Chapter 685: Blood Domain and Domain of Extreme Cold (I)
The forbidden spell Green Hades' Spring about to arrive in front of Wang Yuanyuan produced a massive attraction, and pulling Wang Yuanyuan to its direction.
Wang Yuanyuan seemed as though she didn't even see that forbidden spell, still standing motionless, with her three fingers at the same position.
Tan Wan's look changed, because she understood clearly the might of this forbidden spell. More importantly, it could only be released and not retrieved, as her cultivation was far from sufficient to achieve such control. In case Wang Yuanyuan really died in front of her forbidden spell, that would not only incur an unredeemable grudge between the Mage Temple and Bright Glimmer of Hope, but also make her a criminal. After all, the Mage Temple and Bright Glimmer of Hope were no more than competitors, with everyone having a mutual enemy in demonkind. She neither did she have any thoughts of killing someone from Bright Glimmer of Hope, but because their displays of power were too overbearing, she had to liberate her greatest magic right at the start.
But now that Dark Green Hades' Well had already engulfed Wang Yuanyuan, it was already too late to have second thoughts.
Suddenly, an intense bloody red fog abruptly came off Wang Yuanyuan as its center and dispersed, instantly sweeping her body along, and spreading outwards at a frightening speed, clashing against the Dark Green Hades' Spring.
Dark Green Hades' Spring was dark green colored, and this bloody red bright fog was scarlet colored, forming two opposite forces.
A shocking scene occurred: that bloody red fog pushed it back, but that was still a perilous situation. An intense bloodreek filled the air instantly, as a red light forcibly enveloped the Dark Green Hades' Spring. A terrible murderous spirit surged out and filled the air as a red glow suddenly bubbled forth. That dark red radiance was fully buried in the midst of the surges of blood, and one could only see the blood fog rush out and expand, filling the whole stadium with the color of blood in just a little while.
Li Zhengzhi's face froze. A domain, that was clearly the power of a domain. So, how many more other than Long Haochen actually wielded domains in this Bright Glimmer of Hope? If what Xue Zhisheng said before was for real, that Saint Daughter of Samsara was bound to wield a domain too. That already made a total of three domains.
Even the Temple's had only three domain wielders each, no more. For the Demon Hunt Squad Bright to have such strength, they were already drawing near a legendary Demon Hunt Squad like the Demon God Slayers. And they were yet so young.
Right, this expanse of blood red was Wang Yuanyuan's domain, that she named Blood Domain.
In terms of innate talent, Wang Yuanyuan was surely the least in the Demon Hunt Squad Bright Glimmer of Hope, but her willpower and determination matched even Long Haochen and Cai'er, and in some fields she was even more perseverant.
Precisely because of her lack of innate talent to match her comrades, Wang Yuanyuan invested even more effort. She was the one to invest herself the most of the team in the two years of Holy War, and also the one to slaughter the most. She forced her way through this road of slaughter to find her own style.
In the Tower of Eternity, when her seven spatial crystals summoned the true might of the Divine Soul Shield, the ebulition of her blood vessels caused that bloodreeking slaughter aura to integrate her body, fixing the basis of her understanding of the Blood Domain.
After four years of deep meditation, Wang Yuanyuan gained deep foundations, not only breaking through the ninth step, but also becoming the fourth domain wielder of the group after Long Haochen, Cai'er, and Chen Ying'er, surpassing Sima Xian, Lin Xin, Han Yu and Zhang Fangfang's attainments to become the fourth strongest powerhouse of the team.
In front of Tan Wan, she had no need for her domain's power at all, but Long Haochen told his team before the competition that this Temples' Great Gathering was a time to display their strength. So, they absolutely had to show all higher-ups of the Temple Alliance their powerfulness, so that their plans could keep getting carried out. Therefore, Wang Yuanyuan chose to display the use of her domain right after seeing that the opponent was someone from the Mage Temple.
Dark Green Hell's Spring was certainly powerful, but if Li Zhengzhi were to make use of it in combination with his domain, Wang Yuanyuan would surely not be able to block it by the sheer use of her domain, but, after all, Tan Wan reached only the eighth step, so her control over the forbidden spell was really insufficient. In the end, it disappeared, submerged in the midst of that domain of bloothirty slaughter, turning into nothingness.
As the blood light vanished, Wang Yuanyuan didn't even glance at Tan Wan, and turned back to leave the field. Her domain having come out, the outcome was already fixed.
