...…

Arthur was about to reach home as he was already entering their neighborhood. But before he could even enter it, he suddenly felt a killing intent directed to him.

Due to that, he immediately decorated the speed of the motorcycle while also trying to locate where that killing intent was coming from. Unfortunately, he couldn't find it no matter how hard he tried.

"Huh? There is an idi*t who is trying to mess with me near our backyard? Is this person crazy or something?" muttered Arthur to himself while raising one of his brows.

He was still in the middle of his thoughts when he suddenly felt that there were a bunch of things flying towards his direction with a great speed. He immediately pulled the brakes but not to stop the bike, but it was for him to do some drifting maneuvers instead.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

While he was doing some twists and turns with the bike, a barrage of fist-sized created a hole after hole on the path that he went through.

At the same time, the stones that were flying towards him were increasing in numbers all the way until he couldn't dodge them anymore. And because of that, he had no choice but to abandon the motorbike.

Boom!

Right after he jumped off from it, a huge chunk of stone flew out of nowhere and landed on the bike. And the moment Arthur saw that, the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch uncontrollably. "Sorry, Big Brother Ken. I'll make sure to buy you another one later."

After that, he quickly rushed towards the place where the flying stones were coming from. And when he arrived at that place, he was caught a little off-guard at who he saw.

"Tch! I'm thinking who is the idi*t that dared to mess with me in my backyard, so it is just the loser musclehead of the 25th floor, huh," said Arthur while calmly walking forward.

Nicolas was currently standing a few meters away from Arthur while looking at the latter with a fierce glare. He didn't try to refute Arthur's words as he just continued to maintain his glare.

Seeing that, Arthur suddenly knitted his brows as he felt that there was something strange at this guy. So, he tried testing the waters. "So~ What kind of f*cked up idea that enters your mind and you decide to set an ambush near our backward."

This time, Nicolas seemed to show some reactions as he stopped tossing the stone on his right hand. After that, he crushed the stone with a firm grip before replying. "Don't worry. I'll make sure to beat you into a pulp before the guards over there arrive in here."

Hearing that, Arthur couldn't help but sneer. "Heh! Such a bold claim. Have you-…"

He was still in the middle of talking when he suddenly saw an incoming fist magnifying right in front of his eyes. Without further ado, Arthur immediately swallowed back the words that he wanted to say and quickly leaned to the side to dodge the incoming fist.

Swoosh!

As he leaned sideways, Arthur could still feel the air pressure which was brushing past his ears. Due to that, he couldn't help but frown his eyebrows a little. 'What kind of speed and power is that!? It is entirely different from earlier.'

Despite his confusion, Arthur quickly put a lot of strength on his right hand while clenching it into a fist. Then he quickly thrusted it forward, throwing a powerful blow at Nicolas' abdomen.

Swoosh! Bang!

But to much of his surprise, his punch was seemingly ineffective against his opponent. What's more, he felt that he punched something very hard the moment his fist landed at Nicolas' abdomen.

Arthur was still frowning his eyebrows at what had happened, when he suddenly felt an incoming fist traveling towards his temple.

Sensing the intense threat coming from it, Arthur immediately raised his arm to protect his head while also strengthening his muscles to brace himself at the incoming impact.

Bang!

But despite all of his efforts to block that punch, he was still sent flying right after getting hit by it. And it only took him an instant to collide on the huge wall not far from them.

Fortunately, his muscles were quite tough since his entire body was already been baptized by the blessings of the dragon when he was still in the Dragon Valley. But even if that was the case, his innards could still feel the powerful force behind that attack.

*(Dragon Valley first appearance: Chapter 140)

Nicolas did not chase after Arthur after landing that punch. And he seemed to be quite confident that landed a clean hit this time. 'How was that, huh?'

But he suddenly squinted his eyes as he watched the subduing cloud of dust in a distance. A moment later, Arthur's figure started to resurface from that cloud of dust. He was currently patting his clothes to remove the dust from it.

When he was done removing the dust from his clothes, he suddenly turned his head at Nicolas and said. "I don't know what happened to you, but I guess you become a little stronger somehow."

He then paused for a moment to take his battle stance before continuing. "But since you are looking for some pain for your body, then let me help you with that."

Seeing that, Nicolas suddenly flashed a smirking smile at Arthur while saying. "Heh! Let's see who will get beaten up by who."

After those words left his mouth, Nicolas suddenly disappeared from his spot before reappearing right in front of Arthur in an instant. At the same time, he was throwing a straight punch with his right-hand fist.

