Lin Yan's fighting philosophy is simple: who cares about clones or not, just throw a punch first!
He threw out both fists simultaneously, and two scorching fist energies, like two falling meteors, slammed fiercely towards Xiao Yan's chest.
Wherever the fist's energy passed, the air hissed as it burned, and several stone slabs on the ground were blown away by the shockwave generated by the fist's energy.
Xiao Yan did not dodge this time.
He needs to test the condition of the meridians when subjected to a direct impact.
Faced with Lin Yan's attack, his Soul Power started from his dantian along the energy flow route of the Eight Extremes Collapse, passing through several meridian nodes that had previously been affected by spatial rifts.
He could clearly feel that when the Soul Power flowed through those newly healed nodes, the meridian walls steadily and powerfully withstood the high-intensity impact of the Soul Power without causing any discomfort.
Those spatial rifts have indeed completely healed; the dual tempering of the Pulse-Protecting Pill and the Vajra Body has not been in vain.
Xiao Yan precisely concentrated his Soul Power at the tip of his elbow, meeting Lin Yan's fist attack with pure close-combat skills.
"Bang!"
The moment their fists and elbows collided, a dull, loud thud erupted.
Lin Yan felt as if his fist energy had struck an iron mountain.
The opponent's elbow tip delivered one layer of hidden force after another, a total of eight layers.
Each hidden force precisely neutralized a portion of the Dou Qi within his fist.
His blazing fist energy was actually shattered by Xiao Yan's elbow strike. The pale red flames exploded at the point where the elbow and fist met, turning into countless sparks that scattered in all directions.
Lin Yan was so shocked that he took three steps back.
He stepped on the obsidian slab, leaving three deep dents, with cracks radiating outwards from the edges of the dents.
He shook his numb arm, and his gaze towards Xiao Yan held an undisguised excitement:
"Such a tough body! Again!"
Taking advantage of the moment when Xiao Yan and Lin Yan clashed head-on, Wu Hao launched a surprise attack from the side.
His fighting style is different from Lin Xiuya's elegance and Lin Yan's fierceness; it is pure and ruthless to the extreme.
The blood sword in his hand transformed into a dark red lightning bolt, its blade enveloped in a thick layer of blood energy.
That was the blood-attribute Dou Qi that Wu Hao cultivated, which shared the same origin as Fan Lao's blood-attribute Dou Qi but was different in nature.
Fan Lao's blood-attribute Dou Qi is insidious and unpredictable, primarily relying on absorbing the blood of others to replenish himself.
Wu Hao's blood-attribute Dou Qi is a different path; it is purer and more direct, a domineering technique that fuses one's own blood qi with Dou Qi.
A faint smell of blood lingered in the air where the sword passed, instinctively making people uneasy.
Wu Hao did not choose to confront the opponent head-on, nor did he use any fancy sword techniques.
He seized the moment when Xiao Yan and Lin Yan were at their most unstable after their fight, and launched a surprise attack from Xiao Yan's blind spot.
The sword strike was swift and ruthless, and the timing was extremely precise.
Xiao Yan had just repelled Lin Yan, and with his old strength gone and new strength yet to be generated, it was precisely the moment when Lin Yan's defense was at its weakest.
But Xiao Yan's perception was incredibly sharp. His Spiritual Soul Power spread out like an invisible spider web, taking in all the movements in the entire training ground.
Before Wu Hao's sword even fell, he had already caught that familiar scent of blood.
Without turning around, he flicked his left finger, and a pure white flame of Bone Spirit Cold Flame accurately struck the blade of Wu Hao's blood sword.
The extreme cold of the Bone Spirit Cold Flame spread along the sword the moment it touched the blade, and the blood energy flowing on the Blood Sword froze for a moment under the extreme cold.
A thin layer of white frost had formed on the surface of the sword blade.
Wu Hao felt a sudden chill on his wrist as he gripped the knife, and the flow of his Dou Qi in his entire arm slowed down by half a beat.
His pupils contracted slightly, but his fighting instincts told him that the best opportunity for this strike had already passed.
He decisively sheathed his sword and retreated, readjusting his stance.