The Temples' Great Gathering became once again submerged in silence by Bright Glimmer of Hope. Everyone there witnessed that the strength of all their members truly was befitting the strength of a Titled Demon Hunt Squad.
The second round continued without the half with the lower cultivation. In this second round, over three quarters of the contestants were powerhouses of the ninth step.
But even so, at the time the second round ended, Bright Glimmer of Hope achieved the proud result of nine victories, with only Duan Yi losing at Sheng Yue's hands.
After the second round terminated, some changes happened in the proportions; the Knight Temple's dominance was globally a bit fainter.
The Knight Temple had only eleven people left by the third round, having gotten thirteen of their members eliminated. The Mage Temple had ten, Bright Glimmer of Hope had nine, the Spiritual Temple had seven, the Assassin Temple had six, and the Warrior Temple only had five left.
Changes happened regarding the accumulations of points as well. After the victors of the second round all gained two points, added up to the first round's total points, the Knight Temple was still number one with forty-six points, the Mage Temple being second with forty-one points, the Spiritual Temple was third with thirty points, Bright Glimmer of Hope fourth with twenty eight points, the Assassin Temple fifth with twenty-six and finally came the Warrior Temple with twenty points.
For the ten members of Bright Glimmer of Hope to achieve the fourth rank by the end of the second rounds proved their power plentifully. Moreover, the accomplishments in cultivation on the side of Long Haochen's group would clearly make them shine even further on in the later stages, so the individual counts were still pretty hard to predict.
The second rounds were over by noon, but the third rounds would start immediately, without the slightest time allocated for rest.
The previous two rounds of individual battle were mostly competing for the Temples' strength as a whole, but from the third round onwards, the individual capabilities of their powerhouses would be accounted.
Upon victory, everyone would get at least four points in total.
A total of twenty-four battles would be undergone in the third round, involving forty-eight people, and resulting in earth-shattering battles.
The first two lights of selections picked the leaders of the Mage Temple and Knight Temple, Li Zhengzhi and Long Tianying.
But to the great shock of the public, this battle only lasted for an extraordinarily short time, merely five minutes. Li Zhengzhi made use of his powerful Wind God Domain and formidable magic power to defeat Long Tianying, making a mighty display of power on the Mage Temple's side.
Watching this battle, Long Haochen was also shocked, because, despite knowing that his grandfather would certainly be no match for Li Zhengzhi, he didn't think he would lose so fast.
Li Zhengzhi's control over light essence reached an abnormal level, and furthermore, Long Tianying was a Divine Knight without the boost from his Divine Throne, which reduced his strength by over half, otherwise, maybe he could have put up a fight.
The chief of the Knight Temple getting defeated by the third round was something that had not happened for the past several hundred years. Long Tianying showed a terribly unsightly face, but had no choice but to accept this as a matter of fact. Li Zhengzhi's power was admirable since the first round.
To have made it through the third round, only true elites of the five Temples were left, so the competition turned to a white-hot level.
Although Yang Wenzhao had achieved victory on the second round, he had given all he had by relying on his Starlight Unicorn's domain boost to barely defeat a warrior of the ninth step. But on the third round, his strength still being far from recovered, he became the second eliminated member of Bright Glimmer of Hope.
With Yang Wenzhao's elimination a great display of individual power on the side of Bright Glimmer of Hope started.
In the fifth match, Chen Ying'er had as her opponent the auxiliary head of the Mage Temple, Lin Xin's grandfather, Lin Chen.
On the previous day, Lin Xin had already gone to see Lin Chen, but they didn't discuss for too long, before Lin Chen rushed back, not even telling Lin Xin much, apart from admonishing him to take good care of Li Xin.
When Lin Xin talked about that with Long Haochen, the latter understood that Lin Chen's attitude was due to the sensitive position of the Mage Temple in this Temples' Great Gathering. As an auxiliary head of the Mage Temple, he was not allowed to tell too much to his grandson who was part of Bright Glimmer of Hope.
Right now, he didn't expect to have to face Chen Ying'er in the competition.
Lin Chen obviously wouldn't concede simply on account of her relationship with his grandson. With Li Zhengzhi and the powerhouses from the Mage Temple watching from behind, he had to give his all.
Grandpa Lin, no need to hold back against me." Chen Ying'er saluted Lin Chen with a natural smile on her face.
Lin Chen only bowed slightly to her, and didn't say much, immediately creating an orange fireball atop his head with a wave of his right hand.
Lin Chen being a fire mage, although he didn't have the same exceptional Heart of Fire as his grandson, had the number one attainments in fire magic in the whole Mage Temple.
