Dou Qi Vortex Transforms into a Nebula

Inside the stone cave, Liu Yun already felt an intense pressure. His forehead was covered in sweat; even beads of sweat could be seen clinging to his strands of hair. His clothes had long since been soaked through.

Liu Yun knew it was time to retreat, but he was unwilling to slink away like this.

Just then, he suddenly remembered that among the items Ya Fei had returned at the auction, there seemed to be a rather peculiar flower. It possessed an extreme chill, and he had never taken it out before. Perhaps it could come in handy now.

Thus, Liu Yun retrieved the Yin God Flower from the system space.

The moment the Yin God Flower appeared, an extreme chill surged forth. Even while standing amid a sea of fire, Liu Yun felt as if he had fallen into an icy prison.

With this flower, Liu Yun immediately felt the scorching heat leave his body, replaced by hands and arms stiffened with cold.

This allowed him to continue forward.

Finally, after another full half hour, Liu Yun reached a spot just one step away from the Tears of Cold Flame. During that half hour, he had endured ceaseless, extreme torment.

Though the Yin God Flower was miraculous, its effects were only significant at first. At this distance, it even showed signs of withering at any moment.

Liu Yun looked at the Tears of Cold Flame, half ice and half fire, and sensed an intense vitality emanating from it.

From up close, it was no longer merely an outline. The Tears of Cold Flame truly resembled a teardrop, with ripples where ice and fire blended continuously spreading across its surface.

Liu Yun could not help marveling. He had never seen ice and fire coexist like this before, and he inwardly marveled at the wonders of nature.

He reached out, intending to store it in his Ring, only to discover that he could not do so at all. It was as though the thing possessed life, resisting the Power of Space.

This was something he had expected, so Liu Yun was not angered. He slowly extended his hand, wanting to touch it.

At that moment, a contradictory sensation washed over him—wild and violent, yet somehow gentle—causing his thoughts to dull for an instant.

But when he sensed it more carefully, the contradiction seemed to vanish, replaced by a complementary harmony as if they were one. That harmony made the Tears of Cold Flame appear even more perfect.

As Liu Yun carefully experienced this strange sensation, the Tears of Cold Flame suddenly seemed to pulse.

He felt that the Tears of Cold Flame was exceptionally excited, as though it had found where it belonged. In a flash, it shot into Liu Yun's body along an unimaginable trajectory and at an unimaginable speed.

Liu Yun was greatly startled. This accident caught him completely off guard.

He hurriedly looked inward and discovered that the thing was now at the center of his Dou Qi Vortex. As it settled in, the vortex began spinning faster and faster, eventually reaching a speed where he could barely make it out.

The benefits he gained were self-evident. The ice-and-fire energy outside erupted and poured relentlessly into his body. With sufficient energy, the Dou Qi Vortex formed a nebula at a speed visible to the naked eye.

As the quantity changed, it seemed to be triggering a qualitative transformation as well. His Dou Qi became increasingly dense, on the verge of turning liquid.

Yet just as that transformation reached its final step, Liu Yun suppressed it.

When he looked inward again, what was inside his body could no longer be considered a Dou Qi Vortex. More accurately, it was a Dou Qi Nebula.

Opening his eyes, Liu Yun found that the ice-and-fire energy outside was gradually dispersing. Part of it had been absorbed by him and transformed into a Dou Qi Nebula, while the remaining energy, having lost the Tears of Cold Flame as its foundation, was assimilated into the air.

Liu Yun felt refreshed and invigorated. The Dou Qi Nebula within him was simply too vast and dense. Even without his Dou Qi liquefying, the amount of Dou Qi he possessed was already comparable to that of a Da Dou Shi.

"Now, even if I use an Earth-tier Fighting Skill, I won't have to worry about insufficient Dou Qi!" Liu Yun said with a slight smile, stretching out his hands as he felt the changes in his body.

At the same time, Liu Yun spotted He Qingfeng not far away. He Qingfeng had long since become dazed, immersed in deep self-doubt.

He realized that he understood this world less and less, and understood his own Young Master even less.

Subduing the Heart of Cold Flame could barely be explained away, but absorbing that much energy was simply too unreasonable, wasn't it? His Young Master was only a Nine-star Dou Zhe!

"Elder He, let's go. We need to get out of here quickly. The Crimson Flame Tiger King is still outside. If it didn't find us in the other passage, it may very well return, and that would be troublesome!" Liu Yun said.

"Ah, right!" Hearing this, He Qingfeng shook his head and cast aside the flood of doubts in his mind before agreeing.

The two set out on their return journey. Just as when they had arrived, they followed the twisting passageways for a long time before finally finding the hole through which they had entered.

He Qingfeng walked in front and was the first to jump out of the hole, with Liu Yun close behind him.

This was still the original cave, but it had now collapsed beyond recognition. Judging by the state of it, the Crimson Flame Tiger King must have destroyed it in its fury.

"That hole is clearly much larger than before. The Crimson Flame Tiger King must have entered the passage and headed in the direction opposite ours," He Qingfeng guessed.

"Mm. If that's the case, then the true master of this cave should be that Fifth-tier Crimson Flame Tiger King, while the Second-tier Crimson Flame Tiger I killed earlier was likely its offspring," Liu Yun said.

"No wonder that Second-tier Crimson Flame Tiger slept so soundly. It must have instinctively believed this was the safest place," Liu Yun continued.

In fact, when He Qingfeng had first described this nest, Liu Yun had already had such a suspicion. But at the time, he had been in a hurry to complete the mission and had actually overlooked it.

Or perhaps he had developed a tightrope-walker mentality, selectively ignoring it and deliberately warning himself not to think too much about it. That was what had placed them in this danger.

If he had not stabbed a hole through with his sword, the two of them might have been torn into pieces by the Fifth-tier Magical Beast long ago!

Liu Yun needed to learn a lesson from this. In the future, he absolutely could not gamble with his own life, much less the lives of others.

Today, he had let himself down, and even more so, he had let Elder He down.

"Let's go, Elder He. We should leave this place as soon as possible. The Crimson Flame Tiger King may return at any moment," Liu Yun said.

"Alright, Young Master!" He Qingfeng replied with a smile.

Elder He seemed even more enthusiastic than usual today.

Just like that, the two walked for nearly twenty minutes when a clamor suddenly came from ahead. There were roars of beasts, men shouting curses, and the pained moans of women mixed among them.

Liu Yun frowned, and He Qingfeng did the same. The two exchanged a glance, each seeing anger on the other's face.

The feeling was too familiar. At the same time, a type of Magical Beast came to both of their minds: Union Ape!

"Bastard!" Liu Yun gripped his sword, wind whipping beneath his feet as he flashed forward like a cannonball.