Mutual Destruction? Reap the Benefits!

"He Tieniu has already reached Qi Refining Level 9!"

"This guy is truly insidious. He's been hiding his strength all along, claiming to the outside world that he was only at Qi Refining Level 7."

"To fool senior disciple brothers like Zheng Tu is a kind of strength in itself."

"With his strength, he could have easily earned a better ranking and greater rewards in the outer sect competition."

"..."

Below the stage, an uproar erupted.

"Qi Refining Level 9! He Tieniu, does that mean you reached Qi Refining Level 8 a long time ago? In the Qingyun Cave Heaven Secret Realm, if you had joined forces with me, with more than a dozen senior and junior disciples assisting at the side, we could have killed that Gold Devouring Tiger at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage!"

Zheng Tu flew into a rage. The more he recalled what had happened, the more he hated He Tieniu.

If this man dies, I'll be able to receive his talent—Hidden Kill... As long as I pair it with a technique like the Breath Concealment Technique, I'll be able to hide myself even better. I might even be able to fool those magic artifacts used to test talents.

Su Hao secretly hoped Zheng Tu would win.

But in reality, He Tieshou had the greater chance of victory. He was sinister and exceptionally patient.

Would someone with that kind of personality accept a challenge without at least a seventy or eighty percent chance of success?

"Hmph. You were the ones who suggested entering the secret realm. It wasn't as though I forced you to. You were weak and brainless—if you want to blame someone, blame yourselves."

He Tieniu gave a disdainful smile.

Taking advantage of the conversation, he had already slipped into the black fog and vanished without a trace.

Forget Su Hao—even cultivators at Qi Refining Level 6 or 7 could not see through such dense fog or detect He Tieniu's location.

"Zheng Tu, let's see what you can use to defeat me!"

From within the dense fog, the direction of He Tieshou's voice kept changing.

His words came to an abrupt stop. Light and shadows flickered across the stage, and talismans exploded from time to time with shocking power.

Occasionally, parts of the fog were scattered by the attacks, only for more dense fog to rapidly form again.

This spell, known as Ghost Fiend Mist, was extremely complicated and difficult to cultivate. He Tieshou was the only outer sect disciple who had mastered it, and he had studied it for ten years.

Ghost Fiend Mist could confuse an enemy's vision and senses, disrupting their mind. It was far more powerful than a low-grade Illusion Array.

Within it, He Tieshou was like a fish in water, appearing and vanishing like a ghost as he swiftly gained the upper hand.

"Ah~"

About a dozen breaths later, a scream rang out from the stage.

Zheng Tu was injured?

"Heavenly Thunder Lure!"

Almost at the same moment, Zheng Tu roared furiously.

At some point, the arena had been surrounded by talismans. The purple talismans flickered with violet light as purple lightning darted about.

Countless electric serpents covered the entire arena. Thunderclouds had somehow gathered overhead, and bolts of lightning as thick as pillars crashed down one after another.

The Ghost Fiend Mist across the arena vanished in an instant.

A dagger had pierced Zheng Tu's chest from behind, blood dyeing most of his clothes red. He struggled to remain standing, his body swaying as though he might collapse at any moment.

He Tieshou lay more than ten meters away. His upper garment had been destroyed, and a strange inner armor beneath it had shattered. The areas not protected by the inner armor were blackened and burned, flesh split open in many places, while his limbs twitched without stop.

"Both sides gravely injured, perishing together?!"

Su Hao could not help showing a delighted expression.

If both of them died, that would be the most profitable outcome for him!

But after several breaths, He Tieshou recovered somewhat and climbed to his feet. Enduring the pain, he curled his lips into a triumphant smile. "I won!"

"My dagger was coated with the venom of a Three-Eyed Wolf Spider."

A dagger appeared in his hand, its sharp blade reflecting a chilling dark green beneath the sunlight.

He Tieniu approached Zheng Tu step by step. "You can no longer use spiritual power. Of course, after using so many talismans, you probably have very little spiritual power left anyway."

Both sides had already reached the point where their oil was exhausted and their lamps were running dry.

Su Hao sighed regretfully. It would have been better if they had perished together, but the victor was clearly He Tieniu. That inner armor had blocked part of the lightning and protected his vital areas.

"Is that so?"

Zheng Tu, who appeared to be on the verge of death, suddenly opened his eyes in fury. His eyes were bloodshot, and at some point, his right hand had clenched a worn jade talisman.

