Meng Jingzhou and the other two ate roast mutton as they watched, clapping and marveling at Li Haoran's stroke of genius.
"What a great idea! You can't use conventional tactics against that kid Lu Yang!" Meng Jingzhou praised him lavishly. As Lu Yang's longtime rival, he knew very well that fighting by ordinary methods wouldn't lead to victory; only catching him by surprise offered any chance of winning.
"This skin tastes pretty good, even more flavorful than the meat." Meng Jingzhou smacked his lips. He had just been eating the sheepskin, which was roasted to a fragrant crisp, delightfully crunchy to the bite and leaving a lingering aroma on his lips and teeth. Paired with chive flower sauce to cut through the richness, the flavor was absolute perfection.
By comparison, the mutton beneath the skin paled slightly.
Meng Jingzhou's eyes inadvertently swept over the roaring Three Flavors True Fire, and he struck his fist against his palm. "I've got an idea."
He flicked out a wisp of Nirvana True Fire and tossed it into the Three Flavors True Fire. The two true fires merged with crackling pops.
Under the effect of the Nirvana True Fire, sheepskin began to gradually sprout back onto the mutton carcass. And because the skin grew back slowly, it could fully savor the meticulous roasting of the Three Flavors True Fire, making the flavor even more sublime!
Man Gu's eyes shone brightly at the sight; he had never imagined Nirvana True Fire could be used like this.
If he had never come into contact with Three Flavors True Fire before and failed to connect it to roasting, that would have been understandable.
Yet every cultivator in the cultivation world knew the renowned Nirvana True Fire, and he had never thought it could be used for barbecue. Truly inexcusable.
It was practically an insult to his status as the heir to the Man family tradition of roasting meat!
He just knew that following Brother Lu and Brother Meng would let him learn real knowledge!
As a Confucian cultivator, Man Gu adhered strictly to the sage teachings that "in a party of three, there must be one who can be my teacher" and "I examine myself thrice daily," regularly reflecting on his shortcomings and constantly patching them up.
While Man Gu was engrossed in learning, Lu Yang was still battling the four-armed Li Haoran.
Three heads and six arms was truly a famous, formidable divine ability; even this inferior four-armed divine ability that Li Haoran had mastered put immense pressure on Lu Yang.
"Palm Lightning!"
"Liuding Divine Fire!"
"Great Yan True Fire!"
"One-Zhang Bamboo!"
Forming hand seals with all four hands, Li Haoran hurled four completely different spells at Lu Yang all at once.
The golden bird let out a cry, igniting Three Flavors True Fire. It spread its wings, each feather sharp as a blade, slicing through the air.
Though Liuding Divine Fire and Great Yan True Fire were also true fires, neither was known for raw explosive force, and they stood no chance against Lu Yang's two true fires and sword qi.
The Palm Lightning was also reduced to nothingness in the collision.
Only a stalk of emerald-green bamboo, sharpened to a point by Li Haoran, broke the sound barrier with a sharp whistling hiss and thrust straight toward Lu Yang.
Lu Yang had spread his divine sense and detected the bamboo's arrival long ago, but his physical reaction was half a beat too slow, and it grazed his arm.
"Impressive skills, Junior Brother Li. You even coated the bamboo in poison." Lu Yang deployed the Golden Bird True Flame to keep Li Haoran at bay while retrieving a Detoxification Pill from his identity jade pendant.
"I had no choice. You're too strong, Senior Brother Lu. I can't win without a few tricks up my sleeve."
"Besides, Senior Brother Lu, you haven't shown your real abilities yet, have you?"
Suddenly, Lu Yang and Li Haoran struck simultaneously, clashing head-on.
Both had intended to launch a sneak attack while talking, never expecting to have had the exact same thought.
"Arhat Fist!"
Lu Yang no longer held back, throwing a ferocious punch. As an artifact cultivator, Li Haoran stood no chance against Lu Yang in close-quarters combat.
When it came to melee brawling, only a top-tier body cultivator like Meng Jingzhou or a Confucian cultivator like Man Gu could firmly overpower Lu Yang.
Li Haoran reacted swiftly. Knowing he couldn't clash directly against the Arhat Fist, he ripped off the two arms under his armpits, temporarily refining them into magical treasures, and hurled them at Lu Yang.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
In the blink of an eye, the two exchanged dozens of blows. Unfortunately, flesh magical treasures refined in the heat of the moment were simply no match for the Arhat Fist, and Li Haoran was sent flying backward.
The good news was that Li Haoran's hair was a wig, so he wouldn't suffer hair loss.
"Six-Zhang Golden Body!"
Lu Yang gave a low shout, and a golden body bearing his likeness descended from the sky, firmly trapping Li Haoran within.
