The dragon curiously sniffed at the ground, utterly disregarding Zheng Zha as he zipped around nearby. Only after the final timed bomb detonated did the great dragon abruptly rise, yet it didn't take a step forward. Instead, it roared, wheeled around, and fled the great canyon, scrambling madly toward the exit.

Zheng Zha watched the dragon recede into the distance, bewildered. He followed, propelled by a strange impulse, continuously firing air-to-ground missiles from his Green Goblin Glider at the beast trailing behind him. The explosions peppered the dragon, but just as the "Main God" had warned, such long-range technological weaponry proved utterly ineffective. The dragon roared its fury and burst free of the canyon, kicking up plumes of dust that rose impossibly high. Not content with that, it began to beat its wings, slowly lifting its massive frame—over thirty meters long and more than twenty meters tall—into the air. It was an almost unbelievable sight, yet it soared upward, maintaining a speed of at least three to four hundred kilometers per hour, hovering in the sky as it sped toward a specific direction.

A sudden, chilling premonition gripped Zheng Zha. He quickly urged the Green Goblin Glider to keep pace, and it was then that he finally understood the dragon’s true target... It was the trio of Chu Xuan perched on a nearby hillside. They were scrambling down the slope, but their speed indicated they wouldn't escape the hillside before the dragon arrived. The beast had already begun the motion of inhaling deeply, and combined with its velocity, the moment its fire breath erupted, Chu Xuan and the others would be reduced to three piles of ash instantly.

"Ah!" Zheng Zha went into a frenzy.

These three were his invaluable comrades, the future core of the Central Team he had painstakingly managed to resurrect. Any one of them was an irreplaceable component in the Central Team's future ascent to power, especially after surviving life-and-death struggles together.

They were his partners... men who would die beside him.

Partners who would fall side-by-side! How could he let them perish before his eyes? Without a second thought, Zheng Zha raised the Spear of Judgment. He was still behind the dragon, and it was evident that the beast was about to release its gathered breath.

He didn't have time to charge it fully before throwing.

So, he poured in every ounce of his internal energy and two or three tenths of his vampiric energy with desperate force.

Just as golden light flared around the Spear of Judgment, he hurled it with maniacal strength.

At that critical juncture, as the dragon’s fire was on the verge of bursting forth, the Spear of Judgment shot straight into the rear base of the dragon's neck, piercing through and exiting directly from its mouth.

The sheer force nearly tore the massive creature in half, instantly halting the torrent of fire. Some flames vented from the dragon's mouth, while the rest erupted from the back of its skull. The dragon let out a gruesome shriek before tumbling to the ground. For a moment, the impact of the colossal body shook the entire landscape. Zheng Zha ignored whether the dragon was dead; he spurred the Green Goblin Glider toward Chu Xuan and the others. While still airborne, he snatched a rope and began lashing it to the Glider, tossing the other end toward the trio.

It was clear the three were momentarily stunned. They must have witnessed the destructive power of the dragon’s fire breath from the hill, and when the attack was aimed at them, they had mentally prepared for incineration. But at the very last second, Zheng Zha had arrived to save them. Surviving such a near-death experience was enough to shatter one's composure, yet the situation remained critical. The trio quickly recovered, tying secure knots, and then stepping onto the rope, allowing Zheng Zha to pilot the Green Goblin Glider skyward.

This entire sequence unfolded in mere seconds. No one dared utter a word during that time; under the pressure of imminent death, every ounce of their attention was focused. Once the Glider ascended, they looked back to see the giant dragon slowly rolling back onto its feet. The impact of the Spear of Judgment had been extraordinary, blasting a continuous, massive hole from the back of its neck through its mouth. But what horrified them more was that the wound on the dragon’s maw was already beginning to knit itself closed, the flesh and sinew writhing and healing at a visible rate. Black dragon blood dripped constantly onto the ground, and where this blood touched the vegetation, the trees immediately ignited as if the fluid possessed intense heat.

The dragon bellowed toward them, then began the action of inhaling deeply again. Zheng Zha reacted swiftly, rocketing away on the Glider. When the others looked back, a fiery red band had scorched the previous location into barren earth. The dragon then flapped its wings and charged from the ground, relentlessly pursuing them.

