Free Web NovelChapter 608: Chapter 608: Plotting with the Tiger
Word Count: 2,821 Words
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A spark of delight flashed through Xiao Yan’s heart at Xun Er’s words. She was right. The so-called map of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame did not actually mark the Demon Flame’s location at all. Every time the flame descended, it caused such a colossal commotion that practically the whole world knew about it.
Wasn’t that the same as openly inviting people into the Demon Flame Space?
On the magma pillar, the white-robed man cast a flat, emotionless glance toward the Hall Chief of the Hall of Souls and the others before ignoring them completely. His gaze locked instead on Xiao Yan, who had kept his silence all this while. After a long moment, a cold voice drifted out.
"You were actually able to break my Nightmare Illusion?"
Being singled out so abruptly made Xiao Yan jump despite himself.
"I happened to have read a few books on illusion formations." He spread his hands and offered a small smile. "So I say, don’t coop yourself up in here all day. Come out with me. See more of the world, read a few books. Tag along with this uncle and broaden your horizons."
Judging from that exchange, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame hadn’t even grasped the entry level of Nightmare Heavenly Fog mastery. It genuinely had no idea what had happened inside its own illusion.
This Demon Flame Space was riddled with strangeness, and the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame was clearly an extremely troublesome fellow. Right now Xiao Yan had no confidence whatsoever that he could subdue it by force. The four map fragments he had obtained, along with the Nihility Devouring Flame, were his only real hopes. Naturally, he had no intention of exposing them.
"So it was this brat who tore open the illusion?"
The countless figures hovering in the surrounding sky turned astonished eyes toward Xiao Yan. None of them had imagined that, with the strength of a mere 3-star Dou Saint, he would be the first to shatter an illusion the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame had painstakingly cultivated over a thousand years.
Even Hun Mie Sheng’s expression shifted with surprise. Who’s carrying whom here? How did you end up breaking the illusion first?!
"Brother Xiao Yan truly has remarkable ability. Haha, it seems all of us here owe you a favor." Huo Xuan laughed from not far away.
Hun Feng, Yao Wangui, and Yao Tian curled their lips at his words. They had no intention of accepting this ’kindness’ from Xiao Yan. In their eyes, he had simply been trying to save his own skin, nothing more.
Yao Ling’s gaze lingered on Xiao Yan, a strange light flickering in her eyes. Even she had been unable to see through the Nightmare Heavenly Fog, yet this man, whose soul realm mirrored her own, had somehow broken free before any of them.
The white-robed man’s cold eyes never left Xiao Yan. He naturally did not believe that excuse for a moment. If reading a few more books was all it took to break illusions, then what had his long years of cultivating Nightmare Heavenly Fog amounted to? A joke? And what need, then, had the Purifying Lotus Demon Saint ever had to create Nightmare Heavenly Fog in the first place?
"Forget it. Once I turn you into my Fire Slave, you’ll tell me everything in detail. Your escape from the illusion did exceed my expectations, but the final ending will still be the same." The white-robed man waved a hand. An invisible ripple spread outward, and the milky-white light ring in the distant sky slowly faded into nothing.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame had sealed off the spatial tunnel. From the look of it, he meant to leave none of them alive!
Just as the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame prepared to act, Xiao Yan and Xun Er exchanged a discreet nod, and he quietly drifted to the rear of the crowd.
The Demon Flame map fragments, it seemed, might truly need to be activated inside the Demon Flame Space itself, with the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame as the key.
Cai Lin and the others were tactful enough not to draw attention to Xiao Yan’s backward steps. Not only did they hold their tongues, they also quietly circulated the Dou Qi within their bodies. Nine-colored radiance, purple void light, the eerie gleam of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, the Gold Emperor Incinerating Heavenly Flame’s golden blaze, the sinister hue of the Woeful Poison, and Ancestor Xiao Chen’s blood-red Dou Qi all rose in unison.
Those lights did more than block lines of sight. The energy pouring off them was so vast that it interfered with spiritual perception as well. From the outside, it looked as though they were merely gathering power for an imminent strike against the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame.
Meow!
"Shh. Keep it down." Xiao Yan hurriedly clapped a hand over Mao Wu’s mouth.
Meow~
"Did you just swallow a bit of the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame?" he asked through the Heavenly Flame connection.
The little cat head bobbed once. Mao Wu slowly opened its mouth, revealing a tiny cluster of milky-white flame no larger than the smallest setting on a lighter.
Yet this was already the full extent of what Mao Wu had managed to swallow with that Heavenly Flame Dou Technique. Even so, this faint wisp was enough to plunge the entirety of Wu Tan City into a sea of fire.
Xiao Yan took the four map fragments from his robes and carefully pieced them together. Holding them gingerly, he brought one corner close to the tiny flame.
