Cuihua Demands a Breakup, Fiery Fatso

"Ma Hongjun, let go!"

Cuihua staggered from being yanked, tears streaking her face as she desperately tried to pry Ma Hongjun's hand from her wrist with her free hand.

Ma Hongjun panted heavily, the flesh on his face trembling. The dark red flames rising from his palm frightened Cuihua into shrinking back.

"Cuihua, I didn't mean to. Give me another chance. I'll definitely hold it back from now on."

"You say that every time!"

Cuihua's voice was hoarse from crying. Red burn marks had already appeared on her arm. When she saw Tang San and Xiao Wu rushing over, she hurriedly cried, "Help me! I really can't take it anymore!"

The moment Xiao Wu heard that, her anger flared.

She rushed forward and kicked at Ma Hongjun's wrist.

"Let her go!"

Already irritated by the evil fire burning within him, Ma Hongjun's face immediately darkened after being kicked away.

"Who the hell are you? Mind your own business!"

Xiao Wu pulled Cuihua behind her and said coldly, "You're bullying a girl, and you think you're in the right?"

Tang San followed, positioning himself slightly in front of Xiao Wu.

"Ma Hongjun, calm down first."

When Ma Hongjun saw Tang San, his breathing grew even heavier.

"You're Tang San? Boss Dai said you were strong, but this is my business. It's not your place to interfere."

Dai Mubai caught up to them at the village entrance. Seeing the burn marks on Cuihua's arm, his expression turned ugly.

"Fatty, you lost control again?"

"I didn't!"

Ma Hongjun had just started to defend himself when the fire in his chest surged upward, turning the words on his lips into a mouthful of dark red flame.

Terrified, Cuihua retreated behind Tang San, shaking her head as she cried.

"Brother Dai, I really don't want to be with him anymore. He's like this every time he has an episode. I'm scared he'll burn me to death one day."

Dai Mubai fell silent.

He knew about Ma Hongjun's problem, and he also knew Cuihua was right.

Hearing those words, the flames in Ma Hongjun's eyes burned even fiercer, and his whole body began to tremble.

"Cuihua, even you despise me?"

Cuihua cried, "I don't despise you, but I don't want to die!"

Those words tore apart the last shred of Ma Hongjun's reason.

Dark red flames erupted from his shoulders and back. Behind his plump body, the phantom of a mutated phoenix emerged, and the heatwave curled the grass blades at the village entrance.

Xiao Wu shoved Cuihua backward.

"Run!"

Cuihua turned and fled, not daring to look back.

Watching her run away, Ma Hongjun's face twisted.

"Don't go!"

He raised a foot to chase after her, but Tang San's Blue Silver Grass had already shot across the ground and wrapped around his ankle.

"You can't go after her right now."

Ma Hongjun looked down at the Blue Silver Grass. Flames swept down his leg, and the Blue Silver Grass instantly charred and snapped apart.

"Blue Silver Grass? You think that can stop me?"

Tang San's expression darkened.

Fire attributes restrained Blue Silver Grass far too severely.

Ji Yuan, hidden in the inner layer of Tang San's shoe sole, had tightened his true body the moment the flames rose.

Hot.

Even through the dirt and shoe sole, that evil fire made the surface of the demon vine sting with searing pain.

Every instinct of a plant warned him to stay away.

But Ji Yuan did not retreat.

Though the flame within Ma Hongjun was impure and violent, it was precisely what he lacked most at the moment.

Fire resistance.

As long as he devoured the source of that mutated flame, he would no longer need to rely on evasion when facing fire-attribute soul masters in the future.

Tang San was still openly holding back the flames.

Ji Yuan had already extended his roots through a crack in the shoe sole and into the ground, burrowing through the soil toward Ma Hongjun's feet.

Dai Mubai stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "Fatty, retract your martial soul!"

Ma Hongjun panted, the sweat that had just formed on his forehead instantly dried under the heat.

"Boss Dai, I can't retract it."

Dai Mubai cursed.

"Are you insane? This is the village entrance!"

Ma Hongjun clutched his head, yet the flames only burned fiercer.

"I don't want this either! But it just keeps burning, keeps burning—what am I supposed to do!"

Xiao Wu frowned.

"Then I'll knock you awake!"

Just as she was about to charge out, Tang San reached out and stopped her.

"Don't get close. His fire will hurt you."

Xiao Wu asked anxiously, "Then what will you do?"

Tang San raised his right hand, and Blue Silver Grass grew once more.

"I'll hold him back."

Hearing this, Ma Hongjun raised his head, the fire in his eyes overwhelming his reason.

"Hold me back? Tang San, do you really think that just because you beat Zhao Wuji, you can control me?"

Tang San did not argue.

Blue Silver Grass lashed out from three directions, avoiding the areas where the flames burned fiercest as it tried to bind Ma Hongjun's shoulders and waist.

Ma Hongjun opened his mouth and spat out a Phoenix Fire Wire.

The fire swept through, scorching entire swaths of Blue Silver Grass black. Tang San was forced to use Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to dodge to the side.

Xiao Wu pulled Cuihua back into the distance and shouted over her shoulder, "Tang San, be careful!"

