Divine Emperor of Death

On one side stood a master of flame arts. It just happened to be that the person on the other side also seemed to be a master of flame arts. The both of them glared at each other, the atmosphere around them becoming eerily silent.

Dewzai's foxy crimson eyes were shining dark with malevolence.

The devilish flame wisps that were in the shape of tears swirled behind her in a circle. There were nine of them, each and one of them radiating an immense potential for destruction.

"Isn't your Essence Gathering Cultivation Manual called the Devilish Flame Fox's Ravaging Dark Flame Descent Records?"

Shirley giggled, "I want to see what kind of Divine Techniques you could use. I'm sure you could also just use your species techniques as you're fey. Besides, I know Emperor-Tier species techniques are on par with Divine Techniques without incurring the heaven's frown."

"You are not worthy, Shirley." Dewzai spoke in a cold voice, "I'm afraid you would die without being able to fight back. Don't make me regret giving you a choice to leave when, by all right, I should've killed you when I had the chance. I'm sure my power is blaming me right now for my audacity to be talking to you instead of eliminating you."

"You never had a chance since I would've just used the Escape Talisman."

Shirley giggled before she shook her head, "Fine, since you think of yourself to be so high, I'll send you my avatar. If you can defeat it, I'll admit defeat and leave."

A mirror image of Shirley stepped out from Shirley, walking to the front and standing in an elegant pose as she cupped her hands.

"Dewzai, don't blame yourself too hard upon losing."

"…"

Dewzai's eyes narrowed.

She could still see Shirley's cultivation was at Level One Immortal King Stage, unlike hers, so she guessed the other party's prowess had returned. Nonetheless, she herself was at Level Two Immortal King Stage and possessed a high prowess.

She couldn't see herself losing.

"Die!~"

With a fierce intent, she stepped forward, unleashing the same attack.

The nine tear-like dark flames shot toward Shirley in a curve instead of targeting the avatar, causing the air to sizzle in its wake.

While the avatar seemed to be ready, Shirley's main body raised her hand, stretching out her finger. Her crimson hair along with her icy-white strands danced as her energy soared out of her body.

A phoenix flame popped into existence over her index finger, burning with a scarlet hue. It was made up of her immortal soul force, appearing beautiful as it flickered ever so lightly. "Nirvanic Blooming Phoenix Talons~"

She gracefully spun and waved her sleeve towards the incoming attack, sending nine of her own talons.

The fiery scarlet wisp shook in mid-air and transformed into the sharp talon of a phoenix, making its way towards the dark devilish flame tears and piercing through them.

*Boom!~*

The point of contact became covered in a dark explosion and caused the crystalline ground below to be scorched and blackened. It didn't stop with one as there were as many as nine explosions. All of the fiery phoenix talons destroyed the dark, devilish fox flames, leaving behind a fiery eruption that caused Dewzai to narrow her eyes.

She couldn't believe that Shirley was even more powerful than her to be fighting equally against her. It didn't make sense considering that she herself was an Emperor-Tier Fey who retained the best qualities of a human and magical beast, not to mention possessing the boon from the Heavenly Ice Stasis Valley that allowed her prowess to increase by a level.

However, many Candidates received an increase of two levels from the boon while she did not.

She did her own research and discovered that it was because her base prowess had reached nine levels higher, which seemed to have canceled out the boon by half, giving her only one level of prowess.

Still, she wasn't frustrated as she was prideful and only looked forward to raising her own strength, guessing that the boon from the Heavenly Ice Stasis Valley could only remain for quite some time before disappearing as she rose in her cultivation stage.

Therefore, her prowess was up to eight levels higher and could even rise a bit, reaching mid-eight levels higher.

The fact that Shirley defended her attack could only mean her prowess was nine levels higher. After all, Shirley was still in the Level One Immortal King Stage.

"Not convinced yet?"

Shirley brought her palm to her lips and giggled, causing Dewzai to frown.

"I admit that you're somehow more powerful than me, but you're still suppressed in the Level One Immortal King Stage. To bring your avatar into this fight will only lead to humiliating yourself."

