Chapter 57: Flame Lord Yan issues a challenge to Xu Yan!

Chapter 57: The Flame Lord, Yan, Challenges Xu Yan!

Listening to Hu Liena's somewhat gentle and crisp voice, Xu Yan turned his head to look at her.

Hu Liena twisted her slender waist, walked up to Xu Yan, and said softly, "Should I call you His Holiness the Holy Son, or should I call you Junior Brother?"

Xu Yan gave a light cough and waved his hand at Ghost Douluo and Chrysanthemum Douluo.

Initially, Ghost Douluo and Chrysanthemum Douluo had not been convinced by Xu Yan either.

However, hearing that he had escaped from the hands of the Clear Sky Douluo proved that he possessed genuine capability.

Moreover, since he was deeply valued by Her Holiness the Supreme Pontiff, they held him in high regard.

Regardless of whether Xu Yan's claims were true or false, they had to show profound respect to the newly appointed Holy Son of the Spirit Hall.

Otherwise, if Xu Yan went to complain to the Supreme Pontiff, the ones to suffer misfortune would be them.

They immediately stepped back and distanced themselves.

Watching Xu Yan's rather triumphant demeanor, Hu Liena smiled faintly.

Xu Yan stepped closer to Hu Liena and said, "As long as you are happy, you can call me whatever you like. You can even call me little Yan; the teacher calls me that after all. Since I entered discipleship after you, you are my Senior Sister."

Hearing this, Hu Liena was quite pleased. She reached out, pinched Xu Yan's cheek, and said softly, "You know how to say the right things."

In response, Xu Yan casually rested his arm over Hu Liena's slender shoulder.

Taken aback by this bold gesture, Hu Liena paused for a moment before speaking softly, "We haven't seen each other in so long, and your audacity has certainly grown."

"Senior Sister... do you know how much I missed you during the days you were in seclusion?" Xu Yan said, looking as though he wanted a warm embrace.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, Hu Liena immediately pressed her hand against his chest and scolded him playfully and softly, "What are you doing? With so many people around, what kind of propriety is this?"

Xu Yan did not press the matter further, thinking to himself that the goddess Hu Liena could indeed be shy.

Sooner or later, he would make her shiver delightfully in his arms.

Right at that moment, Yan and Xie Yue walked over and happened to see Xu Yan's hand resting on Hu Liena's shoulder.

Hu Liena was in the middle of pushing his hand away with a coy expression.

Unable to resist, Xu Yan chuckled softly and placed his other hand on her shoulder instead.

This provoked Hu Liena into giving him a playful kick with her foot out of mild annoyance.

The scene looked precisely like a young couple flirting affectionately.

This sight made Yan's blood boil with rage, especially fitting for someone with a fire-attribute martial soul.

As the holder of one of the strongest martial souls possessing both fire and earth attributes, he was the wielder of the ancient martial soul, the Flame Lord.

At that moment, flames blazed across his entire body as he roared furiously, "Xu Yan... take your filthy hands off her!"

Hearing Yan's angry shout, both Xu Yan and Hu Liena turned to look at him.

Xie Yue walked over with a calm expression, making no move to stop him.

Hu Liena was about to say something, but Xu Yan pulled her gently behind him.

Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo seemed aware of the ambiguous relationship between Xu Yan and Hu Liena, and thus dared not utter a word.

However, Yan's furious roar and lack of respect caused the two Title Douluo to step closer.

"You have some nerve, daring to address His Holiness the Holy Son by his given name?" Chrysanthemum Douluo said on the surface, while signaling with his eyes for Yan not to act rashly.

Yet, Yan was completely consumed by anger at this point.

Having always harbored deep affection for Hu Liena, the sight of her and Xu Yan acting so intimately fueled a raging fire in his heart.

Blinded entirely by rage, he completely failed to notice Chrysanthemum Douluo's warning.

"What kind of Holy Son is he? I refuse to accept it... He is not worthy of being the Holy Son of the Spirit Hall. The Spirit Hall only has a Holy Daughter, not a Holy Son!" Yan bellowed furiously.