When Tang San's feet touched the ground, his chest felt tight.

Ji Yuan casually siphoned away part of the Mysterious Heaven Skill internal force Tang San had just mobilized, using it to maintain the heat-resistant outer layer of the underground roots.

Tang San only felt the heat aggravate his old injuries, but he gritted his teeth and held on.

Seeing that something was wrong, Dai Mubai shouted at Ma Hongjun, "Fatty, if you keep this up, I'm stepping in!"

Ma Hongjun turned to look at him, his voice hoarse.

"Boss Dai, don't force me."

"You're the one forcing everyone else."

Dai Mubai unleashed his White Tiger martial soul. White Tiger vitality surged through him, but a familiar sense of emptiness came from his ankles.

Ji Yuan casually drew off a mouthful of vitality from the White Tiger node and transferred it into the underground roots.

The White Tiger's vitality was dense and substantial, perfect for helping the demonic vine withstand the first wave of backlash from the evil fire.

Dai Mubai's legs went weak, and his face darkened.

"Damn it, that feeling again."

Oscar came running over, panting hard, his cart nearly tipping over.

"What's going on? Did Fatty blow up again?"

Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing also followed them to the village entrance.

The moment Ning Rongrong saw the flames, she frowned.

"This is the flaw in his martial soul?"

Zhu Zhuqing said nothing, her gaze settling on the ground beneath Ma Hongjun's feet.

She kept feeling that something indescribably strange was there, but the evil fire's fluctuations were too chaotic for her to trace the source.

Ji Yuan noticed Zhu Zhuqing's attention and immediately pressed the underground roots deeper into the mud.

This Spirit Cat blood bag was far too perceptive.

He could not let her discover that something was underground.

Ma Hongjun's flames continued to rise.

Flender was absent, and Zhao Wuji had not come either. Dai Mubai did not dare use his full strength and injure him, while Tang San was restrained by fire. The situation was instead pushed to the brink of losing control by Ma Hongjun alone.

Ma Hongjun clutched his chest, a pained growl squeezing from his throat.

"Hot, so hot... Boss Dai, don't stop me. I'll go find Cuihua and explain things. That's all."

Xiao Wu snapped angrily, "If you go over there like this, are you going to explain things or burn her to death?"

Ma Hongjun's face twitched.

"I won't hurt her."

Tang San stared at the fire in his palm.

"You're already injured."

The moment those words fell, Ma Hongjun froze for a brief moment.

But immediately afterward, even more violent flames burst from his body.

"I told you, I didn't do it on purpose!"

He raised his hand, and his second soul ring lit up.

Dai Mubai's expression changed drastically.

"Fatty, stop!"

Ma Hongjun could no longer hear anything.

Phoenix Bathing in Fire activated. Dark-red flames coiled around his body, their power far stronger than before, scorching the surrounding mud until it gave off a burnt smell.

Tang San's Blue Silver Grass had barely reached out before it was burned apart.

Ning Rongrong raised the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and asked urgently, "Tang San, do you need support?"

Tang San said in a low voice, "Don't come any closer yet!"

Oscar grabbed a sausage, wanting to hand it over but not daring to approach.

"This fire's too fierce. Even my sausage can't withstand it."

Zhu Zhuqing moved to the side, trying to circle behind him.

Dai Mubai immediately shouted, "Zhuqing, don't get too close!"

Zhu Zhuqing replied coldly.

"Worry about yourself."

Dai Mubai felt his chest tighten from being shut down, yet he continued to watch Ma Hongjun, ready to act at any moment.

Ji Yuan's underground roots had already reached beneath Ma Hongjun's feet.

The evil fire leaked from the meridians in the soles of his feet. Near the Yongquan acupoint was one of the outlets where the firepower circulated.

The temperature there was the highest, and it was also the most dangerous.

But its defenses were the weakest.

Ji Yuan did not pierce in immediately.

He waited for Ma Hongjun to fully unleash his second soul skill.

The fiercer the firepower, the thicker the defense.

And the thicker the defense, the larger the gaps.

Tang San had been forced to the edge of the village road. His Blue Silver Grass was repeatedly burned apart, and his hand had already reached for the hidden weapons in his belt.

Ma Hongjun spread his arms, and the flames expanded outward.

"None of you stop me!"

A chill rose in Tang San's eyes. He activated Mysterious Jade Hand, preparing to forcibly take a blast of fire before sealing Ma Hongjun's acupoints with hidden weapons.

Ji Yuan opened a feeding aperture within the sole of his shoe. The outer layer of his roots had been scorched black, but the inside was protected by White Tiger blood vitality and the chill of well water.

He fixed his gaze on the firepower outlet beneath Ma Hongjun's foot.

When the next wave of flames erupted, it would be his chance to devour the fire.

Ma Hongjun raised his head. A ball of dark-red firelight had already gathered in his mouth.

Just as Tang San was about to move, Ji Yuan siphoned away a portion of the internal energy beneath his feet, slowing him down.

Xiao Wu cried out in alarm, "Tang San, dodge!"

The blast of fire had already shot forth, and at the same instant, Ji Yuan's roots broke through the mud and pressed against the scorching sole of Ma Hongjun's foot.