A Demon's Path Chapter 38

Cheng Qiantai shook his head. "Our luck isn't quite that bad. But our next opponent is also very strong."

Li Yuanhuan breathed out deeply in relief. As long as it wasn't that boy in white who wantonly killed his opponents, he had full confidence in Ling Xiao. "Which group is it?"

Cheng Qiantai stroked his short beard and said, "It's the Sunken Wind Valley's preparatory team."

"What? Since when do they have a team competing?" Li Yuanhuan yelped in surprise.

"It's not just one, but two. One of them got paired up with us," said Cheng Qiantai.

Li Yuanhuan flared up in anger. "Why, Master? Could it be that the Sunken Wind Valley wants to snatch first place for their own? Everyone knows we're not their match! How can we be? Us smaller sects don't have Strength Soul martial techniques that can compare with theirs."

Cheng Qiantai sat down and took his tea cup from the table before habitually taking a sip. "With the absence of a few sects there weren't enough teams. So, the Sunken Wind Valley decided to form two interim preparatory teams to make up the numbers. The members of these two preparatory teams are the children of Elders from the Sunken Wind Valley. They should be about as strong as the white robed youngster."

Li Yuanhuan's interest perked up when the white robed youngster was mentioned. "Master, which sect is that white robed youngster from?"

Cheng Qiantai's expression twisted a little. "I heard he's the grandson of Sect Master Li Xuanyi from Heavenly River City who doesn't think very highly of him. His name is Li Yuanchong. He was placed under Elder Ma Changchun of the Sunken Wind Valley. Elder Ma Changchun is a reclusive person, but is vicious when he acts. He raises Li Yuanchong as his own, spending many hours each day training him. Li Yuanchong is representing himself in battle this time around only because he wants to prove to his grandfather that he isn't the worst of the lot."

They didn't know when Ling Xiao had emerged from his room, but he had. "Master, this guy's name is very similar to Senior Brother's. The only difference in their names is their last syllable. It can't be that Senior Brother is also Li Xuanyi's grandson, right?"

Cheng Qiantai chuckled and said, "Boy, you're finally willing to come out? I took your Senior Brother in as my own when he was only three years old. He's an orphan. How could he be Li Xuanyi's grandson?"

Ling Xiao foolishly laughed and went back into hiding.

Li Yuanhuan looked around helplessly. "Master, what do you think is wrong with Junior Brother Ling?"

Cheng Yu rolled her eyes. "What do you think? Isn't it obvious? He's scared!"

Once Ling Xiao closed the door behind him, a strangely ominous glint shone in his eyes. That boy is actually Li Xuanyi's grandson! That man viewed my life as worthless, lower than grass. I never would've thought his grandson is already so old.

A plan slowly formulated in Ling Xiao's mind. He would kill Li Xuanyi's grandson whatever the cost and repay some of his interest to his Master, Ancestor Qi Mo. He slowly let go of the hint of unease in his heart. Fortunately, Senior Brother isn't part of the Li Family. I really don't know how to face him if he was.

After thinking it over, Ling Xiao exhaled deeply and returned to his bed. He sat down and continued cultivating with his door firmly locked. This time, his goal was to fuse his celestial and demonic Heavenly Soul together, both of which used his mental strength.

Contrary to Ling Xiao's expectations, the token didn't reject his Heavenly twin soul fusion this time around. His celestial and demonic Heavenly Soul naturally fused together just like how he had previously fused his Spiritual Wisdom Soul.

The image of Li Yuanchong splitting into three carbon copies continuously played in Ling Xiao's mind during the fusion. He did his absolute best to create a clear view of this martial arts form, but all he could conjure was a series of badly damaged images.

However, this was enough.

His Ghostly Roundabouts and Spatial Alteration were two spatial techniques that seemed to be unrelated. Ling Xiao's twin souls acted as a catalyst for the two spatial techniques to fuse with Ling Xiao's analysis on Li Yuanchong's martial arts technique in the token. The fusion formed a strange spatial technique which Ling Xiao named the Ghostly Transformation Step.

More accurately speaking, this technique was a martial arts technique. It had both the abilities of the Spatial Alteration and the Ghostly Roundabouts. He could now confuse his opponents by turning his body indistinct, while also dashing to their side in the blink of an eye.

Where Li Yuanchong could split himself into only three, Ling Xiao could split himself into countless images of himself!

Ling Xiao sighed deeply when the Heavenly Souls from both his soul chains assimilated to the top of his head. He knew he no longer needed to extract the power of his Heavenly Soul from his soul chains if he wanted to use the power of his spatial techniques.

Afterwards, Ling Xiao planned to fuse another soul. He tried to feed the token his Elemental Souls. But just like before, it firmly rejected Ling Xiao's attempt in fusing a second time.

