52 52. Azhdaha

Ryūhei and Zhongli fell into a huge space, then both of them were greeted by the daunting sight of a colossal creature with the resemblance of a crocodile, and was as large as mountains, slowly lifting the barrier which should be the seal to restrain the creature which was none other than Azhdaha.

His entire body was colored in shades of brown and black with numerous large spikes and golden gilded scales on his back. His head was layered in numerous large frills of spikes and was adorned with four long golden curved horns. He also had a large stone chin that covered his entire mouth.

The moment Ryūhei saw Azhdaha, he immediately dubbed him the biggest creature he had ever seen in his life.

"What the fuck with this shit!" Ryūhei cursed.

With such an enormous size and such power, he wondered how Zhongli would stop Azhdaha from destroying Liyue if Zhongli lost his power as an Archon later on.

"Morax, you arrive at my doorstep of your own volition. Excellent, taking revenge for sealing me away will be all the easier!" Azhdaha excitedly declared his intention after seeing Zhongli appear before him.

Zhongli replied, "So, the little girl who led people to dig the way to the seal is your incarnation? But well, to think we met again under this circumstance."

"Waste not your breath! Your life is mine!"

The earth suddenly trembled as soon as Azhdaha started to move. His roar was so resounding in the sealing space. And the most terrible thing was the negative energy released by Azhdaha. Perhaps, Erosion made negative energy accumulate within his body.

"What the hell with this giant frog? Can he greet us normally?" Ryūhei complained while covering his ears as Azhdaha's roar was too deafening.

"Stop complaining! He came!"

Zhongli warned him as the rain of stones released by Azhdaha came down on them.

Zhongli cast a shield on himself while Ryūhei drew his katana while dodging the incoming attack. On the other hand, Ryūhei doubted his katana would be of any use against Azhdaha.

*Bang* *bang* *bang*

Azhdaha did appear to be attacking blindly, but he only focused on Zhongli while ignoring Ryūhei.

Ryūhei smirked. With such a large source of negative energy, how could he waste it? Ryūhei absorbed negative energy from the surroundings, and then imbued it into his katana.

"Let's see… Where is the weak spot?"

Seeing that Azhdaha's body was covered in thick and hard scales and filled with large spikes, it was impossible for Ryūhei to scratch him over there. Even his stomach looked as hard as his scales.

He switched his grip and disappeared from his spot. Then, he appeared a meter from Azhdaha's right eye while stabbing it with his katana.

*Clank*

Unfortunately, Azhdaha reacted so quickly by closing his eyes as he roared in anger. Moreover, his katana couldn't withstand the toughness of the rock-hard eyelid and snapped in half.

"Mortal! Know your place!"

Suddenly, Azhdaha released a shockwave to blast Ryūhei off. Luckily enough, with his base state of limitless technique, Ryūhei could feel the incoming shockwave. And even though the shockwave had slowed before it hit him, the impact still sent Ryūhei backward. Then, the rain of stones also targeted him after pissing off Azhdaha.

It was a good thing that his technique was immune to any physical attacks. Otherwise, the previous shockwave could have caused him half dead.

After all, the Infinity just slowed everything down to almost zero, so there was a probability that he wasn't immune to physical attack as long as the enemy had the speed of light. So, when he knew the enemy was a god-level being, he naturally considered that possibility. And, what he did before was just to confirm if there was a physical attack that could bypass the Infinity.

He might be weak, but his technique wasn't.

Ryūhei muttered while dodging the attacks.

"Well, I'm probably invulnerable to physical attacks in this world. But, I still need to be careful since there are a lot of things that make my Infinity vulnerable, such as mind attacks, telekinesis, or space manipulation stronger than mine."

Then, he raised his head to look at Azhdaha. He could see the negative energy covering his entire body like a mountain covered by mist.

"This giant frog is wasting negative energy. Let me use it instead!"

