Hei withdrew his sword from Honghuo’s neck.

“The primary reason for you ending up in this situation is that you tried to adjust your energy accordingly for each attack you faced.”

“Right. But isn’t that normal? It would be bad to use more energy than necessary, right?”

“That would be the case if your senses were reliable. The truth is, all of my attacks used the Inferno Sword technique, and most of them had the exact same amount of power behind them. Even the ordinary-looking attacks.”

Honghuo raised his brows.

“Those weren’t meant for spacing?”

“No. From start to finish, every move I made was to leave you vulnerable for the last attack, which seemed to be the most impressive of them all, but was, in fact, the weakest.”

These words caused Honghuo to recall the events of the battle. He still couldn’t see where he had gone wrong.

He looked at the sword fragments on the ground.

“But that last attack struck multiple times. It was too fast for me to see it anyway.”

Hei shook his head.

“That was only one attack.”

“Then…?”

“Every time our swords crossed, I used Inferno Sword to cut your sword.”

“But it was only at the end that the sword broke. How was it able to survive the multiple clashes?”

“This is another application of the ranged attack that I have added to Inferno Sword. For every cut, I left a trace to fuse the sword together, causing you to believe that the sword was fully intact. With the last attack, I had all of the traces split the sword from within.”

Honghuo brought his hand to his chin as he thought about that last move.

He then felt a cold chill down his spine.

“I see. You made me believe that I was fully capable of defending myself, but if this were a real fight...”

He rubbed his neck.

“I would have been dead for sure.”

“Wow. Let’s put this explanation in the movie as well. We’ll have it run throughout the fight and slow it down at parts so that it won’t be so short.”

Hei tossed the sword he had borrowed back to Honghuo and continued on his way.

“It is a mistake to simply learn techniques as they are taught. It will lead to you being unable to respond to the unorthodox. In other words, if you are unable to think of creative uses, you will suffer against those who can.”

“Right.”

This was also one of the teachings in his clan that Honghuo never took seriously. To expect the unexpected.

As he caught up to Heihuo, the jade came over, and he heard Miss business partner’s voice.

“Hey. This was probably a lesson, so you should take the initiative to do this for your other techniques.”

Honghuo smiled.

“What’s this? Is Miss business partner worried about me?”

Yuying rolled her eyes. But, of course, Honghuo couldn't see that.

“As if. I’m just pretty jealous right now.”

“Oh? But you also heard all of that, didn’t you?”

“Sure, but I didn’t feel it.”

“Right. It’s one thing to see it and hear the explanation, but feeling it first hand is the best. It’s just that it’s a shame.”

“Hm? What is?”

“You’re so beautiful that no one would fight against you seriously.”

“Sigh. Tell me about it. But don’t you think Partner is different? I feel like he wouldn’t give me any special treatment.”

Honghuo smiled awkwardly.

“Yeah. If it’s good ol’ Heihuo, I’m afraid you may come out a bit worse for wear.”

Yuying’s eyes sparkled.

“Right? He’s the only one who’s like that.”

“Well, not exactly. I also know someone like that. Another freak.”

“Oh?”

“Mm. The fellow came into the sect, and immediately challenged the senior sisters to duels.”

“Why did he-”

“No idea. The guy seems to have a grudge against beautiful women or something because he didn’t hold back at all. Beating them one by one. Spouting some nonsense about getting it over with.”

“I don’t imagine that went well with the boys.”

“No, it did not. He basically became the enemy of the entire sect. But even then, he accepted all challengers, one on one in the arena, and until I left, he hadn’t lost even once. The crazy bastard even comprehended sword intent within a few weeks of joining the sect.”

“Wow. Sounds interesting.”

“Maybe he’s interesting, but I don’t think you want to be anywhere near him. He’ll probably challenge you too. Even peerless beauties weren’t spared.”

Instead of being put off by Honghuo’s words, Yuying’s interest grew instead.

“This lower eastern continent is something else.”

“And to top it all off.”

Honghuo clenched his fists tightly as he tried to control his anger.

“The women…”

“The women?”

“Haaaa. The women, they, they-”

“You okay?”

“They all follow him around like loyal guard dogs! What the heck is the world coming to?”

“Well, I can see where they’re coming from.”

“Ha?”

“I mean. Everyone always treats us like delicate flowers or something to be conquered. It’s quite refreshing when we’re treated like donkeys. That’s how I see it anyway.”

“?”

Honghuo’s face was the picture of confusion.

Such strange logic, but, why not?

He looked towards the floating jade and prepared his words.

Now, it must be known that Honghuo was always raised to be a gentleman and to cherish and protect the women in his life.

When he tried to shift from this mentality, well, the results speak for themselves.

Honghuo activated his Flame Sovereign, cladding himself in flame, and pointed his sword to the jade.

“Then why don’t you and I have a match? I’ll show you no mercy.”

“…”

Even Hei turned around to watch this.

After a while, there still wasn’t a response from the jade, so Honghuo started to feel awkward.

And then the nail his coffin had been waiting for arrived.

“Ew. No.”

The jade then floated back to Hei.

“You’ll have a match with me, won’t you, Partner?”

“No comment.”

“Haha. We need to ban ‘no comment’.”

Honghuo watched as Hei and Miss business partner continued on their way, having a casual conversation while they were at it.

He shook his head.

