"Must be nice. Must be really nice."
As the Bifang manifested, the iron and stone across the arena were ignited by blazing flames, spreading as if hell itself were expanding across the ring. Ji Jue looked on with envy so intense he was practically moved to tears.
No wonder his teacher looked down on his own Regeneration form—it truly was a blank slate.
Just look at hers!
*The past self reduced to cold ashes; the newborn self reborn from the flames.*
Honed across generations of the Lou family's Celestial Chosen through the inheritance of life and soul, supplemented by matrices and lineage legacies, refined and perfected time and again, this could well be called the pinnacle of Regeneration forms.
The power held within was nothing less than a second life. Even if she had been sliced into pieces before manifesting it, she would still re-emerge whole and undamaged following rebirth.
More importantly...
"Spiritus shaping can actually do that?"
Staring at the flames surging around Lou Yanyue, Ji Jue asked in sheer shock, "Old Lou, why don't you have this?"
Lou Feng squeezed out words through gritted teeth. "If you don't know how to talk, you can keep your damn mouth shut!"
"Oh, so your skills just aren't up to par, huh?"
Ji Jue understood.
Then Lou Feng fell silent.
Maybe he just didn't care for it...
In Ji Jue's past understanding, spiritus shaping was nothing more than giving tangible substance to ethereal spirit, creating something out of nothing—fashioning it into solids, liquids, or gases, and imparting all manner of qualitative changes.
Among them, the most orthodox form, and Lou Feng's personal favorite, was solid crystal, which offered the greatest stability. Meanwhile, among the Lou clan's ancestors, some had favored liquid states like the highest virtue resembling water, or even the most elusive gaseous forms.
Yet what Lou Yanyue displayed now was a brand-new realm transcending ordinary states—a true, orthodox secret art of the family.
If one insisted on a physical analogy, Lou Yanyue had converted herself into a flame-like 'plasma'!
Every second, every instant, her spiritus clashed repeatedly on the verge of total radicalization. The restless, runaway power obediently hovered on the brink of this unimaginably perilous critical reaction.
A single step forward would trigger an eruption; a single step back would cause it to dissipate. It looked like fire, but in reality, every wisp of flame was the final afterimage of a critical threshold before detonation. Countless reactions ebbed and surged, turning her entire Regeneration form into a reactor!
Fluctuations of spiritus climbed continuously, surging higher and higher.
The moment her twin wings spread, dazzling light erupted once more!
Now Ji Jue finally understood what kind of explosive power an art like Bright as the Sun and Stars—which prioritized conversion efficiency above all else—was meant to pair with...
Ten thousand pillars of light erupted from the sparks raining down from her azure wings, descending from the sky and thrusting up from the earth like colossal pillars, tearing through this godforsaken domain inch by inch!
So long as there was sufficient spiritus, the power of this burst could increase without limit.
As for running out of spiritus... With an orthodox legacy of the Lou family, would her mana bar ever run dry? Ji Jue worrying about that was as absurd as him worrying his own furnace might go cold!
Beyond her techniques, even she herself had transformed into a mass of erupting flame.
The Bifang plunged from the heavens!
Hurling itself into the domain like a meteor, it stirred a thousand turbulent waves.
The deafening roar and blinding flashes of explosions were endless.
The storm howled.
*Pour it on!*
To hell with your tactics—pour on the raw damage and blow it all to hell!
You like suppressing your opponent? Keep holding on, then, and let's see how long you can last!
Without needing temperature dissipation or conduction, the critical-state Bifang was destruction in its purest form. Even its activated spiritus possessed infectious and corrosive properties.
In practice, whatever it touched blew up!
Regardless of where the iron and stone before her originated, the moment contact was made, it triggered an earth-shattering chain reaction, in turn converting the opponent into gunpowder—another link in the chain of detonation!
*Boom!*
Ji Jue tilted his head aside as burning iron and stone whistled past his ear, crashing into the arena's crumbling wall and detonating, blowing open a massive hole.
