Chapter 3: The Call of the Calamity

The warehouse grew suffocatingly quiet. Garth stood paralyzed in the corner, his gaze darting between the shattered fragments of the silver breastplate and the cold, unbothered expression on Jiang Chen’s face.
Tyler was still pinned under Jiang Chen’s boot, his mouth agape like a fish out of water, his pride completely pulverized along with his sword. He had spent ten years agonizing over his Dou Qi control to achieve the rank of Squire Knight, yet this "mana-less trash" had ended him with a casual flick of two fingers.
"Clean this up," Jiang Chen said, casually lifting his foot off Tyler’s chest. He didn't waste another glance on the broken knight. To a supreme immortal, stepping on an ant wasn't a victory; it was just a chore.
Jiang Chen turned back to the workbench. The raw fire-crystals were gone, but his inner furnace was roaring. The *Nine-Turn Primordial Scriptures* were still actively cycling through his veins, stabilizing the Stage Six Qi Refining foundation. He could feel the physical strength of his mortal shell expanding exponentially, his skin hardening to the density of refined iron.
*‘Still, Stage Six is far from enough,’* Jiang Chen thought, looking at his palms. *‘If I want to force a breakthrough to the Golden Core realm within three days, I need a massive nexus of elemental energy. A few crates of low-grade crystals won't cut it.’*
Suddenly, the air inside the warehouse vibrated.
It wasn't a normal vibration. It was a violent, seismic pulse that traveled through the very fabric of the atmosphere. The stone walls of the mountain warehouse groaned, and dust rained down from the ceiling beams.
*Clang! Clang! Clang!*
Outside, the heavy, frantic tolling of the Holy Crown Guild’s emergency bells shattered the night.
"The Dragon Bell..." Tyler groaned from the floor, his face draining of what little color it had left. He forced himself up onto his elbows, staring out the high, narrow window of the warehouse toward the sky. "No... it can't be. The perimeter magical barriers are supposed to be indestructible..."
Jiang Chen walked to the heavy iron doors, pushing them open. He stepped out onto the mountain ledge, looking up at the high-altitude spires of the Magic Guild.
The sky was no longer dark. It had turned a violent, blood-red hue.
High above the central plaza, the massive, intricate golden pentagrams of the guild's ancient defensive barriers were flaring wildly. But they weren't holding. Massive, spiderweb-like cracks were ripping through the sacred geometric lines.
*ROOOOOAAARRR—!*
A roar echoed from the heavens—a sound so primal and deafening that it felt like the sky itself was splitting open. The sound wave hit the mountain like a physical blow, shattering the glass windows of the lower-tier towers and sending a shockwave through the valley.
Through the fractured golden barriers, a monstrous silhouette descended.
It was a Colossal Tyrant Dragon. Its scales were the color of hardened volcanic magma, each one larger than a knight's shield, dripping with liquid flame. Its wingspan blotted out the moon, casting a shadow of absolute despair over the entire Holy Crown Guild. As it breathed, streams of concentrated crimson dragon-fire rained down, vaporizing the defensive towers in an instant.
"An Ancient Red Dragon..." Garth fell to his knees on the stone ledge, his eyes vacant with terror. "The guild's barrier is failing! We're dead... we're all dead!"
Up on the central plaza, the chaos was absolute. Thousands of apprentice mages were running in panic, dropping their spellbooks, while the proud Holy Knights found their mountain-splitting Dou Qi utterly useless against the crushing weight of the dragon’s divine aura.
Jiang Chen stood on the edge of the cliff, the violent wind whipping his ragged commoner clothes against his frame. He didn't run. Instead, his eyes locked onto the massive beast, and a sharp, calculating glint flared within his black pupils.
He could feel it. The dragon wasn't just a beast; its massive body was a walking, breathing nexus of the most concentrated, purest elemental energy on this continent. The core inside that monster contained more raw power than ten thousand high-grade magic crystals.
*‘A perfect, mobile catalyst,’* Jiang Chen’s lips curled into a cold, dangerous smile. *‘I was wondering where I would find enough energy to forge my Golden Core. And right on cue, heaven delivers a beast to my doorstep.’*
He glanced down at his dry meridians, then up at the descending nightmare.
*‘Three days? No. I don’t need three days. Tonight, I take that beast's core, and tonight, I ascend.’*
Without a single trace of hesitation, Jiang Chen stepped off the mountain ledge, his figure plunging directly down into the chaotic depths of the burning guild plaza below.