“Ah. The same thing happened back at the sect.”

This wasn’t the first time he had tried something like this, and sure enough, the result was exactly the same.

Obviously, there was a problem, and Honghuo was fully aware of it. These women… They were all crazy.

“Yup, that’s it. One day, I’ll find where the normal women are and then I’ll watch as these freaks beg me for advice. Hahaha. HAHAHAHA!”

Honghuo then realised that there were a bunch of eyes focused on him, Hei’s included. It also seemed that the jade was facing him as well.

“Ahem. I just remembered something funny. As you were.”

Honghuo then quickly joined up with the group and they continued.

Except.

“Wait!”

Honghuo’s body twitched as he turned around. Couldn’t people just let things go?

But his eyes lit up when he saw that it was Xiaoli headed their way.

“Do you want a sparring match, Miss Xiaoli?”

Honghuo held his hand out with a smile as he watched Xiaoli completely ignore him and approach Hei.

“Ah. My old friend. Rejection. How've you been?”

He was left frozen in place, arm still extended into empty air.

Hei placed his attention on Xiaoli.

“Is there something more you need?”

At this point, this young lady was getting in the way of his objectives, so his intentions towards her weren’t very good right now.

But, of course, he sounded exactly the same as always.

At his question, Xiaoli looked to the ground. This was quite embarrassing to say.

“Um… our Zhu Clan… We don’t have a method to detect demonic cultivators. I was just wondering if you have one.”

She kicked a piece of rubble while she was speaking, causing Honghuo to forget to be angry, but only for a moment.

“You don’t have a method? Then why did you attack my clan?”

Xiaoli jumped in fright at the unexpected interruption.

“Well… we don’t have a method to detect them, but we have an information network we use to ascertain these matters. We never expected demonic cultivators to show up within the clan, so now we’re left without any way to know for sure.”

“That’s what you based the annihilation of a clan on? A bunch of words? The Zhu Clan is unexpectedly stupid.”

Honghuo had already decided that his revenge had been achieved, so he wasn’t going to kill people in a fit of rage, but he still wanted to vent his anger.

Hearing the name of the Zhu Clan being insulted, Xiaoli furrowed her brows.

“The patriarch said your clan were demonic cultivators. That alone is eno-”

“You mean the demonic cultivator?”

“A…”

Xiaoli had forgotten for a moment that her own patriarch was also a demonic cultivator. Obviously, there was no credibility to his words. Reminded of the fact, she found that she was on the side of injustice, and as such, couldn’t say anything to Honghuo, who was a victim of it.

“I’m sorry. I-”

“Spare me your words. Sorry doesn’t bring back the dead.”

Xiaoli’s head drooped down. What could she say in this situation?

Hei, on the other hand, wanted to get this interruption out of the way.

He turned to Honghuo.

“Are you done?”

“Not yet.”

Honghuo rolled up his sleeve as he approached Xiaoli.

“You should learn to choose your words better!”

He brought his fist down onto Xiaoli’s head, holding nothing back at all.

-Boom.

“Fwoo. Now, I’m done.”

Xiaoli held her head with both hands and looked to Honghuo with teary eyes. She didn’t voice her grievances though, because she knew that this was Honghuo telling her that he didn’t blame her for the evils committed by the Zhu Clan.

It was just that she had a big mouth, which, to be fair, was something she had heard a lot. Whenever the topic of justice came up, she would have a million things to say. Even her own parents grew tired of it. They just so happened to take a few ‘long vacations’ from time to time, never bringing her along.

With that situation resolved, Hei brought the focus back to the main topic.

“You are asking for assistance in identifying the demonic cultivators?”

“I know you have already done a lot, but if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll take my word for it.”

Xiaoli smiled awkwardly.

“It would be best if it could be shown without a doubt.”

“Then I have no such means.”

“Oh… Then, thank you for all your help.”

Xiaoli bowed in thanks and was about to take her leave when she heard another female voice, seemingly coming from that floating jade next to the masked one.

“Oh? And here I thought you would just create one. Haha. I guess even you can’t do everything.”

“Create one? Hmm.”

This was an interesting idea. Hei spoke to Xioali.

“Do you have a place with a wooden desk?”

“Hm?”

“A desk made of wood… and preferably a wooden chair as well.”

“Oh, um, yes, but…”

“I’ll give it a shot.”

“I’m not following.”

“I’ll create a method to uncover demonic cultivators.”

“…”

Xiaoli was left without words.

Yuying, on the other hand, had a lot to say.

“Wait a minute now, I was only playing with you. No one actually expects you to do this.”

“I expect it of myself.”

“No. No… No! People don’t just do that, okay? It’s not a thing. Oh! I get it. Haha. You and your jokes. You might as well write up a cultivation technique while you’re at it, huh? It’s not nice to give people false hope.”

“A cultivation technique?”

“I was only-”

“Why not?”

“…”

With both women left in silence, Honghuo decided to join the party.

“I mean, as long as you’re taking requests, I told you about my lacking comprehension when it comes to breaking through to the minute realm. You remember that?”

“I do.”

“Think you can rustle up some advice for me? Help me break through?”

“What kind of spirit roots do you have?”

“Fire element.”

“Alright.”

“… For real?”

“Mm.”

“…”

Apparently, all one needed to do was mention a crazy idea and this fellow would take it upon himself to realise it…