Be the Hardest Working Demon Cultivator!

The dim haze, faint yet perceptible, interwove itself among the nearby mountain peaks, forests, and even the clouds on the horizon, such that the wind blowing also carried a hint of grey.

"What kind of magic is this?" Zhao Huaiji was startled. He had practiced for nearly a hundred years, had traveled extensively across most of the Jiawu Realm in his early years, and had even ventured to the Land of Yin and Darkness once to retrieve the soul of an elder ancestor. Therefore, by any account, he was considered highly experienced, but he had never heard of such transformative magic.

Even the Shadow Retaining Immortal Secret Tome of the demon sect’s leader from those years was merely about countless shadows, yet its core was still human.

Yet now, this lad had completely lost his human form.

"Hmph! Nothing more than the tricks of deviants and heretics!"

But immediately after, Zhao Huaiji showed a disdainful expression because he had immense confidence in the sword in his hand.

He raised his sword vertically.

"Sword arise!"

Instantly, like an overwhelming wave, the sword’s momentum scattered, as if a mountain had suddenly descended, shattering the earth and crushing the trees around into rubble on the ground.

And the grey-colored wind was also dispersed with it.

Sword momentum is another versatile tool for Sword Cultivators besides Sword Qi, capable of saving lives, taking lives, and even evolving into a Sword Array.

At this moment, as Zhao Huaiji released the sword momentum he had cultivated for decades, this place momentarily seemed sharp and exposed, as a dazzling light directly pierced through the heavens.

This was the fusion of countless Sword Qi.

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The next instant, it seemed as though numerous Sword Qi burst forth, and the terrifying intent to kill appeared almost tangible.

Man harbors killing intent, heaven and earth respond!

However, the eerie part was that just as the Sword Qi flew out, they vanished into thin air.

Drops of blood were seen falling; at some point, a cloud of blood had enveloped the skies above Zhao Huaiji, and simultaneously, blood gushed forth from nowhere, turning the area into what seemed like a lake of blood.

"Sword arrives!"

Zhao Huaiji’s voice sounded again, then a gigantic sword shadow, as large as a mountain, completely obliterated the lake of blood.

"Senior Zhao has remarkable Divine Skills," Tan Shuchang’s voice of admiration rose, but in the very moment his praise ended, Zhao Huaiji’s body was shockingly split into two halves.

The gigantic sword shadow Zhao Huaiji had cast, unbeknownst to him, had landed upon himself.

In the state of not dying from fresh blood, if the Blood Pool has already been summoned, then when the body suffers a fatal hit, the injury can be directly transferred to the opponent.

And this was precisely why Tan Shuchang called this Divine Skill — the Embodiment of Tribulation Crossing.

Although this was an ability he inherently had, without this Divine Skill as a bridge, Tan Shuchang wouldn’t have been able to use it without paying any price.

"It’s evident, Senior Zhao is a qualified Sword Cultivator, one with the Sword Dao of selflessness," Tan Shuchang reappeared, his complexion slightly pale but returned to normal after a few breaths. As he looked at Zhao Huaiji, now thoroughly dead, a slight smile appeared on his lips, and thus he remarked in a calm tone.

Because next, he could search the body.

When he had ascended earlier, he distinctly felt that Zhao Huaiji had many valuable items on him. It seemed that this individual, planning to follow the Son of the Heavenly Mandate down the mountain, had brought along all he could.

Tan Shuchang snapped his fingers, and instantly, invisible force sharp as a knife slashed the sleeves of Zhao Huaiji’s.

These sleeves were already on the verge of being unable to maintain the Sleeve Art within them because of Zhao Huaiji’s death, so when Tan Shuchang casually snapped his fingers, quite a few items rolled out.

The largest was about the size of an infant six to seven months old, while the smallest was a token-sized object about three fingers wide and an inch long.

Thinking the smallest item was a token from Mount Tutelage, Tan Shuchang started examining the other items first. Soon, he had collected a sword manual called "Wild Dog Sword," a bottle of elixirs enhancing cultivation prowess, three thousand supreme profound seals, a top-grade spirit-commanding magic artifact sword, and twelve useful talismans.

The most precious among them was the rather uninspiringly named sword manual "Wild Dog Sword," which surprisingly had no connection to dogs.

The sword manual itself had no distinctive features, looking just like a common book; however, upon opening it, Tan Shuchang’s mind was suddenly filled with the image of a person.

This person first remained silent for a moment and then began to expound on the Sword Dao to him.

Unsurprisingly, this was probably prepared for the Son of the Heavenly Mandate.

After storing away these items, Tan Shuchang then turned his attention to the token, and upon inspecting it, he couldn’t help but pause because the token bore a ghastly, ferocious ghostly face.

He then flipped the token over, and there were two complicated symbols on the back.

Although unfamiliar, Tan Shuchang knew what these symbols represented—they were ancient characters from the Land of Yin and Darkness.

It was said that only the dead could understand and learn them.

"Why would senior Zhao have a token from the Land of Yin and Darkness?" Tan Shuchang felt this token must symbolize something significant in the Land of Yin and Darkness.

So he decided to wait until the next time that eerie game invited him over, then find a fierce ghost to help him examine this token.

After storing the token as well, Tan Shuchang looked at the bisected corpse and couldn’t help but shake his head.

"Senior Zhao met such a fate, your body must be quite uncomfortable. Here’s what, I’ll leave you a few hundred supreme profound seals; after you descend, find a skilled old lady to stitch you up!"

Tan Shuchang felt he was quite generous, akin to a bandit leaving travel money for his victims, deeply respecting the martial world’s ethos.

As for destroying the corpse to remove traces?

He cast a few hundred supreme profound seals here, and others would take care of it for him.

When he had split Zhao Huaiji with that sword, it wasn’t a clean cut but a bloody and mangled one, and if he hadn’t killed the man himself, Tan Shuchang wouldn’t have recognized him as Zhao Huaiji.

Using the long staff, he forcibly gathered the nearby malevolent spirits into a column of black smoke, and Tan Shuchang once more set off toward the challenge site.

Because Zhao Huaiji had tried to stop him, and because this method of travel was rather ordinary, by the time Tan Shuchang arrived, the Son of the Heavenly Mandate was already there.

Standing with his hands behind his back on a lone peak was Long Zhangyuan.

As the mountain wind blew, it made Long Zhangyuan’s long hair flutter and his sleeve cuffs rustle with the wind.

"You’ve finally come," Long Zhangyuan said indifferently, "I thought you weren’t going to show up."

"How could Tan Someone rudely fail to appear when the Son of the Heavenly Mandate of Mount Tutelage extends an invitation?" Tan Shuchang greeted with a cupped fist salute, his demeanor calm, even sporting a slight smile.

Showing no hostility, nor mentioning Zhao Huaiji, as if he truly had just been delayed.