Battle Through the Heavens

Eyeing Hai Bo Dong who was tightly holding the jade bottle with a face that was filled with unrestrained joy, Xiao Yan laughed softly before smiling slightly as he said, “Mister Hai Bo Dong. The thing has been successfully refined. What about the map fragment?”

Hearing this, Hai Bo Dong was at a momentary loss. He immediately and quickly pulled himself back from his unrestrained joy. His eyeballs rotated and he licked his lips as an embarassed look appeared on his face. He said, “Uhh, Little Brother!”

“You can call me Xiao Yan.” Seeing Hai Bo Dong’s manner, Xiao Yan frowned slightly as he said blandly.

“Haha, alright. Little Brother Xiao Yan.” Hai Bo Dong hurriedly nodded his head. He then waved the jade bottle in his hand and said with an awkward smile, “Little Brother, don’t blame old me for having something more to do! *Cough*, it is not that old me doesn’t believe you, but the main reason is that I have also never seen what a ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ looks like. I only know from the medicinal formula that it is entirely purple in color. Therefore, I wonder if Little Brother Xiao Yan would allow me to consume the medicinal pill and test if it can really help me break the seal?Haha, if the seal can really be broken, old me would definitely give the map fragment to you! I will also apologize to you!”

“Old Sir, the way to repeatedly find excuses to put the matter off does not show the demeanor of someone who was once the Ten Strong of the Jia Ma Empire.” Xiao Yan’s long finger gently flicked off a speck of dust from the tip of his sleeve. He was expressionless as he said, “The small me has used all my effort in order to help Old Sir! But your actions really caused me to be disheartened.”

“Ugh, Little Brother Xiao Yan, back then we indeed agreed that as long as you could help me refine the ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’, I would hand the map fragment to you, but you should at least let me test if this medicinal pill is real or not. I will say something annoying. If this is some other medicinal pill that you randomly gave me as a stiffler, won’t I suffer a great loss if I don’t check it?” Hai Bo Dong’s old face was much thicker than Xiao Yan had imagined. The manner in which he smiled bitterly made it appear like he was the greatest victim.

Seeing Hai Bo Dong’s bitter face, Xiao Yan knit his eyebrows tightly together and said blandly, “Od Sir. I have to remind you something. This ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ medicinal formula is something that you gave me. I have also completely followed its instruction to refine the medicinal pill. But whether this medicinal pill possesses the effect of breaking a seal is something that only a ghost would know!”

“Therefore, if you were to consume the ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ and still be unable to undo the seal because of the medicinal formula, won’t that be blamed on me? Then won’t my effort to hurry over a long distance to the desert, braving the danger of being killed by Queen Medusa in order to help you look for the Sand’s Datura, as well as spending a large amount of effort in order to refine the medicinal pill be totally disregarded?” Xiao Yan crossed his ten fingers in front of him as he said softly with a cold smile, “After doing so much, all that I have obtained is only a map fragment and a favor, verbally agreed by a Dou Huang. You tell me, have I made a loss or have I profited?”

“Uh!” Hearing this, Hai Bo Dong’s face appeared slightly embarrassed. A moment later, he finally laughed dryly, “The old me also knows that my request is a little overboard, but Little Brother Xiao Yan can be reassured that I will naturally not do anything ungrateful! How about this. As long as the ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ can show a little effect, I will definitely keep my word! Moreover, this ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ is a medicinal pill personally refined by Little Brother Xiao Yan. Don’t tell me that you don’t have confidence in it? Ha ha.”

“Hu!” Xiao Yan let out a deep breath. He raised his eyes to look at Hai Bo Dong laughing dryly and knit his eyebrows tightly together. A long while later, he finally waved his hand somewhat unhappily and said faintly, “Then we’ll do what you say. I will remind Old Sir one more time. This is the last time that I will give in.”

“Haha, thank you Little Brother Xiao Yan for being able to understand old me’s difficulty.” Hearing Xiao Yan’s reply, a joyful smile immediately surfaced on Hai Bo Dong’s face. He placed the jade bottle carefully into the storage ring, faced Xiao Yan and said, “Little Brother, follow me to the basement. If I really break the seal later, this basement will ensure that my Qi will not leak out. At the same time, it can avoid some unnecessary troubles.”

Xiao Yan nodded his head but was too lazy to even say anything extra to Hai Bo Dong. His face was icy as he raised his chin at the Hai Bo Dong, signalling for the latter to lead the way.

Seeing Xiao Yan’s expression, Hai Bo Dong also knew that Xiao Yan was currently in a bad mood. He could only laugh awkwardly and hurriedly focus on leading the way in front.

