However, the twenty seconds it took, compared to my previous high-efficiency slaughtering of masses, was simply unacceptable. Though I couldn't fathom how Yan Luo had cultivated before, reaching the level of a high-tier Scarlet Moon meant she must possess her own remarkable capabilities. Her expression clearly showed dissatisfaction with the current monster-killing efficiency.

“It seems I need to find another way to boost the efficiency of slaying these beasts!” Yan Luo looked towards the Dragon Shadow Sword resting on my right shoulder. “Why not try the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique?”

“That’s true; since I learned it, I should certainly put it to use.” I sheathed my regular sword back into my spatial pouch, then drew the Dragon Shadow Sword.

“Try it again!”

“En!” Yan Luo nodded slightly, raising her Ancient Jade Scepter.

When I reappeared outside the corner, another volley of arrows rushed towards me—evidently, the Zouma Archers were meticulously monitoring our movements. This time, however, I didn't charge too far ahead, stopping about twenty meters away from the Zouma Archers. This distance was the maximum range the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique could reach. In fact, the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique was an extremely profound method of Dou Qi control, and with my current level of Dou Qi cultivation, twenty meters was the limit of my effective attack range. Thus, I chose this distance to unleash the technique, dodging the archers' attacks with agile footwork while channeling my Dou Qi to activate the two dragon shadows on the sword.

Thick, potent Dou Qi energy rapidly poured into the blade. Soon, two golden, serpentine phantom projections shot out from either side of the Dragon Shadow Sword, bringing back that familiar, intrinsic sense of blood connection. The two dragon shadows seemed to become extensions of my own body. Spinning, I swung the sword!

Swish! Two streaks of golden light instantly flashed forward, heading directly for the Zouma Archers who were in the process of drawing their bows, aiming precisely for their throats.

Clang! Clang! Two crisp sounds echoed! The two golden streams struck their targets accurately, but instead of piercing the Zouma Archers’ throats, they were deflected high into the air before rapidly returning above my head. Clearly, with my current cultivation, relying on the Dragon Shadow Sword Qi to inflict damage on the Zouma Archers was impossible. The remaining Zouma Guards would be even less affected.

I had actually prepared myself for this outcome. Although my Dragon Shadow Heart Method had reached the Dragon Transformation realm, my personal Dou Qi cultivation was not high enough. Consequently, the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique’s power had only reached its basic second stage: the Twin Dragon Phantoms.

Yet, even these two dragon shadows were formed by Jieli channeling his Dou Qi into the Dragon Shadow Sword using the Dragon Infusion technique, rather than being generated purely by my own practice. After all, I was not a direct disciple of the Dragon Shadow Villa, and Jieli would never pass on the cultivation method for the Dragon Shadow Sword Qi to me. It could be said that without the Dragon Shadow Sword itself, I couldn't perform the technique at all. This way, there was no worry about the cultivation method for the Dragon Shadow Sword Qi being leaked. Truly, this method of transmitting power was incredibly ingenious: it allowed me to execute the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique without risking the secret of its cultivation method getting out.

In terms of power, if the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique were a car, then the Dragon Shadow Heart Method would be the driver. The higher the intensity of the Dragon Shadow Sword Qi, the more powerful the car. Right now, even though I had reached the Dragon Transformation realm in the Dragon Shadow Heart Method, it was like a professional race car driver sitting in a tractor. No matter how skilled the driver, the tractor couldn't go fast. And my Dragon Shadow Sword Qi hadn't even reached the level of a tractor yet.

The might of the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique was directly related to one’s Dou Qi cultivation. This was precisely why Jieli required me to reach the peak of the Scarlet Moon tier in Dou Qi before he would teach me the higher stages of the technique.

As the dragon shadows flew back, I flicked my sword, gently gathering them back into the blade. Now was not the time for the Dragon Shadow Sword Technique. It seemed I still had to rely on my Sword Art. At this moment, my only hope lay in the razor-sharp edge of the Dragon Shadow Sword. After all, its material was identical to that of the peerless deadly weapon, the Scarlet Blood Demon Sword. I hoped this fact alone could compensate for the lack of intensity in my Dou Qi.