"What's wrong? Why won't it fuse like before?" Ling Xiao couldn't make heads or tails of the matter as he carefully recalled the process of how he fused his Heavenly Souls only a moment ago. Li Yuanchong's martial arts technique had stimulated him, both the technique itself and the viciousness with which Li Yuanchong performed it. On top of that, Ling Xiao's mind was thrown into disarray when he recalled the look in Li Yuanchong's eyes.

Ling Xiao then recalled the process of how he fused his Spiritual Wisdom Souls. That was because two yellow ranked Celestial Soul Masters had attacked him and he'd used a spiritual attack after being backed into a corner.

Could it be that he needed an external stimulus before he could fuse his souls?

Ling Xiao felt as though he'd discovered the trick behind fusing his twin souls. He was happy at first, but soon helplessly realized that finding a stimulus wasn't easy. Moreover, stimulating his mental strength was beneficial to the Heavenly and Spiritual Wisdom Souls. As for the other five souls, the effect wasn't all that obvious.

Perhaps, he needed to find an alternative method to fuse them.

Since he couldn't wrap his head around it, he wouldn't waste his time thinking on it. This was Ling Xiao's principle in cultivation. Even though he was rushing for time, he understood he couldn't try to run before he could walk.

The moment of enlightenment the last two times didn't happen completely by accident either. It was just like how something happened because of a stroke of luck and not because one was searching for it. He couldn't force his souls to fuse together just because he willed it to be.

Ling Xiao was already very pleased with himself. At the very least, he had the Ghostly Transformation Step to contend with Li Yuanchong's strange martial arts technique. He wouldn't be as bewildered as those three guys who died so bitterly.

As for that so called Sunken Wind Valley's preparatory team, Ling Xiao didn't even place them in his mind. He only had one opponent, and that was Li Yuanchong!

Ling Xiao hid in his room to cultivate while Cheng Qiantai and the others worked without rest. They'd mobilised all personnel and had finally gotten information on the disciples from the Sunken Wind Valley's preparatory team they would face.

Xue Lian was Elder Xue's youngest son. His ultimate Strength Soul technique was called Heavenly Thunder Smash. He could unleash an extremely powerful punch with a momentum resembling thunder.

Luo Feikai was Elder Luo's younger brother. His ultimate Strength Soul technique was called Rupturing Rod. He could split the ground open over a distance of more than 10 meters with his rod.

Lan Xiuhua was Elder Lan Mei's only daughter. Her ultimate Strength Soul technique was called A Thousand Godly Flying Needles. When her heavenly needles flew out, they were as swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon. Her attack covered an extremely wide surface area, making it difficult to dodge.

Their team was similar to Ling Xiao's in the sense that both had two guys and a girl. Ling Xiao and Qian Hai could face off against the guys and most likely hold their own. That left Cheng Yu and Lan Xiuhua. However, there wasn't much hope in that fight for their side.

Cheng Qiantai judged their odds of winning were exceptionally low. But Qian Gui thought otherwise. He had an even deeper understanding of his son's abilities. He'd spent so much time and energy training him, so it was only natural for him to have relayed a few secrets.

Qian Hai could comfortably beat any one of the three if they were anything like what their profile made them out to be. It wouldn't be a problem for Ling Xiao to defeat any one of the remaining two either. Amongst the three of them, two were powerful enough to dominate their opponents. Cheng Yu was slightly weaker, but it wouldn't affect the team too much. This was why Qian Gui believed their chances of winning were still very high.

Naturally, Qian Gui didn't really think those three fellows only had such little skill, so he had a plan. Right before the start of the match, he would instruct his son to refrain from making flashy moves that only existed to please the eye, and instead go all out in the first exchange. If he could defeat his opponent as quickly as possible, he would have more energy left for the next battle.

The two old folks were discussing various possibilities and countermeasures in a frenzy. Cheng Yu and Qian Hai could do nothing but sit there and listen.

As time went on, Cheng Yu felt a little bored and subconsciously turned her gaze to Ling Xiao's tightly shut door. She couldn't help but to feel a fire raging in her heart. We're here discussing tactics, yet you're hiding in your room on the premise of cultivating. Yeah, right! I'm sure you're taking a good, long nap in there! Ridiculous! No, what right do you have to be so comfortable?

Cheng Yu suddenly stood up and firmly walked to Ling Xiao's door with a scowl on her face and an ice-cold look in her eyes. She kicked Ling Xiao's door open with a loud bang.

"Hey- You hoodlum! Pervert!" Cheng Yu was terrified by the scene before her eyes. Ling Xiao. H-h-he, what's he doing?

Chapter end