"Hmm?"
Using his flying technique, Xiao Ting instantly reached an altitude of ten thousand feet in the desolate Ancient Domain and released his soul force to grasp the situation within a ten-thousand-mile radius.
His half-step God-realm soul granted him power comparable to a five-star Dou Saint, allowing him to instantly mobilize the energy of heaven and earth across ten thousand miles. Sensing nature was an easy task for him.
Within his perception range, he discovered that a world-destroying battle was raging in the southwest.
"Hehehe."
Black flames sealed off a vast area.
The Nihility Devouring Flame, clad in black robes and surrounded by eerie runes, clenched his fist and shattered the remnant soul of the Medicine God of the Yao Clan into pieces.
"Puff!"
All the powerful warriors of the Yao Clan spat out blood. They felt a dull pain in their bloodline power, as if some kind of strength was being stripped away from them.
"Yao Clan, today all of you will become my nourishment!"
"Devouring the heavens and burning the earth."
Terrifying flames erupted from the Nihility Devouring Flame's body, transforming into countless clones that rained down below.
Yao Dan pressed his chest, his expression a mix of solemnity and disbelief. "Nihility Devouring Flame, isn't the Hun Clan supposed to be attacking the Ling Clan?"
In the recent large-scale battles, the Soul Extinction Alliance had achieved great results. Most of the Hall of Souls' forces had been annihilated, and the majority of the Hun Clan's members had retreated into the Hun Realm.
Recently, the Hun Clan had begun adopting desperate, all-or-nothing strategies. They abandoned all territories under their control and sent powerful individual groups across the Dou Qi Continent to carry out destruction.
The Soul Extinction Alliance had no choice but to focus on extinguishing these fires. After discussions among the highest-level experts, it was decided that the Yao Clan, Ling Clan, and Shi Clan would return to defend their respective regions.
The Gu Clan, Yan Clan, and Lei Clan continued their operations to eradicate the Hun Clan while providing support.
Just a few days ago, Hu Tiandi had used unknown methods to deceive Gu Yuan and suddenly attacked the Ling Clan.
In the critical moment, it was Zhu Huo, the Great Elder of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, who sensed the situation and intervened to stop Hu Tiandi. This allowed Gu Yuan to halt Hu Tiandi's destructive actions.
Unexpectedly, the Nihility Devouring Flame led the three elders of the Hun Clan to attack the Yao Clan. Their combined power was more than enough to suppress and kill the remnant soul of the Medicine God.
"Hehehe. It would be wonderful if Hu Tiandi succeeds in attacking the Ling Clan. Even if he fails, it doesn't matter. This is a diversion — a feint tactic."
The Nihility Devouring Flame quickly formed seals. The Flame clones he had prepared in advance began cooperating with the three elders of the Hun Clan to create chaos.
Originally, the Hun Clan's plan had indeed been to first destroy the Ling Clan and Shi Clan, then destroy the Yao Clan.
If the three great Ancient Clans were destroyed, his Nihility Devouring Flame would become even stronger. At that point, even if the Gu Clan, Yan Clan, and Lei Clan united, it would no longer be a problem.
However, Xiao Ting's appearance had made it impossible for the Hun Clan to continue their plan of gradually encroaching on enemy territory. They were forced to prioritize maximizing their own gains.
It would be extremely difficult for the Gu Clan, Yan Clan, and Lei Clan to take action against them.
Not only would it be hard to block the news, but both the Yan Clan and Lei Clan possessed half-step nine-star Dou Saint experts. Furthermore, these two clans were once powerful clans and still held multiple Dou God remnant souls.
The Shi Clan excelled more in physical tempering than soul cultivation, so destroying them would yield little benefit. Therefore, the best targets were the Ling Clan and the Yao Clan.
Hu Tiandi attacked the Ling Clan while the Nihility Devouring Flame led his forces to attack the Yao Clan. This was a two-pronged assault.
For this purpose, the Hun Clan had dispatched many seven-star Dou Saints to cause chaos across the Dou Qi Continent and draw the attention of Gu Yuan and the others — even at the cost of their lives.
