Perhaps... This is truly a nightmare

The Fire Qilin, which had just been lying on the ground in tears, suddenly flipped over and sprang up. Drool stretched from the corner of its mouth in a thin strand before dripping onto the stone floor with a patter.

Barros caught sight of its ravenous look, and a trace of amusement flashed through his eyes.

In his left hand, he held a Neural Tree Fruit and a Senzu Bean, while his right held only another fruit, which he made no move to eat. He deliberately bit through its skin, letting strands of surging life energy seep out.

The Fire Qilin could no longer hold itself back. When a small piece of flesh accidentally peeled off, its four hooves blurred into motion, leaving only afterimages. In the blink of an eye, it had rushed to Barros's feet!

It raised its head and opened its mouth, and that tiny bit of fruit flesh fell precisely down its throat.

The Neural Tree Fruit had originally been condensed from the vital essence and life force of heaven and earth.

The flesh melted the instant it entered its mouth, and a scorching torrent crashed through its entire body!

Hoo—!

Its originally weak, flickering flames suddenly surged upward as though oil had been poured onto them. The blaze swelled severalfold in an instant, wrapping the entire qilin in a crimson sea of fire!

Barros's expression did not change.

Yet Nie Renwang and the newly awakened Duan Shuai behind him both retreated several yards at once!

That soul-scorching heat—merely its lingering aftershock—had already made them smell the charred scent of death from several steps away.

If they had truly been inside it... not even ashes would have remained! The two exchanged a look, too horrified to speak.

In mere moments, the Fire Qilin's aura had increased nearly tenfold!

Duan Shuai and Nie Renwang stared at the fruit in Barros's hand, which he was casually munching on like a snack, their faces twitching in unison.

A tiny scrap had made it this powerful—what if it swallowed the whole fruit? What if they ate a bite themselves?

No one dared answer, and no one dared ask.

Nor would Barros waste a Neural Tree Fruit on two inconsequential strangers!

Before long, the Fire Qilin's aura gradually stabilized. Its flames receded, yet still steamed and blazed fiercely.

It raised its head to look at Barros. He stuffed the remaining half of the fruit into his mouth, then waved the other one with a beaming smile and eyes full of teasing amusement.

The Fire Qilin promptly dropped to its knees!

For that single fruit, it had completely acknowledged him as its master. As tame as a puppy begging for food, it rubbed the top of its head against Barros's trouser leg, low whimpers rumbling from its throat.

In truth, divine beasts that had developed intelligence were more straightforward in their thinking than humans.

Encounter the strong, submit; see temptation, surrender—it was that simple.

Barros looked down at the Fire Qilin rubbing against his leg, lowering its body, and waiting for him to mount. He burst into hearty laughter!

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The Fire Qilin carried him away at full speed, swift as a streak of crimson lightning. In an instant, it became a mass of blazing fire and vanished before the stunned eyes of Duan Shuai and Nie Renwang.

"Have... have my injuries truly become that severe? The Fire Qilin actually acted cute and obediently let someone ride it?" Nie Renwang stared blankly at the receding fiery silhouette for a long time.

"Perhaps... this really is a nightmare." Duan Shuai stood with his mouth agape, his voice dry and trembling.

The Fire Qilin had dwelled in Soaring Cloud Cave for who knew how many years.

It was already intimately familiar with the terrain here. Even blindfolded, it could find every fork in the paths.

Not to mention that Blood Bodhi grew from fruit stained by its blood and carried its aura. It practically went there every few days.

The scenery flashed backward at high speed. In an instant, the Fire Qilin abruptly stopped—it was precisely the Blood Bodhi grove Barros had told it to lead him to.

He raised a hand, plucked a Blood Bodhi, and tossed it straight into his mouth.

A faint, almost imperceptible stream of cool energy slipped into his meridians. Barros gently shook his head. As expected, this Blood Bodhi was of no benefit to him at all.

Even so, he casually picked over a hundred more. Then he tossed the newly acquired Neural Tree Fruit to the Fire Qilin, which was watching eagerly nearby, before turning toward the place where Nie Ying, ancestor of the Nie family, had imprisoned himself.

