"Boom!!!"
A torrent of destructive energy surged forth like a roaring primordial beast.
It carried the full force of six top-tier Dou Emperors, four of whom were Peak Dou Emperors.
It crashed down upon the four Snake-People elders, who had briefly lost their strength after joining forces to fling Yun Yun away!
"Boom!!!"
Queen Medusa's anguished scream was swallowed by the deafening explosion!
Blinding light devoured everything, and a terrifying shock wave swept outward like a tangible ring-shaped tsunami.
It spread wildly, reducing many buildings on the edge of the Holy City to dust!
Even the distant Dou Wangs watching the battle were knocked head over heels by the blast.
Their faces drained of color!
The light slowly faded, revealing the scene within.
The space around the area where the four Snake-People elders stood was faintly distorted.
The defensive formation they had set up together was already shattered.
All four elders were wounded, their clothes torn and blood spilling from the corners of their mouths.
Their auras had weakened considerably; they had clearly suffered serious internal injuries.
The Snake-Head Scepters in their hands had dimmed. They could barely keep themselves from collapsing.
Yet their eyes were filled with grief and despair.
They had taken a combined attack from six top-tier Dou Emperors head-on. Even as high-ranking Dou Emperors,
they had nearly lost half their lives! Their formation was broken, and they no longer had any strength to fight back!
On the other side, Queen Medusa had been too late to come to their aid.
She, too, had been struck hard by the spreading shock wave.
Her still-unhealed injuries worsened in an instant, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.
Her delicate body shuddered, her purple serpent tail swinging weakly.
She plunged straight down from the sky and slammed into the roof of a temple below.
She smashed countless tiles, struggled a few times, and still couldn't get back up.
Her aura had weakened to the point of near extinction.
The Snake-People Tribe's five strongest fighters had all been gravely wounded and defeated in the blink of an eye!
"Hahaha! You old fools, you brought this on yourselves!"
Mo Fa let out a triumphant, vicious laugh.
He looked at the defeated Snake-People below, his eyes brimming with cruelty and delight.
Copper Flame Dou Emperor and the other human Dou Emperors—except for Hai Bodong, who was holding back—
also wore victorious smiles, their greed burning ever brighter.
The obstacles were gone. The two peerless Heavenly Flames were within reach!
The ten figures were like ten falling stars, surging forward with unstoppable momentum.
They were about to charge toward the two Heavenly Flames still dancing gracefully above the Holy City!
But at that very moment of triumph,
just as every human powerhouse's attention was completely fixed on the Heavenly Flames—
"Whoosh!"
A piercing sound, sharp enough to seem capable of tearing the soul apart, rang out without warning!
A crimson streak of light shot forth at a speed beyond the limits of thought!
Most of the Dou Emperors present saw no more than a flash of red in the corner of their eyes!
In the next instant, the streak of light had appeared like a phantom,
right in the center, between all the human Dou Emperors and the two Heavenly Flames!
As the light faded, it revealed a lean yet upright figure.
He wore black, his face exceedingly youthful, and his black hair stirred gently in the wind.
A pair of dark-red Blood Crystal Dou Qi Wings beat slowly behind him, their edges making the space tremble.
They radiated an overbearing, murderous aura that made one's heart quail.
It was Lin Chen!
He hovered there quietly, as if he had existed in that spot since time immemorial.
His deep eyes swept calmly over the ten Dou Emperors before him, whose auras towered skyward.
As if they were nothing but... barnyard fowl and dogs.
"You shall not pass."
His voice was not loud, yet every Dou Emperor heard it clearly.
It carried a cold, unshakable calm.
"These two Heavenly Flames are mine."
"..."
Silence.
A brief, utter silence.
Every human Dou Emperor surging forward froze in midair.
The greed, delight, cruelty... every expression on their faces instantly froze.
In their place came utter astonishment and bewilderment,
along with... disbelief, as if they had just heard the most absurd joke in the world!
A... Dou Wang?
A kid who looked like he hadn't even grown hair in all the right places?
He had blocked the path of ten Dou Emperors?
And he said... the Heavenly Flames were his?
"Ha... hahaha!"
Mo Fa of the Black Skull Tomb was the first to react.
As if he'd just heard the funniest joke in the world, he let out a shrill, grating laugh.
"Boy, have you been scared out of your mind? Do you even know what you're saying?"
"You're just a Dou Wang, and you dare run your mouth here? Get lost!"
"Or I'll crush you with a single finger!"
Copper Flame Dou Emperor sneered and shook his head, looking at Lin Chen as if he were a buffoon.
"Fool who doesn't know when to quit. Where did you crawl out from? Get lost!"
"Before you make this old man get his hands dirty!"
The other Dou Emperors, including Gu He and the mysterious Dou Emperor, frowned as well.
Gu He stood a little farther back than the other Dou Emperors, his expression tinged with awkwardness and hesitation.
