"Li Qinglian. Let me see what you can do."
Yan was the first to activate his Martial Soul, charging fiercely at Li Qinglian.
He had learned from his past defeat at Li Qinglian's hands and knew full well that he absolutely could not let Li Qinglian tie him down.
Once he was caught, defeat would be inevitable.
To that end, he had even ignored his teacher's objections and given his fourth Soul Ring a soul skill that boosted explosive speed.
"Fourth Soul Skill, Fire Flash Step!"
Yan shouted, and his speed rose to another level.
Yan's Flame Lord Martial Soul possessed both fire and earth attributes, combining the traits of an assault-type and defense-type Martial Soul. Such a Martial Soul was exceedingly rare on Douluo Continent.
However, while the Flame Lord's explosive attacks and defense were both top-tier, its greatest weakness was its sluggishness.
That had been the key to how Li Qinglian had so easily entangled him back then and used him as a blood bag.
Yan had clearly realized this and compensated for his weakness.
"Yan. I really did underestimate you before. You aren't that foolish after all."
Li Qinglian silently nodded as he sensed Yan's aura.
If they fought one-on-one, Xie Yue truly would not be Yan's match.
"Hmph. You may have been in seclusion for six years, but my cultivation has also broken through to Rank 44 Soul Ancestor!"
"To defeat you, I chose a Flame Shadow Leopard for my fourth Soul Ring. It gave me a speed-enhancing soul skill, allowing me to retain considerable agility in actual combat."
Feeling the power surging through his body, Yan spoke with a grave expression.
It was not for Hu Liena that he wanted to fight Li Qinglian.
He had prepared for this battle for six years!
If not for Li Qinglian, he would definitely have prioritized an explosive fire-attribute soul skill for his fourth Soul Ring.
"You really are far nimbler than before. If your third soul skill had been like this six years ago, dealing with you would have been much more troublesome."
As Li Qinglian spoke, an icy aura silently spread outward from him.
"Hm?"
Yan furrowed his brow.
"There is something you still don't understand."
"After six years, the gap between us has only grown wider."
Li Qinglian released his Martial Soul.
Two deep-purple Soul Rings and two black Soul Rings pulsed beneath him.
Li Qinglian activated his third soul skill.
The four Soul Rings slowly pulsed in the dim morning light, radiating a suffocating pressure.
Yan's pupils abruptly contracted, and even the flames beneath his feet froze for an instant.
Li Qinglian did not answer. He merely raised a hand lightly.
His third Soul Ring lit up.
Ink-black light spilled from his palm, spreading rapidly like thick ink dropped into clear water and staining everything within thirty meters of him with a dim green glow.
"Third Soul Skill, Death Domain!"
An invisible, pale-white mist carrying an aura of stillness silently spread from Li Qinglian.
Wherever the mist passed, the air abruptly became viscous and heavy, as though invisible pressure weighed upon every inch of space.
Fine cracks surfaced across the stone bricks, and even the light twisted into shades of grayish white. The entire area seemed to have been severed from reality, becoming a silent realm apart from heaven and earth.
"What is this?"
Yan felt the world before him suddenly darken.
The light had not actually vanished, but every color had been stripped away, leaving only gray and white.
He could see Li Qinglian's outline, yet he could not make out the subtle shifts in his movements. Even his sense of distance became blurred within that pale mist.
He could feel something viscous mixing into his blood. Both the flow of his blood and the circulation of his Soul Power became more strenuous and sluggish than usual.
His breathing also grew heavy. Every breath took more effort than normal, as though the surrounding air were squeezing his chest, bringing with it an indescribable suffocating sensation.
Yan even felt that if he remained in this domain a little longer, he might die here.
"This is..."
Yan gritted his teeth.
He had not even gotten close, yet he had already been suppressed to this extent!
This domain was more than ten times more terrifying than those Death Vines from six years ago!
"Yan."
"You prepared for six years just to tremble in my domain?"
Li Qinglian's voice came from deep within the mist.
Yan suddenly came back to his senses, a flash of indignation and fury crossing his eyes.
"Don't look down on me!"
The flames beneath his feet exploded. He drove Fire Flash Step to its limit, turning into a crimson streak of fire as he bypassed Li Qinglian head-on and launched a surprise attack from the side.
Yet within the Death Domain, his speed was suppressed by at least thirty percent. His charge, once as swift as flowing flame, now appeared far slower to onlookers.
Li Qinglian did not make things difficult for Yan. With a wave of his hand, the mist dispersed, and the domain's suppression over Yan vanished with it.
He wanted Yan to accept his defeat wholeheartedly.
Even though he could have trapped Yan to death here with the Death Domain, it would have been effortless for Li Qinglian.
In fact, Li Qinglian could use the domain to make Yan feel as if he were trapped by a ghostly maze, unable to ever find his way out.
Moreover, maintaining the domain did not consume much of Li Qinglian's power. The domain could draw upon the energy of the living beings within it to sustain itself until all life inside had been extinguished.
Yan was both an assault-type and defense-type Soul Master. In that case, Li Qinglian would defeat him in the area he took the greatest pride in!
Li Qinglian raised his right hand, palm facing upward.
Gray-black energy gathered from the air, from the cracks in the ground, and even from the remnants of Soul Power leaking from Yan's body. Drawn by some invisible vortex, it poured madly into his palm.
Condense!
Compress!
A fist-sized gray-black sphere formed in his palm. Grayish-white cracks like a spiderweb drifted over its surface, making it resemble a miniature star that could explode at any moment.
The air around the sphere warped and collapsed, releasing faint crackling sounds.
"...What is that?"
Yan's heart pounded wildly.
Li Qinglian did not answer.
He merely turned his hand and pushed forward.
The sphere flew from his palm.
There was no sound, no light, not even the slightest pressure from the wind.
It silently crossed the air like a dark star plucked from the night sky.
Then, less than ten feet in front of Yan, it abruptly expanded.
Boom—!
The instant the fist-sized gray-black sphere expanded, grayish-white light swept in all directions like a tidal wave. Carrying an utterly unreasonable force of impact, it sent Yan flying.
Yan did not even have time to unleash a defensive soul skill.
His Flame Lord Martial Soul automatically protected him, forming a layer of molten shield before him.
But the shield shattered the instant it touched the grayish-white light, disintegrating like glass struck by a heavy hammer.
He flew backward more than ten feet before his back slammed heavily into a stone pillar in Pope Mountain's plaza with a dull crash.
"Cough, cough—!"
Yan dropped to his knees, coughing violently as a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
The Soul Power throughout his body seemed to have been scattered by the impact. For a short time, he could not even use the most basic soul skill.
At the spot where he had been standing moments ago.
The ground had collapsed into a scorched-black crater over ten feet wide and half a foot deep, wisps of grayish-white smoke still rising from its bottom.
Li Qinglian had already lowered his hand, and his four Soul Rings returned to stillness.
"This is my fourth soul skill, Falling Death Star."
"I only used twenty percent of its power just now. If I had used a little more strength, there would be nothing left of you but bones."
The essence of Falling Death Star was to condense death energy into a compressed energy sphere, which would expand and explode upon release, stripping away all life within its range and tearing through defenses.
In principle, it was the same as Guanyin's Tears that Tang San had used to grievously wound a god.
Li Qinglian had been suppressing his own strength throughout his fight with Yan.
If he had not restrained the spread of death energy, the greenery around Holy Son Palace would likely have withered and decayed in an instant.
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