Barros gave Nie Ying's written account only a cursory glance before setting it aside. His gaze fell directly upon the Six Arts of Proud Cold and the Ice Heart Formula carved at the end.

Let the heart be clear as ice, unmoved though heaven collapses; amid ten thousand changes, remain steadfast, with spirit serene and mind at peace... Forget all external things and merge wholly as one; water may flow, yet the heart is undisturbed; clouds may drift, yet the mind remains unhurried; let the heart cling to nothing, and be at ease through all ages!

Barros firmly committed every word and every sentence to memory.

Having spent several months in the Legend of the Condor Heroes World, he was no longer wholly ignorant of martial arts cultivation methods. At a glance, he could naturally see the profound mysteries of the Ice Heart Formula.

With his heart free of distracting dust and his mind like a cold pool, the mantra of the Ice Heart Formula circulated repeatedly through his mind. The violent hostility churning within his chest quietly ebbed as he silently practiced the technique, until it finally vanished entirely.

A moment later, Barros opened his eyes and smiled. "Good! Good! It truly lives up to its name—this is a genuine supreme cultivation method for steadying the mind!"

Together with the power of the Dragon Vein, the Ice Heart Formula would, Barros was certain, be enough to keep Broly lucid even if it could not suppress him while he was rampaging in his Super Dimensional state.

As for restraining Broly in his normal state, it would be more than sufficient;

It might even pry open a sliver of clarity in Legendary Super Saiyan mode—when brutality and frenzy had completely devoured his reason!

And besides...

Barros's gaze swept over his shoulder. The Fire Qilin's aura had suddenly surged more than tenfold, and a sharp glint flashed through his eyes.

Hero King Manor, Ice Soul!

If he could obtain Ice Soul, one of the Four Divine Stones, and combine it with the Dragon Vein, the effects of the Ice Heart Formula would surely increase greatly. By then, there would be more than a ninety-percent chance of helping Broly preserve a shred of clarity!

After a while, the Fire Qilin finally refined the Neural Tree Fruit completely, and its combat strength rose once more.

Seeing it approach with docile, measured steps, Barros nodded in satisfaction.

After consuming the Neural Tree Fruit, the Fire Qilin's strength was no less than that of any supreme expert in this world.

Of course, when it came to those unfathomable old monsters—God, Devil, Xu Fu, Xiao Sanxiao, and Wu Wudi—Barros still could not say whether it could rival them.

But aside from those five, no one in the world today could stop the Fire Qilin as it was now.

The martial world, silent for so long, completely erupted the moment Barros mounted the Fire Qilin and left Soaring Cloud Cave!

There were countless strange and extraordinary people in the world: riding horses was commonplace, riding donkeys was not unusual, and one would occasionally see people riding pigs or dogs.

But riding a Fire Qilin? This was an auspicious beast, a divine beast!

Search through all historical records and legends, and those capable of commanding such divine creatures were either immortals or sages. Never had anyone heard of a mere mortal doing so!

When Barros, clad in Saiyan battle armor, rode the Fire Qilin into a bustling town—

A scorching wave swept across the entire area, and the whole town seemed to have suddenly fallen into a hellish furnace.

Several wooden houses at the street corner had already been set alight by the heat inadvertently leaking from the Fire Qilin, flames crackling as they shot upward.

Barros frowned and raised a hand, rapping the Fire Qilin on the forehead with a thud. "Keep your Qilin fire under control! Burn down this town again, and I won't even be able to find a restaurant. Hmph!"

Thinking of how many towns and cities had been scorched into wastelands by its uncontrollable flames along the way, Barros felt a headache coming on.

Now that the Fire Qilin's strength had soared, its Qilin fire was more than five times stronger than when he had first seen it. Even when it tried its best to suppress it, traces of scorching heat would still unconsciously seep out as it carried him along—

And then...

Everything within a hundred meters would become a sea of flames.

From Soaring Cloud Cave to this place, the Fire Qilin had already burned down several villages and towns, even an entire major city.

