Blood spurted out of Lin Fei, but instead of his neck, his left arm went flying.

He had recognized the danger, and so he dodged at the very last moment. Even still, the damage he suffered was enough to put him out of commission.

"Hmm... I was aiming for your throat," Yuelan said. "Did my swordsmanship skills become worse, or are you just that slippery?"

"How is someone like you on such a low-tier world?" Lin Fei asked, wary.

"I was born here, duh." Yuelan giggled. "Though, chatting with a demonic bastard such as yourself is making my skin crawl. Be a good boy and fall headfirst onto my sword, okay?"

Yuelan froze, realizing that Xuan was nearby. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"I... Uh..."

"Don’t worry about it." Xuan smiled. "He is human scum, so he should be treated like one."

"Right?" Yuelan exhaled a relieved breath. "I swear, I keep meeting these unreasonable people. You give them an inch, and they take a mile. In the end, it’s better to nip the problems in the bud."

"If only it was that simple..." Xuan sighed. "Anyways, good job, Yuelan. You’re even stronger than I expected."

Yuelan puffed out her chest. "Well, of course. I didn’t sit around doing nothing these last couple of months. I’m sure I could beat any Spirit Lord one on one. The only troublesome part about these Spirit Lords is the fact that their spiritual resistance is so high. I have to use so much Void Qi to even deal damage to them."

Xuan tilted his head, puzzled by what she meant. So she explained:

"Every realm, you gain more and more Spiritual Resistance. It’s something where, the stronger you are, the less likely you are to suffer damage from weaker attacks. If I were to use Spiritual Qi, I wouldn’t have even been able to pierce his skin."

"I see..." Xuan rubbed his chin. "So Void Qi can bypass their spiritual defenses, huh? Good to know..."

"Eh, don’t underestimate him," Yuelan replied. "He might appear weakened, but he hasn’t even used his Qi Domain yet. To even become a Spirit Lord, you must completely master your Domain. Isn’t that right, little rat?"

Lin Fei froze, and bit by bit, his smirk widened.

"I really can’t fool you, can I?"

Yuelan raised a brow. "I don’t like your voice. Power up already so we can kill you."

Lin Fei was slightly speechless at her boldness. Nonetheless, he, a powerful Spirit Lord, decided it was enough playing games.

A shiver ran down Xuan’s spine as the sky immediately turned crimson. The clouds parted, and instead of the sun, there was now a pitch-black eclipse. Multiple archways formed atop the mountains, and through them, Xuan spotted multiple malformed monsters escaping.

They were horned monsters, resembling demons. There were also smaller demons wielding wands, and from what little gaming knowledge he had, he knew these things were called Imps.

This was by far the quickest Domain expansion he had seen, and it was on a completely different scale than what Foyan had concocted.

And mere moments later, the pop-up finally came.

<You have been caught in a Complete Demonic Summoning Domain!>

↳ You no longer have any Demonic Qi resistance.

↳ Your mind is being passively eroded.

↳ Your Spiritual Qi is replaced with Demonic Qi.

↳ All Techniques (Skills) cost 50% more Qi.

↳ Defeating a demon inside the Complete Demonic Summoning Domain restores 5% of the caster’s Qi.

<Special: Remaining inside the Complete Demonic Summoning Domain for 5 minutes will cause your body to manifest demonic mutations. These changes are irreversible until the Domain is destroyed.>

"This is like night and day from the last Domain I’ve been in," Xuan said, glancing around. "Are those monsters real?"

"They look pretty real," Yuelan commented. "Though I don’t really like this Demonic Qi sensation. Feels sticky and gross."

Xuan stepped up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. In the next instant, all the Demonic Qi that had been gathering inside her body was expelled, and he absorbed it. He also absorbed the Demonic Qi that surrounded him as well.

Unlike with Foyan, the gains were significantly bigger.

[Demonic Qi - Beginner - 9.88% → 15.52%]

"You can absorb Demonic Qi now?" Yuelan asked in amazement. "You didn’t become one of those three-eyed freaks, did you?"

"Nope, my physique is responsible," Xuan replied. "I can start learning any Qi type so long as I get enough exposure to it... Or something."

"Mmm... I’m jealous." Yuelan sighed, turning her gaze toward Lin Fei and the incoming demons. "Wanna play rock-paper-scissors to decide who gets the honor of killing that demonic bastard?"

Xuan chuckled. "Sure. You count to three. We go on three."

"Count to three? Don’t you want to do it the usual way? You know, rock, paper... Fine, whatever." Yuelan pouted.

"One... Two... Three!"

Yuelan picked paper, and to her dismay, Xuan had picked scissors.

"Ugh..." Yuelan recoiled. "Best two out of three?"

Xuan rolled his eyes. "Just deal with the demons."

She stared at him with a slightly reluctant gaze, but then stomped away toward the demons. Even if he had absorbed the Demonic Qi that had been gathering in her Dantian and replacing her Spiritual Qi, it was coming back.

However, he was sure that she had around a minute until it all came back, so for that single minute, she wouldn’t feel sluggish.

On the other hand, Xuan Void Stepped up to Lin Fei, and when he arrived, it was almost like Lin Fei had become a completely different person.

His Qi pressure was several times higher than before, but Xuan didn’t back down, his gaze locked onto Lin Fei.

"Not having an arm suits you," Xuan said.

Lin Fei scoffed. "You run your mouth too much."

The Demonic Qi gathered in the stump of his severed arm, and bit by bit, a crimson arm began to grow out of the stump. It was transparent, but Xuan knew that it was solid.

An arm made entirely out of Demonic Qi. Xuan almost felt flattered.

However, he knew that he would need to pull out all his trump cards to even stand a chance, and he would start off with a domain of his own.

Last time, he managed to summon a Domain because of his unstable emotional state, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t paid close attention to how the Domain formation worked.

Closing his eyes, Xuan focused deeply on his Dantian. Void Qi and Spiritual Qi spiraled around restlessly.

Xuan grabbed a strand of Void Qi from his inner Dantian and willed it up to his mind.

He gathered the Void Qi in his mind for a few short moments, and then all at once, he released it outwards.

In an instant, the crimson sky cracked, revealing an array of bright stars. The archways that had been non-stop summoning demons crumbled, and the lone eclipse in the sky shattered in two.

On one side, the eclipse remained. On the other, there was a silver moon, shining down brightly on all those on the ground. It was almost like Lin Fei’s Domain and Xuan’s Domain had merged together.

Unbeknownst to Xuan, the moonlight was more concentrated on Xuan and Yuelan in particular.

Xuan reopened his eyes as newfound determination brimmed within them.

He knew it wasn’t likely he was going to win against a Spirit Lord, but the fight against Foyan was disappointing since he wasn’t able to go all out.

However, with this opportunity in front of him, Xuan could at the very least see what the extent of his current powers was.

And so, after taking a deep breath, Xuan Void Stepped to Lin Fei and made the first move.