Secret Technique: Swallow Return

Mo Ji burst out laughing at Ling Li's blood-soaked, Asura-like appearance. Unhurriedly retrieving his double-bladed axe, he held it in one hand and said, "Kid, I told you, your strength isn't bad, but you're still not enough before me. Thanks for helping me get rid of those pieces of trash. One million Gold Coins wouldn't amount to much split between eight people!"

"Your talent is good, but your wings haven't hardened yet. Honestly, I'm afraid of your future revenge. I don't want to spend every day trembling in fear of someone with your talent, so you must die here today. If you know what's good for you, I'll give you a painless death!" Mo Ji said with a sinister grin, waving the double-bladed axe in his hand.

The people of the Dou Qi Continent were indeed cold-blooded and ruthless, yet they valued family ties and bloodlines immensely. Otherwise, there would not be tombs by cliff edges waiting for fated people to uncover them. Often, beating the young brought the old, killing the old brought someone even older. If the weeds were not uprooted, the consequences would be severe. This was Mo Ji's experience from decades of life: whenever there was an opportunity, one had to wipe them out completely and leave the enemy no chance to rise again!

Ling Li ignored Mo Ji's nonsense. With a sweep of his hand, he raised Dark Night's blade. Dou Qi like a black venomous python swiftly coiled around him, forming a Dou Qi Garment several centimeters from his body.

Against an expert at the Great Fighting Master level, Ling Li had to devote one hundred and twenty percent of his focus. Even the weakest Great Fighting Master could slaughter him as easily as he had slaughtered Mu Li's group of Dou Zhes if he was even slightly careless.

"So you don't plan to obediently accept death! That isn't a good choice!" Mo Ji licked his dry lips, his greedy gaze gaining a trace of sharpness and cruelty.

Dou Qi surged from Mo Ji's body, first coating his legs to form a pair of greaves. Then Dou Qi poured from his hands and attached itself to the double-bladed axe. Earth-yellow Dou Qi rapidly condensed over the axe, countless hexagonal yellow crystal blocks joining together. The black axe instantly donned a layer of earth-yellow armor, gaining several degrees of heaviness.

Mo Ji had already witnessed Dark Night's sharpness. Though this treasured blade looked unremarkable, its edge alone was probably worth hundreds of thousands of Gold Coins!

"Kid, you'll regret your decision!" Mo Ji twisted his wrist, and the meter-and-a-half-long double-bladed axe spun deftly twice in his hand.

Bang!

As his words fell, a vicious smile appeared at the corner of Mo Ji's mouth. He stomped down and shot forward violently. His burly body moved so fast it seemed to leave an afterimage, while a ring of dust rose from the ground beneath him.

Ling Li's pupils contracted slightly. Seeing Mo Ji's build and his double-bladed axe, Ling Li had assumed he was a strength-based fighter. He had never expected Mo Ji's speed to be even a notch faster than his own!

Or... were all Great Fighting Masters this fast?!

There was no time to think. Ling Li hurriedly directed Dou Qi into his eyes. Stimulated by the Dou Qi, the deep black spread over the whites of his eyes, turning them into an eerie pair of completely black pupils.

"The difference in strength isn't something external objects can make up for. Die!" Mo Ji charged before Ling Li, gripped the axe handle with both hands, and brought it down in a heavy blow, determined to cleave Ling Li in two.

Clang!

The bloody scene he had imagined did not appear. Instead, the sound of metal striking metal rang out. The collision of their Dou Qi sent a circular shockwave bursting from where they stood, and spiderweb cracks several meters wide spread across the ground beneath their feet.

A Dou Zhe's strength could reach a thousand jin, and with every major realm increase, one's strength rose roughly tenfold. Fighting Masters measured their strength in tens of thousands of jin, while Great Fighting Masters measured it in hundreds of thousands. This was not an exception, but the norm!

At the center of the shockwave, Ling Li gripped the hilt with both hands and braced Dark Night's spine against his shoulder, barely receiving the deadly strike. Yet the crushing force still bent his legs slightly, nearly forcing him to his knees.

Ling Li bared his teeth in a deranged smile. Paired with his pitch-black pupils, he looked especially eerie as he shouted, "I told you, the battle has only just begun!"

Along with Ling Li's shout, black mist erupted from Dark Night's blade. The earth-yellow Dou Qi coating the double-bladed axe began to crumble and disintegrate as if it had encountered its natural enemy. For every trace of earth-yellow Dou Qi worn away, Dark Night cut another fraction deeper into the axe.

