Li Qiang smiled widely, showing his pearly white teeth as he concealed unknown hatred and fury. His sword dragged upon the hard earth and his was mind full of murderous thoughts, he looked extremely menacing at this moment.

"You don't know how much I desired to meet you in this unforgiving forest." He said, "I heard body refining cultivators have remarkable vitality, able to keep on living with all their limbs cut off, you should have kowtowed to me and accepted your punishment back then rather than provoking me, I told you you can't escape this, no matter how much you run my sword will always be behind you, slowly catching up. Now, don't hope you will have an easy death, I will slice your body a thousand times, gouge your eyes and sever your tongue, only when I have thoroughly vented my frustration will I rip your chest open and take your heart out with my own hands!"

Hearing Li Qiang's words, Ye Mo broke into a cold smirk, saying lowly, "I also wished I would run across you."

Now, Li Qiang was too far to hear what Ye Mo uttered, he only saw him run towards him like an enraged bull, leaving deep footprints on the ground.

Li Qiang was very happy to see this, raising his sword, "At least you're not as cowardly as before, running straight to your death."

He used a movement battle skill and rushed at Ye Mo, in an instant, he was right before him, swinging his blade ferociously.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sound of steel striking iron resounded in the area as the both of them entangled in a violent struggle.

Li Qiang moved his sword at an inconceivable speed and Ye Mo parried it with his wrist guards like an unmoving mountain.

The latter could follow the movements of the blade with his eyes, but barely react, raising his spiritual weapon in defense and only slightly moving his wrist guards up and down or to his side to deviate the sword, he couldn't fight back at all.

It was much too fast, although he could see the swings, he didn't have the time to make grand movements, much less counter-attack lest he was cutdown halfway.

High-tier Yellow Class - Silver Streak Blade Technique.

Li Qiang took it up a notch as he poured his Qi and used a sword battle skill.

Immediately, his blade accelerated exponentially turning into a silver flash of light.

Ye Mo blocked one blow towards his chest when nearly at the same time, one came closing on his legs. Lowering his wrist guards, he deflected it while arching his back, bending backwards as a third strike flashed right before his eyes in the snap of a finger, illuminating his expressionless face as it passed over before a fourth blow came.

Ye Mo only had the time to raise his wrist guards to guard himself when the blade crashed over, in his awkward position and under the force of the strike, he was sent rolling on the ground.

He quickly took a foothold and turned around during his rolls, facing Li Qiang once again as he supported himself on one knee.

The young master raised his head, looking at him haughtily as he declared full of pride, "You and I are too different, it's not I or your fault, it was defined from birth. I am the heir of the Li clan, when I was six I picked swordplay, at eight I was tested to have rank 4 talent, reaching the age of ten, none of my peers were my match in the clan, before I was twelve, I mastered advanced techniques that even some adults had a hard time to learn."

"I will become the next leader of the Li clan, under my reign, it will rise to new heights. I will eradicate our enemies and lord over Azure Water City, wether Shen, Yan or Gao no one will retain their place. In due time we will spread our might outside and take over the region, no, the whole province will be covered with my banner."

"A grand future has always been promised to me, however, you're just a beggar that mistakenly entered our world, thinking it was his great fortune. Luck and pride rising over your head, you offended your master. Heavens has sent me to teach you your place, and this lesson will prove you fatal."

Li Qiang gave voice to his wild ambitions as he put Ye Mo in the skin of a slave.

In their bout, Li Qiang was the superior one, when he revealed a part of his strength, Ye Mo was unable to hold out. After this declaration, anyone else would be demoralized and disheartened but Ye Mo's expression was unchanging as he clenched both fists and rushed ahead once more.

"Unappreciative bastard!" Li Qiang snorted and went forward sword in hand, quickly reaching Ye Mo.

When they were about to collide, Ye Mo quickly punched, taking the initiative. Li Qiang couldn't be allowed to pick up his momentum.

This one ducked to the side and narrowly avoided his fist when another came his way. The young master swayed back to dodge it and was about to wave his sword at Ye Mo when the latter suddenly opened his fist, a handful of concealed dirt thrown straight into his eyes.

Li Qiang didn't fully regain his stance yet, when the gritty dust exploded in his face, blinding him momentarily.

The dirt immediately stung his eyes like tiny shards of glass. His vision blurred instantly, a burning sensation flooding his senses and he instinctively recoiled, blinking furiously to clear the grit from his eyes.

Panic immediately gripped him as he realized his situation and he wanted to blindly retreat with his movement battle skill, but he barely had the time to think about it that Ye Mo had already fully used this split-second of disorientation to seize his chance, driving a powerful Stone Breaking Punch in Li Qiang's midsection, sending him skiding across the ground for a dozen steps.

This dirt Ye Mo threw was cunningly picked up in his hand during Li Qiang's speech as he was in a kneeling position near the ground. Li Qiang was so engrossed that he didn't pay attention, but even if he did, how could he notice such a thing or expect this vicious and shameless stratagem to outplay him.

