Chapter 39: Qinghuo
"Mr. Leilin?" Linley was pleasantly surprised but also puzzled. Although Qinghuo had guided him back then, in his eyes at the time, Qinghuo was very strong—but that was because Linley himself had been too weak back then. "Now I'm considered mid-to-upper tier among Lords! Ordinary Lords can't do anything to me. But that strike from Mr. Leilin just now? His strength... what level has he actually reached?"
Linley didn't know whether that strike was a casual blow from Qinghuo or a full-powered one!
"Linley, Bebe. Long time no see." Qinghuo chuckled lightly as he drifted over.
"Haha." Hermes beside him suddenly burst into hearty laughter, his voice rumbling like continuous thunder. His golden eyes locked onto Qinghuo with blazing intensity, two visible beams of golden light shooting forth. "What a formidable expert! I, Hermes, have been on this planar battlefield, and people flee the moment they see me from afar. Rarely do I encounter a strong opponent. Fighting that Azure Dragon clan kid was unsatisfying, not enjoyable, too restrictive! Your strength seems decent. Come on, let's have a match!"
Linley and Bebe were momentarily stunned.
"Has Hermes gone mad?" Linley blinked a couple of times.
But he didn't know that Hermes had always been this straightforward and battle-hungry by nature.
As soon as Hermes finished speaking, he moved! His golden, gleaming steel leg stomped hard against the ground. "Boom!" The earth directly cracked open, splitting into countless fissures. Hermes' entire form transformed into a blurry golden streak of lightning, charging straight at Qinghuo!
"What a brute." Qinghuo raised a red brow and chuckled lightly.
His white robe as white as snow, Qinghuo stood his ground without dodging.
"Boom!" Hermes' golden-glowing right leg shot toward Qinghuo like a meteor. As the kick was delivered, heaven and earth shook, space twisted, and dozens of distorted spatial cracks appeared.
"What a terrifying kick." Linley's expression changed.
"Boss, when he was fighting you earlier, he wasn't this strong," Bebe remarked.
Linley himself knew that he had been using spatial gravity to compress Hermes, preventing him from unleashing his full power. Otherwise, with Hermes' innate terrifying strength, Linley wouldn't have been able to block him repeatedly. "Bebe, watch carefully how Mr. Leilin handles this move." Linley stared intently at the battle, not daring to let his attention waver even slightly.
Bebe also watched closely.
"Not bad." Qinghuo, however, remained standing in place. Strangely, the golden leg shadow passed right through Qinghuo's body.
Qinghuo's figure dissipated, reappearing three meters away.
"Teleportation?" Linley's expression shifted. "No, it's speed! Astonishing speed, comparable to Baier's! Facing Hermes' full-powered kick, he still dodged at the last moment. This speed is simply..." This was the second time Linley had witnessed such terrifying speed.
Hermes' kick missed, but he roared, "Good!" At the same time, his thick waist twisted violently!
His body spun like a windmill, and the golden leg shadow followed suit, barely slowing as it continued to kick toward Qinghuo. Qinghuo still wore a faint smile on his face, without a trace of panic or seriousness.
"Swish!" "Swish!"
In the eyes of Linley, Bebe, and Hermes, Qinghuo's figure seemed to teleport, leaving behind several afterimages in succession before appearing a hundred meters away, standing calmly on the flat ground.
"Boss, what kind of speed is this Qinghuo using? What profound mystery does it contain?" Bebe asked, puzzled.
Linley, who had studied the Elemental Laws of Fire, understood somewhat: "The Fire Element is different from the Wind Element. Baier's movements are ethereal and illusory, extremely fast but formless like the wind. But Mr. Leilin is different. Look at him—he's like fire. Fire is violent, passionate, explosive! Mr. Leilin's speed isn't about illusion or ethereality; it's about burst! An instantaneous burst of speed to the extreme, to the point where even you and I think it's teleportation."
Linley was filled with admiration.
To reach such speed with just this one technique, Qinghuo was already considered top-tier among Lords.
