Victory, Defeat, Life, Death

"Boom!" As azure and red figures crossed, waves of explosive air blasts rang through the sky, energy spilling everywhere.

The Heavenly Fire Mad Lion and Lin Yuan fought in a tangled melee. As the battle went on, the situation actually fell into a stalemate.

On one hand, the berserk Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's physical body and energy intensity had surged, making it difficult for Lin Yuan to break through its defenses and severely injure it. On the other hand, Lin Yuan's body was powerful as well; the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's ordinary attacks could not deal effective damage to him, while attacks that needed to build up power would be sensed and predicted by Lin Yuan's Soul Perception, either interrupted or dodged through Lin Yuan's superb movement technique.

The deadlocked battle continued. The Heavenly Fire Mad Lion, which had activated its Berserk Bloodline, grew increasingly frenzied. After realizing that even in its berserk state it could not easily take Lin Yuan down, it steeled its heart, and its fighting style became even more savage. Every move was aimed at trading injury for injury, and under this style, Lin Yuan's situation began to turn perilous.

"This guy is pretty smart. This won't do if it keeps going. I need to change tactics." With a thought, Lin Yuan decided to change his fighting method, and in an instant, he had an idea.

"Cloud Dragon's Three Appearances."

Lin Yuan activated the Cloud Dragon Movement Technique, and his figure instantly split into three, heading in three directions.

The Heavenly Fire Mad Lion caught up to the figure before it and was about to tear it apart with one claw. After its claw easily pierced through the figure in front of it, however, it felt no substance. It was only an afterimage. Turning to look, it saw that another afterimage had also vanished, while Lin Yuan's body had already appeared dozens of meters behind it and was flying toward the distance at extreme speed.

"Human, don't even think of escaping." With a furious roar, the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion turned and chased after Lin Yuan at high speed. It had to kill the human before its berserk state ended; otherwise, once the berserk period passed and it fell into weakness, it would be in danger.

Seeing the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion pursue him, a trace of a smile appeared in Lin Yuan's eyes. He urged his movement technique, smoothly dodging the Flame Bullets coming from behind like a cloud dragon, and accelerated forward. Meanwhile, the Dou Qi inside his body followed the long spear in his hand and gathered toward the drill bit. While he condensed more energy on the drill bit, he used azure flame to conceal it. The hidden drill bit began spinning at high speed.

Lin Yuan dragged the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion through the air, flying nimbly up, down, left, and right. With the support of his movement technique and Soul Perception, the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion was never able to hit him.

As time passed, the end of the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's berserk state drew closer and closer. It grew even more anxious, thinking only of tearing the human darting all over in front of it to pieces. Suddenly, it discovered that the aura of the figure ahead weakened for a moment, and it was overjoyed. It madly accelerated and pounced toward Lin Yuan.

It took the bait after all. With this speed and distance, it's enough. It can't dodge this strike. Now is the time. The thought flashed through Lin Yuan's mind, and he fully activated the movement Dou Skill he had prepared for so long.

"Cloud Dragon's Great Reversal."

Under the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's astonished gaze, Lin Yuan's forward-flying direction instantly reversed in a spiral. Holding the Azure Flame Spear, his speed did not decrease but instead increased as he charged back toward it. The two collided in an instant. The spear tip struck the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's protective energy, the azure flame scattered, and the high-speed spinning drill bit, empowered by terrifying speed and accompanied by a terrifying temperature, instantly pierced through the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's defenses. The long spear drove into its body, nearly running the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion through.

The Heavenly Fire Mad Lion could not help letting out a heaven-shaking roar of pain. Lin Yuan stepped on the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's body, and a surge of Dou Qi exploded from the sole of his foot, launching him away from it.

"Explode."

With a light shout, the Azure Spear formed from condensed Dou Qi and the Green Lotus Core Flame exploded. Violent fire force erupted inside the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's body, wantonly destroying it from within.

As Lin Yuan shot away, a flash of blood-red light crossed his eyes. He activated the Blood Energy Conversion Method that could only be used after cultivating the Hundred Beasts Spirit Refining Technique to a profound level, and began temporarily increasing his cultivation by burning the blood energy of his Natal Blood Pill.