Sometimes, while Barros was eating in a restaurant, a wisp of fire leaking from its body would instantly ignite the entire building—

The cooks, proprietor, waiters, gawking townsfolk, tables, chairs, bowls, chopsticks, food, and wine would all turn to ash in an instant, forcing Barros to mount the Qilin again and find somewhere else to eat!

The Fire Qilin seemed to sense its master's displeasure. It lowered its head and let out a low growl, then nodded solemnly and immediately drew all the roiling heat and flames back into its body.

"Look, what's that?"

"Run! There's a monster!"

"A monster? Run—!!"

The moment Barros led the Fire Qilin through the town entrance, the townspeople scattered like startled birds and beasts. In the blink of an eye, the long street that had just been bustling with voices and crowded with merchants and travelers was completely empty.

He had no interest in bothering with these mortals and simply let the Fire Qilin walk slowly through the town.

But after only a few steps, the Fire Qilin suddenly gave a low growl. Crimson flames rose around its body once more as it lifted its head to stare at the end of the street, refusing to move forward!

At the far end stood a middle-aged man in blue, quietly motionless, his entire body shrouded in sorrow so deep it seemed impossible to dispel.

Before Barros could speak, the man called out first, "Little brother, you cannot ride this Fire Qilin into town!"

Barros did not reply. He merely gave the man an interested look, then lightly patted the Fire Qilin's neck. His figure flickered, and he had already landed more than ten feet behind it.

The moment its master dismounted, the Fire Qilin threw back its head and roared, "Roar—!"

The middle-aged man's brows drew tightly together, his expression grave.

He had long heard of the Fire Qilin in Soaring Cloud Cave and had even seen it from afar.

Back then, his swordsmanship had yet to reach completion and his cultivation had not yet attained its peak, but he had still been completely confident that he could kill it.

But now...

A mere ten years later, this beast had returned to the world, yet it had become so terrifyingly powerful!

Even he did not dare claim certain victory.

Unfortunately, this battle could no longer be avoided.

With a soft sigh, the middle-aged man in an indigo scholar's robe suddenly unleashed his aura. It was like a cold blade piercing through the clouds, stabbing straight into the heavens.

Barros raised a brow, looking at the man with slight surprise.

In but an instant, the other man's aura had surged severalfold. His entire being was seamless and flawless, like a divine weapon forged by heaven itself, towering proudly above all living things.

What made Barros' heart tremble even more was the profound yet faintly familiar aura lingering around the man—

Lofty, awe-inspiring, unfathomable, like a god standing above the mortal world.

He had truly felt this aura before, from Earth's Guardian.

With that thought, Barros had already reached a conclusion!

The martial world's myth—Nameless!

Before the thought had even faded, the Fire Qilin, already unable to restrain itself before the man blocking its path, opened its mouth and spewed a ball of blazing Qilin flame toward the grave-faced middle-aged man with thunderous force.

Clang—!

A clear sword cry suddenly exploded through the streets and alleys, like a dragon's roar as it left its sheath.

Before that ball of Qilin flame could come close, it was split apart by an azure sword aura and exploded into nothingness!

Seeing its strike fail, the Fire Qilin roared toward the sky. Dark-red flames surged around its body as its four claws drove into the ground, and it lunged forward to kill amid a searing wind.

The middle-aged man's pupils constricted as he swiftly retreated, his feet never touching the ground as he shot backward like lightning.

In midair, his fingertips flicked repeatedly, firing hundreds of razor-sharp sword qi that wove into a dense net and met the Fire Qilin head-on!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The Fire Qilin's scaled armor was tougher than gold and iron; even the Snow-Drinking Mad Saber could barely leave a mark on it. Mere sword qi was naturally helpless against it.

The middle-aged man's expression shifted slightly. He abruptly stopped, pressed two fingers together, and slashed them through the air—a dark-blue blade of light several yards long tore through the air, chopping down at the Fire Qilin charging before him!

"Roar—!" As if sensing the danger, the Fire Qilin let out an earth-shaking bellow. The dark-red flames over its body exploded outward, surging like a tidal wave!

The next instant, the blade of light fell.

Just as the Fire Qilin was about to leap forward and pounce, it was forcibly smashed into the ground!

Boom!!