“Huh?”
Xu Xiaoshou raised his eyebrows and asked, “You mean all of you can’t see anything?”
: Doubted, Passive Points +4.
…
Ye Xiaotian did not say a word, and instead, he swiped his palm in front of him and a screen appeared. Everything that was happening inside the white flaming area was revealed on the screen.
“What kind of spiritual technique is this?” Xu Xiaoshou asked, and his eyes lit up.
“Heaven’s Vision.”
“You can see everything with this?”
“What? Yes, of course.”
Ye Xiaotian felt something amiss after he replied and questioned, “Wait, why do you ask?”
“Hehe, hehe. No, it is not what you think it is,” Xu Xiaoshou replied cheekily.
“Huh?” Ye Xiaotian frowned.
: Doubted, Passive Points +4.
Xu Xiaoshou discreetly gauged the dean’s height and gave him a dubious look.
…
Everyone’s attention naturally shifted to the screen when it lit up, and Xu Xiaoshou stopped talking, turning his attention to the magical spiritual technique called Heaven’s Vision.
If Ye Xiaotian was not asked to project visions from other dimensions, then then the task was an effortless one for him.
He did not need the screen as his eyes alone were enough to see through the white flaming realm.
The three trapped inside the Dragon Melting Realm floated in midair. Without someone like the mischievous Xu Xiaoshou around, the atmosphere was a lot more intense.
The extreme temperatures were causing all three of them to sweat profusely. Cen Qiaofu, unused to such conditions, was isolated with just a light puff and shrouded by a cloud of smoke.
“Is this all that you have?” Cen Qiaofu mocked Elder Sang.
Cen Qiaofu tapped his ax derisively. If that was all there was that Elder Sang could muster, then the man with the hat was not worth his time.
Elder Sang grinned but had a grim expression on his face.
“Cen Qiaofu, remember this moment, for it would be the highlight of your life.”
Elder Sang merely pulled up his hat without doing anything else. Suddenly, white streams of flames emerged from the Dragon Melting Realm and surged toward Cen Qiaofu.
The extreme temperature of the Infernal Heavenly Flames was not a thing anyone would dare to touch.
Cen Qiaofu took evasive action and the streams of flames instantly collided, resulting in a massive explosion.
Shockwaves spread over the place with a rumble, and the explosion would have rocked the entire sky. But it had been contained within the Dragon Melting Realm, which spoke volumes of the skill of the person who executed the move.
Cen Qiaofu went flying from the force of the shock waves. However, he steadied himself in the nick of time and avoided colliding with the walls of white flames.
The temperature of the walls was such that even a look at them would have scorched one’s soul.
Xu Xiaoshou jumped when he saw what had happened from the outside.
“Wah! It is terrifying!”
The others were clueless. But as Xu Xiaoshou was a fellow practitioner of such a power, he was aware of what was going on.
The streams of white flames were like magic spells, comprising countless compressed fire seeds within them.
The destructive potential of such a collision would have probably razed half of the Inner Yard if Elder Sang had not kept it within the confines of the Dragon Melting Realm.
“Elder Sang…”
Jiang Bianyan whispered as he watched the projection on Heaven’s Vision. He recalled when he last met Elder Sang. He had been confident of being able to challenge Elder Sang as an equal.
But after a dozen years later, Elder Sang had since left him way behind in terms of power and skills.
Jiang Bianyan was not the only one in shock. Those from the Spirit Palace present were just as shocked.
Elder Sang rarely exhibited his skills. So, the impression of his capabilities remained as what they remembered from over a dozen years ago.
When they witnessed what had just happened on the projection, they could not help but be in awe of Elder Sang.
“His ability is something else.”
Xiao Qixiu then added, “He is probably right. We have been too sheltered in the Spirit Palace.”
They were all silent again. Xu Xiaoshou peeked at his seniors, and while saw envy on their faces, none of their faces showed any sign of regret.
“It is just a matter of different choices and paths,” said Xu Xiaoshou.
All four seniors looked shocked, never expecting Xu Xiaoshou to be the one making such remarks, but they kept silent.
…
[Back inside the Dragon Melting Realm]
The explosion held significance to Xu Xiaoshou. But against the two opponents inside the white flaming wall, it looked like the move was inadequate.
The masked man held the Epitaph of City Snow in front of his eyes and managed to cut down the oncoming shock waves.
