Of course, going to such great lengths wasn’t entirely for revenge. A new round of slaughter was about to begin, and he had to make preparations in every country.
The situation in the other countries was manageable. It had been dangerous, but Lu Shang had possessed the information to complete his preparations, and he had done so successfully.
Only Great Zhou was the one Restricted Area Lu Shang was most reluctant to face. He knew Li Chang’an had surely laid an inescapable trap for him. This was going to be a hard-fought battle.
His speed was incredible.
He was little more than a blur in mid-air.
The instant he appeared before Li Chang’an, he held nothing back. With a flick of his finger, he unleashed a ball of pitch-black flame condensed from his Divine Soul!
Compared to the illusory flame from their last fight, the one Lu Shang unleashed this time was several times more substantial.
Even though it hadn’t yet reached Li Chang’an, one could feel a pain that seemed to pierce the very soul just from being near it.
However, Li Chang’an was even faster.
With a quick sidestep, he easily evaded the Soul Flame’s attack.
Lu Shang snorted. Without a moment’s hesitation, hundreds of pitch-black flames coalesced into a Fire Dragon in the blink of an eye, completely encircling Li Chang’an.
The Fire Dragon writhed and coiled, its flames forming a cage that rapidly shrank around Li Chang’an. There was no escape. Everywhere he looked—up, down, left, and right—he saw nothing but writhing black fire.
Lu Shang couldn’t help but laugh aloud. "See that? The tables have turned! I’m on a level you can’t even dream of reaching now. So what if your soul is some ancient monster? Trapped by my God-Caging Cage, even if you really are a Cultivator, you won’t escape the fate of having your Divine Soul utterly annihilated!"
Li Chang’an didn’t speak.
He was carefully studying the cage.
’I have to admit, even with the World Consciousness assisting him, for Lu Shang to control the Power of the Divine Soul with such precision after just five years... he’s certainly earned the right to be this arrogant.’
’If I didn’t already understand the Power of the Divine Soul, a situation like this really would have been troublesome!’
As the Soul Fire cage shrank, it completely sealed off any chance of escape for Li Chang’an.
A smile touched Lu Shang’s lips. He couldn’t wait to see Li Chang’an’s wretched expression as the Soul Fire burned him, trapped in a state where he could neither live nor die.
But when the fiery cage was just a meter away from Li Chang’an,
a translucent Shield suddenly materialized around his body. The equally formless and intangible barrier blocked the Soul Fire that Lu Shang had always believed to be invincible,
stopping it from compressing even another inch!
The smile on Lu Shang’s face froze. His eyes widened as he stared at the Shield around Li Chang’an, crying out in disbelief, "How is that possible? How did you do that?"
Li Chang’an smiled. "Haven’t you heard the saying? A man doesn’t trip over the same stone twice. You used Soul Fire on me once, and you thought you could do it again? Did you really think I wouldn’t be prepared?"
Lu Shang involuntarily took a step back.
He once again recalled the battle with Li Chang’an five years ago.
That was the most miserable defeat he had suffered since meeting Elder Hun, and it had even become a psychological scar that he was unwilling to speak of.
He had thought that after five years of training, he could finally break free from that shadow.
Yet, the moment they came face-to-face, he was stunned to find himself trapped once again in the terrifying loop of that memory!
Struggling to calm himself, he gritted his teeth. "Impossible! Elder Hun destroyed all the Soul Fire you had left. There’s no way you could know its secrets! Impossible... Absolutely impossible..."
As he spoke, his gaze hardened. The Soul Fire, which had been burning the soul, suddenly flared, its scorching Energy feeling as if it could make blood boil!
Five years ago, when he first fought Li Chang’an, Lu Shang could only skillfully use the soul-aspect of the Soul Fire.
Back then, he had been relatively weak, and a flame that directly attacked the soul was an invisible killer. Ordinary Martial Artists had no way to defend against it, making it his most efficient method of killing.
But after years of training, Lu Shang had mastered several other forms of the flame.
The flame Lu Shang had just switched to was the Qi and Blood Flame!
The stronger a person’s qi and blood, the more thoroughly they would be incinerated by the Qi and Blood Flame, leaving nothing behind. Against Martial Artists who focused on tempering their qi and blood, this technique was like an attack from a higher dimension!
Under his control, the flames encircling Li Chang’an became corporeal.
The blaze was dozens of times more intense than it had been in its soul-state.
In an instant, the entire Border Inn was set ablaze.
The raging inferno devoured everything. Most of the guests at the Border Inn were Martial Artists, and they all rushed out of their rooms. But any who touched even a single wisp of fire were instantly engulfed, becoming human torches.
Their qi and blood would be completely vaporized in seconds!
Yet even with Lu Shang unleashing his full power,
the Shield around Li Chang’an showed no sign of breaking. It held firm, completely protecting him from the fiery assault.
Seeing this, Lu Shang began to question reality itself.
But he refused to accept it. Clinging to a sliver of hope, he switched the Soul Fire’s Energy form again, trying to burn Li Chang’an to a cinder with flames that scorched physical flesh.
But as the flames transformed, the Shield around Li Chang’an transformed in sync, still holding the inferno at bay a meter from his body.
At the sight of this,
the last sliver of hope in Lu Shang’s heart was utterly shattered.
’That Shield of his can change its structure at will... In other words, he’s really deciphered the properties of my Soul Fire!’
’And not only that, he even developed a specific defense against it!’
The blow to Lu Shang was, without a doubt, immense.
So much so that he was left in a daze.
...