The gazes of everyone from Jia Nan Academy clung to Qin Han's staggering back.
Earth-Yellow Dou Qi surged and gathered within Hu Gan's sleeve, forming a solid palm print the size of a hand, ready to be thrown at any moment.
"Mr. Yao Yan, Qin Han is going to break the formation. He will definitely be discovered by Yun Qianhang. Please lend a hand and join me in stopping Yun Qianhang for an instant, to buy Qin Han some time."
Hu Gan's lips moved, his voice reaching Xiao Yan's ears.
"Vice... cough, cough, sir, you are too courteous. I am in a difficult situation myself, so of course I will do everything I can to help."
After saying that, a black ruler shadow extended halfway out from beneath his loose black robe.
The killing moves of the two were ready.
"Teacher, can he succeed?"
Xiao Yan silently asked in his heart.
Old yao's voice was unusually tense. "That kid's affinity and control over flames are incredibly strange. That wisp of Starflame Origin cannot be fake. This is the only variable.
"But approaching the Formation Eye is only the beginning.
"Yun Qianhang is not dead. Once Qin Han makes a move, he will definitely notice.
"Little fellow, get ready. We need to stop him."
Qin Han's steps looked heavy and unsteady. The closer he got to the furnace, the higher the temperature became.
The sweat on his forehead had barely seeped from his skin before the heat steamed it into salty residue, which clung tightly to his flesh before being soaked through by fresh sweat.
Suddenly, a wandering crimson figure less than thirty feet to his left stopped.
Its "eyes," formed from two clusters of flickering flames, slowly turned toward Qin Han.
We've been targeted?!
Qin Han's heart leaped into his throat.
He couldn't run, couldn't show weakness, and couldn't even make any large defensive movements.
In a flash, he gritted his teeth and silently withdrew the Fallen Heart Flame protecting his body.
Almost simultaneously, the dark-red fire poison that permeated the surroundings immediately surged through the gap in that defense!
"Hmph—!"
A muffled groan squeezed out of Qin Han's throat.
Overbearing, scorching hot!
That was Qin Han's first impression of the fire poison.
The strangely corrosive energy, like molten iron mixed with shards of broken glass, violently poured into the meridians of his left arm.
The true agony of being corroded by fire poison made Qin Han's body tense up sharply. The color drained from his face in an instant, and he staggered, nearly falling to the ground.
"This kid... did he have to make it look so real?"
The people behind him could not help whispering.
The flames in the eyes of the Dou Wang Fire Spirit Body flickered a few times before it looked away.
Qin Han lay on the scorching hot rock, gasping for breath. Every breath pulled painfully at his lungs.
However, using this chance to catch his breath, he had closed the distance to the furnace to less than two hundred feet.
Looking from this distance, the Myriad Fire Furnace was no longer merely a massive object. It was more like a living mountain of dark-red flesh.
The complex runes on the furnace body pulsed faintly like blood vessels as energy flowed into them.
Around the furnace, the changes in the Fire Spirit Bodies that had first received the energy infusion were already visible to the naked eye.
Where the flames receded, skulls, eye sockets, necks... blurry yet genuine human faces emerged one after another.
Yun Qianhang greedily swept his gaze over the disciples below who were undergoing transformation, the corners of his mouth unable to stop curling upward.
"Almost... almost..."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a powerful energy fluctuation rapidly gathered somewhere in the plaza shrouded in Starflame.
When Yun Qianhang swept his sleeve and scattered the Starflame blocking his vision, an emerald-green fire needle no thicker than a strand of hair was shooting out from Qin Han's hand!
That destructive energy made even him feel a trace of alarm!
"F-Fallen Heart Flame?!"
Sensing that familiar aura, Yun Qianhang froze as if struck by lightning. The pupil of his normal eye abruptly shrank to the size of a needlepoint.
But Qin Han would not hesitate at all.
"Move—!!!"
Before the fire needle was even launched, his furious roar had already reached the rear.
Sharp light shot from Hu Gan's eyes. Ignoring the fire poison's corrosion, a Dou Technique condensed from powerful Dou Qi swept towards Yun Qianhang's head.
