Chapter 76: Heavenly Flame
Chapter 76: Heavenly Flame
The thousands of people gathered in the massive plaza were petrified.
Their feelings had long since transcended mere shock.
Their minds had ceased to function.
A youth was actually trading blows with a Core Formation Realm expert!
None of them had words adequate for what they were witnessing.
Seris stood with her hands tightly clasped.
Despite the pressure crushing the breath from her lungs, her gaze held no despair—only a profound, unwavering faith.
And then Hayden spoke those words.
"Epic-Grade Martial Art: Emerald Dragon Strike!"
The moment the words left Hayden’s lips, the sky above turned luminescent green.
Everyone raised their head, looking at the sky with
Among the thousands of onlookers, not a single person had ever witnessed an Epic-Grade martial art deployed in actual combat.
The violent emerald essence converged, a colossal head formed. Then a serpentine body, massive claws, and razor-sharp scales.
It soon formed into the colossal, hundred-foot-long phantom of a dragon.
It coiled through the sky, radiating a destructive might that seemed capable of wiping the entire Azure Cloud Sect.
The dragon let out a roar!
"GRAAAAOOOOO!"
The sound alone was enough to shatter the remaining wooden chairs in the plaza.
Dozens of lower-realm cultivators clutched their ears and screamed, blood trickling from their nostrils and ears.
Not just low level cultivators, the pressure rolling off the beast was so tyrannical that the Spirit Manifestation experts in the crowd were forced to their knees, gasping for breath.
Harmon’s face drained of all color.
He looked at Rhain in the center with eyes full of worry.
He wanted to help, but the sheer pressure had made his feet stick to the ground, he was unable to move an inch.
Orion also stared up at the colossal dragon with disbelieving eyes.
"The Emerald Dragon Strike?" Orion gasped, his arrogant demeanor completely shattering into pieces. "Uncle Hayden is actually using that?"
The Emerald Dragon Strike was Hayden’s ultimate technique — the single most powerful martial art in the entire Ashvele family’s arsenal.
An Epic-Grade technique that consumed nearly a third of a Core Formation cultivator’s Essence Core in a single use.
For him to deploy it here, in a backwater town, against a youth who had only just broken into the Spirit Manifestation Realm moments ago...
"He’s serious," Orion muttered, a cold bead of sweat rolling down his temple, "How could a boy force Master Hayden this far?"
Hovering in the air beneath the coiling dragon, Hayden looked at Rhain.
He didn’t want to use this technique.
The essence drain was severe.
But Rhain’s incomprehensible tricks made him uneasy.
Hayden refused to allow a single shred of that uncertainty to linger.
"Perish," Hayden commanded.
The emerald dragon dove.
It descended upon Rhain like the judgment of heaven itself, its massive jaws gaping wide to devour Rhain.
Standing in the absolute dead center of the dragon’s path, Rhain did not retreat.
His jet-black eyes reflected the blinding emerald light, yet his expression remained placid.
Dark essence surged from his Abyssal Sovereign Physique, violently splitting into exactly seventy-two distinct meridian pathways.
Heavenly Severing Palm!
Rhain thrust his right hand upward.
A colossal, pitch-black palm print, forged of condensed darkness, materialized in the air directly above him.
It was huge — easily fifty feet across.
With a wave of Rhain’s hand, it rose to meet the dragon.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The massive dark palm slammed headlong into the emerald dragon’s gaping maw.
For one breathless, frozen moment, the two titanic forces ground against each other in the sky above the Azure Cloud Sect.
Dark and emerald light bled into each other.
Rhain’s arms trembled as he fought to maintain the balance. The ground beneath Rhain’s feet cracked and caved inward, forming a crater that deepened with every passing second.
The Heavenly Severing Palm was an Epic-Grade martial art — same as the Emerald Dragon Strike in grade.
But Hayden was a Core Formation Realm expert.
The sheer volume of essence fueling his dragon was a bottomless ocean compared to Rhain’s reservoir.
CRACK!
Hairline fractures webbed across the surface of the dark palm.
The emerald dragon’s body pulsed, its scales brightening as Hayden poured another surge of Essence Core energy into the construct.
BANG!
The Heavenly Severing Palm exploded.
Fragments of dark essence scattered like obsidian shrapnel, and the emerald dragon, though diminished to half its original size, plunged straight through the shattered remnants.
Its massive jaws crashed directly into Rhain.
BOOM!!!
Dminished but still devastating emerald dragon crashed directly into Rhain’s body.
A blinding explosion of emerald light swallowed Rhain completely.
"Rhain!" Seris screamed, her heart seizing in her chest as the devastating light engulfed his figure.
But even Harmon was so helpless that he could not move, not to mention her who had not even reached Spirit Manifestation Realm yet.
As the emerald light slowly dissipated, a deep crater could be seen.
And Rhain was in the center of that crater, still standing.
But just barely.
A stream of dark red blood trickled down from his forehead, sliding past his jet-black eyes.
Rhain slowly wiped the blood from his chin.
His gaze flickered toward the edge of the crater, briefly lingering on Seris, Harmon, and the terrified Azure Cloud disciples.
He possessed exactly one trump card capable of instantly obliterating Hayden.
Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame.
He had been entirely unwilling to use it.
The flame is so volatile and tyrannical that unleashing it in a crowded plaza risked harming others as well, friend and foe alike.
But looking at Hayden who didn’t even break a sweat yet, Rhain knew he had no other choice.
If he didn’t end this in one move, he would have no chance to defeat Hayden.
Furthermore, the temporary power he had gained also won’t last for very long.
"You managed to survive that?" Hayden’s eyes widened in genuine shock, before his face twisted into an ugly grimace. "What kind of monstrous physique do you possess?! No matter! If one strike couldn’t kill you, then I will strike ten times!"
The sky once again began to change its colour as Hayden raised his hand.
"You have used your chance," Rhain stated indifferently, "Now it’s my turn."
He slowly closed his eyes.
FWOOOOSH!
A pillar of blood-red fire erupted from Rhain’s body.
It shot out like a volcanic eruption, its heat so instantaneous and so extreme that the air itself scorched.
The temperature in the plaza quadrupled in a single heartbeat.
"What... what is this heat?" Dorris gasped, frantically taking several steps back as his skin felt like it was blistering just from standing hundred paces away.
Solar Annihilation Sphere Art.
Rhain made a few hand seals, and the tiny red ember rapidly expanded.
In the blink of an eye, it ballooned into a massive, ten-foot-wide sphere of violently churning, blood-red fire.
It hovered before Rhain, its heat as high as a miniature sun.
Hayden froze.
"That flame..." His voice revealed fear for the first time.
He felt the threat of death from the ball of flame.
Just then, Rhain opened his jet-black eyes.
"Go!"
He simply pushed the sphere forward.
The blood-red sun tore across the distance between them in a fraction of a heartbeat.
"Stop!" Hayden roared. He abandoned his half-formed dragon strike and poured every last drop of his Essence Core into defense.
It didn’t matter.
The moment Red Tribulations Heavenly Flame touched the barrier, it simply ceased to exist.
The Heaven-Grade flame burned through Core Formation essence as if it were paper.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Hayden screamed.
But the heavenly flame swallowed him whole mercilessly.