Ryūhei reached out his palm to absorb the negative energy from Azhdaha and he drew his own at the same time to form his technique. But since Azhdaha and his energy were too unbalanced, he absorbed a portion of negative energy from Azhdaha to make it his own. As a result, his power multiplied.

Azhdaha sensed a danger radiating from Ryūhei, causing him to charge toward Ryūhei, which made the earth tremble due to his movements. However, Ryūhei immediately teleported into Azhdaha's blind spot.

A red orb 4 cm larger than a baseball appeared in his palm.

At that moment, he felt a movement from Azhdaha's tail, so he instantly teleported again.

*Bang*

His tail swept the spot where Ryūhei stood earlier.

"His sensitivity over vibration is absolutely amazing. But well, what if you taste a cursed technique created by your own negative emotions?"

Ryūhei pointed his palm at Azhdaha, then whispered, "Cursed Technique Reversal: Red!"

In that instant, the red orb he unleashed flew toward Azhdaha, and right before it touched him, it exploded and created a gigantic shockwave that blew Azhdaha away.

Ryūhei saw it so clearly that Azhdaha was lifted off the ground for a moment before falling again, creating an earthquake that shook the ground.

*Rumble*

Ryūhei didn't expect that by absorbing Azhdaha's negative energy, the output of his cursed technique would become so deadly. In other words, if the negative energy he absorbed came from a stronger being, the cursed technique he released would be stronger as well.

"Hmmm, does that mean, as long as I provoke enemies much stronger than myself and incite my enemies' hatred, I can also be on par with them? Well, it's not like I want to provoke those people anyways! At least, I have an assurance to protect myself from enemies."

Meanwhile, Zhongli was stunned by what Ryūhei did. He was certain that Ryūhei wasn't that strong. But when Ryūhei absorbed negative energy from Azhdaha, Ryūhei's power, or rather, the power of his technique multiplied many times. It was as if Azhdaha was attacking himself.

Azhdaha rose again and roared angrily.

"Mortal! You overstep your bounds!"

However, Ryūhei chuckled while appearing in front of Azhdaha. He reached out with his palm facing up and his fingers waved back and forth.

"Hehe, so what? Come and get me, Frog!"

With this provocation, Azhdaha became even more furious.

"Ant! I'll kill you!"

Azhdaha lifted his forelegs, but before he stomped the ground, Ryūhei had already disappeared from his sight.

*Rumble*

Ryūhei appeared a little bit far from Azhdaha. Even so, the earthquake was too strong which made him lose his balance. At the same time, Azhdaha released a rain of gigantic stone lances that attacked both Zhongli and Ryūhei.

Too bad, physical attacks like that had no effect on Ryūhei at all. While Zhongli protected himself with his shield.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

From the looks of it, Zhongli didn't seem to be doing anything significant, but Ryūhei knew that Zhongli was setting up a large formation.

Ryūhei immediately teleported beside Zhongli to ask him.

"Mr. Zhongli, if I destroy his body, will he die?"

"Can you?" Zhongli turned to Ryūhei, and Ryūhei shook his head as if he was in doubt.

"I'm not sure, but I want to try."

"Hmmm. Yes and no. He may die, but his lingering hatred will manifest into a little girl that Kun Jun saw."

Ryūhei frowned after hearing Zhongli's answer. Then, he muttered.

"So, this has something to do with his spirit or soul, huh? How troublesome."

Then, he heard Zhongli say,

"First and foremost, you have to wear him down, and things will be easier to make his sanity come back."

At that moment, he saw Azhdaha charging at them.

"Wearing him down, huh? That's easier to say." Ryūhei scratched his head. "In that case, you should do something to distract him!"

Ryūhei racked his brains to fight Azhdaha. He wanted to try his Hollow Technique, but he wasn't sure if he could perform it on his first try. On the other hand, he might have accidentally erased a part of Azhdaha's body if he succeeded to perform that technique. After all, knowing that the Cursed Technique Reversal: Red was much more powerful after absorbing Azhdaha's negative energy, he believed that the Hollow Technique: Purple would be deadlier as well.