Cen Qiaofu was even more relaxed. As long as none of the shock waves hit him directly, they did him little harm.
Cen Qiaofu slashed at the sky, and a black gash instantly ripped through the Dragon Melting Realm.
However, like streams of water flowing down a waterfall, the opening on the walls quickly sealed up.
“Huh? That’s quite impressive!”
Cen Qiaofu looked surprised. The power of both the Great Path and spiritual source in his ax was tremendous, but it still could not blow up the walls.
It seemed like the power of the wall of flames had immediately burned his attack.
No. It did not burn the attack. It swallowed it up.
The Dragon Melting Realm consumed Cen Qiaofu’s power. It had transformed his power into fuel to maintain the high temperature of the place.
“Good move!”
“Well, it would seem like I won’t be going anywhere,” Cen Qiaofu said.
Elder Sang smirked and replied, “You can try.”
Cen Qiaofu charged right away with his ax in hand.
“I do not need to. If you are down, then the damn Dragon Melting Realm will just get snuffed out, I’m sure.”
Cen Qiaofu advanced toward Elder Sang at great speed, but Elder Sang was unfazed.
He lifted his hand and shouted.
“Furnace!”
The Dragon Melting Realm instantly became a furnace, and boundless white flames leaped from under the ground, quickly filling up the area within.
The imagery on Heaven’s Vision suddenly flickered and seemed unable to withstand such high temperatures.
Ye Xiaotian stabilized the skill right away. But there was only noise and they could see nothing else.
But Xu Xiaoshou could see everything using the power of his Sense skill.
The fierce counterattack not only trapped Cen Qiaofu, who was charging at Elder Sang, but even the masked man could not evade the leaping flames.
Both of them burned badly by the fierce roaring flames that seemed inextinguishable.
“What the hell is this?” Cen Qiaofu cried.
He looked flustered and hurriedly used his spiritual source to repel the flames, but his Spiritual Source was incinerated. He then repelled the white flames with his Great Path, but his foundations were singed.
The overpowering flames suddenly jogged his memory.
“Infernal Heavenly Flames? You are the disciple of Demi-Saint Infernal?”
Elder Sang did not reply. He clutched his hand, and the terrifying flames scorched their souls right away.
Cen Qiaofu’s face twisted, and the color of his head turned somewhat bleached.
“Burning down both life and path?”
Cen Qiaofu’s eyes widened, and he became quite flustered.
His body looked shriveled, yet he was still strong. But the flames burned him so severely that his skin became unbelievably creased, making him look even older than he already was.
“Qiaofu!” the masked man called out.
“The decision is in our hands and we do not need to fight any longer. We should leave!”
The masked man looked to be in excruciating pain as well. It was not the time to get a taste of the Infernal Heavenly Flames. His foundation was already damaged, and he was unable to fight Elder Sang for long.
It was why he chose not to fight Elder Sang.
So powerful was Elder Sang that if the masked man fought him, he would end up crippled, even if he succeeded in killing Elder Sang. Worse still, the damage inflicted on the masked man would be irreversible.
The loss would be immense if he fought with Elder Sang.
He pulled the Epitaph of City Snow from his back. But he found his towering Sword Will confined by the ceiling of the Dragon Melting Realm.
The masked man was in a dilemma. The flames could burn anything and everything and were indeed terrifying.
He then telepathically passed on a message to Cen Qiaofu. “Let’s give our all to cleave our way out. Let’s go!”
Cen Qiaofu nodded in response.
He had already discovered just how powerful Elder Sang was and had no intention of dallying around any further.
As Cen Qiaofu lifted his ax, Elder Sang snickered as he spoke.
“You cannot win, so you are trying to run, eh?”
Elder Sang moved his hands apart. The Dragon Melting Realm suddenly parted and took the form of two massive fireballs. The fireballs blazed like scorching suns and appeared capable of vaporizing everything in their path.
Xu Xiaoshou’s eyes almost popped out of his sockets and found the move uncannily familiar.
At that moment, he saw something even more familiar.
Elder Sang clenched his hands, and the two white scorching fireballs compressed and reduced to human-sized spheres.
The energies raging within those spheres radiated out.
The mist seeping from the leak seemed to devour anything it touched.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen to those trapped inside those spheres.
Xu Xiaoshou looked shocked.
Elder Sang was using a tactic Xu Xiaoshou had long played out in his mind.
“Pill Compression Art?”