the air was sliced apart with a shrill whistle. Before it, a dragon's roar shook the heavens. The highly concentrated water transformed into a dragon's head and lunged down at Lord Dragon-Rearer. "A dragon-shaped art against me?" Lord Dragon-Rearer breathed a sigh of relief. His body shuddered, and countless currents shaped like dragons came surging forth, forming a massive Thousand-Dragon Coil above his head. Holding the Thousand-Dragon Coil aloft with both hands, Lord Dragon-Rearer saw innumerable horned dragons on its surface baring their fangs and claws, their bodies twisting in the wind. "This man is certainly an expert, but he has happened to encounter his natural enemy. I am a god who raises dragons. No dragon-shaped divine art can escape my eyes. He is no threat." The instant he had this thought, the dragon's head began to spin. The column of water coiled around itself and transformed into an enormous dragon spear, the dragon's head resting upon its tip while the river water became the sharpest point of the spear. "It is not a dragon-shaped art!" Lord Dragon-Rearer's heart jolted. The Blind Elder's spear had already pierced into the Thousand-Dragon Coil, striking precisely at one point among the thousand dragons. The force unleashed by that thrust was unexpectedly slight, and its might seemed hardly formidable at all. Yet the Thousand-Dragon Coil suddenly disintegrated. The thousand horned dragons twisted and scattered, and a great hole opened in the center of the massive coil. Lord Dragon-Rearer looked up and saw the huge dragon spear thrusting down through that opening. "The force of this thrust was not released when it collided with the Thousand-Dragon Coil. Then it must be released when it strikes my flesh. His technique is exquisite. His control over his divine art has reached perfection, allowing him to see through the flaws in my technique." Lord Dragon-Rearer had no time to think further. He abandoned his attempt to hold up the Yong River, pouring all his magic power into his hands. As he spread his palms apart, layer upon layer of barriers appeared before him, only to be pierced through one after another by the spear, which met scarcely any resistance. Lord Dragon-Rearer brought both hands together and caught the descending spearhead. A muffled groan escaped him as his palms were instantly drenched in blood, the spearhead piercing the dragon scales on his hands. "His magic power is inferior to mine. Break!" Lord Dragon-Rearer's body swelled with explosive force. In an instant, he towered above the river valley, a hundred yards tall. He forcibly lifted the spear and began spinning at tremendous speed. The descending water-dragon spear erupted with power as well, whirling madly. In the space of a breath, the dragon's roar grew deafening. As the two forces burst forth against each other, the enormous dragon spear shattered, becoming a vast curtain of water that crashed down with a roar. Lord Dragon-Rearer's entire body was soaked through. The flesh of his hands was a bloody blur, and his palms trembled. He had prevailed only because the other's magic power was inferior to his own, allowing him to tear the spear apart. But the force contained in that thrust had been terrifying, further augmented by the power of the Yong River's current. The river had borne down from above with immense pressure, and together with the might of the spear, it had badly injured his hands. Lord Dragon-Rearer had not yet had time to catch his breath when another enormous dragon spear suddenly began spinning down from the Yong River above. He dodged aside, only for another dragon spear to emerge from the river in midair and stab toward him. His body flashed again and again as he moved westward along the riverbed, his steps crossing and uncrossing as he avoided one strike after another. Whenever those immense dragon spears missed, their power was instantly withdrawn. Not a trace of force leaked away. Instead, every thrust landed precisely upon a vital node in the dragon vein, pinning the power of the Yong River's dragon vein in place. "An expert in the Daoist arts." Lord Dragon-Rearer was secretly astonished. Every one of the Blind Elder's great spear thrusts struck the crucial nodes of the Yong River's dragon vein, preventing him from activating its power or altering its course. Without his magic power to support it, the Yong River in the sky began to descend. It had been lifted very high, however, and some time would pass before it fell back into the riverbed. "His control over the Daoist arts is so subtle that he is no worse than that taciturn Tiangong." Sweat broke out on Lord Dragon-Rearer's brow. The dragon spears stabbing down from above grew denser and denser, until he gradually found himself unable to evade them all. He was forced to fight back, and wounds began appearing all over his body. Meanwhile, the number of dragon-vein nodes sealed by the Blind Elder continued to grow. His horned dragons were scattered throughout the upper and lower reaches of the Yong River, far from him. There was no time to summon them back and borrow their strength by letting them merge with his body. As for the Dragon King God, he had already sent it ahead. His battle with the Silent Artisan had been a clash between two evenly matched powers. Both had fought with everything they possessed, seeking to destroy the other. Lord Dragon-Rearer had suffered grievous damage to his vitality, and was later driven away by Emperor Yanfeng's cannon blast. His vitality had yet to recover fully. On top of that, changing the course of the Yong River consumed a great deal of magic power, and the Blind Elder had seized the initiative. Thus he suffered defeat after defeat, wounded again and again. Upon the Yong River suspended in the sky, the Blind Elder raced across the surface atop a water dragon, bamboo staff in hand. Behind him, the waters churned and rose into the immense phantom of a colossal Black Tortoise deity, already refined until it was nearly solid. The Black Tortoise deity took the form of an old man with a tortoise shell, a winged serpent coiled around his body. Its wings beat as though it were about to take flight. Shen Mu found the sight strangely familiar. This Black Tortoise deity was the Blind Elder's primordial spirit, somewhat resembling the stone image of the Black Tortoise deity in Hidden Village, though its features were slightly different. When Shen Mu had been a mischievous child, he had relieved himself all over the village's four stone statues. The Black Tortoise statue had not been spared. The Blind Elder sped across the river's surface, his bamboo staff stabbing down again and again, striking the water and engaging Lord Dragon-Rearer across the distance. This was the first time Shen Mu had witnessed the Blind Elder unleash his full strength. In the past, when Shen Feiyue had entered the Ruins from the Yong River, the Blind Elder had once touched the river's surface with his staff and made the Yong River leap several times in succession. But Shen Feiyue had only been an expert of the Seven Stars Realm then. The Blind Elder had merely been frightening him and had not used his full strength. Now, however, the Blind Elder was fighting at full power, clashing with Lord Dragon-Rearer across the river. Each time his bamboo staff struck, a column of water more than a dozen yards thick descended from beneath the river's surface. The waters then surged and t