Chapter 23: Breaking the Seal! Medusa?

Hai Bo Dong considered himself someone familiar with the Heavenly Flame Ranking, but the cyan-red dual-colored flame before his eyes truly exceeded his understanding.

Although he did not know what kind of flame this was, the surging heat waves told him it was an extremely terrifying fire; even a Dou Huang, if accidentally entangled by it, would face nothing but the end of death and soul annihilation.

Of course, since Xiao Yan was still only a Great Dou Shi, he was fundamentally unable to conjure a massive sea of fire sufficient to entangle a Dou Huang, but that was Xiao Yan's problem, not the flame's.

Hai Bo Dong roughly understood Xiao Yan's meaning.

Indeed, if it were this flame before him, even Queen Medusa's seal could be shaken!

It's just—

Hai Bo Dong secretly glanced at Xiao Yan; this kind of flame could not only incinerate the seal but also destroy his own meridians. If Xiao Yan harbored any malicious intent during the process, he would become a fish on a chopping block, left to be slaughtered.

However, in the end, Hai Bo Dong decided to agree to Xiao Yan's plan, because one could also be poisoned during the refining of a Break-Eruption Pill; what other choice did he have?

"Fine, this will work too. Is there anything I need to prepare?" Hai Bo Dong asked.

"Just prepare a quiet room. You wouldn't want to be disturbed while I'm helping you remove the seal, would you?"

Hai Bo Dong nodded, signaling his agreement.

"Very well, follow me."

Having said that, Hai Bo Dong walked toward a side door first, and Xiao Yan followed closely behind with Little Fairy Doctor.

Behind the side door was a corridor, and at the end of the corridor was a room.

Walking into the room, Xiao Yan scanned it and found that, other than the door they had entered through, there were no other passages leading to the outside, and even the door behind them was specially crafted. Xiao Yan looked at the door, which was a full arm's thickness; he feared that even a powerhouse at the Spirit Master level could not easily break in. Placed here in the sparsely populated Desert City, basically no one could break in except for Xiao Yan and Hai Bo Dong.

"How is it? This was originally the place I prepared for the alchemists I hired to refine pills. Does it pass?" Hai Bo Dong said with some self-satisfaction. Although this room was nothing when he was a Battle Emperor, it was extremely precious to a Spirit Master, and Hai Bo Dong had spent a great deal of effort to build this room.

"Hmm, it's passable." Xiao Yan nodded indifferently. For Little Fairy Doctor, who was seeing this level of protection for the first time, she might still be a bit surprised, but for Xiao Yan, who had even walked through the Ancient Clan—the most top-tier faction on the Dou Qi Continent—it was somewhat ordinary; at least, it hadn't reached the level to surprise him.

Hai Bo Dong carefully observed the expressions of Xiao Yan and Little Fairy Doctor. Compared to Little Fairy Doctor, whose slight surprise could still be detected despite her hiding it well, not a single ripple could be seen in Xiao Yan's expression. Perhaps this kid Xiao Yan held a higher status in his backing faction, so he was unfazed by these things. Hai Bo Dong thought to himself, suppressing some of the suspicions that had arisen these past few days.

People, after all, always think of this and that or perform detailed reviews after making a decision. Hai Bo Dong naturally belonged to the latter, and thus he discovered that the two of them had never revealed any concrete evidence of having a major faction behind them, even now.

"Alright, since we're here, stop talking about useless things and hurry up and find a place to sit," Xiao Yan urged Hai Bo Dong.

"Hmm." Truth be told, the one most anxious here was actually Hai Bo Dong, so naturally, he would not delay any further. He casually pushed the table originally meant for storing medicinal herbs in the center of the room to the side and sat down cross-legged.

Xiao Yan took a chair from beside the table, let Little Fairy Doctor sit in a relatively secluded corner of the room, and then also sat down cross-legged behind Hai Bo Dong.

Pressing both hands onto Hai Bo Dong's back, his soul consciousness surged into Hai Bo Dong's body first.

Having another person's consciousness probe into his body, Hai Bo Dong instinctively felt a trace of discomfort, his brows furrowing slightly. The Fighting Energy within his body instinctively wanted to repel the foreign object that had invaded his body, but fortunately, it was controlled in time.

Just as Hai Bo Dong suppressed his body's instincts, Xiao Yan also saw the seal within Hai Bo Dong's body that had suppressed his cultivation for decades.

Mysterious runes of various colors covered all the meridians of Hai Bo Dong's entire body: blue, red, yellow, green,

and purple. Each rune was like a living, cold-aura-exuding venomous snake, slithering along Hai Bo Dong's meridians.

When Xiao Yan's soul consciousness entered, they seemed to sense Xiao Yan's presence as well. Pairs of snake eyes stared coldly at Xiao Yan in the darkness, making one's hair stand on end!

Fortunately, these colorful rune snakes did not possess true intelligence. They quickly returned to their original state, moving along the meridians toward the depths and then returning from the depths.

