Those seemingly small and fragile ice spikes showed no signs of being crushed the moment they came into contact with the palm of the Dou Qi.
On the contrary, Xiao Yan's Condensed Soul Stab was like a red-hot steel needle piercing butter.
He easily pierced through the Dou Technique he unleashed.
The enormous Dou Qi palm was pierced by dozens of ice spikes, leaving dozens of tiny holes on its surface.
Pale blue Dou Qi continuously leaked from those holes, and the solidity of the entire palm was weakening at a visible rate.
The Dou Emperor stared wide-eyed, his face filled with disbelief.
What kind of ice is this?
How could anyone ignore his Dou Qi defense?
Wind-attribute Dou Qi excels at crushing and tearing; theoretically, any attack should be pulverized upon contact with the wind-attribute vortex in the palm.
However, when the ice spikes passed through the vortex, although their speed was greatly reduced after being weakened layer by layer by the Dou Qi palm, they were still able to penetrate the vortex.
After piercing his palm, its flight trajectory became somewhat erratic, but it still stubbornly flew towards him.
Dozens of cold glints drew ever closer into his field of vision.
A hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of the Dou Emperor, and his brows furrowed slightly.
These ice crystals are indeed quite something; no wonder even Han Li fell for this kid.
However, he believed he had seen through Xiao Yan's methods. Although the ice crystals had amazing penetrating power, they were not fast and their range was not large.
It's fine as long as you don't get hit head-on.
Sensing that the ice spikes had been weakened to a feeble speed, he made no attempt to dodge, and didn't even bother to use any defensive Dou Technique.
He simply raised his hand and waved it casually, intending to disperse it with the force of his palm.
"Bite!"
A crisp, light sound, like jade striking each other.
The first ice crystal landed on his outstretched palm with a crisp sound, then shattered into a shower of fine ice shards.
At first, the Dou Emperor didn't pay any attention, but when he felt the touch from the palm of his hand, a sense of unease immediately arose in his heart.
The moment the ice crystal shattered, an extremely eerie chill seeped into the skin of his palm.
That chill wasn't just ordinary cold; it was an extreme cold that penetrated to the bone marrow, almost freezing the soul.
He looked down and saw that the skin on his palm, where the pale ice crystals had touched, was covered with a thin layer of white frost.
What shocked him even more was that beneath that layer of white frost, the Dou Qi within his body seemed to have stagnated.
The operating speed suddenly slowed down by more than half.
The Dou Qi that originally surged and flowed through the meridians like a river.
At this moment, it became like the surface of a river about to freeze over in the dead of winter, viscous and slow.
Each operation requires several times the mental and physical effort.
"What the hell is this thing?"
His expression finally changed; the previous contempt and composure vanished, replaced by an undisguised panic.
He finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
This kid's attack wasn't intended to hurt him from the start, but rather to restrict his Dou Qi circulation.
This strange, icy attribute can cause Dou Qi to freeze briefly.
Although this stagnation would only last for a breath or two at most, he could quickly dispel it with his cultivation level.
The problem is that in battle, a pause of one or two breaths can be enough to decide life or death.
"Laugh!"
And in that brief, almost negligible moment of stillness...
Xiao Yan, who was flying backward, suddenly stopped.
This is the moment he's been waiting for.
This Dou Emperor, due to underestimating the enemy, chose to take the Condensed Soul Stab head-on.
This caused a brief stagnation of Dou Qi within the body.
Xiao Yan Xiao Yan his feet on the nearest stone pillar behind him, and the thick pillar shattered in the middle under his foot.
The stone pillar, several meters high, was broken in two. The upper half collapsed with a rumble, sending up clouds of dust and rubble.
Using this powerful reaction force, Xiao Yan, who was flying backward, changed direction in mid-air with an almost impossible twist.
The transition between retreating and advancing was astonishingly fast, without the slightest hesitation, as if the initial backward flight was a preparation for this strike.
" Eight Extremes Collapse!"
During flight, Xiao Yan's Soul Power surged towards his right hand like boiling magma.
Pale blue Soul Power flowed endlessly across his right arm, enveloping the entire arm in a Youyou halo.
His right elbow was slightly bent, with the elbow pointing forward, and his whole body crashed into the Dou Emperor like a human cannonball.
