"Such shameless boasting!"
Yun Xiaotian snorted, scoffing at Xiao Yan's words. With a flash of green light, his sword swept toward the youth before him!
Clang!
The green blade struck the heavy black ruler Xiao Yan had raised, ringing out sharply.
"Even our mighty Misty Cloud Sect has only three to this day, yet you, a mere Xiao Yan from Wutan City, dare spout nonsense and gild your own face?"
Yun Xiaotian withdrew his sword, his expression icy. Xiao Yan's claim seemed to have placed the two of them on equal footing, which displeased him immensely.
"Die!"
With that low shout, pale-green Dou Qi instantly sheathed Yun Xiaotian's sword. A fierce gleam of sword light hurtled toward Xiao Yan, accompanied by the whistle of cleaving air!
Yellow Tier Mid-Grade Dou Technique: Wind-Walking Sword!
Xiao Yan remained composed as he watched the sword light approach.
Dou Qi churned in his hand, and a faint yellow glow rose around his body as a Dou Technique circulated swiftly through the meridians in his arm.
Low-grade Mystic Tier Dou Technique: Fire-Blowing Palm!
Just as the sword aura was about to strike Xiao Yan, a powerful blast of wind pressure erupted from his palm, filling the hall with dust.
Boom!
As their Dou Qi collided, the fierce wind pressure unleashed by Fire-Blowing Palm instantly tore the sword aura to shreds!
The remaining wind pressure retained its force, cutting through the air with a piercing shriek as it raced straight toward Yun Xiaotian's face!
Yun Xiaotian's face turned ashen. He hastily raised his sword to block, but the brutal force shook his blade unsteadily and left the web of his hand numb.
The Dou Qi contained in Xiao Yan's palm strike had actually seemed even more abundant than his own!
How was that possible?!
How could someone who had still been at the third stage of Dou Qi two years ago now stand toe to toe with him?
"Interesting." Yun Xiaotian gritted his teeth, a vicious glint flashing deep in his eyes.
"But you think your half-baked talent and that pitiful Yellow Tier Cultivation Technique are enough to contend with me?"
"That Dou Technique just now must have drained most of your Dou Qi, hasn't it?"
Before his words had faded, the pale-green Dou Qi surrounding Yun Xiaotian surged. Two indistinct outlines of illusory green wings appeared behind him, and a faint wolf's howl seemed to echo from them!
Though blurry, those wings radiated exceedingly sharp fluctuations of wind energy. Connected to the meridians in his arms, they sent his aura climbing steadily.
"Dou Qi Transformation into Wings?!"
Ge Ye cried out involuntarily at the sight. Beside him, Nalan Yanran's delicate lips parted, her eyes filled with shock.
"What kind of cultivation method or Dou Technique is this? It can actually turn someone directly into a Dou Wang expert?"
"No, it doesn't seem to have the terrifying pressure of a Dou Wang. His strength is still at the Dou Zhe level..."
"And that move Xiao Yan used just now certainly wasn't one of our Xiao Clan's Dou Techniques! There was that miraculous movement technique, too. Could he really be..."
"But the color and fluctuations of Xiao Yan's Dou Qi do seem to come from a Low Yellow Tier cultivation method."
As Xiao Zhan listened to the startled exclamations of the elders behind him, he watched Yun Xiaotian in the center of the hall with a solemn expression.
Not far away, Xun'er rested her fair, slightly baby-plump chin on one hand. Her slender brows lifted as she pondered silently.
That seems to be a Flying Dou Technique, doesn't it? But it doesn't quite look like one.
It seems these otherworldly inheritances really do have something to them... No wonder the other clans treat those fellows like precious treasures...
Listening to Yun Xiaotian's undisguised mockery and the Xiao Clan members' whispers, Xiao Yan remained unruffled, though he considered the matter silently.
Cultivating the Flame Mantra really does put me at too much of a disadvantage early on. It looks like I need to leave the Xiao Clan soon and search for Heavenly Flames...
Although he outwardly acted tough and fierce, even declaring that he was also an [Inheritor], he still harbored doubts about that identity.
His support and trump card today was Yao Lao, who resided in the ring on his hand.
Yet according to his teacher, he had once been an expert renowned throughout the continent, not someone from beyond this world as Ge Ye had described...
Still, with his teacher's miraculous alchemy skills, his legacy surely could not be inferior to the inheritances they possessed!
On that point, Xiao Yan had absolute confidence.
"Since you've already issued the challenge, we're seeing it through today, no matter what."
Seeing Xiao Yan actually dare to stand there distracted before him, Yun Xiaotian's expression darkened. He feared Xiao Yan would go back on his word, wasting this excellent chance to force him to break off the engagement.
"Then let a frog at the bottom of a well like you see what a true otherworldly inheritance looks like!"
