Tianyi glanced to his side. Although he sat a fair distance away from Daoyi, he feared that the tribulation lightning might have struck her. Thankfully, she was unharmed. 'Stupid tribulation lightning. Why did it suddenly descend the moment Yan Nie stepped onto the platform. My name is probably permanently etched into his brain now.'

Not just Yan Nie. Many of the Fleeting Mist Sect members also cast a glance at Tianyi when the tribulation lightning descended.

The subject of everyone's gazes continued to sit there and look at Yan Nie and Lanyue as if everything was usual. There was no way he was going to ruin the moment just because of a few surprise lightning strikes.

Lanyue's dress fluttered in the wind, and she pulled a thin sword out of her spatial pouch. The blade was thin like a rapier and glistened despite the low light.

Yan Nie faced her. His blue robes also fluttered in the wind. In his hand, he wielded a long spear. The shaft was black. Without the light of the sun, it seemed to be cut from darkness itself. In contrast, the spearhead glistened vibrantly as if absorbing what little light there was on this cloudy day.

As if on an unspoken agreement, both of them charged forward at the same time. Lanyue's sword met Yan Nie's spear shaft. Despite striking the spear shaft, Lanyue's sword could not slice it apart.

As the prized disciple of the local hegemon's leader, Lanyue's sword was not a core formation artifact, but the quality would not be too far off. Under certain conditions, her sword could be superior to low-grade core formation artifacts.

Yet, Yan Nie's spear shaft, the most pliable part of the spear, was able to block it without even bending and without chipping. Or perhaps the spear was defective. Metal was rarely used to craft a spear shaft because the pliability would be sacrificed. At least, this was the principle for mortal spears.

The spear in Yan Nie's hand didn't emit any spiritual qi or ripples. It was as if it was an ordinary metal that had been shaped into the form of a spear. But being able to block Lanyue's sword, it was naturally not ordinary.

Lanyue and Yan Nie separated before re-engaging once more.

Her sword floated in the wind like a gentle petal, whimsy and unpredictable, but each movement carried incomparable sharpness.

Yan Nie's spear strike, in contrast, was fierce and violent. They had explosive power. The piercing strike and retraction happened instantaneously, one after the other. Yet, whenever it met opposition, the force would dissipate as if it had never existed.

It was a clash between two completely different fighting styles.

Flickering Ember Sword - Third Stance: Petals Converge

The seemingly harmless sword strikes from Lanyue changed. Each strike formed metallic petals that resembled sword tips. Those petals all converged upon Yan Nie from all directions. It was literally an ambush from all sides.

Just as it seemed that Yan Nie would be impaled from all sides, a green light erupted from his body. The green light revealed itself to be a type of flame and encased Yan Nie like a battle aura or armor.

Lanyue halted her attack and immediately retreated. The temperature had dramatically risen when the green flame erupted and caused a sense of crisis to flash in her heart. She glanced at her sword to see the tip glowing faintly red.

The green flame covering Yan Nie disappeared once Lanyue retreated. Although it was his own technique, sweat had appeared upon his body. If he wasn't careful, he would be engulfed by his own technique.

When the green flame retracted, they entered his opened acupoints and conglomerated inside his dantian. Despite being a foundation establishment disciple, Yan Nie had used a special method taught by Immortal Pillrabbit to open some of his acupoints so he could store flames inside his dantian.

"My turn."

Yan Nie simply said. He burst forward like an unleashed bull. At the same time, he stabbed his spear forward consecutively, the speed so great that it created an illusion of over a hundred spear thrusts at once. Green light started to appear on the speartips.

The heat that had disappeared reappeared once more.

Lanyue frowned. Although Yan Nie's cultivation was lower than hers by two stages, all his attacks were fierce and overbearing. Being struck once would cause heavy damage. In addition, his attacks did not seem to need any buildups, such as hand seals, and could be called forward almost instantaneously.

Lanyue formed several hand seals and spread her arms apart. A pink mist began to be released for the openings of her robes towards Yan Nie. The pink mist enveloped Yan Nie and fully obscured him. With the final hand seal, a dazzling explosion occurred.

Exploding Fog Flame

Before the smoke from the explosion could be dispersed, Yan Nie had already jumped out of it. His clothing was a bit singed, but otherwise, he was fine.

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Lanyue was not surprised and instead raised her sword into a stance. Yan Nie smirked as he also moved into a stance with the spear tip pointed at Lanyue.

The two once more clashed. Lanyue's sword had taken a red hue, and each swing created a red arc of light. Should Yan Nie be sliced, his flesh would be cut and cauterized simultaneously, bringing immense pain.

Yan Nie's spearhead began glowing a light blue. It was a gentle light, unlike the green flame that erupted from Yan Nie's body earlier. But the air around the spearhead became blurry as if the very air was burned.

And so a dance of blue and red advanced.

Tianyi watched all of this. 'Sister Pan's flames come from converting her own qi using a special technique. It really isn't anything special to my eyes, but it might be considered a fearsome technique here. Her timing of the fog attack was a good call, obstructing Yan Nie's sight and dealing damage.'

Although it seems like both are on equal ground, with Yan Nie being disadvantaged after being harmed, in truth, sister Pan is the one on the defense. The damage dealt to Yan Nie is inconsequential at this point. All Yan Nie needs to do is to get a good hit on sister Pan, and the advantage would go to him.'