"Tree Planting Clone!"
Lu Yang burrowed into the ground, and a seed broke through the soil, growing into two Lu Yangs.
"I'll leave the rest to you."
Lu Yang high-fived the clone. The clone nodded, dove into the earth like an earth dragon, and rapidly approached Li Haoran from underground.
"Earth Escape!" Li Haoran didn't panic. He might not know Shrinking the Earth, but he still knew the Earth Escape Technique.
The Six-Zhang Golden Body had one fatal flaw: it was unsealed beneath the ground, allowing anyone skilled in earth escape to slip away.
Just then, Lu Yang's clone arrived from below and drew a circle around the base of the Six-Zhang Golden Body.
"Drawing a Prison."
The space beneath the Six-Zhang Golden Body turned into a subterranean dungeon, completely blocking Li Haoran's retreat. Li Haoran had no choice but to tunnel back up.
With that, the Six-Zhang Golden Body was left with no weaknesses.
Li Haoran snorted coldly. "I'd like to see what a mere clone can do to me!"
Lu Yang's clone emerged from the soil, entering the interior of the Six-Zhang Golden Body.
Li Haoran's arm shifted into a jade-like white and pierced straight through Lu Yang's clone with a squelch.
The clone was entirely unaffected, as though the body did not belong to him at all.
"Universe in the Sleeve."
He extended his right hand, and a continuous torrent of lake water surged from his palm, filling the interior of the Six-Zhang Golden Body in an instant.
"Impossible! Your Universe in the Sleeve merely stores water; it doesn't establish a link to the lake! You're just a freshly created clone, so when did you take in any water—"
Li Haoran cut himself off, suddenly remembering the high-five between Lu Yang and his clone.
Lu Yang must have stored water in his palm before the battle began, transferring it to the clone during the high-five.
Careless!
"Water Parting Technique!"
Within three breaths, the lake water filling the Six-Zhang Golden Body vanished into thin air, converted entirely into hydrogen and oxygen!
Accompanied by a bird's cry, golden flames flashed inside the Six-Zhang Golden Body, producing a massive explosion that cracked the inner walls of the golden body itself.
"Holy smokes, that move of Lu Yang's is no joke!" Meng Jingzhou exclaimed in shock. He understood well enough that the smaller the enclosed space, the more destructive the explosion would be.
"More than that—the two gases Senior Brother Lu split the water into seem to have contributed to the blast as well," Tao Yaoye said earnestly. A single burst of Golden Bird True Flame shouldn't have produced such an exaggerated explosion; there had to be other factors at play.
"So this is the Five Elements spell combination the Merit Transmission Elder talked about," Man Gu sighed in wonder. Six-Zhang Golden Body, wood clone, Water Parting Technique, True Fire, and Shrinking the Earth—all five elements were accounted for.
Lu Yang dispelled the Six-Zhang Golden Body, revealing only two charred corpses.
"Junior Brother Li, drop the act. I saw you slip away with a spell just now," Lu Yang chuckled. He had been monitoring the inside of the Six-Zhang Golden Body from start to finish.
Just a moment before the detonation, Li Haoran had cast a spell similar to shifting positions, swapping his true body with his clone.
Lu Yang had long detected with his divine sense that Li Haoran had a clone buried underground. Li Haoran had probably prepared it in secret to ambush him, but hadn't found the chance to use it, turning it into a lifesaving measure instead.
*Thud!*
A dull sound came from behind Lu Yang as Li Haoran emerged from the soil.
"What terrifying power." Li Haoran's heart still pounded with lingering fear. He knew Lu Yang had held back; otherwise, what awaited him wouldn't have been a single burst of Golden Bird True Flame, but several bursts supplemented by Three Flavors True Fire.
"Still want to fight?" Lu Yang turned around with a grin.
"Of course I—" Li Haoran had no intention of admitting defeat, but his vision suddenly blurred, his steps faltered, and he nearly tumbled over.
"Poison... No, wait, what is this?"
Li Haoran sensed something wrong with his body, rendering him unable to fight on. Yet he hadn't detected inhaling any poison from beginning to end.
What was going on?
"Junior Brother Li, you probably know that active gas is vital for living beings to survive, but you might not know that inhaling too much of it does more harm than good, causing dizziness, chest tightness, and other reactions.
"From the start of our fight, I've been continuously using the Water Parting Technique to split all the moisture in the air into light gas and active gas. With the active gas concentration shooting up, you naturally couldn't hold out.
"If you had paid closer attention, Junior Brother Li, you would have noticed that I've been holding my breath the entire time.
"Well then, still want to fight?"
"I forfeit."
Chapter 542