Two streams of fighting spirit, each exceeding one hundred thousand rotations, repelled and intertwined, unleashing an explosive rotational force far beyond the simple sum of two hundred thousand rotations. The shield, which had dimmed slightly, now blazed with renewed light, no longer a pure white, but subtly imbued with the red glow of the Earthly Fire Core, a clear five parts in its brilliance.

"This bizarre shield! Shatter for me!"

Lei Zhen clenched his five fingers into a fist, summoning a thunderous roar, and smashed it against the shield’s light barrier. The impact pulverized the still-forming shield curtain and struck the surface of the wrist guard heavily.

Bang! The turbulence of the fighting spirit erupted like a thunderclap, punctuated by the sharp, continuous crack-crack-crack of breaking bones. Qian Jin’s left hand, bracing the shield, felt a chain of fractures ripple through the bones. Blood sprayed violently from beneath the skin, sending dozens of nail-sized shreds of flesh exploding from his arm. Below his knees, both feet were driven completely into the earth.

The savage fighting spirit had not traveled through the shield but had bypassed it, surging directly into his arm like a massive iron block, dozens of feet in diameter, crashing down without a single gap.

The gray fighting spirit seemed to sever all possibility of life! It was not merely cold, but carried a chilling aura, like the scent of death itself, furiously compressing the Earthly Fire Core and the fighting spirit intertwined with the Fighting Heart.

Hiss... hiss...

Blood and fighting spirit sprayed from the wounds on the arm where flesh had been blasted away. Qian Jin felt as if not just his left arm was broken, but every bone in his entire body was on the verge of shattering from that single punch.

The overwhelming force pressed down, causing the two erupting forces to spin violently. The rotation of the two Fighting Hearts now seemed to show the very beginnings of hairline cracks.

"Boy, what if you have a Fighting Heart? Are you not still destined to be crushed by me?"

Gulp...

The impact of the immense power caused the entire ground before them to tremble slightly. A barrel of lamp oil placed near the blacksmith’s forge swayed and toppled into the furnace. The softly flickering flames instantly leaped up into a towering beacon a dozen feet high upon contact with the oil. In the next moment, before the entire barrel could ignite, it exploded, sending a scorching blast wave violently surging outward in all directions.

Shattered? Qian Jin suddenly felt a surge of heat rotate with difficulty within his body. The Earthly Fire Core seemed to sense the intense heat from the courtyard explosion and began spinning at high velocity, forming a vortex within his body reminiscent of seawater. The air in Yun Xinghui Sheng’s courtyard at that moment also formed a heat current vortex, almost clearly visible to the naked eye, with Qian Jin’s mouth at its center.

The two forces that had been condensed and were just beginning to separate under pressure suddenly found renewed heat joining them, condensing once more into a state resembling a coiled serpent around a tree. This configuration, however, began to relentlessly grind and crush some of the entangled gray fighting spirit. Ah! Lei Zhen let out a muffled groan; the bones of his fist, capable of crushing iron blocks, had shattered in large sections!

Broken! It was not just Qian Jin’s arm that was broken; Lei Zhen’s fist bones were completely fractured and pulverized in an instant. Half of the shield lost its light, just as it had initially, yet it hadn't suffered even the slightest deformation.

What kind of shield is this? Lei Zhen’s eyeballs ached so severely they nearly popped from their sockets. With one punch, even a steel plate shield several inches thick should have been utterly smashed. Why did this half-shield give him the tactile sensation of punching solid granite when he was first learning fighting spirit?

The punch, intended to take a life, failed to do so. The intense pain generated a momentary hesitation and shock. Mu Gui Wuxin’s battle-axe was already upon him. Lei Zhen could no longer attack Qian Jin; in a hasty scramble, he could only dodge the axe first before planning to kill Qian Jin.

"Even if I can't kill you, I'll cripple you!" Lei Zhen’s brow furrowed deeply. His Fighting Soul erupted instantly, as if catching fire, and a sequence of Battle Orders burst forth with the soul's combustion, violently shattering and driving into Qian Jin’s body.

"Fighting Soul Roar? Battle Order Shattering?" Mu Gui Wuxin’s eyes instantly turned bloodshot, like a maddened, raging bear: "Lei Meng, I will kill you!"

Qian Jin watched Lei Zhen recoil and let out a long breath. If he hadn't sensed Lei Zhen and Mu Gui Wuxin approaching while forging weapons earlier, he might truly not have been sufficiently prepared to receive Lei Zhen's punch, opting instead to use Myriad Shadows to evade.

Evasion would certainly offer a chance to escape, but it would forego an opportunity to experience life and death!

If he dared not gamble against Lei Zhen while having someone nearby who could potentially save him, how could he ever face Qian Zhan Xuan in the future?

Qian Jin collapsed onto the ground, ignoring his legs which had been hammered into the earth like stakes. He closed his eyes to regulate the chaotic fighting spirit inside him.

Normally, once a person possessed a Fighting Heart, there was virtually no possibility of fighting spirit within the body becoming chaotic. The Fighting Heart possessed a powerful regulating ability over both the internal fighting spirit and the ambient air currents.

For someone with two Fighting Hearts, the probability of chaotic fighting spirit virtually vanished. The Earthly Fire Core, in particular, always possessed incredibly strong adjustment and assimilation capabilities.

Today, however, for the first time since possessing two Fighting Hearts, Qian Jin’s internal fighting spirit was in turmoil, tangled like millions of ropes knotted together, leaving him unsure how to untangle them.