The expressions of everyone present shifted violently.
Not only had they witnessed the arena—steeped in decades of blood feuds and strife—shatter to pieces before their eyes, but they were also terrified by this unabashed, horrifying power.
If that silky-smooth combo were aimed at their own heads... *Hiss.* The glances everyone cast toward the Sukarno family grew exceptionally pitiful.
Saino was expressionless.
He watched calmly as his proxy was pinned to the ground and battered, seemingly untouched by the dire situation.
Until a cracking sound echoed from the molten hell.
Accompanied by a head-on collision, an explosion erupted, and the crack-riddled warhammer in Kozobel's grip shattered with a roar!
It broke right in his own hands!
Under the tight clench of his ten fingers, fissures spread across the hammer. Its twenty-centimeter-thick haft fractured inch by inch, yet beneath the fissures of lava and rock, crimson and iron hues surfaced.
A sharp blade burst forth!
Breaking through the Bifang's flames and bombardment, it actually carved a fissure into the Regeneration form's colossal wings that fire could not close!
The aura it released froze everyone in their tracks.
*The Swarm?!*
Wait... Aren't you from the Desolate Ruins?
Where the hell did the Swarm come from?!
Behind Kozobel, the phantom of the stone tower within the domain abruptly cracked open. Viscous blood and foul stench gushed from the fissures, and under the peeling rock, pale bones were laid bare...
Thus, the brutality of conflict emerged from the solidity of matter; the Desolate Ruins and the Swarm merged into one.
Blood ran like rivers, corpses rose like mountains. Deep rifts swallowed frenzied souls, and towering ridges stood formed of nameless bones.
The domain transformed, the lonely tower turning into a mountain of corpses!
The countless malicious intents and madness suppressed by the tower geysered from beneath the earth. A crimson gale surged skyward against gravity, and countless indistinct silhouettes wailed and wandered across the bloody rain and scorched earth, finding no release.
Across the armor of iron and stone, winding streaks of blood and bone surfaced.
The Scourge of War!
This was the Swarm's Path of the Scourge of War!
An Exaltation-rank Celestial Chosen of the Desolate Ruins had actually turned to the Swarm and embraced the Scourge of War... Was he insane?
Across the dead-silent spectator stands, nobody spoke.
Every jaw dropped.
Reckless. Absolutely unhinged!
Was this bastard not afraid of losing himself to corruption and falling completely into an abominable monstrosity?!
That two-headed giant of a Regeneration form was likely the manifestation of this very transformation!
It seemed like pouring oil on fire, an overwhelming surge of power. But in truth, the overlapping territory between the Swarm and the Desolate Ruins was far too narrow and chaotic. If the two failed to harmonize, he would turn himself into nothing more than a walking bomb.
A moment of triumph at the cost of endless ruin!
Yet consequences belonged to the future...
Now, with the mechanics of the Desolate Ruins paired with the raw numbers of the Swarm, having tanked the Bifang's relentless barrage, Kozobel began his counterattack!
In his hands, the double-ended greatblade—shaped like propeller blades—swept with bloody flames, slashing and cleaving in pure, brutal exchanges. The wounds left by the Bifang knitted shut rapidly, converting into bursts of explosive offense.
The defense and stability of the Desolate Ruins combined with the damage and burst output of the Swarm turned him into a pure stat monster. His left hand dealt heavy damage, and his right hand hit even harder. He was pushing back Lou Yanyue even after she had unveiled her true Regeneration form, nearly severing one of the Bifang's great wings.
*By what right?!*
Ji Jue was almost amused.
What a coincidence, wasn't it? You have burst damage, and I have a domain; you have a Regeneration form, and I have the buff of the Scourge of War. A truly matched, neck-and-neck contest, wasn't it?
Yet with just a bit of careful thought, anyone could tell something was off...
