All that was left after Yin Hui's attack was a giant crater where the outpost once stood. The sword had turned back to its normal steel color and no longer possessed the frightening aura it had earlier.

Yin Hui felt completely drained after the attack. He put the sword back into his bag of holding and popped a large amount of medicinal pills into his mouth. Yu Zhuwa emerged from his shadow and looked visibly shaken.

"Big brother Yin Hui... Are you okay? That last attack was.... Devastating..."

"Yeah, I think my body is going numb. Those medicinal pills were enough to keep me conscious, but I still feel exhausted. Can you open my bag of holding again and take out the black leopard?"

Yu Zhuwa unwrapped the string of Yin Hui's bag of holding and the black leopard appeared. It was still covered in daggers, but had recovered enough to move.

"That attack must have come from those two over there!"

"They're injured! Let's get them before they have a chance to recover!" Replacing their fear with anger, the several hundred guards that were not affected by the blast charged towards Yin Hui and Yu Zhuwa.

Gritting her teeth, Su Jia prepared to activate the formation she had constructed prior to the invasion. While Tao Mu was still alive, she estimated that she would be able to hold him off long enough for it to take out the remaining soldiers.

However before she could activate it, Tao Mu's qiang stabbed her in the wrist.

"Agh!" Su Jia groaned.

Tao Mu looked at her with a serious expression on his face. In the span of a few hours, he had already lost so much. His eyes were cold and there was a hint of fury behind them.

"This is my second virtue, precision! It isn't as simple as controlling my weapon using qi. Instead, the qiang and I have become one. The weapon has my eyes and will now hit exactly the way I want it to."

"I have hit one of the main qi points in your arm. Not only will it severely impact the effectiveness of your spells, but it will also take much longer to heal even with your virtue of hot-bloodedness."

Tao Mu remotely retracted his qiang and sent it back to his hand. As soon as the spear left, the wound on Su Jia's arm began to close. However, the damaged qi point remained in critical condition.

"My patience is at its end, but for giving me such a good time. I will use my full power to finish you off."

A powerful pressure filled the area as Tao Mu's cultivation increased many times over. If one were to compare his strength now to how he was at the start of their fight, it would be like an infant facing an adult.

While Su Jia's virtue of hot-bloodedness was enough for her to feel confident in contending against Tao Mu's two virtues, this changed when Tao Mu released his full power.

Su Jia didn't even know when Tao Mu left the ground and appeared in front of her. He stared at her as if she were a toy that he had just lost interest in. Raising his finger, he pointed at Su Jia.

"Slow."

When Tao Mu said the word 'slow', Su Jia's body trembled. Her body started to stiffen and she began to feel sluggish.

"This is vice...! You're a Vice Taming cultivator!" Even her mouth movements became delayed.

"That's right. Did you really think the overseer of an outpost and a clan elder of one of the Tang Clan's most trusted allies would be that weak? I am Tao Mu! A Vice Taming cultivator with three vices!"

"The virtues and vices a cultivator chooses are linked. When one establishes a virtue, they will become subject to the corresponding vice. For example my virtue of speed. If I overuse the virtue too much, I will be afflicted with the exhaustion you are experiencing right now."

"Raaa!" Su His energy flared as she lunged at Tao Mu. Tao Mu easily dodged the attack and delivered a swift chop to her collarbone, causing her to lose her balance slightly.

"It seems your backlash has already started. Since your virtue is hot-bloodedness, I can guess that your corresponding vice must be recklessness."

Su Jia glared at Tao Mu like a hungry animal. If she wasn't afflicted by the slow, she would have already charged after him again.

"For Virtue Seeking cultivators, virtues are their greatest strength and weakness. However, once you reach Vice Taming, you can learn to control those vices and remove the backlash. After removing the backlash, the vice is considered tamed and can be used against your opponents!"

Extending his finger to Su Jia again, Tao Mu released his remaining vices.

"Disorient! Daze!"

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Su Jia's body trembled once more. Her vision began to blur and her thoughts became scrambled.

Tao Mu's qiang vibrated as he imbued the weapon with the power of virtue.

"My final vice is daze. With that being the case, it is quite easy to guess my final virtue."

Positioning himself into a lunging stance, Tao Mu concentrated the strength of his final virtue into his qiang.

"The opposite of daze is focus! With this one strike imbued with my virtue of focus, I will shatter your body and soul! Then I will go after that brat who destroyed my castle!" Tao Mu thrusted his qiang with so much force that it seemed like even a mountain would crumble from it's strike.

Unfortunately, Su Jia was still afflicted by Tao Mu's vices and her senses were in complete disarray. How could she prepare a defense if she didn't even know the strike was coming?

"Stop." An elderly voice called out.

The voice was neither stern nor commanding. However, it contained an air of power and authority that made Tao Mu stop his strike mere inches from Su Jia's chest.

Tao Mu turned around to see an elderly man with hair as white as his standing with his hands behind his back. The man wore a pristine white robe with a grey sash that contained a crest with the surname Yan written on it.

"I should've known... How could a talented genius survive this long with such a reckless personality, and also remain relatively unknown? I knew she served the Yan's interests, but I didn't expect her backing to be the Yan Clan themselves."

