The massive bone cleaver descended with the force of a falling meteor.

But just as the jagged bone was about to cleave Su Bai’s skull in two, he channeled a surge of extreme Yin Qi down through his meridians and into his legs.

Frictionless Phantom Step.

BOOM!

The cleaver violently shattered the earth. It buried itself three feet into the dirt and kicked up a massive wave of gravel.

But Su Bai wasn’t there.

He was already standing perfectly still, fifteen feet to the left. He had glided across the ground instantly without making a single sound or disturbing a single speck of dust.

From the gaunt demon’s point of view, the pale mortal had simply vanished into thin air.

"What?!" The demon yanked his cleaver from the crater. His eyes widened in shock. He finally realized his grave miscalculation. This wasn’t an appetizer. This was a cultivator hiding his aura.

Seeing Su Bai standing further down the road, the demon immediately charged after him. It put valuable distance between their fight and the carriages.

Su Bai let out a microscopic sigh of relief. The children were safe for now.

But the fight had just begun.

Without breaking his cold stare, Su Bai raised his hand. Dozens of condensed Yin Qi needles materialized between his fingers. With a flick of his wrist, he sent them silently cutting through the air.

The demon’s combat instincts flared. He snapped his head to the side. He dodged the needles aimed at his eyes, and violently swung his broad cleaver to block the ones aimed at his chest.

Clang! Clang!

But Su Bai’s Qi was not ordinary. The moment the extreme Yin needles struck the demonic weapon, a layer of Absolute Ice violently bloomed across the bone blade. It rapidly spread toward the demon’s hands.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Su Bai triggered the Frictionless Phantom Step again. He reappeared directly behind the demon with a single, highly condensed needle aimed squarely at his spinal cord.

But a 5th Stage Foundation Establishment Demonic Cultivator was not a weak opponent.

Sensing the fatal threat, the demon roared. He violently exploded the Qi in his own Dantian to shatter the ice on his weapon. He spun around with terrifying speed, and the cleaver whistled toward Su Bai’s waist.

Su Bai had no choice but to kick off the ground, leaping backward to avoid being cut in half.

The demon paused. He panted slightly as his gray skin steamed in the air. He rested the cleaver on his shoulder, and his eyes narrowed as he analyzed his opponent.

"Hmm... such an unorthodox movement method," the demon sneered. His raspy voice was dripped with malice. "What sect do you belong to, rat?"

Su Bai remained perfectly silent. His corporate mind was already calculating the demon’s attack patterns.

The demon grinned confidently. "Don’t want to answer? Fine. I can just extract your soul and read it after you’re dead."

The gaunt man leaped forward again, but this time, he adapted. He forcefully expanded his Spiritual Sense, then locked it directly onto Su Bai’s physical body.

When Su Bai used the Frictionless Phantom Step to glide away, the demon didn’t lose track of him.

Guided by his Spiritual Sense, the demon seamlessly adjusted his trajectory mid-air. His cleaver tracked Su Bai’s new location flawlessly.

Su Bai sighed internally. ’My software is still in beta. If I had perfected the Phantom Step, a Golden Core wouldn’t be able to lock onto me, let alone a Foundation Establishment.’

Since evasion was compromised, Su Bai opted for a hard counter.

As the demon swung, Su Bai gathered a dense knot of Yin Qi in his right hand. But he didn’t aim at the demon’s body or his weapon. He aimed at the invisible, metaphysical threads of the demon’s Spiritual Sense.

Su Bai activated the Devouring Maw.

He literally grabbed the demon’s Spiritual Sense and violently ripped it out of the air. He sucked the mental connection directly into his palm.

"AGH!" The demon shrieked, clutching his head as he stumbled backward.

The backlash of having his Spiritual Sense forcibly severed and devoured felt like a searing hot iron being driven through his brain. His vision blurred, and blood leaked from his tear ducts.

Su Bai didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward to go for the kill.

Driven to sheer, terrified desperation, the demon tapped into his cultivation gap advantage. He slammed his hands together as his chest expanded to an unnatural, grotesque size.

"Die! Weeping Blood-Miasma!"

The demon opened his mouth and exhaled a massive, rolling tidal wave of highly corrosive, blood-red toxic fog. The sheer acidity of the mist can instantly melt mortals. It was an indiscriminate, area-of-effect execution move.

Su Bai’s eyes went wide. If even a stray tendril of that fog reached the carriages, the unconscious children would dissolve in seconds. Fortunately, they were far enough away.

Su Bai didn’t dodge. He planted his feet.

He opened his mouth and simultaneously activated Devouring Maw and Forest Canopy Breath.

To the absolute, mind-shattering horror of the Demonic Cultivator, the pale man standing in front of him didn’t summon a shield. He just took a massive, deep breath.

