Chapter 704: Fooled? This Isn't Hiding Bitterness

"Holy Body!"

Xu Xiaoshou suddenly realized, spotting the radiant treasure light exposed from the masked man's sleeve, which had been torn apart by A-Jie's punch—it was unmistakably the Holy Body light on his hand.

Even with his arm turned to iron, Xu Xiaoshou recognized that glow all too well!

After all, he had just beaten a Holy Body user like Luo Yin.

But Xu Xiaoshou could never have imagined that this opponent possessed such formidable Wang Zuo Dao Jing cultivation, such mysterious iron attribute abilities, and a pair of devastating "Ding Hun Jing" eyes...

Well, that was bad enough.

Setting everything aside, he was still a Holy Body user!

"What kind of terrifying thing popped up out of nowhere? Is there no end to this?" Even with his array of great treasures, Xu Xiaoshou couldn't help but wonder if this "Yan Wang" masked man, who could trade blows with A-Jie, was the real chosen one of heaven.

Boom!

Another explosion erupted below.

Clearly, A-Jie didn't care about any of that.

With his first punch blocked, he immediately threw another heavy one.

The masked man countered with a swift elbow strike. This time, both were repelled by the immense force, staggering back several steps.

A-Jie felt no pain and charged forward again.

The masked man was a bit stunned; he shook his numbed left arm and chose to dodge, evading A-Jie's powerful whip kick.

"Tian Ji Puppet?"

After a few exchanges, the masked man figured it out.

This little boy was just like the Tian Ji Puppet he had fought before—identical in style.

But while their combat power was nearly the same, this one's appearance was baffling.

"How could a Tian Ji Puppet from the Dao Department be in the hands of the Sheng Nu people?"

"And this one... undernourished?"

The masked man kept dodging.

Inside his domain, he didn't need to clash head-on. After some thought, he shifted his focus to the slightly weaker Zhou Tian Shen.

In an instant, he teleported to Xu Xiaoshou's side.

Xu Xiaoshou's "perception" detected the threat, and he quickly turned, activating his "Zhi Jie Force Field" for a direct embrace toward the rear.

"Ding Hun."

Yet, from beneath the Yan Wang mask, another flash of green light appeared.

This time, Xu Xiaoshou hadn't even met those eerie eyes, but his soul was hit again, freezing him mid-air.

"Damn it..."

Xu Xiaoshou was furious; getting hit twice in a row was unbearable.

As the masked man's hands turned to molten iron once more, with intense heat approaching, "Gui Tong Yu" was about to form again.

At the same time, A-Jie's figure landed in front of Xu Xiaoshou.

"Mama!"

With a shout, A-Jie's eyes flashed red as he swung a punch.

Boom—

The air ripped through the sky, and a black energy wave shattered the space.

The masked man barely dodged in panic. "Gui Tong Yu" was destroyed, and a massive hole was punched in the domain behind him.

"Can I move now?"

Xu Xiaoshou's fingers trembled slightly.

He suddenly realized that while "Ding Hun Jing" might have no time limit, if the user moved or got distracted...

The "Ding Hun" effect would be lifted immediately!

This discovery was a real thrill.

In other words, as long as A-Jie was around, this masked man couldn't fully control him.

"A-Jie, break this domain," Xu Xiaoshou ordered, using a vanishing technique to hide his form from the space.

A-Jie was too fixated on all-out combat.

The priority was that the opponent's Wang Zuo domain provided too much of an advantage. If they didn't shatter it, even A-Jie's immense power would be played around with.

Receiving the command, A-Jie stopped and looked up at the sky.

"Mama..."

He murmured, raising his hands as an earthy yellow aura emerged around him. Then, he formed fists and clenched them tightly.

With a tremendous rumble, as the Tai Xu power exploded, the Wang Zuo domain shattered like paper.

"It's gone!"

Hidden in the void, Xu Xiaoshou felt a surge of joy.

Without the domain, how could a mere Wang Zuo handle A-Jie?

Ever since the last fight with Hong Gou, when A-Jie was trapped in the Yuan Fu and couldn't be released, Xu Xiaoshou had rarely put him back in.

Traveling the world with A-Jie by his side was exactly for dealing with sudden threats like this.

But his joy didn't last long. As the domain broke, Xu Xiaoshou's "perception" revealed not the restored Wang Cheng streets, but still utter darkness.

"What?"

Xu Xiaoshou was stunned.

Turning his head, he saw the masked man had pulled back, showing no surprise at the domain's destruction.

And beneath his feet, a intricate black array pattern suddenly floated up.

"Ling Array Master?"

Xu Xiaoshou froze, and the next second, his scalp tingled.