He had been unable to break through the ninth step for reasons of innate talent, but in terms of researches on fire magic, Lin Chen put efforts throughout his whole life, his son and daughter-in-law having even deceased in the midst of this path!
Chapter 686: Blood Domain and Domain of Extreme Cold (II)
An orange fireball floated out like an ardent sun, illuminating Lin Chen under its orange color. His downcast chant was almost inaudible, and an intense orange flame was shot from the the orange fireball atop of his head to Chen Ying'er's direction.
In the candidates area of the Spiritual Temple, Chen Hongyu stood up straight, looking ardently at the field and cursing silently, "This crappy old Lin Chen is truly fierce! To actually use up Sacred Sun Curse right off the bat."
Sacred Sun Curse was Lin Chen's powerful personally-created magic. A lot of powerhouses would find it hard to raise their cultivation further after reaching bottlenecks. Unless they had fabulous encounters, even making breakthroughs past a certain point would hardly happen in their whole lifetime. In such circumstances, they would frequently put efforts into developing self-created abilities for the sake of seeking an even greater strength. A mage was particularly fitted to that, because different combinations of a single element would produce different degrees of might depending on a lot of variables.
Lin Chen was excellent in this field. He didn't think that he would achieve some breakthroughs due to several near death experiences in the Holy War, before which he had already been struggling on the peak of the eighth step for nearly forty years. In those past forty years, his main object of research was this Sacred Sun Curse. With his strength having risen to the ninth step, this auxiliary head of the Mage Temple wasn't to be underestimated for having no domain of his own. The great might he could unleash through Sacred Sun Curse caused his strength to shoot up, making him one of the best powerhouses in the Mage Temple.
Sacred Sun Curse integrated some of his male energy to form a fire. Back in the day, it was in the research and training of Sacred Sun Curse that his father lost his life in an accident, igniting his fire of life beyond his own control causing the tragic death of a married couple caught in the magical backlash.
Lin Xin having an innate hatred toward this Sacred Sun Curse, how could he ever agree to learn it? It even caused him to refuse learning any offensive magic.
Although he decided to train in offensive magic for Li Xin's sake afterwards, he still rejected Sacred Sun Curse, making Lin Chen the only wielder of Sacred Sun Curse, reaching top-level attainments in that field.
The orange flames flew outwards, causing massive twists to the air, rippling all around, and causing the temperature in the stadium to shoot up abruptly, as well as causing the multicolored light in the barrier to rise violently.
Chen Ying'er's look changed greatly, as she didn't expect Lin Chen to launch such a rapid magic offense, producing such a great might.
A little transparent pig hopped from Chen Ying'er chest, McDull.
Compared to the past, there were quite significant changes in his strength. His volume remained the same, as if unable to ever grow further, but his skin had become as sparkling as a crystal, and his pair of small eyes shone bright like diamonds. As his body leapt up, a series of sparkling streams of air glowed behind his back.
Rising in the air, McDull's four limbs made an extending motion and caused a miraculous scene. That small and cute pig enlarged abruptly in the next instant, turning into a gigantic black dragon, spitting a deep black breath at Lin Chen's Sacred Sun Curse.
This… a Devil Dragon
McDull's transformation shocked all the powerhouses from the Six Great Temples. Devil Dragons were the Demon God Emperor's kin, so how could a summoner have such a summoned beast? And moreover, such summoning speed could only mean that it was a contracted beast.
Two powerful forces of black and orange color clashed violently, immediately causing the two users to get repelled backwards just from the terrible fluctuations of spiritual energy.
Chen Ying'er lifted up both her hands, as her clear incantation reverberated in the air.
The breath of the Devil Dragon suffered slight losses against Sacred Sun Curse, but still managed to resist. McDull's massive wings flapped strongly, as he threw himself fiercely at Lin Chen.
Lin Chen was also shocked at the sight of a Devil Dragon, but his fighting experience being plentiful, he didn't cower in shock. Pointing a finger of his right hand, the Sacred Sun's radiance atop his head enlarged greatly, abruptly releasing an orange halation which clashed with the incoming McDull.
The Devil Dragon's massive figure was unexpectedly pushed away under these orange halations' effects.To one's shock, with Lin Chen's muffled cast, an orange dragon head came out from the Sacred Sun, spitting a gold-red fire at the Devil Dragon.
This gold-red flame only had the thickness of a human hand, contracting greatly from the huge orange dragon head from which it came out.
