For a long moment, the horde of demon kings and lords remained frozen in stunned silence, struggling to recover from the immense shock.
They exchanged startled glances, each seeing the same unspoken terror mirrored in the others' eyes.
Who was this terrifying entity? Who could send tremors through their hearts with nothing but a voice? A voice so forceful, it nearly knocked them off their feet?
Even the formidable Eagle Demon King's expression had darkened, his hawk-like eyes filled with wariness and disbelief. He scoured his mind—was it the Turtle Prime Minister who had recently evolved into a Xuanwu?
No... Even as a Xuanwu, the Turtle Prime Minister couldn't possibly wield such sheer force to suppress an army of a hundred thousand demons.
Could there be an even stronger master hidden in the Eastern Sea? Was it the Dragon King Ao Qing?
But Ao Qing's strength—at least as the Eagle Demon King remembered—shouldn't be remotely close to this level…
Not far off, the previously obsequious Myriad Saints Dragon King and Jing River Dragon King were now pale and silent. As fellow flood dragons, they were far more sensitive to draconic pressure than the rest—and what they felt now went far beyond the aura of a Six-Clawed Golden Dragon.
"Could it be… Ao Qing has advanced even further!?" gasped the Myriad Saints Dragon King. He still vividly remembered Ao Qing's battle with the Western Sea Dragon King—not long ago, Ao Qing had only just evolved into a Six-Clawed Golden Dragon. But the aura now?
This wasn't just stronger—it was categorically superior.
Just as their thoughts spun wildly, a massive tidal wave—thousands of feet tall—suddenly surged skyward. Like a celestial hand, it crashed downward with a thunderous roar that echoed like a sky-shattering drum.
Amid the crash, a towering, colossal dragon form—hundreds of feet long—suddenly surged into view, its immense body unfurling in the sky.
Its dragon eyes gleamed with divine majesty and unfathomable power.
This was no ordinary dragon. Its massive golden-scaled body spanned the entire Eastern Sea coast, stretching from horizon to horizon. Each scale shimmered with resplendent golden and iridescent hues, refracting terrifying light in all directions.
But beyond its massive form, what made this dragon truly awe-inspiring were the elemental forces coiling around its body—water, fire, wind, thunder, and earth—swirling and separating, forming a mesmerizing rhythm of harmony and chaos.
"One claw… two… three…"
"Five… six… seven—s-seven claws?!"
With every claw they counted, the hearts of the hundred thousand demon soldiers trembled in unison. And the moment they confirmed the seventh claw, many felt as though their hearts were about to burst from terror.
"Seven-Clawed… G-Golden Dragon… This can't be real…"
"How could Ao Qing possibly have evolved into a Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon?!"
"A Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon—that's a being even mightier than a Six-Clawed! A being also known as the 'Nine-Life True Dragon'… because unless you kill him nine times, he simply can't die!"
"Even the Ancestral Dragon couldn't be killed for this reason—he could only be sealed deep beneath the sea…"
The hearts of the Myriad Saints, Jing River, and Yellow River Dragon Kings pounded furiously in their chests.
Seven claws.
A Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon.
No one present was unaware of what this meant.
And it wasn't just the enemy camp that was shaken. Even Ao Qing's own side—his Dragon Elders, shrimp soldiers, crab generals—all stared in disbelief.
"He evolved into a Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon?! So soon after becoming a Six-Clawed?!"
"That evolution speed is terrifying!"
Ao Guang and Ao Bing were struck speechless.
If the rise to a Six-Clawed Golden Dragon represented the hope of the dragon clan—then the emergence of a Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon was their final trump card, their ultimate backbone.
No one could have imagined that in just a few short days, Ao Qing would evolve once more, breaking past yet another boundary.
Even the faithful Turtle Prime Minister, long at Ao Qing's side, was stunned, his eyes glowing with astonishment.
Ao Qing, facing all their reactions, merely smiled.
This was, after all, his first time revealing his Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon form. He hadn't expected his body to swell this massively. Hundreds of feet in length—comparable to the spans of entire bridges from his previous life.
Compared to his Six-Clawed form, his current body was exponentially larger. And even more than that, his combat strength had grown unfathomably.
As for the swirling elemental forces around him—they were the result of his "Dragon God Codex" cultivation reaching the seventh level. He could now fully command five elemental powers.
"That's right. What you see… is the Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon. I don't have much time. Come at me—all of you, together."
Ao Qing shrugged his massive dragon shoulders. His eyes gleamed provocatively. Then he slowly extended one of his claws and beckoned them.
The moment his voice faded, the demon kings and demon lords narrowed their brows.
As demon clan leaders, when had they ever been humiliated like this?! Each of them lived a pampered life, feared and respected by all—no one dared provoke them easily!
Yet here was the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea, brazen and dismissive, treating them with utter contempt.
Even if he had become a Seven-Clawed Golden Dragon, they refused to believe he could truly wield its power!
The Eagle Demon King was the first to lunge, soaring into the air with a screech as he transformed into a massive eagle, dozens of feet across. Demonic energy burst from his wings as he shot upward like a meteor.
But no matter how massive the Eagle Demon King was—in front of Ao Qing's dragon form, which spanned hundreds of feet—he was nothing more than an ant before a mountain.