The thing was squirming and screaming around while a weird dark and red liquid flowed out from its bulging veins. It was disgusting. Even if he was Cao Lei's champion, and belonged to the dark path, this made for quite the horrible sight even to him. He hoped that the membrane would disappear soon so that he could end this thing quickly. The sight and the noise were both irritating in a nasty way.

It took less than a minute for the barrier to disappear this time. It was faster than during his previous battle. Maybe because there were less contestants overall? Didn't matter much.

He didn't hesitate to take out the sword and activate it. And he sent a torrent of ghost souls forward to attack the convulsing atrocity in front of him. However, just as the ghosts came in contact with it, he felt himself losing contact with them. He could still see them but he couldn't feel the link he previously had with them through the sword. Then, he witnessed something he would have never ever thought possible. The ghosts turned around and rushed towards him. They rushed at their master.

And seeing as they were quite bloodthirsty, he quickly deduced that they were out for his own blood. He sent another wave of ghosts at the first one that seemed to have betrayed him. However, he was in for a surprise once more. Not only did the new ghosts not finish off the first ones but they even turned sides as well.

He whispered incredulously: "What the fucking fuck..."

Still, he wasn't dumb. Since using ghosts was proving itself to be a problem, he wouldn't send any more. He didn't want to add to his own opponents for no reasons. The sealed ghosts within the sword were his primary weapons but they weren't the only ones. The sword itself was a powerful artifact. Related to souls, it absorbed them. Be it a dead soul, namely a ghost, or a living soul from a living being, it would absorb them. And so, the only thing he needed to do was to slash the ghosts that rushed at him.

He was the weakest of the champions that made it to the final one on one part of the trial but the weakest dragon was still far stronger than the strongest ant. Ghosts who had neither intelligence nor awareness and went at him mindlessly weren't a threat. There weren't that many either since he had only sent a testing salve at first.

If there had been millions, he would have died without a doubt. But a few hundred was doable. It forced him to move himself but he was hardly in a state where he couldn't so. He ended up slightly exhausted after he finished with the clean-up.

Meanwhile, he hadn't noticed it before but he did now. The painful cries of his opponent stopped some time ago. It was too late however as a spear was already moving towards his heart from behind him.

A shield made of hundreds of ghosts appeared to block the spear. The impact rang loudly. But neither of the champions had been hurt. While Cao Lei's champion hadn't managed to react, his sword did. This thing had a slight awareness of itself and its bearer. It was a grade 6 treasure after all.

That being said, he had quickly noticed the surprise attack and didn't waste time either. He jumped forward a few times while turning around. He saw his opponent, seemingly in a healthy state.

Now that the veins retracted, he could distinguish the being to be a man. But there was something else. A side of his body wasn't human. Was he a sentient beast? No. He didn't recall any sentient looking like this...Wait. He remembered this man. He saw him before and he didn't have that kind of weird side back then. It was something that happened during the trial. But what could it be? Well, there were many strange things in this trial. All kinds of things had been brought out by the champions...

Still, he did not know what it was. It wasn't that he didn't know of the corruption element but that he had never seen it. That was why he didn't recall it. Then again, he didn't think his opponent would kindly tell him if he asked either. He could only find out by himself.

Surprisingly, he heard his opponent say: "It's good that we met, luck seems to be on my side"

It infuriated him. Who was this fucker to be this arrogant? Did he know him? Did he think he was weak? He would give him a state of his power! See if he would still be arrogant by then.

He was getting ready to send out another wave of ghosts but recalled that when he did previously, the ghosts changed sides. It was a possibility that this man had a trick that enabled him to take control of those ghosts... It might be risky to use them.

However, before he could decide on a plan, Jin had rushed at him with his spear forward. He blocked clumsily with his sword as best he could but was still sent flying a dozen meters. As he flew, he began to get scared. The might behind that spear was too great. It was miles beyond his own ability. He couldn't face this kind of expert head-on.

He was too weak.

But he was aware of it.

So, he made up his mind. As he saw the spearman approaching, he took out the gourd and sent the sword within. He didn't even want to take the risk of trying to defeat him. He would simply seal him like that shitty dragon and be done with it.

At least, he would not end up with any injuries if he did that. There was no need to take any risks when there was such an easy way out!