Without any hesitation at all, Cao Yun gulped down some pill he had prepared beforehand. Even though he was restricting his own cultivation, Lord Wanghuo still had much more stamina than him. Besides, Lord Wanghuo was extremely excited by this fight. However, there was a bit of frustration in his eyes. Indeed, he wanted a much more direct fight. On the other hand, Cao Yun had no reason to get too close to his opponent.

All over the place, the swords thrown by Cao Yun began to pulsate with energy. Cao Yun's first array formation just activated. The wandering Qi got channeled by the swords. So did the blood of Lord Wanghuo that was flowing on the ground. Many droplets rose in the air and got taken in the flow of wandering Qi. As the array formation got activated, several other swords were charged in energy and literally exploded into thousands of shreds.

Each sword created a small bolt of lightning that shot upward.

'Blue Hue Rises in the West Heaven'!

The sky turned darker and darker as Cao Yun was circulating the second move of his 'Azure Dragon Through the Seven Storms'. By combining his family's 'Three Storms' to the 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars', he had produced this second move. Behind him, the flying swords all began to glow just as lightning was crisscrossing the skies. It was as though many small azure dragons were sailing the black abyss above them.

Here and there, some bolts of lightning struck the ground. The energy was then recaptured by Cao Yun's array formation. In other words, the lightning was trapped in this battlefield, which would save Cao Yun a lot of his own energy. Instead of producing this Qi Manifestation himself, he relied on his array formation. In a sense, it was almost exactly what Sun Liao had been doing when he was only a Mortal. Moreover, it allowed Cao Yun not to use his Qi cultivation at all, hiding this part of himself to Lord Wanghuo. Honestly, he had no idea how Lord Wanghuo would react. Most likely, he wouldn't even care... Clearly, he only cared about the fight.

Knowing that a battle of attrition would result in a more boring fight, and that he would exhaust himself way before Lord Wanghuo, Cao Yun rushed forward. Just as Cao Yun had waited for his opponent to perform his Blood Incarnation, Lord Wanghuo had let his activate his array formation without trying to stop it in any capacity. After all, he wanted to enjoy the fight. Otherwise, he could kill Cao Yun with relative ease.

'Stampede of Extreme Despair'!

As Cao Yun was charging straight toward Lord Wanghuo, the massive red demon did the same. Many shock waves were created all around him as he moved faster than speed, much faster. The air was shaking as much as the ground. It truly felt as though a mammoth was stampeding all over the place. With his remaining tusk, he was aiming for Cao Yun's heart. Although he didn't want to kill the young man, he wasn't holding back. In the sky, High Mother Lisha was worried. But she wouldn't intervene before the very last moment. Otherwise, she would spoil Lord Wanghuo's fun and this wasn't a very good idea, even for her.

A tiny fraction of a second before Cao Yun and Lord Wanghuo clashed with each other, several swords behind Cao Yun suddenly flew all around them as lightning bolts. The next instant, Cao Yun himself turned into lightning and found himself near one of those swords. This time, he wasn't directly behind Lord Wanghuo but on his side, where his first tusk had been broken.

Cao Yun's 'Blue Hue Rises in the West Heaven' had incorporated aspects of the Room Star. 'Crafty Harassment' allowed one to move all over the place while harassing the opponent with light spear strikes. And its variation, 'The Dragon's Belly is Contorted', prevented the opponent from leaving a certain area with a very similar technique. After pondering over it, Cao Yun had merged those concepts with the concept of thunder and lightning from the second one of the 'Three Storms'.

While he moved away from Lord Wanghuo's stampede, the swords that had been behind him were now forming a wall of blades right in front of the king. Most of them were crushed by his 'Stampede of Extreme Despair'. When Lord Wanghuo stopped in his charge, all the energy he had accumulated was released and created a wall of wind and killing intent that moved forward and crushed them. But some of the swords still remained relatively intact and did collide with his skin.