The instant He Tieniu saw the jade talisman, his expression changed slightly. "Crimson Thunder Treasure Talisman... You clearly used up all its charges..."

His voice was filled with terror. The thought of fleeing had only just arisen—

The jade talisman rose into the air and shot through the air at an astonishing speed, locking onto He Tieniu completely. He had nowhere to run.

At the moment it was about to strike, the jade talisman transformed into crimson lightning and engulfed He Tieniu.

Boom—crackle, crackle, crackle...

The terrifying crimson lightning instantly blasted apart the damaged inner armor artifact.

He Tieniu's body exploded amid the lightning, flesh and blood splattering everywhere.

Even the residual force of the crimson lightning injured more than a dozen innocent disciples beneath the stage.

Su Hao watched, dumbfounded.

"Idiot. You think you're the only one who knows how to hide? I don't? What a pity—this time, the uses of my treasure talisman are truly exhausted."

The jade talisman completely shattered, splitting into four pieces as fragments scattered across the ground.

Zheng Tu swallowed a white pill, and his condition visibly recovered at a rapid pace.

Expressionless, he directly pulled the venomous dagger from his back. The wound and poison seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.

Then, unhurriedly, he picked up the other dagger from the ground and found He Tieniu's storage bag amid the mangled flesh and severed limbs.

Before everyone's eyes, Zheng Tu clasped his hands behind his back and strode proudly off the arena. After taking several steps, he activated a scroll-shaped flying artifact and vanished from sight.

"Senior Brother Zheng is so strong!"

"As expected of the most accomplished Talisman Master among our Outer Sect disciples. He has so many talismans on him—he used two or three hundred lightning talismans in a single battle. That must have been worth over four hundred low-grade spirit stones, right?"

"That Crimson Thunder Treasure Talisman just now was said to have cost him over a thousand low-grade spirit stones at auction. Its power was truly terrifying—it was already close to a full-force strike from a Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator, wasn't it?"

"If he'd brought it out earlier, perhaps he wouldn't have been injured."

"His injuries don't seem that serious? Even He Tieshou's Qi Refining Level 9 strength failed to seriously injure him."

"Tsk, tsk, who knows? Maybe he's just putting on a brave front. Perhaps he's already at the end of his tether and is worried someone will kick him while he's down?"

"Then why don't we..."

"Shh! Let's talk somewhere else!"

"..."

The Outer Sect disciples gathered in little groups. Some greatly admired Zheng Tu's strength.

Others, greed flashing in their eyes, slipped away furtively.

"Absorb!"

The cluster of purple Talent Fire traced an arc and entered Su Hao's body.

Su Hao obtained his first purple talent—Hidden Kill!

The instant the talent entered his body, the fluctuations of his spiritual power became faint and obscure, flickering in and out of existence.

Especially when he actively withdrew all his spiritual power into his Dantian, perfectly concealing its fluctuations.

Under normal circumstances, Qi Refining stage cultivators could only achieve such meticulous concealment by cultivating special secret techniques like the Breath Concealment Technique.

Yet a single talent allowed Su Hao to achieve the effect of a Breath Concealment Technique at the major mastery level.

If I can also master the Breath Concealment Technique and combine it with Hidden Kill, it would be like adding wings to a tiger. I should be able to deceive ninety-nine percent of Qi Refining stage cultivators, right?

Su Hao cast one final look at the arena.

The joy of absorbing a purple talent quickly faded.

The battle between Qi Refining Levels 8 and 9 had been immensely shocking, already carrying the budding power to affect heaven, earth, and nature.

Su Hao left the crowd, quietly thinking of more ways to deal with Lin Zhi Shan—such as treasure talismans more advanced than ordinary talismans, and the venomous dagger He Tieniu had used.

These were all tangible methods capable of deciding victory or defeat!

He had already abandoned the thought of fleeing. Where could he possibly run to?

Rather than live on in this chaotic world as a homeless cur, scraping by for survival, he might as well fight for a chance at immortality in this Golden Light Sect, where the strong devoured the weak!

Without realizing it, Su Hao's thoughts became clear and unimpeded. He arrived at the Deacon Hall beside the main hall of the plaza.

This place managed the records, promotions, and contribution point changes of all Outer Sect disciples.

"Senior Sister, I've come on my Master's orders to register in the sect entry roster. My Master is Lin Zhi Shan, an alchemist from Heavenly Medicine Mountain,"

Su Hao said.

According to Zhao Bai Jiang, once one possessed Qi Refining stage strength, registering as an Outer Sect Disciple was not difficult.