Word Count: 2,898 Words
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"Huh?!"
Never mind Yao Wangui. Even the Hall Chief of the Hall of Souls, Hun Feng, and the others were left utterly dumbstruck by Xiao Yan's move.
You're just handing over the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame you fought so hard to obtain?!
Yao Wangui caught the sealed light pillar on reflex with a sharp snap. Before wild joy could bloom fully across his face, a single sentence from Xiao Yan plunged him straight into the abyss.
"Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, stop pretending. I know you still have a trump card up your sleeve. There's no way you'd be sealed away this easily. You've hidden yourself well, but you can't fool me. Come out."
The instant Xiao Yan had grabbed the pillar, he had sensed something amiss. He cultivated the High Tian Class Emperor Soul Technique and possessed a perfected Heavenly State Spiritual Strength. More importantly, he had refined so many Heavenly Flames over the course of his life that whether a flame had truly been sealed or not could never slip past him.
The Demon Flame Essence sealed within gave a violent shudder the moment his voice fell. Energy inside the pillar surged and swelled explosively, and Yao Wangui's face turned deathly pale.
Xiao Yan set me up!
He hurled the pillar aside and scrambled to retreat, but before he could get far, cracks crawled across its surface. A heartbeat later, the pillar shattered. A world-shrouding tide of flame erupted from within, blotting out the sky. Under countless stunned gazes, the black light pillar detonated outright.
"Grug!!!"
Yao Wangui stood closest and bore the full brunt of the blast. The terrifying wave of fire slammed into him. Already injured and utterly spent, he watched helplessly as his back was seared into charred, rotting flesh. The hair at the back of his head vaporized in an instant. Deep gashes tore open along both arms, bone plainly visible through the scorched meat.
Had he not been a 4-star Dou Saint, that single strike alone would have finished him on the spot. Even so, the Demon Flame had invaded his body, and fire poison now riddled every inch of him. In all likelihood, he would die a slow, agonizing death.
"Hehehe. As expected of someone who can merge multiple Heavenly Flames and even break my illusion."
Milky-white flames rolled across the sky. A figure slowly took shape within the sea of fire, the white-robed Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, his gaze cold as he stared down at Xiao Yan below.
'So this guy really did let himself be sealed on purpose.' Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed.
The Hall Chief, who had still been clutching his chest a moment ago, shot upright, and his expression turned ugly. The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame had shattered the seal with almost no effort, and that alone made it painfully clear he had allowed himself to be captured in the first place. Very likely, he had intended to let them turn on each other so he could reap the fisherman's profit.
"How is this possible?! That's my clan's High Tian Class sealing formation! It can even hold a peak 5-star Dou Saint! How could the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame...!" Deputy Hall Chief Hun Zhu blurted out in shock.
"It's the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's purification power. That kind of power greatly weakens the formation's effects," Xun Er said. She also possessed the Gold Emperor Incinerating Heavenly Flame. Her own Heavenly Flame could likewise burn through formations and erode their strength.
"Even so, he's burned through a lot of his Essence Flame. His strength has dropped considerably." Cai Lin's beautiful eyes narrowed. Right now, the experts from the other Dou God Clans were either crippled, gravely injured, or completely drained of Dou Qi. Only she and Zi Yan, the two 4-star Dou Saints who had conserved their strength from the start, still stood at their peak.
Then there were Xiao Yan and Xun Er, who both cultivated High Tian Class Qi Methods and still had Dou Qi to spare. Even the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent had begun to flag from its earlier clash with the Fire Slaves.
Xiao Yan and Cai Lin exchanged a glance. Their thoughts aligned in an instant, and both understood that the time had come to stake everything!
With the Hall of Souls effectively reduced to unwitting support, the only ones left with any right to vie for the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame were Xiao Yan's group. The other Dou God Clans no longer had the strength to fight!
The advantage is ours!
A resonant hum filled the air as Her Majesty Queen Cai Lin finally made her move. Nine-colored divine light surged across her body, and she called out in a low, commanding tone:
"Zi Yan, together!"
"Mm!"
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!!
Purple and multicolored light erupted as Zi Yan and Cai Lin cast off all pretense of restraint. Their bodies twisted and swelled, reverting to their true forms. Two magical beasts so massive they seemed to blot out the sky loomed within this space.
Zi Yan's dragon scales shimmered with purple light. The phoenix wings on her back beat violently, sending a spatial storm sweeping outward that twisted into a raging spatial tornado. The Ancient Void Dragon Tribe's mastery over space ranked at the very pinnacle among magical beasts. Terrifying spatial turbulence roiled within the storm, warping the surroundings into invisible strands of crushing torque that looked ready to wrench the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame apart.
"Dragon-Phoenix Strength?" A flash of surprise crossed the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's eyes. Zi Yan was the Dragon Emperor of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe, born of the Dragon Phoenix Bloodline. The combat power she unleashed after fully reverting to her true form was anything but ordinary.
Hiss, hiss!
