Caught Between Wolf and Tiger

On a stone mountain, a Half-Saint energy body being sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, surrounded by a fierce aura, revealing a strong killing intent and bloodshed.

These auras all originated from a large sword standing atop a boulder in front of the Energy Body.

It's hard to imagine what this greatsword has gone through. The Energy Body in the Heavenly Tomb are all formed from the remnants of powerful beings, and their former weapons could never possibly appear here.

The only explanation is that this Half-Saint, on the Heavenly Tomb Third Layer, used his Dou Qi to transform into a greatsword and slaughtered countless Energy Body, ultimately forming such ferocious power.

Perhaps in the distant past, this greatsword also killed people from Ancient Race who came to the third level, and underwent some kind of transformation after drinking their blood.

The Half-Saint suddenly opened his eyes, shifted his gaze, and locked onto the two ants that had intruded into his territory.

These are two Nine-star Dou Zun, considered slightly larger ants... but they possess a terrifying aura within them that even the Blood Saber Saint felt terrified, suggesting they are extremely high-ranking Heavenly Flames.

Licking his lips, the Blood Saber Saint could not suppress his bloodlust. Countless years had passed since someone had reached such a deep place. The experience of witnessing a new life wither in his hands was completely different from killing Energy Body.

He stood up, raised his hand to grasp the hilt of the knife, and with a gentle pull, the broadsword fell into his hand. The stench of blood in the air suddenly became even stronger.

The next moment, the Blood Saber Saint blocked their way.

"The Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations!"

Before the Blood Saber Saint could even speak, Xiao Yan activated his Secret Technique, instantly boosting his Nine-star Dou Zun aura to the level of the initial Third Transformation. Then, he threw a backhand punch, unleashing the raging Heavenly Flames within his body.

Xun'er also immediately withdrew and hid behind Xiao Yan, activating the Ancient Saint Treasure Mirror to frantically plunder the extremely rich energy in the world.

Although caught off guard, the Blood Saber Saint's instincts, honed from years of battle, still allowed him to raise his hand and slash out with his blade, cutting through the raging flames in front of him. At the same time, he took two steps back to avoid the most violent collision.

At the same time, the Blood Saber Saint also caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a pattern appearing on Xiao Yan's forehead, which gave rise to some unpleasant thoughts.

"Wait..."

The Blood Saber Saint had barely uttered two words when he suddenly felt an invisible and colorless flame appear within his body.

As Energy Body, many of the vital parts of his physical body no longer exist, but this flame is extremely strange, and it instantly affected the Blood Saber Saint's Dou Qi circulation.

Forcibly urging his battle Dou Qi to suppress the fierce Heavenly Flames, the Blood Saber Saint became even more fiery, but it wasn't over yet. The ground beneath his feet exploded, and cyan flames burst out like a volcanic eruption.

"Roar!"

The next moment, nine silver Fire Dragon roared and swept in, surrounding the Blood Saber Saint.

"Blood Blade Wild Slash!"

A crimson blade light appeared, and the Blood Saber Saint unleashed countless strikes in an instant. Whether it was the Green Lotus Core Flame erupting from beneath his feet or the Nine Dragon Thunder Gang Fire surrounding him, all their efforts were in vain, unable to harm the Blood Saber Saint in the slightest.

Just then, an irregularly shaped object the size of a head suddenly appeared beside the Blood Saber Saint, and due to inertia, the greatsword slashed straight down.

However, just as the greatsword was about to strike the inexplicably appearing object, the Blood Saber Saint's wrist trembled, causing the greatsword to glide past it. With a gentle force, he attempted to carry away the thing that was making the Blood Saber Saint's heart pound wildly.

However, the Blood Saber Saint failed.

This was the product of Xiao Yan's fusion of four Heavenly Flames: Nine Dragon Thunder Gang Fire, Turtle Spirit Earth Fire, Fallen Heart Flame, and Green Lotus Core Flame. Due to the time constraints, Xiao Yan did not have time to carefully coordinate the balance between the Heavenly Flames. After compressing as many Heavenly Flames as possible, he threw it out directly.

Even though the Blood Saber Saint used all his knowledge, that gentle force still detonated this extremely unstable bomb.

"Boom!!!"

A destructive wave suddenly erupted, and the surging fire seemed to devour everything. Xiao Yan tried his best to gather the Heavenly Flames, wanting to inflict maximum damage on the Blood Saber Saint at the core, but the catastrophic scene still affected an area of several thousand feet.

If no one intervened, it was unknown how long it would take for these raging flames to gradually die down, but Blood Saber Saint was clearly forced to act as a firefighter for a while.