No, it wasn't a Ling Array!

This was an "Ao Yi Array Diagram"!

Realizing this, Xu Xiaoshou panicked. He had only glimpsed something similar during Yu Ling Di's battle.

Though the array diagram under the masked man now was completely different in structure from Yu Ling Di's, the intense Dao Yun aura was just as suffocating!

"No wonder..."

In that instant, Xu Xiaoshou understood why this guy's combat instincts were so sharp.

A Wang Zuo who had perfected his Dao Jing was even more terrifying than a Zhan Dao expert!

The moment the domain shattered,

"Open!"

The masked man clasped his hands together, and the Ao Yi Array Diagram expanded around him.

In an instant, the world changed.

Across several li, the crystalline fragments of shattered space hadn't even fallen before they were dyed black iron under the Dao Yun's influence.

A new black iron domain formed, encompassing the area.

Soon after, the domain began to smoke; the black turned red, and the rock-solid domain started dripping with endless molten iron.

The ground melted, space melted...

"Ao Yi: Gui Yu Lian Hua!"

The masked man spread his hands, and the void shook as the red molten iron surged like a tsunami, crashing and rising.

In his vanished state, Xu Xiaoshou was completely stunned.

This massive "Gui Tong Yu" covering several li was designed to leave no escape!

He had only experienced something like this in Gou Wuyue's "Jian Jie."

Who was this masked man, exactly?!

Where did he come from?!

The red molten iron roared like lava, swelling like ocean waves, instantly bearing down on A-Jie.

Xu Xiaoshou had vanished, so the iron wouldn't affect him.

But he clearly saw that every time A-Jie punched through the iron, another part of his body corroded.

And the iron was endless!

"Damn it..."

Xu Xiaoshou's heart ached. His mind raced, searching for a way to break this move.

"Come out!"

Amid "Gui Yu Lian Hua," the masked man's figure seemed to merge with the heavens, impossible to track.

But his voice was clearly directed at Xu Xiaoshou.

"I don't know what skill you used to vanish, but if you can't break my 'Gui Yu Lian Hua,' you can't escape."

"And if you drag this out, your treasure will just become another trophy of mine."

A-Jie kept pounding the iron, occasionally darting toward the masked man to attack.

But the masked man repeatedly merged into the iron and reemerged elsewhere, always keeping his distance and denying A-Jie any chance.

As the iron level rose within the domain, if they waited longer, not just attacks—A-Jie would be submerged entirely!

How could they break the enemy like this?

Xu Xiaoshou noticed the small iron figures hanging on the masked man's neck and belt; he now understood what the man meant by trophies.

This guy must have turned his recognized opponents into these iron figures using "Gui Tong Yu," wearing them as badges of victory.

But how to crack the current situation?

Xu Xiaoshou had never faced such a tricky enemy.

Or rather, he had never confronted one alone.

Watching A-Jie's body corrode inch by inch, Xu Xiaoshou's mind calmed unexpectedly. Panic was useless; only inner stillness could solve this.

"Domain, high heat, furnace world..."

Memories of how Sang Lao tormented Yu Ling Di flashed through his mind like a movie.

Xu Xiaoshou knew he couldn't replicate Sang Lao's epic "Long Rong Jie" that rose from the 100,000 Mountains that day.

But in this moment, treating "Gui Yu Lian Hua" as a dan cauldron and its surging red iron as medicinal liquid, he had an epiphany.

"The heavens and earth are the furnace, creation the craftsman; yin and yang the fuel, all things the copper..."

The illusory world from "Culinary Mastery" and Sang Lao's lessons on the "Threefold Death Method" blended together. Xu Xiaoshou's eyes burst with light.

In the depths of his gaze, a raging white flame ignited.

"Jin Zhao Tian Fen!"

Pssh-pssh—

A faint sound rose.

The red iron, heated to its peak, was suddenly overlaid with a thin layer of white.

In this furnace-like domain, the white was unassuming.

Yet in the blink of an eye, it spread everywhere, assimilating like kind to kind.

"Jin Zhao Origin Seed, activate!"

Xu Xiaoshou unhesitatingly detonated the "Jin Zhao Origin Seed" above his Qi Sea. His white flame might still be weak compared to Sang Lao's, but as a supreme treasure containing tribulation power, like "Three Days Frozen Calamity," it was perfect for fueling something like Sang Lao's massive "Long Rong Jie."

Pssh-pssh—

The moment the seed exploded, white overwhelmed red in an instant.

As the most extreme and dominant fire attribute, the white flame from "Jin Zhao Origin Seed" released power on par with the time it ignited the entire Ling Rong Ze.