However, upon release it caused the temperature in the whole stadium to soar up instantly, filling the air in the area inside the barrier with river-like ripples as even the ground boiled like magma. From this could be seen the glowing extent of the gold-red flames.
McDull visibly hesitated in front of a fire of this level, his massive figure coming to a standstill in midiar. A dark purple radiance kept seeping out from his thick scales, gathering swiftly to the top of his head to form a dark red bead to block the dark-red fire.
"Sacred Sun Curse, "
Bang. In midair, the dark purple bead McDull released broke down instantly, as the gold-red flames passed through. But, the ruptured bead also dispersed powerful dark purple waves, isolating it from the high temperature.
Li Chen's body dazzled slightly as his chanting speed became visibly quite slower. But McDull, who had to confront the dark-red flames alone, smashed far away, his body continuously dispersing a dark purple radiance to dissolve the gold-red flames.
"Huh?" Seeing this scene, Long Haochen was shocked and couldn't help but glance over in Lin Xin's direction. The Devil Dragon McDull transformed into was surely not a genuine Devil Dragon, but had some of its basic abilities, being a true powerhouse of the ninth step! But in front of Lin Chen, he had already lost all fighting abilities in a short span of time. This was by no way a strength that a junior mage of the ninth step should possess.
Lin Xin showed a bitter smile, "Sacred Sun Curse is the crystallisation of the research made throughout all grandpa's life. Although it is not a domain, it can to some extent match a domain, combining three fires at once to unleash a fire mage's might to the greatest extent."
Long Haochen nodded, "Looks like this battle will be quite a trial for Ying'er."
In a battle between a summoner and a mage, the contest should be based on the parties' cultivations and casting speed. But Lin Chen relied on his incantation method Saint Yang to not only make his chanting speed very fast, but also greatly boost his magic power. That golden fire even exceeded Long Haochen's Heart of Fire in temperature. In innate talent and luck, Lin Xin by far surpassed his grandfather, but there was still quite a gap in their knowledge on fire.
Inside the stadium, after Lin Chen released his golden red flames, his offense got slightly slower, but the distant Chen Ying'er already completed her first summoning magic.
A white hexagram appeared on her body, and a long dragon cry reverberated immediately, as out came a dragon over ten meters long.
In volume, this Ice Dragon was below the Devil Dragon McDull transformed into, as it looked like a juvenile dragon. But it wasn't any Earth Dragon or subdragon, but a true dragon from Shengmo Dalu.
All summoners from the Spiritual Temple seeing this scene all felt great degrees of excitement. To summon a gigantic dragon was the greatest glory for a summoner, even if it was a juvenile dragon.
Summoners generally had two categories of summoning magic. One kind was the summoning of living creatures from other planes, which would either die or return to their plane after the battle. Then a future summon would basically never call an already summoned magical beast. Then another kind was a summon by kind. After concluding a pact, a summoner could absolutely not let the summoned beast die lightly, because that beast would grow in strength alongside its summoner. Although their degrees of intimacy couldn't match contracted beasts, these pacted beasts could be called part of the summoner's strength.
A basis of the difference in strength between summoners was their numbers of pacted beasts. So the death of a pacted beast would be a considerable blow to the summoner.
Generally, summoners could get a pacted beast at every supplementary step of cultivation. Although they weren't summons requiring no chanting time like contracted beasts, they were quite faster to summon than ordinary summons of the same grade.
From Chen Ying'er's previous incantation duration, summoners all understood that this juvenile Ice Dragon was actually a pacted beast.
What they didn't know was that this Ice Dragon was the first beast which had concluded a pact with Chen Ying'er. Since she was not able to use any summoning magic before reaching the seventh step, she had to bear without making any beast contracts. After reaching the seventh step, she always remained in the Spiritual Temple, where she achieved her awakening as the Saint Spiritual Girl. Then, when following Long Haochen back into deep demon territory, her strength kept rising, but she didn't have any contract from beginning to end.
When they departed from the Tower of Eternity, Chen Ying'er's cultivation had already attained the ninth step, so she found this juvenile Ice Dragon thanks to her special connections as the Saint Spiritual Girl, and concluded her first pact. And this was, right now, the first time for this Ice Dragon to fight for Chen Ying'er.
Actually, Chen Ying'er had already suffered quite a loss against Lin Chen, having not summoned an Ice Dragon first, but her own self-created six Earth Dragons able to release the Elemental Cage.
From her view, McDull's transformation into Devil Dragon would at least resist in front of Lin Chen's attacks for a certain time, making Lin Chen's loss inevitable in front of her Elemental Cage.