'Sister Pan's attacks are too light in comparison. Maybe she has a killer move hidden, but Yan Nie is not letting her have the chance to use any killer moves.'

'The basis of all this is the green flame Yan Nie possesses. I can feel a type of yin qi from it despite it being largely yang in nature. Even I feel a slight threat from the flame.'

'Of course, at its current state, I can just flip my hand, and the flames would extinguish. But for me to feel threatened by it, the quality of the flame should be high, at least at the Unity Realm. Perhaps the flame might even have an origin from an immortal. Yan Nie perfectly fits the bill of a novel protagonist, after all.'

'Although Yan Nie can only bring out power equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Realm. Logically speaking, for Yan Nie to be in the same realm as Sister Pan without the backing of a sect in this backwater region, he must have had many fortuitous encounters. Perhaps he even has a method to upgrade his spiritual root.'

Tianyi chuckled at the thought. The chances of Yan Nie having a method to upgrade his spiritual root was incredibly rare. Even among the first-rate sects, this was rarely used and needed a vast amount of treasures to accomplish, such as the Root Cleansing Pill.

'I didn't expect Yan Nie to use a spear; I'd thought he'd used a sword. Speaking of spear users, I wonder how Bai Tiezi is doing? He probably hasn't left Tianwei Continent yet. I even left him a map, but he will have to have power equal to a nascent soul grandmaster before he can even attempt to leave.'

'Between these two, I wonder who is the stronger one. When I left a few years ago, Bai Tiezi had just reached the Spiritual Pillar Formation Stage. And he has the inheritance of Immortal Riverrat as well as my personal guidance. I would like to say he has a higher chance of winning, but I cannot be sure until the two battle for real.'

The battle between Lanyue and Yan Nie raged on. Lanyue had avoided numerous perilous circumstances, but her clothes had many gashes and tears from barely avoiding Yan Nie's attack.

In contrast, Yan Nie's current state wasn't good at all. His robes had various gashes and tears like Lanyue. But burn and cuts marred his skin, and even his left sleeves were gone.

Just as it seemed like Lanyue would deliver the finishing blow, Yan Nie thrust his spear toward the sky, and a torrent of green flames erupted from the ground towards the sky. The green flames were like a spear and pierced the clouds and dispersed them.

The sky was revealed. The sun had long set, the stars hung like dazzling gems, and the moon gently shone above.

"Look! Something is dripping down from the moon!"

Lanyue didn't know who said it, but she directed her gaze towards the moon and was stunned. Everyone else was too. A thin strand seemed to be dripping down towards them, or rather towards Yan Nie.

She could tell that his current state was special, as if he had been bottling something, but that thing erupted at this moment. Lanyue gripped her sword; it was so easy right now. All she needed to do was attack while all of Yan Nie's attention was on the moon, and she would win.

But would she really be satisfied with such a win?

In the end, Lanyue loosened her grip on the sword. Even if her win would be accepted, she, herself, couldn't accept such a victory.

As the thin moonlight dripped onto Yan Nie's head, a green light started to condense around him. That light started to turn whiter and whiter with the continuous moonlight until it was silvery blue.

Inside Yan Nie's dantian, seven illusionary pillars flickered between truth and falsehood until they truly became permanent. Six of the pillars were all clear as if waiting for something. Only one had a color, green like the color of Yan Nie's flames.

Atop the pillars, an illusionary basin began to form. With each passing moment, the basin became more substantial and less translucent until it was perfectly solid. At the center of the basin, a green-white flame condensed. The green flame within his dantian gained a white tinge on the edges and shrunk at the same time. The heat increased even more, and it became even denser.

Yan Nie successfully completed his Spiritual Pillar Formation Stage and entered the Spiritual Altar Formation Stage!

He opened his eyes and looked at Lanyue, who was calmly staring at him. His qi that resembled the vast ocean now had a hint of the heaviness of earth in it as well. All the cultivators who could sense this became shocked. In the middle of the battle, Yan Nie used a special method and advanced by a minor realm!

Tianyi felt his lips twitch as he took this in. 'What the hell are you doing? Advancing in the middle of battle, what a protagonist-like thing to do!'

"Thank you for your patience." Yan Nie said as he looked at the calm eyes of Lanyue. It was not like he didn't expect Lanyue to assault him at the crucial moment. Rather, he was expecting it and even made countermeasures.

Had she done so, although it wouldn't be as easy, he still had methods to block her. Yet Lanyue watched Yan Nie advance without doing anything.

"It's nothing. When I defeat you, I want to defeat you at your strongest." Lanyue brandished her sword at Yan Nie. "Otherwise, I'd have to hear your excuses!"

Yan Nie chuckled as he moved into a stance. Although the two exchanged thorny words, the atmosphere between the two became less tense than when the match started.

Lanyue had thrown away all prejudice against Yan Nie. She no longer saw him as a cripple or even her former fiance. Instead, she saw a worthy opponent to temper her sword against.

Yan Nie also no longer saw Lanyue as the rude and bratty girl who broke the engagement between them. Her words back then were correct. Even if she did not break it back then, the two would still go their separate ways. Now, all Yan Nie wanted was to defeat this mighty foe before him!