He remained silent before speaking, "I am sorry but... It is related to my past which I wouldn’t want to talk about." Both remained silent for a brief moment before Yue nodded in understanding. Some matters were personal, after all, and everyone had their own past and their own ways of dealing with them, so she didn’t ask any further questions and instead turned her attention back toward the Demon lying on the ground behind her.
Qing also turned toward the Demon, and seeing its weakened state, he quickly understood that Senior Yue had already dealt with it. Since he couldn’t take her own sword, he decided to ask for another one as she must have a few stored inside her Storage Ring, "Senior Yue, Can I get a sword?"
Yue looked at his calm expression for a moment before taking out a long sword from her Storage Ring and handing it to him. Qing took the sword by its hilt, and the moment his hand touched it, his passive Talent, Ultimate Comprehension, immediately took effect. In a single instant, countless memories and experiences belonging to the previous wielders of the weapon appeared in his mind, allowing him to understand how each of them had used the sword throughout their lives, but Qing ignored those memories for now because there was something else he wanted to deal with first.
He stepped past Yue, making her turn around and watch him walk toward the writhing Demon. When Qing was only a few inches away from it, he crouched down in front of the Demon and looked directly into its terrified eyes, his voice low and cold as he spoke, "How dare a shitty Demon like you make me remember those things..."
The Demon trembled when it heard his voice, its feminine appearance doing nothing to hide the terror in its eyes because it still remembered the terrifying Killing Intent Qing had released inside its Illusion. Even though Qing had been affected by the Illusion, the amount of Killing Intent he had released had been far beyond anything it expected from someone at the Qi Refining Realm, and the Demon clearly understood that the person standing before it was far more dangerous than his current Cultivation suggested.
Qing raised the sword without hesitation and swung it from behind.
"Die."
The blade passed through the Demon’s neck, cleanly severing its head from its body, and its writhing body immediately went limp. The moment Qing killed the Demon, the familiar mechanical voice of the System rang inside his mind.
[Host has Killed a Lesser Demon!]
[+10 Soul Essence gained!]
Qing stared at the System Window for a moment before remembering the description of Soul Essence. ’Hmm, I had forgotten about this, but isn’t ten Soul Essence too little?’ He thought back to the functions of Soul Essence and quickly remembered that it could be used for more than simply improving Techniques and Skills, ’It said I can advance Cultivation Stages as well... System, How much Soul Essence is needed to advance to Peak Qi Refining?’
The System responded without delay.
[Advancing to Peak Qi Refining will require fifty Soul Essence at once.]
Qing nodded internally as he understood the requirement. Ten Soul Essence from a Lesser Demon wasn’t much, but it still represented progress, and if stronger Demons gave him more Soul Essence, then killing them could eventually become an important method of advancing his Cultivation. He didn’t think too much about it because there was still a more immediate problem in front of him.
Qing stood up and turned toward Yue before saying, "Now we should quickly destroy the Core, Senior Yue."
Yue, who was watching Qing kill the Demon in a daze, finally came out of her reverie before nodding, "Yes, you are right, let’s quickly destroy that now."
With that, both turned toward the floating crystal-shaped Rune in the center of the clearing, which was continuously being supplied with Spiritual Energy from all directions through the Energy Circulation Formation. They were surrounded by dense forest, while the area around the Rune was a large clearing where the grass had already been burned to ashes, and Qing narrowed his eyes as he carefully observed the Formation.
’Only a Lesser Demon would never guard this kind of Formation. It’s an Eight-Star Formation, which means that Demon was just some kind of bait to lure us near the Core and ambush us horribly.’
Qing turned toward Yue and noticed from her expression that she had already reached the same conclusion. He didn’t need to ask whether she had realized it because her calm expression had changed slightly after seeing the Formation, so with nothing but a thought, Qing immediately connected Yue with his Spiritual Transmission Technique.
It was a Technique he had learned in his previous life where Spiritual Energy waves were used to transfer thoughts directly to another person. The detailed process behind the Technique was far more complicated and usually required hours of practice to perfect, but because of Ultimate Comprehension, Qing understood the entire process in an instant and was able to execute the Technique without difficulty.
’Senior Yue, Directly appear before the Core and guard me when I defuse the defensive Formation.’
Yue arched an eyebrow when Qing’s voice suddenly appeared inside her mind, clearly startled by the unexpected Spiritual Transmission. However, she quickly regained her composure because she had already been surprised by everything Qing had shown her until now. What still made her curious was how he intended to appear directly before the Core, because she could do that easily with her speed, but Qing’s current Cultivation was nowhere near enough to move that quickly.
Before she could think any further, Qing took a step and vanished.
Yue’s eyes widened as she immediately felt Qing’s presence shift toward the Core. Her gaze turned toward that direction, and she saw that Qing was already standing there before she could even properly react. However, before she could become any more surprised, three Demons suddenly appeared and charged toward Qing from three different directions, forcing Yue to immediately put aside her questions and move.
In the next breath, Yue appeared behind Qing with her sword already out of its sheath, and she slowly began sheathing it again without showing any unnecessary movement. The three Demons charging toward Qing suddenly stopped in their tracks, and the next moment, all three of their heads fell to the ground one after another, followed by their bodies collapsing onto the ground.
Qing turned only once toward the scene before narrowing his eyes. ’She really is talented. To execute the Nine Lotus Steps and the Fifth Chapter Technique from Blossom Slash at the same time is well beyond an ordinary genius or talent.’ What Qing had seen wasn’t actually Yue’s movements themselves because his current Cultivation was far too weak for him to follow them, but he had felt what happened when she moved, and that sensation was enough for his Ultimate Comprehension to identify the Techniques.
The feeling of nine Lotus flowers emerging behind her when she executed the Technique immediately reminded him of his Master and allowed him to recognize it as the Nine Lotus Steps from the Nine Lotus Sect. As for the sword movements, he also couldn’t follow them with his eyes, but the moment he saw the cuts on the Demons’ heads, he instantly recognized the sword Technique as another high-grade manual Technique from the Sect.
Qing didn’t waste any more time thinking about it and finally got to work. He placed his attention on the Formation surrounding the Core, and with Ultimate Comprehension, it didn’t even take him two seconds to completely decipher its structure and understand how it could be deactivated.
’Now Senior Yue just needs to destroy the defensive layer formed by the Formation itself and then the Core!’
Just as Qing finished that thought, something suddenly struck his mind and caused his eyes to widen, ’No way—!’ His face instantly became pale as he swallowed hard, because there was only one reason for the sudden realization. The Demons hidden inside the spatial folds will still be able to enter this place.
Qing immediately turned toward Yue and shouted, "Senior Yue! Those Demons hiding in the spatial folds might now come inside here! Destroy this defensive layer and the Core before they come—!"
Before he could finish his sentence, space several meters ahead of them suddenly began to distort. A portal appeared in the middle of the clearing, followed by another portal opening beside it, and then another one appeared a short distance away. Within only a few moments, the number of portals rapidly increased until hundreds of them had filled the surrounding area.
Qing’s expression became grim as he stared at the portals spreading throughout the spatial domain. From every portal, several dozen Demons began emerging, and they weren’t limited to a single Rank. Lesser Demons appeared first, followed by Common and Rare Demons, while from a few of the portals came...The Elite Demons.
A simple miscalculation on Qing’s part...had brought disaster in its wake.