Chapter 208: Karmic Flame Sword (1/2)

“I lost to Neru back then because the Blaze Realm hadn’t given me the Karmic Flame Sword’s sheathe yet, but I brought it today, little junior. You can once again experience the sensation of being burned into a crisp,” Arikar jeered condescendingly. He then rose into the sky before a black dot pierced the earth, causing a surging wave of blazing hot heat to descend, just like the scene from the previous battle round.

On the other side, Feng Shang remained in his original location, calmly watching Arikar rise into the air and attack him with a palm.

The fiery palm silhouette enveloped an area of a thousand meters. On the screens, the spectators watched on as everything in the inferno’s area of effect burned to ashes, and the heat even caused the void to distort. Thin spatial cracks spread out from the flames as they compressed into themselves, intensifying their destructive potential as they continued burning even within the void. It was a stunning scene.

Outside of the plains, Jared’s face paled; this was Arikar’s Endless Darkgold Palm. Arikar’s innate gift of darkgold meant that he only needed a small amount of heat to coax violent flames with extremely high temperatures to life. When these flames were combined with the Blaze Realm’s battle technique, it formed a unique combination battle technique that had allowed Arikar to dominate the Astral Combat Academy in the past. This attack was also his trademark skill.

Ripping apart the void was a sign of a powerhouse. Generally, only experts at the Explorer realm or above could tear through the void, but it had become a commonplace sight in this Astral Combat Tournament.

The void was formless, and a normal person could not even fathom how much strength was needed to tear through it. For flames to distort the void and even cause it to collapse, the temperature of the blaze needed to be impossibly high. The sight caused many to feel numb, especially the members of the Outerverse’s younger generation. This palm represented the hopeless disparity between them and Arikar, who could even surprise space-exploring powerhouses with his attacks.

Boom!

The earth was powderized under that domineering Endless Darkgold Palm. As the dust settled, the screen revealed a jet-black palm silhouette while the remnant flames engulfed the arena in all directions and steadily continued to burn.

When the scorching heat wave swept over them, a portion of the students in the audience outside the arena involuntarily took a step back.

Even the student leaders still on the nearby peak were affected.

Lu Yin continued to stare at the arena. What a powerful strike, what high temperatures! Compared to Arikar, Craynor and the others were nothing.

A breeze blew across the battlefield and dispersed the final fire, exposing a shade of green. In the thousand meter rectangle that the palm imprint had incinerated, only that smear of green remained unblackened; it was actually completely unharmed.

A hurricane twisted around Feng Shang, and he slowly raised his head. “Your power’s only reached that level?”

Many students cheered and started chanting Feng Shang’s name.

Countless spectators among the universe took in a deep breath of fresh air while standing in front of their screens. That attack, which could be considered to be the apex of a Limiteer’s strength, could not even singe a hair against this person. This was a leader of the ten great academies, a trial zone Realm Master.

In the sky, Arikar’s pupils shrank to pinpoints. “Impossible! Not even Neru from back then could have received the Endless Darkgold Palm that easily. How can you be completely unharmed?!”

Feng Shang’s eyes remained ice cold. “The times have changed. Frozen geniuses? How pathetic. In my eyes, they’re nothing more than a group of pitiful bugs who have fallen behind in the times.”

“Shut up! You’re just Neru’s lacky! I’ll show you the Blaze Realm’s top-notch battle technique!” Arikar roared as his veins bulged all over his entire body. A trace of dark red energy could be seen flowing over his figure.

This was the Karmic Flame Sword, the strongest ancient battle technique inheritance that the Blaze Realm had. Only its top disciples were allowed to learn it, but learning it was just the first step. To use it in its complete form, one needed a sheath. This so-called “sheath” was not a material item, but rather something that had been successfully unlocked by an almighty figure from the Blaze Realm many years ago. More specifically, the sheath was an indescribably powerful flame, and only those who absorbed this flame could display the full might of the Karmic Flame Sword.

Once this flame merged with a cultivator’s star energy, it would cease to be an external force, so it could be displayed within the trial zones like an innate gift. This sheath, this flame, was what Arikar had received instead of Jared.

The Blaze Realm’s disciples had consumed this flame for countless ages, so there was not much left. Even the region’s top disciple was no longer guaranteed to receive a trace of it..

Countless people from the Innerverse knew that the Blaze Realm had a top-notch battle technique, the Karmic Flame Sword. But few knew the truth of the technique and why there could be such a disparity in the power of the battle technique even when used by people of similar strengths.

In the sky, Arikar straightened his right arm as a dark-red thread writhed within his body as if it was alive. Finally, it completely gathered together in his right index finger. In the very next moment, an indescribably terrifying aura emerged from that finger. It caused the void to ripple dangerously as an endlessly climbing heat wave engulfed heaven and earth and it a dark red color.

Many were shocked, as they knew that the strength of this attack would be terrifying beyond belief even before it was released.

Arikar stared fervently at his right index finger; this was the feeling. This inherited strand of flame was what allowed the Karmic Flame Sword to become truly terrifying. At this moment, he even felt confident about challenging an Explorer, let alone a mere Feng Shang. But then, Arikar’s scalp suddenly turned numb as he instinctively tried to dodge to the side, but it was too late. Feng Shang’s figure appeared before him as an intense pain spread out from his abdomen.

“Don’t strike a pose for too long in your next battle” were the last words that Arikar heard before he died.

The Karmic Flame Sword was indeed very powerful, and there was a good reason why it had become the inherited battle technique of the Blaze Realm, which was an ancient power in the Innerverse. Its power could shock many, but Arikar was still too weak to fully display its power. It took him too long to ready it, and Feng Shang could have killed him more than ten times in that time span. Nobody was foolish enough to wait patiently and receive such a devastating attack.

Feng Shang’s actions had shocked many, to the point where the audience couldn’t even react.

According to the popular stories that they had all heard of, shouldn’t one allow their opponent to display their ultimate moves before calmly dispatching them, to demonstrate the power of the protagonist? Was that just now a sneak attack?

Lu Yin, on the other hand, found the scene hilarious. He chucked not at Feng Shang’s abrupt attack, but rather at Arikar, who had been frozen for so many years that it seemed that his brain had become stupid. For some reason, Arikar had thought that Feng Shang was an idiot who would wait for him to display his strongest attack. But Feng Shang’s last strike had been so fast that it was unbelievable. Arikar had reacted extremely quickly, but he still had not been able to dodge Feng Shang’s attack. In fact, Feng Shang’s speed had even overtaken Lulu’s.