"Good, so it's you!" Qi Weisheng was ecstatic. His green cactus disappeared from his hand and was replaced by a bizarre-looking sword. Its blade was like a dark blue saw. Its edges were massive and widely separated. However, it was still a sword as it had a hilt and the blade was sturdy and inflexible.

"A peak-ranked Mortal weapon!" Zhao Fan squinted as he felt its aura. Artifacts were divided into low, middle, and high tiers as well as peak grades for especially powerful artifacts of that category. Qi Gathering cultivators used Mortal Artifacts, Foundation Establishment used Earth Artifacts, and Core Condensation used Heaven Artifacts. Beyond that, well, Zhao Fan did not know. The rankings of the artifacts were a bit misleading. Zhao Fan didn't know how weapons were judged but he could compare the auras of weapons he had seen previously to reference any new ones. The sword Qi Weisheng took out was undoubtedly higher than the high-ranked weapons he had seen before in the artifact pavilion. The expensive gauntlets he was wearing were only mid-rank weapons. If they were to clash head-on with the sword, they would most likely be destroyed.

Qi Weisheng didn't attack for a moment, clearly contemplating something.

"I'm sorry, the life of a budding genius like you is incomparable to the benefits I would earn from killing you. I will guarantee your death to be swift," Qi Weisheng finally spoke. His attitude changed from before. Every decision he made was cynical and decisive. Countless people let their blood flow to fertilize the seed which was now deeply rooted in his soul.

"Hahahaha, you speak like a smart and calculating person despite being so stupid" Zhao Fan started laughing uproariously.

"Do you think of yourself so highly as to say you can kill me?" Qi Weisheng smiled. He had wandered the wilds and survived several inheritances. In his mind, he was already undefeatable by others below the Foundation Establishment realm, heavenly genius or not.

"Nothing is for certain. However, you made one mistake!" Zhao Fan's relaxed tone made Qi Weisheng a little uncertain for once.

"Huh, what is it?"

"You should have stayed on that cliff for a little more!" Zhao Fan used a huge amount of qi accumulated underneath his feet. Mediocre cultivators could only store a little in the meridians and use qi to power their muscles, but that restriction did not apply to Zhao Fan, whose entire body was like a dantian. Not only that, but he also managed to fully activate the dark core, which made his body feel incredibly strong. As he stepped down, the ground under his feet exploded, propelling him fast enough to become a mirage.

Qi Weisheng's eyes squinted as he was no longer able to find Zhao Fan. His senses screamed as he felt something enter his spirit perception range. Not wasting a second, he moved his sword in front of him, but it was too late.

Zhao Fan flew at him with his claws extended. The claws sliced into Qi Weisheng's robe easily but immediately broke apart as it met resistance underneath it. The gauntlet couldn't handle the rebound either and shattered into pieces. Finally, Zhao Fan's bare hand came into contact with Qi Weisheng's chest and a horrifying blast of dark red energy was released as all the demonic energy in his body shout out from his fist.

Qi Weisheng was blasted back like a cannonball. He flew into the forest and cracking sounds resounded as trees snapped in his path.

Zhao Fan only jumped back slightly and easily stabilized himself. He looked down at his shattered gauntlet and sighed emotionally. So much money was wasted for a single strike!

"DODGE" Hei Long's urgent shout startled Zhao Fan back into attention. The rapidly spinning dark core provided him with a steady supply of demonic energy which he used to quickly dash to the right.

The moment he did so, he saw something huge pass by him as quick as an arrow. Goosebumps appeared on his skin as Zhao Fan saw the saw-like sword extend hundreds of meters from the forest.

"This trash can only use weapons and has no strength of his own. If he dares fight me hand-to-hand I will rip him into shreds!" Zhao Fan gritted his teeth as he saw a figure dash out of the forest.

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"Even a growing heavenly genius cannot be underestimated. Turns out you aren't a demonic cultivator, you are a demon!" Qi Weisheng said gravely as he stepped out into the clearing. His appearance completely changed, his robe was completely annihilated, exposing a glowing white plate armor. His long hair was ruffled and messy, containing bits and pieces of foliage. His face was ashen and he suddenly puked out blood.

"Demonic energy is true to its rumors, if I didn't have this armor, I would be consumed by it completely. However, if that is the limit of your abilities, you will undoubtedly die." A bright red potion appeared in his hand.

"Either finish this fast or escape, this guy is unfathomable and probably has a lot of potions" Hei Long urged.

Zhao Fan contemplated a course of action. He couldn't do what he did before as it would probably not work and it would have the same, non-lethal effect. If he could get closer and hit Qi Weisheng in his vitals, that would be the only way to quickly take him out.

