In the middle of shining sword energy and splashes of blood, the Blood River avatar let out a crimson light. The drops of essence blood gathered in the air, ultimately condensing into a blood gem that fell into Tang Jie's hand.
Tang Jie took it with a smile. Strangely, he had no barrier around him.
He just stood in the sea of flames, a light current of air flowing around him.
The flame creatures gradually disappeared, and the white flames reappeared. But rather than returning to the core of the valley, they circled around Tang Jie and flowed into his body.
"Bastard!" the other Blood River avatar furiously roared.
It had taken him considerable amounts of power to fight back against the sea of fire and save his avatar, and he hadn't expected Tang Jie to suddenly kill it with one strike and take away all the essence blood. If he had known that this was going to happen, he wouldn't have even tried saving the avatar.
The Blood River avatar charged at Tang Jie.
"Hey, wait a second. Don't you want me to give this back to you?" Tang Jie asked as he tossed the blood gem into the air and then caught it.
The Blood River Lord immediately stopped.
Of course, he thought to himself.
The blood gems were the Blood River Lord's core, the key to his control over the Blood River's power. From a certain perspective, they were also his life. So long as the blood gems existed, he would not die. Moreover, the blood gems were normally too well-hidden for the average opponent to detect, and even if they killed an avatar, they would find it difficult to destroy the blood gems. This was why he had the title of "the Undying King". The Blood River Lord's fourth avatar had so desperately tried to save the third avatar precisely because of this essence blood. If not for that, he wouldn't have minded its death.
Alas, it had been his misfortune to run into Tang Jie, who had Insight that allowed him to take his blood gems, within the sea of flames, which could burn up everything, including his blood gems. Such counters were what made him fear death.
The Blood River Lord stopped at Tang Jie's words and viciously glared at him. "What else do you have to say?"
Tang Jie asked, "Can we not fight? Don't you think that only peace is meaningful?"
The Blood River Lord angrily said, "What nonsense are you saying?"
Tang Jie shrugged. "I just think that fighting all day is rather pointless, and I think that there's no need for it. Hey, don't stare at me like that. It's scary. Actually, I don't like fighting at all, so if you really want the blood gem back, if you talk properly with me, I can give it back. The Black Tortoise's essence blood too. Right, there's also the Vermillion Bird. Have you heard about the Vermillion Bird? I actually have the essence blood of both the Vermillion Bird and the White Tiger. Hey, hey, don't give me that disbelieving look! I'm telling the truth. We can really negotiate here…"
Tang Jie chattered on and on.
The Blood River Lord's face grew darker and darker.
He looked at the white flame circling around Tang Jie and coldly laughed. "You're just buying time, right? You're using this opportunity to absorb the Pale Cloud Flame."
"Egad, you saw through me." Tang Jie scratched his head and laughed. "My apologies for showing you this embarrassing sight. I just find this Pale Cloud Flame to be pretty nice, so I want to absorb some and study them. You also know that they're particularly powerful when they're all gathered there. But the one over at the core is just too fierce for me to get close. Didn't expect that old tiger to draw out some of the Pale Cloud Flame. When I saw them split off, I knew that this was my chance…"
Tang Jie continued to laugh and talk, continuing to buy time as his spark greedily absorbed the Pale Cloud Flame.
In normal circumstances, it was impossible for the spark to absorb the Pale Cloud Flame at its current level of power, but because the Pale Cloud Flame had separated off a part of itself, Tang Jie had a rare opportunity. He hadn't been lying when he said that.
He had first bought time with lies, and now he was using the truth. It was all the same when it came to buying time for him to absorb the Pale Cloud Flame. He would even confess his love to the Blood River Lord if that was what it took.
The slivers of the Pale Cloud Flame entered the spark, that torrent of power causing the spark's color to shift, going from a deep red to a silver luster.
The white holy flame gradually merged with the spark, modifying it and strengthening it.
The spark began to rocket toward a higher level.
And Tang Jie's mood rose with it.
The Pale Cloud Flame!
The Glaze Flame was nothing compared to it. By absorbing the Pale Cloud Flame's power, his spark was getting a huge boost in both quality and quantity. In just a few moments, he could feel that his spark had grown ten times stronger, and this was with Tang Jie limiting its growth because it was starting to get unstable from the ferocity of the flame. Fortunately, the scattered Pale Cloud Flames were now returning to the core, and Tang Jie let them go.
But Tang Jie's spark had now been reborn, and he no longer feared the core region.
The Blood River Lord naturally didn't know that all this was going on. He lost his impatience over Tang Jie's chattering and roared, "You really think I'm afraid of a puny Pale Cloud Flame? Let alone a sliver, all of the Pale Cloud Flame here gathered up together is nothing to make me afraid."
"Of course, but that's if your original body were here." As a way to buy time, Tang Jie didn't mind arguing with the Blood River Lord in the slightest. But the Blood River Lord clearly wasn't interested in continuing the discussion. Once he knew that Tang Jie was buying time, he knew that there was no chance of Tang Jie giving him the blood gem back and that further talk was pointless.
Glaring, he expanded his Blood Sea, a large hand of blood slapping down. "Die, brat!"
