The situation was completely different from what she had anticipated.
It was not that Qian Renxue was inept. Her practical combat skills were simply too poor, and she had no experience fighting the Demon Race, which had led to the current situation.
But Qian Renxue herself did not see it that way.
In her eyes, she had utterly disgraced herself in front of Jiang Li today.
The more stirring her bold declarations had been moments ago, the more humiliating they were now.
"Leave the rest to me."
Jiang Li's voice rang out, and the next moment, the Light of Judgment appeared in his hand.
He activated his spiritual power, circulating it throughout his body to strengthen his physique and sharpen the Light of Judgment in his hand.
His figure appeared behind the Fourth-Order Twin-Blade Demon like a phantom.
Before it could react, the Light of Judgment had already sliced through a gap in its carapace.
With his strike landed, Jiang Li abruptly retreated. As his toes lightly touched the ground, his spiritual power erupted, and he stomped a Third-Order Twin-Blade Demon to death as he withdrew.
At that moment, Jiang Li looked less like a knight and more like an assassin.
He swiftly slipped away after landing a strike, yet the power he unleashed while retreating was something only a powerful warrior could display.
That sword strike had not killed the Fourth-Order Twin-Blade Demon, only severely wounded it.
Immediately afterward, the Fourth-Order Twin-Blade Demon flew into a rage, rampaging wildly to vent its fury, determined to find Jiang Li and kill him.
As its rage erupted, the two Third-Order Twin-Blade Demons nearest to it were caught in the upheaval and sent flying.
Just then, Jiang Li appeared like a phantom once more, seized his opening, and killed one of the Third-Order Twin-Blade Demons with a single sword strike.
It all happened far too suddenly. Even though the Fourth-Order Twin-Blade Demon leader noticed him, the boulders it had overturned in its fury obstructed its movements instead.
Then, while its body was caught between the boulders and the corpses of its kin, Jiang Li approached again and delivered another sword strike.
This strike hit a vital spot.
"How... is that possible?"
Watching Jiang Li flow through the Demon Race like drifting clouds and running water, advancing and retreating at will, Qian Renxue was utterly stunned.
The scene before her brought a saying to Qian Renxue's mind: an old man toying with a mischievous child.
With Jiang Li's cultivation, even if he could kill this Fourth-Order Twin-Blade Demon in a head-on clash, he would have found himself in a predicament.
Yet he had deftly used the surrounding terrain and the demons' corpses, displaying astonishing control to easily kill one Fourth-Order Twin-Blade Demon and two Third-Order Twin-Blade Demons.
Most importantly, he had not used a single skill throughout the process.
All he had displayed was his control over spiritual power and his exceptional physique, combined with his use of the terrain.
At that moment, Jiang Li had expended only a tenth of his spiritual power.
Moreover, Qian Renxue could tell that Jiang Li had clearly adopted this fighting style to teach her. Every movement he demonstrated perfectly suited his Angel Martial Soul.
After watching him, she felt that she, too, could accomplish something like this with a little practice.
With the added advantage of her cultivation, she could even do it more easily than Jiang Li.
As proud as Qian Renxue was, she had to admit at that moment that Jiang Li was a monstrous talent.
He truly was qualified to look down on her.
"Please teach me!"
For the first time, Qian Renxue set aside her pride before someone her own age and sincerely asked for guidance.
"The best way to improve your combat skills is through actual combat."
"These members of the Demon Race are the best proving ground for you."
Jiang Li had brought Qian Renxue here to improve her cultivation techniques in the first place, so naturally, he said little else.
Over the following days, Jiang Li and Qian Renxue continued hunting members of the Demon Race near Haoyue City.
During this process, Qian Renxue's combat strength steadily improved, while Jiang Li's cultivation also made qualitative progress and leaps.
Most importantly, taking advantage of Qian Renxue's desire to improve her combat skills, Jiang Li kept seeking out members of the Demon Race he had wanted to kill in the past but had been unable to.
In doing so, he collected large quantities of rare resources.
Before they knew it, two and a half months had passed.
In just two and a half months, Qian Renxue had raised her knight cultivation to the ninth level of the third order. Before long, her internal spiritual power would break through to 500, making her a Fourth Order Knight.
Aside from her extraordinary talent, this was naturally also due to the driving force and conversion of her soul power.
Her knight cultivation was approaching the fourth order, and her soul power had also improved considerably.
In just two and a half months, her soul power had risen from level 54 to level 56.
On the Douluo Continent, even someone with innate full soul power could raise their soul power by no more than three levels a year at the Soul King realm. With even a slight lack of effort, they would not manage three levels.
Yet Qian Renxue had gained two levels in just two and a half months, even while dividing her attention between knight cultivation and other skills.
This was not merely due to Qian Renxue's own talent, but even more to her pursuing two cultivation paths simultaneously.
