When the dust obstructing her field of view finally settled, the red-haired cultivator focused her eyes over a particular rock. “Enjoying an underground tea break by any chance? Show yourself already, or are you really going to force this lady to pluck you out herself?”

She crept forward, timidly walking ahead. She eventually stopped when a plume fired up opposite of her.

The masked-cultivator finally revealed himself. He appeared vigorous on first glance, although his robe had some holes that let bare parts of his skin.

The red-haired cultivator let out a sigh of disappointment; not because her opponent appeared full of vitality, but because his identity was still enshrouded in total mystery. She wondered which material was used to construct that mask, starting to believe that it was harder than diamonds.

The masked cultivator appeared in no hurry as he flexed his ankle. “You are the first genius to push me to this extent. Might as well congratulate you, asshole.” He retracted his left arm behind his back and proceeded by sliding one of his legs backwards. “But don’t start having any delusions, I am in a league of my own.”

He grinned as he waved his weapon twice, seemingly inviting her forward.

She glanced at him for an instant, not losing her composure by his provocative methods. Her body flashed forward, showcasing an unhappy face as her daggers targeted his vitals.

A tooth-irritating sound echoed as her attack was met head-on by his sword.

She didn’t give up. Rotating her daggers, she kept slashing them without relenting, each round more vicious than the previous. Her attacks seemed capable of shredding a column of iron into fine dust, but they were all effortlessly blocked by her opponent. Not only that, but he did so by only using one hand.

Soon realising that close combat was futile, she pulled back away from him.

Heavily panting, she understood that he still wasn’t taking this fight seriously. She clenched her fists, unwilling to accept that there was such a big of a gap in their strengths. She was the strongest disciple of the cult, but this man was just toying with her.

Indeed, the masked cultivator didn’t even bother to chase after her. Instead, he unsheathed his sword, preparing to leave. “This fight is pointless. All you’re good with is exploding stuff. You should consider joining the Palace’s fireworks team, you would fit with them perfectly. Challenge me when you are at least twice as strong as now, though by then I’ll probably be three times stronger than you. I am a mountain you can never overcome, an apex you can never reach, not in this life, and neither in your next.”

The red-haired cultivator frowned as she examined her daggers. Several lines were etched on their metal, clearly damaged by the previous clashes. She knew that her daggers were crafted with durable materials, imbued with the power of a Fusion Realm Expert. She quickly assumed that her opponent had a type of essence that allowed him to leave a cut on anything he hits.

For a moment she stared blankly, the next moment she suddenly disappeared in thin air.

The Masked Cultivator wasn’t expecting this development. He recalled how she had merged with the barrier earlier, so he skyrocketed upwards.

Hovering in the air, he lowered his gaze. “Silly tricks will not—”

Before he could notice, two arms wrapped around him from behind.

“Gotcha.” The red-haired cultivator was all smiles as she held him tight, proceeding by digging her teeth inside his lower neck.

The masked cultivator groaned with pain. His qi soared, shaking his body left and right, struggling to release himself from her grasp. When he assumed he couldn’t shake her off, he tried summoning a martial art but suddenly felt his conscious waning.

“Ugh...” His skin turned red, beads of sweat forming under his mask. His breath became heavier as he felt her body pressing against his back, tighter and tighter. From his fixed position, he could see her hair sliding down onto his chest, the smell of feminine fragrance infiltrating his nostrils.

“You are not the only one with awesome abilities, masky boy…” She stopped biting down on him, instead hugging her head against his face, her lips almost touching his mask.

“Feeling hot, aren’t you? My body has been tempered by poison since the first day I was born. Now close your mouth and enjoy the last few moments of your life; not everyone has the luck to die in such a beautiful fashion.”

The masked cultivator was fuming internally. This lass was clearly much weaker than him, but she was one hell of a trickster. “The one.... who will die... is you...”

She wasn’t amused by his reaction. On the contrary, she had taken a strange liking to his arrogance. “Earlier, you told me that there are mountains that I cannot climb, summits that I cannot reach. That may be true, but what’s the point of trying to climb a mountain when you can blast it out of the way? What’s the point of trying to reach an apex, when you can destroy its foundation? Wouldn’t the apex come down crumbling below your feet?”

