Chapter 260: Kill Dream, Slay the Gods

Shoo!

The moment Xu Jin's form materialized, his Lei Yi wings flared open and he shot instantly toward the center of the Huoling Clan's royal palace.

In his Mingji Star Pattern's perception, the strongest aura in the entire Huoyun City was right there.

Almost the instant Xu Jin's form emerged from the void with a sonic crack, every expert's gaze in the Huoling royal city locked onto him.

The next instant, tens of thousands of Huoling experts roared in fury and charged toward Xu Jin.

In Xu Jin's Mingji Star Pattern perception, there were at least ten thousand third-rank Huoling, and at least hundreds of fourth-rank.

But the moment he surged forward, his Mingji Star Pattern had already blocked out all third- and fourth-rank Huoling—he ignored them entirely.

The only Huoling experts Xu Jin's Mingji Star Pattern needed to be wary of were the fifth-rank ones.

Not many—just over a dozen.

The instant he surged forward, the Yu Mu Jin Zhong appeared on his body's surface.

In a single breath, Xu Jin had already reached the gates of Huoyun City's royal citadel.

But at the same time, hundreds of elite Huoling were already charging toward him.

Over five hundred third-rank Huoling, more than thirty fourth-rank Huoling, and two fifth-rank Huoling blocked his path.

Xu Jin knew his tactic well.

He could not linger anywhere, even for a moment.

If he paused or became entangled for even a second, he would be trapped in a desperate battle—enemies would keep pouring in, and he'd be forced to flee using his last-resort survival techniques.

But right now, over five hundred Huoling had already surrounded him, above and below.

Roar!

Xu Jin suddenly opened his mouth as if to bellow—but no sound emerged.

Yet in the perception of the hundreds of Huoling charging toward him, a terrifying roar, like that of a tiger, suddenly erupted in their minds.

Divine Tiger Roar!

A sixth-rank lower-tier soul-star technique for mass combat that Xu Jin learned from the Lingji Star Palace.

Instantly, every Huoling within the range of the Divine Tiger Roar was affected.

The most obvious effect: third-rank Huoling bled from all seven orifices, staggering like drunkards; fourth-rank Huoling were dazed, significantly impaired.

Even the fifth-rank Huoling had their eyes glazed over for a fleeting instant.

Xu Jin needed precisely that instant.

He instantly activated his eighth-rank lower-tier Gaojie Star Pattern to unleash Zi Xuan Tian Huo.

Flame Burst.

But this Flame Burst was different.

Previous Flame Bursts had compressed the energy as much as possible to maximize destructive power.

This one, however, was meant to maximize the area of destruction.

The purple Zi Xuan Tian Huo exploded instantly, engulfing over a hundred third-rank Huoling, several fourth-rank Huoling, and one fifth-rank Huoling in its path.

In that split second, Xu Jin did not slow—he surged upward again, accelerating forward.

As he surged upward, purple spiral Flame Bursts erupted in rapid succession.

The two strongest fifth-rank Huoling were instantly annihilated by the purple spiral Flame Bursts.

Though Huoling had strong resistance to fire-star techniques, Xu Jin's Zi Xuan Tian Huo was of such a high rank that it surpassed their comprehension.

Only because they were Huoling.

Had they been ordinary third- or even fourth-rank outsiders, even at several meters' distance, they would have been burned or even incinerated by Zi Xuan Tian Huo.

In the royal palace, a middle-aged man with fiery red hair standing on end and crimson eyes stared at Xu Jin, who had just burst into the palace, and suddenly his expression turned curious.

High-rank fire-star technique.

One that had already touched upon the will of heaven and earth.

This outsider had piqued his interest.

"Capture him alive—do not kill him!"

The instant the crimson-eyed Huoling King gave the order, hundreds of elite palace guards surged toward Xu Jin, leaving trails of flame behind them.

Seeing the Huoling King's guards charging, Xu Jin's pupils contracted sharply.

These hundreds of palace elites—all had at least mid-fourth-rank cultivation.

They were the elite among the Huoling's elite.

Watching the Huoling elite charge toward him, Xu Jin's mind shifted—he immediately drew starlight from the Can Dou Platform into his body, restoring his depleted star power to peak.

Zi Xuan Tian Huo was powerful, but it drained too much.

The next instant, hundreds of fourth-rank Huoling elites closed within a hundred meters of Xu Jin.

Xu Jin's Lei Yi wings flashed—he accelerated again. Until now, he had never unleashed such speed.

Roar!

Divine Tiger Roar!

Another mass-combat roar.

The charging fourth- and fifth-rank Huoling elites all hesitated simultaneously.

At that exact moment, Xu Jin flashed over their heads—and as he passed, he hurled the fifth-rank upper-grade Star Seal, Qing Lan, which he had already prepared in his hand, directly into the air.

Whoosh!

A blue Qing Lan domain exploded above the fifth-rank Huoling, instantly forming a field of blue wind blades.

Fifth-rank upper-grade Star Seal: Qing Lan.