The gray fighting spirit swirled and bit inside Qian Jin’s body like hundreds of venomous snakes, coiling with the two streams of fighting spirit. The strange Battle Order Shattering technique was savagely overwhelming, like a massive bolt of lightning slamming into a person’s body, forcefully intending to split them apart.

If the Submerging Thunder technique was about infiltrating the body, mixing between the spirit and flesh to explode in various places, then the sequence of this technique was a straightforward, direct lightning strike, descending from the sky in one determined rush to annihilate the target.

"The Lei Family’s sure-kill technique: Sky Thunder Flash!"

Lei Guangming’s heart seized with agonizing pain as he sighed repeatedly. This was one of the Lei family's strongest techniques. The old patriarch had even used this to ensure Qian Jin’s death!

Puff puff puff puff puff...

Qian Jin lay on the ground with his legs still driven into the earth, looking up at the sky, desperately trying to control the fighting spirit inside him. He found that the power of the shattered technique was simply too immense! The small amount of fighting spirit he had managed to organize was as fragile as a child’s in the face of this Battle Order sequence, whose only target was his forehead! His head!

What to do? The technique’s impact was incredibly fast. Qian Jin knew that if this power truly reached his head, even his Wind and Cloud Golden Body couldn't withstand it!

The Wind and Cloud Golden Body could temper the body and even the internal organs to be immensely sturdy, but it could not temper the brain. The brain matter inside the skull could not be hardened; if this force entered, the only result would be an exploded head.

Exploded? Right! The Submerging Thunder technique! Qian Jin raised his less injured right arm and slammed it heavily against his chest, driving the formidable Submerging Thunder technique directly into his own body, slamming hard against the Sky Thunder Flash technique.

Hitting himself? Lei Guangming stared blankly at Qian Jin. Was he trying to hasten his own death? What was he doing?

Puff puff puff puff puff...

In an instant, the Submerging Thunder technique Qian Jin had hammered into his body instantly attached itself to the Sky Thunder Flash technique, adhering within his own body. The Submerging Thunder technique, which had fragmented into a thousand points of explosion, subsequently detonated continuously in the next moment.

Qian Jin's body intermittently sprouted small, bloody holes, and the Sky Thunder Flash technique suffered a similar fate! A Saint-level technique colliding with a killing technique.

Although the strength difference between the warriors releasing the two techniques was vast, which should have rendered the clash negligible, Lei Zhen’s technique had first struck Qian Jin’s shield. Even his strongest attack had failed to breach that rigid defense. As the technique, which should have hit the target directly, skimmed across the half-wrist guard before entering Qian Jin’s body, it had already expended too much of its power.

It not only annihilated the power that the Battle Order Shattering should have possessed but also greatly weakened the inherent power of the technique itself; it barely qualified as having been emitted by a mere Fighting Soul-level warrior.

The weakened, shattered Battle Order sequence, facing the full force of a Saint-level technique, no longer held its inherent overwhelming advantage.

The fragmented Battle Order sequence of the Sky Thunder Flash lost its forward momentum and, instead, was violently dragged backward, backward, backward by the vortex created by the Earthly Fire Core!

In a flash, the fiercely charging killing technique, the Sky Thunder Flash, was like a drowning person in a flood encountering a massive whirlpool, desperately struggling to break free, yet being mercilessly pulled into the vortex inch by inch until it vanished.

The Sky Thunder Flash was gone, but Qian Jin felt no great relief. There was still a strange power remaining inside him, one more tenacious and powerful than the Battle Order Shattering!

This fighting spirit was no longer purely fighting spirit; it was more like a lingering spirit that had invaded another's body, attempting to seize control of it.

This... what exactly is this? It is fighting spirit, yet it doesn't seem like it! Currently, this power was akin to the disparity between a Fighting Heart and common fighting spirit; the Fighting Heart was now at a disadvantage.

Rumble...

The residence where Yun Xinghui Sheng lived collapsed with a crash, sending clouds of dust soaring into the sky as more shattered bricks rained down onto the ground.

Mu Gui Wuxin, battle-axe in hand, charged toward Lei Zhen, whom he had sent flying with his axe strike, forcing him to collapse the house with his body: "Lei Zhen, you die today!"

"Mu Gui!" Li Deyork gripped Mu Gui Wuxin's waist tightly from behind with both hands, pulling back with all his might and roaring desperately: "Never mind Lei Zhen for now, forget Lei Zhen! Qian Jin, save Qian Jin first..."

In the span of mere seconds, Qian Jin was covered in blood. The collision between the Submerging Thunder technique and the Sky Thunder Flash technique inside his body made his injuries appear devastatingly severe.

Mu Gui Wuxin shot a hateful glance toward the direction of the collapsed house, then turned and hurried toward Qian Jin, placing a hand on his shoulder, his expression grim: "Damn it! He really burned part of his Fighting Soul!"

Burning part of his Fighting Soul? Li Deyork's relatively calm face instantly contorted into a ferocious glare. He drew his longsword and turned, charging toward the direction of the collapsed house: "Lei Zhen, this city lord will personally cleave you alive!"

Burning the Fighting Soul! Burning the Fighting Soul!

Lei Guangming’s mind was in chaos. To kill Qian Jin, the patriarch had resorted to burning his Fighting Soul!

Warriors, upon gaining a Fighting Soul, not only saw their combat power increase linearly but also gained a method far superior to the Battle Order Shattering of a Fighting Heart-level warrior: the Burning of the Fighting Soul.