"What is this?"

The masked man's body emerged from the iron.

He hovered in the air, with white flame igniting on his body, Qi Sea, and surrounding Dao Yun—unquenchable and inescapable.

As a Wang Zuo, the sorrow of his cultivation level meant he couldn't resist this force beyond Zhan Dao. He had to reveal himself in the domain's empty spaces.

"A-Jie, beat him!"

Xu Xiaoshou issued another command.

The battered A-Jie began absorbing the white flame energy to regenerate while his red eyes locked onto the floating masked man.

Then, he blurred into motion, delivering a whip kick.

Bang!

An sonic boom erupted.

The masked man barely raised his hands to block, but A-Jie's Tai Xu-powered leg sent him crashing back into the white-flame-burning iron below.

Iron splashed like a stone into the sea.

In the roiling "Gui Yu Lian Hua" world, it was now painted with white flame.

The domain belonged to the enemy, but the overbearing "Jin Zhao Origin Seed" dominated this space, stripping away the red fire elements and reclaiming control.

Xu Xiaoshou ended his vanishing technique.

Now, with white flames blazing on him, he rose into the air, like a fire god descending.

Fully detonating "Jin Zhao Origin Seed" brought pain akin to the first time he consumed a fire seed.

After all, with "Three Days Frozen Calamity" fully retracted, the unchecked "Jin Zhao Origin Seed" harmed the enemy at great cost to himself.

Yet, by igniting the domain with his own power and overwhelming the foe, Xu Xiaoshou's momentum was grand, echoing the giants in the "Qi Tun Mountains and Rivers" illusion.

Standing amid the painful flames.

Rampaging in the enemy's world.

A little pain? It was nothing.

Xu Xiaoshou drew Zang Ku, gazing at the masked man emerging disheveled from the white-flame iron, fleeing in panic. He gritted his teeth and sneered,

"A mere Wang Zuo, and you dare come alone to fight me?"

A-Jie pursued like a dog attacking a fallen foe, landing whip kick after whip kick on the masked man, who was still bewildered by how his domain had turned against him.

Xu Xiaoshou, with his innate cultivation, gripped Zang Ku and charged at this supreme Wang Zuo who mastered Ao Yi.

"Ding!"

In a flash, a white sword qi immobilized the masked man from afar.

It lasted only a second, but in a master duel, that was an eternity.

A-Jie burst from the iron, punching the masked man's abdomen and sending him flying toward Xu Xiaoshou's advancing sword.

The masked man was dumbfounded in mid-air.

"Suspicion detected, passive value +1."

Xu Xiaoshou could even read the true thoughts in the masked man's strange green eyes beneath the shattered Yan Wang mask.

"You dare to make a move?"

A seven-grade spirit sword and an innate cultivator.

Even cloaked in white flame like a fire god, he was still just a little weakling!

The masked man twisted in mid-air to face Xu Xiaoshou.

A-Jie's Tai Xu punch hurt, but his Sheng Ti resilience was extraordinary.

In that brief flight, he endured it and reversed his momentum. With his black iron fist glowing with Sheng Ti light, he hammered toward Xu Xiaoshou.

"You want to die? I'll grant your wish!"

The masked man's reactions were exactly as Xu Xiaoshou predicted.

A Wang Zuo who mastered Ao Yi, crushed in his own domain by A-Jie, would never run from an innate cultivator—he'd counterattack!

So, as the black iron fist came,

Xu Xiaoshou sidestepped lightly. In that split second, at the cost of his left arm's shoulder blade being shattered and the entire arm blown off, he thrust the black sword in his right hand into the masked man's left chest.

The scene fell silent.

Xu Xiaoshou, burning with white flame, and the utterly shocked masked man turned their heads, meeting each other's eyes.

"Suspicion detected, passive value +1."

"Heh, fool," Xu Xiaoshou grinned through the pain.

The masked man looked down in disbelief, unable to comprehend how his unbreakable Sheng Ti had been pierced by a mere seven-grade black sword.

"The sword switched."

Xu Xiaoshou's eye twitched as he explained. This fight was agony; he could barely hold on.

But thankfully, the outcome was favorable.

Xu Xiaoshou pulled out the black sword and stepped back, rising higher for a commanding view.

Then, he used spiritual energy to flutter his robes.

White flames raged, robes billowed, and even with his severed arm, he looked ethereal.

Xu Xiaoshou lifted the black sword, examining its fierce demonic aura, and smiled.

"Surprised? This isn't Zang Ku!"

"I switched swords at the key moment. It's called You Si Jian, the Xiong Sword... the kind that can demonize a sky-covering serpent with a single strike."