Turning the Tables in the Fire Zone

Someone got away?

The cultivator who had come to deliver the message could only nod again.

This scene played out across many Aristocratic Clans, especially among those who had been sighing over Hanyu's impending death just a moment earlier, only to hear in the next that he had broken through and escaped.

The Twelve Elders hadn't stopped him?

Nine Half-step Divine Peekings and three Peeping God Realm cultivators! They weren't twelve pigs!

Some clan heads wouldn't even dare boast that they could escape. Yet Hanyu had done it—and right under the pursuit of twelve people, he'd made it out of the city.

The Bai Family!

Bai Chong'an was just as incredulous. The second Bai Family clansman to report to him stood before him, and this one was more convincing, because he had picked Linglan up at the scene and brought her back.

Linglan still looked shaken out of her wits. The moment she saw Bai Junya, she rushed over and threw her arms around her.

If not for Hanyu, the roof collapsing from above just now would have crushed her little body.

She was also the only person who had witnessed the entire scene. Through her, they could get the clearest picture of what had happened.

"He killed a Half-step Divine Peeking with just a few punches!"

Everyone drew in a sharp breath. Perhaps others didn't know, but the Bai Family understood all too well how difficult the Qin Family elders were to deal with.

The Qin Family had the Azure Wave Art, a technique that could repeatedly stack bursts of True Essence. If a Half-step Divine Peeking could keep stacking its power, it could even unleash attacks on par with those of the Peeping God Realm.

And someone had still been killed with just a few punches?

Especially after that chase through the city, when Hanyu had still managed to escape. The Qin Family was bound to lose a great deal of face after today.

"Why on earth did you go there?"

Bai Junya patted Linglan's chilly hand. Even though she was already a Divine Bridge cultivator, coming so close to death had been too much for a young girl still so innocent.

Linglan glanced at the Bai Family clan elder beside them, then whispered, "I went to get Hanyu to save you."

Her voice was quiet, but every cultivator present could hear her perfectly well.

"You know that person?"

Bai Chong'an looked at Bai Junya in surprise.

Bai Jingliang's expression turned complicated. He leaned close to Bai Junya's ear and said, "Could it be that he got into a fight with the Qin Family because of you?"

He meant that Hanyu had been targeted by Qin Hao because of his accidental encounter with Bai Junya that day. So when Bai Jingliang said this, his expression was uneasy. After all, Hanyu had been caught up in this through no fault of his own.

But the Bai Family clan elders, who didn't know the details, understood it quite differently. In their minds, they pictured a man wreathed in killing intent, killing a Qin Family elder for Bai Junya and challenging the entire Qin Family.

The clan elders' eyes on Bai Junya changed at once...

"Bullshit! If I hadn't cleared this place, that brat would've burned us alive!"

The Peeping God Realm elder who had unleashed the hurricane flew into a rage at those words.

The two were about to start shouting at each other when Second Elder Qin suddenly snapped, "What do you two think you're doing? Look where you are! Do you really have to argue here?"

Second Elder Qin seemed to command considerable authority. With just one sentence, he immediately silenced the two Peeping God Realm experts.

Second Elder Qin looked around at the sea of fire, seething with resentment. That damned brat was hiding in the flames, using his innate divine ability to control fire without even showing his head.

What gave him an even bigger headache was the makeup of the Qin Family's Twelve Elders. He was a fire-attribute Peeping God Realm cultivator; the other two were a wind-attribute cultivator, whose wind came from the Wind God Art cultivated with a wood spirit root, and a lightning-attribute cultivator, whose lightning came from the Azure Thunder Art cultivated with a metal spirit root.

The other nine Half-step Divine Peeking elders also had only metal, wood, or fire among the five-element spirit roots, and each had cultivated a technique suited to their own affinity.

There wasn't a single water-attribute cultivator among them!

That had given Hanyu an opening. With the whole place ablaze, nobody could counter him. He was like a fish in water, finally granted a moment to catch his breath.

"They don't seem to have a water attribute. Wind, lightning, and fire will only make the fire zone more turbulent. Rest for a while, then look for a chance to slip away," Little Glazed advised. Hanyu's figure was concealed in the blaze as he moved cautiously nearby, keeping a close eye on everyone inside the perimeter.

But Hanyu said nothing. He stared fixedly at the other nine elders outside the Peeping God Realm cultivators, his thoughts racing.

Nearby, Second Elder Qin frowned in thought, then looked up at the fire zone. By now, the flames had climbed three or four zhang up the trees.

"Fly up first. We'll search from above."

He thought they might have an easier time spotting Hanyu by looking down from the sky. The other elders nodded.

All twelve figures rose into the air. They had barely lifted seven chi off the ground when twelve Fire Dragons suddenly shot skyward from different directions, flying toward them one by one.

"What are you doing?"

Little Glazed asked in astonishment inside his mind.

"I saw nine cultivators who were alone," Hanyu replied simply, leaping into the air.

The Qin Family had sent people to kill him twice. Even a clay figure had a temper, let alone him.

Caught off guard, the elders drew their swords. Second Elder Qin and the other two Peeping God Realm cultivators were especially careful not to feed the flames, so they countered with nothing but pure True Essence.

One Fire Dragon after another was cleaved apart. But when the last Half-step Divine Peeking elder swung his sword, the Fire Dragon didn't budge at all. In a panic, he quickly struck again.

At that moment, the Fire Dragon's head suddenly exploded. A figure burst out of the flames and slammed into him, sending him plummeting.

The two crashed to the ground one after the other. Hanyu scrambled up first, charged forward, and slammed the elder hard into the sea of fire.

