There actually existed an innate special connection between different Heavenly Flames!
Heavenly Flames were all heavenly treasures formed by the very essence of the world. Even if a Dou God could produce Dou Qi flames with a temperature higher than Heavenly Flames, they still couldn't create one.
The definition of a Heavenly Flame was that it was born from the world. There had always been a special connection between them.
When a Heavenly Flame appeared, all other flames submitted.
Xiao Yan realized this fact when the Seed Flame of the Nihility Devouring Flame was unwilling to approach the Bone Chilling Flame.
But he had overlooked it! Because of the Flame Mantra!
The miraculous ability of the Flame Mantra was that it allowed Heavenly Flames to perfectly merged with each other, thus eliminating this connection. This led him to forget about it!
Xiao Yan hurled the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame in his hand toward Hai Bodong just like throwing a grenade.
"Run!!!"
When Xiao Ding and Xiao Li saw the fire lotus getting out of control, they shouted in unison and hurriedly fled from the training ground, even running outside the compound.
All the mercenaries realized the danger and ran for their lives when they heard the two leaders' shouts. The entire mercenary company was thrown into chaos!
Hai Bodong gritted his teeth as the exquisite fire lotus flew toward him. It even gave a Dou Emperor like him goosebumps. However, if he ran away, how could he still call himself a Dou Emperor!
"Mysterious Ice Mirror, form!"
He let out a low cry. Immediately, the energy in the space around him began to fluctuate rapidly, and an astonishingly fast wave of cold air condensed at a terrifying speed.
Eventually, a Mysterious Ice Mirror dozens of meters wide and several meters thick took shape in front of him.
Hai Bodong's pupils contracted as he stared at the slowly rotating fire lotus through the ice layer. The Spiritual Strength weakened rapidly once it left Xiao Yan's control, while the Heavenly Flame petals began to release flames that distorted and warped the surrounding light.
The moment the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame lightly touched the ice mirror with a soft 'pop,' the Spiritual Strength instantly formed a spherical cover that merged the Heavenly Flames and Dou Qi seed together.
The two Heavenly Flames burned frantically, accompanied by a series of rumbling sounds that made the ground tremble.
With a tremendous boom!! The eruption occurred in this split second!!
The fusion of two Heavenly Flames combined with Spiritual Strength and Dou Qi resulted in an explosion too powerful to imagine. It was as if a sun had been instantly obliterated, unleashing all the energy hidden within the fire lotus in a single, catastrophic moment.
The power of the explosion was beyond what even Xiao Yan, its creator, could have imagined. The terrifyingly fused Heavenly Flames impacted outwards like a huge wave of fire, sweeping towards all directions. The frightening Heavenly Flame storm instantly destroyed all the weapons, rocks, floors, and walls in the training ground.
After melting all the facilities in the training ground, the fire wave shot into the sky, followed by a strong shockwave that spread throughout the entire compound!
Everything in the training ground was reduced to ashes after the devastating storm swept through. Not even a trace was left. One had to know that the Desert Metal Mercenary Company's training ground was large enough for hundreds of mercenaries to train, comparable in size to an international football field. Now it had just disappeared like this, leaving only a pit and a shattered ice mirror.
The explosion's shockwave directly destroyed more than half of the mercenary company. Most buildings had collapsed, and the once sprawling mercenary headquarters was now largely reduced to rubble.
The only fortunate aspect was that the mercenaries had been quick-witted and ran to take cover behind Hai Bodong, so no one was injured. The area behind Hai Bodong's ice shield was the only part that remained intact, as even the walls of the compound had all collapsed.
Hai Bodong looked at his ice mirror, which had been reduced from dozens of meters high to just a few meters, with the meter-thick ice layer melted down to less than half a meter by the Heavenly Flames. His eyelids twitched violently!
Although he was currently a 1-star Dou Emperor, he was still a Dou Emperor! Yet, his defensive Dou Technique had almost failed to hold up??
'These Heavenly Flames are truly terrifying!'
If Hai Bodong had another chance to choose, he definitely wouldn't play the guinea pig. This Dou Emperor title, he'd rather not have it!
