My ancestors were spiritual plant growers, so it's not surprising that I hunt demons every day,

"Does Guest Master Cui truly intend to fight to the death?"

Zhao Kai stared intently at Cui Ying's face and said in a chilling tone.

"How can the beautiful act of cultivators exchanging blows be called a fight to the death!"

After Cui Ying finished speaking calmly, she secretly assessed the remaining magical power in her body, threw her short sword into the air, and then made a hand seal with one hand.

Immediately, layers of spiritual light burst forth from the blade of the Yao Guang Sword, which then transformed into a silver full moon as it spun rapidly, growing larger and larger and radiating a chilling, menacing light.

Meanwhile, Ta Xue, who was watching the battle with Gu Shiyin at the edge of the martial arts square, could no longer contain herself and leaped out, transforming into a dark figure and quickly pouncing on Zhao Kai.

But before it could pounce on Zhao Kai, its body emitted billowing black energy, which transformed into several black chains that attacked like serpents.

Zhao Kai was also somewhat surprised, but when he saw that Ta Xue only had the cultivation level of the fourth level of Qi Refining, he did not dodge. He let out a cold snort and stomped the ground with one foot. Hundreds of beetles in front of him soared into the sky and circled once in mid-air before suddenly condensing into a thick insect shield in front of him.

After a series of "poof" sounds, seven or eight holes appeared out of nowhere on the insect shield. But after those holes shook repeatedly, a large number of beetles reformed into an insect shield.

"Wang Wang"

After roaring a few times, Ta Xue changed its strategy. It leaped high into the air, clearly intending to bypass the insect shield and launch a direct attack on Zhao Kai.

But the gap between several realms is not so easy to bridge.

A strange, cold smile appeared on Zhao Kai's face. He casually raised his hand, made a hand seal, and then pointed at the dense array of beetle shields in the air!

The insect shield immediately scattered, and a buzzing sound arose in mid-air. Countless strange insects the size of fingernails hovered and flew to Ta Xue's side, and quickly reformed into a huge cage, trapping Ta Xue tightly inside. They opened their mouths full of sharp weapons and began to tear at Ta Xue's body.

Ta Xue struggled desperately in the insect cage, clawing frantically with all four claws, but couldn't escape for the time being. Cui Ying, who was activating the Light Sword, also panicked upon seeing this.

Just then, Zhao Kai glanced at Ta Xue, who was being devoured by those strange beetles, and coldly said:

"Having used powerful spells to activate this magic sword time and again, Cui Keqing probably only has enough power left for one more strike!"

"Why do you need to trick me? I do have little magic power left, but the spirit insects you've carefully nurtured over the years must have consumed a lot of energy as well."

Cui Ying replied calmly.

"In that case, why don't we settle this with a single blow?"

Zhao Kai took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

“Very good, that’s exactly what I was thinking too.”

After a quick glance, Cui Ying agreed.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Kai laughed wildly, his clothes billowing out. Inside the swollen clothes, something was crawling. To everyone's astonishment, a crimson centipede, as thick as an adult's arm, crawled out of his collar and quickly slithered into his mouth, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

This is one of the secret techniques of the Five Poisons Sect. When all disciples of the sect first begin practicing Qi cultivation, they must rotate a poisonous insect as their natal Gu.

In subsequent battles, disciples of the sect can control insect worms to fight. They can even swallow their own natal insect worm to strengthen themselves with the worm's blood and energy, thus increasing their cultivation level for a short period of time. However, after performing this technique, it takes an extremely long time to replenish the worm's blood and energy.

This technique is similar in principle to the Blood Essence Pill that Zhao Yunbo ingested. However, the difference lies in the fact that the Blood Essence Pill depletes the cultivator's vital energy and foundation, while ingesting the insect worm does not harm the cultivator.

Cui Ying had some understanding of the Five Poisons Sect, but she saw that after Zhao Kai swallowed the crimson centipede worm, his whole body immediately emitted an eerie crimson light, and his aura rose steadily.

If Zhao Kai's cultivation level was previously on par with hers, Zhao Kai's current spiritual energy is exceptionally abundant, giving her the feeling that he has reached the peak of Qi Refining, and he exudes an overwhelming sense of pressure!

"Qi Refining Perfected!"

At the edge of the martial arts training ground, all the Zhao family members who sensed this aura immediately stood up in fear.

Zhao Wang, who was directing his cultivators to annihilate Zhao Yong's faction, couldn't help but blurt out, his expression becoming somewhat uncertain.

"Has he reached the pinnacle of Qi cultivation!?"

Cui Ying did not act rashly, but continued to cast spells using hand seals.

Meanwhile, Zhao Kai raised both arms and made a gesture towards the void on the ground. All the beetles frozen into ice blocks on the martial arts square trembled, broke out of the ice, and flew into the air, quickly gathering in the void in front of him.

After a piercing shriek, an enormous skull-like insect head materialized in the void. Zhao Kai opened his mouth again, spitting out a mouthful of blood essence, which transformed into a blood mist and disappeared into the skull.

The skull-like insect head, empowered by the essence blood, roared, and a layer of raging flames appeared out of thin air around its body. But upon closer inspection, it could be seen that it was not real spiritual fire, but an extremely dense layer of poisonous mist.

Cui Ying was also somewhat surprised when she saw the huge skull.

But at this point, she naturally had no intention of retreating in the slightest. She simply frantically channeled her inner power into the Yao Guang Sword in front of her.

In mid-air, the full moon formed by the lightsaber was already several feet in size, and it emitted a strange buzzing sound due to its high-speed operation. As magic power continued to be poured in, it continued to grow larger.

Zhao Kai, who had been confident of victory, was suddenly alarmed by this situation. Without hesitation, he changed his hand seals, and the giant skull floating in mid-air roared as it lunged at the girl opposite him. Wherever it passed, the surrounding ground was corroded, leaving a huge trench.

"cut"

With a low shout, Cui Ying caused the silver moon in front of her to tremble before shooting forward amidst a piercing sword cry.

After a deafening roar that shook the earth, Silver Moon collided with the skull.

With a flash of silver light, Silver Moon sliced ​​the skull worm's head in two from between its eyebrows, making it impossible to stop.

But in the next moment, the skull-like insect head, split in two, exploded and scattered, transforming into a surging sea of ​​insects that enveloped the silver moon.

Although the silver moon spun rapidly and the chilling sword energy it emitted swept away all the strange insects in the vicinity, there were simply too many of them, and they kept swarming around it.

Moreover, the strange insect's mouthparts were extremely sharp. The two were rubbing and biting each other, causing the Silver Moon's size to shrink rapidly at a visible speed, until it was only the size of a washbasin in the blink of an eye.

Seeing this, Zhao Kai's face also showed a hint of joy:

"At seventeen, you're at the ninth level of Qi Refining. I imagine you're a man of great vision, Mr. Cui. Why risk your life for the sake of the Zhao family? Let's make peace instead. What I can offer is several times more than what that old scoundrel Zhao Wang can offer."

Zhao Kai was not kind-hearted; countless schemes flashed in his eyes. But Cui Ying, on the other side, gave a sharp rebuke and suddenly made a series of hand seals, pointing her fingers at the Yao Guang Sword in mid-air.