The rolling wave of deadly, flesh-melting poison was violently sucked into Su Bai’s mouth like water down a drain. The toxic Yin energy flooded Su Bai’s Dantian, providing a highly nutritious burst of frictionless EXP.

When the fog cleared, Su Bai stood there completely unharmed. Then, he let out a satisfied exhale.

For the first time in his cruel life, the demonic cultivator felt true, paralyzing panic. His ultimate poison had just been treated like a breath mint.

With his ranged attacks rendered useless, the demon gave in to primal fear and charged in for a desperate melee brawl.

But Su Bai was a corporate planner. He didn’t do brawls.

With a thought, he retrieved a system reward from his inventory.

[Slumbering-Lotus Fog Talisman].

He activated the talisman in his hand. Instantly, a dense, pale mist erupted outward, smelling faintly of sweet lotus flowers.

The moment the demon charged into the mist, his eyes glazed over. His internal Qi flow slowed to a crawl. The talisman made limbs feel like lead and dropped combat reaction times by 90%.

Because of the demon’s 5th Stage cultivation, his body fought off the worst of the lethargy, but his charge noticeably staggered. His cleaver swing became sluggish and uncoordinated.

That microsecond opening was all Su Bai needed.

He formed a hand seal, rerouting his Wood Qi.

[Weeping Willow Binding].

The earth beneath the demon exploded. A massive, pitch-black root violently erupted from the ground. It lashed out like a spiked whip, then it wrapped around the gaunt demon with terrifying, bone-crushing force.

The demon screamed in fury as the massive thorns pierced his skin. He desperately flared his Qi, and struggled against the bindings. Even with the lotus fog, his 5th Stage strength was immense, and the black vines groaned under the pressure.

But Su Bai had absolutely no intention of getting close enough to let the demon break free.

Standing a safe distance away, Su Bai raised his index finger. He conjured a single, microscopic Qi needle, attached to an invisible, razor-sharp string of Yin Qi.

With a flick of his wrist, the needle shot forward, bypassing the demon’s frantic struggles and piercing directly into the base of his skull. It lodged itself firmly into his brain stem.

Nether-Thread Puppetry.

The gaunt demon suddenly stopped struggling. His jaw dropped in abject horror as he felt a cold, foreign entity violently hijack his entire nervous system. His motor functions were abruptly cut off from his own brain.

Su Bai slowly lowered his hand. The massive black vines released their grip, sinking back into the earth.

The demon didn’t fall. He stood perfectly upright.

Su Bai simply twitched his index finger.

The demon’s arm jerked upward against his will. He was still gripping the heavy bone-cleaver tightly.

"This... this is Puppetry!" the demon screamed. His vocal cords were the only thing he still possessed control over. Tears of pure terror streamed down his gray face. "You’re a demonic cultivator too?! Why are you doing this to me?!"

Su Bai didn’t answer. His face was entirely devoid of emotion. He looked at the demon not as a person, but as a heavily corrupted asset that needed to be liquidated.

To Su Bai, the most fitting end for a creature that harvested mortals was to die by its own bloody hands.

Su Bai twitched his middle finger.

The demon let out a bloodcurdling howl as his own arm swung the bone-cleaver down. He... violently hacked into his own left thigh.

CHOP.

The demon’s leg buckled, but the invisible strings forced him to remain standing.

"Stop! Tell me what you want!" the demon shrieked as blood pooled in the ground.

Su Bai’s expression didn’t change.

He twitched his ring finger.

The demon raised the cleaver again, then brought it down on his own shoulder joint.

Bones shattered. Flesh tore. The demon wailed with a sound of profound, agonizing suffering that would make the heavens weep.

CHOP. CHOP.

Su Bai methodically dismantled the cultivator. Tendons were severed. Joints were crushed. Finally, he forced the demon to hack into his own stomach.

By the time Su Bai was finished, the demon’s tears had dried up. His mind had completely snapped from the sheer trauma of being an awake, feeling passenger in his own mutilation. He hung suspended by the invisible strings, completely numb to the pain.

Seeing that the liquidation was complete, Su Bai walked forward.

He placed his hand on the demon’s ruined chest and activated the Devouring Maw. He forcefully ripped whatever corrupted Qi was left in the demon’s Dantian, draining the man entirely dry.

Without Qi to sustain his ruined body, the light finally faded from the demon’s eyes. And just like that, he died with a look of profound, agonizing indignation.

Su Bai dissolved the needle and the Qi strings. The mangled corpse dropped into the bloody ground with a heavy thud.

Su Bai stood over the body with a cold glint in his eyes.

This was his first real fight in the cultivation world. And he had won it with absolute, terrifying ruthlessness.