Xiao Yan followed the direction of their movement and looked. Passing through a layer of mist, in the center where the seven-colored lines composed of rune snakes intertwined, an illusory figure lay lazily on her side.

The moment he saw this figure, Xiao Yan felt as if his soul had been struck by lightning, and he was completely stunned.

The graceful body had no accessories to set it off, covered only by thin gauze, outlining the alluring curves beneath to the fullest; the peaks were proud, and the willow waist was supple. The exquisite oval face contained a coldness that kept people at a distance, but the closed eyes and slightly parted lips gave one a feeling of being ready for the taking, making one's blood boil.

Looking further down, the snake tail that should have been a major eyesore did not diminish her charm in the slightest at this moment; its occasional twisting inadvertently stirred up the deepest desires in a person. The fine scales emitted a seven-colored light that shone upon her alluring body, adding a sense of dreaminess.

Until this moment, Xiao Yan finally knew what a natural-born femme fatale was, and what it meant for a woman to conquer a man. He admitted that at this moment, he had been conquered.

Reluctantly moving his gaze away from the alluring body, Xiao Yan looked back at the seven-colored lines composed of countless rune snakes. These were the main body of Queen Medusa's Snake Sealing Curse; as long as they were destroyed, the Snake Sealing Curse could be lifted.

Taking one last look at the alluring figure in the distance, Xiao Yan suppressed the thought of simply letting Hai Bo Dong remain sealed and summoned the Volcano Green Lotus Flame from within his body.

After the cyan-red dual-colored flame appeared, it quickly surged toward one of the seven-colored threads.

Hiss!!!

The rune snakes, having been at ease for thousands of years, suddenly suffered the scorching of the Volcano Green Lotus Flame and resisted violently. Like real snakes, they emitted sharp cries, and the entire seal trembled at this moment, twisting and deforming as if it wanted to pounce toward Xiao Yan.

But a seal was, after all, just a seal; it had no way to attack the enemy, and other than struggling continuously and making Hai Bo Dong, who was being attached to, feel somewhat uncomfortable, there was no other effect.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan no longer hid his skills and exerted his full power to drive the Heavenly Flame. The cyan-red dual-colored flame seemed to be infected, also transforming into a giant snake and swallowing the rune snakes on Hai Bo Dong's meridians one by one.

A quarter of an hour, two quarters of an hour, one hour, two hours... he did not know how much time had passed. Xiao Yan's Fighting Energy was nearly exhausted, and Hai Bo Dong had also reached his limit. Constantly enduring the scorching of the Heavenly Flame and the impact on his meridians left him somewhat drained.

Suddenly, a powerful cold aura erupted from Hai Bo Dong's body, instantly lowering the high temperature that had risen in the room due to Xiao Yan's Heavenly Flame, even lowering it too much, to the point of being somewhat cold.

Little Fairy Doctor looked at the tea in the cup before her, which had been about to evaporate due to boiling, but was now frozen; within the white ice crystals, one could even see many fine bubbles, which were clearly left over from when it was boiling earlier.

At this moment, inside Hai Bo Dong's body, Xiao Yan's soul consciousness let out a long sigh of relief looking at the one seven-colored thread that had been cleared with such difficulty. Looking at the remaining dozens of seven-colored threads around it, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

What the hell, when will this be finished!

Just as Xiao Yan was cursing in his heart, a strand of pure Dou Qi drifted before Xiao Yan's eyes. The seven-colored hue contained within the Dou Qi and the substance that was clearly purer than that in the meridians manifested the owner of the Dou Qi.

This is? Queen Medusa's Dou Qi left behind after the seal was incinerated!

Xiao Yan's eyes instantly became fiery.

This Dou Qi was not ordinary; this was Dou Qi capable of sealing a Dou Huang powerhouse for decades. Even Queen Medusa could not just casually expend it; she likely paid a certain price for it.

Xiao Yan turned his head to look at the remaining dozens of seven-colored threads; this time, even Medusa's phantom could not attract him. In Xiao Yan's eyes, there were only treasures that could help him become stronger!

Eh? That's not right?

Xiao Yan absorbed all the emitted Dou Qi, using a portion to make up for his own Dou Qi consumption, and storing the other portion in the Heavenly Flame seal.

But strangely, the amount of Dou Qi was too small, not even enough to fully recover the Dou Qi he had consumed.

Xiao Yan looked closely and discovered that a lot of the Dou Qi had been absorbed by the meridians below, and was currently being refined.

Damn it? This old sly fox! He actually dared to intercept the loot! He had worked so diligently to help him break the seal, yet he didn't notify him when there were good things; this is truly unreasonable!

At this moment, Xiao Yan had completely forgotten that he had also wanted to swallow it all for himself just a moment ago. Little did he know that Hai Bo Dong was also cursing some little fox in his heart. One had to know that this was the essence of the power of Queen Medusa, who was at the peak of the Fighting Emperor realm. If he could fully absorb it, perhaps his cultivation, which had fallen due to the long-term sealing over these years, could be fully restored!

