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**
In addition to this, Yan had not paid much attention to the flames on his body before. However, through the activation of this earth-attribute soul skill, he began to see something new.
He discovered that the flames emitted by the Flame Lord were not merely dark red; their very form differed from ordinary fire. They lacked the usual ethereal, flickering quality, possessing instead a more solid and fluid characteristic.
As they burned atop the rocks covering Yan's body, they looked exactly like subterranean magma.
It made sense—how could the flames controlled by the Flame Lord be ordinary?
Xie Yue suppressed these thoughts.
Yan's sudden surge in strength had ignited his own competitive spirit. With a flick and a merge of his two Moon Blades, he activated his Second Soul Skill, transforming them into the Crescent Blade.
Once the two blades merged into the Crescent Blade, its flight speed became incredibly fast and its movements extremely agile—far surpassing the speed of his Moon Slash.
With a subtle flex of Xie Yue's right forearm, the Crescent Blade floating in the air moved gracefully; the blade stood upright, hovering slightly tilted in front of Xie Yue to protect him.
The blade's edge radiated an intense sharpness, as if it were on the verge of slicing through space itself. With a thought from Xie Yue, the Crescent Blade let out a faint hum and instantly shot toward Yan.
It moved so quickly and with such sharpness that it produced a piercing sonic boom, seemingly tearing the air apart along its path. Watching the incoming blade, Yan smiled confidently. His Second Soul Skill, Rock Body, provided a massive boost to his defensive power.
Xie Yue's second skill clearly transformed his Moon Blades into a new form that made his attacks more flexible and unpredictable, yet it still seemed to lack the explosive power necessary to break his guard.
Since they were only engaged in a regular spar, neither would intentionally strike at the other's vital points. Facing the attack of the Crescent Blade, Yan made no move to dodge.
He simply swung his arms back slightly, intending to forgo any counterattack and take the hit directly with his chest. He was being truly overconfident.
The Crescent Blade slammed into Yan's chest instantly with a loud thud.
This air-breaking strike possessed immense power, but unfortunately, it failed to achieve its goal. Its sharpness and momentum were completely neutralized by the defense of the Flame Lord, causing little damage beyond a slightly deep gouge.
Compared to the thickness of Yan's surface rock, that depth was negligible.
However, this was not the simple strike Yan had anticipated.
After the Crescent Blade hit his chest and failed to pierce through, it suddenly began to rotate at high speed. The Crescent Blade transformed into a circular wheel of blades, shaped like a full moon and radiating an intense silver light.
Its sharpness surged and the blade force became staggering, placing Yan under immense pressure and forcing him backward.
Moreover, its power was still climbing.
Yan exerted sudden force to steady his stance, channeling a large amount of soul power to his chest to reinforce his defense. He hadn't expected the Crescent Blade to be able to accumulate power continuously in this manner.
If he had punched it away earlier, he wouldn't have fallen into this predicament.
But it wasn't too late.
A violent eruption of dark-red soul power burst forth. The Flame Lord Martial Soul was pushed nearly to its limit, its dark-red glow flaring up to clash fiercely with the silver light of the Crescent Blade. The silver and red lights mirrored each other, creating a truly shocking spectacle.
With a loud shout, Yan finally shook off the Crescent Blade. He looked down to see a very deep blade mark on his chest; it had nearly breached the defense of his Rock Body and was close to damaging the Martial Soul itself.
Before he could think further, the sound of breaking air rang out again. The Crescent Blade that had just been repelled hadn't flown far. Under Xie Yue's control, it spun in the air, traced an arc, and attacked once more.
"Hmph!"
Yan would not repeat his mistake of being overconfident.
He sent it flying with a punch, but the blade remained undamaged. It continued to strike while spinning, no longer limited to linear attacks. It traced various angles, leaving trails of silver light in the sky as it attacked Yan from all directions.
For a moment, Yan was exhausted just trying to keep up.
However, his Second Soul Skill had not only increased his defense but his strength as well. As long as the Crescent Blade didn't have time to accumulate momentum, he could punch it away regardless of the angle.
Even under a high-frequency assault, the few strikes that slipped through his guard due to his slower reaction time couldn't cause much damage, as he would punch them away before they could spin and build power.
The situation didn't look good for Xie Yue, but the silver-haired youth showed no sign of worry.
He said with a light smile, "Yan, haven't you noticed? Although your defense has improved greatly, your speed has become even slower since you activated your Second Soul Skill. You can't block all my attacks. If your defense weren't so high, you'd be covered in wounds by now."
While dealing with the incoming Crescent Blade, Yan replied, "Hmph. So what? You can't break my defense at all. You're still the same, Xie Yue—your blade style is fast and flexible, but you lack explosive power. You can't hurt me right now."
As he spoke, Yan once again punched away the Crescent Blade that was trying to strike the mark on his chest. He stomped his right foot heavily; under the immense strength, the ground cracked, producing a large amount of rubble.
Yan took the opportunity to spread his arms, curving his palms into claws. With a flash of dark-red light, a large amount of stone was attracted from the ground, gathering at his chest. Under the flow of soul power, the blade mark was rapidly repaired.
"Oh? Indeed, after absorbing the second soul ring, the Flame Lord has begun to manifest the earth element's control over stone," Xie Yue said calmly. He acted as if he didn't care, maintaining his offensive and manipulating the Crescent Blade to strike Yan repeatedly.
Time passed slowly, and the situation seemed stagnant.
The only thing that changed was that the Crescent Blade's attacks were getting faster and more unpredictable. Sometimes, the angle of the blade was eerie to the extreme, fully showcasing the light and treacherous nature of a scimitar.
Yan frowned deeply.
The more he thought, the more something felt wrong. Suddenly, a realization hit him. His eyes widened in anger, and he barked out, "Xie Yue, you shameless bastard! I asked you to spar, and you're using me to practice your blade techniques!"
He wondered why Xie Yue hadn't made any big moves for so long.
Although the offensive was varied, Xie Yue didn't seem to want to try and defeat him at all; he was just constantly changing his attack patterns. It turned out he was using Yan to practice his control over his Second Soul Skill.
"Uh."
Rubbing his nose, Xie Yue smiled sheepishly.
"Haha, you found out."
Yan was about to explode with rage. He clenched his fists, and the flames on his body surged. He thought to himself, "Haha my ass! I've been wasting my time staying on high alert for whatever special move you'd use to win, and you've just been treating me like a training dummy!"
"Aaaargh! You're making me so mad!"
Fuming with rage, Yan simply stopped caring.
He let the Crescent Blade strike his body and, with his soul power operating at high capacity, released a yellow soul ring.
The flames on his body soared into the sky.
At the same time, the rock surface on his lower body disintegrated, leaving only his upper body maintained in the Rock Body state. This was to minimize the speed reduction that Rock Body caused to his First Soul Skill, Flame Savage Assault.
With an explosion of flames, raging fire completely enveloped Yan, making him look like a giant stepping out of a sea of fire. With a violent roar, Yan's entire body erupted with extreme speed.
Driven by the searing flames, he left a trail of fire as he attacked from a low altitude. The pair of sharp horns at the front made him look like a flying fire-bull, his assault frenzied and violent.
**
Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 70 advanced chapter now on Patreon. I will post 5 advanced chapter on Patreon everyday except Sunday