"What's wrong with you?" Hermes roared angrily. "Always dodging? How boring! I, Hermes, only deigned to fight you because I respect you. If you've got the guts, clash head-on with me!" Hermes bellowed in frustration. He clearly knew his speed was far inferior to this man's.
In truth, Hermes was also aggrieved. His offense was extremely strong, his defense extremely strong, but his speed was lacking, and he wasn't skilled in long-range attacks.
Thus, many strong opponents, upon encountering Hermes, would flee from afar. Once, twice, a thousand times—it was always the same. So Hermes deeply despised those who relied on speed to dodge.
"You're quite an interesting fellow." Qinghuo still wore a faint smile.
"Interesting my ass!" Hermes raised his head and bellowed, "Shorty, if you've got the guts, fight me head-on!" With that, Hermes slammed his two fists, each the size of a sandbag, together. "Boom!" The impact was like a mountain splitting apart, the terrifying collision even creating spatial cracks between his fists.
"Shorty, do you dare?" Hermes raised his head proudly.
Qinghuo was of normal height, but Hermes stood three meters tall, so calling Qinghuo "shorty" was reasonable.
"Haha..."
Qinghuo couldn't help but laugh. "I've been on this planar battlefield for so long and have never made a move. Fine, today I'll stretch my limbs a bit... Come on!" As he finished speaking, "Boom!" A faint flame began to wreathe around Qinghuo's entire body. Beneath his red brows, his eyes blazed with fiery red light.
Like a war god amidst flames!
"Good!" Hermes laughed heartily and strode toward Qinghuo, the ground trembling with each step.
Linley and Bebe watched intently from the side. "Boss, who do you think will win? I mean, if they fight head-on, who'll come out on top?" Bebe asked via divine sense transmission. Linley shook his head: "Not sure. According to the intelligence your grandfather provided, Hermes has a unique talent, with attack power comparable to a Great Perfection Highgod! If Mr. Leilin clashes head-on with him, it's hard to say."
Qinghuo, enveloped in flames, watched calmly as Hermes charged.
"Ha!"
Hermes let out a low, ferocious roar, his right fist carrying boundless power, infused with the profound mysteries of the Laws of the Earth, and drove it straight toward Qinghuo. A rumbling sound echoed as the fist passed through space, causing it to tremble.
In an instant, the fist arrived before Qinghuo.
"Good!" A sharp shout rang out.
The ever-calm Qinghuo raised his red brow, and his right hand, which had been hanging at his side, shot out like lightning. Linley and Bebe only sensed a blinding flash of fiery red light. That streak of red light met Hermes' fist in a solid, head-on clash—fist against fist!
No trickery, a completely frontal collision!
"Crack!" At the point of impact, space shattered like broken glass, splitting into dozens of cracks!
Both Hermes and Qinghuo trembled slightly. Hermes was forced back three steps, while Qinghuo took only one step back.
"Huh?" Linley and Bebe's eyes widened in shock.
"Incredible. Qinghuo didn't use any divine artifact or Overgod artifact." Linley noticed Qinghuo's fist—it was pale, crystalline like white jade. "Hermes was born from the first golden mountain formed after the creation of the Earth God Plane, nurtured over eons. His body is inherently incredibly powerful, but Qinghuo..."
Linley was stunned.
"Good. Hermes lives up to his reputation!" Qinghuo praised with a faint smile.
Hermes, however, looked at Qinghuo in shock, then at his own fist, unable to believe it: "How is this possible? How? In a head-on clash, he actually has the upper hand?" Hermes knew very well that the moment his fist met the other man's, a sharp, piercing force had transmitted through.
That sharp force, like a volcanic eruption, struck violently!
Faced with that explosive power, even Hermes felt his invincible fist tremble.
"Who are you?" Hermes asked in a low voice.
"I... you can call me Qinghuo!" Qinghuo said with a faint smile.
Hermes narrowed his bull-like eyes, nodded slightly, and said in a booming voice: "Good. Qinghuo, I'll remember you! Even when I fought the Water Element Great Perfection Highgod 'Parr Haus' head-on, fist to fist, I didn't come out on the losing end. You... are very strong!" With that, Hermes turned and strode away.
