On one area of the forest far away from the guild, Ming Li watched Gui Zhong's group from afar. He has been eyeing the group for several days and found out how their group operates. 

The group consist of thirty seekers including Gui Zhong, ten of them were at the first level of body tempering realm, another ten were at the third level, and the remaining nine ranges from the fourth level up to the eight level.

Gui Zhong being the leader and the strongest only stays in the camp of their group. Nobody was tasked to guard him, since he was a realm higher compared to all of his subordinates. Each one of his subordinates were tasked to gather hundreds of monster core at the body tempering realm every day before they can report to the camp.

Ming Li waited for several days specifically because of that reason. Since the monsters in the area were hunted down and their numbers dwindled, the seekers have no choice but to roam further from the camp leaving Gui Zhong alone.

Ming Li patiently waited for ten days, before making his move. On the tenth day that everyone set out to gather monster cores, Ming Li immediately stayed in a good position waiting for everyone to move further away. 

When Ming Li could not sense anyone nearby, he sneaked into the camp where he saw Gui Zhong alone drinking a cup of tea. "So It's you? I got the feeling of being observed for several days now, but I wasn't sure if I was right. However, I never thought that it would be someone extremely weak."

Ming Li smiled and replied "Oh so you knew? Too bad you didn't prepare anything against me."

"Hahaha! Why would I do that to someone as weak as you." Gui Zhong snorted.

Ming Li didn't respond, but instead, lifted up his arms and said "Torment"

Gui Zhong's face flickered when he sensed the skill Ming Li was about to use. He immediately stood up and waved his hands in response. Eight jet black spears appeared around him pointed at Ming Li, from afar he looked like a spider with eight legs.

He waved his hands towards Ming Li's attack, and tried to block it using one of the spear surrounding him. 

Swoosh..

The spear simply passed through the sphere of symbols Ming Li created. Gui Zhong's eyes went wide when he saw this, and immediately did a double handed incantation summoning a human size spider to block Ming Li's attack.

When the symbol touched the spider, it screeched in pain and just after a few breaths it started to deteriorate.

Gui Zhong could not believe what he saw; In all his life he had never seen as skill as terrifying as what Ming Li used. His expression turned serious; then waved his hands sending four spears towards Ming Li.

With the exchange, Ming Li also became serious since the way Gui Zhong blocked his attack was very effective. He felt the high level of experience Gui Zhong possessed which made him able to quickly decide on how to block an attack like torment.

Ming Li waved his hands in response to the four spears from Gui Zhong, heat wave appeared from his hands forming a giant red translucent arc heading towards the spears. 

When the attacks collided, Gui Zhong's brows knitted as he said "Are you part of the Golden Phoenix Order? I once saw that skill being used by their member."

Ming Li simply smiled in response and pulled out a crystal leaf then crushed it. Surging energy appeared in his palm as he threw it towards Gui Zhong. Gui Zhong gaped in shock. "You also know the art of the Crystal Leaf Sect!? Did they form an alliance?" Gui Zhong shouted in fury."

Ming Li laughed loudly as he crushed Crystal Leaf one after another. He did not bother answering Gui Zhong's questions, and instead, used it to keep Gui Zhong agitated. 

Gui Zhong was forced to go on the defensive and was slowly pushed back by the barrage of attacks from Ming Li. The Gui group does not specialize in defense, but instead they excel in attack. So being on the defense made him feel pressured.

He grabbed two spears as he pierced the Crystal Leaf attacks from Ming Li. The advantage of the crystal leaves is that it does not drain Ming Li's stamina, so he can use it nonstop as long as he have enough crystal leaves.

Gui Zhong could not believe that he was being cornered by someone on a lower realm than him. In fact, everyone who faced him even on the same level were all utterly defeated in a few breaths, and only a few people in the same level could match up to him. 

On the other hand, Ming Li was casually throwing crystal leaves as if he was actually having fun.

When Gui Zhong saw Ming Li's smug face. He felt irritated and unleashed all of his strength. All of the spears surrounding him became bigger, longer, and flexible, It now closely resembled the legs of a spider. 

Gui Zhong used the spear to simply parry Ming Li's attack as he rush towards Ming Li.

"Thousand Spider Pierce!"

The eight spears surrounding Gui Zhong suddenly seemed like one thousand spears which pierced towards Ming Li.