But before that fist came in contact with his opponent's face, Arthur was already throwing a powerful punch of his own. "Have you heard of the saying to never repeat the same trick twice…?"

Bang!

Arthur immediately stopped what he was about to say the moment his fist collided with each other. He started frowning his eyebrows even further when felt the force behind Nicolas' attacks. 'What's with this guy? Why are his attacks much stronger than earlier? Is this his real strength or something else?'

After that, Arthur continued to exchange a few more blows against Nicolas.

This melee battle extended until both of them were finally using their respective Internal Qi. And that was when Arthur finally noticed there was something unusual at Nicolas. His originally purple-colored Internal Qi were now completely black.

What's more, every time his fist collided with his opponent's fist, he felt that his Internal Qi was being corroded by Nicolas' pitch-black Qi. And when he realized this problem, he immediately forced his opponent to take a couple of steps backwards before hopping away for as fast as he could.

After gaining some distance, Arthur quickly inhaled deeply before regulating his breathing to remove the corroding energy mixed on his Internal Qi. And while he was doing that, he didn't forget to keep Nicolas in check if ever he made any suddenly move.

Fortunately, he didn't show any kind of signs of doing some follow up attacks. He seemed to be too confident that he was going to win this battle no matter what.

Due to that, Arthur got enough time to remove the corroding energy that was invading his body. And when he was done clearing all of the foreign force, he stood up straight and said. "And here I am wondering how did you manage to become stronger so suddenly. It turns out that you seem to sell yourself into a demon."

Hearing that, Nicolas couldn't help but frown his eyebrows and refuted. "I don't know what you are saying. But I am not expecting that the famous Golden Dragon of the 32nd floor is going to make some lame excuses after being in disadvantage."

Arthur suddenly started chuckling the moment he heard that. "Heh! Is that so? You came from a family which is a part of the Military Circle, yet you are going to deny that 'Evil Qi' that you possessed?"

"If it is just a natural 'Demonic Qi' from a 'Demon Possession', then it is still acceptable at the very least. But from the properties of the Internal Qi that you currently have, it is without a doubt an artificial 'Demonic Qi'' which is called the 'Evil Qi'."

Then he paused for a moment while throwing a fierce glare at Nicolas. "I don't know where you got that power. Whether you get it from some unknown places or it is a hidden agenda of your family; neither one of them are unimportant."

"Regardless where it came from, I have a responsibility to capture you and bring you in the military base for interrogation."

Nicolas started laughing out loud the moment he heard that. Then he looked at Arthur mockingly before saying. "And how are you going to do that? To buy some time before your family guards arrive here? Let me tell you, no one is going to come for your rescue; not until I beat the crap out of you."

'So, he has some accomplice, huh? Now, this is becoming troublesome,' thought Arthur to himself while squinting his eyes.

A moment later, Nicolas started walking towards Arthur with a calm manner. 'F*ck with the side effects! All I need is to kill this bastard for as soon as possible and nothing is going to be a problem. As long as I silence this guy no one will know about my secrets.'

After that quick train of thoughts, he started releasing an even larger amount of pitch-black Internal Qi. He didn't stop until his body was entirely covered by this Evil Qi that seemed to be dancing along the blowing winds.

At the same time, his pupils turned into a narrow vertical slit while the white part of his eyes turned crimson red. His whole appearance seemed to be entirely Evil right now; he looked like a real Demon that came from the underworld.

Meanwhile, Arthur suddenly turned very serious the moment he saw Nicolas' new appearance. 'So, I was right. It is really an Evil Qi. What's more, he even has the Devil's Eyes of someone possessed by a demon.'

Realizing the gravity of the situation, he decided to use his new powers this time. "Looks like I need to take this one very seriously, huh? I guess time to apply some of the new tricks taught by Uncle Nathan."

After that, his originally golden Internal Qi suddenly changed color and transformed its appearance into a dancing flame with seven alternating colors.

This was the same Internal Qi that he used against Shin during their recent sparring match. But this time, the 'Divine' Chinese character on his forehead was not present.

With Nathan's guidance, he was now able to separate the powers of this 'Eternal Flame' and his 'Divine Mark'. And due to this, he could now properly control these powers since he didn't have to keep the both of them in check anymore.

After the Eternal Flame Internal Qi enfolded Arthur's entire body, the irises on his pupils suddenly turned into vertical slits as he activated his 'Foresight' talent.

And when all of the preparations were down, Arthur immediately took his battle stance and muttered with a smirking face. "Alright, let's see who is more appealing right now. Your ugly face or my handsome appearance?"

....