He was only a Dou Wang and had little say among this group of Dou Emperors to begin with.
Watching Lin Chen now, he could only think that the boy had gone completely mad.
Only Hai Bodong's face turned deathly pale.
Cold sweat poured down his face!
Little ancestor! My dear Lord Lin Chen! What are you doing?!
Hai Bodong screamed inwardly, nearly scared out of his wits!
He knew Lin Chen was powerful—monstrously powerful!
But the other side had a whole group of Dou Emperors! And four of them were unfathomable Peak Dou Emperors!
How could he fight them?!
Wasn't this just asking for death?!
He gritted his teeth and steeled himself, braving the bewildered gazes of everyone around him.
He abruptly spread his ice wings and flew over to Lin Chen.
Forcing a smile more painful than tears, he cupped his hands toward Mo Fa and the others.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen! It's a misunderstanding! This is all a misunderstanding!"
"This young friend is my... nephew. He's young and hotheaded, and doesn't know what he's saying."
"Please be magnanimous and don't take offense!"
"We'll leave right now! Right now!"
As he spoke, he reached out to pull Lin Chen, eager to get away from this place of trouble.
He would rather give up the Heavenly Flames than watch Lin Chen die here—and get himself dragged down with him.
But Lin Chen stood as immovable as a rock.
He didn't even glance at Hai Bodong.
His indifference finally enraged one of the human Dou Emperors.
The man was a Four-Star Dou Emperor from Flame Valley, following behind Copper Flame Dou Emperor.
He had a violent temper and had long been itching to act.
Seeing a Dou Wang brat behave so arrogantly—and even ignore the Ice Emperor's warning—
his anger immediately blazed!
"You little bastard! You refuse to appreciate a kindness! I'll send you to the afterlife!"
He roared.
He didn't even use a Dou Technique, merely slapping out casually!
Scarlet Dou Qi gathered into a huge flaming palm.
Bearing heat that could incinerate everything, it came down on Lin Chen like a hand swatting a fly.
In his eyes, this single strike was more than enough to turn any Dou Wang to ash!
"Don't!"
Hai Bodong was horrified and rushed forward to stop him!
The other Dou Emperors, including Mo Fa and Copper Flame Dou Emperor, watched coldly from the sidelines.
Some even looked amused, as if they could already see Lin Chen being burned to ash in the next moment.
Gu He clenched his fists instinctively!
Yet he didn't even have the right to speak up. Though he was also a Dou Wang, Lin Chen had dared to stand in front of them all.
But as the flaming palm came down, powerful enough to easily kill an ordinary Dou Wang,
Lin Chen's gaze didn't waver in the slightest.
At the instant the massive flaming palm was about to strike him—
"Vmmm!!!"
"Clang!!!"
Two sword cries, as if from the depths of Nine Nether, suddenly ripped through the sky!
Two ancient sword phantoms, one red and one gray, condensed to the utmost. They radiated a terrifying aura that slaughtered all living things and extinguished all creation.
Yuantu and Abi, like primordial beasts awakening from slumber,
suddenly appeared before Lin Chen!
The instant the twin swords appeared, their indescribable, supreme killing intent and deathly will
made the souls of every Dou Emperor tremble for no reason!
But that wasn't all!
"Merge!"
Lin Chen issued a cold command in his heart.
Yuantu and Abi rang out with an excited hum, then instantly converged and fused!
They became a three-foot-long sword of eerie light. One half of its blade was blood-red,
with countless vengeful spirits rising and sinking within!
The other half was ash-gray,
devouring all life!
"Red Lotus! Burn!"
Lin Chen's thoughts shifted again!
"Whoosh!"
The pure, scorching Red Lotus Karma Fire, imbued with the supreme will to burn away sin,
rose from his chest and instantly coiled around the fused, eerie sword of light!
Scarlet flames blazed across the sword's blood-soaked, deathly blade!
At the tip, a dazzling point of brilliant white light gathered, imbued with the power of slaughter, annihilation, and purification.
It shone like a miniature sun!
At the same time, Lin Chen pressed his fingers together like a sword.
The peerless secrets of the Void-Splitting Sword Art flashed through his mind!
The power of the High-grade Earth-tier Dou Technique surged to perfection, merging into this single strike!
Every movement was completed in a fraction of a hundredth of an instant!
Then Lin Chen faced the flaming palm crashing down toward him,
and the Four-Star Dou Emperor behind it, whose expression had just shifted from ferocious to astonished.
Simply:
A sword swept out in a horizontal slash!
There was no earth-shaking spectacle, only a faint shing—as though space itself had been smoothly sliced open!
A fine, twisted sword line woven from red, white, and gray.
It peeled away from the sword's tip and soundlessly skimmed through space!
That seemingly ferocious giant palm of flame touched the fine sword line.
Like it had met its natural enemy, it soundlessly split apart, was annihilated, and vanished!
