Divine Emperor of Death

Inside the challenging enclosure of the seventh floor, there were two kinds of flames burning with intensity. One was a scarlet flame, and the other was an icy-blue flame, burning with a tremendous surge of energy that brought a bone-chilling freeze on one side and a smoldering ripple of heat on the other.

The atmosphere alternated between cold and hotness almost every second, its terrific alternating temperature capable of causing treasures at the seventh level of the Ninth Stage to be melted into a liquid and further into degradation because the prowess of the ice and flames at this moment had reached a mind-boggling level; the eighth level of Ninth Stage.

Inside the dangerous zone of two different kinds of flames, there were two crimson-robed figures with flaming crimson hair hovering around them. There were also white strands of hair that seemed conspicuous when their surroundings were thoroughly encased in scarlet flames more than the icy-blue flames. Still, the two figures maintained quite a distance from each other as their essence energy surged from their bodies, turning into scarlet flames in one hand and icy-blue flames in the other.

*Whoosh!~*

At this moment, what seemed to be a pure battle of attrition suddenly changed when the two figures moved.

"Perhaps, I can learn from watching myself!"

Shirley appeared between the center and twisted her body, scarlet flames and icy-blue flaming wisps swirling into a twister that targeted the other Shirley that appeared in front of her, the latter's body unleashing a tide of icy-blue flaming wisps, which raised the imitation's defense to the utmost as she summoned a frozen flaming wall!

*Boom!~*

Shirley's ice and fire twister broke past the blazing frigid wall that constantly tried to burn her with an intense chill, but a tsunami of raging scarlet flames enveloped her once shot got past it.

Shirley clenched her teeth as she understood that she was going to be caught if she wasn't going to make a move to escape, having no way but to breakthrough by traversing a single direction. She directly twisted down to the bottom and escaped the raging sea of scarlet flames, only to abruptly see the fake Shirley appear in front of her, grinning ever so slightly as she unleashed a palm toward her.

"Scarlet-Winged Vessel Palm~"

Scarlet flames blazed into intensity as they engulfed Shirley, but a burst of icy-blue flame wisps emerged, destroying the Scarlet-Winged Vessel Palm. At the same time, Shirley twisted her body into hovering straight and stretched her hands, her knees aligned to her waist as she cried out.

"Phoenix's Wavy Nirvana Surge~"

The barrier of icy-blue flame wisps abruptly became engulfed in raging scarlet flames and surged towards the fake Shirley, causing her to retreat. However, the imitation's face was as calm as ever as she waved her hand.

"Phoenix's Diving Cry Slash!~"

A blade with scarlet flames slashed past the condensed scarlet flames, causing it to collapse.

Shirley ground her teeth, looking annoyed as she understood to a deep level that her imitation knew about the technique's weaknesses as well.

A slash made of scarlet flames at the same level wouldn't have been enough to collapse the Phoenix's Wavy Nirvana Surge because once it engulfed an opponent, it would be nearly impossible to get out or destroy that technique because what it burned was their vitality to continue powering its own attack, not to mention that the scarlet flames held more defensive prowess than offensive prowess by a slight margin.

However, the imitation could precisely manage that because she knew the technique's frailty at the center of its amalgamation.

"Nirvanic Bloom Charge~"

Biting her lips, Shirley advanced as her body became enveloped in scarlet flames, significantly raising her speed, defense, and offense. However, the fake Shirley uttered similar words and became enveloped in scarlet flames.

*Boom!~*

The moment their flames clashed, Shirley raised her hand and unleashed the Scarlet-Winged Vessel Palm as fierce, flaming essence energy surged out of her hand. Similarly, the fake Shirley struck out with a palm of her own, and what's more, she didn't even use the Scarlet-Winged Vessel Palm Technique, causing Shirley's expression to change!

"…!"

She rapidly retreated, gaining distance in an instant because the fake Shirley didn't deign to chase.

"I'm bored, Shirley. Won't you bring out your 'true' prowess already?"

The imitation's words resounded in the room, causing Shirley's brows to twitch.

She was already using her normal prowess, which is five levels above the High-Level Law Rune Stage, the eighth level of the Ninth Stage. She could use her Law Rune as an attack, but she didn't see how it would work against this floor's imitation that had its normal prowess six levels above her cultivation, which made it so that only with her scarlet flames and icy-blue flaming wisps, the imitation was already one level above her.

