Chapter 277 – Against the Fire Dragon

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The Refiner Faction disciples spoke with great enthusiasm. At their side, a young Zither Faction girl was not happy. “What do you mean? If our Senior-apprentice Sister hadn’t encountered some abnormal fellow, then she would absolutely still have complete victories now. Are you saying that our Senior-apprentice Sister is weaker than your Huo Yanluo?”

“Hehe, we’re not saying that.” The several Refiner Faction disciples lewdly smiled, their eyes involuntarily scanning up and down the body of the young Zither Faction girl’s body.

The Refiner Faction disciples were almost all men. It was because in the mortal world, their refining occupation would be equivalent to a blacksmith. There were very few women that were willing to withstand striking iron for hours on end and endure the harsh conditions. These young men almost never saw women, and now they witnessed rows upon rows of beautiful Zither Faction girls here, it was simply an intense visual shock. They couldn’t help but salivate and continue gulping over and over.

The Zither Faction girl was disgusted as she saw these vulgar young men. She icily said, “Just you wait. Sooner or later your Senior-apprentice Brother Huo will have to battle with our Senior-apprentice Sister Qin. Then you’ll be able to see just how fierce the Profound Wind Eight Melodies is.”

“Haha, the Profound Wind Eight Melodies only sounds scary. This morning, wasn’t it that bumpkin Lin Ming from the 36 countries that broke through that technique in a single attempt? Our Senior-apprentice Brother Huo has a medium-grade human-step Flame Essence in his control, who can break something like that? Let alone Lin Ming, even if it were Jiang Baoyun or Mugu Buyu, if they ran into our Senior-apprentice Brother’s Flame Essence, they would still have to retreat!”

“Aren’t you afraid of the wind cutting your worthlessly flapping tongue? According to your own words, do you actually think your Senior-apprentice Brother Huo can take first place?”

“I didn’t say for sure that he will take number one, I only said that no one can block Senior-apprentice Brother’s Flame Essence. At most, they can only evade it. A medium-grade human-step Flame Essence is a power that a Pulse Condensation martial artist just can’t resist.” The Refiner Faction disciple’s words were thick with a refined sense of superiority.

He condescendingly waved and continued, “You’re not a Refiner Faction disciple so you have no idea what significance a Flame Essence has! Your Senior-apprentice Sister Qin losing to Lin Ming is a undeniable fact, and our Senior-apprentice Brother Huo keeping his winning streak is also an undeniable fact. Even if he meets Ouyang Ming or Lin Ming, Senior-apprentice Brother Huo can still fight! Once he takes out the Flame Essence, he has at least a 50-50 chance of winning! If he went up against your Senior-apprentice Sister Qin, then… hehe, I’m afraid that all of her clothes would be burnt off by fire!”

“You… shameless hooligan!” The Zither Faction girl glared angrily at the Refiner Faction boys.

“Hehe, us brothers are good enough, would you like to try us?”

The disciples of both sides argued, their dispute growing more and more fierce. The Refiner Faction disciples had extremely salacious expressions. Although they couldn’t eat these beautiful women in front of them, they could at least take liberties and sexually harass them. As for the young girl of the Zither Faction, her face was filled with utter loathing.

At this moment, the referee announced, “Eleventh round, first match. Lin Ming against Huo Yanluo!”

Hearing this, the Refiner Faction disciple seemed a bit muddled. The Zither Faction girl’s eyes immediately brightened. She had been hoping that Huo Yanluo would hurry up and fight with Qin Wuxin so that she could show this Refiner Faction disciple just who was better. But although it wasn’t Qin Wuxin, going up against Lin Ming was also good.

“Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, you can do it! I’m cheering for you!”

“Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, kill that bastard Huo in a second!”

“Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, we love you!”

In the audience, the young female disciples of the Zither Faction were cheering for Lin Ming, their sweet voices crisp and clear. Maybe because it was the influence of their well-groomed temperament, but their cheering began to find an identical rhythm, and soon their cheers were loud enough to shock everyone around them, and attract the attention of the entire audience.

Lin Ming was also flabbergasted. He looked at that crowd of extremely beautiful girls that were cheering for him, and his expression turned a little strange as he traced his nose.

