In the days that followed, Young Master Nan, who almost every day would watch the betting trends from the stands, hadn't seen Miao Dingyi again. However, Lan Qiaoyan and Miao Yilan would occasionally visit every two or three days.

The mother and daughter would not stay long; seeing that the light spot representing Shi Chun on the Mountain River Map had not moved, they'd sit for a while and then leave.

The light spot representing Shi Chun was easy to find, at the edge in a certain direction, completely still as if dead.

Feng Chi, shrouded in her cloak, took notice, and Elder Ke, who was seething with irritation, saw it too. They both had the same guess: those two probably wanted to hold out until the conference was over...

The cave was dark and quiet, while outside, the days passed with the rising and setting of the sun.

Without a sound, Shi Chun, who had been sitting quietly without food or drink for who knows how long, finally opened his eyes again. He slowly ended his cultivation and exhaled a breath of air, a hint of joy in his eyes.

If cultivation could be described in terms of capacity, he felt that a bucket with the size of High Martial Small Success Realm, had now been filled almost a third with water. This was the result of absorbing the demonic flames of Sun Shigang and cultivating.

Such progress was unbelievable, describing it as swift as "a thousand miles in a day" was no exaggeration, especially for someone whose cultivation had been stagnant for two or three years. Deep down, he was ecstatic.

But this method of cultivation had clear disadvantages and advantages. He needed a constant supply of Demonic Qi to absorb; without a source of Demonic Qi, his cultivation would once again fall into stagnation.

He subconsciously thought of Xiang Laner, who was easy to deal with, but then another thought struck him down. Absorbing Xiang Laner would easily sever the connection with the Demon Path and his chance to trace the source of Demon Skills further, essentially cutting off his cultivation resources.

Besides, Xiang Laner's cultivation was not high, and judging by the size and strength of the demonic flames within her, she should be inferior to someone like Sun Shigang.

If a High Martial Small Success Realm cultivation was only a third full, it meant that he would need at least two or three more demon cultivators with Sun Shigang's level of cultivation to help him break through to the Upper Realm. Xiang Laner was simply not significant enough.

He thought of Feng Chi; now, there was someone with formidable cultivation, a perfect target.

Then he thought of Xia Fuli and Elder Xia from Wukang Mountain. If that was a Human Immortal realm expert and happened to be a demon cultivator with demonic flames, he felt a greedy drooling sensation. No, he needed to find an opportunity to open his right eye's superpower and take a good look at Elder Xia.

As he was fantasizing about the bright future, he suddenly sensed something was off. As a member of the Demon Path, why was he always eager to prey on his own kind? Wasn't that a bit unscrupulous?

There was another issue that puzzled him. According to Sun Shigang, only those who cultivated Demon Skills should possess Demonic Qi, so why didn't he have any? Could it be that he wasn't cultivating a Demon Skill? Could he actually be a member of the Righteous Path?

Just as he began to feel a sense of identity confusion, he again felt that he was overthinking it. Given the experience of Feng Chi and the others, it was unlikely they were mistaken, and his cultivation technique did indeed favor Demonic Qi. How could someone from the Righteous Path enjoy Demonic Qi? That would be absurd. He would have to get clarification from Xiang Laner and the others later.

Putting aside his cultivation thoughts for the moment, he reached for the blade beside him, murmuring to himself, "With High Martial cultivation, I should be able to unleash the power of the 'No Demon Blade.' But why does this name feel a bit off? Could it really be due to a lack of education and misunderstanding?"

The fleeting identity confusion rose again in his mind.

Ultimately, he pushed that thought down, lifted the blade, stood up, and flashed towards the cave entrance.

As he charged, he drew his blade from its scabbard with a whoosh and chopped towards the stone wall by the cave entrance.

In the canyon, there sat a large, weathered stone platform, about ten feet high and ten feet wide.

Wu Jinliang, dressed only in underpants and without his coat, was basking in the sun on top, his burly frame and belly shining.

The sun didn't shine long into the canyon. When alone, Wu Jinliang preferred the unrestricted feeling of his attire. Although dressing properly was respectable, it wasn't as comfortable as the dress code in the Land of Exile. At least for now, he was more accustomed to the dress without constraints that he had there.

Being alone and waiting outside for so long was also boring. He, the protector, could neither enter a meditative state for cultivation nor run around freely. Just looking at the sun through the gaps between his fingers was enough to kill time.

In the breezy, whistling canyon, only the sound of the wind could be heard, when suddenly, an unusual disturbance came from the semi-sealed cave entrance; there seemed to be a strange noise.

Bang! The stone wall by the cave entrance suddenly exploded, almost simultaneously with a loud boom.

Stones burst and flew apart, and he quickly lifted his plank-sized blade to shield himself, blocking several flying rocks, ding-ding-dang. In a glance, he also caught sight of a figure rushing out from the cloud of stones.

Shi Chun emerged from the broken hole and landed, examining the edge of his blade, then turned to look back at the dust-filled entrance, just as a gust of wind swept the dust away.

Wu Jinliang, barefoot, grabbed his blade and leaped down to him. The clothes he'd sat on were blown away by the wind, and he hurriedly threw down his blade to chase after them. Clutching his clothes, he came back half-dressed and asked, "Are you out of seclusion? I'm so bored, I'm about to lay an egg."

