Crack! Crack! The sound of giant wood breaking echoed on the stage, and countless vines surged beside Ye Ruozai, blocking between him and Nero. Although these seemingly sturdy branches were crushed into powder almost instantly under Nero’s powerful impact, Ye Ruozai’s goal was still achieved! He successfully slowed down the opponent’s speed and impact force, giving himself room to maneuver and a chance to breathe.

"Do you think such a mere defense can resist my attack?" Nero leapt up and smashed the dried branches and fallen leaves blocking in front of him again, the diminished attack kicking at Ye Ruozai’s lifted defensive arm, still causing a collapse in his protective Divine Artifact, and his figure shifted several inches to the side.

"Do you think you can defeat me just with the Body Refining Technique?" Ye Ruozai swiped away Nero’s kick with one hand, then let out an angry roar: "Morning Bell!"

As the two words left his lips, a solemn bell sound rang out by Nero’s ear. Nero still thought this attack was the previous soul attack and did not take it to heart, about to continue his pursuit, he then heard a dull drum sound rise.

"Evening Drum!"

"Puff!" After a brief loss of focus and feeling the stabbing pain from his soul and chest, Nero’s mouth leaked a trace of blood. This injury wasn’t much to him, but what’s truly surprising was that he had clearly been standing at the outer edge of the field earlier, yet his body had moved inward significantly during the loss of focus, of which he was completely unaware.

Dong! The second bell sound rang once more, drawing enough attention from Nero. He started focusing on Ye Ruozai’s attack technique, and upon seeing the opponent leaping out of the thickets to launch an attack, Nero punched without hesitation. However, Ye Ruozai narrowly dodged the punch using a skillful Body Technique, sliding past his fist’s wind, lightly slapping his chest with a palm: "Second Slap!"

Thud! Another drum sound rang out, another mouthful of blood sprayed, another brief loss of focus and body displacement, the only difference being the same damage had worsened compared to last time.

Nero could confirm there had indeed been brief periods of loss of focus following each bell and drum sound, looking at the external injuries on his body, these moments were not long, but if allowing Ye Ruozai to continue stacking them like this, the resulting damage couldn’t be underestimated.

"Third Slap!" Just as Nero devised a strategy in those brief moments, yet another round of Morning Bell and Evening Drum sounded, the third attack as usual struck his body.

"Fourth Slap, Fifth Slap, Sixth... Fourteenth Slap!"

The same scene kept repeating on the field, refusing to give the opponent a moment’s respite, Ye Ruozai executed successive combos, chasing Nero from one end of the field to the other. And as the attacks stacked, Nero’s loss of focus periods and his injuries seemed to grow longer and heavier.

"Blazing City!" Forced into a corner by the Fourteenth Slap, Nero launched his hand at Ye Ruozai after yet another Morning Bell, a blazing flame surged from his palm along with his spoken words, enveloping Ye Ruozai who’s charging at him.

"No!" Seeing Ye Ruozai without a moment’s hesitation, drawing a longsword from his waist, holding the sword with one hand and spinning it around, taking in the flames and returning them to the sword sheath, Lin Junzhao, watching the battle within Pei Yan’s body below, couldn’t help but exclaim, followed by a long sigh when the time was too late.

"Fifteenth Slap!"

The drum sound rang, Ye Ruozai’s figure didn’t halt despite the flame attack, once again pressing his palm against Nero’s chest, making the opponent’s dazed spirit stagger and vomit blood.

Three more slaps to go! Thinking of this, Ye Ruozai couldn’t help but get excited. As the Morning Bell rang again, yet when he wanted to summon the drum sound, he suddenly felt a nameless fire rising within him, the physical damage was secondary, an unnamed dread and despair swirling in his mind, lingering.

Momentarily dazed, Ye Ruozai noticed from the corner of his eye that Nero had returned from his stupor. At the last moment, he couldn’t let things fall apart here! Ye Ruozai grit his teeth, forcing down the discomfort within him, striking out with another palm.

"How unfortunate!" The wavering palm skimmed past the opponent’s side, seeing this Nero mocked with a sneer.

"No misfortune, Sixteenth Slap!" One palm missed, Ye Ruozai stepped forward, his whole body launching like an untied cannonball, using a body hit technique, turning himself into a drumstick, crashing into Nero’s embrace.

The drum sounded! Nero was sent flying, crashing into the defensive Array, while Ye Ruozai staggered and nearly fell, the inner flames burning, consciousness disturbed by various negative emotions, the mind momentarily blank.

When Ye Ruozai once again overcame these difficulties, a cold voice rose by his side: "Too late!"

"Puff!" As the crisp sound of bones breaking echoed, the pain from the arms and chest, causing Ye Ruozai to spit blood, the distance advanced by sixteen slaps was kicked back to the original starting point at the other end of the field by Nero.

Looking at Ye Ruozai with shattered defenses, both arms broken, hanging limply, barely managing to stand on the stage, Nero wiped the blood off his own face, mocking: "I’ve heard of your new ability, Pixiu’s power, along with absorbing the Spirit Monster Plane’s mythical beast Pixiu’s bloodline, right? Ah, such a bloodline I’ve absorbed is not much, haha, oh! How regrettable! Such ability, such bloodline wasted on you, things like this clearly more suited for us to devour the Power of Origin to exhibit! How do you feel after absorbing my fire of despair? Feeling the despair?"

Ye Ruozai looked up at Nero without a response, still battling the mutation within him, while Nero, feeling assured of his victory, became complacent: "If it were the bloodthirst’s devouring power coordinated with such bloodline and ability, devouring this power wouldn’t have such a result, do you think possessing the fire element’s Power of Origin allows you to absorb all flames under Heaven? Thousands when Blazing City burns, the panic and despair they emit, can you absorb that, bear it?"

"The fire was wrapped by the Blood Monster Plane’s negative emotions Power of Origin, a grade higher than ordinary natural elemental powers." Ye Ruozai understood why he was hit, unwillingly thought, if stubbornly resisted perhaps it could slow down the infiltration of this power within him, but he chose to absorb, almost opening the door to welcome the invasion within, at that moment facing such a scene was really no better solution found.

A single wrong step, the whole game lost! Ye Ruozai shook his head with a bitter smile, his strength ultimately fell short, if only he were a bit stronger!