“I don’t think I know them…”

Lin Ming had already been in many matches. Because this was the home stage of the Seven Profound Valleys, the so-called ‘cheers’ that Lin Ming had received so far were jeers and heckling from the crowd. But now, for the first time, there were actually people unexpectedly cheering for him. Not only that, but it was a rabid mass of frantic young girls, this caused Lin Ming to not really be able to enjoy his first fans here.

In the audience, Qin Xingxuan looked at the crowd of young Zither Faction girls with a bit of confusion and puzzlement. But then, this puzzlement immediately switched to a wary vigilance.

Although Qin Xingxuan’s natural temperament was tranquil and calm, she was still a young girl and had the sensitivities of a young girl. She quickly realized that at the end of this tournament, Lin Ming was destined to join the Seven Profound Valleys. But as for herself, she might need to wait several years before she could join. Thinking of the beautiful girls of the Zither Faction and Mirage Faction, Qin Xingxuan felt a sudden sinking sense of crisis in her heart. If such a group of Linmaniacs had developed in only several days, then she had no idea what would happen in the future.

As the young girls of the Zither Faction cheered for Lin Ming, the Refiner Faction disciples naturally wouldn’t let themselves be outdone.

“Senior-apprentice Brother Huo, we believe in you!”

“Senior-apprentice Brother Huo, wreck him!”

The two sides’ cheers were in sharp opposition of each other. On the martial stage, Huo Yanluo didn’t have complete assurance that he would win, Lin Ming’s strength had been evident for anyone to see. But as long as he had the Flame Essence in his hand, Huo Yanluo also had faith he could fight on even terms.

“You are very strong. Before this Martial Meeting began, I never would have imagined you would come this far. You defeated Fang Qi, Jiang Lanjian, and Qin Wuxin one after another. But don’t think that defeating them means that you’ve defeated me! The way that I fight is completely different!” As Huo Yanluo said this, he took out an exaggeratedly large red sword from his spatial ring. He hadn’t even poured true essence into it, and yet a scorching heat wave blew out, as if he were holding onto a burning red-hot iron rod.

“Words are meaningless, let’s fight!” Lin Ming took out his Heavy Profound Soft Spear, and a surge of momentum flowed out with it.

“Match, start!”

With the referee’s announcement, Huo Yanluo stimulated all of the true essence in his body. The high-grade human-step treasure sword in his hand kindled with brilliant Abyssal Flames!

This treasure sword was called the Abyss Blade. It was crafted after Huo Yanluo had obtained a Flame Essence, and personally tailored towards his strengths by a Refiner Faction elder. A massive amount of precious and rare materials had been used in its production, so much that its soaring cost equaled that of a normal earth-step treasure. It was only because there had been excessive care in trying to increase the power of fire origin energy within the blade that caused a minor impact on its quality so that it ultimately failed to become an earth-step treasure. However, it was still a top-ranked treasure among all high-grade human-step treasures.

With the Abyss Blade in hand, the Abyssal Flames burned even brighter. Layers of heat waves spread out, and soon even the tiles on the stage began to melt away.

“Ardent Flames Burning City!”

Huo Yanluo gave a loud cry, and the red Abyss Blade transformed into a roaring dragon. It rushed straight towards Lin Ming with a nearly unstoppable momentum!

As the Flame Essence was displayed on stage, the disciples of the Refiner Faction cheered out with all their strength. With the Flame Essence in his control and combined with the Abyss Blade’s increased fire power, even Mugu Buyu or Ouyang Ming had to dodge this attack of Huo Yanluo!

Lin Ming saw this fire dragon rushing towards him and slightly hesitated. With this slight hesitation, the fire dragon had already come directly in front of Lin Ming!

Lin Ming revolved the true essence within his body and poured azure true essence into his long spear, he stabbed out at the Abyssal Flames!

10,000 vibrating true essence filaments howled into the fire dragon. Everyone that saw this scene was shocked beyond measure!

He took it head-on?

