Lu Chen planted his left boot directly onto the dragon’s collapsed chest bone.
Beneath the heavy leather sole, cracked bone plates groaned under his weight, oozing rancid yellow marrow into the dust.
The Great Yong Emperor shrieked from his perch atop the skull.
With his royal robes torn and his ancient ribs fractured, the Son of Heaven clawed wildly at Lu Chen’s calf with blackened, overgrown fingernails.
“Lowly headsman! We’re the living mandate of Heaven! You can’t butcher the divine dragon!”
Lu Chen didn’t glance down at the clawing hands.
His left leg didn’t budge.
The Emperor’s brittle fingernails scraped against his brass shin. It snapped off one by one like dry kindling against an iron anvil.
