Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 535 – A Dog Should Act Like a Dog

Lin Fan hadn’t even had time to deal with Long Yan when the corner of his eye caught a flash of a bloodied figure.

It was Long Zhan.

The Grand Elder, who had been beaten half to death moments ago, was now moving at an astonishing speed, heading straight for one destination.

The Dragon Emperor’s corpse.

“Long Zhan!”

Long Yi’s voice cracked as he screamed, dragging his injured leg as he gave chase.

Flames erupted from his body, causing the scattered rubble around him to crackle and pop.

Long Teng reacted even faster.

A silver Sword Qi shot from his hand, arcing through the air straight for Long Zhan’s back.

But Long Zhan didn’t even turn his head.

The Sword Qi grazed past his shoulder armor, carving off a spray of blood.

He didn’t dodge. He didn’t block. He simply took the strike head-on.

Every ounce of his power was poured into speed.

Lin Fan saw through his intentions at a glance.

The Crystal.

The Dragon Emperor’s Crystal.

A rank-nine mid-stage rule Crystal—for a Grand Elder stuck at the peak of rank eight, it was his only hope of ascension.

“This rabid dog,” Lin Fan cursed under her breath.

She was about to launch herself forward to intercept when Long Zhan had already thrown himself at the Dragon Emperor’s body.

Too fast.

He compressed every shred of his peak rank-eight cultivation into his right hand, fingers curling into claws, dark-gold spiritual light burning at his fingertips like blades of flame.

Long Yi roared until his voice broke: “Stop him!”

Long Teng’s second Sword Qi arrived as well, slicing in from the side toward Long Zhan’s right arm.

But Long Zhan’s hand was already reaching out.

Those five fingers, wrapped in the howl of wind and murderous intent, drove straight for the Dragon Emperor’s crown.

He was smiling.

Half his face was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, the smile twisted into something grotesque.

Dragon Emperor, you’ve kept me under your heel my entire life.

You treated me like a dog, ordered me around for over a hundred years.

What did you ever give me?

A hollow title of “Grand Elder” and a chain I could never break.

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Today you’re dead.

Everything you had belongs to me now.

His fingertips touched the Dragon Emperor’s forehead.

Cold skin.

No warmth. No sign of life.

The curve of his smile widened.

One inch away.

Just one more inch, and he could crack open the skull and dig out that Crystal.

And then—Long Yi, Long Teng, and that white-haired witch would all have to kneel and look up at him.

He refused to be a dog any longer!

But then—

A hand rose from below.

Not fast. In fact, almost slow.

But that hand clamped down on Long Zhan’s wrist with perfect precision.

Crack.

The wrist bone shattered.

The smile on Long Zhan’s face froze instantly.

He looked down.

The hand was withered and gaunt, the veins and bones visible beneath the skin.

Yet the strength within it was terrifying.

Long Zhan’s peak rank-eight explosive power meant nothing against that grip.

He strained once. No movement.

He strained again. A second crack echoed from his wrist, and the entire hand was completely ruined.

The Dragon Emperor’s body floated upward.

That broken corpse, which had been pinned to the ground by vines, tore through the plant roots piercing his chest and abdomen inch by inch, rising until he hovered before Long Zhan’s eyes.

The pulverized flesh of his jaw writhed with new growth, shattered bones reknitting, skin twisting inward before sealing shut.

His eyes lit up.

Gray-black sparks ignited deep within the sockets, spreading rapidly until the entire pupils were flooded with deathly gray.

Lin Fan’s steps halted.

The feedback from her Omniscient Domain made her scalp tighten.

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His vital signs had been nearly at zero just moments ago!

How could this be…

“Long Zhan.”

The Dragon Emperor’s voice sounded like stone grinding against stone.

“Have you forgotten that you’re just a dog I keep?”

Long Zhan’s pupils dilated violently.

He still tried to struggle.

Spirit Energy rampaged through his meridians, swelling every channel in his body until they turned purple.

But that withered hand held him steady, not even a finger trembling.

“A dog should know its place.”

Gray-black Death Qi burst violently from the Dragon Emperor’s pores.

Carrying rule-level corrosive power, that Death Qi poured into Long Zhan’s body through his wrist, then drilled back out through his seven orifices and wounds.

“No—”

Long Zhan’s voice twisted out of pitch—a shrill sound that no peak Level 8 expert should have been able to produce.