Across the entire Federation, young Celestial Chosen who performed like monsters on Lou Yanyue's level did not exceed ten. In novels, she would be the generational prodigy, a genius forged through blood and blades, fighting Foundation Establishment at Qi Condensation and Golden Core at Foundation Establishment, with an overwhelming aura of pure dominance.
Looking at the other side, what was Kozobel? A mere beggar from the Endless Sea! How could someone like him have a foot in both the Swarm and the Desolate Ruins, and even pull off an elite Swarm secret legacy like the Scourge of War?
Could he really manage operations that delicate? Where would he even find a Sacrificial Lord willing to cooperate like that? Had he stayed so deeply hidden that he just so happened, by sheer coincidence, to cross paths with Lou Yanyue here?
The more normal it seemed on the surface, the deeper the underlying conspiracy had to be.
Yet since the opponent was playing along so well, how could Ji Jue deny him his show?
Silently, Ji Jue kicked Minkler. The dazed Minkler lurched forward in a stumble, nearly tumbling over the railing of the high platform, instantly drawing countless gazes.
After a split second of bewilderment, Minkler caught on. Terror and dread surged through his stunned expression, and he bellowed hysterically:
"There's something wrong! There's definitely something wrong! Something is off with Kozobel! I demand an immediate halt to the Blood Feud Trial!"
"Insolence!"
Saino's eyes widened, his earlier calm completely replaced by furious indignation. "The Blood Feud Trial is the sacred rule of the Seven Cities, and the Covenant of the Seven Cities is not to be shaken! Celebrating when you're winning, only to flip the table and walk away the moment you're about to lose... Is the Chopra family trying to cast itself out from the Seven Cities?!"
"Indeed. If you can't afford to lose, don't take the seat," the representative from Yamen sneered. "Does Xiangzhou treat the rules of the Seven Cities like toilet paper—wiping their asses and tossing it in the trash without even bothering to flush?"
Minkler snapped back furiously, "Bullshit! What the hell is Kozobel? What right does he have to win?!"
"Life and death are determined by fate; wealth and honor by heaven. Once you take the table, you accept the outcome!"
Saino cast a sidelong glance toward Acting Speaker Fernan, who sat nearby like a carved wooden idol. "Old man, stop playing deaf and dumb. Give us a straight answer: do the rules of the Seven Cities still stand or not?!"
Fernan's aged eyes swept over the frantic Minkler, and he sighed inwardly.
*Regretting it now? What the hell were you doing before this?*
"The Blood Feud Trial is an acknowledged rule of the Seven Cities. Once begun, there is no precedent for halting it," Fernan proclaimed solemnly. "Whoever breaks the rules is the common enemy of the Seven Cities!"
With those words delivered amidst countless mocking glares, Minkler slumped into his chair, dumbfounded.
Then came the rumble of thunder within the arena.
As if the gates of heaven were thrown wide—
Having thoroughly worked up her temper and lost herself to the heat of battle, Lou Yanyue cast reason aside.
Under this boiling pressure, she brought out her definitive, match-ending move!
The Bifang spread its wings.
Amidst boundless flames and mist, the distant, fleeting outline of an illusory light manifested from the fissures.
*In the heavens lies the White Jade Capital, with five towers and twelve cities!*
—Domain: Five Towers and Twelve Cities, unfold!
In the deepest sanctum of the majestic palace, a distant figure looked down upon the humble ants of the mortal realm and casually pointed a finger. Five colors converged, and a heavenly tribulation of lightning descended!
The thunderous light of the Absolute Sentence, capable of reducing any adversary to utter ash, emerged from the sky alongside the Bifang's cry.
At this moment, Lou Yanyue held nothing back, heedless of all else.
Wielding thunder, she brought down the punishment of annihilation!
Before the lightning could even strike, the two-headed giant on the ground was subdued by the terrifying pressure, pinned flat against the stone, its body cracking open as blood sprayed outward.
Yet upon those two blood-stained faces, genuine, heartfelt joy surfaced at that exact instant.
Their mouths split into a silent, sinister grin.
*Ah, at last...*
Chapter 727