The Eight Extremes Collapse emphasizes using the body as a weapon to unleash devastating impact at close range; it focuses on the word "collapse".
When it gets close, it can shatter mountains and split rocks; nothing is indestructible.
While the properties of the pale ice crystals were still in effect, and while the Dou Qi within the Dou Emperor's body stagnated, they seized the opportunity.
Xiao Yan had already approached the Dou Emperor like a bolt of lightning.
The distance between the two people, which had been tens of feet, was reduced to less than three feet in the blink of an eye.
As Xiao Yan's figure grew larger and larger in their field of vision, from a black dot to a blurry figure carrying an aura of death, they watched as he approached.
A hint of panic finally surfaced in the eyes of that Dou Emperor.
He felt the overwhelming sense of oppression.
That was a killing intent that no ordinary Dou Emperor could unleash.
He had only ever felt this level of oppression from those old monsters who licked blood from the edge of a knife in the Yellow Springs Pavilion.
He wanted to dodge, but the Dou Qi within his body was still stagnant, and his limbs and bones felt heavy and sluggish as if they were filled with lead.
There was simply no time to take effective evasive action.
"Boom!"
At this critical moment, the Dou Qi within him finally erupted.
It must be said that the Seven-Star Dou Huang's foundation is quite strong, even under his full-force attack.
He forcibly dispelled the stiffness caused by the pale ice crystals.
The dark yellow Dou Qi surged and circulated through his meridians once again.
However, this forceful impact also brought side effects. The meridians went from stagnation to bursting in a very short time, bearing enormous pressure.
Several meridians showed minor damage.
A mouthful of sweet, metallic liquid welled up in his throat, but he forced it back down.
However, Xiao Yan's attack had already landed in front of him, the elbow strike carrying destructive power was just inches away.
He could even feel the sharp fluctuations emanating from the hidden force on Xiao Yan's right elbow.
Unable to use any defensive Dou Technique, he could only instinctively cross his arms in front of his chest.
He channeled all his Dou Qi into his arms, attempting to withstand the blow head-on.
"Bang!"
A dull, resounding impact echoed throughout the entire stone forest.
Xiao Yan's right elbow struck the Dou Emperor's arms, which were crossed in front of his chest, like a heavy hammer.
At the moment of impact, the hidden energy within Xiao Yan's body surged forth through his elbow like a flood bursting its banks.
A visible shockwave radiated outwards from the point of impact, sending surrounding debris flying.
The Dou Emperor felt a sharp pain in his arms, as if his bones were about to crack, and he was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string.
Xiao Yan maintained his forward momentum, pressing the Dou Emperor down with unwavering strength.
Like a shooting star trailing flames, it sent him flying dozens of feet away.
Wherever the two passed, stone pillars collapsed under Xiao Yan's impact.
Stone fragments flew everywhere, dust billowed, and the entire stone forest trembled slightly from the impact.
The Dou Emperor's back kept slamming against the jagged stone pillar behind him.
Each shattering of a stone pillar worsened his injuries, as if his internal organs were about to be displaced.
Xiao Yan's mind was frighteningly calm.
He understood that such an opportunity was extremely rare.
Old Ghost Liu was still watching from mid-air, ready to intervene at any moment.
Therefore, he must maximize his gains within this window of opportunity.
It would be best to eliminate this Dou Emperor directly.
Otherwise, once the other party realizes what's happening, the advantage he's worked so hard to gain will vanish.
Time was a race against time, every single moment of it was a race against his life.
While the opponent's Dou Qi had not yet fully recovered from the stagnation and aftershocks, they took advantage of the situation.
Taking advantage of the fact that his internal organs were churning and his meridians were disordered from the continuous impacts, a cold glint flashed in Xiao Yan's eyes.
Without the slightest hesitation, he directly detonated the hidden force of the Eight Extremes Collapse.
The hidden force he had silently injected into the other's body erupted suddenly under his mental control.
A series of rapid, crackling explosions suddenly erupted from within the body of the Dou Huang expert.
The hidden force of the Eight Extremes Collapse is the most insidious.
It doesn't damage the surface, but specifically inflicts secondary damage inside the opponent's body.
The hidden force spread along the meridians, completely shattering the Dou Qi that was already disrupted by the Bone Spirit Cold Flame.
The Dou Qi that had been painstakingly regrouped was completely thrown into chaos by the attack of this hidden force.
