“That piece of shit at the 9th stage won’t be able to save you this time around!” Hu Tao shouted.

“I’ll need no one’s help to deal with you. I’ve become far stronger than I was last time we met Hu Tao.” Bo Fai effortlessly recovered.

“Oh, you must have gotten pretty lucky in the Treasured Plains if you’re confident in killing me. Let me guess, it’s a magical treasure that’ll be able to seal me?” He grinned.

“I don’t plan to seal you away this time, Hu Tao. I plan to kill you.” Bo Fai vowed.

“Hahaha! Now you’re just trying to make my dick hard. Let’s see if your mouth can hold up to your skills.” Hu Tao vanished from his previous spot.

  He reappeared in front of Bo Fai intending to claw him into multiple pieces. A single slash diagonally rising across Bo Fai’s chest was stopped by a barrier of flames. Hu Tao whistled as he felt the heat of those flames. Princess’s flames didn’t stand a fucking chance against this bastard’s fire. He could swear the skin on his flesh even started boiling for a second there.

  Hu Tao ignored the flames and struck out with a simple kick that sent the white-haired youth sliding backwards. The aura of fire dimmed in size before taking on a new form. Bo Fai entered his martial stance as the flames turned into forearm guards, flame gauntlets, shin guards, and a long cloak. He had a confident smirk on his face as he looked down on Hu Tao.

“What? I hope you don’t think that’ll make a difference in me fucking kicking your ass.” Hu Tao mocked.

“Come then.” He waggled his finger at Hu Tao.

“I was already planning to!” Hu Tao leapt forward.

  Once he neared the confident bastard, his leg kicked out in an attempt to kick him across the face. An attempt that was foiled by Bo Fai raising his wrist and blocking with his flame gauntlet. Hu Tao’s kick sent Bo Fai sliding back even further, proving that his physical strength was still above the Phoenix’s master. The fighting maniac sped behind the confident youth and with a spinning back kick, launched him spiraling through the air.

  But Hu Tao could see his attacks were doing barely any damage to the fucker. While his body was taking some bad burns from just touching him for more than a second. If things continued this way then Hu Tao would slowly melt himself alive while the son of a bitch watches him maim himself. Usually upon realizing this one would try and think of a different strategy, like attacking from a distance or fighting in a way that didn’t require you to physically touch the foe. This wasn’t what Hu Tao did at all.

  Hu Tao madly grinned as he used his superior speed to reach Bo Fai in basically a second and trapped him in a painful bearhug. Painful for the both of them. The two handsome fighters looked deeply into each other's eyes. One with sick twisted shine in his and the other with a pained hate-filled glare. Hu Tao’s powerful hold prevented Bo Fai from using any part of his upper body while Bo Fai’s flames slowly burned Hu Tao’s flesh.

  Chains began to wrap around the both of them before they suddenly took off into the sky at incredible speeds. They went so fast in fact that most of Bo Fai’s flames couldn’t keep up with the change in oxygen, temporarily the flames surrounding him went out for a brief moment, before quickly being reignited with his qi. And just as they got started, the two of them began to plummet back down to the earth while spinning. Flames spiraled around them just as they were falling back to the earth.

  Bo Fai tried everything to escape Hu Tao’s tight hold but knew he couldn’t break free with strength alone. He ramped up his flames to even higher temperatures to kill the crazy young lad even faster. Then when he’s turned into ash, he’ll slow his descent with his flames. If worst comes to worst, he’ll even summon that thing from his storage ring. Bo Fai borrowed the endless flame of the young phoenix that he dominated with his old soul and used it to melt Hu Tao.

“AWOOO!!!” Hu Tao howled.

  After that howl, the flames barely did anything to Hu Tao anymore. And then everything went dark for Bo Fai after they crashed back to the sect’s ground. Hu Tao unwrapped his chains and revealed himself in a not-so-perfect condition. Most of his skin was horrendously burned. It wasn’t to the point that it looked like he had no skin at all but was recently engulfed in a blazing flame and just barely saved from the jaws of death. Surprisingly, he held no injuries made from the landing.

