After spending an hour recovering his spiritual energy, Yuan was prepared to enter the pagoda that had over a hundred floors.
‘Will I be able to reach the peak and defeat the city lord in less than three hours?’ He wondered to himself as he opened the door and entered the pagoda.
Inside of the pagoda wasn’t as big as Yuan expected, but there was more than enough space for two cultivators to fight without restrictions.
Yuan looked around the first floor that appeared to be a dojo, and it reminded him of another place he’d challenged before— the Carp Leaping Over Dragon’s Gate Tower within the Dragon Essence Temple.
However, instead of fighting magical beasts, humans were his opponents this time.
“Who are you? And what are you doing in my lord’s pagoda?” A figure suddenly appeared before Yuan without him noticing until this person spoke.
Yuan looked at the middle-aged man and said, “I am here to speak with your lord.”
“Do you have an appointment?” The middle-aged man asked.
“I do not.”
“Then you may scram out of here.”
“Unfortunately, that’s not possible either.”
“Is that so?”
The middle-aged man retrieved his weapon that was a spear the next moment and pointed it at Yuan.
“Then you can stay here forever.”
Yuan didn’t say anything and retrieved the Empyrean Overlord.
“Scram!”
The middle-aged man rushed at Yuan, releasing his first level Spirit Lord cultivation base.
Yuan decided to pretend to struggle against him until the time was right.
A dozen exchanges later, Yuan retrieved the Starry Abyss and aimed it directly at the middle-aged man’s head before sending it flying towards it.
However, the middle-aged man tilted his head when the dagger was an inch away from his face, narrowly dodging the sneak attack.
‘What?!’ Yuan was shocked when the middle-aged man dodged his Starry Abyss.
This is his first time missing his target, and he even doubted whether the Starry Abyss was actually invisible or not.
“Hmph! Using such cowardly tactics! Your invisible attack might work on weaker opponents, but it’s useless before me!”
Yuan frowned when he realized it wasn’t by chance that the middle-aged man had dodged his invisible dagger.
‘Does he have a technique that allows him to detect invisible objects?’ He wondered inwardly.
However, even if his opponent can detect the Starry Abyss, he could still use it as a distraction.
“Enough standing around! Let’s finish this!”
The middle-aged man continued to attack Yuan the next moment.
[Heavenly Domain!]
Yuan decided to use Heavenly Domain to restrict his movements.
“What the heck is this?!”
Although the man was surprised, it was not enough to completely seal his movements, but that was to be expected, as he was a genuine Spirit Lord.
When the man was taken by surprise, Yuan used this chance to go for the killing blow.
“Bloody—”
However, Yuan stopped his technique midway when he realized something.
‘Even though this technique has served me well, and it is also one of the first techniques that I’ve learned in this world, I should stop using this technique that belongs to the Blood Sect.’
There were many reasons as to why Yuan no longer wanted to use the Bloody Sword Strike any longer, but the most obvious reason was its affiliation with the Blood Sect, and he didn’t want to be mistaken as someone from the Blood Sect like previously.
Unfortunately, besides the Bloody Sword Strike, he didn’t really have any other techniques that weren’t over-the-top like the Heaven Splitting Sword Strike and the Relentless Dragon Overwhelms the Nine Heavens.
As for the Demon Sealing Strike… It most likely wouldn’t work on humans.
‘Although I have never used that technique before, I have seen it used many times in my dreams… Let’s see if I can pull it off…’
After exchanging a few more strikes with the man, Yuan distanced himself until he was all the way at the doors.
“Now you feel like leaving? Too bad. You lost that chance when you withdrew your sword.” The man sneered in disdain when he saw Yuan running away.
Yuan ignored the man’s provoking words and focused on the technique inside his head.
Once he was confident that he could execute it, he took a deep breath and changed the way he held the sword.
The man raised his eyebrows at Yuan’s weird stance that made it look like he was about to sprint with the sword by his waist.
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if you think you can defeat me while being a whole realm below me, you’re too arrogant. Allow me to show you the difference between heaven and earth.”
However, right as the man finished his sentence, he suddenly felt a cold chill going down his spine.
The man was in disbelief.
‘T-This feeling is… fear?! Impossible! Why would I fear a mere Spirit Grandmaster?!’ He cried inwardly.
It was at this moment Yuan finished his preparations and launched his attack.
“Vanishing Ghost’s Soundless Blade…”
The Empyrean Overlord in Yuan’s hand disappeared for a split second in the man’s eyes even though he had been staring at it this entire time without blinking. There was no movement, no sound— nothing.
“Hah! What the heck? How dare you try to scare—”
The man suddenly stopped speaking when he felt something off about his neck, but before he could figure out what was wrong with it, the light in his eyes darkened, and his body collapsed the next second.
The second his body hit the floor, his head that had been cleanly severed began rolling like a bowling ball.
Yuan released a sigh of relief after seeing that he’d successfully managed to execute the technique properly.
Ding!
<You have learned Vanishing Ghost’s Soundless Blade>
[Vanishing Ghost’s Soundless Blade]
[Rank: Ancient]
[Mastery Level: 1]
[Description: An extremely fast and deadly technique that can kill a thousand people without making the slightest sound. Created by the famous Cultivator known as Vanishing Ghost, who was once regarded as the Nine Heaven’s deadliest assassin.]