"Get lost!"
Queen Medusa's eyes flared as she saw Chen Mo besieged by two Dou Huang powerhouses. Her mood instantly turned irritable.
She circulated her Dou Qi to the limit—her speed blurring into a streak.
Yuan Yi, a two-star Dou Huang, was quickly overwhelmed. Were it not for Han Feng backing him up with the Sea Heart Flame, making Queen Medusa wary, she would've already ended his life within two exchanges.
Yuan Yi was drenched in cold sweat, not daring to make a single careless move. He had long given up on taking the initiative; all he could do now was hold her off with Han Feng's help.
Meanwhile, Chen Mo activated the power of the Human Emperor bloodline and clashed head-on with Fan Lao.
A deep, thunderous boom echoed through the sky.
The air burst apart.
Chen Mo staggered back seven or eight steps, while Fan Lao was forced to retreat three or four.
In a direct confrontation, Chen Mo was only slightly weaker.
"Impossible!" Fan Lao's expression changed dramatically. He never imagined that someone whose cultivation had merely been temporarily boosted to a five-star Dou Ling could actually go blow for blow with him.
And not only survive—but only come off slightly worse.
Even with his power suppressed somewhat by the desert, Fan Lao was still a Dou Huang. The difference between them should have been immense.
"Swoosh!"
Snapping out of his daze, Fan Lao saw Jia Xingtian already launching his own attack toward Chen Mo.
Unable to deny the reality before him, Fan Lao had no choice but to cooperate with Jia Xingtian in a pincer assault.
Even while fighting Han Feng and Yuan Yi, Queen Medusa kept a close eye on Chen Mo out of the corner of her eye.
Seeing that he could hold his own, she finally exhaled in relief and focused entirely on her current battle.
Facing the renewed joint assault, Chen Mo gripped Heart Demon (Mo Yan), but did not immediately activate any techniques. He wanted to see what his current limit was under the boost of the Human Emperor bloodline.
With a flap of his Kunpeng Wings, he shot forward to meet them.
Jia Xingtian and Fan Lao didn't hold back in the slightest. Their strikes brimmed with killing intent and bloodlust.
They were trying to kill Chen Mo, not capture him. The Heavenly Flame could still be extracted from a corpse, after all.
The three clashed over several rounds.
Chen Mo remained at a disadvantage, but he never fell. Blow after blow, he held his ground.
From the battlefield below, Yue Mei and the others—while organizing the snake-people soldiers—were left stunned.
Fan Lao let out a sinister laugh. His hand, pale and skeletal like a dead tree, shot forward and began forming strange seals at lightning speed. Blood-red Dou Qi surged forth.
A moment later, a blood spear as thick as an arm and completely crimson in color materialized in his grip.
Grasping it tightly, Fan Lao's figure blurred into a blood shadow and streaked toward Chen Mo like a ghost. The spear hummed with cold killing intent as it stabbed viciously toward Chen Mo's heart.
"Coo!"
A shrill cry pierced the sky as pale yellow Dou Qi surged from Jia Xingtian. It condensed into a three-meter-tall mystical bird, which let out a sharp screech and lunged at Chen Mo.
Chen Mo narrowed his eyes.
"Looks like normal tactics won't cut it anymore."
With a grin, a wisp of cyan flame flickered to life beneath his feet.
His five fingers clenched.
The cyan flame instantly surged, wrapping around his entire body like armor.
"You want the Heavenly Flame, right?" Chen Mo sneered.
"Then let me show you its true power!"
As his words fell—
"Hisssss!"
A massive cyan fire serpent, dozens of meters long, burst forth from behind him. Its tongue flicked ominously as it roared at Fan Lao and Jia Xingtian, releasing an aura no weaker than their own.
This fire serpent was the current limit of Chen Mo's control over the Green Lotus Core Flame.
"Go!"
Standing atop the serpent's head, Chen Mo charged forward with Heart Demon in hand.
The screeching mystical bird of Dou Qi was devoured instantly by the serpent's open maw.
The next second, the serpent clashed directly with Fan Lao.
Facing the Heavenly Flame, Fan Lao's blood-based techniques and elemental alignment were heavily suppressed. Though a three-star Dou Huang, under these conditions, his combat power had dropped to that of a two-star.
Boom!
They collided. The fire serpent exploded into a storm of cyan flames that swept across the sky. Even space itself seemed to ripple and distort from the intensity.
The heat radiated through the air, engulfing half the royal city.
A blood-robed figure was sent flying like a ragdoll.
It was Fan Lao.
The massive blast drew countless astonished gazes. Everyone stared in awe as the cyan flames roared across the sky like a wildfire.
Was this... the true power of a Heavenly Flame?
Terrifying.
[Latest chapters first on 69ShuBa!]
At the center of the raging fire, Chen Mo stood unharmed. Having refined the Green Lotus Core Flame, he was immune to its burn unless he deliberately unleashed its full might, like in a Buddha's Fury Flame Lotus.
From afar, Han Feng's expression betrayed undeniable shock.
He had nearly lost his life just trying to acquire the 15th-ranked Heavenly Flame, the Sea Heart Flame.
Even afterward, refining and suppressing it had been excruciating. His incomplete version of the Flame Mantra left his inner flame control unstable. The internal turbulence it caused had been a constant source of torment.
So, seeing someone of Chen Mo's age wield a Heavenly Flame to this level—Han Feng couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy.
Of course, Chen Mo had no idea what Han Feng was thinking.
As he prepared to finish off the injured Fan Lao, Jia Xingtian charged at him once more.
"Quicksand Vortex!"
Jia Xingtian shouted. The yellow sand below erupted violently, rising into a massive sand tornado that sought to swallow Chen Mo whole.
Chen Mo's eyes narrowed.
"If you're so eager to die, then let this sword be your funeral pyre."
The golden wings on his back trembled slightly as he raised Heart Demon in both hands.
He didn't move. Yet an overwhelming sword intent surged from within him—emanating from both his body and his blade.
As the sand tornado approached—
Chen Mo finally moved.
There was no fancy footwork, no extravagant technique—just a simple, clean draw of the sword.
And yet, this single draw carried a chilling aura.
The aura of death.
"Heaven-Cleaving Sword Draw!"
Chen Mo slashed.
In an instant, a radiant sword arc a hundred meters long exploded forward, infused with unstoppable sword intent, cutting through the air like a scythe of the gods.
It was so fast the naked eye couldn't follow.
The sandstorm was sliced apart like paper.
And then, under Jia Xingtian's stunned gaze—
His body met the sword light.
In the blink of an eye, he was obliterated—his entire existence erased.
A gentle breeze passed by, and Jia Xingtian had completely vanished from the world.
Silence.
A deathly stillness spread across the battlefield.
All around, countless eyes turned to Chen Mo, breathing in sharp gasps.
A Dou Huang, just like that—killed in a single sword strike.
****
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