Chapter 859: Wind and Fire Duel

When thousands of divine souls poured in from the horizon, Mu Liu and Mu Qingyan, who were trapped in the mountains, sensed their arrival. A look of joy immediately appeared in their eyes.

"See? I told you Zhou Yuan wouldn't be easily deceived by Lu Xiao," Mu Liu said with a smile.

Mu Qingyan let out a sigh of relief, but her small face remained tense. "Don't get too excited," she cautioned. "Even though he led the Wind Pavilion here to rescue us, it only slightly changes the situation. Overall, the Fire Pavilion and Mountain Pavilion still hold a decisive advantage."

Mu Liu nodded gently. If the Fire Pavilion were to form their battle array now, their overwhelming overall advantage would leave the Wind Pavilion no room to gain any advantage, possibly even leading to their annihilation by the Fire Pavilion.

Mu Qingyan sighed, "The Wind Pavilion is much weaker than the Fire Pavilion. Although I don't know what methods or trump cards Zhou Yuan possesses, given my understanding of Lu Xiao, he certainly won't be caught completely off guard."

She shot Mu Liu a glance. "I told you we shouldn't have gotten involved in this. Now we've needlessly put our Forest Pavilion in danger."

Mu Liu grimaced. "What's the point of saying that now? Since Zhou Yuan dared to come, I think he must have some confidence. It won't be easy for Lu Xiao and the Fire Pavilion to deal with him."

"We can only hope so," Mu Qingyan pouted. She wasn't really blaming Mu Liu; it was just that their Forest Pavilion had been needlessly besieged by the Fire and Mountain Pavilions for half a day, and she couldn't help but feel a surge of anger.

More importantly, she genuinely didn't have a good feeling about the current situation.

Although the Forest Pavilion had used the Myriad Soul Cloud Vortex Array she deployed to resist the combined assault of the Fire and Mountain Pavilions, they had still suffered over two thousand casualties, weakening their strength. In contrast, the Fire and Mountain Pavilions had sustained minimal losses.

With their strength diminishing while the enemy's remained largely intact, how could Zhou Yuan and the Wind Pavilion possibly cope?

"Later, if the Fire Pavilion and Mountain Pavilion go after the Wind Pavilion, I will try my best to divert some of their forces," Mu Qingyan said, pursing her lips. "But that's our limit. The final outcome will depend on Zhou Yuan's capabilities."

"That's more than enough," Mu Liu said, nodding with a smile.

Outside the mountain, Lu Xiao's expression was grim as he stared at the divine soul army rapidly approaching from afar. A moment later, his expression gradually calmed. "It seems Wang Chen has been eliminated," he stated.

The Wind Pavilion's army had arrived, but there was no sign of Wang Chen and his group. They had clearly been directly expelled from the Heaven Flame Cauldron, and Zhou Yuan had undoubtedly seen through their intentions.

"This kid is truly persistent," Han Yuan said, frowning.

Lu Xiao's expression remained calm. "Han Yuan, your Mountain Pavilion will continue to besiege the Forest Pavilion. We, the Fire Pavilion, will handle the Wind Pavilion."

Han Yuan nodded and chuckled. "It seems we're back to square one, but it doesn't matter. The outcome will be the same in the end."

Han Yuan was well aware of the Fire Pavilion's overall strength. Even the Mountain Pavilion was no match for them, let alone the Wind Pavilion, which was the weakest of the four pavilions.

Lu Xiao turned his gaze to Zhu Lian. "This battle against the Wind Pavilion, it's all on you."

Zhu Lian was their Fire Pavilion's Transformed Divine Soul. Only he could command and communicate with a multitude of divine souls, a feat even Lu Xiao himself couldn't achieve. Therefore, in this Heaven Flame Ritual, Zhu Lian's role was more crucial than Lu Xiao's.

Zhu Lian's spirits were high, and he nodded confidently. "Pavilion Master, rest assured. Our Fire Pavilion is fully prepared this time. I refuse to believe we can't suppress the Wind Pavilion!"

Immediately, he scanned the surroundings, and his divine soul power fluctuated, directly transmitting his voice into the ears of all Fire Pavilion members: "Fire Pavilion disciples, heed my command! Engage the Wind Pavilion and destroy them!"

The next moment, he and Lu Xiao's divine souls soared forth, followed by tens of thousands of divine souls in a mighty surge behind them.

The two vast forces met amidst the mountains, each occupying a peak in a standoff. Powerful divine soul energy swept across the heavens and earth, causing wind and thunder to roar.