Now Ye Mo looked coldly at his arm.

It was full of cuts with blood dripping down. When he punched Li Qiang, several invisible blades lashed out at his arm as soon as he made contact with him, opening these multiple wounds.

This was the Blade Aura battle skill, a Yellow Class high-tier martial art of the Li clan. Once activated, it would slice and hack at the opponent as soon as he touch the user and it would keep going till the target take his distance.

For Ye Mo, he only suffered a few cuts on the arm since the contact was very short as he sent Li Qiang retreating with his punch, but a few seconds more and his whole body would be covered in wounds, half a minute and anyone would be cut down to pieces.

Even towards defense, the Li clan young master remained mostly offensive.

This one fell down in a kowtowing position, vomiting a pool of blood.

Beside Blade Aura that he kept operating since the beginning of the battle, he used another defensive battle skill in reflex right before being hit or else this punch alone would have been enough to kill him and send his corpse flying in the air.

He popped a peak-tier healing pill in his mouth and instantly felt himself recovering as he swallowed, but seeing Ye Mo approaching, he didn't take the time to heal anymore and rose up.

"Wretched fiend, how dare you injure me!?" Li Qiang gnashed his teeth in rage, his blood boiling and his expression turning fierce.

He raised his sword above his head while it shined brillantly.

"Li Cheng's battle skill?" Ye Mo slowed down as he observed, he still remembered the Cleaving White Crescent technique Li Qiang's little brother used against him and this one looked the same.

With a hacking motion, Li Qiang released three white lightblade towards him, one slightly to his right, the other slightly to his left, and the last straight at him in a single swing. The three of them were twice thicker than the white crescent released by Li Cheng in the past.

Sunlight shone behind Ye Mo casting his shadow on the ground, he wasn't the same as when he faced Li Qiang's brother on the arena, with his second revolution of the fiend body, his 8th layer cultivation and his mastery of Wind Flow, he could avoid one even after it was released.

However, now there were three going at him at the same time and he couldn't dodge all of them so he placed himself sideways and raised his wrist guards, blocking the only lightblade that directly traveled towards him and breaking it in particles of white light as it crashed against the peak-tier spiritual weapon.

The other two flew past him and cut everything in their path before dissipating in the distance.

Sending three lightblades in a single swing, this was the level higher to the Li clan Cleaving White Crescent sword technique, the high-tier Yellow Class Triple Glow battle skill.

Li Qiang swung his sword several times, sending more than a dozen lightblade at Ye Mo.

The lightblades he released were different from the white crescent Li Cheng used, those ones were more curved, while its flying in the air, it travelled in an arc, like a boomerang, making it harder for enemies to predict.

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Ye Mo rolled, jumped, sommersaulted and crawled, dodging those he could while using his wrist guards to block the remaining one going at him. The lightblades had impressive cutting abilities, but were not as forceful as Bing Jia's arrows, Ye Mo didn't suffer from any recoil as he defended from them.

The trees in the surroundings were slashed and fell down one after another by the lightblades and Ye Mo had to avoid both of them sometimes. These trees could fall on him without causing much damage, but if he layed below, the lightblades would slice both of them apart without any problem so they had to be dodged so he could keep his mobility.

Every lightblades were sent with incredible precision, no matter how far they went or how off-target they seemed, they would always return right on point.

There were many words that could be used to describe Li Qiang, prideful, arrogant, cold, but the most appropriate was stubborn.

He was stubborn in his grudges, quick to take offense and slow to forgive, he was stubborn in preserving the nobility of his clan, protecting its benefits and reputation with determination, but he was also stubborn with his training.

Out of the four young masters, he was probably the one working the hardest to master his techniques, often laying down covered in sweat and unable to move a finger after each session.

The amount of Qi spent and pills used to recover it was enormous as he pushed himself to his limits, being a big financial hole that the Li clan easily and delightedly filled for him.

The arched lightblades that went away and returned with such accuracy wasn't proper to the Triple Glow battle skill, most of the Li clan members that learned it would be unable to display more than three lightblades moving in a straight line towards the target.

At most, it would deviate a bit before going back on track, but it would never be as exaggerated as what was shown currently.

Training so hard to put everyone beneath his foot and prove nobody was his equal, this was Li Qiang.

Ye Mo lept between several tree trunks laying on the ground, rotating his body as he evaded two lightblades and blocked one in mid-air before one was sent towards the sky.

The curved lightblade seemed completely missed, yet it arched so much that its trajectory turned down and it flew in the direction of the ground, but it kept moving in a full round circle and finally went towards Ye Mo's back.

Ye Mo, who noticed the lightblade fired a moment ago, turned around to block it after evading a few more.

But at this moment, a bright flash of sunlight entered his iris.

His back was originally facing the sun, and now that he had turned around and many trees that covered the area fell down, the eye-piercing sunlight temporarily made his eyes hurt, and his vision went blank.

His senses tingled as he felt unprecedented danger, nonetheless, Ye Mo wasn't alarmed but smiled brightly instead, exclaiming, "How clever!"

