Damn it! To lose the initiative in the very first exchange, and to have his own Dou Qi turned to the opponent's use—this was truly unexpected. In fact, even Xing Chen hadn't anticipated that the Dou Qi fusion created by Mo Hui and Mo Cha would actually prove useful at this moment. In this Star Fall Nine Heavens, Xing Chen had only subconsciously increased the rotational speed of his sword energy, simultaneously infusing the fusion technique originally created by Mo Hui and Mo Cha, and unexpectedly, he managed to successfully integrate the opponent's Dou Qi energy!
This caused the might of the Nine Heavens Star River to instantly surge by an incredible forty thousand points!
The greatest advantage of the Bio-Radar was its ability to intuitively read combat power—both the opponent's and one's own—in an instant!
Thus, Old Niu immediately sensed that the situation was unfavorable! Helplessly, Old Niu was forced to once again forcibly increase the intensity of his Dou Qi!
Blazing Flame Burn, Level Two Dou Qi intensity elevated to one hundred thousand points!
Blazing Flame Burn, much like Soul Burn, was a method of significantly boosting combat power in a short time at the cost of exhausting physical stamina and Dou Qi! It placed an enormous strain on the body's capacity to endure, a technique that even the powerfully abnormal physiques of Old Niu and Wei Peng dared not employ lightly, especially not twice consecutively without pause.
In essence, this was similar to how a car shifts gears to accelerate; to reach the maximum speed in the highest gear, one must progress gradually from first, second, third, and then fourth gear. Otherwise, it would be impossible to jump from first gear directly to fourth gear for an instant surge in speed!
This was the so-called 'buffer period'!
And the buffer period for Blazing Flame Burn required at least five seconds for breath adjustment and physical adaptation before the next explosive surge could occur. However, Xing Chen's very first move unleashed a Dou Qi attack with an intensity of one hundred thousand points. Test Text Watermark 1. With Old Niu's original Dou Qi energy of fifty thousand points, defense was impossible.
He was therefore forced to activate Blazing Flame Burn, Level Two, under duress. The gap during this forced activation was only two seconds, which perfectly struck Old Niu's weakness. Before he could even adjust his breath, being compelled to activate the second level of Blazing Flame Burn completely disrupted the rhythm of his Dou Qi control! Although his Dou Qi intensity instantly soared to one hundred thousand points, the sudden surge nearly caused internal injuries.
Of course, even suffering internal injuries was infinitely better than being struck by Xing Chen's sword energy!
Almost simultaneously with the Dou Qi soaring, a massive golden crescent appeared, rising to meet the attack overhead!
Clang! Boom! The vortex of starlight, showering down, finally collided squarely with the golden crescent at that very moment! The clash between equally matched Dou Qi rendered Xing Chen's Dou Qi fusion incapable of taking effect, and the falling starlight vortex was immediately blasted aside!
However, at the instant of the Dou Qi collision, Xing Chen cleverly played another small trick! As the explosion erupted, he adjusted his posture, using the force of the blast! He shot out diagonally!
At this moment, Xing Chen utilized the speed talent of Moon Shadow to its absolute extreme! Harnessing the explosion of two incredibly intense streams of Dou Qi, his entire speed instantly multiplied by twofold! It could be said that the preceding Star Fall Nine Heavens was merely a feint! His true target was Wei Peng! Choosing the distant target over the near one was generally not a wise choice, but under the terrifying impact of speed, the concepts of 'far' and 'distance' lost their limitations. For Xing Chen, the forty-meter distance was practically within arm's reach! To the extent that even Old Niu was deceived by his strategy!
The speed of the change in move, the subtlety of the footwork! It was utterly bewildering! A purple afterimage, a crimson sword gleam flashed like a startled swan, cutting a faint shadow beneath the scorching sun, carrying the momentum to cleave mountains as it charged toward Wei Peng!
"Well met. Test Text Watermark 5." Xing Chen's change of tactic was indeed unexpected, but Wei Peng, who had been fully poised, showed not the slightest panic! In fact, he had never dared to take this mysterious opponent lightly!
And when Old Niu was forced to activate Level Two Blazing Flame Burn earlier, Wei Peng had already known that the prior assessment of Xing Chen's strength was flawed. Thus, he quickly adjusted his breathing and forcibly elevated his own level to the second stage! This was done as a precaution!
