Boom—!
Silver lightning churned violently within the gathering storm clouds, growing denser and more oppressive by the second. The sky itself seemed to sink lower, weighed down by an invisible pressure that made even breathing feel heavy.
After roughly ten seconds, the pitch-black clouds were suddenly torn apart.
A silver bolt of lightning—several meters long and nearly half a foot wide—shot out from the heart of the storm like a colossal silver python, roaring as it descended. Its target was unmistakable.
It was aimed straight at the two perfectly round pills inside the medicinal cauldron before Xiao Se, pills whose surfaces were etched with faint beast-shaped patterns.
Seeing the silver lightning fall, Xiao Se's expression hardened. His wrist flicked, and the demonic sword in his hand swung out in a smooth arc.
A massive golden flame sword aura, several meters long, slashed forward.
"Crimson Flame Sword—Heaven-Cleaving Arc!"
His low shout echoed through the air.
The golden flame sword aura collided head-on with the descending silver lightning. In an instant, a deafening explosion shook heaven and earth. The two violent energies pushed against one another for a brief moment before erupting with a bang, sending out a ring of compressed air that tore through the surroundings.
Both energies dissipated into nothingness.
The first silver lightning was dispersed by the flame sword aura.
Immediately after, a second bolt descended.
Then a third.
Each time, Xiao Se responded in the same way—clean, decisive slashes that shattered the lightning before it could reach the cauldron.
At last, the heavenly might seemed to grow enraged, as if offended by Xiao Se's blatant defiance.
The black clouds churned even more violently. Then, without warning, dozens of silver lightning bolts descended at the same time, filling the sky with blinding radiance.
"Crimson Flame Sword—Extreme Break!"
A golden flame giant sword more than forty meters long appeared out of thin air in Xiao Se's grasp.
He swung it down with overwhelming force.
A colossal flame sword aura nearly a hundred meters long tore across the sky, slicing through the heavens and ripping apart the storm clouds as it went. The dozens of silver lightning bolts were cleaved apart instantly, completely annihilated.
But the momentum of the flame sword aura did not stop there.
It continued onward—slamming straight into the thick layer of storm clouds above.
In that instant, the entire sky above Feng City was split cleanly in two.
Clear blue sky appeared where the clouds had been, sunlight pouring through the gap. For a brief moment, it felt as though heaven was no longer heaven, and earth was no longer earth.
It was as if the world itself were a vast prison.
And the torn storm clouds were the shattered exit.
Only after several dozen seconds did the clouds finally begin to regroup, slowly knitting themselves back together.
"W-what was that?! The clouds… they were split apart!"
Outside Feng City, many experts from the Black-Corner Region—drawn by the appearance of pill lightning yet wary of the Sea King Palace's power—were lingering nearby. Upon witnessing this scene, they cried out in unison, shock plain on their faces.
"Look! The clouds are gathering again—those are pill lightnings!"
"Only pills of seventh grade or higher can generate pill lightning!"
"Quick—go back and report to the sect master! There's a seventh-grade alchemist in Sea King Palace!"
"Report to the tomb lord immediately!"
"Report to the valley master—now!"
Among the crowd were many well-informed individuals. The moment they recognized the phenomenon above Feng City as pill lightning, they made their decision without hesitation.
A seventh-grade alchemist had appeared in the Black-Corner Region.
And not just anywhere—but within the newly risen Sea King Palace.
This was an event of enormous consequence.
After all, Han Feng, who had once ruled Feng City, was only a peak sixth-grade alchemist—and even that alone had given him tremendous influence across the Black-Corner Region.
A seventh-grade alchemist?
That was enough to mobilize multiple Dou Zong–level experts.
At the same time, Su Qian, the Great Elder of Jia Nan Academy's Inner Court—and the closest major power to Feng City—was also drawn by the disturbance.
The moment he saw the pill lightning, he didn't hesitate for even a second. He immediately flew toward Feng City.
In his heart, a strong intuition surged.
This pill lightning… it's probably caused by Xiao Se.
Meanwhile, the guards belonging to Sea King Palace did not attempt to stop Su Qian at all.
The close relationship between Sea King Palace and Jia Nan Academy was common knowledge. Among the guard captains were even several former graduates of the academy.
Not only did no one block him—some even greeted him respectfully as he passed.
"Great Elder."
The moment Su Qian arrived above the bamboo forest, he saw five women standing together below—Little Fairy Doctor, Zi Yan, Zhu Zhuqing, Medusa, and Die.