Even without 'Tyrannic Bell', that many swords did cause him some pain and even a few superficial injuries. But then, the worst part came from the swords he had destroyed. Indeed, they turned into millions of tiny pieces of metal going straight toward their target. Although they had been caused by Lord Wanghuo's charge, they literally went the opposite direction of the force and struck him. The sheer amount of shards and their incredibly small size caused Lord Wanghuo a lot of pain.

Obviously, Cao Yun seized this opportunity to strike him with his 'Tainted Heavenly Pillar'. Using all of his Spear Intent, he unleashed 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry'. Unlike an instant ago, Cao Yun didn't turn into lightning, his spear did. Right now, the young man was holding an azure dragon made of wind and lightning. This was partially a form of Qi Manifestation induced by his blood cultivation, not his direct Qi, and a form of Spear Intent. Nonetheless, this technique was terrifying. Anyone under the Accomplished Demon realm would die instantly if struck with such an attack and most middle Accomplished Demons would be severely hurt if not more, especially if caught unguarded.

The thunderous dragon leapt toward Lord Wanghuo's flank and tried to take a bite out of him.

'Crimson Tyrant Ascends'!

Without any warning, a powerful gust of killing intent gushed forth from the injured king. Under the barrage of shrapnel and the upcoming attack, he released all of his rage, infused with half of his Turbid Demons. The air turned incredibly hot. Cao Yun felt his very blood burn in his veins. A weak cultivator would literally burn alive if they were too close to Lord Wanghuo in this state. Besides, the killing intent was driving Cao Yun mad. In his sea of consciousness, he was forced to control his Turbid Demons who were trying to break free from their chains. Even his Drop of Wrath got rattled. Suddenly, it wanted to go berserk. Thankfully, Cao Yun was in control so nothing too dangerous happened.

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Nonetheless, Cao Yun lost his composure for an instant and this was long enough for Lord Wanghuo to avoid the attack and to get close enough to the young man. Immediately, he grabbed his arm and then his neck. With his tremendous strength, Lord Wanghuo completely stopped Cao Yun's charge and diverted the strike of the spear. His 'The Son of Heaven's Cavalry' caused lightning to struck the ground below and a few pillars of rock exploded into dust in a cataclysmic explosion.

'Blood King's Grasp'

The young man could feel his blood being drained of energy by Lord Wanghuo's grip on his neck. At the same time, he was squeezing tighter and tighter. Although cultivators of Cao Yun's level didn't need to breathe as much as others, it was still vital. Besides, although he could control the flow of blood in his body, if Lord Wanghuo squeezed hard enough, sending the right amount of blood in his head would become a problem. But truth be told, Cao Yun would most likely literally lose his head before that became an issue.

Lord Wanghuo was still holding his arm and was almost standing behind him while crushing his neck. This made any attack toward him difficult as Cao Yun couldn't reach him with his other arm. Thus, he decided to not even try that. Pushing through the tremendous pressure of Lord Wanghuo's killing intent, he was able to send a surge of spiritual senses toward his swords. He commanded them to come to him.

Under this barrage of attack, Lord Wanghuo didn't dodge at all. In fact, a few swords literally stabbed him. But no injury was deep enough and the hilts of the swords were just sticking out of his body.

"Come on! Fight back! Come on!"

As Cao Yun heard his neck begin to crack, he finally let go of his inhibition. In his sea of consciousness, he completely circulated his mind and soul cultivation along his 'Cultivation of Wrath'. The Drop of Wrath turned into the demonic figure of Axiu Qian and his five current Turbid Demons fully manifested themselves, even Fallen Arrow, the one he was currently working on.

In the physical realm, Cao Yun's eyes turned as red as blood.

'Axiu Qian's Blood Wrath'!

At last, he unleashed the martial art he had learned through the memories of Axiu Qian himself and the 'Dance of Slaughter'. Without any hesitation, Cao Yun literally dislocated his left shoulder to give himself more room to move around. Since he still couldn't reach Lord Wanghuo with his right palm, he grabbed the king's right hand holding his left wrist and kicked his right elbow with as much force as possible.

