Trapped Beast

Countless blade shadows appeared and rushed toward Bertin.

Li Yilin barked, "Thunder Dragon Step!"

Whoosh!

A flash of violet light, and a purple Phantom Body nearly identical to him appeared at his side. It took a step forward and vanished into thin air, like a breeze passing by—as if its appearance had been nothing but an illusion.

Bertin, hidden deep within the flames, narrowed his eyes and retreated dozens of miles without hesitation. At the same time, flames swept over the spot where he had just been standing...

"Whoosh!" The Phantom Body, which had launched its attack right there, was swallowed by the Fire Tornado.

Far from feeling pleased, Bertin was utterly shocked.

"His Time Law..." Seeing the Phantom Body dissipate, Bertin roared in disbelief and fury. "How is that possible?"

Just moments ago, he had only grasped the barest hint of it, so superficially that even using it had been difficult.

Yet with that last move, he had already reached the entry level of the law!

He wasn't merely someone who had just crossed the threshold. He wielded it with the ease of someone who had practiced for hundreds, even thousands of years.

And he had managed to create a Phantom Body under the oppressive weight of the World Force. Something was wrong.

"What gives you the right?" Bertin hovered in the air, his face contorted.

He wasn't ashamed or humiliated that, as a World Lord, he still couldn't defeat a Domain Lord. What he felt most was jealousy at Li Yilin's rate of progress.

If—if only he had possessed talent like this back then, how could he still be a mere World Lord?

He raised a hand and touched the Flame Mark between his brows, the proof that his Fire Law had been recognized.

He had been his teacher's first disciple, and the oldest of all his disciples. Before his teacher took on any direct disciples, he had been the senior disciple.

But after his teacher began taking direct disciples, he was still only a registered disciple. He had to address the direct disciples as senior brothers instead... As their numbers grew, this so-called senior brother of theirs began to be forgotten. No one called him senior brother anymore.

Not until his Fire Law was recognized!

At last, he had once again caught his teacher's attention and earned his genuine approval. He had even risen from registered disciple to direct disciple.

But he wasn't happy at all.

Because he was his teacher's eighth direct disciple.

He was the oldest, yet ranked last!

Every time someone who had once called him senior brother addressed him as Junior Brother Eight, it felt like they were mocking his incompetence.

It was as if all his talent had been spent the moment his law was recognized.

He hated geniuses. They only threw his own incompetence and failure into sharper relief!

It wasn't fair!

Why?

They were all human, weren't they?

The more he thought about it, the more twisted his expression became. His blood-red eyes looked as if they were seeping blood—or as if he had been possessed.

"There's no mystery. You're just stupid!" Li Yilin hovered in the air, facing the distant Flame Phantom. Thunder and lightning raged around him. Though he couldn't spread out a domain, that didn't hinder his movements.

"Your world is weak, too!" Li Yilin raised a hand and urged the Thunder Dragon Bloodline within him.

A low dragon's roar came from inside him. Almost instantly, cracks appeared in the world that had covered the entire Void Domain, exposing its flaws. Through them, he could even see the starry sky beyond.

"Weak?" As if he had heard something amusing, Bertin burst out laughing. "A Domain Lord mocking a World Lord."

"Kid, you're too arrogant!"

"Arrogant?" Li Yilin narrowed his eyes.

"If geniuses aren't arrogant, then who is?

"You?" He tilted his head, as if asking a question.

Bertin fell silent, but the agitated flames around him showed that he was nowhere near as calm as he seemed.

"I get it now!" Li Yilin exclaimed.

"You're no genius, so you're jealous of them!"

"That's why you came to assassinate me?" Li Yilin sounded as if he were asking, but his eyes were full of certainty. The faint smile on his face seemed to mock Bertin's incompetence.

Unfortunately, Bertin had no interest in talking to him anymore. More than anything, he wanted to kill the man who dared to look down on him, burn his body to ashes, and scatter it as cosmic dust.

"Die!"

He roared in fury. The Fire Tornadoes around him collided and devoured one another until only three enormous ones remained. They reached from sky to ground like colossal fire dragons, their blazing flames twisting and distorting the void.

