"Nine Profound Golden Lightning?" Hun Tiandi wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his expression dark as night. Although the earlier strike hadn't dealt him a fatal blow, it had damaged his heart vessels. Normal lightning couldn't possibly cause such devastating effects—only the highest-grade Nine Profound Golden Lightning could possess such power.
He stared coldly at the smiling Xiao Yan and said, "You're definitely not Void Devouring Flame. Who are you really?"
Given what he knew of Void Devouring Flame, that fellow absolutely didn't possess something like the Nine Profound Golden Lightning. More importantly, Void Devouring Flame had no reason to ambush him. The only possible explanation was that the "Void Devouring Flame" standing before him was an impostor!
Xiao Yan's lips curved into a smile. With a casual wave, the disguise covering his body dissolved, revealing his true face. When Hun Tiandi saw the revealed features, his pupils contracted sharply as he blurted, "Xiao Xuan?!"
"No… you're not Xiao Xuan!" Hun Tiandi quickly realized something was off. Although this man resembled Xiao Xuan to some degree, on closer inspection, there were clear differences. His aura, though strong, didn't match Xiao Xuan's peak-level strength. Besides, Xiao Xuan had been dead for over a thousand years—there was no chance of him returning.
"Of course I'm not him," Xiao Yan replied with a smile. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Xiao Yan. Or if you prefer… the Wrathful Demon Saint."
"Xiao Yan? You're from the Xiao Clan?" Hun Tiandi looked at him in disbelief before shaking his head. "Impossible. The Xiao Clan was annihilated over a thousand years ago. How could someone from that clan have reached the Dou Sheng level?"
"There are many things in this world you think impossible," Xiao Yan said with a shrug. He had no intention of explaining further.
"No matter where you came from, since you're a remnant of the Xiao Clan, I'll send you to join Xiao Xuan!" Hun Tiandi's eyes turned sharp. He could sense that Xiao Yan's aura placed him at the early Nine-Star Dou Sheng stage—comparable to Void Devouring Flame at his peak. If this guy truly came from the Xiao Clan, his status wouldn't have been low. But what puzzled Hun Tiandi was, where had he been during that war a thousand years ago?
He assumed Xiao Yan must have been alive back then and had cultivated in secret ever since. What he didn't know was that Xiao Yan had climbed from Dou Qi stage nine to Nine-Star Dou Sheng in less than ten years. Accepting such a reality was harder for Hun Tiandi than simply believing he missed a surviving branch of the clan.
"This whole scheme was your doing, wasn't it?" Hun Tiandi turned toward Hun Dai'er, who had long since stepped aside. His voice was cold and biting. The calmness on her face told him she had expected the assassination attempt. It was likely this remnant of the Xiao Clan had infiltrated the Hun Clan thanks to her.
"Father, you're old. It's time you stepped down," Hun Dai'er replied indifferently. If she wanted to truly control the Hun Clan, Hun Tiandi had to be eliminated. Otherwise, even if she inherited the position of clan leader one day, she would be nothing but a puppet. She had realized this even in her past life, which was why she chose to cooperate with Xiao Yan in the first place.
"I underestimated your ambition," Hun Tiandi sneered. With a stomp, vast Heaven and Earth energy surged behind him, forming a massive tidal wave of power. "But if you think some bedmate of yours can defeat me, you're sorely mistaken! Though we're both Nine-Star Dou Shengs, there's a world of difference between the early and peak stages!"
Hun Dai'er's face paled as the power surge swept over her. Having once stood at this level, she understood the terrifying strength of a peak Nine-Star Dou Sheng. Though the attack was aimed at Xiao Yan, even the residual energy was enough to destroy her. Without immediate retreat, even her soul might collapse under the pressure.
The terrifying surge of energy would be more than enough to suppress any Dou Sheng below the Seven-Star level. She knew that, and compared to Xiao Yan's monstrous advancement speed, her progress to the Dou Sheng level had taken a far more conventional path.
Facing the seemingly endless energy tide, Xiao Yan remained unfazed. With a thought, a strange mark surfaced at the center of his forehead, and his aura climbed once more—it was the Xiao Clan's bloodline mark!
Normally, for someone at the Nine-Star Dou Sheng level, the boost granted by a clan's bloodline mark would be negligible. But the Xiao Clan's mark scaled with the quality of the flames it resonated with. Xiao Yan had twenty-one different Heavenly Flames within him—including the Void Devouring Flame, ranked second on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.
At this moment, both the quantity and quality of the flames within Xiao Yan had reached a terrifying threshold. With the aid of the clan mark, his power surged from early to mid Nine-Star Dou Sheng.
As his aura soared, Hun Tiandi struck. The tidal surge of energy gathered to form a massive hand, clawing toward Xiao Yan. At the same time, a swirling black hole condensed in his right palm, combining with the tidal force to unleash a devastating double strike.
Each of these techniques alone could severely injure an early Nine-Star Dou Sheng. Together, they could push even a mid-to-late Nine-Star Dou Sheng to the brink.
In the face of this overwhelming assault, Xiao Yan chuckled lightly. With a flick of his fingers, a dark purple flame floated before him and expanded into a shield-like curtain of fire. It absorbed both attacks without a trace.
This dark purple flame was the fusion of his Demon Lotus Flame and the Void Devouring Flame, along with several other Heavenly Flames. Faint streaks of gold flickered within it. The fire curtain he had deployed was none other than the Devouring Heaven Mirror that Void Devouring Flame once used.
"Devouring power… so you really did refine the Void Devouring Flame," Hun Tiandi's expression darkened. He had suffered internal injuries from that earlier sword strike. Now, Xiao Yan had the benefit of his clan mark and the power of the Void Devouring Flame. The gap between them had closed significantly. Defeating him wouldn't be as easy as he had assumed.
(End of Chapter)
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