Nobody believed that Huo Yanluo could become the champion, and very few believed he would even reach the top three. But nobody doubted the power of the Flame Essence, especially under the increased range of strength from the Abyss Blade!

Even darksteel would instantly melt under this high temperature. If a normal treasure lost its true essence protection, it would be reduced to slag under the Abyssal Flame!

To most people, even if Jiang Baoyun was facing Huo Yanluo, he would still have to avoid the Abyssal Flames and use his quick speed and sword to attack Huo Yanluo, winning with a single strike.

And yet Lin Ming actually met this attack head-on?

The young girl from the Zither Faction covered her mouth in alarm. As for the Refiner Faction disciple, his expression was filled with excitement, waiting for Lin Ming to lose.

In that split-second, it was too late for anyone in the audience to respond. Lin Ming’s spear had already inserted itself into the flame dragon’s gaping maw; azure true essence thundered forth!

Huo Yanluo’s lips curved up in a fierce grin. The reason he hadn’t had confidence he could defeat Lin Ming was because of his erratic and evasive movements, and that spear of his that contained the Concept of Wind. He feared that Lin Ming would simply avoid his Abyssal Flames and attack him directly.

But in terms of a head-to-head attack, Huo Yanluo had complete faith in his abilities. He galvanized all of the true essence in his body, and the power of blazing hot fire poured out into the Heavy Profound Soft Spear, shooting towards Lin Ming along the spear shaft!

The power of fire was tyrannical and cruel, once it impacted into Lin Ming, it would ruin his meridians.

But at this time, Lin Ming’s entire body erupted with an immense amount of true essence. The Heretical God Seed began to let out cries of excitement. An enormous coercive power came crashing down, imprisoning the power of fire that had broken into Lin Ming’s body!

Then, an irresistible suction force gushed out of the Heretical God Seed, directly pulling in the power of fire, using it to nourish the weak Flame Essence that hid within the Heretical God Seed.

In terms of grade, Lin Ming’s own Flame Essence was barely enough to be called the lowest and weakest of all low-grade human-step Flame Essences. And this was only achieved after absorbing Huo Gong’s Hollow Flame Essence.

But Huo Yanluo’s own bodily Flame Essence was a true medium-grade human-step Abyssal Flame. Generally speaking, the flames that a Flame Essence released were a single grade higher than the Flame Essence itself. For instance, Huo Yanluo’s Abyssal Flame released flames that were at the high-grade human-step level. In addition to the increased range of power from Abyss Blade, the strength of this flame had already reached the top-tier among all high-grade human-step flames.

This top-tier high-grade human-step flame was without a doubt great nourishment for the Flame Essence within the Heretical God Seed!

The tiny Flame Essence within the Heretical God Seed began to greedily devour the power of fire, slowly growing.

As the audience watched the scene on stage, all of them were dumbfounded. Lin Ming stood there in a lunging stance, his Heavy Profound Soft Spear thrust straight into the thick pillar of flame that was the fire dragon’s maw. No matter how much Huo Yanluo urged his flames to grow and burn, Lin Ming hadn’t even drawn back a single step!

Under the smoldering flames, even the tiles under Lin Ming’s feet began to melt. An azure true essence protective shield guarded Lin Ming’s body. No matter how much the snakes of fire raged throughout the barrier of azure true essence, that barrier showed not even a single sign of melting.

This scene was just like a mighty sea god stabbing a trident into a fiery dragon! No matter how much the fiery dragon struggled, it couldn’t escape from the control of the sea god!

This aura caused everyone’s hearts to quiver!

“Impossible, this is impossible!! How is this possible!?”

No one was more shocked than the disciples of the Refiner Faction. The Abyssal Flame was a medium-grade human-step Flame Essence – it was something that only a peak Houtian realm master could absorb! And now that the Flame Essence had the support of the Abyss Blade, if one wished to resist it, they could only do so with a higher cultivation. They would at least need to be at the extreme Houtian realm!

Although all of these geniuses were truly formidable, no one thought that their strength could reach the extreme Houtian realm, not even Jiang Baoyun!

Most of these so-called geniuses could at best compare with a middle Houtian master, and that was only the weakest middle Houtian master of the 36 countries.