"Puff--"
The Dou Emperor could no longer suppress the injuries within his body.
A mouthful of scalding blood gushed from his mouth, turning into a cloud of blood mist in the air, staining the robes on his chest red.
Blood Sisi trickling from the corner of his mouth, and it kept increasing.
His eyes finally betrayed an undisguised panic.
That wasn't anger, nor resentment, but the purest fear of death.
As Dou Emperor of the Yellow Springs Pavilion, he had dominated half his life and never imagined that he would be reduced to such a state by a young man who looked to be no more than twenty years old.
If this continues, he will die.
The thought struck him like a bolt of lightning, sending shivers down his spine.
He desperately tried to muster the remaining Dou Qi within him, to fight back, to break free.
Even just one more breath would be worthwhile.
Elder Liu will definitely be able to save him.
However, his meridians were in complete disarray, and his Dou Qi was completely uncontrollable.
My body felt like a marionette, its strings had been pulled apart, and my limbs were limp and powerless.
Even raising my arm became an extremely difficult task.
It was only with great difficulty that Xiao Yan created this opportunity.
From initially retreating and avoiding, to releasing Condensed Soul Stab to lure the opponent into underestimating him.
Then there's the strategy of exploiting the opponent's underestimation to deliver a fatal blow.
He meticulously calculated every step, ensuring that no mistake was made.
He had no time to regret it, and he couldn't possibly give the other party any chance to catch their breath.
In a life-or-death struggle, being merciful to the enemy is being cruel to oneself.
This is a lesson he learned through countless scars.
After detonating the hidden force of the Eight Extremes Collapse, Xiao Yan's movements did not pause at all.
The next move flowed smoothly, like clouds and water flowing seamlessly between the two opponents.
The Cold Fire Martial Soul suddenly appeared in his palm.
Xiao Yan slammed his palm into the chest of the Dou Emperor, the force of which traveled through the chest and struck his heart.
The intense heat of the flames and the impact of the palm strike intertwined, causing the Dou Emperor's chest to cave in slightly.
The cold, white flames flowed along Xiao Yan's palm, frantically pouring into the other's body as if they possessed a life of their own.
The initial panic in the eyes of the Dou Huang expert was replaced by a blank expression the moment the Cold Fire entered his body.
Extreme heat and extreme cold erupted simultaneously within his body; in the alternation between hot and cold, his soul seemed to fall into some kind of strange paralysis.
For a brief moment, the person's consciousness went blank, and even their thoughts stopped.
It was just a momentary lapse in concentration, but for Xiao Yan, that moment was enough to accomplish a great deal.
The surging Soul Power immediately flowed into the other person's body through his palm.
That Soul Power was like the most violent torrent, severing meridians and shattering bones wherever it passed.
The internal organs shifted and ruptured under the impact of this force.
Xiao Yan's Soul Power quality was already far superior to others of the same level, and with the added enhancement of the Heavenly Flames, his destructive power increased exponentially.
The Dou Emperor's body convulsed violently a few times, and large gushes of blood gushed from his mouth.
The light in his eyes was visibly dimming.
The next moment, Xiao Yan shoved him hard in the chest.
He unleashed a burst of energy from his palm, shoving the Dou Emperor's body away like a puppet with its strings cut.
At the same time, he was sent flying backwards once again by the force of the push.
His body nimbly flipped in mid-air, quickly creating distance from his original position.
The timing of this push and pull was extremely precise.
Just as he flew away, before his figure had even landed, in that instant...
The space where he had been standing suddenly distorted.
Another invisible spatial slicing quietly appeared.
The spatial blade silently sliced through the void, neatly cutting through the area where he had just been standing.
A stone pillar, unfortunately located within the cutting area, was diagonally cleaved into two pieces, with the upper half sliding down, its cross-section as smooth as a mirror.
If Xiao Yan had reacted even half a beat slower, it wouldn't have been the stone pillar that was cut in half, but his own body.
Old Ghost Liu, who was in mid-air, made his move the instant he sensed something was wrong.
His reaction was remarkably quick.
From the moment Xiao Yan detonated the Eight Extremes Collapse Dark Force to the moment the Dou Emperor completely lost his ability to resist, only two or three breaths passed.
Old Ghost Liu had already realized that the situation was not right and intervened.