Upon their encounter, Zhou Yuan did not hesitate. He positioned himself in the center, communicating with thousands of divine souls using his own, then mobilized their collective divine soul power to begin setting up defenses.

On the Wind Pavilion's side, layers of vast divine soul power whistled, faintly resembling fragments of turtle shells. In such a short time, Zhou Yuan had directly constructed a defensive barrier.

Zhu Lian's gaze narrowed as he watched this. For Zhou Yuan to be able to set up a defensive barrier in such a short time indicated that his divine soul cultivation was quite formidable. After all, in this type of collective divine soul combat, the role of a Transformed Divine Soul like himself was to act as a conduit, connecting all other divine souls and then coordinating their divine soul power as a unified whole.

"Clever of him to know he can only defend," Zhu Lian sneered. Zhou Yuan's immediate choice to erect a turtle-shell-like defense clearly showed he knew the Fire Pavilion was too strong to contend with directly.

This was the first time Zhu Lian had seen the usually aggressive Zhou Yuan choose to retreat defensively during their past encounters, which gave him a sense of satisfaction.

"But forming a defense right under my nose? That won't be easy."

Zhu Lian snorted. When it came to Genesis Qi combat, he was indeed no match for Zhou Yuan. However, this Heaven Flame Ritual was a clash of divine souls, and not just individual ones, but entire pavilions acting as a single entity. Relying on the Fire Pavilion's absolute advantage, he no longer felt any fear towards Zhou Yuan.

Zhu Lian's divine soul stood amidst the Fire Pavilion's army. The next moment, his divine soul vibrated.

As Zhu Lian coordinated, a vast, ocean-like surge of divine soul power instantly rose into the sky, transforming into ten thousand colossal waves. These waves, carrying terrifying might, crashed down violently towards the Wind Pavilion's position.

The divine soul waves crashed one after another, their momentum horrifying.

Under a divine soul offensive of this magnitude, even a Transformed Divine Soul would be instantly shattered upon contact.

Boom! Boom! The divine soul waves crashed violently against the Wind Pavilion's turtle-shell barrier. The impact felt like an earthquake as layers of divine soul power, shaped into turtle shells, continuously shattered. However, as quickly as the divine soul turtle shells broke apart, new ones emerged.

Zhu Lian frowned at the sight, then immediately intensified his divine soul offensive. The vast divine souls enveloped the Wind Pavilion's mountain peak like a flood, ceaselessly pounding it with fierce attacks.

Under Zhu Lian's brutal assault, the turtle-shell barrier formed from divine soul power quickly became precarious, finally shattering with a loud crash, countless turtle shells dissolving into nothingness.

Zhu Lian was overjoyed and was about to mobilize tens of thousands of divine souls to directly charge in and crush the Wind Pavilion.

However, before he could act, another layer of divine soul light appeared beneath the shattered turtle-shell barrier, and another barrier took shape.

This time, Zhu Lian looked closely. Beneath that new barrier, there was clearly another layer, and all of them were defensive!

"You motherf—!"

Zhu Lian's expression changed, and he couldn't help but curse in anger. Was Zhou Yuan a turtle? Was he planning to wear down the Fire Pavilion with these layers upon layers of turtle shells today?

"He's trying to exhaust our Fire Pavilion's divine soul power," Lu Xiao said, frowning from the side.

"And haven't you noticed? The divine soul power we expend to break through one layer of the Wind Pavilion's barrier is far greater than what Zhou Yuan uses to set up a single layer."

Zhu Lian's face felt hot. Of course, he knew why. It meant that Zhou Yuan's divine soul cultivation was extremely profound, allowing him to perfectly mobilize the thousands of divine souls in the Wind Pavilion to create rock-solid defenses. To breach these defenses, Zhu Lian would have to expend much more, just as in a siege, the attacking side always suffers heavier losses than the defending side.

Zhou Yuan clearly intended to use this method to deplete the Fire Pavilion's divine soul advantage.

However, Lu Xiao, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. If this was Zhou Yuan's only tactic, then he was underestimating their Fire Pavilion far too much.

"Zhu Lian, there's no need to hold back anymore. It's time to use some of our trump cards."

Hearing Lu Xiao's words, Zhu Lian nodded. He gazed at the seemingly impenetrable layers of defense nearby, a ruthless glint in his eyes.

"Good. I'll tear apart these layers of turtle shells myself!"

"Without these defenses, the Wind Pavilion's few thousand divine souls are simply nothing to worry about!"

"I'd like to see what qualifications Zhou Yuan has today to turn the tide!"