Cai Lin's pupils shrank. Almost simultaneously, she seized the opening and struck in concert with Zi Yan. A bolt of Nine-Colored Divine Lightning as thick as a mountain range crashed down from the sky and slammed straight into the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame.
He brought his hands together to meet their combined assault. The sea of fire beneath his feet surged upward and condensed into a protective barrier shaped like a lotus flower, faint pink veins pulsing along its petals.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
The Nine-Colored Divine Lightning and raging spatial turbulence hammered the slowly rotating milky-white lotus. As powerful as Cai Lin's Nine-Colored Divine Lightning was, a supreme Beast Skill of the Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, it still could not overcome the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's purifying power. The divine lightning and spatial force were continuously scrubbed away and dissolved.
In that same breath, the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent that Qing Lin had summoned let out a furious roar. Red light flickered through its eyes as its colossal body rose from the ground, swelling to an exaggerated size that dwarfed even Cai Lin and Zi Yan's true forms.
Qing Lin stood atop its main head and activated her Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils. Even the third demon pupil on her forehead snapped open. She had no intention of trying to control the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame. She knew full well the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils could never subdue a being of that level.
"Triple Flower Demon Pupil, open!"
A gigantic Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupil bloomed on the forehead of the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent's main head. Qing Lin poured her Spiritual Strength and Dou Qi into it, then drew in the power of every last one of her snake slaves and channeled it all into the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent.
Hiss hiss hiss!!
Empowered by the full strength of Qing Lin's snake slaves, the Nine-Headed Heaven Serpent threw back its heads and shrieked to the sky. Originally only a 2-star Dou Saint in strength, its blood energy now surged wildly past that limit. A pitch-black sphere of energy condensed before its nine maws before shooting forth as a beam of black light that streaked straight at the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame.
BOOM!
The beam slammed into the fire lotus shield. Battered by three devastating attacks at once, the barrier finally began to falter. The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame truly had expended a great deal of strength in the earlier battle, and fine cracks now spidered across the lotus surface.
Little Fairy Doctor took in the sight and swiftly formed a hand seal. Her eyes turned a ghostly grey-white as her right hand condensed both the Woeful Poison and a Heavenly Flame into one.
"Woeful Demon Poison Claw."
Her eyes flashed as she lashed out with a single strike. Ghostly Poison Flame fused with the Woeful Poison, and the claw descended like the swing of a reaper's scythe. Grey light flashed. A sharp crack rang out, and the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's fire lotus shield split wide open.
"What?!" A flicker of shock surfaced in the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's eyes. It had all transpired in a single instant. His Purifying Lotus Guard had actually been broken!
"Xun Er!" Xiao Yan's low shout rang out, and in that instant the two of them moved as one.
The moment Little Fairy Doctor and the others shattered the Demon Flame's defense, Xiao Yan and Xun Er appeared before and behind the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, radiance from intricate seals shining in their hands.
"Flame God Seal!"
"Ancient God Seal!"
The two seals converged. Two High Tian Class Dou Techniques roared out together, blasting toward the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame once more.
"You think the likes of you are worthy?! Demonic Flame Divine Statue!" The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame sensed the terrifying power contained within the two seals and roared. His hands blurred through a flurry of changes. The milky-white flames flooding the surrounding world suddenly raced toward him at blinding speed, and under countless shocked gazes, they condensed into a flame giant nearly ten thousand feet tall.
"What?!"
The Demonic Flame Divine Statue let out a deep, rumbling bellow and drove both fists forward, smashing into the twin God Seals. The red Flame God Seal and golden Ancient God Seal crashed against it like shockwaves, yet failed to shake the Divine Statue in the slightest.
"Get lost!"
Wrapped within the Demonic Flame Divine Statue, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame had been pounded to the point of genuine fury. His hand seal changed, and the Divine Statue's feet plunged straight into the magma sea below. A thunderous bellow tore loose, shaking the surrounding realm. Terrifying sound waves blasted across the entire Demon Flame Space.
The cry of a single Divine Statue produced a shockwave no weaker than the Yellow Spring Divine Anger. There was no question. This Demonic Flame Divine Statue was the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's trump card!
"This Demonic Flame Divine Statue is linked to the entire Demon Flame Space. Opposing it is the same as opposing all the Demon Flame energy accumulated here over who knows how many thousands or tens of thousands of years." Elder Huo Yao's face darkened. "He's controlling the entire Demon Flame Space. This strength has likely reached the intermediate, perhaps even late 6-star Dou Saint stage!"
They had no way to fight that at all. Their strongest was only a late 4-star Dou Saint.
"Pfft! Pfft!"
Xiao Yan and Xun Er bore the brunt of the blast. The sound waves smashed into them and sent them flying, blood spraying from their lips.
The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame glanced at Xiao Yan as he tumbled backward spitting blood, and a ruthless, greedy glint burned in his eyes. He sent the Demonic Flame Divine Statue's massive hand clawing down toward Xiao Yan. "Hahaha, become my Fire Slave!"