A crimson blade of light shot into the sky from the flames, destroying everything in its path. Space shattered, the earth cracked, and the burning Heavenly Flames was naturally separated, revealing a path over a hundred meters long.

At the end of the path stood a figure with bloodshot eyes, looking disheveled, yet exuding a violent aura, like a demon that had crawled out of hell.

"You've successfully annoyed me..."

"Great Annihilation Finger!" Xun'er shouted. At this moment, her Dou Qi had been condensed to its limit. This Gu Clan's signature Heavenly Tier Dou Technique was not something like the Emperor Seal Art. Its power was not much different from the explosion just now.

In particular, Xun'er exerted all her strength, activating a bit of the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame to enhance the giant finger filled with the aura of annihilation, thus raising its world-destroying power to a new level.

Blood Saber Saint's face twitched, but he could not ignore the powerful finger. He could only once again activate his Dou Qi, attach it to the greatsword in his hand, and once again unleash that sword light that seemed to split the heavens and the earth.

However, this time, the crimson hue seemed to have dimmed considerably.

The giant finger, interspersed with traces of Golden Flame, was locked in a stalemate with the scarlet blade light in mid-air. The already unstable space was now shattering wildly, like a broken mirror.

Dark Space Rift continued to spread out from the intersection of the giant finger and the blade's edge, extending for thousands of feet without stopping.

Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes and looked at the Blood Saber Saint.

Xun'er naturally had no chance of defeating him, but the situation was currently at a stalemate. The scattered golden Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame caused the blade light to show signs of burning. It would probably take a while for the Blood Saber Saint to cleave the giant finger.

So...

Four Heavenly Flames, just like before, reappeared in front of Xiao Yan. Within the Silver Flame, nine small dragons swam around, three of which emerged from the flames and swallowed the Turtle Spirit Earth Fire, the Fallen Heart Flame, and the Green Lotus Core Flame one by one.

Based on the Nine Dragon Thunder Gang Fire, the four Heavenly Flames are merging at a considerable rate.

The Fallen Heart Flame continued to harass the Blood Saber Saint, trying to slow down his slashing of the giant finger, but the bomb in Xiao Yan's hand was about to take shape once again.

Of course, Xiao Yan could also choose to concentrate his power and unleash Heavenly Tier Dou Technique, but the surrounding World Energy was too violent at the moment, and the clash between the giant finger and the blade would also affect the convergence of the World Energy. Therefore, Xiao Yan chose to Fusion Heavenly Flame.

When the four Exotic Flame Fusion together, the power they unleash is naturally no less than that of a true Heavenly Tier Dou Technique.

At this moment, Blood Saber Saint finally understood what had just blown him up. Deep regret enveloped Blood Saber Saint as he questioned himself: why did I attack this lunatic?

Who would be crazy enough to Exotic Flame Fusion together?!

Not daring to delay any longer, the Blood Saber Saint bit his tongue and, using his Energy Body, activated his blood-attribute Dou Qi to forcefully spit out a mouthful of Essence Blood, spraying it onto his greatsword.

"Break!"

With a terrified, desperate shout, the blade shone with an unprecedented crimson light, instantly extinguishing the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame attached to it, and tearing the giant finger in two.

Xiao Yan sighed, and just as the Blood Saber Saint coughed up blood, he threw out the unformed Heavenly Flames Bomb once again.

"Boom!!!"

"You son of a bitch!"

Even the terrifying sound of the erupting Heavenly Flames could not drown out the Blood Saber Saint's grief-stricken shouts.

Xiao Yan swayed precariously, stopped activating the Heavenly Fire Three Profound Transformations, and a Nine-star Dou Zun Energy Core appeared in his palm. He began to absorb the energy within it to restore his Dou Qi.

To harmonize different flames, one must continuously inject Burning Qi. The more Qi injected, the more violent the flames become, and the more Qi is consumed.

After fusing four Heavenly Flames twice, Xiao Yan's Dou Qi was less than 30% of what it used to be, not enough for another attempt.

Even his Soul Power was greatly depleted; otherwise, Xiao Yan would definitely have condensed spikes and given the Blood Saber Saint a few more blows.

Xun'er was the same. Although she only released Heavenly Tier Dou Technique once, the burden of Heavenly Tier Dou Technique on Dou Zun was enormous. In particular, in order to pursue power, she added the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame to the Heavenly Tier Dou Technique, which made the consumption even greater.

At this moment, Xun'er probably has less Dou Qi than Xiao Yan.

This explosion lasted longer than the last one, and the Half-Saint energy body seemed to have run out of energy and was unable to break through the sea of fire again.