  Jie could only stare in amazement as the sound of a bell’s jingle rang out in the surrounding. From that jingle, she could see the damage Hu Tao has taken were slowly being healed. The pain he gained from enduring the heat of a phoenix’s flames weren’t in vain. As all the pain and suffering he just went through directly increased the strength of his physical body. His skin that easily burned just through a slight touch at the flames now would take far higher temperatures to burn. Hu Tao’s entire body was refined thanks to the combination of his auxiliary art, Howling Art: Demon God's Reforging and his spirit tool, Bell of Demonic Tempering.

“Hey, you aren’t dead, are you?” Hu Tao crouched over the deep hole made by his self-created technique that was in the process of being improved.

  Peering down at the possible corpse of Bo Fai, he saw a sight that was pretty damn interesting. The Phoenix bastard’s pulverized head and mangled body were swallowed by a golden flame. Inside the golden flames were his insides being remade and created anew. This fucker was really immortal because he bonded with a phoenix?

“Ain’t that a fucking riot? I guess I don’t need to be so careful with a zombie in the future. I don’t know if you can hear me down there without a head but train a bit harder. Having an unkillable cultivator after me is pretty exciting but it won’t be as fun if you’re so damn weak. I’ll probably die of old age before you can kill me.” Hu Tao stood up and stared at the two girls fighting.

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“Hmph. Satisfied over dealing with a simple clone?” A second Bo Fai appeared behind Hu Tao.

  He struck out with his fist and knocked Hu Tao into the hole he made. The battle maniac rolled down and crashed into the recovering body double. Upon falling on top of the headless copy, he shoved it inside his pocket dimension for later and looked up to see Bo Fai was preparing to roast him alive. But he wasn’t worried about his flames anymore after his body was strengthened through his auxiliary martial art and the Bell of Demonic Tempering.

“Flames of Devastation!” A bird made of orange flames spewed blue fire from its beak down into the hole Hu Tao was sent down.

“Blue fire. That’s cool but the princess can do that trick too.” Was his only comment to this as his body was bathed in flames.

“Oh, these flames aren’t ice cold like Princess’s.” He casually noted.

“Chains of the Ancient!” Bo Fai didn’t let up. Floating green chains shot down towards Hu Tao’s figure.

“What are you trying to do chain me up like some bitch? I got somewhere to be after this, you know?” Hu Tao laughed.

“Hymn of a Silent God!” He skillfully blew into a golden ocarina. The sound waves went directly into the mass of blue flames cooking Hu Tao alive.

“Now this is what I call hot. Took you long enough to make me feel some real heat now.” He scoffed.

‘Heavenly Blade of Disruption!’ With a stomp of his foot, a small blade rose into the air and flew towards Hu Tao.

‘Net of the Wild Hunting Immortal!’ Another magical treasure exited from his storage ring. A net made from extremely dense and pure qi that nearly no creature could escape from when captured. It floated over the pit and floated down to capture Hu Tao.

  A combination of all these spirit tools caused the already large pit Hu Tao created to expand into a mighty crater! An explosion of qi erupted into the sky from the continuous use of Bo Fai’s treasures. An explosion so grand that it was visible from the Outer Court. Bo Fai thought about using one more of his valuable spirit tools just to be extra sure that Hu Tao was dead but he couldn’t possibly survive something like this, could he? The boy was a once in a ten-thousand-year genius but even this would be too much for him.

“You aren’t the only one who can make clones retard.” Hu Tao appeared behind him and slapped the back of his head.

  Bo Fai’s mind couldn’t even process the fact that Hu Tao was still alive somehow. He stood there dumbfounded until Hu Tao’s powerful palm slammed into his back. It launched him across the hole and all the way to the other side of the Inner Court! Hu Tao chased after the zombie bastard as he was flying through the air. The wolf-like disciple whipped his chain towards Bo Fai and captured him. Suddenly stopping his forward momentum to sling him back towards himself! And with a jaw-dropping elbow to the stomach, the Phoenix’s partner spat up blood and dropped to the ground.

