A Salute Across the Void

Within the plane mist, the streak of radiance did not travel particularly fast, but it was exceptionally steady. The plane torrents around it, powerful enough to tear Dou Sheng Experts apart, seemed to grow docile in its presence, parting to let it through.

Xiao Yan fixed his gaze on it, quietly gathering the power of his Emperor Realm Soul in his eyes. His sight pierced through layer upon layer of gray mist, until he could finally make out the scene within the radiance a little more clearly.

There was one man and two women.

At their head was a somewhat slender young man in black robes, with a resolute face. With one hand, he held a woman in white beside him, and with the other, he grasped a petite girl in a black dress. All three were enveloped in a strange Chaos Light as they traveled against the plane torrents.

The woman in white had an aloof, breathtaking beauty, like an ice lotus atop a snowy mountain. The girl in black had delicate, lovely features. At the moment, she was gazing at the surrounding plane torrents in utter boredom, her little mouth pursed as though she were muttering about something.

But what truly stirred Xiao Yan was the young man in black.

There was a strange vertical eye between the young man's brows. Chaos Light flowed within it, as though it contained countless scenes, and whenever it opened or closed, Xiao Yan could clearly feel the surrounding violent plane torrents pause ever so slightly.

What a powerful man...

Xiao Yan could not help the thought that flashed through his mind.

Though the layers of mist kept him from probing the young man's true strength, Xiao Yan could sense a vast, startling power hidden within that slender body. It was entirely different from the Dou Qi he knew, yet its weight and immensity were in no way inferior to his own.

Deep within that power, Xiao Yan could even faintly sense a peculiar fluctuation, as though an entire world rose and fell with the young man's breathing.

As Xiao Yan studied the young man, the vertical eye between the latter's brows shifted slightly. A gaze then pierced the distant mist and fell upon Xiao Yan.

Their eyes met.

Xiao Yan saw a flicker of surprise pass through those pitch-black eyes. Presumably, the other man had also noticed the unusual presence about him.

Their gazes met in the void for a moment. There was no hostility or wariness, only two powerful figures sizing each other up.

A moment later, a friendly smile slowly appeared on Xiao Yan's face. He released Xun'er's hand and, across the endless void, gently cupped his fists toward the figure.

Within the mist, the young man in black seemed taken aback. Then a smile appeared on his resolute face, and he cupped his fists in return.

After that, the young man lingered no longer. With a wave of his sleeve, the Chaos Light enveloping the three suddenly brightened and turned into a streak of rainbow light that sped into the depths of the mist. In the blink of an eye, it vanished from Xiao Yan's sight.

Xiao Yan watched the receding rainbow light, somewhat lost in thought.

"Brother Xiao Yan, what is it?"

Xun'er followed his gaze, but saw only a expanse of churning gray mist. A trace of puzzlement flashed through her beautiful eyes, and she asked softly.

"Nothing." Xiao Yan came back to his senses and smiled. "I just saw a very formidable person. I don't know why, but he seemed to be quite to my liking. If fate allows, I'd like to meet him again someday."

"There aren't many people you'd call formidable." Cai Lin raised a slender brow and spoke with a faint smile.

Xiao Yan rubbed his nose, but did not deny it.

He could sense that the young man in black also came from a Lower Plane... no, perhaps it would be more accurate to say a plane similar to the Dou Qi Continent. And like them, he was headed for that vast world.

"It seems we aren't the only ones who want to go there..."

Xiao Yan murmured to himself, his curiosity about that mysterious world growing ever stronger.

Back on the Dou Qi Continent, he had always thought that a Dou Di stood at the very end of the path in this world. But now it seemed that within the endless void, there might be countless Dou Qi Continents, and from each one, a person standing at the peak might emerge. Then, without any prior agreement, they would all head for the same place.

At the thought, Xiao Yan felt no pressure at all. Instead, a long-absent fervor slowly rose within him.

It was like the feeling he had known as a youth newly departed from Wutan City, when he first saw the sky beyond the Jia Ma Empire.

"Hey, you three, wait for us!"

Just then, Zhu Kun's rather exasperated voice came from behind them. Xiao Yan turned to see Gu Yuan and Zhu Kun bursting out, one after the other, from a plane torrent that had just roared past, several hundred zhang away. The purple-black dragon Qi around Zhu Kun was somewhat disordered, clearly showing how badly the torrent had tangled him up.

