[Volume 2] Chapter 19: Battle Against the Dou Emperor

High above, scarlet fire surged across the heavens as an enormous lotus woven from countless flames rapidly took shape. Dou Emperor Xiao Yan’s signature technique was about to come crashing straight at Finn and Chen-Awelon—right into their faces.

Chen-Awelon raised the younger Xiao Yan—whose face was swollen like a pig’s head—high above his own head and used him as a human shield.

He shouted smugly at the Dou Emperor in the sky,

“Go on! Use the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame! Do it! We can all die together!”

Smoke was practically pouring from Dou Emperor Xiao Yan’s ears with rage, but he still dispersed the flame lotus in his hand. With his younger self held hostage, he did not dare attack for fear of killing him.

If he killed his younger self, he would also erase his present self. A mighty Dou Emperor dying by such a novel form of suicide would be the joke of the ages.

Seeing that Xiao Yan refused to attack, Chen-Awelon grew even more pleased with himself. He swung the younger Xiao Yan, whose face now resembled a swollen pig’s head, back and forth and shouted,

“Where’s that Buddha’s fury? Where’s your flame lotus? Why don’t you dare attack?”

The Dou Emperor flew into a rage. He activated the Three Thousand Lightning Illusion, closed the distance in an instant, and lunged at Chen-Awelon, hoping to snatch away his younger self at close range.

Chen-Awelon chained the abilities Flash and Ghost together, then bolted. After putting some distance between them, he spent 200 Flex Points in the Strongest Flex-and-Face-Slap System to redeem a Seven-Colored Rainbow Steed.

He leaped onto its back and fled. The Seven-Colored Rainbow Steed galloped through the sky as fast as the wind, reaching sublight speed in the blink of an eye.

Every time its hooves struck the air, they kicked up a brilliant rainbow. It was quite a sight.

Xiao Yan discovered that even his Three Thousand Lightning Illusion could not catch the Seven-Colored Rainbow Steed. He immediately turned his own Dou Qi into a mount. With a twist of both hands, his vast Dou Qi condensed into a pure white flying steed.

Xiao Yan mounted the horse, kicked its flanks, and charged after Chen-Awelon.

“Warrior up ahead!” he bellowed. “Do you dare dismount and face me?!”

Chen-Awelon urged his Seven-Colored Rainbow Steed onward and looked back with a laugh.

“Flame Emperor, can that horse of yours even catch me?”

Finn watched the two of them chase each other through the sky as if at play and prepared to slip away. If Chen-Awelon’s mission was already complete, Finn would immediately exit the Imaginary World.

The Dou Emperor furiously whipped his Dou Qi steed, but he still could not catch Chen-Awelon. His gaze shifted, and he noticed Finn on the ground.

“I’ll capture his accomplice first and trade him for my younger self!”

Having made up his mind, Xiao Yan turned his mount and charged toward Finn.

“Yellow Spring Finger!” Light blazed from Xiao Yan’s hand. Fierce Dou Qi condensed into a single beam and shot toward Finn.

This was a Heaven-tier Dou Technique unleashed with the full power of a Dou Emperor. A direct hit would obliterate even a Dou Ancestor, body and soul.

Finn’s expression turned grave. Profound Energy raced through his body and gathered at his fingertips, forming an invisible circular shield.

There was no way he could defeat Xiao Yan. The Dou Emperor was a Child of Fortune at the height of his power. Finn could only pour everything he had into defending himself.

The Yellow Spring Finger struck the Profound Energy shield with a deafening explosion. The entire mountain shattered, sending dust billowing across the sky.

Yet Finn stood unmoved within the dust cloud. The Yellow Spring Finger had done nothing to him.

Seeing Finn completely unharmed, Xiao Yan sucked in a cold breath.

“This child is terrifying to such an extent! He must not be allowed to live!”

The moment the words left his mouth, he paused.

“Hm? That sounded familiar. I could swear people used to say that about me all the time…”

Riding his Seven-Colored Rainbow Steed, Chen-Awelon raced toward the Flame Emperor with countless ribbons of rainbow streaming behind him.

Noticing Xiao Yan’s strange reaction, he laughed.

“Xiao Yan, your world has veered off its predetermined course! You’re no longer the Child of Fortune, and the world is no longer protecting you!”

“You damned ant!” Xiao Yan gritted his teeth. He, too, realized that something was wrong.

