Xiao Yan's tone was calm, but the pressure radiating from his body made cold sweat drip from everyone's foreheads.
Just as the atmosphere fell silent, the guards in the rear of the Xiao Family—
suddenly collapsed to the ground one after another, limp and powerless.
Several black-robed figures swiftly darted out from the Xiao Family's ranks and arrived among the camps of the two great families.
The Xiao Family disciples instantly erupted into chaos, each of them frightened and uneasy!
Xiao Zhan and several elders were furious beyond measure:
"Xiao Hong? Xiao Yue?"
"The Xiao Family has treated you well. How could you commit such treachery?!"
"Your relatives are still in the Xiao Family. Are you going to watch them be slaughtered?!"
"You..."
Xiao Zhan's furious voice had barely begun, and he had only uttered one word of his next sentence.
Gale Bi had not even had the chance to sneer.
Before Xiao Yan cut him off:
"Father, why waste words on a few traitorous scum?"
"Leave everything to me!"
The Nine Fire Dragons raised their heads and roared at the sky in unison, their dragon roar shattering the Allied Forces' Dou Qi Armor.
"A bunch of trash dares to run wild in my Xiao Family?"
"Then I'll send you on a one-way trip to hell!"
The surging Kirin Devouring Heaven Flame around Xiao Yan erupted in a blazing torrent.
It formed a fiery Kirin Phantom around him!
"Urgh..."
The two Second-Rank Alchemists suddenly fell to their knees and convulsed, pained groans forced from their throats!
The beast flames within their bodies actually turned into flickering motes and seeped out.
They surged toward the fire dragons and merged into them.
The Nine Fire Dragons coiled through the night sky, their crimson scales reflecting across the entire Xiao Mansion like an inferno.
Gale Bi's savage grin froze on his face when he saw the bluestone beneath Xiao Yan's feet melting.
Winding trails of flame crawled through the cracks in the ground toward the Allied Forces' camp.
"Th-this is a Da Dou Shi?"
"How the hell can he be just a Da Dou Shi?!"
The veins on the Scarred Man's hand bulged as he gripped his saber, yet his Horse-Chopping Saber suddenly let out a sharp crack.
The blade forged from refined steel had been scorched with cracks by the intense heat!
Xiao Yan tapped the Heavy Black Ruler with a bent finger, and the ruler's trembling hum became a tangible soundwave.
The thirty Dou Shi at the front suddenly spewed flames from all seven orifices.
"Bang!"
Their eyeballs exploded into bloody mist inside their sockets, and their charred corpses, still locked in charging poses, toppled into the sea of fire.
"Now..."
The young man's voice was wrapped in sparks:
"Who wants to inspect my cultivation technique?"
Cold sweat dripped from Oba Pa's forehead, but the situation had already reached the point of no return!
"Hah!"
Oba Pa suddenly sprang forward, his poisoned dagger becoming nine streaks of dark light:
"So what if you're a Seven-Star Great Dou Master?"
"The nine of us will join forces—"
Before he could finish, a dragon roar shattered the air.
A fire dragon swooped down, and the dark streaks vaporized the instant they touched its whiskers.
Oba Pa suddenly felt searing pain in his palm. Looking down, he saw his dagger had melted into dripping iron, while his right hand had become charred bone!
"Ahhh!"
Amid his screams, the fire dragon pierced straight through him!
His internal organs vaporized before they could even fall.
The hollow shell of his lower body continued its running posture and crashed into the courtyard wall.
Leaving a scorched human-shaped mark across the blue bricks.
Xiao Yan slowly advanced atop a fire dragon.
Nine pairs of dragon eyes reflected the twisted faces of the insects before him:
"Eight left."
"Form the formation! Quickly, form—"
The Scarred Man's roar abruptly stopped as the second fire dragon swept past his head.
When his skull exploded from within, the splattered brain matter ignited into sparks in midair.
His headless body remained standing as the column of blood spraying from his neck was steamed into scarlet mist by the heat.
"No... impossible!"
"This can't be just a Da Dou Shi!"
"I don't understand! How could we lose?!"
The Allied Forces began to collapse and flee, some throwing down their weapons and kneeling to beg for mercy.
The moment their knees touched the rushing waves of fire, they turned into burning men.
Others tried to climb over the walls, only for scarlet claws to suddenly burst through their backs.