He clawed at the withered hand with his left, snapping three fingernails, yet still couldn’t pry loose a single finger.

Gray-black currents writhed beneath his skin.

His cheeks caved in. Muscle tissue was drained away, skin stretched taut against his cheekbones.

His burly forearms shriveled into dry sticks within three seconds, and his chest cavity collapsed right after.

His armor lost its support and clattered to the ground in pieces.

In the end, even his bones were gone.

His entire being, inside and out, dissolved into pale gray powder.

A gust of wind blew it all away.

Barely two seconds had passed.

The Grand Elder of the Dragon Race Council of Elders hadn’t even managed to leave behind a single complete cry.

Long Yi and Long Teng’s attacks struck empty air.

Both halted dozens of meters away, staring fixedly at the Dragon Emperor hovering in midair. Neither dared take another step forward.

The voices that had just been shouting “Long live Lei Jie!” vanished completely.

The entire city fell into dead silence.

Lin Fan’s face showed no expression at all.

Her gaze locked onto that figure.

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A rule-level system crash from the clash between Death Rule and Life Essence, plus the combined assault of Long Yi and the other two.

Against any Level 9 expert, that combination would have been enough to kill them twice over.

How could he still be moving?

How did he still have the strength to crush a peak Level 8 expert like a chick?

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Just as Lin Fan’s thoughts raced, the Dragon Emperor’s body began to change.

The leaves on the vines covering him curled up, yellowed, and fell away one by one.

Newly grown flesh shifted from pink to ashen gray, rapidly rotting.

The Death Qi on his surface convulsed, flickering between bright and dim.

His vital signs, as sensed by the Omniscient Domain, began plummeting at breakneck speed.

This time it was real—the numbers were falling fast.

A final flash before the flame dies.

Those four words burst into Lin Fan’s mind.

Long Yan gripped his blade, breath caught in his throat, not daring to make a sound.

The surviving garrison soldiers on the city walls exchanged glances.

Everyone was waiting—waiting for the Dragon Emperor to breathe his last.

But Lin Fan’s heart beat faster and faster.

She noticed a detail.

A crack had split open on the back of the Dragon Emperor’s neck.

Starting from the cervical spine, the split crept downward along his back.

It spread quickly, accompanied by a teeth-grinding sound of flesh tearing apart.

The Dragon Emperor’s shell was being pried open from within.

First, a new head of black hair pushed out through the gap.

Then came undamaged shoulders, followed by chest, waist, and legs.

A complete person crawled out of the Dragon Emperor’s ruined husk, segment by segment.

The old shell beneath him rapidly shriveled, turning into a thin layer of ash that the wind scattered away.

Standing there now was a man.

Black hair. Ordinary features.

No dragon horns. No vertical pupils. No physical traits of the Dragon Clan whatsoever.

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A man like this, thrown into a crowd, would never draw a second glance.

But his eyes were wrong.

On the surface, they were calm—the kind of calm that came from caring about nothing at all.

Yet beneath that calm lay the weariness of one who had lived too long, seen too much, and long since lost all curiosity about the world.

And beneath that weariness—a stubbornness that had yet to be extinguished.

He stepped out from the Dragon Emperor’s body.

He rolled his neck twice, and his joints popped audibly.

He looked down at the patch of ash at his feet, stared at it for two seconds, his face utterly expressionless.

Then he raised his head.

His gaze swept across Long Yi, Long Teng, Long Yan, and Su Xiaoxiao, before finally settling on Lin Fan.

He smiled.

It was a faint smile, carrying a hint of warmth and nostalgia.

Every hair on Lin Fan’s body stood on end in that instant.

It was a deep-seated instinct—a primal warning from the very core of her being.

Her Omniscient Domain swept outward.

It found nothing.

In her perception, this man simply did not exist.

He stood there, less than fifty meters away from her.

He had a shadow. He had weight. His footsteps crunched audibly on the gravel.

But the Omniscient Domain’s feedback on him was—a blank.

A living, breathing blind spot in her perception.

Tens of thousands of eyes across Azurewood City were fixed on this scene.

No one spoke.

No one dared to speak.

Long Yan instinctively tightened his grip on his blade and shifted his body half a step in front of Lin Fan.

The black-haired man’s gaze passed over Long Yan, lingering for only a moment.

The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he held back.

He simply looked at Lin Fan, that smile never once changing.

Lin Fan stood still.

Her mind was a complete blank.