Chapter 269 - Powerful Flames

Fear and pain erupted in Lan's Martial Heart. She could no longer hold back. 

Lan fully erupted her Inner World, her body spewing out streams of purple Divine Water Law Source essence. 

The Divine purple water streams instantly engulfed her body, forming a seemingly powerful water armor. 

Huang Xun didn't care about this sudden development. Massive sums of energy instantly gathered in her hand as she causally waved it. 

Bursting from her hand's causal wave were rays of piercing black sword lights!

The black sword lights practically tore through space, reaching mere meters away from Lan within only a moment. 

Lan's eyes shrunk to needle sizes, her soul screaming in fear.

The power of these black sword lights was immense! 

Her 3rdfall stage superior advantage didn't mean anything; Lan felt far inferior to just a causal attack of Huang Xun.

At the very last moment, before she was struck, Lan fished out a purple talisman, crushed it, and formed a Spiritual Water barrier. 

'Bang!' 

Droplets of purple water burst like a hurricane, the sound of metal bursting apart rocked the eardrums.

With absolute ease, Huang Xun's black sword lights blasted Lan's Water barrier and Divine Water armor essence! 

It was only because of the amplification of the talisman did Lan just narrowly avoided a severely injured state.

The violent collision of energy still fiercely struck Lan, sending her body blasting away like a bullet. Her protective Divine aura and Divine body's defenses instantly crumpled under the intense energies.

Lan miserably shrieked as flows of blood spurted out her body. 

She violently struck the talisman's barrier, feeling numerous bones in her back brutally crack apart. Immense pain dazed Lan's mind, nearly pushing her into unconsciousness. 

However, Lan frantically resisted as she then took out a purple necklace. 

Spiritual energy flowed out of it; this was Spirit Artifact!

To activate the power of a Spirit Artifact in her state comes with huge sacrifices.

Evidently, Lan wanted to sacrifice a good portion of her cultivation to escape. 

She was overwhelmed and overpowered. Retreating was her only option! 

But, how could Huang Xun give her the chance?

"Hmph!" 

Huang Xun's cold snort released, infusing into the atmosphere like a formless pressure. 

Upon hearing the cold snort, Lan completely froze. Fear had taken hold of her.

She felt as if a superior beast had just appeared, and she was its prey! This was fear of suppression, the feeling of being utterly inferior! 

In this split moment, Huang Xun rushed forward while bringing out her signature black sword. 

Huang Xun appeared like a flash, unhesitatingly swiping her black sword straight at Lan's neck. 

Without any resistance, Lan was mercilessly beheaded by Huang Xun.

The black sword light easily tore through Lan's flesh like fragile paper. Her head, filled with absolute fear, rose in the air before quickly slamming to the ground in a sickening crunch.

Blood spewed like a geyser from Lan's decapitated neck, staining the ground in a chilling crimson storm. 

Huang Xun was eerily calm. She casually stepped away from the blood while calmly analyzing the fruits of her battle.

'In a regular fight, I would still have just as much ease with this. At most, I can contend against a 6th fall Divine Origin or 5thfall Great Divine Sea warrior at full power. Still, I mainly held absolute domination because of the surprise tactic.'

When Divine cultivators fight, many things have to be considered in and out of battle. 

From the density of one's Inner World energies, the specific Divine Source Law used, the cultivation art revolve, and ultimate killer Martial moves. 

There was also the attack on the Martial Heart. If one can successfully disrupt a mental state and suppress the Martial Heart, their combat prowess will fall even more. 

Even though Lan was an ordinary Divine Origin cultivator, she would still possess numerous methods. Such could be seen with her talisman and Spirit Artifact necklace. 

However, all of that had easily crumbled apart with overwhelming prowess. Nothing can simply be done if one's prowess can utterly crush their foe with minimal resistance.

Combined this with Huang Xun's sharp mind and combination of Martial moves, it was no surprise she killed Lan off so quickly. 

It would only be foolish otherwise to toy around and drag the battle on.

Recalling her Divine aura and energies, Huang Xun took a slight breath. She was practically indifferent over her prowess and merciless killing. 

Even from a young age, she was bred to be a great warrior. Fights like this were a natural part of her mental state.

Putting her black sword back in her spatial ring, Huang Xun decided to calmly wait for Huang Dai and the others to finish their fights. 

Huang Xun coordinated with Dai, knowing that he used the same tactics as her.

Furthermore, as her and his prowess are roughly the same, Dai would have incomparable ease dealing with his foe. 

By now, Huang Xun fathoms that he is already finished.

What Huang Xun truly pondered about was Pao's group. She can detect that their battle was at its highest heat. 

However, she didn't make a single move to help. 

Naturally, Huang Xun had her reason.

One was to avoid suspicions that she was able to clear a stronger person than her within moments. And two, she simply didn't care whether Pao's group lived or died.

If they truly die, it would be a little bit troublesome to scour for treasure, but she and Dai have the means to safely retreat. 

And even if they were injured, they could still safely retreat at a truly dangerous situation.

A pragmatic mindset that she and many other Martial cultivators came to develop after experiencing their mercliess world. 

Huang Xun was calm as she waited. The battle went on for around 15 minutes.

Finally, when she failed to detect any signs of turbulent Divine Qi's flow, did Huang Xun recall her talisman barrier. 

At the same her barrier dropped, Huang Dai released his concealment. 

