"Vincent Wang!" The moment Ryan Ling heard that voice, he clenched his fists tight. He knew better than anyone that the mastermind behind the entire Harbor City incident was this Pill Hall Hall Master, Vincent Wang—the biggest culprit in the shadows. The whole plan to turn Harbor City into a death trap? No doubt, it came straight from him.
But all the surrounding Harbor City martial artists, seeing Vincent Wang like this, instinctively took several steps back. Their eyes went wide in disbelief—because Vincent Wang's whole body was blazing with red fire. A living person wreathed in flames? The scene was just too freaky.
"Ryan, this Vincent Wang is no joke. He actually mastered the Azure Dragon Society's top fire-control technique—Burning Eight Desolations. Word is, this art comes from a fire-controlling aristocratic clan in Jinling and is their secret ultimate skill. Once unleashed, it's said to sweep away everything—supposedly, even a thousand-man army would be burned to ashes in a blink!" Angie Chen, standing beside him, clearly knew her stuff; the Chen Family must've done plenty of homework on the Azure Dragon Society.
"Burning Eight Desolations?" Ryan Ling was briefly stunned. Ever since he learned the Pill Hall had come to Harbor City, Ryan knew Vincent Wang was training some fire-control technique, and he'd even made Yvonne Su vent excess fire for him. He hadn't paid it much mind before, but hearing Angie Chen's explanation, he realized Burning Eight Desolations might be a real threat.
Right then, Samuel Su, Leonard Liu, and the others had already finished their tasks and arrived with a large group. At first, seeing the ground covered with Pill Hall disciples' corpses, they were fired up—but the moment they saw Vincent Wang blazing head to toe, everyone's face instantly changed!
But Ryan didn't dwell on it. Instead, something struck him as odd: the Pill Hall came to Harbor City mainly to set up the poison-man testing ground—the three deputy Hall Masters were all in on it. But Vincent Wang, from the moment he arrived, was obsessed with training his fire-control technique, as if the whole poison-man project had nothing to do with him!
"Ryan, catch this!" At that moment, Vincent Wang admired his own handiwork, clearly satisfied. Suddenly, he hurled a blazing fire fist straight at Ryan Ling.
Ryan dodged in a flash and went to block. All you heard was a loud clang—the punch landed like a fist on steel, but it didn't hurt Ryan at all.
"That body of yours... pretty interesting!" Vincent Wang was a bit surprised, but then he unleashed a flurry of fire fists—ten or more in rapid succession, every punch landing solid and every punch spitting flames.
Ryan grew more cautious. He was handling the attacks with ease so far, but these so-called fire fists were clearly just the appetizer—there had to be much scarier moves coming next.
Originally, Ryan had underestimated those three deputy Hall Masters from the Pill Hall, but he hadn't expected their poison array to nearly overwhelm him. So now, he had to find Vincent Wang's weak point first.
"Ryan, aren't you supposed to be so strong? You wiped out my three deputy Hall Masters and slaughtered so many of my men, and now you keep running your mouth about declaring war on the Azure Dragon Society. Is this really all you've got? Hahaha!" Seeing Ryan's moves so plain and passive, the arrogant Vincent Wang burst out laughing.
All around, Samuel Su, Leonard Liu, and Angie Chen were sweating bullets for Ryan Ling—especially Angie. She knew just how terrifying Burning Eight Desolations was; in the Azure Dragon Society, it was absolutely top-tier. To fuse martial power with raging fire and unleash the force to annihilate everything—this was strength on a whole other level.
And you could tell—even though Long Ao was also a Hall Master in the Azure Dragon Society, compared to Vincent Wang right now, he was way outclassed. On pure strength alone, Vincent Wang was already almost on par with Ryuichi Hashimoto of the Water-Breaker Sword Sect, and with Burning Eight Desolations, he might even surpass him.
With power like that, Ryan might not be able to hold his ground!