Xiao Yan thought to himself that this wouldn't do; how could he let others pick up the bargain after he had put in so much effort? He immediately decided to continue incinerating the seal.

Although Hai Bo Dong could continue to absorb it by doing this, as long as he had no way to store Fighting Energy within his body, he could not compete with Xiao Yan, because Xiao Yan did not need to refine it at all.

Conversely, if he stopped, Hai Bo Dong could leisurely refine Medusa's power and then continue to absorb it.

Having decided on a plan, Xiao Yan immediately took action, locked onto a new seven-colored line, and lunged at it.

Although Hai Bo Dong did not know why Xiao Yan had suddenly become so fast as if he had been injected with stimulants, the violent Heavenly Flame sometimes even made his meridians ache, forcing him to spend more energy mobilizing his Fighting Energy for protection.

However, he felt no dissatisfaction in his heart; after all, since someone was helping him recover his cultivation faster, what could he possibly be dissatisfied about?

But as time passed, Hai Bo Dong discovered that something was wrong.

When Xiao Yan destroyed the second seven-colored line, he had not paid much attention, only cursing that brat in his heart for indeed discovering Medusa's power.

Although Xiao Yan's absorption of power was shockingly fast, even he, who had already recovered to the peak of Dou Ling, could barely keep up.

Regarding this, Hai Bo Dong only assumed that the cultivation technique Xiao Yan practiced was much stronger than his own Earth-tier low-level technique.

But when Xiao Yan burned through to the seventh and eighth seven-colored lines, Hai Bo Dong could no longer sit still.

At this moment, Hai Bo Dong had already recovered to the level of a four-star Fighting King, yet his speed of absorbing Queen Medusa's power still could not catch up to Xiao Yan's; what the hell was this? One couldn't possibly say that the technique this brat Xiao Yan practiced could allow a Great Fighting Master to absorb energy faster than a Fighting King, right? Even a Heaven-tier Fighting Technique couldn't do that, could it!

At this moment, Hai Bo Dong had the urge to simply call for a halftime break; after all, if he thought about it carefully, he wasn't actually that anxious, was he? Little Brother Xiao Yan was working so hard, surely he should let him rest for a bit, right?

However, in the end, Hai Bo Dong did not propose this idea.

Another period of time passed, and by now Xiao Yan had burned through to the twenty-seventh seven-colored line; besides this, only nine seven-colored lines remained on other meridians, and the phantom of Queen Medusa in the distance had also become faint and flickering.

As the twenty-seventh seven-colored line was burned away, Hai Bo Dong's power also smoothly returned to the Fighting Emperor level.

An aura so powerful it felt tangible radiated from within Hai Bo Dong's body; even Xiao Yan, who had the Heavenly Flame protecting his body, could finally no longer ignore it.

His soul consciousness was forced out of Hai Bo Dong's body, and Xiao Yan decisively retreated to the position where Little Fairy Doctor was, blocking the constantly surging cold air in front of her.

Even the current Xiao Yan felt it was somewhat difficult to resist the constantly surging cold air, and in other parts of the room where there was no Xiao Yan to block it, a thick wall of ice had already formed!

"Hahaha! Finally, this damn seal is finally gone! This old man is a Fighting Emperor again! Hahaha!" With his feet hovering in the air, the terrifying sound waves echoed everywhere, shattering the ice wall that had just formed. Hai Bo Dong wantonly vented the power belonging to a Fighting Emperor that he had finally recovered. Although he was only newly initiated into the Fighting Emperor level and still had a considerable distance to go before reaching his former peak, this was merely a matter of time.

Looking at the ice wall on the wall that formed and then shattered, Xiao Yan could not help but sigh; even a one-star Dou Huang possessed such terrifying might. Although it was still worlds apart compared to the Ancient Clan Dou Sheng he had once seen, just as he had said to Gu Yuan back then, there was not much difference between a Dou Sheng and a Dou Huang to him; both could easily kill him while he was still just a Da Dou Shi.

"Congratulations to Old Hai for recovering his Emperor-level cultivation." Seeing Hai Bo Dong gradually waking up from his wild excitement, Xiao Yan stepped forward at the right moment and cupped his hands in congratulations.

"Now that the agreement has been fulfilled, I wonder if the other half of the remnant map we agreed upon earlier can be handed over to me." Xiao Yan said somewhat tentatively, a trace of wariness in his eyes.

"That is of course, but there is no rush now; aren't there still nine seven-colored lines left to deal with? Once everything is settled, this old man will naturally hand the remaining remnant map to you." Hai Bo Dong agreed readily, yet he delayed somewhat.

Xiao Yan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he said in a somewhat cold tone: "Is Your Excellency trying to play me for a fool? With the Dou Huang cultivation you have already recovered, the remaining seals can be completely resolved by yourself; why the need to use excuses to delay?"

"Although you have always acted as if you have a great power behind you, until now I have not seen a shadow of the power behind the two of you. I would like to ask—" Hai Bo Dong's tone also turned cold, his eyes carrying some chill: "Is there really some background behind the two of you?"

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