"Ai~" Shirley sighed, "You're right. If only I had a better avatar technique, my avatar's prowess wouldn't have dropped to eighty percent of my base prowess. Still, you're incapable of defeating it." Novel Fire - novelfire.net

"Too arrogant."

Dewzai's eyes flashed with a devilish crimson light.

She stepped forward once again, closing the distance ever so lightly as she waved her hand. The image of a devilish fox appeared in front of her, allowing her to be clad in a dark, malevolent manifestation of a fox.

She looked terrifying in it, her countenance having undergone a complete one-eighty, from a seductive beauty to an evil fox.

Her devilish fox flame surrounded her body as she pounced forward, leaping toward Shirley's avatar. Her momentum was as though she wanted to end this in a flash.

"Devilish Fox Inferno Strike~"

With a swift movement, Dewzai lunged at Shirley's avatar, a torrent of scorching dark flames erupting from her outstretched claws. The flames surged like a devilish claw, creating a terrifying display of dark, illuminating heat.

But Shirley didn't seem threatened.

Instead, she daintily raised her hand again from her waist to face and flicked her fingers.

Ice and flames abruptly surged from the back of her hand and shot toward her opponent like tendrils, causing Dewzai's eyes to widen. The crimson-blue flames swirled around, fusing as they crystallized mid-air, abruptly forming a wall.

*Boom!~*

"Rraaaa!~"

Dewzai roared as she struck the energy she had never seen before, her claws sinking into the crystallized array of ice and flames, something she couldn't fathom. Alarm bells rang in her mind, but she was too far in her momentum, unable to stop herself, and smashed into the crimson-blue crystalline wall.

*Crack!~*

Just as her claws cleaved a part of the crimson-blue crystal, the tip of her fingers suddenly twitched.

A deep, painful, burning sensation spread across her body from the tip of her fingers, causing Dewzai's expression to change. When she saw what had happened to her fingers, she saw the fingertips were now starting to be covered in the same crimson-blue crystals.

It seared her hand as it spread outwardly and even internally, bringing extreme burning pain.

She instantly threw all three of her energies to the claws in a bid to stop the spread and glared at Shirley.

"What is this…!?"

She growled as her voice appeared to be strained.

The avatar waved her hand, causing the crystalline formation of the crimson-blue solidified flames to actually disperse.

It revealed an extremely confident Shirley who had her hands folded with one of her eyes closed.

"The reason for your defeat, Icefire Laws."

"Impossible…"

Dewzai's expression sank, "You're telling me you have fused ice and fire!?"

"That would be the case. I also have King-Tier Ice Phoenix Blood within me, after all…"

Shirley unfolded her arms and spread her hands.

In one hand, bright scarlet flames erupted, majestic and sacred and on the other icy-white flames glowed like a ghostly wisp.

Looking at this scene, Dewzai finally seemed to realize what kind of opponent she was facing.

It must be known that an Ice Phoenix's ice was not ice but flames, but even then, ice and fire couldn't mix. The Ice Phoenix's icy-white flames were just flames of the extreme yin. Therefore, the act of fusing ice and fire was not something that anyone could do.

Of course, there have been many cases of Icefire Laws having been performed but none lived after learning it because it was extremely self-harming, perhaps even more than Death Laws as the effects were quickly apparent. It was uncontrollable and would proliferate into something extremely destructive that would even cause the user to die a gruesome death.

However, the immense control of the icefire crystal she had seen from Shirley said otherwise.

She had near-perfect control over her icefire energy, that Dewzai was starting to feel threatened. After all, she was the one who performed the attack, yet her hand, which was clad in devilish flame and explosively destructive, ended up burning instead.

"Dewzai," Shirley took her hands back with a smile and folded, "If you want to break free from this bottleneck, then you can only use your Divine Technique. However, right above us are the Empyrean Stage Crystal Beasts. Are you sure you want to use one of your Divine Techniques? Even a species technique would do~"

Despite what Shirley said, she seemed pretty eager to face a full-power attack from Dewzai.

Looking up, Dewzai could tell that using Divine Techniques would certainly disturb the crystal creatures above them, attracting them and bringing down a calamity.