"Let's get started. I still need to go back to sleep when we're done."
Infernal Delicate Apricot was clearly impatient and didn't waste a word.
A brilliant red light surged over her body. In the distance, the Blazing Yang Spring seemed to answer her call as several scorching pillars of fire shot into the sky and circled her like loyal guards, radiating terrifying heat.
Those pillars of fire were already at the level of Ultimate Fire, and a trace of the ancient, ferocious aura of the Fire Dragon King faintly emanated from them.
A-Jiao had grown here for ten thousand years and knew the Blazing Yang Spring like the back of her hand. She had an enormous home-field advantage. Even Yan Shaozhe or Xian Lin'er, Super Douluo with fire attributes, might not get the better of her if they came in person.
"Please enlighten me, Senior." Lin Feng said no more. His three-colored Fire Wings unfurled behind him, and the scorching airflow lifted him steadily into the air, where he hovered above the Blazing Yang Spring.
"Three kinds of Divine Bird True Fire? You've got some skill." A-Jiao's voice held a trace of surprise. She clearly hadn't expected Lin Feng to resist the spring's baleful aura so easily. She immediately warned him, "Let's make one thing clear first. Anything goes, but don't you dare damage a single blade of grass or tree in this valley! Otherwise, you'll have me to answer to!"
"Understood. Then please be careful, Senior." Lin Feng's eyes narrowed as the Burning Technique inside him surged into motion. He didn't attack A-Jiao directly, instead aiming for the scorching pillars of fire surrounding her.
He raised both hands and drew them apart. A strange force of suction burst from his palms.
The pillars of fire from the Yang Spring shuddered violently. Their flames were forcibly torn away and drawn toward him!
In an instant, stripped of their flames, the pillars' temperature plummeted. Their red glow faded rapidly as they cooled and solidified, turning into several pitch-black, rock-hard columns wreathed in wisps of lingering heat. Then they fell into the Yang Spring!
Under Lin Feng's control, the flames he had drawn out wheeled around like crimson-gold fire dragons and swept toward the Infernal Delicate Apricot at the center.
The balance of offense and defense shifted in an instant!
"Want to see who can command fire better? Bring it on!"
Seeing that Lin Feng could also wield the fire of the Yang Spring, Infernal Delicate Apricot's competitive spirit flared.
Red light flowed over her body as she drew up even more scorching spring water. It quickly gathered and took shape in midair, transforming into a tall, agile "Fire Maiden"!
A long, scarlet braid hung down to the Fire Maiden's ankles. She wielded a pair of blades and was made entirely of Yang Spring water, radiating waves of searing heat.
Infernal Delicate Apricot poured a wisp of her essence into the Fire Maiden. In an instant, the light around her shifted from scarlet to gold, and her aura surged.
The Fire Maiden raised her blades. Touching down on the scorching surface of the spring with the tips of her toes, she shot toward Lin Feng in a streak of golden-red light. Both blades lifted high before she brought them crashing down with the might to burn everything to ashes!
An ordinary Soul King struck by an attack like that would be reduced to ashes in an instant.
Lin Feng's expression didn't change. If anything, a crooked smile tugged at his lips.
"Whoosh—!"
Under Lin Feng's precise control, the surging spring water below rapidly gathered and took shape in the air. In the time it took to draw a breath, it became a tall, burly "Fire General," clad in heavy armor and wielding a long halberd!
The Fire General leveled his halberd and easily blocked the Fire Maiden's full-force strike.
Infernal Delicate Apricot: "...?!"
She was practically stunned. This kid could control the Yang Spring with such speed and skill?!
The battle that followed turned into a fierce clash between the Fire General and the Fire Maiden above the scorching Yang Spring.
The halberd and twin blades collided again and again, each clash erupting in a burst of golden-red flames and sending waves of scorching air in every direction. Both fighters had been shaped from the Yang Spring, and for a time they were evenly matched, neither able to overcome the other.