And indeed, his foresight proved correct! Almost as soon as enough Dou Qi was gathered, the searing sword edge pressed within half a foot of his chest!
Roar! With a fierce roar, the poised Wei Peng instantly swept out a golden crescent! The golden crescent, infused with the ten thousand points of Dou Qi intensity from the Level Two Blazing Flame Burn, was terrifyingly potent!
Clang! Boom! Amidst the dull, heavy roar, the golden crescent struck the crimson sword edge with perfect accuracy!
The astonishing Dou Qi explosion distorted the entire space, rendering it chaotic!
Yet, Xing Chen was not repelled by this Dou Qi blast! The purple figure spun like a top the instant the Dou Qi exploded, resembling a swordfish riding a wave, actually piercing through the surprisingly intense blast wave in a flash!
Swish, swish, swish! The crimson sword edge stabbed out like lightning! Dancing like a nimble serpent, flashing evasively, yet seemingly capable of penetrating everywhere like an invisible, light breeze! Attacking Wei Peng's vital points!
In that instant, he surged to Wei Peng's close range, unleashing a torrential storm of melee attacks!
Damn it! Accustomed to the grand, sweeping movements of aerial combat—leaping high and diving low, traveling a hundred meters in the blink of an eye—this compact, exquisite close-quarters fighting left him struggling to adapt!
Instinctively spreading his wings, he instantly shot up into the sky like a rocket!
Wei Peng's intent was clear: shake off Xing Chen's entanglement!
But how could Xing Chen allow him such an easy escape! Almost simultaneously as Wei Peng spread his wings to ascend, Xing Chen activated the Phoenix Heaven Wings and adjusted his posture just in time. His entire body followed Wei Peng like a shadow, soaring upward at the exact same moment! And his thrusting long sword never left Wei Peng's vital areas!
Confound it! Forced into this desperate close-quarters fight, Wei Peng could only brandish his greatsword, blocking repeatedly!
Clink, clink, clatter!
A series of metallic clashes, countless electrical sparks accompanying the collision of the two long swords, flashed incessantly! Wei Peng managed to parry Xing Chen's twelve lightning-fast stabs in an instant!
But even while blocking these twelve strikes! Wei Peng was constantly forced backward by his opponent, never even given a chance to counterattack! Such an astonishing frequency and speed of drawing the sword defied human imagination!
Twelve strikes were merely one set of combined sword techniques, and after Wei Peng barely managed to defend against them, the next wave of attack swept in again!
This was the terror of Xing Chen's lightning-fast offense! Like the ceaseless rage of the ocean's tide, showing no sign of stopping, until the opponent was utterly crushed!
Meanwhile, Old Niu was also horrified! The previously established pincer attack tactic had failed. Instead, the opponent, relying on an astonishing Dou Qi burst and terrifying speed, instantly broke free, reversing the situation into a one-on-one dismantling tactic!
For a moment, Old Niu felt like his scheming had backfired! And Wei Peng, having been closed in on by Xing Chen, didn't have enough time to regulate the energy within his body or enhance his Dou Qi intensity! It was like a car that had just shifted into first gear, but immediately encountered an uphill slope, making it impossible to shift up again to increase speed! He possessed immense power but couldn't deploy it!
This feeling was enough to drive one mad with frustration!
It could be said that at this moment, Wei Peng’s Dou Qi intensity was the same as Xing Chen’s—one hundred thousand points—but Xing Chen held the absolute advantage in speed! All this flashed through Old Niu's mind in an instant. With his keen combat intuition, he quickly arrived at a very bad conclusion!
The Boss is in danger! So Old Niu rushed forward regardless of everything!
All of this occurred over a mere two seconds!
But in those short two seconds, Xing Chen's lightning-quick sword had already struck thirty-six times!
And Wei Peng, having barely managed to catch a breath, relied purely on astonishing reactionary instinct to parry them all!
Yet even so, the residual turbulence from the sword qi, stirred up by the astonishing speed of the flashing blades, left visible, shocking sword marks on his enhanced Phoenix Heaven armor!
Fortunately, Old Niu finally arrived!
When Xing Chen launched his thirty-seventh strike!
A powerful, scorching aura approached from behind—it was Old Niu’s Blazing Fire Sword Qi, closing in rapidly!