Li Qiang trained a lot for sure but his experience wasn't small either, setting up the environment and using the sunlight to blind him, such ingenuity made Ye Mo praise sincerely, this was a good lesson for him.

This reflection went in a flash before he willed and the projection of a golden bell protected him, deflecting the lightblade.

At the view of this, Li Qiang's lips twitched with disappointment, annoyance, and anger.

"Am I really fated to kill every user of this Buddha Golden Bell battle skill." He thought sarcastically, before he used a movement battle skill to dash towards a standing tree, step on it and jump high in the air.

"Peak-tier Yellow class, Godly Sparkle battle skill." Li Qiang waved his sword down and launched an attack from midair, a ray of light falling to the ground.

Ye Mo was unworried as he looked at this scene and raised his wrist guards.

The ray of light seemed inconsistent and easy to block, like a drop of morning dew that fell down, but when it reached Ye Mo, the earth rumbled and a cloud of dust rose in the area.

"I know the Buddha Golden Bell battle skill well, it could never resist against this sword art, this should do the trick." Li Qiang said satisfied as he landed down and observed the scene.

From the movement of the blade to the ray of light falling like a drop of shining water, this was a sword battle skill that necessited to be used while in the air to be released properly.

Suddenly, a stone pierced the rising dust and flew towards him.

Li Qiang, surprised but ready, effortlessly parried it with his sword when he saw a black machete going straight at him.

He barely blocked it with the blade that three thin needles lodged themselves in his shoulder.

In the meantime, the dust subsided and Ye Mo could be seen walking towards him unscathed.

Li Qiang stared wide-eyed at him then his shoulder, in understanding, "He concealed the needles in the shadow of the machete, the latter and the stone were just decoys."

The needles were thin like a strand of hair and translucent like an ice shard, it was barely noticeable laying on the palm of your hand so when it traveled in the shadow of the machete, it was as good as invisible. Li Qiang had no way to react to it.

These needles were recovered by Ye Mo when a student used them against him on the second floor of the pagoda. Since he had the amability to hand them over, Ye Mo didn't bother to return them.

"Not bad, but you should have aimed for the head or the heart, these lousy needles can't do anything to me now, you missed your chance." Li Qiang smiled fiercely as he took the needles out of his shoulder and broke them in the palm of his hand.

He felt a chill imagining what could have happened an instant ago, but now that the danger passed and the needles were dealt with, his confidence swelled up ever higher as he was guaranteed to win.

Ye Mo clasped his hands behind his back and watched quietly.

Li Qiang took a step forward planning to strike again when he suddenly fell on one knee, droplets of black blood falling from his nostrils.

In alarm, he looked at his shoulder from which oozed black blood out of three tiny holes. The flesh surrounding the wound was purulent and dark lines could be seen on the surrounding skin, spreading towards his neck and his chest.

"Hmph, poison, I should have expected it from a scheming little prick like you. I will have to disappoint you though as I learned a mid-tier poison-averting battle skill." Li Qiang breathed a sigh of relief as he channeled his Qi to drive the poison away.

Although Li Qiang was extremely offense oriented in his fighting style and prefered waving his blade and train his swordplay, he still took the decision to learn a poison-averting battle skill to be safe in the past which showed he also thought of different situations and took his precautions towards them, rather than mindlessly pursuing the way of the sword and forgetting the rest.

He really thanked himself for his awareness at this moment, but after some time, he realized in horror that not only the poison wasn't driven away, it was only slightly slowed down no matter how hard he operated his battle skill or how much Qi was used.

At this time, Ye Mo grinned, coldly remarking, "These needles were dipped in the poison of a rank 2 Blighted Treant, this beast could easily kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator in a short time, indicating it was most probably a high or peak-tier blood beast. If you don't have at least a high-tier Yellow Class poison-averting battle skill, then I am afraid your time has come."

Originally, the needles were plunged in a paralysing poison since the pagoda forbade killing. Ye Mo was thus unable to make a single movement for half an hour, but since he already entered a room at this time, it didn't bother him at all and he spent this time cultivating. Later when he found the chance in the jungle, he used the poisonous vines of the blighted treant that chased him to soak the tip of the needles in, before going to the pure iridescent iron cave.

Li Qiang fell on the ground in pain and dizziness, howling in denial, "No, it can't be, I am the young master of the Li clan. I will lead my people forward to trample this region and govern the land, my name shall resound throughout the heavens, I can't die here, this is not my fate."

"This is not my fate, this is not my fate, someone help me..."

Soon, Li Qiang lost his voice and from screaming and crying loudly, he gradually mumbled and ceased all movements.

Ye Mo laughed clearly as he approached, "Even in your wildest dreams, all you can aspire to achieve is governing a small region or province. How could a mere frog like you stop me?"

Although Li Qiang despised him, Ye Mo had no less contempt towards the ridicule desires of the swordsman.

Quickly, the poison reached Li Qiang's brain and his heart stopped beating, his sword escaped his hand as he lost his life.