Though he had not comprehended the Higher Law, he still had a clear advantage when he brought his sheer power and his world to bear at the same time.

"Boom!"

The Fire Tornadoes swallowed more and more flames as they advanced. When they reached Li Yilin from the front and behind, they were like three mountains, blocking off every avenue of escape.

"Die!" Bertin roared like a madman.

Li Yilin's Thunder and Lightning Phantom Body, despite possessing a full hundred percent of his strength, quickly dissipated like a bubble in the face of their overwhelming power.

Fortunately, Thunder Dragon Step was a close-combat secret technique that excelled at speed. And now that his Time Law had advanced, he could infuse time into his body to move even faster.

The Fire Tornadoes were massive, but their strength was spread across their bulk. They were also slower than him. As long as Li Yilin repeatedly used Thunder Dragon Step to dodge their direct attacks, he could just barely keep the battle in check.

He couldn't avoid getting hurt, but if there was one thing Li Yilin had plenty of, it was treasures.

His strength was low, so using treasures was a bit wasteful. But with death staring him in the face, it was worth it.

"Whoosh!" A blade shadow flashed past, and Li Yilin was sent flying again. This time, he suddenly flung out several bombs. They exploded the instant the Fire Tornado swallowed them.

"Boom!"

The blast unleashed a fierce shockwave that slowed the Fire Tornado's rotation for an instant. It quickly recovered, but Li Yilin had noticed.

He narrowed his eyes, and an idea came to him.

That was it. The Fire Tornado's strength came from its speed. If it couldn't keep up, then no matter how powerful it was, it couldn't threaten him.

Damn it, the world's oppressive force was still too much.

Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Li Yilin looked at Bertin, raging in midair, and steeled himself.

He couldn't drag this out any longer!

At that, he unhesitatingly pulled out every bomb he had and hurled them at the Fire Tornadoes as they approached once more, detonating them.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"...

Explosions dozens, even hundreds of times more violent than before erupted, unleashing a massive tide of energy. Li Yilin was so close to the blasts that he barely had time to raise a shield in front of himself before the force sent him flying, spewing blood.

His right hand, the one holding the shield, was blown apart and vanished. His chest caved in... With barely half his body left, he crashed heavily to the ground.

Another devastating blow.

"Ugh!"

Li Yilin lay on the ground in a wretched heap, one leg bent at a grotesque angle. A pale, broken rib even jutted from the hollow in his chest...

He really shouldn't have gotten so carried away. Now he was paying for it!

"Ah... ngh..."

Fuck!

Li Yilin stared upward, teeth clenched as pain wracked his body. The veins stood out on his face, and great beads of sweat formed, only to evaporate in the scorching air.

With a trembling hand, he pulled the broken rib from his chest. Then, enduring the agony, he straightened his broken leg, took treasures from his ring, and shoved them into his mouth without even looking.

The abundant energy repaired his body, only for it to break down again in the blink of an eye, then repair itself once more. Blood poured from his wounds as if it cost nothing. Even in the scorching heat, it formed a pool beneath him, while the air filled with a thick, nauseating stench of blood.

After the explosions, one Fire Tornado vanished, and the other two were much smaller than before.

"Kid, you actually found the weakness." Bertin had appeared in front of the Flame Phantom at some point. He looked down at the battered Li Yilin with a sneer, certain that there was no way he could survive now.

Even so, he remembered the brief sense of danger he had felt when he pulled Li Yilin into his world and chose not to approach.

Countless Fire Arrows appeared, and Bertin's voice grew louder. "But you forgot: this is my world!

"The gap between a Domain Lord and a World Lord won't disappear just because you're a genius.

"Just accept your death!" Bertin raised his hand, and the Flame Phantom raised its hand with him, lightly pointing its index finger at the void.

Mystical Flame Marks spread out, forming a massive Fire Net in the air in the blink of an eye.

The two remaining Fire Tornadoes and three newly formed ones connected to the Fire Net the moment it appeared. Like five pillars reaching to the heavens, they continuously poured in World Force to sustain it.

From a distance, it looked like a Flame Cage enclosing nearly a hundred miles of space. And at its center, Li Yilin lay battered on the ground, a beast trapped in a cage!

"Go!"