Xing Chen seemed to have anticipated this! Rather than waiting for the sword qi to draw near, Xing Chen let out another long cry! The Phoenix Heaven Wings flapped suddenly, and his entire body shot upward like a soaring roc!
He charged toward the high heavens with astonishing speed! The whistle was sharp and mournful! His momentum climbed relentlessly as he ascended straight up! The powerful killing intent was almost suffocating, causing tremors!
Finally, the figure that shot into the highest sky stopped ascending! Then, in the high altitude, a dazzling light erupted again! Relying on that continuous prior acceleration, Xing Chen's Dou Qi had completed another instantaneous upgrade! Reaching yet another ultimate peak!
Sword energy like a tide, killing intent spreading everywhere! Starlight scattered, swirling downward! In an instant, the entire sky and the entire earth seemed torn and twisted by this ferocious aura, fluttering chaotically like willow catkins and fallen leaves, forming a blurred world of chaos and color!
Perhaps no one expected it! Forcing Old Niu and Wei Peng to converge was Xing Chen's true objective! This seemed insane, but it was a tactic Xing Chen had decided upon after deep consideration!
In reality, Xing Chen knew very well that with his current abilities, killing either one of them quickly was impossible!
The previous continuous assault appeared to have put Wei Peng in a flurry, but it wasn't enough to overwhelm him. Of course, if the opponent had only been Wei Peng, Xing Chen might have had a chance to completely crush him before Wei Peng could unleash his full power!
But Old Niu, standing by, would never stand idly by. Thus, the strategy of defeating them individually was impossible from the start! Furthermore, their staggered positions—one in front, one behind—made Xing Chen hesitant to unleash his full potential!
Now, finally forcing the two to stand together, forming a posture of resisting the enemy side-by-side, Xing Chen could finally deploy his true method of attack!
That was to launch a concentrated assault on both of them, leveraging the miraculous power stacking effect of the Nine Heavens Star River! This was Xing Chen's final trump card: he had mastered six moves of the Nine Heavens Star River Sword Technique!
In the past, Xing Chen had only consecutively executed the first four moves, stacking the power four times!
According to Xing Chen's understanding!
The power stacking method of the Nine Heavens Star River grows exponentially!
Xing Chen’s base Dou Qi intensity is twenty thousand points, supplemented by the Boundary King Fist! The base Dou Qi intensity can be maintained at an average value of 40,000! Using this as the foundation for power stacking, the final attack intensity generated would theoretically be:
4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 280,000
Of course, this was merely a theoretical value; Xing Chen was unsure if reality would match his calculations!
But the current Xing Chen had no choice. He had to make this final, massive gamble!
The gamble was that the nature of this sword technique would adhere to the calculated data!
And he had to pray that the opponents' combat power would not exceed 280,000, otherwise Xing Chen would have no chance of winning either!
Seeing that his objective was achieved, Xing Chen showed no further hesitation and finally deployed his second move!
Rumbling Star Cloud!
Like an exploding red sun, countless dazzling lights scattered outwards!
Beneath the sky, the strange and inscrutable Starry Night reappeared! It seemed no different from the full sky of stars moments before. Test Text Watermark 3. Test Text Watermark 7. Test Text Watermark 2. Test Text Watermark 9. Test Text Watermark 2. Test Text Watermark 2.
The starlight rained down upon the human world once more! As if the entire night sky, the entire galaxy, had crashed down instantly!
This cascade of sword light was completely different from before! It seemed to follow a strange, spiraling trajectory, falling downwards! The expanse of starlight had transformed into a single, unimaginably vast vortex of starlight!
And hidden within this starlight vortex were several agile, swift, and unpredictable streams of strange light!
These were precisely the dragon shadows that had silently flown out, intermingled among the others, resembling fish swimming amidst the towering waves of the Yangtze River!
The entire world was pulled and drawn by the irresistible vortex force, beginning to spin! To vibrate! Even more astonishing was the terrifying aura contained within, which was even sharper and more surging than before!
Danger! Target life-force field climbing linearly! Dou Qi Intensity: one hundred and twenty thousand points!
Is this the second move?!
Prior to this, Wei Peng and Old Niu had meticulously studied the video footage provided by the Aries Taoist! They had also witnessed the power of this technique!
However, only when facing it personally did they truly comprehend the terrifying aura that the Aries Priestess had faced back then!
