Flash Form

"Brat!!!!" Edward glared at Yu Xian before him with venomous hatred, gritting his teeth as he unleashed a frantic flurry of punches. Yet every single strike was met head-on and blocked by Yu Xian. Their fists collided, the sickening crack of shattering bones ringing out endlessly. Whether in raw strength or defensive resilience, Edward was utterly outmatched. "Aaaaargh!" Agony tore through both of Edward's fists. His face contorted as he let out a savage roar, only to throw punches with even greater madness. Yu Xian, however, had no intention of indulging him. Seizing an opening amid the clash of fists, he drove an iron elbow straight into Edward's chest at point-blank range. Edward's eyes bulged instantly. A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed violently from his lips, and a split second later he was sent flying, crashing heavily into a distant mountain. The mountain peak collapsed, kicking up billowing clouds of dust. Aiming at the crumbling peak, Yu Xian raised his hand at once, condensing three Spears of True Crimson and hurling them forward. Boom! Three colossal red mushroom clouds erupted immediately. Then, a cross-shaped flash gleamed amidst the mushroom clouds. Edward charged out with a furious bellow. Just as he closed in on Yu Xian, he abruptly swapped places with his longsword, so that the blade lunged straight toward Yu Xian. Yu Xian had not expected Edward to pull off such a move, but he reacted in an instant, bringing his palms together to clamp down on the sword. The blade carried formidable force, writhing forward like a frantic loach trying to burrow ahead. Yu Xian glanced behind him, then tilted his head and released the sword. In the blink of an eye, the blade shot past him. "Die, brat!!" Unbeknownst to anyone, Edward had already crept behind him. Gripping the hilt of the sword, he viciously thrust the blade toward Yu Xian's back. The sword pierced Yu Xian's body in an instant. Edward froze for a moment, then looked ecstatically triumphant. Yet before the grin could fully spread across his face, Yu Xian's silhouette dissipated like foam, followed by an iron fist slamming brutally into his cheek. Even with the armor's protection, the terrifying impact left him dizzy. His entire face warped severely, a mouthful of shattered teeth forced down his throat. Yet those were minor troubles. The real catastrophe was that Yu Xian's assault was far from over. In a flash, Yu Xian closed the distance, throwing punches in a relentless frenzy that rattled Edward's body violently. The two plummeted, clashing from the sky all the way down to the surface. Only, Yu Xian was the one doing the beating, and Edward was the one taking it. When Edward crashed into the ground, another colossal crater caved into the earth. This time, Yu Xian did not let up in the slightest. The crater buckled layer after layer, blasted deeper and deeper until it reached the magma stratum. Only then did Yu Xian leap up into the air. Raising his right arm to aim below, he swiftly condensed a massive sphere of True Crimson Power in his palm. True Crimson Power possessed many attributes, depending entirely on which one Yu Xian wished to manifest. At this moment, this mass of True Crimson Power contained abundant spatial attributes; once detonated, it would distort the surrounding space. A Star Divine Artifact might be able to withstand this attack, but Edward inside it might not. With a downward flick of Yu Xian's hand, the giant red orb of energy shot toward the ground, subtly warping space in its wake, taking a long while to settle back to normal. Submerged in magma, Edward was in too much pain to move, yet a harrowing sense of crisis forced him into action. Driven by the dread of death and bitter indignation at losing to Yu Xian, he gritted his teeth and commanded the Demon Blood Armor to dive deeper into the magma. Immediately, he saw a vast expanse of magma distort and collapse before detonating in an apocalyptic roar. Amid the deluge of raining magma, his gaze met Yu Xian's in midair. Inside the armor, his skin split open from head to toe, revealing his true vampire form, and the armor expanded rapidly along with his body. "Brat, this isn't over yet!" Edward roared as he rocketed out of the magma, driving a punch upward from below. Under the orange-red sky, two figures exchanged blows with wild ferocity, battling from the sky to the ground, and then from the ground back to the sky. Mars's thick cloud cover was swept away by the stray energy bleeding from their strikes. Newly formed dust storms dispersed under their colliding fists. Every time the two crashed onto the Martian surface, they wrought horrific devastation, gouging one massive crater after another as if struck by colossal meteorites. Had the battlefield been Earth rather than Mars, the vast majority of life on the planet would have suffered, for the mere shockwaves of their attacks were enough to wipe out terrestrial life. The two traded frenzied