Death Domain and Falling Death Star, the Results of Li Qinglian's Seclusion

"Li Qinglian. Let me see what you can do."

Yan was the first to activate his martial soul, charging fiercely toward 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 entangle him.

Once he was caught, defeat would be inevitable.

To that end, he had even ignored his teacher's objections and added a soul skill that increased burst speed to his fourth Soul Ring.

"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, giving it the traits of both an assault-type and defense-type martial soul. It was extremely rare on Douluo Continent.

However, while the Flame Lord's explosive power and defense were both top-tier, its greatest weakness was its clumsiness.

That was why Li Qinglian had been able to easily entangle him back then and use him as a blood bag.

Yan had clearly realized this and made up for his weakness.

"Yan. I really did underestimate you before. You're not quite as foolish as I thought."

Feeling Yan's aura, Li Qinglian nodded inwardly.

If they fought one-on-one, Xie Yue truly would not be Yan's match.

"Hmph. You may have trained in seclusion for six years, but my cultivation has also broken through to rank forty-four Soul Elder!"

"To defeat you, I chose a Flame Shadow Leopard for my fourth Soul Ring. It gave me a soul skill that enhances speed, allowing me to maintain decent agility in actual combat."

Feeling the power surging through his body, Yan spoke with a grave expression.

It was not because of 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 a fire-attribute soul skill focused on explosive offense for his fourth Soul Ring.

"You really are far more agile 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 frowned.

"There is something you still haven't understood."

"After six years, the gap between you and me 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 beneath the dim morning light, radiating a suffocating pressure.

Yan's pupils abruptly contracted, and even the firelight 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 dark ink dropped into clear water and staining everything within thirty meters around him with a dim green glow.

"Third Soul Skill, Death Domain!"

An invisible, ghastly white mist carrying an aura of stillness silently spread outward from Li Qinglian.

Wherever the mist passed, the air suddenly became viscous and heavy, as though invisible pressure had descended upon every inch of space.

Fine cracks surfaced across the stone tiles, and even the light twisted into shades of grayish white. The entire area seemed to have been severed from reality, transformed into a silent realm apart from heaven and earth.

"What is this?"

Yan felt the world before his eyes suddenly darken.

The light had not actually vanished, but all color had been stripped away, leaving only gray and white.

He could see Li Qinglian's outline, yet he could not discern the slightest changes in his movements. Even his sense of distance became blurred within the pale mist.

He could feel something thick mixed into his blood. The flow of his blood and the circulation of his soul power had both become more laborious and sluggish than usual.

His breathing had also grown heavy. Every breath required more effort than before, as though the air around him were crushing his chest with an indescribable suffocating sensation.

Yan even felt that if he remained in this domain for much longer, he might die here.

"This is..."

Yan clenched his teeth.

He had not even gotten close, yet he was already being 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 stand trembling in my domain?"

Li Qinglian's voice came from deep within the mist.

Yan suddenly snapped back to his senses, a flash of unwillingness and fury passing through his eyes.

"Don't look down on me!"

Firelight exploded beneath his feet. He activated Fire Flash Step with all his strength, turning into a crimson streak of flame that bypassed Li Qinglian head-on and launched a surprise attack from the side.

Yet within the Death Domain, his speed had been suppressed by at least thirty percent. His originally flame-like dash now appeared much 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 as well.

He wanted Yan to accept his defeat wholeheartedly.

Even though he could have trapped Yan to death here with the Death Domain alone, it would have been effortless for Li Qinglian.

In fact, Li Qinglian could use the domain to make Yan feel as though he were trapped by a ghostly maze, never able to find his way out.

Moreover, maintaining the domain consumed little of Li Qinglian's strength. The domain could draw on the energy of living creatures within it to sustain itself until all life within 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 was most proud of!

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 frantically into his palm.

Condense!

Compress!

A fist-sized gray-black sphere formed in his palm. Grayish-white cracks like a spiderweb floated across its surface, making it resemble a miniature star that could explode at any moment.

Even the air around the sphere twisted and collapsed, producing faint crackling sounds.

"...What is that?"

Yan's heart pounded wildly.

Li Qinglian did not answer.

He simply 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, about three meters before Yan, it suddenly expanded.

Boom—!

The instant the fist-sized gray-black sphere expanded, grayish-white light swept in all directions like a tidal wave. Carrying an overwhelmingly unreasonable force, it sent Yan flying outright.

Yan did not even have time to release a defensive soul skill.

His Flame Lord martial soul automatically protected him, forming a layer of molten shield before him.

But the shield shattered and collapsed the instant it came into contact with the grayish-white light, like glass smashed by a heavy hammer.

He was sent flying more than three meters away, his back slamming heavily into a stone pillar in Pope Mountain's plaza with a dull impact.

"Cough, cough—!"

Yan dropped to his knees, coughing violently as a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The soul power throughout his body seemed to have been scattered by the blast. For a short while, he could not even release the most basic soul skill.

At the spot where he had just been standing,

the ground had caved in, leaving behind a charred crater over three meters wide and half a meter deep. Wisps of grayish-white smoke still curled up from its bottom.

Li Qinglian had already withdrawn his hand, and the four Soul Rings had 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 put in a little more strength, there would be nothing left of you now—not even bones."

The essence of Falling Death Star was to condense death energy into a compressed energy sphere. Once released, it expanded and exploded, stripping away all life within its range and tearing through defenses.

In principle, it was the same as Guanyin's Tears, which Tang San had used to severely wound a god after becoming one himself.

Li Qinglian had been suppressing his own strength throughout his fight with Yan.

If he had not restrained the spread of death energy, the plants around Holy Son Palace would likely have withered and decayed in an instant.