Hu Tiandi had originally been destined to succeed, but Zhu Huo had ruined that opportunity, allowing Gu Yuan to intervene at the last moment.
Still, it had indeed served as an effective distraction, drawing everyone's attention toward the Ling Clan.
The Nihility Devouring Flame excelled in void power, devouring power, flame power, and the power of the Tunling Clan.
Although the remnant soul of the Medicine God could unleash the power of a nine-star Dou Saint, it was completely suppressed by the Nihility Devouring Flame.
"If I can devour the entire Yao Clan, my cultivation will improve even further."
"Now, our mission is to help the four Demon Saints of the Hun Clan reach the eight-star Dou Saint level."
"One peak nine-star Dou Saint, one early-stage nine-star Dou Saint with a God-level soul, three mid-stage eight-star Dou Saints, and one late-stage eight-star Dou Saint."
"The Hun Clan can still entrust me with waging war. This battle is far from over!"
The Nihility Devouring Flame still had plans. If he could buy ten more years, he intended to devour the Pure Lotus Demon Flame.
Originally, it should have taken him at least another ten years to reach nine-star Dou Saint and God-realm soul. By then, the time for the Pure Lotus Demon Flame to appear would have already passed. If he rashly tried to devour it, he would reveal his identity to Gu Yuan and the others prematurely and would no longer be able to carry out the Hun Clan's plan.
However, because he had reached this level of power earlier than planned, his identity had already been exposed to Gu Yuan and the others. Therefore, he had no choice but to devour the Pure Lotus Demon Flame.
He had originally planned to inherit the legacy of Ancient Emperor Tou She and then consume the Pure Lotus Demon Flame to obtain its purifying power.
It seemed that to progress further, he had no choice but to combine the Pure Lotus Demon Flame with what he obtained from the Yao Clan today and reach the mid-stage of the nine-star realm.
"Die!"
"Hehehe. No one can save your Yao Clan today."
"This Nihility Devouring Flame said so!"
Amidst the rumbling, the power of the Nihility Devouring Flame began surrounding the Dou Saints of the Yao Clan.
For powerful experts below the Dou Saint level, he could suppress and kill them with mere soul pressure.
"Will my Yao Clan destroyed?!" Yao Dan's expression was solemn and grim.
At that moment, a middle-aged man's voice resounded across the land.
"How arrogant of the Nihility Devouring Flame! However, it is still too early to celebrate."
"Today, this I shall protect the Yao Clan."
In the next moment, countless cracks appeared in the black flames enveloping the barrier of the Yao Realm. From within, a massive purple-gold aura erupted and transformed into an enormous purple-gold energy dragon in the void. The dragon soared through the sky and attacked the clones of the Nihility Devouring Flame.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
In an instant, all of the Nihility Devouring Flame's distorted spatial clones exploded under terrifying pressure, turning into black fireworks.
Immediately behind them, an even more terrifying purple-gold aura appeared, erasing the black flames at the border of the Yao Realm at an astonishing speed.
...
At the same time, Gu Yuan, who had been confronting Hu Tiandi, and Yan Jin and Lei Ying, who had been positioned in the rear, instantly sensed the situation in the Yao Realm.
They had not previously detected the closure of the Yao Realm and had even been sending messages to it. They never expected the situation in the Yao Realm to change so dramatically in the next moment.
Gu Yuan narrowed his eyes and looked at Hu Tiandi, whose expression had turned grim. "I never imagined that after the Nihility Devouring Flame broke through to nine-star Dou Saint and God-realm soul, he would become this powerful. Yesterday, my perception of you was wrong — and it was he who helped me realize that."
"He can even erode the Yao Realm, dull the senses, and even forge messages."
In reality, if Gu Yuan had investigated the Yao Realm, he would have discovered the problems.
However, because they had been confronting Hu Tiandi, this task had been entrusted to Yan Jin and Lei Ying.
If the two of them had been assigned to the Flame Realm and Lei Realm, they would not wary of the Nihility Devouring Flame's techniques — they could have relied solely on their imperial bloodlines.
However, when facing the Nihility Devouring Flame, who had already reached the nine-star level and possessed an God-level soul in other realm, they were completely outmatched in power.
….