Chapter 450 - Race Against Time

Sha Tie’s eyes stared intently at the green-colored flame that rose from Xiao Yan’s palm. The instant that the flame had materialized, he clearly sensed that the temperature between the trees rose by a lot. His expression immediately became more serious as he looked at Xiao Yan with some astonishment and asked, “You are an alchemist?”

In the Dou Qi continent, there were only two possibilities for one to be able to summon out an Essence Flame. One was the Fire Seed that an alchemist had obtained from the various different kinds of fire affinity Magical Beasts, which he would then refine for his own use.

The other possibility was that a he was a strong person who practiced a fire affinity Dou Qi. However, if one wanted to rely just on Dou Qi to agglomerate an Essence Flame, one must at least be at the Dou Wang class before they could begin to think about succeeding. Of course, nothing was absolute. There were also some people who practiced Dou Qi of the fire affinity and were not alchemists but were able to obtain some strange flames for their own use. Similarly, however, the requirement placed on the level of one’s strength was extremely harsh. Seeing the current Xiao Yan, it was clear that he had not met the requirements of the latter possibilities. Hence, Sha Tie had immediately chose to voice the first possibility.

Xiao Yan did not reply Sha Tie’s astonished words. The green-colored flame spread out from his hand, and swiftly wrapped both his hands within it. He lifted his head slightly and a green-colored light occasionally flared in his dark black pupils.

“Bang!”

Xiao Yan’s feet once again stomped against the ground. He could hear a clear muffled sound as his body turned into a pale-green-colored blur which carried an extremely high temperature, and shot explosively toward Sha Tie.

The blazing air that pounced toward his face caused Tie Sha’s brows to furrow slightly. Although he could not determine what type of flame Xiao Yan had summoned, he could vaguely guess that the strength of this flame was definitely not weak from the sharp rise in the temperature of his surroundings.

Sha Tie’s iron pagoda like body stood in the same spot. He did not choose to dodge. The golden Dou Qi bestowed upon him gave him a great attacking and defensive strength but it deprived him of agility. He knew that even if he wanted to dodge, he would definitely be unable to escape Xiao Yan’s attack. Since this was the case, why should he bother doing something so futile and instead risk exposing a weakness in the process?

The hot air became increasingly closer. Sha Tie emitted a stern cry from his mouth and dark-golden-colored Dou Qi abruptly surged out from within his body. The golden light shot out and finally absorbed Xiao Yan into it. At a glance, it appeared as though he was a person molded entirely from gold.

The heated atmosphere was only reduced a little after the Dou Qi Armor appeared. Sha Tie’s enormous gold-like fist was slowly tightened. Finally, it was thrown out without any fancy moves or skill.

Although Sha Tie’s fist did not have any variety in his move, the terrifying strength contained in it directly caused the air around Xiao Yan to be saturated with it. At this moment, absolute strength embraced everything.

Xiao Yan’s face tensed. The Dou Crystal within the vortex of his body repeatedly trembled. Wave after wave of powerful Dou Qi was spat out. Finally, it swiftly circulated within his Qi Paths, allowing Xiao Yan to be filled with fighting strength.

Green-colored flames swiftly enshrouded his fist before it suddenly struck out. It heavily collided with Sha Tie’s fist in an impartial manner. In an instant, a powerful ripple spread out from the middle of the two of them, shaking and splitting the few large trees near the two of them, forming a couple of crack lines. The trees became shaky and unstable.

The ferocious force being transmitted from their fists caused Xiao Yan to swiftly take two steps back. On the other hand, Sha Tie’s body merely trembled a couple of times. It appeared that in terms of a competition of pure strength, Xiao Yan was still a little weaker than Sha Tie.

Of course, Xiao Yan may have been shaken until he took two steps back but Sha Tie also felt a little uncomfortable. The green-colored flame on Xiao Yan’s fist caused him to suffer greatly. In the collision earlier, his fist would have likely been roasted until it swelled up by a couple of layers had it not been for his Dou Qi Armor isolating it. Even though this was the case, Sha Tie’s fist still had a faint searing pain.

Sha Tie’s gaze obscurely swept over the green-colored flame in Xiao Yan’s hand. Shock flashed through his heart. It was not that he had never seen the flame of an alchemist. He had even fought with some of the students from the Alchemist Department in the Fighting Arena but the flames that those students summoned could not breach his Dou Qi Armor and cause him to even feel a little injured. However, that strange green-colored flame on Xiao Yan’s hand today had this kind of frightening unique ability. This caused Sha Tie to involuntarily feel a solemn feeling within his heart.

The moment the thought in Sha Tie’s heart was swiftly spinning, Xiao Yan had once again pounced toward him. This time, however, he gave up on having head on collisions. Instead, he began to use the advantage of his agility and repeatedly flashed around Sha Tie’s body like a ghost. His fists frequently carried a green-colored flame as they were thrown out, carrying a ‘Qiang Qiang’ sound of metal clashing within the empty forest.

Sha Tie did not have too great of a response toward Xiao Yan’s nearly continuous attacks. He dodged those that he could, and forcefully resisted those that he could not. Occasionally, he would wave his heavy fist and the feeling of an increasingly heavy force on it caused Xiao Yan to have no choice but to pull back to dodge it.

The moment Xiao Yan and Tie Sha’s fight was becoming increasingly fierce, the other few battlegrounds had also slowly entered into a white-hot phase.

Perhaps it was because they had already fought once earlier but the Dou Qi which was spread over the surface of Hu Jia’s and Wu Hao’s body started to become a little dim after nearly six to seven minutes of battle. Hu Jia was a little better but Wu Hao’s strength, speed, dodging ability, etc. had already greatly declined because of his weakening Dou Qi which resulted in him beginning to be suppressed into a disadvantageous position by his opponent from the ‘Black Demon Group.’