The instant the paper touched that milky-white fire, the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame seemed to stir with a faint awareness of its own. It did not burn the paper. Instead, it flowed rapidly along the fine lines traced across the surface.
’Could the truth of these fragments lie in the patterns that only look like a map? This isn’t a map at all!’ Xiao Yan’s heart jolted. The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame spread like a living thing along the patterns, and the once dry, yellowed lines bloomed with vivid color, finally revealing their true form.
’This looks like a formation circuit!’
He hadn’t lied to the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, not entirely. He really had studied formation diagrams. Back at the spatial trade fair he had bid on a Tian Class formation diagram manual, and he had gone through it carefully afterward. He had at least a basic grounding in the subject.
Even so, he could tell with certainty that this was not a complete formation diagram. It was more like a key, or perhaps the eye of a formation.
All of this took time to describe, but the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’s spread was astonishingly swift. In the space of a few breaths, the lines across all four fragments had drunk down every last trace of the flame. With a soft whoosh, the fragments crumbled into ash, and the now luminous white lines streaked in a flash into Xiao Yan’s body, plunging straight into his mind.
"What the hell is this?!" Xiao Yan cried out in alarm. Even his perfected Heavenly State Spiritual Strength couldn’t hold them back!
There was only one explanation. Emperor State Spiritual Strength. The Purifying Lotus Demon Saint!!
His shout drew startled looks from every direction. Xiao Yan forced out a strained chuckle, then whipped his head toward the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, his eyes widening as he suddenly shouted, "Watch out!"
"Demon Flame Refining Heaven!"
The spatial tunnel had barely been wiped away when raging milky-white flames violently erupted from the white-robed man’s body. They expanded at terrifying speed, flooding outward to encompass the surrounding area. In the blink of an eye they had swallowed the entire region, forming a blazing prison around Xiao Yan and the others.
Four colossal milky-white curtains of flame poured down from the edge of the sky, anchoring themselves at last to the magma sea below. From afar, it looked like a four-sided cage stretching from the heavens down to the sea of fire.
Xiao Yan and the others drew closer together, their faces grave as they watched the flames surge on every side. As the prison finished taking shape, they could feel an appalling heat spreading rapidly through it, hot enough to make even him blanch.
"He wants to refine us all." Zi Yan tried to tear open the void with the power of the Ancient Void Dragon Tribe, but before the spatial tunnel could solidify it was wholly purified by the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’s cleansing force. Her expression grew heavier still. "The void won’t open."
"The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame’s strength is genuinely terrifying. As it stands now, he’s probably comparable to a peak 5-star Dou Saint. Add in the Demon Flame’s strange abilities, and even against a 6-star Dou Saint he could hold his own. Among everyone gathered here, not a single person’s strength surpasses his." Xiao Chen said slowly, speaking for the first time. He understood the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame intimately, and so he knew exactly where it stood.
"Peak 5-star..."
Even Cai Lin’s face shifted slightly at the words. Between Dou Saints, every star marked a vast chasm in power. More than that, the opponent’s true body was the Heavenly Flame ranked third on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. Dealing with him would be troublesome in the extreme.
Cai Lin did have one card hidden up her sleeve. She could borrow the soul power of the Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python to temporarily raise her cultivation, gaining combat strength on par with a 5-star Dou Saint. But the duration was painfully short.
Relying on that single move to decide the outcome was clearly out of the question.
BANG! BANG!!
They were still on high alert when a series of muffled explosions rang out from somewhere behind them. Xiao Yan and the others whipped around, only to see figures bursting apart into clouds of blood mist. The mist had barely formed before the horrifying heat evaporated it entirely.
These sudden deaths sent a shudder of panic through many. No one had seen any attack, yet people were dying one after another.
The panic only grew worse as more and more figures detonated out of thin air. Those dull, repeated thuds drilled straight into the listeners’ scalps. This killing method was truly colorless and formless.
"Careful! The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame is extremely bizarre. It uses human emotions as a fuse to set your body ablaze from within. If you don’t want to die, stop letting your thoughts run wild!" As the panic spread, one knowledgeable expert finally shouted a warning.
Xiao Yan’s brows furrowed. Isn’t this just a super-enhanced version of the Fallen Heart Flame? ƒreewebɳovel.com
When he used the Fallen Heart Flame’s Heavenly Flame Dou Techniques, he could ignite Heart Flames inside another person’s body as well. But those Heart Flames only burned Dou Qi. In essence, it was no different from the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower. To put it bluntly, it simply helped temper Dou Qi.
Heart Flames were very difficult to kill with. At most, he could lash out suddenly in battle to force an opponent to reveal a brief opening.
’If the Fallen Heart Flame and the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame were fused, the Demon Flame power produced would be utterly terrifying.’ A hint of greed flickered through Xiao Yan’s eyes.