Hu Jia made her move the instant Xiao Yan deflected Wu Hao's blood sword.
Her snake whip lashed out like a silver lightning bolt in the morning light.
The whip was covered with a very thin layer of snake-scale-like fighting Dou Qi, and the tip of the whip split into several slender Dou Qi tentacles, which Entanglement towards Xiao Yan from several different angles like living snakes.
Three of the attacks were aimed at Xiao Yan's left wrist, right ankle, and lower back, while the last one circled around to Xiao Yan's front and aimed straight for his chest.
Her snake whip has an extremely wide attack range and incredibly tricky angles.
The four whip tips blocked Xiao Yan's four different dodge directions.
She once used this move to trap three opponents of the same level at the same time during the Strong Ranking Competition; the strangulation force at the tip of the whip was enough to strangle a Fourth-Order Magical Beast to death.
" Cold Fire - Netherworld Lock!"
Xiao Yan's Third Soul Ring suddenly flashed, its purple light shining brightly in the morning light.
Several translucent, Netherworld Lock roared out from his palms, like snakes formed entirely of ice crystals, each heading towards Hu Jia's four whip tips.
The Netherworld Lock and the Serpent Whip collided in mid-air. The moment the Dou Qi tendrils on the tip of the whip touched the chains of the Netherworld Lock, they were frozen into a thin layer of ice by the extreme cold power of the Bone Spirit Cold Flame.
Hu Jia's snake whip deftly attempted to bypass the Netherworld Lock's blockade.
But the Netherworld Lock were more numerous and faster, like a transparent spider web that blocked all four of her whip tips.
The Dou Qi attached to the tip of the whip was gradually weakening under the extreme cold erosion of the Netherworld Lock.
Hu Jia had no choice but to retract the snake whip and recharge his Dou Qi.
An uncontrollable cheer erupted from the stands.
The newly admitted students were dumbfounded.
They had never seen such a high level of competition before.
Four Dou Wang joined forces to attack one person, but their attacks were completely neutralized in just a few moves.
What shocked them most was that Xiao Yan didn't move more than three steps from beginning to end.
He remained standing in the center of the training ground, within a small area of less than ten feet, using minimal movements and precise timing to deflect all four attacks.
The veteran students were deeply moved by what they saw.
Although they already knew that Xiao Huohuo's "clone" was quite powerful.
But this was the first time I'd ever seen it up close.
That control over the rhythm of the battle, that composure even when surrounded by four people, inevitably reminds one of Xiao Huohuo himself.
Just as the four were about to launch their second attack, a purple figure suddenly darted down from the stands.
"I want to come too!"
Zi Yan's voice still echoed in the stands when she crashed into the center of the arena like a purple meteor.
When she landed, her feet left two deep footprints on the obsidian slab, and a visible shockwave radiated outwards from her.
They blew away all the rubble and sparks left from the previous battle.
Although the Ancient Void Dragon Bloodline within her had not yet fully awakened, the brute force far exceeding that of others of the same level had already instilled a sense of apprehension in everyone present.
There was no Dou Qi spirit emanating from Zi Yan's fists.
She didn't need to; the Ancient Void Dragon was renowned for its physical strength, and its fists were the strongest weapons in themselves.
The force of a single punch is enough to withstand the full-force attack of an ordinary Dou Wang.
"Five against one, that's fair!"
Zi Yan declared confidently, and then, ignoring everyone else's reactions, she pounced on Xiao Yan first.
Her fighting style lacked any skill; it was purely brute force.
Each punch and kick carried a terrifying force capable of shattering a boulder into dust.
Her speed was astonishing; her small figure moved nimbly across the training ground, leaving a shallow footprint on the obsidian slab with each step.
Xiao Yan initially managed to take Zi Yan 'Zi Yan punch, but his expression changed drastically after he sensed the brute force contained within it.
He dared not take her punch head-on again.
As he dodged Zi Yan's straight punch, he deftly flicked her wrist with his left hand.
He redirected her punching force to the side.
Zi Yan's fist slammed into the obsidian slab behind him, creating a deep crater with a loud bang, sending fragments of stone flying everywhere.