"This bastard!" Mo Ji gritted his teeth and increased his Dou Qi output, steadying Dark Night's cutting force before pulling back the double-bladed axe.

Heavy weapons held a major advantage in a contest of strength. Combined with Mo Ji's natural power, he could easily use the weapon's weight to suppress his opponent. But against a weapon as absurdly sharp as Dark Night, competing in strength was absolutely not a good option. If the other side destroyed his weapon, fighting such a monstrous blade barehanded made Mo Ji's scalp go numb just thinking about it.

Moreover, though Mo Ji did not want to admit it, this kid with only Fighting Master Seven Stars cultivation seemed to be scarcely weaker than him in terms of strength!

Naturally, Ling Li would not let Mo Ji's opening as he withdrew his weapon slip away. He pressed forward, and Dark Night in his hand began striking at top speed. The rapid slashes seemed to form a black wall before Ling Li.

Mo Ji was startled and hurriedly turned the axe to defend himself. Yet in that brief instant, Ling Li's airtight barrage of slashes shifted its momentum and actually suppressed him.

For a time, Dark Night continuously slashed out from Ling Li's hand while Mo Ji was forced into passive defense, rarely able to counterattack. The sharp blade repeatedly struck the axe, sparks flying as countless metal fragments scattered through the air.

Mo Ji's movements were no longer as swift as his earlier charge and had instead become somewhat sluggish. However, the double-bladed axe in his hands was large enough to serve directly as a shield. Even so, Mo Ji was still somewhat flustered, because Ling Li was rather underhanded, targeting Mo Ji's groin every time. This forced the nearly three-meter-tall Mo Ji to bend at the waist to defend, making things extremely awkward.

Though Mo Ji cursed Ling Li's shamelessness inwardly, he could only accommodate Ling Li's attacks and defend. He had no desire to take even one slash from Dark Night there.

This was what real combat was like. There was no room for flashy moves. Techniques were only useful or useless, and finding every possible way to kill one's opponent was the true path.

At first glance, Ling Li seemed to hold the upper hand on the battlefield. But in truth, though his slashes were dense, every one was blocked by Mo Ji's axe. Meanwhile, whenever Mo Ji occasionally counterattacked with a single axe strike, Ling Li had no choice but to retreat. Moreover, such dense attacks consumed a great deal of energy. For a Fighting Master to wage a battle of attrition against a Great Fighting Master was not a good choice.

Heh, I'm a Great Fighting Master, and I cultivate earth-element Dou Qi. How could this kid compare to me in Dou Qi reserves? If I keep dragging this out and wait at ease for him to exhaust himself, he'll definitely be the first to run out of strength! Mo Ji sneered inwardly.

Ling Li's strength had already exceeded Mo Ji's expectations. He was nothing like an ordinary Fighting Master Seven Stars. Before Mo Ji had broken through to Great Fighting Master, Ling Li might truly have been able to defeat him. But now, Mo Ji was certain he would be the victor in a war of attrition!

Though Fighting Master and Great Fighting Master differed by only one word, the strength represented by that one word was worlds apart. Having advanced to the Great Fighting Master level, Mo Ji knew full well the gap between them!

Naturally, Ling Li had considered this as well. Dark and earth attributes were both similarly robust, but with a full three-star difference and an entire major realm separating them, the gap in their Dou Qi reserves was far from small.

But whether fighting Monster Beasts or people, Ling Li always followed one simple principle: fight if he could win, run if he could not, and never waste time.

Therefore, Ling Li had never planned to fight Mo Ji in a battle of attrition. The confidence he had to face Mo Ji came from his greatest harvest in the Monster Beast Mountain Range aside from the treasure in the cliff cave!

At a certain moment, Ling Li's slashes suddenly stopped. Just as Mo Ji was wondering why, Ling Li slightly bent his legs, gripped the hilt with both hands, and drew Dark Night back to his waist as though gathering strength.

At this sight, alarm bells rang in Mo Ji's mind. His instincts told him that allowing Ling Li to unleash this slash would absolutely be a bad thing!

No, I can't let him unleash this strike!

"Hah!" Mo Ji roared, swinging the double-bladed axe in a horizontal sweep toward Ling Li.

But he was still a step too late. Ling Li's pupils narrowed slightly, black mist billowing fiercely from Dark Night as he swung.

"Secret Technique: Swallow Return!"