"Xiao Yan ge-ge!"
Xun Er’s urgent spiritual transmission snapped across his mind.
"Mm?" Xiao Yan’s heart jolted. The instant that greedy thought had crossed his mind, a wisp of Demon Flame had actually been born inside his body!
He forced down his emotional fluctuations and did his utmost to calm himself, then gave Xun Er a secret nod of thanks. This Purifying Lotus Demon Flame was too eerie. A single stray thought had nearly cost him everything!
"These people don’t even have the qualifications to become my Fire Slaves."
The white-robed man raised his eyelids, his gaze flat and indifferent. His voice was cold and eerie. "Below Dou Saint, explode."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The last syllable had barely left his lips when the entire sky dissolved into chaos. Nearly eighty percent of the Dou Venerate-level experts burst apart in that single instant, their bodies rupturing as if bombs had long since been planted inside their flesh.
’This man’s methods are terrifying...’
Xiao Yan and the others felt a chill creep up from the soles of their feet as more than half the figures in the sky vanished in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, he had not brought any other Yan Alliance experts inside. Otherwise, under that single sentence from the white-robed man, half of them would have died on the spot.
"Mm. Those who remain are the only ones worthy of becoming my Fire Slaves." ƒгeewёbnovel.com
The white-robed man gazed across the far emptier sky, and a faint smile finally curved his handsome face. He waved his hand, and ten pillars of molten rock erupted from the magma sea below. The pillars burst apart in mid-air to reveal ten figures clad in milky-white fire armor, who took up positions around him.
"They’re actually... all Dou Saints!"
Huo Xuan, Yao Tian, and the others drew in a sharp breath. These ten hollow-eyed figures were clearly Fire Slaves, but what stunned everyone was that every single one had reached the Dou Saint level. The strongest among them even possessed the strength of a late 3-star Dou Saint!
Faced with such a massive display from the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, everyone present stiffened. Even the Hall Chief of the Hall of Souls and Gu Nanhai drew their brows together ever so slightly.
Could it be that all those experts who perished the last time the Demon Flame surfaced were refined into Fire Slaves? If so, then every thousand years he grows stronger again!
"Every time I tear the seal open, quite a few self-important fools barge in. Unfortunately for them, in the end they all became my most obedient Fire Slaves." The white-robed man smiled at the assembled crowd, his voice soft. "This time, my collection is destined to become much richer."
"Tsk. This isn’t going to be easy to deal with." Xiao Yan’s gaze locked on the formation in the distance. The Purifying Lotus Demon Flame himself had strength approaching 6-star Dou Saint, and on top of that he commanded ten Fire Slaves ranging from 1-star to 3-star. Forget the Hall of Souls alone. Even with the Pill Tower thrown in, no one could field such a terrifying formation!
If this Purifying Lotus Demon Flame truly broke the seal and escaped, he could raise an entire Demon Flame Clan all on his own.
Xiao Yan’s eyes narrowed. After a moment, he smiled. "Everyone, whatever grudges lie between us, this time, if we want to survive and defeat the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame, we’ll have to join forces."
His gaze went first to the distant Hall Chief of the Hall of Souls, then swept across Gu Nanhai, Huo Yao, and the other experts from the ancient Dou God Clans. They were the strongest people present. If they refused to cooperate, the situation would become far more troublesome.
"Mm. There’s reason in those words." The first to agree was none other than Hun Mie Sheng, the Hall Chief of the Hall of Souls!
For a moment, the thousand-year-old monsters from the Yan Clan, the Lei Clan, and even Yao Wangui all wore peculiar expressions. The Hall Chief himself was actually willing to join hands with the Little Clan Leader of the Xiao Clan?
Still, none of them dwelt on it. If even the Hall Chief had agreed, then they could join hands as well.
Xiao Yan was not surprised by their silence. He said mildly, "Hurry up and decide. You Dou God Clans may all say with your mouths that you don’t want the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame and prefer it to remain ownerless, but each and every one of you is saying one thing and thinking another, aren’t you?"
Huo Yao, Yao Wangui, and the others flushed at being called out so mercilessly. Who in this world wouldn’t want the Purifying Lotus Demon Flame?!
"Mm. You’re not wrong," Elder Huo Yao of the Yan Clan said after a brief hesitation, finally being the first to speak up. "And from the looks of things, this Purifying Lotus Demon Flame has no intention of letting us leave easily." The situation forced their hand.
Once the Yan Clan nodded, the Elders of the Yao, Lei, and Shi Clans deliberated for a while, then slowly nodded as well.
Behind Hun Mie Sheng, Deputy Hall Chief Hun Zhu stood in silence. He watched the Tenth Tianzun and the Hall Chief echo one another so smoothly, and his expression grew all the more peculiar.
The waters here run very deep indeed...