"Town Mountain Seal!"
From the side rear, the instant Xiao Yan sensed Qin Han summon the Green Lotus Core Flame and fuse the two flames, his mind had indeed gone blank for a brief moment amid a deafening roar.
But Qin Han's shout and Hu Gan's utterly decisive eruption were like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, pulling him back to reality.
At the brink of life and death, there was no room for even the slightest hesitation!
"Flame Wave Splitting Ruler!"
"Stop it!!!"
Yun Qianhang finally snapped out of his shock. His furious voice carried a clear trace of panic.
His left arm, formed from lava and flame, violently swung downward. Yet he did not personally intercept the fire needle. That would take time, and the needle was too fast!
The Two-Star Dou Huang Fire Spirit Body closest to the Formation Eye let out an inhuman roar. With a flash of red light, it threw itself between the fire needle and the Formation Eye's node!
Sizzle—!
The instant it came into contact with the fire needle, the lava armor on its chest silently melted away, leaving an extremely tiny hole.
The fire needle passed straight through without the slightest resistance. It did not even cause much of an energy disturbance as it viciously nailed itself into the Formation Eye!
The color instantly drained from Yun Qianhang's face as he witnessed it all.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
The instant the needle tip touched the runes, it was as though every sound had been sucked away.
Then—
Clang!!!!!!!
A terrifying hum abruptly exploded from the Formation Eye!
Centered on the Formation Eye, the body of the Myriad Fire Furnace suddenly caved inward, erupting with a ring of destructive energy mixed with blood-red, dark-red, pale green, and chaotic blue-black hues.
Crack! Crack-crack—!
The Starflame Silk Threads shattered inch by inch, turning into green specks of light that drifted through the sky. The green barrier covering the plaza vanished completely with a crash like a shattered eggshell.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Everyone in the plaza who had an energy connection to the great formation shuddered violently, spat blood, and flew backward.
The great formation had been broken!
"The formation is broken!!!"
No one knew who was the first to cry out hoarsely.
"Go! Run!!!"
Mo Tianquan, Silver Elder, Fan Lao, and the others were the first to react. They swept their sleeves, turned, and fled, vanishing over the horizon in the blink of an eye.
With the leaders of the Three Great Powers taking the lead in fleeing, everyone else was terrified out of their wits, crying and screaming as they rushed out after them.
Yet amid the chaotic clamor, a roar filled with utter venom drowned out everything else.
"You little—bastard—!!! You destroyed this sect's hopes!!"
"Die for this sect!!!"
With the great formation broken, Yun Qianhang, who had relied on the formation's energy to maintain his peak state, visibly lost a large portion of his aura. He fell from the peak of the Three-Star Dou Zong realm to around the Two-Star level.
Flames surged wildly across his half-solidified body, showing that he had also suffered a backlash.
But at this moment, his rage eclipsed everything else.
His figure dragged a crimson afterimage through the air as a palm carrying sky-covering killing intent shot straight for Qin Han's crown of the head!
And Qin Han was at his weakest right now.
The fire needle he had just condensed to destroy the Formation Eye had nearly drained him dry.
The Myriad Flames Compendium had given Qin Han the ability to fuse Heavenly Flames with ease, but controlling the fused flames still depended on Qin Han himself.
After all, he did not possess the Fen Jue. He could not circulate the flames through specific meridians and knead them into the shape of a fire lotus.
Thus, when Qin Han fused flames before, he would often merely combine them crudely into a fireball, throw it out, and be done with it.
But this time, he did not know how strong the Formation Eye's defenses were. He could only compress the fireball's energy as much as possible, concentrating all its power at one point to break the deadlock in a single strike.
A fist-sized Two-Colored Exotic Flame Fireball had been forcibly compressed by him with Dou Qi and Soul Power into a single fire needle.
But Qin Han had also completely exhausted himself. The violent fluctuations produced by the collision of the Heavenly Flames shook him until he could not stop coughing up blood.
Moreover, even in his prime, he had almost no ability to fight back against Yun Qianhang.
Before you continue