"Haha! Dodge girl, dodge! Be honored that you will fall to my Speed Duplication Array!"

Tao Mu let out a flurry of attacks at speeds barely visible to Su Jia's eyes. With each swing and stab he performed, a random clone within the ring would do the exact same thing. It was as if she were constantly fighting two Tao Mu's at once!

Su Jia cried out in pain as she received multiple cuts all over her body. Her purple dress was torn and her beautiful face was now covered with red scars.

"Agh! You'll pay for that!" Su His swung her sword violently at the clones surrounding her. Unfortunately, the clones were unaffected as her blade passed through them as if it was cutting air.

"What? These aren't actually clones?"

Tao Mu let out a wry smile.

"That's right. Though it might not seem like it, the beings you see before you are not corporeal clones. They are merely afterimages formed through movements I can only perform when I have activated my virtue of speed."

"This is... The virtue of speed...?"

"Mmm... Over the years, I have refined my speed to the point my enlightenment of the concept itself reached a great height. After reaching that level of mastery I discovered that I could establish it as one of my three virtues."

Simultaneously, every single afterimage pointed their spears towards the injured Su Jia.

"Now that I have integrated it into my dao, my speed has ascended to even greater heights!"

All together, Tao Mu and his clones thrusted their spears. Just as they were about to impale Su Jia, a translucent light came from out of nowhere and entered her body.

Su Jia's entire body began to glow orange and her cultivation skyrocketed. All the afterimages disappeared as she reached out and grabbed Tao Mu's spear, which was mere inches from piercing her heart.

"This power... It's virtue!" Tao Mu gasped.

Su Jia roared as she sheathed her sword and delivered a hard punch into Tao Mu's face. Tao Mu was sent flying towards the castle like a wayward firework. His body crashed through the top floor and completely collapsed it.

The guards spectating below were horrified.

"Lord Overseer!"

"Impossible! That girl actually injured Lord Overseer?!"

-----------------

"Well it looks like sister Su Jia is doing well." Yu Zhuwa said happily, hearing the commotion outside.

He was currently hiding within the shadow of the black leopard who was currently being rid by Yin Hui. With the help of it and the other six leopards, they had already cleared out seventy percent of the cultivators inside the castle.

At this point, the seven leopards could be considered as the third strongest beings in the entire fortress. The black leopard was the strongest, now having the strength of a mid-stage Spirit Manifestation cultivator that had just broken through. While not as strong as their leader, the other six were strong as well, with each of them being able hold their own against an early Spirit Manifestation cultivator.

Yin Hui had gotten more powerful as well. His improvement wasn't as great as the leopards, but nonetheless his strength had increased exponentially. By now, the amount of Spirit Waking souls he had consumed were well over 200. Not only did this result in his qi reserves reaching the peak of Spirit Waking, but he had actually surpassed it! At least in terms of base attributes, it was safe to say that Yin Hui was now the strongest Spirit Waking cultivator in existence!

"I've never reaped this many benefits in my life before! What an amazing feeling! While my arsenal of techniques may be lacking, I'd say I am unmatched when it comes to Spirit Waking cultivators!"

Suddenly, an enormous pressure filled the area. The seven leopards stopped in their tracks and gathered in a tight wedge formation. Despite reaching mid-stage Spirit Manifestation, the black leopard was on high alert, which meant that the opponent before them must've been at least that level as well.

Walking out of a dark doorway, a burly man wearing tattered robes that completely exposed his upper body approached them. On both of his arms were two golden wrist guards that stopped just before his elbows. Having had a glimpse of the finale between Su Jia's fight back in the forest, as soon as Yin Hui saw the golden wrist guards he knew who the man before him was.

"You're the overseer's right hand man are you not? The one they call Lord Kai." Yin Hui said coldly.

"Most impressive. I did not think that a couple Spirit Waking cultivators like you would be able to cause so much trouble on your own. Then again, you are a demonic cultivator. I can tell just by looking at these beasts that they have been corrupted with some kind of terrible demonic spell. How impatient are you to submit to the demonic path at such an early point in your cultivation."

"You don't know anything about me." Yin Hui scoffed.

"Indeed, I don't know anything about you. In fact, I don't need to know. You are my enemy and will be shown no mercy. My father will strike that girl down, just as I will be the one to strike you down." Tao Kai tapped his bag of holding and a set of gold armor appeared. The armor attached itself to him as if it had a mind of its own until he was covered from head to toe in gold.

