Test

"Whew..."

Xiao Yan drew in a deep breath and stood still with his hands hanging at his sides. His entire body stayed straight as he slowly tipped forward.

Just as the ground was within inches, his black robe instantly dragged out an afterimage, shooting straight ahead like an arrow.

"Whoosh!"

Xiao Yan's figure was swift as the wind and fast as lightning. He easily slipped past the dense clusters of tree trunks, racing through the forest in a zigzag.

Every time his toes touched down, a burst of fallen leaves exploded up, yet before the withered leaves could even rise to their peak, he had already shifted his step, carrying a surge of air that blasted open a path as dust and leaves parted and scattered to both sides.

As he moved, his clothes snapped sharply, constantly bursting out with explosive, rapid cracks.

"Just as I thought. This Instant Step really does suit him." Yao Lao nodded inwardly.

Now that he had a disciple like Xiao Yan, he had to dig out all the Dou Techniques he had half-heartedly accepted in the past and take a proper look at them.

Though those odds and ends were not especially high in rank, their advantage lay in covering all sorts of categories.

The movement Dou Technique before him was one of them.

It was clearly a standard Mystic High-Rank Dou Technique, yet it was just like Eight Extremities Collapse, placing extremely high demands on the strength of one's bones and muscles. If there was the slightest deficiency, injury came easily.

"Gather the force at the waist, then pour it into both legs. At the instant of landing, it suddenly erupts, startling as thunder, moving like a gale... Although the physical drain isn't small, this technique is not only good for sprinting, it is also superb for close-quarters shifting."

A cluster of flame drifted to the treetop, rolled up, and took shape as Yao Lao's Soul Body. A somewhat ill-intentioned smile hung on his face.

"Now let this old man see how your training has progressed~"

The illusory Soul Body spread both hands, his figure hovering in midair, and an invisible wave swept outward with him at its center.

"Hm?"

Xiao Yan's soul trembled faintly. His running movements abruptly stopped, and he touched straight down in a standing posture, rumbling as he plowed a long trench through the ground before fixing his body in place.

Behind him, streams of air dragged out wind marks, carrying shattered leaves that filled the sky over his shoulders and continued forward.

"Bang! Bang, bang!..."

An invisible force descended, and the towering trees around him burst apart at the waist one after another, completely severed into two pieces.

Xiao Yan's gaze sharpened.

"Whoosh—"

Over a dozen great trees came crashing in with a dull roar of wind, as if lifted and gripped by invisible giant hands, sealing off every direction above and around him.

There was nowhere to dodge!

"Rumble!..."

Branches crossed, sawdust flew, and the entire stretch of land seemed to sink half a foot, shaking up layer upon layer of earth.

A ring of impact rapidly expanded in the form of a tangible air wave, churning over the surrounding ground.

"Ugh—"

Amid the immense impact, Xiao Yan held the Xuan Heavy Ruler horizontally over his head. Both legs were buried deep in the soil, and the ground had almost reached his waist.

"Quite the commotion..."

Eight Extremities Collapse! A sharp gleam rose in Xiao Yan's eyes. The hand braced against the ruler's surface instantly changed moves and smashed fiercely onto the Xuan Heavy Ruler. The strange hidden force twisted into one strand suddenly erupted, and the tree trunks piled above him exploded apart in an instant.

Branches crossed, sawdust flew everywhere, and a black figure flipped out amid the explosion, toes tapping down on fragments in midair.

"Boom!"

As the fragments exploded into dust, Xiao Yan also turned into a black shadow, sketching a bolt of lightning through the air as he flashed past.

"Hehe... It's not over yet..."

With a wave of Yao Lao's sleeve, rolling forceful wind rose from the ground, carrying dust, mud, and broken leaves as a sandstorm-like wind wall swept into the forest.

Within the brownish-yellow storm, sharp blades flickered in and out. Wherever it passed, flowers, grass, and withered leaves were all shredded, and the trees swallowed by it had their crowns instantly torn away, every branch, leaf, and strip of bark scraped clean.

The dust storm, filled with the aura of death, charged straight toward Xiao Yan.