He nodded slightly toward Little Fairy Doctor, Zi Yan, and Zhu Zhuqing. Then his gaze shifted to Medusa and Die, a trace of confusion appearing on his face.
"Elder Little Fairy Doctor," he asked, "these two are…?"
"This is Queen Medusa of the Snake-People from the Tagore Desert," Little Fairy Doctor replied calmly. "And this is her younger sister, Die. They're both friends of Xiao Se."
"Queen Medusa? And she has a sister?" Su Qian reacted with sudden realization, then laughed warmly. "I never imagined that the Queen Medusa of the Snake-People would also break through to Dou Zong. And to think she even has a younger sister."
Medusa and Die simply nodded slightly in response, acknowledging his words without comment.
"Elder Little Fairy Doctor," Su Qian said, his gaze abruptly turning downward toward Xiao Se, who was single-handedly resisting the pill lightning. His expression changed dramatically. "Xiao Se is…?"
"Grandpa Su Qian," Zi Yan answered cheerfully before Little Fairy Doctor could speak. "Xiao Se is refining Transformation Pills for me and Sister Die!"
"Seventh-grade… Transformation Pills?"
Su Qian sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
He clearly remembered that just one year ago, Xiao Se had only barely been able to refine sixth-grade pills.
And now?
Not only had his cultivation reached the level of a Seven-Star Dou Huang, but even his alchemy had advanced to the realm of a seventh-grade alchemist.
Terrifying.
Utterly terrifying.
If Su Qian remembered correctly, Xiao Se was only sixteen years old.
His gaze unconsciously swept over the women around Xiao Se.
Zi Yan, the glutton, could be temporarily ignored.
But from the remaining four women's eyes, he saw unmistakable worry—and a faint, undeniable affection.
There was no doubt about it.
Queen Medusa and her sister Die were no different from Little Fairy Doctor and Zhu Zhuqing.
They all had ties to Xiao Se.
Little Fairy Doctor had broken through to Dou Zong at sixteen. Now, at seventeen, her cultivation had already surpassed Su Qian's, reaching the level of a Four-Star Dou Zong.
Medusa was also a Dou Zong.
Die was nearing the peak of Dou Huang.
And even the weakest among them—Zhu Zhuqing—was only fourteen years old, yet already possessed the strength of a Five-Star Dou Ling.
Every single one of them was a monster among monsters.
"To think that this little fellow not only possesses heaven-defying talent," Su Qian muttered, shaking his head in amazement, "but even his romantic fortune… is enough to make others die of envy."
With a sigh, he turned his full attention back to Xiao Se below.
The bamboo forest beneath them had already been reduced to near ruin under the impact of the explosive aftershocks.
If not for the combined spatial locks formed by Medusa and Little Fairy Doctor—two Dou Zong experts who neutralized most of the pill lightning's destructive force—Feng City itself would have suffered catastrophic damage.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several more massive silver lightning bolts struck down from the sky, as if determined to destroy the pills within the cauldron at any cost.
Once again, Xiao Se blocked them all.
"Unbelievable…" Su Qian murmured, watching Xiao Se swing his demonic sword again and again, his figure resembling a god descending to the mortal realm. "At this point, even I might not be able to defeat him."
At that very moment—
The sky above Xiao Se suddenly blazed with blinding silver light.
A silver pill lightning bolt several zhang long tore through the clouds and plummeted downward with terrifying force.
"Not good!" Little Fairy Doctor and Medusa cried out at the same time.
Even before the lightning struck, its overwhelming power caused the expressions of Little Fairy Doctor, Medusa, and Su Qian—all Dou Zong experts—to change drastically.
This level of power had already surpassed what an early-stage Dou Zong could withstand.
The three of them moved at once, intending to intervene.
But on the ground, Xiao Se threw his head back and laughed loudly.
"Mirror Flower Shatters—Break!"
As his laughter fell, Xiao Se swung his sword in a motion that was neither fast nor slow.
In that instant, the space above him froze completely.
The enormous silver lightning was halted mid-descent, locked in place as if embedded within a gigantic mirror of transparent glass.
The sword moved.
The mirror shattered.
The silver lightning dissipated.
The world fell silent.
And then—
The sound of countless people sucking in cold air rang out.
Within Feng City, the members of Sea King Palace.
Outside the city, the Black-Corner Region experts who had been secretly observing.
And even the few Dou Zong–level experts who had just arrived after receiving urgent reports from their subordinates.
All of them stood frozen in place, eyes wide, mouths agape.
Completely petrified.
That single sword strike—
It had already faintly surpassed the realm of Earth-grade Dou Techniques.
(End of Chapter)
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