For someone else, this might have meant needing twice the effort to advance a single realm, but Qian Renxue was exceedingly unusual. Rather than becoming a burden, the two cultivation paths helped each other improve.
Of course, there was another possibility: her two paths were currently at different stages, and her knight cultivation was being raised by her Soul Master cultivation.
She would be able to find out once she became a Fifth-Order Knight.
As for Jiang Li, his strength had also increased greatly during this process.
His internal spiritual power had reached as high as 1,150. Strictly speaking, he had now stepped into the fifth level of the fourth order.
Of course, beyond Jiang Li's diligent cultivation and the effects of his improved talent, such progress was also partly due to Qian Renxue carrying him along.
Every time Qian Renxue broke through, whether in her knight realm or her Soul Master level, it brought him an increase in internal spiritual power, as though some had spilled over. Though each amount was small, it accumulated into a truly astonishing quantity.
"Rising Dragon Strike!"
Qian Renxue activated Martial Soul Possession, using soul power to drive a skill that only knights could master as she charged straight toward a gigantic figure of the Demon Race in the sky.
It was a flying member of the Demon Race of the Sixth Order, a Great Bird Demon.
It possessed the power to control lightning, had a pair of golden wings, and wielded a lightning spear.
Its combat strength was formidable. Ordinary sixth-order knights could not kill it, and the slightest carelessness could instead get them killed.
Yet at that moment, Qian Renxue killed this Sixth Order Great Bird Demon with a single sword strike.
Her own power was also completely exhausted.
Just as Qian Renxue was about to collapse, Jiang Li hurried forward to support her.
Had Jiang Li made such an intimate gesture two and a half months ago, Qian Renxue would certainly have attacked him immediately.
But after sharing life and death for two and a half months and encountering danger many times along the way, there had often been no room to worry about such things. Gradually, Qian Renxue had become somewhat less concerned with these minor details.
In Qian Renxue's eyes, their feelings and bond were gradually deepening.
"We should head back. If we go any deeper, with our strength, the slightest carelessness could get us killed."
Jiang Li took a pill that restored spiritual power from his Storage Ring and gave it to Qian Renxue to swallow. After surveying their surroundings with a detection technique and confirming there was no danger nearby, he let her meditate in peace.
As for himself, he immediately went over to the Great Bird Demon, removed its pair of golden wings at once, and put them into his Storage Ring.
Through their trials along the way, they had long since left the vicinity of Haoyue City and had even passed through other cities.
With their strength, continuing deeper really would be courting death.
Of course, there was another important reason: both Jiang Li's Storage Ring and Qian Renxue's Storage Soul Tool were already full.
There were fewer than three months left before the Demon Hunt Selection Tournament. It was time to return and make some preparations.
Of course, he looked forward even more to his teacher finding him a Retainer Knight contract scroll.
That was the key.
"Let's rest up, then head back tomorrow."
Qian Renxue was no longer stubborn either. As they ventured deeper, all kinds of high-order members of the Demon Race kept appearing. Even she could no longer endure it.
While Qian Renxue meditated, Jiang Li remained alert to their surroundings to guard against anything unexpected.
Fortunately, everything remained safe and sound.
The two quickly headed to the nearest city, called Blackstone City. After entering through its gates, they hired a carriage to return to Haoyue City.
For two and a half full months of life in the wilderness, they had remained constantly on edge. Now, they could finally relax a little.
They also stopped at a restaurant in the city to wash up, finally shedding their exhaustion.
In the carriage, Qian Renxue was, for once, not meditating. Instead, she quietly reflected on the improvement in her cultivation over this period.
Jiang Li, meanwhile, was studying the Ancient Elves Clan's runes he had memorized back then.
He had memorized all of them at the time and had also made rubbings of them in a book.
The development of all writing in the world followed patterns, especially that of beings as close to nature as elves. Their writing had developed from pictographs.
Through contemplation and conjecture, Jiang Li had now deciphered more than a dozen characters.
As long as he understood their meanings and identified the rules connecting them, perhaps he could build a teleportation array himself.
"Jiang Li, what are you reading?"
With nothing to do, Qian Renxue noticed what Jiang Li was doing and grew very curious.
Sometimes, she had to admit that Jiang Li was a madman-a cultivation madman.
He never let even the slightest moment of cultivation time slip by. Even when he had free time, he would start researching other things, and while studying them, he was also training his mental power.
Qian Renxue knew she could not do such a thing.
"The Ancient Elves Clan's teleportation array. If I can study it thoroughly and build one each on the Douluo Continent and the Holy Demon Continent, perhaps we could teleport between the two continents."
Jiang Li did not conceal anything, answering while keeping his head lowered over his book.
Hearing Jiang Li say this, Qian Renxue immediately became interested and moved closer to his side quite naturally to take a look.
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