Cultivated.

Xu Jin had previously used it to kill a fifth-rank assassin sent to kill him.

Its power was immense.

The instant it was thrown, the fifth-rank Huoling at the center—post-Dou cultivation—was shredded into fragments; within a ten-meter radius, all fourth-rank Huoling were instantly cut into countless pieces.

The lucky ones died instantly.

The unlucky ones were split in half or severed into limbs, yet still clung to life.

In an instant, it became a scene of earthly hell.

The surviving Huoling elites and those rushing to reinforce them were terrified.

But Xu Jin did not pause—he flared his Lei Yi wings again, pushing his sixth-rank upper-grade Star Pattern and the Tà Xīng Boots to their limits, transforming into a streak of light that shot straight toward the Huoling King, who watched from afar.

Beside the Huoling King stood two fifth-rank late-stage guards.

This Huoling clan had more fifth-rank experts than Xu Jin had imagined.

But once the bow is drawn, there is no turning back.

Xu Jin would not give up until the very last moment.

The next instant, he saw the Huoling King charging toward him, flanked by his two fifth-rank late-stage guards.

As he charged, the Huoling King shouted, "Are you the hidden master behind the Bao Wei Clan? Finally dared to show yourself?"

Xu Jin: "???"

Hidden master behind the Bao Wei Clan?

Xu Jin had no idea what he meant.

This remark, however, successfully piqued Xu Jin's curiosity.

But Xu Jin knew better—this moment was the critical window of opportunity; not a single second could be wasted.

One second more, and all would be lost!

Therefore, Xu Jin did not respond—he only flared his Lei Yi wings and accelerated furiously forward.

The Huoling King frowned. Seeing Xu Jin's silence, he ignited roaring flames around his body and surged forward at full speed, alongside his two guards.

Xu Jin's pupils contracted sharply—this was the worst-case scenario.

He had just hoped for a chance to pick them off one by one.

The next instant, he gripped the cultivated fifth-rank upper-grade Star Seal, Bian Shan, in his hand, and charged forward without slowing.

The instant he closed the distance, over a hundred meters away, purple lightning struck the Huoling King's head.

It caused little damage, but it slowed the Huoling King's speed—and allowed the two fifth-rank late-stage Huoling elites to close in on Xu Jin.

Soul fluctuations rose: Po Sha!

Po Sha erupted instantly, alongside the purple spiral Flame Burst.

The instant the purple spiral Flame Burst consumed one fifth-rank late-stage Huoling, the other's furious flames struck Xu Jin.

Xu Jin ignored it—he slammed the cultivated fifth-rank upper-grade Star Seal, Bian Shan, already clutched in his palm.

Xu Jin's Yu Mu Jin Zhong merely rippled slightly, neutralizing the fifth-rank late-stage Huoling's attack into nothingness.

At the same moment, the Huoling King's strike arrived.

A black fire dragon, wreathed in roaring flames, instantly coiled around Xu Jin. His Yu Mu Jin Zhong hissed and sizzled as it rapidly burned away.

Xu Jin ignored it.

Within his Shang Gong, the seventh-rank Wen Meng Star Pattern blazed with sudden brilliance.

As Xu Jin fixed his gaze on the Huoling King, he unleashed the full power of the seventh-rank Wen Meng!

Kill Dream!

The next instant, Xu Jin and the Huoling King's surroundings twisted—suddenly, they stood in a mountain-and-swamp landscape.

The Huoling King had not yet reacted.

Yet within the mountains and marshes, the heavens and earth began to change rapidly.

Xu Jin merely waved his hand, and the sky filled with dark clouds.

With another wave, the clouds crackled with lightning and thunder, pouring down a torrential rain.

This was the weather the Flame Spirit King hated most—without exception.

The Flame Spirit King wanted to flee, to hide, but could not fly out of this small realm no matter how hard he tried.

He tried to attack, but his flames barely reached fifty meters beyond his body before being extinguished by the power of heaven and earth, unable to even brush Xu Jin's sleeve.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

One after another, violet lightning bolts slammed down like madness upon the Flame Spirit King's head.

Each violet bolt struck, and the Flame Spirit King's body shrank as if melting away.

Strangely, where the lightning struck, no blackened marks appeared.

Nor was there any smell of burning.

This made the Flame Spirit King feel deeply strange.

Where is this?

Is this a star technique?

Why did he feel only a headache, with no corresponding pain in his body?

The Flame Spirit King's sensations were profoundly bizarre.

Suddenly, the Flame Spirit King licked a droplet of water from his face.

But he did not taste water.

The droplet had simply vanished into thin air.

In an instant, the Flame Spirit King realized the truth.

Dream!

This is a dream!

Not real.

In an instant, the Flame Spirit King tried to awaken.

The moment he sensed the disturbance of the Killing Dream dream realm, a vast surge of spiritual soul energy erupted from Xu Jin.

Break the Illusion!

Spiritual soul agony!

For the first time, the Flame Spirit King felt pain deep within the core of his spiritual soul.