Behind the old man were seven others who looked to be in their late teens or early twenties. They all stood attentively and silently, as if they were mere servants awaiting a command.

"Step away from my granddaughter." The old man calmly flew towards Tao Mu and Su Jia.

"Slow! Disorient! Daze!"

Tao Mu immediately cast all three of his vices on the approaching old man. Then, with strength that surpassed his earlier strike against Su Jia, threw his qiang towards him.

The old man snorted. He waved his hand and a faint barrier that could barely be seen formed in front of him. Three thuds could he heard shortly after, which could only be from the three vices Tao Mu shot at him.

Next was the qiang, however, it too was easily stopped by the old man who grabbed it with a single hand.

"Courting death." Imbuing the qiang with his own spiritual energy, the old man severed Tao Mu's connection with his own weapon.

This alone revealed the massive disparity in power between the old man and Tao Mu. To remove Tao Mu's virtues from his weapon, especially his virtue of precision which merged a part of him with the weapon itself, showed just how strong he truly was.

With the qiang under his control, the old man threw it back at Tao Mu using twice the strength used against himself.

The qiang impaled Tao Mu with so much force that it shattered into pieces along with his soul. His body then exploded into a mist of blood, which was dispersed by a gust of wind produced by the seven cultivators who accompanied the old man.

After killing Tao Mu, the old man flew towards Su Jia and put his hand on her forehead. Su Jia felt a gentle warmth enter her body as her thoughts cleared and her senses were restored.

When she saw the old man before her, Su Jia's face reddened.

"G-g-grandfather?!"

Su Jia's grandfather flicked her forehead.

"Causing trouble again are we? This time you really went too far! Challenging a peak Vice Taming cultivator on your own?! If I hadn't gotten your soul message and came here myself, you would've been killed!" He said sternly.

"Hehe... Well... All of this was for the sake of the clan wasn't it?" Su Jia said bashfully.

The old man flicked her forehead with even greater strength.

"For the sake of the clan my ass. Going against the other elders orders, running off on your own, and nearly getting killed is all going to benefit us right? Don't forget you are one of the clan's hidden geniuses. We want as few people to know about you as possible."

"Don't worry, I always use a fake name whenever I do things like this. Right now my two companions, Li Feng and Xiao Yu, know me as Su Jia. Oh right, I better activate that restriction formation for them right now."

Back at the crater where Tao Mu's castle once stood, Yu Zhuwa was on his last legs. He was surrounded by three mid-stage Spirit Waking cultivators and was running low on qi. On the other hand, Yin Hui was still recovering on top of the black leopard, who was using all of it's energy to maintain it's intangible smoke form.

"Tire them out, but don't kill them! We need to make them pay for what they did to the castle!"

The hundreds of soldiers that surrounded Yin Hui, Yu Zhuwa, and the black leopard were all mid Spirit Waking and below. Therefore, they were completely oblivious to the fact that Tao Mu had already died.

Bzzt~

Suddenly, flashes of yellow emerged from the ground and turned into chains that wrapped around every single cultivator, with the exception of Yin Hui and Yu Zhuwa.

"We're stuck! Is this a restriction formation? When did they have time to activate it?"

Yu Zhuwa turned towards Yin Hui who had put away the black leopard and materialized back into his normal form.

"It looks like sister Su Jia has won." Yu Zhuwa exhaled.

While Yu Zhuwa was relieved that the battle was over, Yin Hui was not as relaxed.

"Yu Zhuwa, we've completed our side of the deal, grab onto me."

Confused as to why Yin Hui was in such a rush, Yu Zhuwa hesitated for a second before climbing onto Yin Hui's back.

Popping the best medicinal pills he could find in his bag of holding, Yin Hui flew at the fastest speed he could muster towards the border wall.

Pop~

Yellow chains shot out of the ground and went after Yin Hui and Yu Zhuwa.

"I knew it." Yin Hui said grimly. While recovering, he was spectating the battle between Su Jia and Tao Mu with his spiritual sense. He saw the arrival of the old man and knew that Su Jia was actually a member of the Yan Clan.

Watching Yin Hui being chased by the chains formed by the formation, Su Jia turned to her grandfather.

"Grandfather, what are you doing?! I made a Dao Oath to let them go free! Release your hold over the formation!"

"You let them go, but I did not. On the way here, I saw a massive pillar of red energy soar into the sky. That boy possesses a Blood Sacrifice Sword. A treasure like that will be very useful in our war against the Tang. He will submit to us or perish. Letting someone with that kind of weapon roam free is far too dangerous."

Woosh~

Suddenly, yellow chains erupted from the ground beneath the old man and his seven companions feet. They wrapped around them tightly and restricted their movements.

It only took a moment for the old man to break free of the chains, but it was enough for him to lose track of Yin Hui and Yu Zhuwa.

"What a clever young man... You were careless my child. It looks like he tampered with your formation without you even knowing it."

Su Jia recalled how Yin Hui was acting very strangely when she first showed him the formation. She let out a bitter smile when she realized that she had been a part of Yin Hui's schemes once again.

"You're right grandpa, he is a clever one... I must admit, that man is always full of surprises..."