“You really can’t take a hit for shit, can you? You should train your martial arts more and rely on that useless phoenix less. Not even Manchu is as pathetic as you are. And he’s the holder of the Azure Dragon for a mythical beast.” Hu Tao shook his head.

  In Hu Tao’s opinion, for a guy who was so cocky earlier, he really didn’t have anything to back it up with. If Bo Fai knew what Hu Tao was thinking, he’d definitely spew up some organs along with his blood. He of all people was being looked down on by a brat in the Qi Consolidation stage?! In his last life he was an Earthly Immortal! Someone who would receive warm welcomes from the Emperor in Jin Kingdom! A person that was only 2 major stages from the final cultivation realm!

  Hu Tao walked away feeling a bit blue-balled by the Zombie. Bo Fai never got up from his last attack nor made a sound. That last attack of his should’ve put a hole through his gut but it seems he had a secret friend protecting him from the shadows. There was a qi barrier made that took most of Hu Tao’s blow. If he was particularly curious, he would’ve fought the hidey bastard for himself but there was more fun to be had elsewhere. Those two wouldn’t be any fun.

  Hu Tao arrived back to where they first started fighting and gobbled up Bo Fai’s obviously high-ranked spirit tools with his storage ring. Back when he was in the hole, he simply used his movement art, The Wolf Pack Hunts Together, and avoided all of them with a speed clone. If there was one fatal flaw that the Zombie had, it was that he was slow as hell. Both reaction speed and his body’s speed were slow as all hell. Well really, that bastard had hundreds of flaws in Hu Tao’s eyes. His only good trait were those flames and undying body.

“You still aren’t done?” Hu Tao said to Jie. She was pretty weak too.

  He shot a single glare at Pigtails and she immediately froze from his killing intent. Unknown to Hu Tao or Jie, Pigtails, or more commonly known as Yanyu, held a deep trauma in her heart. A trauma that she hasn’t shared with anyone after it occurred. It wasn’t the first time she’s been in a life-or-death situation when it happened. As a cultivator it would be rare for one to go a single week without experiencing a near-fatal encounter. This path was fraught with danger.

  For Yanyu, however, it was the first time she’s been completely helpless and at the mercy of someone else. All her life, her older brother took care of her. He made sure her time as a cultivator was spent in complete luxury and with as little difficulties as possible. So, when Hu Tao nearly killed her back then it was the first time she’s ever feared for her life and felt like no one could possibly save her. Not even herself. She thought of telling him about her brother that was in the 9th stage of the Qi Consolidation realm but she didn’t even get the chance to speak. He gripped his hand around her throat and stopped her from making any type of sound. There wasn’t a shred of mercy in his actions nor was there any interest in herself. His eyes never met hers once while he was choking her. Not even her body was of interest to him.

  Yanyu thought that she’d never have to relive that experience again after seeing her brother snap Hu Tao’s neck. But he was still alive. He survived an attack from her brother who was 5 small stages above him at the time. And the nightmares that came after that day... They still haunted her every time she slept. It was impossible for her to sleep at night without waking up screaming the next morning. Bo Fai told her that a heart demon like this could ruin her future as a cultivator. She’d never make it to the Mortality Ascension realm with a heart demon as powerful as hers. If she couldn’t break the fear that Hu Tao brings to her soul, her final realm would be the Qi Transformation realm.

“Is she even conscious right now? Have you been fighting someone who wasn’t even awake?” Hu Tao questioned as he waved his hand in front of the girl who hasn’t moved a single inch after he sent some killing intent at her.

“She was fine earlier. It wasn’t until you got done with your fight and looked over here that she got like this.” Jie explained.

“Whatever. This fat titty midget isn’t on my fighting list anyway. Try not to die while I have my fun in that massive brawl over there.” He roughly groped Yanyu’s chest before hopping away.

“Pervert...” Jie sighed. The girl was still frozen in shock. She didn’t react even when Hu Tao pinched and pulled at her erect nipples.

‘Poor girl.’ She thought as she followed behind him.