He had to finish this battle quickly. He needed to kill these petty thieves with the overwhelming might of a Dou Emperor before anything even more ridiculous happened.

Just then, a high-energy laser beam pierced the sky and struck Xiao Yan squarely.

It did nothing.

To Xiao Yan, it felt no different from someone shining a laser pointer at him.

Bearmont fired his laser cannon at maximum power until its energy was completely depleted. He immediately stowed it away and sprinted toward his next hiding place.

Finn produced two nuclear rockets, shouldered one on each side, and launched them at Dou Emperor Xiao Yan.

Boom! Boom!

The nuclear fireballs exploded, but Xiao Yan remained completely unharmed.

He was a Dou Emperor, an existence capable of burning mountains and boiling oceans with a wave of his hand. Of course a pair of nuclear weapons could not kill him.

Eight hundred kilometers away, Jyan-Tyenhaw flung a talisman at Xiao Yan before transforming into a breeze and slipping away again.

Xiao Yan swatted the incoming talisman aside. His hair and beard bristled as he activated the Three Thousand Lightning Illusion and reached for Finn.

Finn looked up and gave him a faint smile. “Goodbye.”

In the next instant, Finn’s figure dispersed like mist beneath the morning sun and vanished.

He had exited the Battle Through the Heavens Imaginary World.

When Finn opened his eyes again, he was back on the mobile combat platform outside the Imaginary World. Moonbell floated in midair nearby, still eating her ice cream one small bite at a time.

She popped a strawberry into her mouth and asked, “Where are the other four idiots?”

“We ran into an unexpected complication. Dou Emperor Xiao Yan crossed the river of spacetime to save his younger self.” Finn shrugged. “They’re still keeping him occupied.”

“Things never go exactly according to plan, which is why you should always have a contingency.”

Moonbell continued, “The only person I’ve ever met who could account for every possibility—even the destruction of the world—was my teacher, Zhuge-Tyentse.”

“Can we see what’s happening inside the Imaginary World?”

“Chen-Awelon, Bearmont, and Jyan-Tyenhaw are all fighting, so they’ve shut down their video feeds. But Sainquartz hasn’t moved. He’s sharing his vision with me, so we can watch from his perspective.”

Moonbell brought up the image on the screen.

Chen-Awelon and Jyan-Tyenhaw had already fled far into the distance.

Bearmont was fighting a retreating battle, using hit-and-run tactics against Dou Emperor Xiao Yan. But he was having a difficult time and would not be able to hold out much longer.

Sainquartz’s body now had a light transmittance of one hundred percent, making him clearer than glass. He was effectively a stone rendered perfectly transparent, so Xiao Yan had not noticed him.

“Come on, Xiao Yan!” Bearmont roared. “Today, you and I will settle this in a fair fight!”

The muscles across his entire body swelled to nearly twice their normal size. His eyes turned bloodred, and his punch nearly shattered space itself.

Faced with Bearmont’s last stand, Xiao Yan began spamming techniques as though they cost him nothing.

“Vajra Glass Body!”

“Buddha’s Fury Reincarnation!”

“Angry Buddha Lotus Flame!”

“Great Heaven Creation Palm!”

“Yellow Spring Divine Anger!”

“Destruction Fire Lotus!”

“…”

Outside the Imaginary World, Bearmont’s eyes snapped open.

He had exited the Imaginary World.

“I couldn’t take any more!” Bearmont let out a long breath, removed the pink helmet from his head, and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. 

His clothes were soaked through, showing just how close he had come to suffering a serious setback.

“How’s Chen-Awelon?” Bearmont asked.

Whether Chen-Awelon could obtain what he needed from Xiao Yan, the Child of Fortune, would determine the success or failure of their mission.

“Still stalling,” Moonbell replied calmly.

“Stall, stall, and keep stalling!” Bearmont slapped his forehead. “There’s no way we can beat Dou Emperor Xiao Yan head-on. We need another plan.”

Moonbell suddenly raised an eyebrow and fixed her gaze on the interdimensional surveillance eye. She seemed to have noticed something unusual.

“Something’s wrong!”

With a thought, Moonbell opened a communications link to the Imaginary World and called out to Chen-Awelon, Jyan-Tyenhaw, and Sainquartz in her youthful voice,

“Careful! Someone else has entered the Battle Through the Heavens Imaginary World!”