The Dragon siblings weren't even that far from each other, only around dozens of meters separated. 

Huang Xun flashed Dai a look, her eyes signaling all that needed to be said. 

Huang Dai naturally understood, nodding with a plain, indifferent look. 

Wordlessly, the Dragon siblings sauntered back over to Pao's group. As those three entered their visions, they were a bit shocked.

Pao, Zhou, and Ning looked like they were in horrible dire straits. Their Spiritual Armor was nearly torn all the way off, some spots cracked to utter pieces. 

And with each revealed spot showcased their brutal injuries. Blood seeped out large gashes, and fresh white bone could even be seen at some spots. 

Pao, Zhou, and Ning had pale faces, and their expressions were on the verge of collapsing. 

But each of them still stood imposingly over three ruined corpses at their feet.  Those corpses were in an even worse state than Pao's group. 

'Wow, would you look this? Is this really the work of their Innate talent?' Huang Dai couldn't help but comment, his voice transmitting into Xun's mind. 

Expersonaless on the outside, Huang Xun had answered internally with a vague sense of curiosity.

'I wouldn't say they're so talented or even decently ones. Just look at their weapons. The Royal grade insignias are almost all but gone. And even the one left looked incredibly vague.'

'Ah, so this is the might of a Royal Grade weapon, huh? A shame that after this battle, those weapons-grade will drop drastically. That is, if they can even get a World Spirit Master to repair it.' Huang Dai inwardly sighs. 

Indeed, the quality of one's weapon has a chance to play a massive crucial role in battle. As long as one can adequately control the Spirit Weapon, they would be able to draw out its latent power.

And in some cases, that lantern power can go beyond the user's combat prowess! 

Of course, for situations like to happen, the user would need to spend a massive sum of their energies reserves.

Moreover, it is difficult to keep up that state for any prolonged amount of time. 

As for Pao's group, it seemed they utilized their Spirit weapons to a breaking a point and possibly used other means.

Not that Huang Dai or Xun carried that much about it. They merely noted it as a slight oddity. 

As the Dragon siblings approached, Pao's group promptly took notice of them. 

Upon just a glance, shock erupted on their faces. 

'This is…how aren't they injured in the slightest?!' 

'They both went against the 3rdfall Divine Origin cultivators and have had their Inner World suppressed! Could they really be geniuses?'

'They just have to be geniuses. But their combat prowess should've been utterly destructive. Just why couldn't I sense it then…' 

Pao, Zhou, and Ning had numerous thoughts buzzing in their minds.

However, none of them choose to question it at this moment. They had sustained too many injuries and needed to heal. 

Pao hurriedly said, "Protect us. Healing won't take long."

Just as he said that Huang Dai and Xun instantly tensed! 

Their battle instincts were already on high alert. So when they perceived a vague familiar sensation suddenly appearing in their Spiritual Sea, the Dragon siblings promptly reacted. 

Spikes of danger shot through them as the Huang Dai and Xun jumped off in opposite directions. They both even revolve their Inner World energies, causing their speed to enhance significantly. 

"Hey! Ju-" 

Whatever Pao was going to say got merciless caught off when a powerful aura washed through the dead-end room! 

This powerful aura gave Pao's group a great sense of death!

However, before anyone could react, an orange light streaked from the wall and rapidly approached Pao's group. Utter fear exploded in their minds. They felt the taste of death just from right above them!

But before they could react, their vision saw what was the orange light streaked was. 

As the temperature rose to unbearable levels, Pao saw that the orange light was actually a small flaming bird. 

The small flaming bird actually appeared relatively harmless. In a way, it can be considered very cute. 

But the power behind this small flaming bird immediately dispelled all thoughts about it.

This type of prowess was massive! 

Pao, Zhou, Ning felt tremendously inferior to this one attack. Perhaps in their peak state, they would be able to react properly. But even then, it would only be a split-second hasty defense.

Their Martial Hearts fiercely wavered. Their Inner World was still suppressed and lacked a significant sum of energy.

Moreover, their injuries were all too severe. It was a miracle they were all still able to walk. 

Thus, nobody in the dead-end room could react when the small flaming bird had suddenly enormously bloated and chaotically exploded!

'Bang!' 

Torrents of luminous orange flames engulfed Pao, Zhou, and Ning. They at first miserably shrieked, but the intensity of the fire was far too immense. 

Their bodies were rapidly melting at the seconds!

And not just their bodies; these orange flames were unrestrained by the environment. 

Anywhere wisps of orange flames landed on, it would directly melt a large, deep hole through that surface!

The structure here has all been amplified by Divine Essence. Its natural defenses would be utterly mind-numbing. 

But whatever these orange flames were, its destructive ability was equally overwhelming. 

As Huang Xun and Dai calmly observed 100 meters away, the vague sensations in their Spiritual Sea only turned more pronounced. 

Their gazes couldn't tear off from those flames for even a second. Intensely staring into it, a conclusion began to form in their minds. 

As they pondered, Huang Dai and Xun had already set up a barrier around themselves. The barrier was enough to block the aftershocks of Divine Qi.

Huang Dai and Xun only coldly watched the orange flames rage on. At this point, they had a precise guess on what was going on. 

It was only after a few minutes did the orange flames rapidly died down. 

Upon its clearing, there were no longer any traces of Pao, Zhou, Ning, or those three corpses. 

All of them had been thoroughly incinerated to ash by those powerful orange flames.