Chapter 4: Ripping the Heavens Barehanded

The grand plaza of the Holy Crown Magic Guild was an absolute hellscape.
Beautiful marble pillars were shattered into burning rubble, and the air was thick with the suffocating scent of ozone and charred flesh. Hundreds of elite mages stood in ragged formations, frantically waving their staves, their faces pale and slick with cold sweat as they chanted until their throats bled.
"Infinite wind, heed my call—*Slicing Tornado!*""O Flame God, burst forth—*Crimson Meteor!*"
A barrage of high-tier, chant-heavy spells shot into the sky, exploding against the massive chest of the Colossal Tyrant Dragon. But the moment the magic collided with those magma-colored scales, the spells fizzled out like droplets of water hitting a boiling iron plate.
*ROOOOAAARRR!*
The dragon swept its massive tail. A shockwave of pure, compressed kinetic force blew across the plaza, shattering the defensive Dou Qi shields of a dozens of Holy Knights instantly. They were thrown through the air like broken toys, vomiting blood.
"It's useless..." The Chief Archmage stood at the center of the formation, his crimson robes torn and stained with soot. The massive mana crystal atop his staff was cracked, its light sputtering weakly. "Our magic can't pierce its ancient spell-resistance skin! Without a localized god-tier barrier, we are nothing but meat to this beast!"
Despair, thick and absolute, paralyzed the entire guild. The proud geniuses who had scoffed at Jiang Chen hours ago were now wailing on their knees, waiting for the final, incinerating dragon breath to wipe them from existence.
The Colossal Tyrant Dragon lowered its massive, horned head, its slitted, molten-gold eyes locking onto the center of the plaza. Its throat began to glow with a blinding, white-hot incandescence. The ambient temperature skyrocketed, melting the stone tiles of the plaza into liquid slag.
Then, through the sea of screaming, fleeing mages, a single figure walked forward.
He wasn't running away. He was walking directly toward the towering mountain of scales and fire.
He wore the tattered linen clothes of a low-grade maintenance worker, his hands casually tucked into his pockets. His footsteps were light, measured, and completely silent, contrasting sharply with the chaotic thunder of the battlefield.
"Hey! You crazy idiot! Run!" a passing apprentice mage screamed, trying to grab Jiang Chen's shoulder. "That's an Ancient Dragon! Your body will turn to ash before you even get close!"
Jiang Chen casually brushed the apprentice's hand away, not even slowing down.
"An ancient dragon?" Jiang Chen murmured softly, his dark eyes reflecting the white-hot glow of the beast’s throat. "In my world, we call this a mid-tier Flood Dragon with a slightly thicker hide. A perfect ingredient for alchemy."
The dragon’s primal instincts suddenly flared. It felt a microscopic prick of an unknown, terrifying pressure cutting through the ambient mana. It snapped its head down, its giant golden eyes focusing on the tiny human insect walking toward it. Feeling insulted by the insect's lack of fear, the dragon opened its maw and unleashed a torrent of concentrated, apocalyptic dragon-fire directly at Jiang Chen.
*BOOOOOOM!*
A pillar of pure white flame engulfed the entire center of the plaza, vaporizing the stone structures instantly.
"It's over..." The Archmage closed his eyes in defeat. "He didn't even have a basic magical shield..."
But before the collective groans of despair could finish, a sharp, crisp sound echoed from the center of the raging white inferno.
*Step. Step.*
The white dragon-fire suddenly split in half, parting like the Red Sea.
Jiang Chen walked out of the flames completely untouched. Not a single strand of his black hair was singed; not a single thread of his ragged clothes was burned. Surrounding his body was a faint, translucent barrier of shifting violet energy—the **护体真气 (Defensive True Yuan)** of a Stage Six Qi Refining cultivator. To the local mages, dragon-fire was an absolute, god-like element. But to Jiang Chen, it was just unrefined thermal energy, completely incapable of bypassing the structured, high-frequency density of his True Yuan.
"My turn," Jiang Chen said.
He took a deep breath. Deep within his soul, the Purple Mansion Primordial Source completely unsealed its primary layer. The *Nine-Turn Primordial Scriptures* spun at a speed that caused the space around his body to visibly distort and warp.
*Whoosh—!*
The entire atmospheric energy of the mountain—every single drop of wild mana, every stray thread of Dou Qi, and even the heat from the burning fires—was violently violently sucked toward Jiang Chen like water pouring into a black hole.
His dry meridians roared as they were pumped overflowing with purified energy.
*Stage Seven Qi Refining...**Stage Nine Qi Refining...**Great Perfection of Qi Refining!*
"Break for me!" Jiang Chen roared internally.
*CRACK!*
An invisible barrier deep within his dantian shattered. The massive sea of liquid True Yuan inside him began to rotate at supersonic speeds, compressing, condensing, and hardening until a flawless, glowing **紫府金丹 (Purple Mansion Golden Core)** formed at the absolute center of his being!
*BOOM!*
A pillar of blinding, gold and purple light erupted from Jiang Chen's body, shooting straight into the heavens and instantly obliterating the blood-red clouds. The sheer, overwhelming pressure of a **Golden Core Cultivator** descended upon the continent of Saint Sophia for the very first time.
The Colossal Tyrant Dragon’s molten eyes widened with genuine, primitive terror. It tried to spread its massive wings to retreat, but the gravitational pull of Jiang Chen’s aura pinned it to the ground like an invisible mountain.
Jiang Chen didn't use a sword. He didn't use a spell.
He simply bent his knees and leaped.
*BANG!*
The marble plaza beneath his feet completely imploded as Jiang Chen shot into the air like a localized meteor. In a fraction of a second, he closed the distance, landing directly onto the dragon’s massive, volcanic chest.
"Let's see how tough your 'god-like' skin really is," Jiang Chen growled.
He drove both of his bare hands straight into the magma-colored scales.
*SPLAT!*
The legendary, indestructible scales of the Ancient Dragon shattered like fragile porcelain under the raw, unadulterated physical might of his newly forged Golden Core body. Jiang Chen’s bare hands sank deep into the beast’s chest flesh, gripping the massive breastbones.
With a primal roar, Jiang Chen planted his feet against the dragon's torso and pulled outward with all his strength.
*RIIPPPPPPPPP—!*
A horrific, echoing sound of tearing flesh and snapping bones filled the valley. Under the horrified, unblinking stares of thousands of mages and knights, the legendary, mountain-level Colossal Tyrant Dragon was **rent completely in half, barehanded**, by a single human boy.
A massive geyser of burning dragon blood sprayed across the sky, raining down like a crimson waterfall, while the two halves of the world-destroying beast crashed heavily onto the ruined plaza, lifeless and still.
Jiang Chen floated gracefully back down to the ground, landing amidst the sea of dragon blood. In his right hand, he held a pulsing, volleyball-sized crimson orb dripping with golden liquid—the flawless, pure Core of the Ancient Dragon.
He casually tossed the priceless artifact into the air and caught it, looking around at the thousands of dumbfounded, trembling guild members who were staring at him as if he were a living god.
Jiang Chen wiped a drop of dragon blood from his cheek and smiled faintly.
"Like I said. Chanting is for the weak."