His consciousness flickered, blank for a single instant.

At that same moment, several violet bolts struck, reducing the Flame Spirit King to nothing but ash.

In the final instant before dispersal, the Flame Spirit King seemed to awaken fully—he suddenly understood one thing: he had been utterly annihilated.

He was going to die.

He was already dead!

And then, the Flame Spirit King truly died!

Within the Killing Dream, the Flame Spirit King vanished completely.

Xu Jin instantly exited the dream.

The Flame Spirit King, once brimming with murderous aura, now had all his energy gone—his flames dissipated, leaving only a corpse rapidly turning cold.

Killing Dream: Annihilate the Spirit!

Die within the Killing Dream, and you truly die!

And yet, only a single instant had passed!

Xu Jin merely thought, and the Flame Spirit King's corpse vanished into his Numinous Space.

Thousands upon thousands of third-, fourth-, and fifth-rank Flame Spirits surrounded Xu Jin from all sides.

The nearest were barely a hundred meters away, about to launch their attack.

In the next instant, Xu Jin activated the star technique on the Chaos Star Pendant—Chaos Stars!

He vanished instantly.

The entire Flame Spirit City erupted into chaos.

The Flame Spirit King's fate was unknown.

The two commanding generals who held power in the city were both dead.

A third of the fifth-rank authorities had been slain in battle.

Everything was in disarray—utterly, completely in disarray.

A hundred li away, the moment Xu Jin's form dropped out of the void, he activated his invisibility and swallowed a third-rank Superior Spirit-Reviving Pill and three third-rank Four-Arcane Star-Replenishing Pills.

The Killing Dream was powerful, but consumed immense spiritual soul energy.

One activation of the Killing Dream, plus several powerful spiritual soul attacks, had drained over half of Xu Jin's spiritual soul energy.

Since his spiritual soul cultivation had broken through to the mid-stage of Fourth-Rank Star-Condensing Fifth Layer, this was the first time.

Yet the power and effect of the Killing Dream proved even greater than Xu Jin had imagined.

Originally, Xu Jin had not intended to use the Killing Dream.

But during his earlier assault, he discovered that the Flame Spirits had strong defenses against his fire-star techniques and high resistance to fire-star arts.

The Star-Ember generated by his seventh-rank star runes could only severely wound a fourth-rank peak Flame Spirit—not kill it.

That was why Xu Jin had directly used the Brilliant Violet Heaven-Fire.

But when he saw the Flame Spirit King, he changed his mind.

Because Xu Jin knew clearly: under those circumstances, he had only one chance to kill the Flame Spirit King.

If he failed to obliterate the Flame Spirit King within a single breath, even if he finished him off with a cultivated sixth-rank rune, it would be useless.

Because by then, Xu Jin would be surrounded on all sides.

Under a barrage of attacks from every direction, even Chaos Stars might not let him escape.

Originally, using a cultivated sixth-rank rune should have been safer.

But all the sixth-rank runes crafted by Kou Jing, the Grand Academician, were fire-elemental.

Facing the Flame Spirit King, they suffered the same problem as Xu Jin's high-rank Fire-Origin Star Rune.

Honestly, if this had been any other fifth-rank peak warrior of a different element—wind, wood, or water—Xu Jin would have feared nothing.

Only the fire-element Flame Spirit King made him so difficult to handle!

Fortunately, Xu Jin had already tested the Killing Dream's power back in the third-rank star domain.

He had fully understood its method and potency before using it now.

One strike—success.

Less than a hundred breaths after Xu Jin activated invisibility, countless third- and fourth-rank Flame Spirits surged out from the city in all directions, searching for the intruder.

Though they had lost the guidance of the Flame Spirit King, who carried the will of heaven and earth, Xu Jin knew that under the innate hostility of heaven and earth toward intruders, it would not take long before some Flame Spirit stumbled upon his hidden form.

The key now was to eliminate this threat immediately.

He randomly chose a cave for concealment, then sank his mind into the Numinous Space—inside, two crimson, low-rank fire-elemental heavenly star wills had already appeared.

Two Fire-Cloud Hearts, fire-elemental.

The harvest was still quite good.

Without hesitation, Xu Jin unleashed his vast spiritual soul energy and began rapidly refining them.

Half a quarter-hour later, the moment he mastered the first low-rank Fire-Cloud Heart, he immediately felt as if he had merged with this realm.

The previous sense of rejection, unfamiliarity, and ever-present hostility vanished entirely.

After refining both low-rank Fire-Cloud Hearts, a sense of warmth and familiarity washed over him from the very land.

Xu Jin understood: the hardest barrier to surmount in entering the fourth-rank Fire-Cloud Star Domain had been overcome.

Now came the time for harvest.

Yet even as he set up Mingji alerts and used Warm Dream to draw himself into slumber, he still pondered one question.

The Flame Spirit King's battle cry before combat: "Are you the high elder behind the Bao Wei clan? Finally dared to show yourself?"

What did that mean?

(End of Chapter)