Ming Li felt the danger of the attack and also inhaled deeply as he opened his arms wide. Then he opened his palms as if he was grabbing the air and slammed his palms together. This movement created a massive heat wave that could cover the whole thousands spears. 

All of Gui Zhong spears crumbled in front of Ming Li's massive attack. Gui Zhong's face fell as he hurriedly shouted "Five Thousand Spider Pierce!"

When the Five Thousand Spider Pierce collided with Ming Li's attack, It finally collapsed making Gui Zhong feel relived. However, in attempt to block Ming Li's attack, he strained himself more than he expected, and exhausted most of his energy on that attack. He thought that Ming Li was too strong for being only at the peak of body tempering realm.

On the other hand, Ming Li was standing leisurely several meters away from Gui Zhong as if the attack didn't bother him much. Even Ming Li was shocked by his own strength, he knew that his weird core and the blue orb inside of him makes him stronger, however he never thought that he was way above everyone on the same level as him. Even Gui Zhong on the first level of Fusion Realm couldn't defeat him easily.

With the recent exchange, Gui Zhong felt that he could not beat Ming Li without getting badly injured in the process, so he immediately crushed a pearl and smiled viciously.

When Ming Li saw the pearl being crushed, he remembered the pear the guild was always using to call for reinforcement. So a sense of danger welled up on him. He immediately rushed towards Gui Zhong with the intent to end the battle.

Gui Zhong felt a sense of crisis as he tried to block Ming Li.

He roared and unimaginable amount of energy swelled out from him. It was like he was ready to sacrifice his life for this one attack. He held on spear as he assumed a wild piercing stance. When he completed the stance, the remaining spear seem to merge into the spear he was holding, which emanated a deadly aura.

Even though Gui Zhong was holding a single spear, Ming Li felt like as if it was ten thousands spears pointed at him.

Gui Zhong gripped his hands tightly on the spear and was about to thrust, when Ming Li also roared as he waved his hands. However, what appeared was not a skill but instead a person!

The person appeared in front of Gui Zhong and held his spear. The person was none other than Dippy!

Gui Zhong was startled and held back his attack and said "Young Master, Why are you here!"

While he was distracted, Ming Li did not stop and appeared beside Gui Zhong, then he grabbed Gui Zhong's neck as he said "I have no intention of wasting all my energy to you! So obediently put your weapon down!"

Ming Li activated torment which made Gui Zhong feel extreme pain. He knelt on the ground while groaning miserably. 

Ming Li did not stop there and grabbed Gui Zhong's own spear, then stabbed his shoulder. Also, he grabbed Gui Zhongs arms then used heat wave to slowly melt it. Then he said. "Tell me everything you know about the dark aura in the guild!"

Gui Zhong Gritted his teeth as he grabbed the spear and tried to fight back. However, Ming Li Pulled it out and stabbed at his legs. Then pulled it out again and stabbed his other shoulder.

These series of ruthless attack made Gui Zhong scared witless. He did not want to give in to Ming Li, but when Ming Li pointed the spear at his eyes, he almost wet his pants.

He also realized that Dippy disappeared out of thin air and thought that it might be some form of high level illusion art used by Ming Li.

He shouted while groaning "I will.. tell! Please stop." Then he explained while frequently stuttering from pain. "The.. dark aura.. is from the corpse of the demon spider under the mountain! I.. do. not know.. where it came from. but it protected the guild for generations.. The demon.. spider is dead, however it is on the process of rebirth.. and even with its dead body it still emits the dark.. aura in the guild which can be used to a activate a legendary.. defensive and offensive skill from the demon spider. It is said that when the demon spider awakens, our guild will become the strongest in this plane!"

When Ming Li heard this, his face shone with delight which made Gui Zhong feel relieved, but suddenly Ming Li said on a cold tone "Tell me more and why are you gathering monster cores?"

Gui Zhong did not hold back anything anymore, since his life was at risk. "The dead body of the demon spider... seem to be able to recover from sacrificing monster cores. which allows the dark energy to increase. Whenever the corpse... shows signs of recovery, the dark energy.. also becomes more dense which we will increase the energy! This is a secret of our guild, however we are sure that the Crystal Leaf Sect and the Golden Phoenix Order are aware of this. So why are you doing this?"

Ming Li smiled and flatly said "Out of curiosity of course."

Gui Zhong became speechless as he stared at Ming Li with dumbfounded look.