"Get back, Liuxiang. You'll get in the way." Senior Qi said to Chu Liuxiang, who quickly retreated to the immortal cave.
"Are you ready?" She asked Yuan.
"Whenever you are." He nodded.
And without saying another word, Senior Qi rushed towards him, closing their distance almost immediately.
"Hah!"
Senior Qi swung her sword without using any techniques, only relying on her strength and powerful spiritual energy.
Clang!
However, Yuan blocked her attack with ease, and he only had one arm on the sword.
Senior Qi raised one of her eyebrows in surprise before swinging her sword again with even more strength.
Yuan was pushed back a little this time, but he still only needed one arm to defend against the attack.
"At least you're much stronger than the Chu brothers." Yuan said with a smile on his face.
"Don't get ċȯċky! The fight is just beginning!"
The two of them began exchanging blows back and forth for the next few minutes.
"Let's see how you'll deal with this!"
"!!!"
The way Senior Qi moved her hands resembled how Array Masters create arrays, and Yuan wondered if she was going to use arrays.
"Seal!"
Senior Qi suddenly shouted.
"What the?"
Yuan blurted out when his body suddenly stopped moving.
'I cannot move? No… It feels more like I am being restricted by invisible chains… What kind of technique is this?' Yuan wondered to himself, even admiring the technique a little.
"How do you like my family's secret technique? It's not really effective on humans since it was never meant to be used on them, but this much strength is more than enough to restrict anyone, even a talented Spirit Master like you."
"Y-Yuan! Your legs! They're turning into stone!" Chu Liuxiang's voice suddenly resounded, and it was filled with distress.
"What?" Yuan looked at his legs after hearing Chu Liuxiang's words, and sure enough, his legs had turned into stone!
"This technique…" Yuan was baffled when he saw the petrifying effects, as it was almost the same as his demon sealing techniques.
"You… You know demon sealing techniques?" Wanting to confirm his suspicions, he decided to ask her.
"You want me to answer your questions? You'll have to defeat me. However, it doesn't appear that you have defeated me, so I won't tell you anything." Senior Qi said with a smirk on her face.
Clearly, she wanted to get back at him for refusing to answer her questions before.
"Don't think you have already won just because I cannot move. Despite my situation, I can still defeat you whenever I want." Yuan said to her.
"Is that so?" Senior Qi casually walked up to his face and said, "And how are you going to do that when half of your body has turned into stone?"
By now, the petrifying effect had spread all the way to his ċhėst.
"If you don't hurry up and surrender, your entire body will turn into stone, and when that happens, even I cannot revert the damages. That means you'll turn into a stone statue forever."
"What?! That's dangerous, Master! Hurry up and release him!" Chu Liuxiang exclaimed after hearing Senior Qi's words.
However, Yuan remained calm and said, "I will win this fight."
"I don't know where you're getting your confidence, but do you even understand your situation right now? You cannot even lift a finger, much less defeat me."
In response to her words, Yuan merely stood there with a calm smile on his face, allowing the petrifying effect to slowly consume his body— not that he could move his body.
When the effect reached his neck, Senior Qi frowned and said to him, "Do you really intend on dying in such a manner? Is your pride really so valuable that you'd give your life away for it? Being sealed is a fate that's worse than death, you know? Even after your body has completely turned into stone, your body won't immediately die, which means that you'll still be alive until you die of natural causes."
"When you're sealed, you won't feel hunger or thirst, and your internal organs will be supported by the spiritual energy your body naturally gathers, allowing you to live for many months, even years without any problems."
"Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in such a miserable state? Hurry up and surrender." Senior Qi tried to convince him to give up.
However, Yuan remained silent.
"If you think I am going to free you at the last second so that I won't kill you, then you're overestimating me. I will really let your entire body turn into stone. Don't test me." Senior Qi added.
"Don't worry, I don't have such thoughts." Yuan said, still with a calm smile on his face.
"Yuan! What are you doing?! What am I going to do if you're sealed forever?! Life isn't worth living if you're not here with me!" Chu Liuxiang shouted at him with tears flowing down her face.
"Believe me, Lulu. I won't lose. I promise you that I will defeat her and take you back to the family with me." Yuan said.
"You better!"
A few more moments later, Yuan's entire body became stone, turning into a stone statue and looking exactly like the sealed demon in the Jaded Garden.
However, even after being sealed, Yuan still had a smile on his face.
"This crazy bastard… He really allowed himself to become sealed. I have never met a madman like him before…" Senior Qi stared at Yuan's stone face with a dazed expression on her face.
"Master, if anything happens to him, I will never forgive you!" Chu Liuxiang said to her with a deep frown.
Senior Qi looked at her and sighed, "Calm down. I can make him normal again even though he's fully sealed. I only said that I couldn't just to scare him. In fact, since this technique isn't meant for humans, he will automatically break out of that state in a few days. However, since he dared to defy me, I am going to let him suffer for a few days."
"R-Really?" Chu Liuxiang mumbled with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"You really think I am that cruel of a person? I—"
"Not that, Master. I meant the 'few days' part. It's only been a few moments and there are already cracks on him." Chu Liuxiang pointed at Yuan.
"What? That's impossible!"
Senior Qi frowned before turning to look at Yuan.
"I-Impossible…"
Senior Qi muttered in a shocked voice when she saw that Yuan's seal was really weakening with cracks already.
However, she couldn't comprehend how that was possible.
'Even if he's a Spirit Master, he shouldn't be able to break out of my seal this quickly. The only way this is possible is if he knows how the technique works… Did he really defeat the demon by himself? But that's even more absurd!'
The stone on Yuan's face suddenly began falling off, revealing his soft skin once again.
"When I first encountered the demon at the Jaded Garden, I wondered if there would be any families in this world that could deal with them like the Demon Sealing Clan inside Cultivation Online."
"Since you can also use demon sealing techniques, I can only ȧssume that you guys actually exist.. Or am I wrong?" Yuan turned to look at Senior Qi, who stood there with a baffled face.