The latter didn't give him time to think, the saw elongated again and swung out at Zhao Fan. It closed the gap in no time at all, and Zhao Fan could only try to dodge since he didn't have a weapon that could handle the blow. He jumped up but the saw followed him like a rabid dog, so Zhao Fan could only cross his arms and concentrate demonic energy in them. Long gashes opened as the saw slid along his arms and he was struck down by the force of the blow. Before he could even get up, the saw once more sliced at him. All this time, Qi Weisheng was leisurely standing in the distance.

"Motherf*cker come and face me!" Zhao Fan yelled out in rage. More and more demonic energy permeated his body, all the reserves he had while hunting before were fully utilized as the dark core accelerated once again.

Qi Weisheng's expression didn't change as he once again manipulated the saw to charge at Zhao Fan.

"Fine! If you won't come, then I will make you!" Zhao Fan felt his emotions surging violently.

"HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?!" Hei Long shouted violently as he felt what Zhao Fan was about to do.

As the saw struck Zhao Fan he shouted at the top of his lungs and grabbed at the saw with one hand which was wearing the remaining gauntlet. Qi Weisheng anticipated that he would try something like this so he quickly spread more qi into it. As it extended, Zhao Fan's gauntlet was ripped apart and his hand started bleeding. Although there was a lot of demonic energy in his core, he couldn't use all of it on his hands as his body had a limit to being strengthened.

Qi Weisheng suddenly felt foreign energy intruding into his body, and he quickly took away his hands, dropping the sword. He examined his hands and found that his fingers started turning dark.

"You have a lot of tricks up your sleeve!" Qi Weisheng took out and downed another healing potion.

"SHUT UP AND DIE!" Zhao Fan was driven crazy by the pain of his hands being mutilated and the influence of demonic energy. He exploded a small amount of qi out of his feet which gave him a significant speed boost as he approached Qi Weisheng. The latter activated his boots and ran back but found that he was slower than the former.

"Severing Slashes!" The normal-looking sword appeared in Qi Weisheng's hands once again. He turned around and faced Zhao Fan once more, sending out a series of slashes that seemed sharp enough to tear space apart. They were intended to put distance between the two. Zhao Fan would have to defend, giving enough time for Qi Weisheng to regain his advantage.

"DIE!!!" Zhao Fan increased his speed and didn't bother defending against the slash at all. When they were about to meet his body, Zhao Fan's body suddenly turned to water and passed right through the attacks. He didn't bother hiding his trump cards as his energy was nearly completely used up and this was the only chance to win the battle.

"Water?" Qi Weisheng didn't expect that Zhao Fan comprehended the element of water. His gauntlets simply turned qi into the water element and Zhao Fan had never exposed his element which led to his shock.

Zhao Fan smiled ear to ear as he finally managed to get into attacking distance. His hand clenched into a fist and was propelled towards Qi Weisheng's head. Right when it was about to collide, Qi Weisheng sped up crazily and evaded the attack completely.

"What a shame, I had to sacrifice my boots to kill a heavenly genius!" Qi Weisheng sighed in regret. He swung his ordinary-looking sword in Zhao Fan's direction.

"Spirit Severing!" The sword suddenly glowed like a torch and a monstrous wave of energy was unleashed.

"This is the power of a heavenly genius. Your demon soul does not deserve to continue existing, not to mention reincarnating, so I shall personally rend it from this world!" Qi Weisheng yelled. He was forced to use his last trump card which was one of the few fate skills he received from the system.

"An Earth Rank weapon... we're dead," Hei Long said quietly as he realized the true ranking of the sword. An Earth weapon could easily support the full reserve of a Qi Gathering cultivator's qi. This meant that disregarding other improvements, it was possible to unleash the might of all of the qi of a Qi Gathering cultivator in one attack. Even if they merged, there was no way they could stop such a powerful attack. After all, a fully charged Qi Gathering cultivator's attack was equivalent to a normal attack of a mid or high-level Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The sword released so much energy that Zhao Fan felt it was not even worth trying to defend against it. It arrived before Zhao Fan in an instant. He noticed that it was almost ethereal and the attack didn't seem to target his body but was aimed to annihilate his soul directly. Zhao Fan's face revealed a savage look as he tried to think of ways to survive, but there were none. His logical side already reconciled with his death, and even the crazed part which operated on the most basic instincts of a beast knew that his end had come.

Just as his soul was about to be struck by the ability. A change happened.

The clothes on Zhao Fan's upper body disintegrated and only one thing was left. It was a powerless amulet that hung at his chest, a reminder of Hei Long's rebirth into this world. Suddenly, it started shining with a golden light which illuminated the whole clearing like a second sun. The attack which was about to end Zhao Fan evaporated like smoke as it was touched by the golden light.

"This symbol..." Qi Weisheng's eyes locked on the brightly shining amulet.