As if it had never existed!
The sword line did not slow in the slightest. It even seemed to ignore the distance through space.
Before that Four-Star Dou Emperor could react at all—
Before his pupils had even begun to contract—
It swept past his neck!
Time seemed to stand still in that moment.
The astonishment on the Four-Star Dou Emperor's face froze completely.
He felt a faint chill at his neck, as though something had brushed lightly against it.
Then he saw the terrified expressions of the Snake-People on the streets below.
He saw the smiles of his companions in the distance suddenly freeze, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks.
He even saw... a headless body dressed in Flame Valley clothes.
Slowly falling from the sky...
Whose... body was that?
That was the final thought in his mind.
The next moment, his consciousness sank into eternal darkness.
"Thud..."
The headless corpse fell toward the temple below, landing with a muffled sound.
The head, its expression still frozen in astonishment and confusion,
hung in the air for a moment before following it down.
A Four-Star Dou Emperor had fallen!
Slain in a single sword strike by a One-Star Dou Wang!
Silence!
A deathly silence enveloped the skies above the entire Snake-People Holy City!
The wind stopped, and the clouds hung motionless.
Even the two restless Heavenly Flames seemed to fall quiet for an instant!
Every human Dou Emperor who had worn a mocking, amused, cold, or greedy expression just moments earlier
had their facial muscles lock up completely, their pupils trembling violently.
As if the whole group had been petrified, they stared fixedly at the falling headless corpse.
Then they whipped around to look at the black-clad youth, who was calmly lowering his fused sword projection, his expression as placid as if he had merely swatted a mosquito!
The vicious grin on Mo Fa's face froze completely, like a clumsily made mask.
His mouth hung open unconsciously, wide enough to fit an egg.
His cold eyes widened until they were round, filled with utter shock and disbelief!
He... he killed a Dou Emperor in one hit?! How is that possible?! What kind of sword was that?!
What kind of flame was that?! What kind of monster is this kid?!
The Copper Flame Dou Emperor's mocking grin had vanished without a trace.
In its place was the horrified look of someone who had seen a ghost!
His bronze-colored skin seemed to pale a few shades, and his hand trembled uncontrollably.
Two fused swords... empowered by Heavenly Flames... a high-tier Earth-Class sword technique... a Dou Wang... killing a Four-Star Dou Emperor in one hit?!
How... how could anything so unreasonable exist in this world?!
Gu He's mind went blank, and the medicinal cauldron in his hands nearly slipped to the ground.
As an alchemist, his soul power was strong.
He could feel even more keenly the terrifying force of law contained in that sword strike—a power that had made his very soul tremble!
But he was still only a Dou Wang. Faced with a Dou Emperor's death,
he could hardly breathe. All he could do was stare in a daze, overwhelmed by shock and helplessness.
That wasn't simple overwhelming force... That was... absolute transcendence in rank!
What kind of power did he use?!
The mysterious Dou Emperor who had been sitting out the fight twitched violently beneath his hood.
He instinctively took half a step back, his eyes full of wariness and lingering fear.
Thank goodness... thank goodness I wasn't the one who attacked just now...
Hai Bodong, standing beside Lin Chen, was even more stunned, as if struck by heavenly thunder.
He had turned completely to stone!
His mouth hung open, and his eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
His expression was impossibly complicated:
Shock, fear, confusion.
But most of all, a sense of absurdity beyond comprehension!
Just now... he'd actually wanted to drag this lord into a retreat?!
A Four-Star Dou Emperor killed with one sword strike?!
Was this damn thing a Dou Wang?! A Dou Wang slaughtering a Dou Emperor like a dog?!
He felt the worldview he'd held for decades shattered and remade in that instant!
A monster... a true monster...
Below, the four gravely wounded Snake-People elders struggled to raise their heads.
Watching the unbelievable scene in the sky, their cloudy old eyes were filled with the same shock and confusion.
They couldn't understand why a human youth possessed such terrifying power.
Queen Medusa, who had crashed into the ruins of the temple, also struggled to lift her pale face.
Her purple snake eyes turned toward the black figure in the sky, filled with utter astonishment and complicated emotions.
This youth... she hadn't even paid him much attention before...
Farther away, the Dou Wangs who had been watching had all lost their voices.
Like ducks seized by the throat, they stood rigid and pale.
Not one dared even breathe too loudly...
A Dou Wang killing a Dou Emperor in one hit? It was the stuff of myths!
They looked at Lin Chen as if gazing up at a god, their eyes filled with awe and fear!
The whole world seemed to contain nothing but that black-clad figure
and the Dou Emperor's corpse at his feet, growing cold.
Lin Chen slowly raised his head and looked once more at the nine human Dou Emperors remaining before him, who were like startled birds.
His voice was still calm, but it carried a chill that made everyone's soul turn cold:
"Now, does anyone still think I'm joking?"
Before you continue