As he followed behind Hai Bo Dong, Xiao Yan eyed the old figure in front of him whose pace was brisk. He was silent for a long time before an indifferent, faint smile was suddenly lifted on his expressionless face. The fist under his sleeves was clenched tightly and a wisp of green-colored flame was naughtily leaping on his long finger!

Xiao Yan pursed up his lips and narrowed his eyes as he muttered in his heart, “Old fellow, I hope that you really won’t disappoint me. Otherwise, I won’t care whether you were once called Ice Emperor. Today, I will force you to suffer a terrible regret!”

Although the corridor was not very big, the amounts of twists and turns would have exceeded anyone’s expectations. Xiao Yan followed behind Hai Bo Dong and made a number of turns. The surrounding monotonous and similar environment caused people’s minds to feel somewhat tired. Luckily, Xiao Yan’s mental strength was quite good, so it did not reach the extent of feeling any difficulty in enduring. It was just that his heart felt a little oppressed.

Within the corridor, the lights were not very strong. There would only be a lamp that emitted a faint glow every ten plus meters apart. In this kind of dark environment, the two people maintained silence. Only the soft sound of footsteps slowly reverberated in the long corridor and echoed for a long time. Hearing these sounds, anyone would be creeped out.

The corridor may have seemed level, but Xiao Yan was able to feel that they seemed to be walking down an inclined route. After walking in this depressing manner for nearly twenty minutes, Hai Bo Dong, who was in front of him, suddenly came to a stop. He turned around and said with a smile to Xiao Yan, “We’re here.”

Xiao Yan’s gaze leapt pass Hai Bo Dong and swept the place in front of him. He could only see a thick metal door that appeared from the edge of his vision under the faint light from the lamps. The metal door was profound and dark black, emitting a solid and thick feeling.

As he eyed the metal door, Hai Bo Dong’s footsteps clearly became faster. A moment later, he arrived in front of the door. His palm pulled at a black metal lion head in front of him. Following a ‘Ka Cha’ sound, the metal door instantly began to slowly open by itself. A bright glow was also transmitted from within.

“Welcome!” Hai Bo Dong waved exhaustedly at Xiao Yan as he walked in first with a smile still on his face.

Xiao Yan stood at the door and hesitated for a moment. His gaze swept the surroundings around the large door before stepping into the basement room.

Entering the room in the basement, Xiao Yan found the surrounding temperature had suddenly dropped a lot. A faint cold feeling shrouded his entire body as he looked around him. He was somewhat stunned to realize that this room underground was an ice cellar. On the ice cellar’s ceiling and surrounding thick walls, there was a layer of snow white ice stuck from them. Above his head, numerous sharp icicles appeared like sharp longswords that hung inversely from the ceiling.

A faint cold fog was emitted, shrouding the interior of the underground room and possibly lingering for years. It was not known just how much time and effort Hai Bo Dong spent on this somewhat huge underground room.

“Haha, the Dou Qi Method that I practice is more attuned with the dark and cold. Thus, training in this kind of place would have a better effect. This place is also a distance from the surface. The ice and the soil above will be able to cover my Qi here, causing other strong people to be unable to sense it.” Appearing to be clear of the doubt in Xiao Yan’s mind, Hai Bo Dong, who was in front, explained.

“Ah.” Xiao Yan nodded his head and unceremoniously sat down on a chair in the middle of the underground room. He raised his head to face Hai Bo Dong and calmly said, “Hurry up. I don’t really like the environment here.”

“Ke ke, alright.”

Hai Bo Dong smiled and nodded. He then took out the ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ from within the storage ring and placed it carefully on his palm to look at it. The careful manner once again caused Xiao Yan’s eyebrow to press together.

After inspecting it for a long while and failing to find anything unusual, Hai Bo Dong finally let out a soft sigh. The current him had also learned to be smarter; he knew that his action just now would definitely cause Xiao Yan to be greatly discontented. Therefore, he simply did not tilt his head to look at Xiao Yan’s ugly expression. His toes pressed lightly on the ground and his body leaped onto a sitting platform that was completely formed from the agglomeration of cold ice. He sat crossed-legged and stuffed the ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ from his hand into his mouth. He throat rolled slightly and swallowed the pill into his stomach.

Seated on the chair, Xiao Yan lowered his head and picked at his finger. The moment that Hai Bo Dong swallowed the ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’, a sudden faint gloating smile was lifted on his face that was lowered.