"We can't break through each other's moves, Senior." Lin Feng spread his hands, his voice carrying a hint of helpless amusement. "We're both using the Yang Spring's power. At this rate, we could fight until tomorrow and still not have a winner."
"Why are you in such a hurry? Again!" Infernal Delicate Apricot snapped, vexed.
The overwhelming advantage that came with her hundred-thousand-year cultivation had been forcibly leveled by this Soul King kid using the Yang Spring. It was beyond frustrating.
"Then, Senior... this time, you'd better be really careful!"
The smile vanished from Lin Feng's face, and his gaze sharpened.
The wisp of the purest, most domineering Fire Dragon King True Fire, which he had been refining and accumulating in secret, was finally ready!
A fire lotus only the size of a fist appeared soundlessly above his palm, its color a deep, golden red.
It was as solid as crystal and turned slowly in place. It made no earth-shaking spectacle, yet radiated an ancient, savage terror that made the soul tremble, as if it could incinerate the heavens!
In the heart of the lotus, the faint shape of a crimson dragon drifted and roared, as though carrying everyone present back to that primeval age when gods and demons fell and all creation mourned.
Infernal Delicate Apricot had survived for ten thousand years beside the Blazing Yang Spring, and her instinctive sense of danger from the Fire Dragon King True Fire was keen.
The moment the fire lotus took shape, she felt the incredibly pure power of the Fire Dragon King True Fire within it.
It wasn't merely powerful enough to gravely wound her. It might also stir the Fire Dragon King's remains deep within the scorching Yang Spring, shattering the balance the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well had maintained for countless years and bringing about a catastrophe beyond anyone's reckoning!
"Stop! I surrender!"
Infernal Delicate Apricot's clear voice suddenly rose, tinged with a barely perceptible quiver of fear. The fiery temper and discontent she'd shown earlier were gone.
Her ruby-like true form drew in slightly, and the Fire Maiden she controlled vanished at once, revealing a rare trace of caution and concession.
"This junior relied on a trick. Thank you for yielding."
Lin Feng dispersed the dangerous golden-red fire lotus in his palm and cupped his hands.
However, the Fire Dragon King True Fire did not return to the Blazing Yang Spring below as it normally would. Instead, it abruptly swept back and completely enveloped Lin Feng!
"Boom—!"
Golden flames burst into a blaze, swallowing him whole.
In the blinding light, his clothes turned to ash in an instant, revealing the perfect, solid contours of a body that seemed cast from gold. He looked like a statue of an ancient god, radiating supreme majesty and scorching heat.
"Could this... mean he's been acknowledged by the Fire Dragon King True Fire?!" Infernal Delicate Apricot's voice rose in shock, almost changing beyond recognition.
She had grown beside the Yang Spring for ten thousand years, yet had only ever dared to cautiously absorb the world's elemental energy within it. She had never dared to hope the Fire Dragon King True Fire would acknowledge her.
"This kid... he's got some nerve. The Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well is probably about to see a great upheaval." Aromatic Silk Beauty's voice held a rare solemnity.
The disturbance here and the mighty aura of the Dragon King soon roused other powerful Soul Beasts slumbering in the valley.
The Blazing Yang Spring beneath Lin Feng's feet suddenly boiled. Its crimson waters churned as though stirred by an invisible giant hand, throwing up towering waves of heat.
An indescribably ancient, savage aura seemed to cross the river of time and awaken with a thunderous roar from the deepest part of the spring. It spread through the valley.
Just being brushed by that aura made Lin Feng feel as though his Sea of Consciousness were about to shatter. His head throbbed, his vision went black in waves, and the various Heavenly Flames inside him—normally docile—grew restless. His meridians felt as though they were being seared by red-hot iron.
As expected, an Earth-Rank Burning Technique was still far from enough against an existence of this level.
To truly control or oppose this kind of divine source power, he would probably need a Heaven-Rank Burning Technique...
Before you continue