Tang Jie unleashed a Dragonlike Hand to block the blood hand while saying, "You really think you can kill me at your current level of strength? This avatar of yours had to contend against the sea of fire for three days and is much weaker because of it, and then you also expended your strength to save your avatar from the flames of Holy Fire Valley. The current you can't even reach 30% of your peak, right?"
"So what? It's enough to kill you!" the Blood River Lord shouted back. Tang Jie had needed five people to kill him last time, so even if he had only 30% of his strength, it was still more than the 20% that Tang Jie could theoretically deal with.
Of course, with these words, the Blood River Lord voluntarily ignored Tang Jie's hidden strength. In a real contest of strength, Tang Jie might not be able to win in a one-on-one, but he definitely wasn't something a Heart Demon avatar at 30% strength could finish off.
"Then let's try it out," Tang Jie said as he dodged several attacks. He then used the Chaoswind Step to teleport behind the Blood River Lord and stabbed his sword at him.
As the sword beam pierced through the Blood River Lord's body, the blood that made up his body scattered. Thus, the attack failed to harm him while Tang Jie now faced a corrosive wave of blood. The Blood River Lord had used the very same move back in the battle at the City of Freedom.
But this time, it wasn't so easy to use this move. As the blood attacked the target, it could do nothing against the surrounding flames, and much of it was instantly evaporated. Amid the white smoke, Tang Jie was able to easily evade the greatly-reduced wave of blood.
The blood returned to the Blood River Lord's body, but he now seemed to be in much worse condition. He had not battled before this day, or ever used this move in this environment, and only now did he realize that it had so many limitations.
In reality, all of his spell arts that relied on blood were greatly limited here.
Tang Jie swung his sword once more, and the Blood River Lord yelped and released his blood shield, clearly trying to use the Blood Sea's power to fend off his foe as he did before. But Tang Jie simply laughed and summoned the Flesh Millstone.
The Flesh Millstone and the Blood Sea were both suppressed by the sea of flames, making them much weaker. However, Tang Jie wasn't using it for its grinding power, but for its ability to absorb blood energy. The moment it appeared, it began to draw power from the blood shield.
This meant that the blood shield could no longer immerse the Sovereign Blade as before, and the sword stabbed into the Blood River Lord's body. Through the power of Insight, it struck a point of blood essence, causing the Blood River Lord to howl in pain.
The Flesh Millstone turned, absorbing more of the blood shield's power.
"Trying to compete with me in blood absorbing?" The Blood River Lord snarled and snatched at the air, grabbing at the blood energy around Tang Jie, and Tang Jie felt as if his grip on the Flesh Millstone was loosening. He immediately knew that he was far from a match for the Blood River Lord when it came to controlling blood.
But a moment later, Tang Jie widened his eyes and shouted, "Stop!"
This use of the Four-Nine True Words shook the Blood River Lord's mind, and at the same time, a flame shot out from Tang Jie's body, the power of the Pale Cloud Flame that was hidden within his spark.
Since the spark was unstable from absorbing too much, he would just release some of it!
Blaze, firebird!
An enormous firebird flew into the air and unleashed a torrent of flames at the Blood River Lord, striking his blood barrier.
The Blood River Lord had never expected this move from Tang Jie, and he stopped trying to take the Flesh Millstone and did his best to resist.
"Useless!" Tang Jie roared.
As he roared, the firebird screeched and mustered the power of the sea of flames, creating countless fire creatures that lunged at the Blood River Lord as if he was the fiend tiger.
But the fire creatures were slightly weaker this time, though none of them attacked Tang Jie, only the Blood River Lord.
The fire creatures charged again and again, letting another one of the Blood River Lord's avatars enjoy this experience.
This avatar was more unfortunate, though, for he suffered the attacks of both the fire creatures and the Flesh Millstone.
The Blood River Lord was the Flesh Millstone's bane, but the Flesh Millstone was also the Blood River Lord's bane. The two countered each other, with the sole decider being strength.
In terms of strength, the Blood River Lord naturally won out, but with the firebird holding him down, he could only allow the Flesh Millstone to draw away his power.
There was no way he could keep fighting.
If he used the power of the Blood Sea, the Flesh Millstone would drain it, and if he didn't use it, the fire creatures would strike.
The Blood River Lord finally understood why Tang Jie had chosen to fight him here: because this was his home court.
Of course, he had forgotten about one other thing: he had only recently obtained the power of this flame. If not for the tiger fiend, the fight wouldn't have been this easy.
It was precisely this development that let Tang Jie know of his unique advantage in Holy Fire Valley.
The Flesh Millstone and spark played off each other to perfectly counter the Blood River Lord.
He had originally been hoping for his other two avatars to come to his aid, having already killed the boar and snake fiends, but once he realized this, he understood that his avatars would probably be of no help heere.
The Blood River Lord no longer had any hope of winning.
Knowing that his defeat was certain, he glared at Tang Jie and said, "I've remembered you! Next time, I'll definitely kill you!"
"You've said that before," Tang Jie coldly replied.
The firebird screeched, and the sea of flames retreated, the Flesh Millstone pulling in the Blood River Lord and grinding him down.
At this time, the Blood River Lord's other two avatars finally arrived.
They appeared in the sea of flames and saw the avatar being ground down, but rather than going to its aid, they looked at each other and then retreated, one going left and one going right.
"Trying to run?" Tang Jie smirked. "None of you are escaping!"
Comments