In the icy cold underground room, the atmosphere gradually became quiet following Hai Bo Dong entering into his the training mode. Xiao Yan simply sat on the chair staring only at his palm. It appeared that he was not the slightest bit concerned as to whether Hai Bo Dong’s seal breaking was proceeding successfully.

The quiet atmosphere lasted for nearly half an hour or so before it was broken by a circle of ferocious energy ripples.

On the ice platform, Hai Bo Dong, who had descended into a stillness, suddenly began to tremble intensely. Waves of ferocious energy ripples were swiftly emitted from within his body. Anywhere the energy ripple passed by, the surrounding table or ice pillars would pop and break into pieces with a ‘Pa La’ sound.

Xiao Yan slowly raised his head and eyed the swiftly arriving energy ripples. Moving as his heart intended, a faint green-colored flame Dou Qi cloak quickly surfaced on the surface of his body. The hot green-colored flame incinerated all the energy ripples that spread toward him into nothingness.

On the ice platform, Hai Bo Dong appeared not to have sensed the destruction that he had created. His body trembled intensely for a moment as the old face suddenly tensed tightly. A quiet green-colored strange energy was swiftly gathered at his forehead. A moment later, it actually formed a quiet green tiny energy snake print! The snake print lingered on Hai Bo Dong’s forehead and stubbornly suppressed the surge of Dou Qi in his body.

The moment the snake print surfaced, a pale-purple energy slowly shrouded upward from Hai Bo Dong’s neck. In the blink of an eye, it began to come into contact with the quiet green small snake.

As the two ferocious energies came into contact, the appearance of the waves of energy ripples like earlier ones also occurred.

The purple-colored energy and the snake print were at a continuous stalemate on Hai Bo Dong’s forehead with one on top and one below. The faint glow that the two types of energy emitted caused Hai Bo Dong’s face to be painted strangely. Adding this to the distorted face of Hai Bo Dong which was caused by the intense pain created from the two types of energies struggling at such an important place like his head, it gave him a faint savage look when one glanced at him.

Xiao Yan’s ten fingers crossed in front of his body as he lifted his head. He stared intently at the two-colored glow emitted from Hai Bo Dong’s face. His heart was also slightly curious as to whether this ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ would have the energy to break the seal that Queen Medusa had placed.

The purple-colored and green-colored energy continued to move up and down in a deadlock in this manner. However, when the deadlock had occurred for over half an hour, the quiet green snake print finally dimmed slightly. Clearly, this ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ seemed to really possess the unique effect of restraining this kind of seal.

“Tsk tsk, this ‘Breaking Adversity Pill’ is really not bad! If I have the chance in the future, I will prepare some for myself. If I were to be sealed by someone one day, it would be good to have something prepared.” Eyeing that green-colored glow becoming increasingly dim under the purple glow, Xiao Yan’s eyes became bright as he laughed softly.

“Be careful. That guy is about to break the seal.” Yao Lao’s reminder suddenly sounded in Xiao Yan’s heart.

Xiao Yan nodded his head and the Dou Qi in his body began to slowly flow, preparing for any sudden occurrences.

The purple-colored energy borrowed the effect of restraining to slowly banish the territory that the snake print occupied. It then gradually expelled the latter from Hai Bo Dong’s forehead before purple-colored energy abruptly surged and a ferocious force totally removed the snake print from Hai Bo Dong’s head.

Just after the snake print left Hai Bo Dong’s head, the print shook intensely and immediately transformed into green smoke that curled upward and disappeared.

The moment that the snake print left his body, Hai Bo Dong’s tightly closed eyes suddenly opened. An almost solid light shot out from his eyes. A fierce force, much like that of a lion waking up, surged out from the interior of the body where it had been deeply suppressed for decades.

Under this strong force, the ice crystal layer within the underground room actually began to crack.

“Ha ha, that damn seal has finally gone to hell! I have once again become a Dou Huang!” With his feet stepping off the ice platform, Hai Bo Dong’s body was quickly suspended in midair. His face was filled with an unrestrained joy as he lifted his head to laugh wildly.

The intense sound wave was carried by Dou Qi, shaking the surrounding cracked ice layer until it burst open.

After laughing wildly for a long while, Hai Bo Dong, who was suspended in midair suddenly shifted his gaze which carried a refined glow toward Xiao Yan, who was seated on the chair below without moving. His muddy old eyes narrowed!

Seeming to have sensed the aggressive gaze shot from midair, Xiao Yan lifted the corner of his mouth slightly. He slowly lifted his head. His face was as calm as an extremely deep well of water as he faintly watched the Dou Huang in mid air who had recovered his strength.

In midair, two gazes crossed each other, faintly projecting some chillness.