Shi Chun nodded and asked, "How long have I been in seclusion?"

Wu Jinliang said with exaggerated surprise, "Twenty-four days, not a day more or less; I've been counting the days on my fingers. Including the half month we spent hiding before, that makes thirty-nine days. Add the day we entered here, and it's a total of forty days. The Sky Rain Meteor Conference lasts three months, and we've already been in hiding for over a month. Is there still time to compete for first place?"

He said this in a rapid-fired manner, indicating he was really bursting to talk. He put on his clothes and then looked around for his shoes. Not finding his shoes, he looked up, remembered they were on the large stone seat, turned, and hopped back up to put on his shoes and socks before jumping down again.

Shi Chun replied, "Pick up your blade and take one strike from me."

Wu Jinliang, puzzled, asked, "Why?"

Shi Chun said, "Previously, my cultivation was insufficient to bring out the full power of the blade technique. Let's see how it is now."

Wu Jinliang grinned, picked up his blade with a flex and brandished it single-handedly over his shoulder in a powerful stance. "Come at me," he said.

Shi Chun waved his hand, discarded the scabbard, and following the spell, channeled his cultivation technique into the blade. Suddenly, he dashed forward, dragging the blade up from below in a swift, upward slash.

Wu Jinliang laughed strangely and released a downward chop as heavy as a floodgate.

Clang! The sound of metal thundering echoed through the valley.

Wu Jinliang's smile faded as he hastily retreated, shaking the hand that held his blade. As for the blade itself, it had vanished, spinning into the air and crashing down several yards behind him.

Stopping in his tracks, he looked back at his fallen blade, then turned to Shi Chun, shaking his numb hand in shock and disbelief, "What the hell, what's your cultivation level now?"

If they were both at the High Martial Small Success Realm, such a clash shouldn't have sent his blade flying, nor should it have shaken his grip so strongly.

Not only had his own hefty blade been knocked from his grasp, but it was also flung so far away; he struggled to believe this was the force of someone of the same realm.

Once the numbness in his hand subsided and the pain of a split began to emerge, he looked down and saw a small cut on the base of his thumb. This surprise made him all the more skeptical.

Shi Chun asked, "What realm did you say?"

Wu Jinliang nodded, "Yes, we've both only just broken through recently; we must surely both be in the Small Success Realm." He jumped back, picked up his blade again, and with blade in tow, he ran back, challenging, "I was careless just now. I only used sixty percent of my strength. Let's try again."

Shi Chun pondered and said, "Sixty percent strength? I don't know how powerful that is. I didn't dare use too much strength when testing the blade—I only used thirty percent."

"…" Wu Jinliang stood agape, glanced at the split on his thumb in astonishment, and asked hesitantly, "Chun Tian, are you faking it? Are you putting on an act?"

Shi Chun countered with a question, "When you took that strike of mine, what did you feel?"

He genuinely didn't know about the potency of his blade technique; the cultivation technique he practiced only taught the method, not the power. Uncle Ba, who imparted the cultivation technique to him, had never reached the High Martial realm himself, so he couldn't describe it to Shi Chun, who now had no choice but to explore and understand it by himself.

Given this prompt, Wu Jinliang thought about what he'd felt earlier and suddenly realized, "Now that you mention it, something did feel off. It didn't seem like the regular impact from weapon clashing, how can I put it, I can't quite describe it, but it felt explosive... Yeah, it was like a tremendous force burst right on my blade."

"Explosive, bursting open…" After murmuring and pondering for a while, Shi Chun looked around, then flashed to a relatively flat section of the valley wall, and began to channel his cultivation technique. This time, he first triggered a purple cloud-like mist to swirl by mustering his blood energy.

Only after activating his superpower in his right eye did he fully utilize the Bath Demon Skill through his blade, the vision in both eyes melding to reveal a misty greenish haze covering the blade.

Why was there a greenish mist emanating from his body? Instinctively, he looked down at himself and was captivated by the anomaly at his lower abdomen—within the swirling clouds, a vague silhouette of a Green Lotus shone. It was not the flame of the Demon Path; to his amazement, it was actually a Green Lotus. What the hell was that?

No one could give him an answer.

Wu Jinliang had no idea what Shi Chun was dawdling over, and as he stepped forward, suddenly, Shi Chun burst forward, raising the blade with both hands, and ferociously chopped down on the valley wall.

Boom! A thunderous explosion like a bolt from the blue shattered a large section of the rock face, with countless fractured stones scattering and flying in all directions.

"Damn it…" Wu Jinliang cursed, thankful to have his defensive weapon on hand. He hastily lifted his large, plank-like blade above his head, shrank under it for cover, and then heard a cacophony of clattering impacts. The blade itself vibrated with loud thuds.

When the noise had ceased, he cautiously peeked out from behind his blade to assess the damage. His eyes widened at the sight—a huge hole the size of a house had been blasted into the cliff, surrounded by a network of cracks, with occasional pebbles still falling.

Was this really from his blade? It utterly overturned his understanding of what a blade could do; the damage didn't look like it was caused by a blade. He could accept it if someone said a fist had caused it.

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