A powerful aura suddenly exploded from Hua She Er's body, filling the room with a drastically surging Dou Qi pressure.
Hua She Er's body slowly enlarged, her scales glittered in the dim light, and her pair of eyes flashed with a menacing red light.
Behind the plain white mask, Rinnegan El spun around, capturing the changes in Hua She Er's strength in detail. Her Dou Qi increased greatly, her body emitting a greater air of dominance.
However, El remained calm like a pool of water without ripples, the mode he was in when his soul was cold.
"Dou Wang, huh? Not bad, but this is still within reasonable limits," he thought, showing no sign of panic at all. To him, this was just a game of time for Xiao Yan.
However, El did not think his opponent could be underestimated. Immediately, El activated Demon Slayer Mark.
Instantly, STR, VIT, and AGI surged drastically, new strength rushing through his veins, filling every muscle with explosive power.
Suddenly, Hua She Er darted out. Her long tail slithered over the marble floor, creating a sharp scraping sound.
With terrifying speed, her sharp claws lunged straight at El, her killing intent clear!
However, El remained calm. With his strength greatly increased, he muttered softly, "Gen'nichi Kō."
In an instant, El's body disappeared, leaving only an afterimage in its place.
Hua She Er's deadly claw missed, piercing through the instantly distorted afterimage and disappearing into thin air.
"What?!" Hua She Er's eyes widened, shocked by this.
However, before the snake woman could react. From her right side, El had appeared soundlessly, then slashed through the air with a hard kick layered with Dou Qi.
A terrific boom echoed out!
Hua She Er's body was brutally slammed into the corridor wall with such force that the marble cracked and splinters flew in all directions.
Not stopping there, the momentum of the blow sent her through the wall and into the room opposite!
A cloud of dust rose up, blanketing the surrounding area with falling debris.
The next second, the sound of a loud explosion echoed in the distance, shaking the entire room. El turned her head, her eyes searching for the source of the explosion.
"Hmm? Did Xiao Yan find it already?" she muttered casually.
However, before she could think further, from behind the smoke and falling debris, Hua She Er appeared with an expression full of anger.
With blazing eyes and Dou Qi blazing around her, she raised her right hand, ready to strike El with full force.
El took a quick glance. From behind the mask of her innocent white face, her expression remained flat, as clear as a pond without ripples.
"Gen'nichi Kō," he whispered softly.
In an instant, El's body disappeared from its place ignoring the law of inertia, shifting position without the need for momentum or acceleration. Only his shadow was left behind.
Hua She Er was startled. Her punch that was supposed to hit El instead pierced empty air. El's afterimage distorted and disappeared as soon as it touched, as if it was just an illusion of Kyoka Suigetsu.
Hua She Er's eyes widened, incredulous. "How is it possible that Dou Shi can still dodge, even from an impromptu attack from Dou Wang?"
"Nothing is impossible," El replied calmly. "As long as you train until you vomit blood, you can beat me."
Along with his words, El appeared right in front of Hua She Er, his body already in an attack stance. Her right palm pulled back, purple-colored Dou Qi enveloped the hand, merging with the fiercely blazing Best Flame.
"Octane Blast: Four Stacked Explosions."
In an instant, his fist shot forward.
BURG!
The punch struck Hua She Er's abdomen fiercely, a burst of flames exploding along with the crushing blow. The snake woman's eyes widened for a moment, before blood finally gushed from her mouth.
Her body was lifted off the ground, flung far into the air, before finally hitting the ceiling of the corridor hard. A large crack formed where she landed, and dust and stone chips fell everywhere.
Although it didn't kill him, the attack was more than enough to make him lose consciousness instantly.
In the distance, El confirming Hua She Er really had lost consciousness with his spiritual perception.
To further confirm, in addition to relying on his eyesight and Spiritual Perception, El also used his sense of smell which was as sharp as Tanjiro's.
Having sensed no sign of consciousness from the snake woman, El nodded slowly.
Believing that the fight was over, El slowly deactivated the Demon Slayer Mark.
As soon as the mysterious patterns on her body faded, fatigue struck for a moment, making his slightly off balance.
However, in just a few moments, his body stabilized again. Letting out a light sigh, El raised his right hand, opening his palm casually, as if the events just now meant nothing to him.
"With the 8-star Dou Shi Realm, not only has my Dou Qi capacity increased drastically," El said and continued, "but also the control is much better than when I fought Hai Bodong."
For a moment, El pondered with a faint smile. "It seems that I can now deal with Dou Wang... not like the pseudo Dou Wang who only increased suddenly like that snake woman."
Sighing softly, El then turned towards the direction of the explosion Xiao Yan had made earlier. "Alright... Time to catch up with Xiao Yan."
El immediately sped off at high speed towards the site of the explosion. Once there, his eyes immediately caught sight of the floor of a large room at the end of the corridor that had collapsed, creating a large gaping hole.
From the gap, El could see another room below. His keen sense of smell immediately picked up some of the scents of Xiao Yan, Queen Medusa, as well as traces of poison that were slowly spreading from within the hole.
Without hesitation, El jumped down.
As his body floated in the air, he drew White Fire, a white-bladed sword with a red hue from Sky Pearl Poison, then immediately activated the Flying Sword Art to slow down her fall.
However, the sword did not respond at all to the stream of Dou Qi he channeled.
El sighed softly. "As I expected... Just like in donghua, there are prohibitions that prevent one from flying in this place."
"The question is, should I activate Susano'o?" muttered El to himself, remaining calm even as his body continued to slide downward.
His eyes fixed on the bottom of the hole that was getting closer, a poison-dried tree stood tall beneath his, ready to become an uncomfortable landing spot.
Instead of panicking, El smiled slightly. Calmly, El activated the Dou Qi Robe as an 8-Star Dou Shi.
In an instant, a deep purple Dou Qi, glowing like a cluster of stars in the night sky, enveloped his body.
The effect was immediate, his defense, attack power, and speed tripled from before.
"I'd rather not," he muttered casually. "Every now and then, I want to experience falling from a height... and test the extent of my current endurance."
A cracking sound echoed as El's body hit the dry tree hard, causing the trunk to snap and collapse instantly.
The fall was not enough to cushion the impact of the fall, El's body still hit the ground below, creating a hole with cracks spreading in all directions.
Even so, El was fine. Pain radiated throughout his body, his muscles felt momentarily stiff, but there were no serious injuries.
Sprawled on the cracked ground, El took a slow breath before slowly getting up.
"It hurts too," he muttered as he moved his body to make sure everything was still functioning properly. "But it doesn't matter."
El smiled slightly. "With a body stronger than an ordinary practitioner, plus an attribute focus on strength and Vitality, this is not something to worry about."
After patting his dusty clothes, El turned his attention to the surroundings, many trees were dead, and poisonous snakes were hiding among the dry branches of the trees.
In addition, a thick toxic scent filled the air, but El easily filtered out the more familiar scents.
"That way, huh?" he whispered, his eyes hidden behind the mask pointing to a certain spot.
Wasting no time, his body moved in an instant, a constant speed that ignored inertia, leaving a faint afterimage trail behind him as he sped towards Xiao Yan's location.