Qinghuo watched Hermes leave with a light chuckle and couldn't help but praise: "As expected of someone who became an Overgod emissary as a Demigod."
"Mr. Leilin." Linley finally walked over.
"Leilin, you're amazing!" Bebe's eyes lit up as he rushed over. "How did you get so strong? That Odin, one of the five kings of the Gobada Plane Prison, is far weaker than you. By the way... did your strength increase so much because you entered the Tomb of the Gods?"
Qinghuo—his real name was Zacharias & Lin, and "Qinghuo" was just a title. Outsiders only needed to know the title, while acquaintances naturally called him by name.
"The Tomb of the Gods?" Qinghuo smiled. "It's somewhat related. But not entirely because of that."
Then Qinghuo turned to Linley and smiled: "Linley, long time no see. I didn't expect you to have fused four profound mysteries in the Laws of the Earth. When I first met you, I felt you had good insight... but I never imagined that in just over two thousand years, you'd have reached such a level, standing at the peak of Highgods."
A Lord-level figure could certainly be called a "peak Highgod."
Of course, Great Perfection Highgods were the true pinnacle.
"If it weren't for Mr. Leilin's guidance back then, my cultivation probably wouldn't have been this fast," Linley said humbly.
"Alright, it's been so long. We should sit down, have some drinks, and chat properly." Qinghuo chuckled.
Linley naturally wouldn't refuse. This planar battlefield still had nearly three hundred years left before it ended. Time was abundant, and Linley was happy to spend it with Qinghuo. At the same time, Linley was both shocked and puzzled by Qinghuo's strength: "Bare-handed, going head-to-head with Hermes and even having the upper hand? Could it be... that Qinghuo has reached Great Perfection?"
Linley knew very well how rare Great Perfection was!
There were many material planes, but over countless years, the number of Great Perfection Highgods—or rather, those suspected to be Great Perfection Highgods—was less than thirty. "Could it be that my Yulan Continent plane has produced one?" Linley was filled with anticipation.
With a single punch, Qinghuo blasted out a cave. At the same time, he took out a table, chairs, fine wine, and delicacies from his spatial ring. The food was all frozen, but Qinghuo melted the ice. Linley, Bebe, and Qinghuo sat down together, eating the delicacies, drinking the fine wine, and chatting casually.
"I didn't expect Mr. Leilin to come here too," Bebe said, grabbing a demon dragon leg and taking a big bite. "On this planar battlefield, Mr. Leilin must have killed quite a few Lords over the years, right? How many?"
Qinghuo raised his wine glass, took a small sip, smiled, and shook his head: "Not a single one."
"What? Not a single one?" Bebe's eyes widened. "Mr. Leilin, forget everything else—just the speed you showed earlier and your terrifying attack power comparable to Hermes—those two things alone would be enough to kill many Lords! Those Lords, when they encounter you, wouldn't even be able to escape!"
With Qinghuo's speed, how could anyone flee?
"Does coming to the planar battlefield necessarily mean killing?" Qinghuo shook his head with a smile. "I came here, first, because I've never participated in a planar war before and wanted to see it. As for the second reason... you don't need to ask."
Bebe knew Qinghuo didn't want to say more, so he didn't press.
Linley, unable to contain his curiosity, asked: "Mr. Leilin, your speed just now—in my memory, only the Great Perfection Highgod 'Baier' could match it. And your attack power is on par with Hermes. I'd like to ask, Mr. Leilin, in terms of the profound mysteries of the Laws, have you reached Great Perfection?"
Qinghuo was taken aback.
"If you can't say, you don't have to," Linley quickly added. He knew that many Great Perfection Highgods concealed their strength and didn't make it public, which was why people used the term "suspected Great Perfection Highgod" to judge others.
"There's no need to keep it secret from you." Qinghuo nodded slightly. "Indeed, about a thousand years ago, I reached the Great Perfection realm."