If it was not because of the killing aura within Wu Hao’s attacks being too strong and that the member of the ‘Black Demon Group’ was a little afraid of being seriously injured, it was likely that Wu Hao’s fight would have been even more difficult.

Compared with these two people who were each in a somewhat disadvantaged situation, Xun Er was the complete opposite. Golden light shot out explosively from her palms. Her body was as elegant as a wisp of light smoke while her attacking speed was so fast that it brought about numerous afterimages. Perhaps it was because she clearly understood that Wu Hao and Hu Jia could not last long. Therefore, she did not have any thoughts of preserving her strength. Occasionally, she would display powerful Dou Techniques, forcing her opponent back until the latter was in tough spots. If it were not because of his rich combat experience, it was likely that this unlucky member of the ‘Black Demon Group’ would be the first to be defeated.

Outside of these three battlegrounds, there was the most chaotic battleground. That was the one where fifteen new students were fighting with the final ‘Black Demon Group’ member. Although there were a great number of new students, the fifteen of them all had a varying amount of injuries due to their fight with the three groups lead by Su Xiao earlier. It was naturally impossible for them to obtain victory now that they met a strong person whose strength was around the five star Da Dou Shi level.

Hence, in merely less than ten minutes, five of the fifteen new students were already injured by that ‘Black Demon Group’ member and had withdrawn. The remaining ten could only rely on their cooperation with one another to barely hang on. However, it was clear that the cooperation between them was not very good. Hence, every two to three minutes, their opponent would find an opening and injure one of them until they temporarily lost the ability to continue fighting.

In five battlegrounds on this empty land, Hu Jia’s, Wu Hao’s, and the new students’ ones were all in an unfavorable situation. By relying on his ‘Heavenly Flame,’ Xiao Yan was able to contend with Sha Tie for a while. However, if he did not use a decisive attack, it was clearly impossible for him to obtain victory. Hence, among the five battlegrounds, only Xun Er was in a complete advantage.

In the current battlefield, whichever side could first free up an extra pair of hands was crucial. As long as there was someone who could defeat their opponent half a minute earlier than the others, this battle would perhaps swiftly point the victory indicator to that side!

Everyone present in the battlefield, including all those new students who were not participating, understood this point. Hence, their gazes were all firmly staring at the battleground of Wu Hao and Xun Er. This was because these two places would be the two battlegrounds where they would be the first to obtain victory or the first to lose.

The blood-colored Dou Qi spreading all over Wu Hao’s body was growing increasingly dim. Clearly, Wu Hao’s Dou Qi had already begun to enter into the stage where it was about to burn out. When he fought with Xiu Yan earlier, he had exhausted all his strength. Now he needed to undergo this kind of high cost battle. He was about to be unable to hold on even though he had consumed Xiao Yan’s ‘Energy Recovery Pill’ a moment ago.

The blood-colored heavy sword in his hand violently hacked at the opponent. However, his current degree of strength and speed allowed the opponent to easily dodge it. The latter’s body flashed and appeared on Wu Hao’s left side. The knife in his hand carried a sharp force as it hacked at Wu Hao’s wrist. Immediately, Wu Hao’s blood-colored sword left his hand. The ‘Black Demon Group’ member let out a pleased cold laughter. Dou Qi shrouded his hands and he immediately struck heavily at Wu Hao’s chest. Seeing this momentum, it was likely that Wu Hao would be the first to be defeated if he were to be struck.

Under the focus of everyone, his fist became increasingly close to Wu Hao. However, just as his fist was about to land on Wu Hao’s body, the somewhat grayish-dark-faced Wu Hao suddenly widened his eyes. Two blood lines flowed out of his nose. A rich killing aura surged out of his body as though he had suddenly got his second wind just before falling. A low and deep roar sounded from his throat. The originally dark and pale-blood-colored Dou Qi once again became bright red. He tightened his fist and suddenly threw it out fiercely.

“Bang!”

As both fists made contact, a muffled sound reverberated unceasingly on the open ground. Wu Hao’s shoulders trembled intensely while that member of the ‘Black Demon Group’ let out a muffled groan. A thread of blood flowed down from the corner of the latter’s mouth. He took a couple of continuous step back while sliding against the ground before he managed to stabilize his body. Lifting his head, he looked at Wu Hao’s much paler face with a mixture of shock and fury. Clearly, Wu Hao had displayed a certain Secret Technique that would overdraw his strength in order for such a strength to erupt instantaneously earlier.

However, seeing the color on Wu Hao’s face, it appeared that the current him could no longer use this kind of Secret Technique to overdraw his strength for a second time.

“Hmph!” That member of the ‘Black Demon Group’ saw that Wu Hao had already run out of steam and immediately let out a snort. He forcefully suppressed the injuries within his body as his body turned into a black shadow which once again shot toward Wu Hao.

“Bang!”

Just as he was merely around five meters from Wu Hao, a black shadow suddenly shot over. That member of the ‘Black Demon Group’ was alarmed. His forward charging body paused and immediately began to hurriedly take two step back.

As he was pulling back, the black shadow heavily landed on the ground. The expression of that member of the ‘Black Demon Group’ changed. This black shadow was actually the person who had been fighting against Xun Er moments earlier.

An aghast expression flashed across his heart. He hurriedly turned his head to take a look, only to see a green-clothed young lady standing indifferently beside Wu Hao. Golden light shrouded her palm, piercing his eyes until they were a little strained.

“Crap...”