"Demon... he's a demon!"
A Gale Family elder tore at his hair madly. His white hair ignited the instant it touched the heat wave stirred up by the fire dragons.
When the fourth fire dragon swept past him, his entire body melted like a wax figure, flowing across the ground as boiling blood slurry.
Xiao Zhan watched the blood rain filling the sky and suddenly noticed that the flame markings on his son's neck had spread to his cheeks.
Those ancient runes glimmered in the bloody light, primordial and powerful!
But this scene was truly far too brutal.
"Yan'er."
He had barely spoken when Xiao Xun'er pressed a hand onto his shoulder.
Strange colors swirled in the girl's eyes, while the Golden Emperor Burning Heaven Flame wrapped around her fingertips trembled in faint resonance:
"uncle Xiao, Brother Xiao Yan needs to vent right now."
The last two Da Dou Shi stood back to back, their Dou Qi Armor already covered in cracks.
They watched the fifth fire dragon tear apart their final companion, then suddenly laughed miserably in unison:
"Either way, we die. Explode!"
A blinding light flared from their Dantians as the two six-star Da Dou Shi prepared to self-destruct!
The terrifying energy fluctuations collapsed half the front courtyard, sending the Xiao Family disciples stumbling back in terror.
"Too noisy."
Xiao Yan frowned and swung the Heavy Black Ruler through the air.
Two fire dragons entwined into a spiral and forcibly compressed the self-destructing energy back into the enemies' bodies.
Everyone watched the two Da Dou Shi rapidly swell, molten light shining through their skin.
In the end, they exploded into a cloud of blood mist with a bang, blown apart by their own Dou Qi!
The Nine Fire Dragons returned to Xiao Yan's side as he looked down at the charred corpses covering the ground.
Gale Bi sat paralyzed in a pool of blood, foul-smelling liquid seeping from his crotch:
"D-don't kill me. I can submit to the Xiao Family, and I can—"
Crimson Flame flashed, and his head soared into the sky. Xiao Yan shook the Blood Bead from his ruler.
"You think you're worthy of negotiating with me?"
Three days later, at the Xiao Family ancestral hall.
"The Gale Family's seventeen mines and the Oba Family's twenty-one marketplaces have all been taken over."
The Great Elder's voice trembled with excitement, and the account book in his hands recorded astronomical figures:
"The high-grade pills refined by the Young Master sold at auction in Black Rock City for—"
Xiao Yan leaned against the doorway, idly playing with Crimson Flame. Hearing this, he gave a faint laugh:
"Leave such trivial matters for the elders to decide."
He had just turned around when he saw Xiao Xun'er approaching gracefully with a celadon bowl in her hands.
The lotus seed soup inside gleamed. With one look, he knew rare medicinal ingredients had been added:
"Brother Xiao Yan, are you going on a long journey?"
The girl stepped closer, her fingertips casually brushing the flame markings on his neck.
"There are some flames to collect, and some people to kill."
Xiao Yan tipped back his head and drank the soup in one gulp.
Lowering his head, he suddenly wrapped an arm around the girl's slender waist and pressed a kiss onto her cherry lips.
The warm, soft sensation ran through his body like an electric current.
A trace of sweetness spread through his heart.
After the kiss, Xiao Xun'er placed both hands against Xiao Yan's chest.
A faint blush spread across her fair little face.
Her voice was low, as soft as a mosquito's buzz:
"Brother Xiao Yan, there are still people here."
Xiao Yan chuckled:
Xun'er was truly adorable now. He only hoped that when he returned from his training outside, she would still be this adorable when she saw Xiao Yi Xian and Medusa.
Ignoring the girl's powerless struggle, Xiao Yan gently pulled her into his embrace.
Soft, supple warmth pressed against him as Xiao Yan rested his head against her neck.
The fragrance in her hair filled his nose. Xiao Yan spoke softly, tender and reluctant to part:
"When I return, I'll teach you alchemy."
"Mm."
Dusk deepened:
A crimson meteor streaked across the night sky as Xiao Zhan looked in the direction his son had departed.
An unconscious smile appeared at the corner of his lips:
Several dozen miles away, a Yun Lan Elder crushed a Message Jade Slip:
"Sect Leader, the target is heading toward the Monster Beast Mountain Range. Shall we..."
Before you continue