"That torrent came too suddenly. It nearly swept us apart." Gu Yuan flew over, his brows slightly furrowed. Then he looked at Xiao Yan and asked, "What were you looking at just now?"

"We met someone heading the same way," Xiao Yan said with a smile.

"Someone heading the same way?" Gu Yuan and Zhu Kun were both taken aback.

Xiao Yan was about to explain, but before he could speak, his expression abruptly changed.

At that very instant, the sinister, cold presence that had appeared once before swept toward them again from behind. This time, it was no longer faint and indistinct, but like floodwaters bursting through a dam, blotting out the sky and covering the earth!

"Watch out!"

Xiao Yan roared and whirled around.

In the darkness behind them, a massive hand was slowly reaching out. It was pitch-black from end to end, its surface covered in cracked lines like tree bark. Each of its five fingers bore a deathly pale claw about a foot long, and in the center of its palm grew a single bloodshot eye!

The eye slowly turned, finally fixing its icy gaze on Xiao Yan and the other four.

"Th-this... what the hell is that?!" Zhu Kun sucked in a breath of cold air. Even with his courage, he felt his scalp go numb.

The presence radiating from the demonic hand was sinister and evil to the extreme. Merely being brushed by it made Xiao Yan feel that the Dou Qi within him was showing signs of being corroded, as though it had encountered its natural nemesis.

"That thing... doesn't belong on the Dou Qi Continent." Gu Yuan's expression was graver than ever. Staring at the eye, he said in a low voice, "Its presence is more revolting than the Hun Clan's filthiest blood pool."

"And it's coming for us." Xun'er's pretty face turned cold, golden flames already rising around her.

"Whatever it is, don't let it touch you!"

With a low shout, Xiao Yan unleashed the Dou Qi within him in an explosive burst. He clapped his hands together, and flames of different colors rose swiftly from his fingertips.

Green, purple, white, pink... strands of different Heavenly Flames spun wildly at his fingertips. In the space of a few breaths, they compressed into an exquisite, dazzling Fire Lotus.

The Fire Lotus slowly revolved in his palm, warping the void around it.

Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus!

Xiao Yan had used this move countless times, but since advancing to Dou Di, the power of Buddha's Fury Fire Lotus had long surpassed what it once was. On the Dou Qi Continent, a single one of these Fire Lotuses falling was enough to wipe a city completely off the face of the earth.

"Go!"

Xiao Yan flicked a finger, and the Fire Lotus became a streak of light that shot toward the demonic hand slowly pressing down upon them.

As Xiao Yan struck, Gu Yuan, Zhu Kun, Xun'er, and Cai Lin did not hesitate in the slightest. Four vast surges of Dou Di Power soared from within them at once, turning into a pillar of golden light, purple-black dragon breath, a seven-colored python's shadow, and an ancient Dou Technique of the Gu Clan. Together, they blasted toward the demonic hand.

Five Dou Di struck at once!

A lineup like this could probably have blasted a hole through the entire Dou Qi Continent.

Boom!

The Fire Lotus was the first to collide with the eye in the demonic hand's palm.

There was no earth-shaking explosion as expected. At the instant of collision, every sound around them seemed to be swallowed up. Xiao Yan saw the Fire Lotus burst open the moment it touched the eye, its dazzling flames instantly illuminating the entire expanse of darkness in red.

The other four attacks followed in quick succession.

Under that violent assault, the massive demonic hand finally cracked apart inch by inch. An ear-piercing shriek erupted from its eye, sharp enough to tear at the soul.

But just as Xiao Yan began to relax a little, his expression changed drastically once again.

He saw that the pitch-black demonic Qi spilling from the shattered hand had not dispersed. Instead, it mixed with the violent energy left behind by their five attacks, setting off a terrifying chain of explosions within the already incomparably fragile plane passage.

The darkness around them began to twist violently.

The plane torrents that had been roaming in the distance also stirred, like startled, raging dragons. Roaring, they surged toward the group from every direction.

"Damn it!"

Xiao Yan's heart sank. Almost instinctively, he stretched out both hands and reached to seize Xun'er and Cai Lin beside him.

"Hold on to me!"

His fingertips had only just touched the women's fair hands.

In the next instant, the towering Plane Storm swallowed all five of them whole.