Rumble!
Surging fist force smashed through the Karmic Flame.
But the flames scattered through the air without dying out.
Instead, they stirred the freezing wind and burned away the frost and snow, suddenly swelling another three feet before sweeping down to blot out the sky.
"Hmph..."
Liu Qingcang could only retreat.
The sweeping Karmic Flame crashed down, blasting scorched craters across the ground.
That single strike stopped the entire Grass River's flow for several breaths.
All the snow on both banks melted. Scattered sparks spread, setting grass, stone, ice, and snow alike ablaze.
The sight left everyone on the city wall trembling to their very souls.
"How many people has he killed to wield a Karmic Flame divine ability like this?"
"Not just people. Look closely..."
Li Huanzhen spoke up in warning.
Even someone as knowledgeable as him could not help feeling alarmed.
Following his directions, the others looked closer.
As the scattered flecks of Karmic Flame burned across the snowy wilderness, twisted faces took shape within them.
Some were human faces, but far more were howling specters of serpent demons.
Those were demon souls bound by the Karmic Flame, condemned to torture even after death.
"Th-this..."
"Aren't those Blackwater Mystic Serpents? He's killed so many of his own kind?"
Everyone was shaken, horrified by Yan Qing's savagery.
Meanwhile, out on the river, Liu Qingcang exchanged several more blows with him.
But the Karmic Flame around them kept multiplying.
The corpses of the dead Mystic Serpents caught fire too, gradually feeding an inferno that towered into the sky.
Not an inch of white snow remained across the wilderness.
Even the people atop the city tower, dozens of yards away, felt their skin scorching with a faint, persistent pain.
"Who could possibly restrain such heaven-and-earth-shaking might?"
Every soldier and wandering martial