Cao Yun's ankle almost broke and a few of his bones were cracked. But it did weaken Lord Wanghuo's hold on him. As soon as he felt that weakness, he pushed through the pain and flew as close as possible toward his opponent. With a large swing, he sent a devastating right elbow strike to his neck, returning the favor. But Lord Wanghuo blocked it simply by headbutting the incoming elbow. Both men felt their bones scream in agony. But they were not done yet. Since Cao Yun was close to him and Lord Wanghuo was more than twice his size, the young man had some advantage. It was indeed easier for him to strike.

Immediately, Cao Yun unleashed a barrage of attacks, knee strikes, elbow strikes, palms, kicks. He sent everything he had toward his opponent. Finally, it weakened his hold on the young man's neck. Then, Cao Yun focused his efforts on breaking that left arm. Because he couldn't achieve such a result with his bare hands, he wielded his spear with a single arm, like Yun Ping. using his leg to give some impulse to his spear, he spun it and struck on Lord Wanghuo's wrist, shattering it. Although some blood was drawn, it didn't cut through the entire wrist. Still, this caused his opponent to release his grip. At that very moment, Cao Yun kicked Lord Wanghuo's chest and turned into lightning to get away from him.

He didn't get too far though. No, he wanted to stay close enough to strike. With a swift movement, he put his left shoulder back together and called a sword to his left hand. With both sword and spear, Cao Yun began to unleash his wrath on Lord Wanghuo.

As a response, the towering demon just smiled. This was what he had been waiting for. Thus, he didn't try to close the distance. Instead, he met Cao Yun's attacks with his bare hands. For several minutes, they struck at each other. Each movement caused sonic booms to lacerate the stormy black skies and the cracked ground. Even High Mother Lisha was forced to use her cultivation to protect her ears or she would have gone deaf. This was the same thing for both Cao Yun and Lord Wanghuo, as a matter of fact.

With each strike, the two men were going more and more berserk. There was a strange harmony between Lord Wanghuo's 'Crimson Tyrant Ascends' and Cao Yun's 'Cultivation of Wrath'. Indeed, the king's killing intent was making the Drop of Wrath mad, which increased Cao Yun's strength and excited Lord Wanghuo's killing intent even more. In fact, it was hard to tell how far they would be able to go like that. Honestly, Lord Wanghuo was even beginning to let his real cultivation slip through as he was just too much into this fight. High Mother Lisha could sense it but she was undecided on whether she should interrupt the fight or not, just by looking at the expression of abandon on both of the fighters' faces.

'Crimson Reign of Blood'!

Up in the sky, the High Mother immediately recognized the king's technique. Every drop of blood around Lord Wanghuo would strengthen him while he was draining all strength from it. And indeed, Cao Yun could feel his blood being affected. But he used the full intent of his Drop of Wrath to counter it. His spiritual senses intensified the strength of his Wei Qi and this pressure on his bloodline made him even madder. The Drop of Wrath wanted to crush the one who was trying to steal it from its master.

Still, Lord Wanghuo felt his vigor increased. He was able to siphon a tiny part of Cao Yun's blood, but he was also able to recover the vigor from the blood that had been shed, both his and Cao Yun's.

Indeed, beneath the two fighters, several drops of blood had fallen down toward the cracked ground. While they were still flying, they had created a small puddle below them. Since their blood was so dense and rich, each drop could contain a high quantity of blood and was extremely heavy. Anyone could still small impacts where each drop had fallen, despite the destruction caused by their fight itself.

Lord Wanghuo's skin turned even redder, if it was possible, and his broken tusk began to grow back. On the other hand, Cao Yun was pushing his Golden Blood to the limit, along with his Drop of Wrath. He could clearly feel that he was getting dangerously close to the end of his stamina. But there was not a single instant of rest during this fight. In order to end the fight, he tried to use his knowledge of 'Slaughtering the Enemy' to put vibration into his attacks. This did surprise Lord Wanghuo and it even made his blood move strangely, but it wasn't enough at all.

Cao Yun had absolutely no desire to end this fight. Indeed, he could feel his Fallen Arrow growing stronger and stronger. He might literally be able to improve his cultivation by a few months, if not a whole year, in a single day of fight. But he couldn't contend with his opponent's stamina.