Right now, Angie Chen was gritting her teeth—clearly the most anxious of them all.
"Ryan, you don't need to be so cautious. No matter how strong Burning Eight Desolations is, it's still just a martial technique—powered by true essence to control fire. But you have Fire Eyes. The power those eyes unleash is way beyond Burning Eight Desolations!" The System suddenly piped up inside him.
"Fire Eyes?" Ryan Ling was startled. If the System hadn't reminded him, he'd honestly forgotten about them. Fire Eyes were insanely powerful—back when he fought Ryuichi Hashimoto, he'd only scratched the surface. But he knew: Fire Eyes were a divine ability, a whole tier above martial arts. The problem was, he still couldn't fully unlock their power.
"Don't overthink it. Just remember: Yin-Maiden energy is the best catalyst. It can supercharge the Purgatory Soul-Suppressing Art, the Hell Furnace, and of course your Fire Eyes. Try channeling a bit of it and see what happens!" The System nudged him again.
"Yin-Maiden energy can do all that?" Ryan was genuinely surprised.
"Of course! That's why I've been telling you to hurry up and get together with Angie Chen—she's a one-of-a-kind treasure. If she were in the Netherworld, she'd have been 'used' countless times already! Honestly, I want you using her once a day, rain or shine!" The System sighed, sounding insanely jealous.
"Enough, cut it out! Can we focus for a second?" Ryan Ling was speechless, but he could feel just how crucial Angie Chen was—her Yin-Maiden energy really was a game-changer for him.
But since the System insisted, Ryan didn't hesitate—he called up the Yin-Maiden energy again. Most of it had already been used up fighting those monsters, so now he had to ration what's left.
"That's enough, punk. With your measly skills, you're not even qualified to keep fighting me. Now I'll use Burning Eight Desolations to send you straight to hell!" Suddenly, Vincent Wang stopped throwing punches. Clearly, after testing Ryan Ling in battle, he was feeling pretty damn good about his own technique.
Right then, Vincent Wang completely wrote Ryan off. He pressed his palms together, closed his eyes, and focused. After a few seconds, Vincent let out a huge roar—"WAAAH!"—and blasted out a barrage of fireballs, one after another, chaining them together into a wall of flame that instantly trapped Ryan inside.
(End of chapter—click next page to continue reading!)
"He's actually mastered Burning Eight Desolations to the point of spitting fireballs from his mouth! This guy's fire-control talent is off the charts!" Angie Chen's face grew even more grim, while the crowd stared in shock—most of them had never even heard of fire-control techniques, let alone seen anything like this. To them, this scene shattered everything they thought possible.
Just moments ago, there were three giant floating monsters—now there's a man covered in fire, spitting flames. Everything was reaching a whole new level of supernatural.
In an instant, Ryan was completely trapped in the flames. He still looked calm, but everyone watching was stunned—after all, he was just flesh and blood, surrounded by raging fire. And this wasn't ordinary fire—it was alive, attacking him from every direction, shrinking his space until he was about to be burned alive.
"Haha, you stubborn brat! Standing still doesn't make you tough—quit acting cool. Here, let me turn up the heat and show you what burning alive really feels like!" Vincent Wang roared, spitting out an even fiercer flame. This one was blood-red, and inside it, you could hear demon shrieks and see, just for a moment, a human face twisting and howling in the fire.
In a flash, the blood-red flames closed in around Ryan's head, while the other fireballs broke through his last defenses and burned into his torso and limbs.
"Ryan!" At that moment, Angie Chen couldn't hold back any longer—she cried out, her heart pounding with fear.
Everyone else was just as shocked. This time, they truly understood how terrifying the Azure Dragon Society could be.
"Ha! Scream all you want—it's useless. In fifteen minutes, this brat will be nothing but a hot, steaming skeleton!" Vincent Wang crowed, convinced he'd already won.
But just then, as Ryan stood motionless, his eyes suddenly blazed with golden light—so bright it was like staring into the sun...