"Hundred Beasts Spirit Refining Technique, Blood God Transformation."

As the blood energy of the Natal Blood Pill inside his body transformed into a surge of pure energy that flooded Lin Yuan's body, his aura soared. In the blink of an eye, it rose to the level of a Peak Dou Wang.

"Take advantage of your illness and take your life!"

"Heavenly Fire Tribulation, Mountain River Seal."

An azure-red seal condensed into being, and World Energy faintly poured into it. Under Lin Yuan's control, the Azure-Red Seal struck the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion. Vast energy exploded outward, destroying the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion from the outside. Amid the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's howls of pain, the energy erupting outside its body and the energy rampaging within utterly destroyed its meridians. Its vitality gradually cut off, and its aura was nearly gone.

Seeing this, Lin Yuan condensed several fire cones and shot them at the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's vital points. Within a few breaths, the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's head and heart were pierced through, and its life force was completely severed. It crashed heavily from the sky to the ground, producing a rumbling boom.

"It's finally over! Heavenly Fire Mad Lion, not bad!" Lin Yuan took a deep breath, and his aura returned from Peak Dou Wang to the level of a Seven-Star Dou Wang.

After landing, Lin Yuan put away the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's corpse, then walked toward the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's cave abode, preparing to sweep it for spoils of war.

On the way, Lin Yuan reviewed that battle, pondering his own advantages, weaknesses, and limits of strength.

"A Tier 6 Magical Beast's body really is powerful. Fortunately, I cultivated the Hundred Beasts Spirit Refining Technique. Otherwise, fighting the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion at close range would have been far too dangerous. It wasn't in vain that I spent so much effort refining my body. I have a lot more choices and methods in battle now."

"The current Blood God Transformation can't let me break through the Dou Huang boundary in terms of Dou Qi. I wonder what the effect will be after reaching great completion. I already have an idea for combining it with the other secret technique the Great Elder gave me. I'll still need to test it later."

"The Cloud Dragon Movement Technique still has room for optimization."

"A Profound Tier Cultivation Method can no longer satisfy my needs. I should find an opportunity to switch to an Earth Tier Cultivation Method."

"Judging from this battle, my strength can compare to most middle-stage Dou Huang. If I go all out, I should be able to clash with some high-stage Dou Huang."

As he thought, Lin Yuan arrived at the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's cave abode and began exploring. During his search, he did find quite a few precious medicinal ingredients. The most valuable were five sixth-tier medicinal ingredients and ten fifth-tier medicinal ingredients.

"This Heavenly Fire Mad Lion's collection is pretty rich. They're all mine now."

After putting all the medicinal ingredients into his Storage Ring, Lin Yuan continued looking around. After confirming that he had not missed anything major, he left the cave abode.

After leaving the mountain cave, Lin Yuan flew to several places near the area where he had fought the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion earlier. At each place, he beckoned with his hand, and a suction force released from his palm. Several azure objects flew out from the shallow soil and landed in his hand.

"These traps meant for escaping or creating opportunities didn't end up being used this time. I'll recover them and use them next time!"

"It's time to go back. Today is Qing'er's birthday, and the ingredients are all ready. I can cook her a feast to celebrate. She's been cultivating so hard during this period of time, so I should reward her. I didn't expect it. The cooking skills I researched for Zi Yan actually turned out to be this useful."

As he thought, Lin Yuan spread his wings, flew into the sky, transformed into a streak of azure light, and flew toward the northeast.

Some time after Lin Yuan left, an elder in hemp robes arrived at the battlefield where Lin Yuan and the Heavenly Fire Mad Lion had fought.

"What pure fire-type energy. It was the Heavenly Fire Lion King and another fire-type expert. There's also no aura of the Heavenly Fire Lion King nearby anymore. Could it be—hiss."

The elder in hemp robes gasped, his tone carrying a bit more doubt and astonishment.

"It actually killed a Tier 6 Heavenly Fire Mad Lion? The Jia Ma Empire doesn't have a fire-attribute expert with that level of cultivation. Who exactly is this sacred being?"

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