blows across Mars as time ticked away piece by piece. Edward was pounded into the earth again and again by Yu Xian, but his vitality was unimaginably tenacious. As long as the energy in his body was not exhausted and the Demon Blood Armor was not destroyed, he could rise again and again to keep fighting Yu Xian. In truth, Edward possessed a means of monitoring their respective energy reserves. His energy reserves were far greater than Yu Xian's. Even though Yu Xian replenished energy faster than he did, as long as he forced Yu Xian to go all out—ensuring his expenditure outpaced his recovery—then at the very end, when Yu Xian ran dry, Edward would turn the tables and seize victory. Though furious, he had never once lost his reason from beginning to end. Half of his rage was merely a performance for Yu Xian, calculated to force Yu Xian into a relentless fight to the bitter end without a single moment of respite. Three days and three nights passed in the blink of an eye. Mars was left scarred and desolate beneath their clash. Even Olympus Mons had been pounded into a cratered depression, forming a bottomless lake of magma. Yet Edward only grew more and more thrilled. Over the course of the battle, he had noticed that Yu Xian's recovery speed was faster under sunlight, so he had deliberately maneuvered their fight toward the side untouched by the sun. Now, the moment had finally come to reap the harvest: Yu Xian's energy was on the verge of running out. "Brat, let me teach you a lesson: the older the ginger, the spicier it gets!" Gazing at Yu Xian, Edward threw an excited punch, bellowing in triumph. Just then, a dazzling smile spread across Yu Xian's face. The crimson protective energy around him abruptly turned into a blazing, blinding white. Blazing like roaring flames, the energy enveloped him entirely. "Ah, you're right. But let me teach you a lesson too: he who walks the righteous path finds abundant support; he who forsakes it finds none." Yu Xian looked at Edward with an easy smile. In his eyes, there was no hatred, nor any anger—only glittering starlight. This was his new form: Flash Form, forged with the Six Ding Divine Fire as the furnace and fueled by the trust and devotion of countless supporters. In truth, right from the start of the battle, Yu Xian had deployed numerous eyeball bubbles to capture footage of the clash from various angles, using his Appliance Control ability to broadcast their battle live to the entire world. From the moment his fight with Edward began, prayers from survivors all across the globe had poured into him in an endless stream, with countless people in Huaxia rallying behind him. Smack! Edward's fist was caught effortlessly in his grasp. Meeting Edward's incredulous gaze, Yu Xian smiled faintly. "You probably don't have much energy left either, do you? So... go to hell!" In Flash Form, Yu Xian's strength and speed exploded countless times over. Augmented by True Intent, his punching speed approached the speed of light. In an instant, an unquantifiable barrage of fists battered Edward's body. And every time a punch struck him, he seemed to hear countless voices shouting—not cheering for him, but cheering for Yu Xian. "You can do it, young man!" ... "Kill this demon! Kill him, please, you have to send him to hell!" ... "Go, Fish God! Fish God is invincible!" ... "I'll trade a hundred years of being single for this kid to win!" ... "Damn you, Edward, go to hell!" ... "Slay Edward, and you'll be my god! I will pray for you day and night!" ... "Heavenly Father, please protect this young man! Grant him victory over Satan who plagues our world!" ... "Hero, please, you must be victorious!" ... "Deliver an iron fist of vengeance for all the victims and martyrs, heroic youth!" As more and more voices joined the chorus, sheer terror finally seized Edward. He realized he was going to die. "NO!!!" Edward let out a shriek of terror and despair. A fracture cracked across his helmet in an instant, and in the next second, flames blazing with white light flooded through the fissure into the armor. "Take that, take that, take that, take that, take that, take that, take that, take that!!!" Yu Xian unleashed punch after punch in a frenzy. Mars suffered collateral devastation on Edward's account. By the time Yu Xian halted his strikes, Edward had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind only an empty husk. Mars was reduced to a little more than half its former self, with one side gouged by a colossal crater that swallowed up a third of the planetary surface. The moment Edward's helmet shattered completely, Yu Xian closed his eyes. Points of multicolored starlight sparkled across the white flames on his body, the fire surging with even greater majesty. Yu Xian seemed to hear countless people cheering in his ears. Everyone was celebrating Edward's demise. The corners of his mouth curved upward slightly, and finally, he burst into delighted laughter, joining the chorus of triumph...