Chrysanthemum Douluo sighed inwardly, figuring this kid was beyond saving.

"Heh. There wasn't one before, but now there is," Xu Yan chuckled involuntarily.

"How do you like that? Right now, I am the newly appointed Holy Son of the Spirit Hall. I even hold the Holy Son Token given to me by the teacher. To see this token is to see Her Holiness the Supreme Pontiff in person."

"What are you going to do about it?"

Yan's fists clenched so tightly that cracking sounds echoed from his bones.

Noticing that Yan's soul power had grown somewhat denser, Xu Yan figured that during the time he himself had been away from the Spirit Hall, Yan must have increased his soul power and now delusionally thought he could challenge him again.

Since he had beaten him to a pulp before, he could do it just as easily now.

He was virtually capable of finishing Yan off in a matter of seconds.

Even though his own soul power rank was currently only forty-one.

If a cheater like Tang San could directly take on opponents at rank forty-three or forty-four, then he, a god of cheats surpassing even Tang San, could naturally crush Yan with absolute perfection.

"Xu Yan, I challenge you!" Yan shouted, pointing straight at Xu Yan.

"Yan, you..."

Before Hu Liena could finish, Xu Yan raised a hand and said, "Senior Sister, it's fine. Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, neither of you should interfere later. The Holy Son here and Yan are going to have a fair, one-on-one duel."

"It's just as well. I'll teach him a proper lesson so he understands the difference between high and low status!"

"I am the high, and you are the low!"

Xu Yan's gaze grew progressively colder.

Having recently been injured by Tang Hao, he had bottled up quite a bit of frustration, and here Yan was, walking right into his trap.

He had said it before: whenever he felt unhappy, he would beat Yan up.

It had been a while since his last beating, and Yan's skin was clearly itching for another round.

Memories from his past life reminded him that Yan had bullied him plenty of times, constantly throwing around insults about lowly servants.

Today, he would make sure Yan tucked his tail between his legs every single time he laid eyes on him from now on.

Yan erupted, instantly releasing his martial soul.

His soul rings flashed into view in a sequence of yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black.

Flames surged around his entire body as his martial soul, the Flame Lord, manifested.

A colossal phantom materialized behind him; he had genuinely grown stronger.

During all these past days, he had cultivated with bitter determination solely for the sake of revenge and defeating Xu Yan.

After all, he had suffered utter humiliation in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Today, he intended to settle all those scores at once.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan simply watched him quietly.

Hu Liena, Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, and Xie Yue all retreated to a distance.

The two of them stood confronting each other in the spacious clearing.

Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo observed Xu Yan's figure intently, eager to discern what true capabilities he possessed.

After all, being able to escape from the Clear Sky Douluo meant he undeniably possessed extraordinary skills.

"First Soul Skill: Hell Magma Surge!"

Streams of roiling magma shot forward violently.

Xu Yan unleashed the Great Sage martial soul, and the phantom of a towering ape manifested behind him.

"Fifth Soul Skill: Overturning Rivers and Seas!"

Seven soul rings lit up around him in a completely standard configuration.

Yellow, yellow, black, black, gold, gold, gold.

Strictly speaking, golden soul rings could be counted as million-year soul rings, yet none of the onlookers had ever witnessed such a thing before.

Ten-thousand-year soul rings were already considered the absolute pinnacle.

Still, because Xu Yan had previously exposed his golden soul rings, Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo were not quite as astounded this time.

However, the very next second, the seven soul rings encircling Xu Yan began shifting colors continuously like a string of colorful lights.

This left Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, and Hu Liena utterly dumbfounded.

Boom!

The searing heat waves of magma collided and churned relentlessly against the surging, billowing waters of the ocean.

An overwhelmingly powerful shockwave swept outward instantly.

Centered around the two of them, an invisible wave of air rippled across the entire arena.

The impact forced Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, Hu Liena, and the others to instinctively raise their hands to shield their eyes.