Xiao Yan's expression sank. He hurriedly unfurled his Ancient Phoenix Wings and shot forward as a streak of light, trying to shake off the Divine Statue's pursuit.
"Die for me!"
A colossal rush of displaced air tore through the sky. Fast as the Ancient Phoenix Wings were, the Demonic Flame Divine Statue's reach was immense and its speed anything but slow. In his current state, Xiao Yan simply could not evade.
At that critical instant, a cold and domineering voice cut through the chaos.
"I will not let a member of the Xiao Clan die in front of me again."
"Open!"
Xiao Chen's low shout rang out. He had absorbed all the pill Qi output by the two Pill Beasts and finally recovered his peak condition, thoroughly suppressing the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame within his body. He stepped onto the void and appeared before Xiao Yan in a single stride.
In just a few breaths, Xiao Chen's aura forcibly broke past the 4-star stage and surged to the intermediate 5-star Dou Saint! That strength actually exceeded even the Hall Chief of the Hall of Souls by a full tier!
He was now the strongest person present!
"Three Sky Breaking Axe!"
Xiao Chen didn't dare be the least bit careless when facing the Demonic Flame Divine Statue. Back then, he and the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame had been evenly matched, yet he had still suffered defeat and nearly become a Fire Slave himself.
A blood-red shadow flashed across the sky. Xiao Chen held nothing back. His very first move was the High Tian Class Dou Technique inherited by the Xiao Clan.
The enormous blood axe in his hands swept out three times in rapid succession. The three chops flowed so seamlessly they almost merged into a single strike. To ordinary eyes, only a blurred streak of crimson seemed to flash across the sky. Only experts on the level of the Hall Chief could clearly make out the three dark-red blood lines lashing out from the void, streaking toward the Demonic Flame Divine Statue's massive hand at terrifying speed and arriving in an instant.
The three blood lines looked thin and insubstantial, yet even the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame felt an intense sense of danger radiating from them.
Swish, swish, swish!
The three blood lines hacked down as though splitting a mountain apart. Under those three axe strikes, the enormous Divine Statue collapsed with a thunderous bang and shattered into pieces.
"Xiao Chen, you're nothing but my Fire Slave, a defeated opponent!" The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame roared. His hand seals shifted as he prepared to forcibly ignite the Demon Flame within Xiao Chen's body and seize control of him once more.
Hiss!
Nine-colored divine light speared into the sky. A glacial gleam flashed through Cai Lin's snake pupils. She flicked her massive head, and dozens of seven-colored snake scales beneath her jaws fell away on their own. They twisted and transformed under horrified stares, swelling into dozens of enormous Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Pythons.
Their tails coiled and interlocked, weaving into a vast serpent net that wrapped around the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame's Divine Statue layer upon layer. The dozens of Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Pythons then threw back their heads and roared in unison, and the serpent net shrank at ferocious, visible speed!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Cai Lin had finally unleashed her full strength, borrowing the souls of those Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Pythons to form a single, terrifying serpent net.
The net kept shrinking, its speed chillingly fast. As it contracted, an indescribable crushing force took shape within, and the space inside collapsed in an instant.
Creak! Creak!
At the center of that crushing power, even the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame felt his heart pound with alarm. If struck directly, even with the Demonic Flame Divine Statue's protection, he would likely suffer heavy injuries.
'So this is that power of temporarily borrowing her ancestors' souls Cai Lin talked about?' Xiao Yan naturally knew Cai Lin had obtained the Heaven Swallowing Python Tribe's inheritance beneath the Nine Serene Yellow Spring and, thanks to her evolution into the Nine-Colored bloodline, had awakened the souls of her ancestors.
According to her, this power could let her temporarily contend with even a late 5-star Dou Saint, perhaps one at the very peak. In her current state, Cai Lin was even a notch stronger than Zi Yan.
If the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame were at his peak, he would not have feared this borrowed power in the least. But after enduring round after round of a truly righteous gang beating, the strength within his body had been drastically depleted.
The serpent net constricted like countless giant pythons crushing their prey, strangling the Demonic Flame Divine Statue with merciless force. The terrifying pressure caused cracks to spread across its surface.
"The Divine Statue is going to be crushed?!" Deputy Hall Chief Hun Zhu cried out in shock. Just what kind of lineup had Xiao Yan gathered? They didn't need the Hall of Souls' help at all!
The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, still in his Purifying Lotus Demon Saint form, gnashed his teeth. He bit down hard, and the Divine Statue exploded apart with a thunderous boom. Riding the shockwave of its collapse, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame shot toward a gap in the serpent net, intending to break free of Cai Lin's strangling encirclement.
"Hmph!"
Just as he thought he had escaped with his life, a massive shadow fell from above. A multicolored snake tail whipped down and slammed into his body with devastating force. The deafening blast of compressed air smashed the ground ten thousand feet below into a gigantic crater nearly a thousand feet across.
Cai Lin, having completed her Nine-Colored evolution, was terrifying to such an extent!