In that instant, deathly warning signs crawled all over his back.

"Aren't you really afraid something will go wrong?" Xiao Yan could not help grumbling, stretching his hand toward the storm.

Breath Fire Palm! "Bang!"

Rings of wind shook out from Xiao Yan's arm, and rolling currents surged from his palm, transforming into a vortex that blasted open.

As if the youth had solid ground to borrow strength from, his entire body suddenly spun up and accelerated in midair out of nowhere, forcibly flying backward several yards.

As he flipped and twisted, Xiao Yan gripped the ruler handle tightly with both hands and swung it down heavily.

Every muscle in his body instantly tensed, and terrifying strength poured into both arms before erupting with a boom.

"Clang!"

With a ringing sound, a crack appeared on the bracelet locked around his wrist. The thick Dou Qi sleeping within his body suddenly rioted, rushing through his whole body like floodwaters released from a dam, piling into a tsunami that was released in an instant! "Flame Splitting..."

Xiao Yan uttered the words in a low voice. Golden radiance lit in his eyes, and surging blood and Qi filled his limbs.

"Wave Devouring Ruler!"

A ten-zhang curtain of fire swept out with a thought, surging waves of flame rushing toward the dust storm, and in the blink of an eye, the two collided.

A thunderous boom spread with a massive shockwave. The storm born from the clash of energies twisted into a vortex and expanded inch by inch, smashing down the great trees around it.

Amid the chaos, a bone-white flame shot out like lightning.

Every speck of dust and clod of earth along its path was burned to nothing. A destructive aura that seared straight through the soul aimed directly for Xiao Yan's brow!

"Not good..."

At the critical moment, Xiao Yan's pupils abruptly contracted. The hand tightly gripping the ruler's hilt loosened ever so slightly at the last possible instant.

Suction Palm!

The black-robed figure suspended in midair suddenly sank, dropping toward the ground and dodging the flame by a hair's breadth.

The bone-white flame only grazed a lock of his hair, failing to achieve anything.

"Rustle, rustle..."

Debris scattered down like raindrops. Xiao Yan abruptly swung the ruler behind his back, and the light breeze stirred by that natural motion dispersed the smoke and dust.

The scene around him instantly cleared.

"Teacher, isn't this test a bit too outrageous?" Xiao Yan straightened his robes and walked out from the wreckage, dry, clean, and composed.

"Those attacks aren't much to a little genius like you, are they?"

Yao Lao appeared with a chuckle, stroking his beard. "I just didn't expect you to practice your Dou Techniques to this level so quickly. Calling it effortless wouldn't be an exaggeration. It seems I still underestimated you."

Not much...? Xiao Yan glanced at the frost-covered tips of his hair and bared his teeth.

If he said Yao Lao did not act like a decent person, well, the destructive aura had indeed been frightening, but if it had really hit him, it would only have frozen him into a shiver.

But if he were to say there was nothing wrong with this...

Xiao Yan truly could not get the words out.

If that chain of attacks had been used on an ordinary Dou Master, it would have been no different from fighting to kill! Let alone against him, a half-crippled Dou Master whose Dou Qi had been both sealed and suppressed.

Teacher, you really do trust me a lot.

"Ah~ Forget it." Xiao Yan sighed faintly. What else could he do after ending up with a teacher like this?

He might as well make do. It was not as if he could go and become Han Feng, right? "But... Teacher, when I used my Dou Qi this time, it circulated a little too forcefully. This pair of bracelets seems to have taken some damage. I don't know how much longer they'll last."

Xiao Yan lifted his sleeve. The metal ring on his wrist had lost its luster, and an almost imperceptible crack ran across its surface.

"You don't need to worry about that~ It's very hard to break this thing."

Yao Lao reached out and pointed at it. A layer of gentle light appeared over the ring, and the crack was completely repaired in the blink of an eye.

Xiao Yan moved his hand and found that the damned thing's endurance seemed to have grown a little higher, while the strength of its seal had loosened somewhat.

What an incredible treasure!

"This... What exactly is this thing?" Xiao Yan could not help asking.