How could she possibly win against such a monster who could one-up her if she raised her prowess? After all, if she could do it, then her imitation would be able to do it as well!

"Don't you think you overestimated yourself?"

The fake Shirley's voice resounded in a mocking tone, causing Shirley to lower her head as she blushed ever so lightly.

Originally, Davis was about to challenge this room and obtain the treasures of the seventh floor, but she stopped him and insisted that she would win for him, let her prove that she could support him as much as he would do for her.

Without question, Davis nodded and left to the eighth floor with Myria.

However, she seemed to have been wrong about one thing. After all, she had thought that her imitation's prowess wouldn't exceed her normal prowess and match up to since it could reach six levels above base cultivation, but just the imitation's normal prowess was one level above her normal prowess, leaving her quite stupefied when she actually battled.

Since it was like that, if she increased her prowess using her known methods, she knew that her imitation could naturally mimic her and raise its own prowess.

At this point, Shirley painfully realized that her imitation was basically toying with her.

However, taking a deep breath, Shirley exhaled her worries as her crimson eyes shone with a determined hue.

'I only learned a bit but here goes nothing...'

Scarlet flames emerged in Shirley's right hand, and icy-blue flaming wisps emerged in the left, symbolizing the flames of the Fire Phoenix and Ice Phoenix that would cause the hearts of many people to shake, especially when they witness both of these marvelous flames in one body.

Instead of unleashing it, Shirley brought her hands together and caused the two flames to interact.

*Shhh!~~~*

A searing noise that would cause one's heart to leap out of their throat echoed with a greater magnitude as the scarlet, and icy-blue flames began to touch ever so lightly. Instantly, the two types of energies reacting to one another became unstable, and what should've caused them to repel or collapse and explode didn't occur.

There was no explosion, but astonishingly, the scarlet and icy-blue entity assimilated ever so lightly, drastically increasing Shirley's prowess by a level!

However, the people witnessing the battle were shocked!

They knew Shirley's Law Intents were at different levels, with her Fire Laws at Level Six Abstruse Intent and Ice Laws at Level Three Intent. Her Ice Laws were inferior by three levels as Fire Laws is a part of Primary Laws, and Ice Laws is a part of Greater Laws, but still, it sustained a wide gap that would usually be clear if it was just a pure elemental exchange using heaven and earth energy, but since their own energy was included, then the gap wasn't that much.

However, it still made up for a world of difference in concepts like combination and fusion. To fuse, both intents should be at a similar level. To combine, although the intents are preferable to be closer, it shouldn't be apart at a great distance either!

Naturally, people could lower their own intents to accommodate the other lesser intent in a combination because just the focus used on that would leave the combination or fusion in utter failure!

And right now, Shirley attempted to create a combination and succeeded in it for the very first time in front of their eyes! They didn't know if she had done it beforehand, but looking at Shirley's deep smile behind her snow-white veil, they couldn't help but feel excited.

"Here I come, my splendid doppelganger~"

Shirley widely smiled as she arrived in front of her imitation, who had gone solemn, her hands twisting and churning with tremendous essence energy as she produced scarlet and icy-blue flaming wisps to quickly combine as she did so.

*Bang!~*

However, the imitation's process of combining ice and fire exploded right in front of her face, blowing her white veil and revealing her beautiful face that was now adorned with a few burns, including her neck and palms, the burn spreading to her wrists.

"Ahaha! I haven't mastered the art of combination, so there's a lot of chance that the surge of that overwhelming energy will strike your face and ruin it. Take this…!"

Shirley quickly took advantage of the situation caused by her own weakness, working on the imitation as she threw the bare, scarlet-white ice and fire wisp that unstably held onto each other, a massive energy brewing within them while exuding terrifying heat and coldness as it headed towards the imitation.

"Hmph!"

The imitation abruptly transformed into five blazing figures of small Fire Phoenixes and rushed in different directions. Shirley recognized it as the Fiveform Swift Phoenix Glide Technique that allowed one to escape in different directions at the same time as all five of the surging phoenixes exuded the same aura, virtually indistinguishable from the original.

The techniques they used were all a part of Fire Phoenix Scarlet Flame Records and were top-tier techniques that would cause a cultivator of equal level to fail when they are up against it, but to cultivators who used a similar immortal manual, they would be able to survive, and Shirley's imitation was no different, abruptly escaping from the shaky icefire wisp that arrived at the center and abruptly shone, releasing an ungodly light of scarlet-white hue.

*Bang!!!~*