Purple-black mist billowed above the heartflame pool in the Xiao Clan's ancestral grounds. Xiao Feng sat cross-legged on a stone platform at its center, twenty-four Heavenly Flame fragments circling him like stars around the moon. As he circulated the Burning Heaven Technique, the Emperor Scale patterns resonated with the Heavenly Flames. The pool evaporated into nothing beneath the scorching heat, revealing an ancient formation left behind by Xiao Xuan at its bottom.
"Third Brother's flames have grown stronger again." Xiao Yan stood at the edge of the pool, the Fallen Heart Flame rising of its own accord in his palm and answering the Heavenly Flame fragments in the air. He noticed that the Xiao Clan crest on Xiao Feng's chest was transforming. Its flames gradually took the shape of a spreading phoenix—an omen that the Dou Di Bloodline was awakening.
Xiao Zhan stood at the entrance, holding the Xiao Zhan Blade. His sons' reflections gleamed on its surface. Ever since Hun Dan's mechanical army had withdrawn, the Xiao Clan had shifted its focus back to cultivating Dou Qi, and Xiao Feng's "Heavenly Flame fusion plan" had become the key to their revival. "The flames are about ready," he reminded them gravely. "Don't get greedy. Try fusing three Heavenly Flames first."
Xiao Feng nodded and flicked his fingers. The Fallen Heart Flame, Ancient Spirit Cold Flame, and Green Spirit Earth Core Flame flew into the formation first. The three Heavenly Flames collided violently within it, and the resulting energy storm sent cracks racing through the rock walls. Xiao Yan immediately stepped in. The Flame Emperor Fire turned into chains that steadied the formation's edges, while their Dou Qi formed a yin-yang fish pattern in the pool.
Ding! The host has fused three Heavenly Flames, triggering a bonus from the Devour System. You have obtained "Burning Heaven Three Profound Transformations: Extreme"!
As the system alert exploded in his mind, Xiao Feng felt scalding liquid seep from his pores—the sign that impurities were being completely refined. When he opened his eyes, his pupils had turned half purple and half black. Even the slightest movement of his hands and feet seemed to warp space.
"Peak Dou Zong?!" Xiao Zhan cried out. The blade trembled slightly in his hand from shock. Nearly a thousand years had passed since the Xiao Clan last produced a Dou Zong expert, and Xiao Feng was only ten—yet he had crossed five major realms.
"It's not enough." Xiao Feng stared at the remaining Heavenly Flame fragments. "Hun Dan's system can make him leap across realms in an instant. Ordinary cultivation is too slow. Father, I want to try... fusing the remnant soul of Ancestor Xiao Xuan's Emperor Flame."
Xiao Yan's head snapped up. "Third Brother, do you know how dangerous that is? Ancestor Xiao Xuan fell because he forced a fusion with the Emperor Flame!"
"But we have the Devour System's ability to consume." Xiao Feng took out the Dou Sheng Experience Card. "Each use grants me the soul power of a Dou Sheng for a short time—enough to suppress the backlash." He looked at Xiao Zhan, his gaze firm as iron. "This is the only way to make the Xiao Clan rise quickly."
Xiao Zhan was silent for a long time. At last, he stepped back to the edge of the formation. "I'll protect you. If anything goes wrong, stop immediately."
As Xiao Xuan's remnant Emperor Flame soul merged with the formation, the entire ancestral ground began to shake violently. Xiao Feng felt a burden weighing tens of thousands of pounds settle on his shoulders. The Emperor Scale cracked apart piece by piece, revealing new golden patterns beneath. Xiao Yan crushed a Breakthrough Pill between his teeth, forcibly raising his Dou Qi to Peak Dou Wang as he did everything he could to keep the formation stable.
"Hold on!" he shouted. "Your soul power is breaking through to the Heavenly Realm!"
Just then, a Soul Clan scouting soul bug breached the Xiao Clan's defenses and sent a live feed to Hun Dan's crystal ball. Hun Dan, who had been cultivating in seclusion, opened his eyes, apprehension flashing in them. "Xiao Xuan's Emperor Flame? That's impossible! He had already..."
"Your Reverence, the Xiao Clan's fusion of Heavenly Flames is about to succeed!" an elder of the Blood Soul Hall reported, kneeling. "Shall we activate the 'Blood Sacrifice Soul Array'?"
Hun Dan stared at Xiao Feng's image in the crystal ball, then suddenly smiled cruelly. "No need. Tell Hun Tiandi that the seal in the Xiao Clan's ancestral grounds is about to open—and let the Gu Clan and Thunder Clan come disrupt the fusion."
At the Gu Clan's sacred grounds, Gu Yuan gazed at the unusual fluctuations of Heavenly Flames in the sky. The Progenitor Ancient Jade at his fingertips glimmered faintly. "Xiao Xuan's aura... Could someone in the Xiao Clan really inherit the Emperor Flame?" He turned and summoned Gu Tianyi. "Saddle the horses. Come with me to the Star Fall Mountain Range."
At the Thunder God Hall of the Thunder Clan, Lei Yao toyed with the Soul Clan's jade slip, a disdainful smile tugging at his lips. "Hun Dan wants to use us to destroy the Xiao Clan? Fine. We might as well see what those two little brats are made of." Behind him, the Thunder Clan's disciples were already prepared to depart. Lightning leaped across the Thunder God Hammer, as if it would tear the heavens apart.
In the Xiao Clan's ancestral grounds, Xiao Feng's fusion entered its final stage. At last, the remnant Emperor Flame soul and the Heavenly Flame fragments coalesced into a single ball of chaotic-colored fire. The system alert nearly shattered his mind:
Ding! Successfully fused the remnant Emperor Flame soul. The host has obtained "Dou Di Bloodline: Initial Awakening"!
Warning! The spatial barrier has ruptured. Outside forces are closing in!
Xiao Yan was the first to sense the disturbance. He stared at the reflections in the pool, where a large group of powerful figures was drawing near, and gripped the Heavy Xuan Ruler. "Third Brother, the Gu Clan and Thunder Clan are here—and Hun Dan, too!"
Xiao Feng slowly rose to his feet, the Emperor Flame dancing in his palm and vaporizing the pool into nothing. He lifted his head toward the horizon, a cold smile on his lips. "Just in time. Let them see how scorching the Xiao Clan's fury can be."
Xiao Zhan tightened his grip on the Xiao Zhan Blade. He had secretly replaced the nanalloy in its edge with Fire Pattern Steel, unique to the Xiao Clan. "Pass down the order: activate the protective formation. No one will be allowed to disrupt my son's breakthrough today."
The clouds over the Star Fall Mountain Range turned purple beneath the Heavenly Flames. Gu Yuan's Griffin Legion faced off against the Thunder Clan's Thunder Cavalry at the foot of the mountain. Hun Dan stood atop the Soul Clan's Bone Dragon, gazing at the blaze soaring into the sky above the ancestral grounds. The System Terminal in his fingertips flashed red. "Xiao Feng, so what if you fuse with the Emperor Flame? I laid my inescapable net long ago. Today, the Xiao Clan is doomed."
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