This was not just reflected in the astonishing intensity of the Dou Qi energy!
But deeper still, it was the killing intent that pressed directly against the heart!
A killing intent condensed to its absolute peak, utterly savage! This was absolutely an aura existing solely for slaughter and destruction!
If not for both of them being individuals of steadfast will! This killing intent alone would have been enough to completely shatter their sanity!
Beyond that, there was an indescribable spirituality and tremor! It seemed as if the entire field of starlight sword energy was alive, capable of breathing, capable of shifting and maneuvering at will! This was something that Wei Peng and Old Niu, accustomed to data analysis, could not comprehend!
Yet, this was precisely what they feared the most!
This terrifying discovery shocked them immensely! They had never witnessed such a ferocious and terrifying killing intent! Such an incomprehensible technique for utilizing Dou Qi!
Undeniably, both of them were strong! But their strength was manifested in their powerful Dou Qi energy!
And their perfectly precise, never-deviating combat data!
From the moment they were born, they had been pre-programmed!
Body strength, Dou Qi intensity, combat data—all of these were rigidly defined by exact figures!
They were not allowed even the slightest deviation or change! They had never even considered changing anything!
This was an innate strength, acquired without training or study! They were uniquely blessed!
It was like a magnificent sports car, where every component, every design from inside out, existed for a specific purpose!
However, precisely because of this, they lacked a spirituality! A spirituality capable of free evolution and growth!
A spirit forged through tempering in blood and fire—a spirit of ferocity and killing intent!
Compared to their near-perfect physique and combat data, Xing Chen was more like a wild, untamed horse!
Perhaps his speed did not match the sports car! Perhaps his physical strength did not match the sports car!
But every thought of his was dynamic, filled with spirituality, soaring like a free-ranging heavenly steed!
No one could predict his next move, not even himself! Because everything was a projection of intuition and spirituality! Although logically grounded, it was untraceable!
And this moment was the pinnacle of spirituality and ferocity blooming!
At this juncture, Wei Peng and Old Niu were forced to discard their previous assessment of Xing Chen's strength again! Elevating it to another, even more terrifying level!
Before they could adjust their breathing to unleash an even stronger Dou Qi explosion technique, they could only simultaneously!
Brandish their greatswords!
Two golden crescents swept out simultaneously, flying side-by-side! Looking magnificent as if two swans spreading their wings! They flew toward the starlight vortex descending from the sky!
This move was the ultimate combined defensive technique of Wei Peng and Old Niu—Crescent Wing!
If they hadn't been driven into such a desperate state, they would never have been forced to use such a relatively passive defensive skill!
Clang! Boom!
The Crescent Wing finally collided with the descending, all-encompassing starlight vortex!
Clang! Rumble! Another head-on clash without any pretense! The two streams of powerful sword energy, like two meteors colliding in mid-air, were simultaneously blasted scattering everywhere! Erupting in bursts of dazzling light!
It must be admitted that Xing Chen’s Rumbling Star Cloud sword energy was incredibly powerful! Its intensity reached a staggering one hundred and twenty thousand points! However, Wei Peng and Old Niu were also at the extreme limit of Level Two Blazing Flame Burn!
The two crescents each contained a Dou Qi intensity of one hundred thousand points, and they met the attack in parallel! In terms of sheer Dou Qi intensity, they even surpassed Xing Chen's Rumbling Star Cloud slightly! Consequently, the explosion's shockwave actually billowed back toward the descending Xing Chen in the high sky!
But just as the two Crescent Wings breached Xing Chen's starlight cloud sword energy! Several strange streams of light suddenly flashed! Like flying fish breaking through the waves! In an instant, they pierced through the surging explosion wave, heading straight for the vital areas of the two opponents!
The speed was incredible, the angles impossibly (tricky/peculiar)! It was as if they possessed eyes and were alive!
"Be careful. Test Text Watermark 7. Test Text Watermark 4." Although this was the first appearance of Xing Chen's dragon shadows since the beginning, the two of them were already well aware of these extremely peculiar little things!
They knew that the Aries Priestess had nearly lost her life because of these phantom-like little creatures! Therefore, they had been constantly vigilant for the appearance of the dragon shadows!
Sure enough, under the cover of the sword energy explosion, these little things finally appeared!