She grabbed him by his mask like a goddess ready to pass judgement, proclaiming her favourite martial art.

“1st Art: Beam of blood.”

A red beam fired from her arms, smashing his mask into smithereens and sending his dying body slumping downwards. The impact generated a localised shockwave, strong enough to cause a nearby cliff to partially collapse.

Victorious, she dropped down, clearly exhausted. Merging with the air was cool and all, but it consumed almost all of her essence’s power. Her face appeared vacant as she stared sideways, watching the aftermath of their battle. The nearby landscape was completely unrecognisable.

She sighed. “It’s over, sooner than I expected.” She waved her hair on the side, using both hands to brush through it. “Today is the day the Empire is humiliated, the day our Blood of Cult rises. Mother, Aunt… consider this my first repayment for all the efforts you have invested in me.”

With her first objective achieved, she briefly thought about the arduous journey that laid ahead of her. She had a tough mission to fulfil, but it was too early for her to worry about that. She had a long way to go before she obtained Divinity and ascended to the higher realms.

Face full of joy, she couldn’t wait to share the news of her victory with her fellow companions. She had already flown away a couple of metres when a nearby explosion sent shivers running through her spine.

She almost choked on her own saliva as she turned around, her face full of incredulity. “Im-im-impossible! He’s still alive?!”

There was nobody who knew better than her how lethal her poisons were. Her body couldn’t stop shaking as she watched a young man approach her.

The male before her laughed out like a maniac. Amidst his laughter, different parts of his body would occasionally emit white smoke, dispelling out toxic liquids in the process.

Finally catching a full glimpse of his face, she couldn’t believe her eyes. “You are ‘The tornado of the Four Winds’! The fourth Prince of the Empire, Dong Li!”

“Yep, his royal highness here, right in the flesh.” Grinning, he pointed his sword towards her. “This fight, you shouldn’t have started it. You ought to have escaped when I showed you mercy, not trying to bite off more than you could chew. You have overestimated your abilities, and this will be the consequence of your tragic fate.”

He moved ahead, unrestricted. “What is this that I see, the face of a coward? What happened to that face that was acting so tough just a moment ago? Life is full of decisions my lady, and choices always come with consequences. I can say that you handle yours pretty badly.”

Now that his identity has been exposed, there was no point in hiding specific techniques. He raised his sword, its tip shining brighter than a star. The aura of an 11th Qi Seeking Realm exploded outwards, swallowing everything in an enclosed perimeter, including his opponent who seemed to have lost her will to continue this fight.

About to fire his deadly attack, his movements suddenly froze midway. He frowned, slipping his irises at the edges. Soon, lines of confusion formed on his forehead. He immediately annulled his attack, instead turning around, awaiting the rushing presence to come into view.

The red-haired cultivator appeared relieved by this sudden development. She wanted to use this opportunity to run away, but when she glanced at the same direction he was facing, she immediately understood the reason why he had stopped.

Another cultivator had appeared.

A dull face that lacked blood, a familiar young man. He had a grey robe that fitted perfectly against his body, the lower part stained by patches of fresh blood. His hands held no weapons but were terrifying nonetheless, because seized tight between his fingers were the severed heads of two cultivators.

Dong Li appeared perplexed. Usually, the other competitors would run with their tails between their legs once they came into contact with the strongest two. But this man came out in the open, clearly unafraid of the consequences. Bizarrely enough, he also happened to be the weakest one, a ridiculous 5th Qi Seeking Realm Expert.

Glancing with utmost attention, Dong Li identified the two heads as pertaining to cultivators from the Desert Tribes, both 8th Qi Seeking Realm Experts. He had already conjured a number of theories, but all of them arrived at the same conclusion that this particular scenario shouldn’t be happening.

Dong Li’s frown deepened, not daring to remove his examining eyes from the intruder. He could sense that there was something peculiar about this man’s aura. Also, why did he had a strange feeling that this was not the first time that he had met him face-to-face?

“You there, what is the meaning of this? Was it really you who killed those two?”

The grey-robbed cultivator didn’t respond to his questions, neither did he react to their gazes. Instead, he released his grip.

The two heads dropped down, hitting the ground with two soft thuds. They kept rolling on themselves, their lives long snuffed away.