"The overseer of this border, and elder of the Tao Clan, is your father?" Yin Hui asked.

"The defensive properties of this armor are lacking compared to the Golden Bull Wrist Guards from the Tang Clan. However, it is still at a level where your spirit beasts will not be able to penetrate it!" Tao Kai ignored Yin Hui's question and assumed an aggressive stance. However, this alone was enough of a confirmation for Yin Hui, who clenched his fists tightly.

Tao Kai charged at full speed towards Yin Hui and the seven leopards. As he advanced, every leopard with the exception of the black one sprung into action.

"Futile!"

The six leopards let out miserable howls as Tao Kai viciously beat them down. Protected by his golden armor, their claws and fangs were completely ineffective.

After beating the last leopard into unconsciousness, Tao Kai turned around only to be hit by a full power Wind Bullet.

With the amount of practice he had against the masses of cultivators throughout the castle, accompanied by his bolstered qi reserves, Yin Hui no longer required any charge up time to use the Wind Bullet at it's maximum force.

Unfortunately, no matter how many he fired, Tao Kai was completely unfazed. Charging through the Wind Bullet, Tao Kai threw out a strong punch towards him. However, just before his fist made contact, the black leopard activated it's smoke ability, causing his body to turn into smoke and the punch to pass through him.

"Interesting, an ability that turns the user and whoever is riding it into intangible smoke. Too bad this is not enough to stop me!"

Reaching into his bag of holding once more, Tao Kai took out a gourd with five symbols engraved on the surface. Each symbol represented one of the five elements, with the fire symbol being a flame and the water symbol being a wave.

Removing the cork at the top of the gourd, a strong suction force emerged and began to suck in all the black smoke.

The black leopard howled as its smoke-like body was pulled into the gourd. It tried to turn back into its physical form, but it seemed like the gourd had some kind of spell that prevented it from doing so.

"Damn it! No!" Yin Hui shouted in defiance, but it was no use. Jumping off the the leopards back, his body began to turn back into its normal form.

Zap~

However as soon as he materialized, Tao Kai shot out two beams of light from his eyes that pierced Yin Hui's chest.

"Gak!" Yin Hui coughed out a glob of blood as he fell back down onto the leopards back. Since his body was on the black leopard, he began to transform into smoke once more.

"Yu Zhuwa... Run..." Yin Hui muttered before being completely sucked into the gourd.

While Yin Hui and the black leopard were being pulled into the gourd, Yu Zhuwa took the opportunity to move into another shadow. He heard Yin Hui's words and despite being reluctant, scurried away deeper into the castle.

"I don't think so." Smashing his foot hard on the ground, Tao Kai collapsed the ceiling, allowing light to shine on the whole area.

Without any shadows to hide in, Yu Zhuwa was revealed.

"A kid? I don't enjoy dirtying my hands with children, but I'll make sure your end will be quick and painless." Tao Kai picked up a giant piece of rubble with both his hands and slowly walked over to Yu Zhuwa.

"Stay away!" Yu Zhuwa said fearfully. He fired a Wind Bullet at the rubble in Tao Kai's hand, shattering it into many large chunks and spreading them onto the floor..

"Bad choice boy. That rock could have smashed your head in instantly so that you would have felt no pain. However, if you want to be slowly beaten to death then that's fine by me."

Yu Zhuwa froze in place as Tao Kai approached him. It was as if fear had completely paralyzed his entire being. Within a few short breaths Tao Kai was right in front of him, bringing his fist back.

"Any last words while you can still speak boy? Hmm?" Now that he was face to face with Yu Zhuwa, Tao Kai noticed that the child before him was actually glowing.

"I've seen big brother Yin Hui use it many times. If I could master the Wind Bullet then I can do this as well. At this range and with this much light, I cannot fail!"

In an instant, a bright flash of light erupted from Yu Zhuwa's body. Tao Kai covered his eyes as he was blinded by the sudden flash.

The distraction only lasted for a moment, but it gave Yu Zhuwa enough time to hide himself within one of the shadows created by the rubble he scattered with his earlier attack. When Tao Kai regained his senses, Yu Zhuwa was nowhere to be found.

"What a clever brat..."