The group exchanged shocked glances. Zheng Zha shouted, "What now? We lost the Spear of Judgment somewhere on the ground, and there's no time to look. And the dragon is so fast, we have no chance of shaking it off..." Everyone made a rough estimate of the dragon's speed. Its flight was terrifyingly fast, around 600 kilometers per hour. In comparison, the Green Goblin Glider, carrying four people, was only marginally faster—just enough to prevent them from being scorched by the flames, but shaking off the beast was an impossible fantasy.

Chu Xuan bit his finger so hard he almost drew blood before he finally spoke: "We have to catch up to that aircraft carrier group. Our only escape is to lose ourselves in the chaos. We must retrieve the Spear of Judgment. Zheng Zha, if you had the opportunity to aim for the dragon’s head with a full-power strike, do you think you could kill it in one blow?" Zheng Zha managed a wry smile. "A full-power strike means I'd have nothing left to fight with, and I can't guarantee I’d kill it. As far as I know, the 'Main God' offers an extremely powerful regenerative bloodline called the Troll Bloodline; it allows resurrection even if the brain and heart are destroyed, provided more than half the body remains. If this dragon possesses that level of vitality, my best shot isn't a sure thing!" Wang Xia suddenly interjected, "Are any of you familiar with explosives? If a bomb detonates externally, the actual destructive force exerted on the object is less than a tenth of the bomb’s total yield. What truly kills is the shrapnel and the shockwave. But if the bomb explodes within a sealed interior, 100% of the destructive power is exerted, easily shattering even the hardest casing..." Zheng Zha shook his head. "I wouldn't risk the power of a super-high-explosive charge. If it were a gravity-enhanced landmine, maybe I could try... For now, let's focus on catching up to that carrier group!" All four felt a heavy weight in their chests. Watching the dragon follow relentlessly behind them in flight, no one could speak easily. The two parties pushed forward at maximum speed, one chasing, one fleeing. Soon, the distant aircraft carrier group became faintly visible on the horizon. Over a dozen fighter jets, all jets, were streaking toward them, accompanied by more than ten air-to-air missiles.

Zheng Zha bellowed, "Hold tight, everyone!" Before the words finished, he banked the Glider sharply toward the ocean surface. With a massive splash, the four of them and the Glider plunged into the sea, sending up waves nearly ten meters high. The dragon, reacting slightly slower, was preparing to dive after them when the incoming air-to-air missiles were less than a hundred meters away. The beast barely managed to change course as the first missile slammed into it, immediately followed by another... All ten-plus missiles struck the dragon sequentially, instantly creating a blindingly white, scorching cloud of flame in the sky.

Yet, the dragon’s body remained completely unscathed. It continued its plunge toward the sea without hesitation, even dragging part of the fireball cloud underwater with it. Then, with a mighty ker-splash, the dragon breached the surface, sending up even larger plumes of water. This behemoth plunged entirely beneath the waves, seemingly determined to hunt the four down, ignoring all other attacks to focus solely on the pursuit beneath the surface.

Zheng Zha was now prone on the Glider. Flying at full speed underwater had severe consequences; the crushing force of the water flow was too much for the four to endure. Thus, Zheng Zha pulled the Glider back out of the water, rising into the air to continue toward the carrier group. Behind them, the massive black dragon also rocketed out of the sea, causing the water surface to swell dramatically. It spread its wings and flew after them, simultaneously unleashing a band of fire from its mouth. The stretch of ocean the fire passed over boiled instantly, the heat fading out only about fifty meters behind Zheng Zha and the others. The searing sensation was almost licking at their backs, spurring Zheng Zha to push the Glider faster. At that moment, he desperately wished the Green Goblin Glider beneath him were a genuine article redeemed from the "Main God."

Chu Xuan's voice came urgently from beneath his feet, laced with alarm: "Fast! Head for that carrier! The dragon has more momentum than us; it won't react in time and will crash into it!" Zheng Zha roared back, "Understood! Wang Xia, give me one of your modified timed bombs... Set it for five seconds, activate 'Annihilation' mode!" Leaping...