Several breaths passed, and the Nine-star Dou Zun Energy Core in their hands had disappeared, transformed into pure energy and refined, replaced by brand new Energy Core. However, the figure of the Blood Saber Saint had not yet appeared.

"Can we kill him?" Xun'er blinked, staring intently at the raging Heavenly Flames. Even with the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame protecting her, it was still a considerable burden.

"They might be dead, they might be hiding, they might have escaped. In any case, let's hide first." Xiao Yan took a breath. "With such a commotion, I'm afraid all the experts on the Heavenly Tomb Third Layer have noticed this place."

"Mm." Xun'er nodded, and the two of them remained vigilant as they tried to retreat.

"Hehehe, a mere Nine-star Dou Zun can use such a powerful move. No wonder they are the two most dazzling geniuses of the Gu Clan."

"Hehehe, if I kill you all, Gu Yuan will probably go crazy with heartache, won't he?"

Two chilling auras suddenly appeared behind the two. Without even looking, they were definitely members of the Soul Clan.

"Dou Sheng Expert..." Xun'er's face turned pale. Even though she had forced the two to use all their trump cards as Half-Saint, she still couldn't truly win. Now, two real Dou Sheng energy body with extremely malicious intent had appeared!

Xiao Yan looked at the two of them with some curiosity and asked softly, "Did you die in the war between the Soul Clan and the Spirit Clan?"

The two Dou Sheng's "hehehe" laughter stopped abruptly, and they both stared at Xiao Yan.

Xiao Yan seemed oblivious to their gazes and continued, "The Spirit Clan is incredibly weak. Among the Ancient Eight Clans, they are probably only stronger than my Xiao Clan. Our Patriarch is also weak, relying entirely on his Soul Power to maintain his strength."

"As the strongest of the Ancient Eight Clans, the Soul Clan also possesses Dou Technique that target and counter the Soul Power. To destroy the Soul Clan, it would probably only require the deployment of the Soul Clan Four Demon Saints. The other Dou Sheng would not perish in a battle of this magnitude, and at the very least, their souls could escape."

The two Soul Clan members' gazes grew increasingly strange. They neither agreed nor denied Xiao Yan's speculations, nor did they even try to stop him; they simply watched Xiao Yan continue to ponder.

"So, you are actually willing to die, or rather, you deliberately 'die' in the Heavenly Tomb, with the aim of hunting down the younger generation of the Ancient Eight Clans, preferably killing the little princess of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan as well, so that the Ancient Void Dragon and the Gu Clan become enemies."

"Clap clap clap..."

One of the two Soul Clan Dou Sheng in front of him actually clapped his hands and smiled, saying, "The better you perform, the greater the sense of accomplishment I will feel from killing you—if you grow stronger, the threat you pose to the Soul Clan will be unimaginable."

"To see a genius like you fall is exhilarating."

Xiao Yan took a breath and continued to try to recover his Dou Qi, but he was already struggling to fight the Half-Saint energy body, so it was impossible for him to defeat these two genuine Dou Sheng energy body.

Therefore, the two Soul Clan members were exceptionally "tolerant" as they watched the two recover their Dou Qi, wanting to give them a sliver of hope before cruelly extinguishing it.

"There's only one thing: you're actually willing to die to kill a few Dou Zun," Xiao Yan continued.

"Take your time to think." The Soul Clan Dou Sheng raised his hand to smooth out the Space Rift and said leisurely, "You can say whatever you want. I will just seal off the entire space here."

"I think it's possible that the Hun Tiandi promised that after he breaks through to the Dou Emperor, he will go deep into the Heavenly Tomb to resurrect you two and give you generous rewards. And you both have no doubt that the Hun Tiandi can break through to the Dou Emperor," Xiao Yan said.

"If the Patriarch can't break through to Dou Emperor, who else can? Gu Yuan?" The Soul Clan Dou Sheng sneered, his words confirming Xiao Yan's guess.

"There's one more thing." Xiao Yan took another breath and asked lightly, "How did you find me?"

"Such a commotion, you think we wouldn't notice?" The Soul Clan's Dou Sheng said contemptuously, then glanced warily in the direction of the Xiao Xuan's Tomb Mansion.

"Although Xiao Xuan is powerful, he is also restricted by the Heavenly Tomb and cannot enter and exit at will. He can only come out once every ten years, and now is not the time for him to leave the Tomb Mansion."

"Really."

The Soul Clan Dou Sheng had barely finished speaking when Xiao Xuan's calm voice rang out abruptly, and that face that the Soul Clan could never forget appeared before the two Dou Sheng:

"I can only project a projection and disperse a portion of my power."