"Gale Demon Wolf Thirty-Six Consecutive Slashes starts at high-grade Yellow Tier, but each additional slash increases its power. Its potential is limitless!"
"Although I can't unleash all thirty-six slashes yet, even now, it can be called the strongest attack below the Mystic Tier!"
As though showing off, Yun Xiaotian brimmed with confidence in the inheritance he had obtained, continually explaining its might before everyone and Nalan Yanran.
"Heh..."
Listening to Yun Xiaotian sing his own praises, Xiao Yan could not help chuckling.
"The so-called strongest attack below the Mystic Tier is, at the end of the day, nothing more than a Yellow Tier Dou Technique..."
"Why don't you let me hand you your first defeat, Young Master Yun!"
"You're courting death!"
Amid a howling rush, Yun Xiaotian moved.
His pale-green wings trembled slightly, actually lifting his feet off the ground!
He really can fly? There truly is a method in this world that lets someone take to the air without being a Dou Wang?
Slightly shaken by the sight, Xiao Yan silently communicated with Yao Chen, who was watching the spectacle from inside the ring.
"It should be some unusual Flying Dou Technique. It certainly doesn't grant Dou Wang-level strength. That brat's wings are insubstantial, and his Dou Qi is in disorder. He clearly hasn't mastered it yet."
With his seasoned experience, Yao Chen saw through nearly every detail of Yun Xiaotian's condition at a glance.
"Judging by the form of his Dou Technique, its power seems able to accumulate layer upon layer. In that respect, it achieves a similar result to the hidden forces of your Eight Extremes Collapse through a different approach."
"Good! Then this is the perfect chance to test which is stronger, it or Eight Extremes Collapse!"
Resolve and sharpness flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes as he watched the keen edges of those wings glimmer with faint green light in the sunlight. The so-called Gale Demon Wolf Thirty-Six Consecutive Slashes clearly came from those wings!
Yun Xiaotian shot toward him like a meteor chasing the moon, his body and wings aligning at an exceedingly sharp angle.
The massive ruler swept across. Brutal force erupted from Xiao Yan's arm as it collided with the wind-wing slash, and the scattered sword Qi shredded the tables and chairs in Xiao Clan Hall!
When that strike failed, Yun Xiaotian turned upward, gathering power in midair before using the force of his descent to attack fiercely once more!
Yet his initial attacks seemed to lack accumulated power. Xiao Yan parried several successive slashes one by one with the Heavy Xuan Ruler reinforced by Dou Qi.
But as Yun Xiaotian's sword assault grew faster, each slash did indeed become heavier and fiercer than the last.
Forced to remain on the defensive, even Xiao Yan began to bead with fine sweat across his forehead.
Having kept his brilliance concealed all this time, and not yet having had the chance to train in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, he was clearly still somewhat lacking in experience fighting opponents of his own level.
"Eighteenth slash!"
By contrast, Yun Xiaotian's momentum soared like a rainbow. Through his chain of attacks, he had now accumulated as much power as he could!
He leaped high, and the Demon Wolf Wind Wings instantly carried him to the height of the roof.
This final slash was already his all-out strike!
Watching Yun Xiaotian look down from above, his wings wrapped in pale-green Dou Qi, Xiao Yan finally curled his lips into an inscrutable smile.
Having gauged his opponent's strength, Xiao Yan immediately wreathed his feet in Dou Qi and unleashed the full power of the movement Dou Technique he had learned from Yao Lao!
The enormous Heavy Xuan Ruler instantly left his hand, hurtling toward Yun Xiaotian's face like a cannonball under the propulsion of Dou Qi.
At the sight, Yun Xiaotian had no choice but to change his move and block, causing a momentary break in the accumulated momentum of his consecutive slashes.
Now!
Xiao Yan shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow. Dou Qi churned beneath his feet as he moved even faster than the Heavy Xuan Ruler, circling to the descending Yun Xiaotian's side.
Several layers of hidden force stacked upon his right fist as he drove it toward the root of the wings of light, which had yet to take full shape!
High-grade Profound Tier Dou Technique: Eight Extremes Collapse!
Boom!
Yun Xiaotian jolted as though struck by lightning. The wings of light behind him shattered on impact, and he flew backward like an arrow loosed from its bow, slamming heavily into the doors of the Xiao Clan's hall amid flying wood splinters.
"Those so-called consecutive slashes didn't even hurt as much as the Dou Qi lashings I took while training Eight Extremes Collapse."
Xiao Yan exhaled softly and walked forward, picking up the Heavy Xuan Ruler and pointing its edge straight at Yun Xiaotian's throat.
"That powerful Dou Technique of yours from some Luo Continent doesn't seem all that impressive, does it?"
Before you continue