"Eighth Elder!"

Someone shouted.

The fire zone below rang with the sounds of fighting, shifting from place to place. Though it sounded like a fight, Hanyu was simply beating the other man on his own.

The flames surrounded them. The Qin Family's Eighth Elder's clothes were burning all over, while Hanyu relied on a layer of flames from his own divine ability to shield himself. With the outside fire kept at bay, he unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks.

He punched the Qin Family's Eighth Elder flying, then dashed in with a flying elbow and followed with a heavy kick. By then, the man in his hands was charred black, with every joint twisted out of shape.

Another Fire Dragon shot skyward, charging toward the elders.

"You little scoundrel! You dare come back!"

Several elders joined forces and sent out a massive blade of True Essence, instantly destroying the Fire Dragon.

When the flames scattered, two halves of a body were revealed.

"It's the Eighth Elder!"

Hanyu had thrown the barely living Qin Family Eighth Elder out of the sea of fire, then sent him skyward with the Fire Dragon.

The men who had killed their own clan brother with their own hands stared in rage, nearly driven mad.

"I'll make sure he dies!"

After doing all this, Hanyu once more disappeared into the depths of the fire zone.

Little Glazed chattered incessantly in his mind. "You're really getting carried away. Weren't you afraid the Peeping God Realm cultivators would spot you the moment you jumped up?"

Hanyu shook his head and only asked, "How much has my Sea of Consciousness recovered?"

"Half. This is a natural fireground, so you don't need to use your Origin to create fire. It won't consume much of your power. You only need to connect with your Origin and guide these flames."

"You're going to do it again?"

The little Artifact Spirit asked in disbelief.

"Eight times!"

Hanyu blinked and sneered.

Even if he had to flee, he would first crush the remaining eight "soft persimmons."

The little Artifact Spirit fell silent. Fine! Half-step Divine Peekings had become soft persimmons now!

And it had to admit, Hanyu was cleverer than it had imagined.

It had only told him to start a fire here, planning to use the fire zone as cover for his escape. But he'd drawn one conclusion after another and instead planned to use the flames to kill a few of them.

Hanyu crouched low, found a good position, and once again waved his hand to summon eleven Fire Dragons.

"You're trying the same trick again?"

Second Elder Qin's old face was dark with killing intent. He waved his hand, pulling everyone's Flying Swords toward him. After spending True Essence to form a sword array, he watched as the Fire Dragons entered its range and triggered a tremendous surge. The twelve Flying Swords whirled without pause, countless strands of Sword Qi crisscrossing through the air and quickly slaughtering the Fire Dragons.

"You think you can use the same trick twice!"

Second Elder Qin gritted his teeth, wishing he could eat Hanyu alive.

"Where's Fifth Brother?"

Someone suddenly cried out. Everyone turned around in alarm, but they really couldn't find the Qin Family's Fifth Brother anywhere.

"Who said I had to hide inside a Fire Dragon?"

Hanyu sneered as he punched the Qin Family's Fifth Elder from within the fire zone.

Just as everyone had focused their attention on the Fire Dragons, Hanyu had circled around behind them and leapt up. He grabbed the Fifth Elder by the foot and hurled him down into his territory.

It was that simple, done right out in the open!

Quite a few people couldn't help gathering True Essence, ready to blast the fire zone below.

"Fifth Brother is still down there. Do you mean to kill him along with Hanyu?"

Second Elder Qin snapped coldly.

Below, the Qin Family's Fifth Elder endured the searing pain all over his body and furiously stacked his True Essence again and again.

"Azure Wave Art!"

A vast, surging torrent blasted out, clearing the patch of fire beneath his feet for a brief moment. The people above watched Hanyu grit his teeth and charge straight into it, taking the full force of the attack with his own flesh and blood.

In an instant, blood sprayed. Fine cracks spread across his upper body as the tremendous True Essence tore at him relentlessly.

"Die!"

Hanyu bore the pain and slammed a punch into the man's chest as he reached him.

Pfft!

A mouthful of blood sprayed out. The Fifth Elder's face turned ashen, and Hanyu waved his hand, drawing the flames back over the ground before immediately vanishing.

"Fifth Brother!"

Someone saw the Qin Family's Fifth Brother struggling helplessly in the flames as they closed over him again and tried to rush down, but the person beside him stopped him at once.

"It's no use. Fifth Brother is beyond saving."

Before long, Hanyu deliberately tossed a charred corpse onto the patch of ground the Peeping God Realm elder had cleared.

The Qin Family's Fifth Brother had fallen!

Two of the Twelve Elders were dead!

"Everyone, use a combined attack to blast open this fire zone! Give it everything you've got!"

With two clan elders dead, the Qin Family had no time to worry about saving face. Its interests had already taken a heavy hit. Half-step Divine Peekings were the Qin Family's main fighting force!

They could already imagine Qin Tiannan's thunderous fury. Second Elder Qin hardened his resolve and refused to let Hanyu keep wearing them down.

The sword array formed by the twelve Flying Swords tightly shielded the group. The remaining seven elders poured their True Essence into the bodies of three elders.

A fierce, terrifying pressure appeared. Its sheer force alone pressed the flames below lower and lower.

The seven elders held on with all their might. Moments later, the True Essence, condensed until it was almost tangible, was unleashed. Like a tsunami, it poured down below in an unending torrent, crashing into the ground with a tremendous roar.

At that moment, it was like a natural disaster. The ground split apart, and a massive pit ten meters deep was blasted into the earth.

Forget the fire zone—even within a hundred meters, everything but the pit was crushed to powder...