Chapter 360 - 196: Suppressing Zhou Kuohai, Yin Fire Burns Profound Mastery

Chapter 360: Chapter 196: Suppressing Zhou Kuohai, Yin Fire Burns Profound Mastery

With a sharp grit of his teeth, he ignored the risk of aggravating his old injuries and brazenly activated a Secret Technique, burning away a portion of his source qi and blood.

In an instant, a morbid flush appeared on Zhou Kuohai’s face as the aura around him surged violently. The price, however, was worsening his injuries and damaging his foundation.

But at this moment, he had no other choice!

"HRAAAGH—!"

With a furious roar, Zhou Kuohai abandoned his hit-and-run strategy. He stomped, shattering the water’s surface, and shot toward Chen Sheng like a cannonball.

He held his silver spear straight, the cold glint at its tip condensing to an absolute point.

It was as if the surrounding light was devoured by it. He poured the full power of his Mental Realm into the weapon, becoming one with his spear as he thrust it straight at Chen Sheng’s throat!

This thrust was the culmination of his power in his current, heightened state.

"Bring it on!"

Faced with this sudden spike in pressure and killing intent, Chen Sheng felt no fear. Instead, an even more fervent battle lust ignited in his eyes.

With a long cry, he neither dodged nor retreated. Pouring his Mental Realm into the Dragon Roar Blade, he met the deadly, cold point of the spear with a ferocious slash of his own!

The arc of his blade was like a bolt of crimson silk, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek.

The pressure from Zhou Kuohai was on a completely different level compared to Gu Shuangjia.

But this life-or-death battle only served to more thoroughly ignite the ferocity and battle lust in Chen Sheng’s blood.

It felt as if his very blood was boiling.

The only problem was that Zhou Kuohai’s Body Technique in the water was too unpredictable and treacherous. Coupled with his veteran combat experience, he never gave Chen Sheng the perfect opportunity to get in close and unleash his Nine Nether Yin Fire.

This fire was his greatest trump card. If he used it and failed to land a decisive blow, his opponent would become extremely wary, making a second attempt nearly impossible.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! BOOM—!"

The blade and spear clashed in a frenzy, sending sparks and water flying everywhere.

The two fought from midair down into the water, then battled their way from the depths back into the sky.

Everywhere they went, the water’s surface exploded and towering waves churned. The surrounding hundred-zhang stretch of water was a scene of total chaos, as if it had been ravaged by a great beast.

Fighting underwater inevitably hampered the momentum of their weapons.

At the fiercest point of their struggle,

Zhou Kuohai suddenly roared and threw his silver spear behind him. The muscles in his arms bulged, shredding his sleeves, and strange, green, scale-like patterns appeared on his exposed skin.

He emanated a savage, brutal aura as his physical strength instantly skyrocketed.

He intended to use his superior physical strength to engage in close-quarters combat, throwing a punch straight at Chen Sheng.

Chen Sheng’s eyes narrowed, but he showed no fear. With a smooth motion, he slid the Dragon Roar Blade back into the scabbard on his back.

With a shake of his right arm, a brilliant Golden Light shone from beneath his skin. His muscles knotted and his bones cracked as he threw a punch of indomitable power, meeting Zhou Kuohai’s scale-patterned fist head-on.

"THOOM—!!!"

The moment the two fists collided, time seemed to stand still for an instant.

An invisible, terrifying force radiated from the point of impact, violently shoving aside the lake water in a radius of several dozen feet and creating a momentary, spherical vacuum.

「The next moment—」

"BOOOOOOM—!!!"

An indescribable roar erupted.

A visible, spherical shockwave, mixed with raging Gang Qi, expanded wildly in all directions.

The vacuum around them was instantly filled by a massive influx of lake water, which then compressed and violently erupted, forming a circular wall of water nearly a hundred zhang high that shot toward the sky.

’This is the moment!’

A sharp glint flashed in Zhou Kuohai’s eyes. This was the moment he had painstakingly engineered—this brief, fatal opening after a head-on clash, where his opponent’s old strength was spent and new strength had yet to be mustered.

The next moment, a green light flashed behind him, and a small, foot-long green banner suddenly appeared.

The banner was made of some material that was neither cloth nor silk. Embroidered on its surface was a menacing, green Flood Dragon, shimmering with spiritual light and exuding an oppressive might.

Exotic Treasure—the Cyan Flood Dragon Banner!

Zhou Kuohai bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of blood essence onto the banner.

The Cyan Flood Dragon Banner trembled violently. The Flood Dragon embroidered upon it seemed to come to life, letting out a ferocious roar that shook one’s very Divine Soul.

An incredibly condensed, illusory, cyan Flood Dragon roared out from the banner. With lifelike scales and claws and overwhelming ferocity, it pounced at the nearby Chen Sheng.

This was a true attack, several times more terrifying than the water-form flood dragon from before. It was designed not only to shatter Protective Gang Qi, but also to strike the Divine Soul itself.

However, at the very instant Zhou Kuohai unleashed the Cyan Flood Dragon Banner, a cold glint flashed in Chen Sheng’s eyes.

He opened his mouth and spat. An incredibly dense Spirit Talisman, emitting unsettling waves of Divine Sense, shot forth. It swelled instantly, colliding head-on with the pouncing, illusory cyan Flood Dragon.

It was none other than the Dreadful God Talisman that Sun Yuzhi had borrowed for him from the Danxia Sect.

After being refined, it now contained a single strike imbued with nearly seventy percent of Governor Nie Xuanfeng’s Power of Divine Sense.

"VMMMMM—!!!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a muffled roar.

The pale gold Spirit Talisman and the illusory cyan Flood Dragon locked in midair for an instant. Then, the light from both dimmed before they shattered into countless specks of light and dissipated.

The Dreadful God Talisman had actually managed to neutralize the vast majority of the power behind the Cyan Flood Dragon Banner’s killing blow.

However, the remnant of the illusory cyan Flood Dragon—its color now as faint as mist and its power greatly diminished—still crashed toward Chen Sheng.

"DONG!"

An illusory image of the Golden Bell manifested before Chen Sheng, a deep chime ringing out as it took the brunt of the impact.

The Golden Bell shuddered violently, its surface covered in cracks, and Chen Sheng’s face turned pale.

"BANG!"

The instant the Golden Bell shattered, the Fish Scale Spirit Armor on Chen Sheng’s body automatically activated. Layers of illusory, cyan-black scales appeared, weakening the impact once more.

Finally, after breaking through two layers of defense—the Golden Bell and the Spirit Armor—the remnant of the cyan Flood Dragon’s illusion was finally exhausted. It tapped gently against Chen Sheng’s chest before completely disintegrating.

Chen Sheng’s body trembled. He felt his organs churn and a surge of blood rise in his throat, but he quickly forced it back down.