'Hm? Where is the person?' As the smoke and dust cleared, Hai Bodong realized that Xiao Yan was nowhere to be seen!
His heart skipped a beat. 'No way... Could he have blown himself up?'
"Third Brother!!"
"Cough cough cough, I-I'm here."
A violent coughing sound suddenly came from the ruins. A hand slowly reached out and pushed aside the debris as a figure struggled to crawl out.
The silhouette unmistakably confirmed it was Xiao Yan. Although he was covered in dust and his hair was slightly singed, he was otherwise unharmed.
His entire body had been covered in Dou Qi Armor, plus the Mad Lion Chant defensive technique, the protection of the Ten Thousand Beast Flame, and the Nihility Devouring Flame absorbing part of the explosive fire wave. Only then was he unharmed.
'If I had taken that attack head-on, I would have blown myself up with my own technique!'
Xiao Yan realized that the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame Dou Technique did not rely heavily on one's cultivation level. Theoretically, it didn't require much Dou Qi, which meant that even a Dou Practitioner could use it.
However, the power of this technique depended on the flames themselves, and it had extremely high requirements for Spiritual Strength and fire control ability!
In essence, this was a Dou Technique designed for alchemists—tailor-made for alchemists!
One's cultivation might be weak, but as long as one was a powerful alchemist, one could unleash the full power of this technique.
Although Xiao Yan was only a Dou Grandmaster, as an alchemist, his fire control ability and Spiritual Strength had already reached the 5th tier! This was equivalent to a Dou King. Add to that the special reaction produced by the fusion of Heavenly Flames, and the power of the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame just now was comparable to a full-strength attack of a high-star Dou King!
'Good thing I didn't use the Essence Flames directly. If the Essence Flames of the Ten Thousand Beast Flame and the Green Lotus Core Flame had collided and erupted, I would have been the first to die.'
Xiao Yan felt a lingering fear. If the negotiations with the Eight-Winged Black Serpent Emperor a few days ago hadn't gone well, the result might have been him dying together with it.
'Surprisingly, the amount of flame needed to refine a 4th-tier pill almost completely depleted a 5th-tier alchemist's Spiritual Strength just to maintain it.'
This experiment had undoubtedly given Xiao Yan an additional trump card, albeit one that could very likely kill him as well.
Upon reflection, he concluded that his Angry Buddha Lotus Flame was at most a Huang Class Dou Technique.
Because this technique could kill the user, and its power was determined by the flames themselves—strong flames yielded strong results, and weak flames, weak results. Moreover, it also demanded immense fire control ability and Spiritual Strength. There were many limitations and it was extremely dangerous.
If he didn't have two kinds of Heavenly Flames and the Flame Mantra, he wouldn't want this technique even if it were given to him for free.
Xiao Li and Xiao Ding looked at the mercenary company that had turned into ruins around them, then looked at their dust-covered third brother.
Xiao Ding sighed and said with a wry smile, "Third Brother, even the Mo Clan couldn't destroy our Desert Metal Mercenary Company. I never imagined it would be destroyed by your hands."
Xiao Li laughed heartily and patted Xiao Yan's shoulder. "No worries. if it's destroyed, we'll just rebuild it. As long as no one is hurt, that's all that matters. Besides, we just so happened to have merged with Luo Bu's Sand Mercenary Company, so we can take this opportunity to expand and build an even bigger base."
Xiao Ding sighed again and shook his head. "Let's move to the Sand Mercenary Company's place for now"
Xiao Yan knew he was in the wrong, so he merely smiled sheepishly. He gave the few hundred thousand gold coins he had obtained from the cave to his two elder brothers for reconstruction purposes and then slipped away.
It's unclear whether Xiao Yan did it intentionally or not, but the guest room he was staying in happened to be behind Hai Bodong, so it remained unaffected by the explosion.
Xiao Yan quickly shut the door behind him. The reason he wanted to test the Angry Buddha Lotus Flame had another purpose.
'In a while, I'll be going to the Hall of Souls in the imperial capital. Before that, I still need to resolve the final hidden danger.'