The "One Line, Three Strikes" attack from earlier, although it didn't kill the Zouma Guards outright, had managed to pierce their hard armor. I trusted that with the exquisitely crafted Dragon Shadow Sword performing the same moves, I should be able to cleave through the Zouma Guards’ bodies.

Swish! Swish!

As I retracted the dragon shadows, another round of sharp arrows shot toward me.

Roar! I side-stepped swiftly and then charged rapidly in front of the Zouma Archers. Thick Dou Qi energy quickly coalesced around the blade, and a brilliant azure light instantly erupted. Since their hundred-battle blades could decapitate them, the sharpness of the Dragon Shadow Sword should make that task effortless.

Once I could break through an opponent's defense, the Zouma Archers and the Skeleton Warriors would be no different in my eyes. I suddenly exerted force with my feet, closing the distance to the Zouma Archers with astonishing speed, unleashing the long-unused skill: "One Slice, Multiple Seconds," slaughtering my way through.

Thwack! A flash of blue light carved a graceful U-shaped arc across the air, like a meteor streaking across the night sky. After emitting its most dazzling brilliance, it quietly vanished, leaving behind a sky filled with dancing blood mist.

“What a sharp sword,” Yan Luo exclaimed in shock.

I, too, was stunned by this unexpected result. With a single strike, I had cleanly sliced off the heads of five Zouma Archers, and it felt like I hadn't even used seventy percent of my strength. While I knew the Dragon Shadow Sword was a treasure, its sharpness far exceeded my expectations.

A fine sword, truly a peerless masterpiece! Excitement surged through me, and my confidence soared.

Leveraging the sword’s incredible sharpness, I pushed my agile footwork and astounding speed to their limits. In the blink of an eye, I had slain the remaining two Zouma Archers, and simultaneously awakened the nearest Zouma Guard.

Just as the Zouma Guard raised its massive hammer to strike, I surged forward abruptly, the Dragon Shadow Sword stabbing straight toward the guard's chest.

Thwack! After a slight resistance, the long sword directly pierced the Zouma Guard’s chest. My "One Line, Three Strikes" perfectly utilized the slender blade to run straight through the massive body of the Zouma Guard. The sensation was exactly like when I had killed the Evil Pincer Worm in the Centipede Cave with my regular sword. Powerful Dou Qi swiftly flowed along the blade into the Zouma Guard’s body. Simultaneously, I retracted the sword and retreated rapidly. Stab, infuse energy, withdraw, step back—a seamless execution without the slightest pause.

CRASH! The enormous body of the Zouma Guard finally collapsed. From start to finish, it hadn't even managed to swing its hammer once.

“No way,” Qian Yue looked utterly aghast. “You killed the Zouma Guard with just one strike.”

“Incorrect, that wasn't one strike,” Yan Luo corrected. “Although it looked like a single sword thrust, in that instant, he delivered three strikes, all hitting the exact same spot.”

“What! How is that possible?” Qian Yue exclaimed in shock. “It clearly looked like just one sword slash.”

“That is because his speed of execution was so fast that it appeared as only a single strike,” Yan Luo explained.

“What terrifying swordsmanship,” Qian Yue murmured to herself. “Even a Mutated Zouma Guard wouldn't last one move against him.”

“Perhaps,” Yan Luo chuckled lightly. “But that sword is a rare treasure, perfectly compensating for his deficiency in brute strength.”

“It seems with the Dragon Shadow Sword, future cultivation should be much easier,” Qian Yue remarked.

“Indeed!” Yan Luo showed a flicker of relief in her smile.

...................................

Having gained an advantage, my confidence surged. Yan Luo began supplementing me with large-area attack magic like Explosive Flame and Ice Howl from the flanks. The awakened Zouma Guards surrounded me, but being constantly hampered by Yan Luo’s peripheral magic, they couldn't exert their full power. Unaffected, I unleashed my full firepower. Agile footwork combined with the razor-sharp treasure sword meant I could often fell a Zouma Guard in a single move.

For a time, I felt unstoppable, as if I had returned to those days of cultivation in the Skeleton Cave—easy, exhilarating, and utterly satisfying. My body seemed controlled by an inexplicable excitement and craving. No, it’s still not enough. The Zouma Guards were too slow; they posed no real threat to me. It seemed that as long as I could breach the opponent's defenses, my speed alone ensured invincibility. To further stimulate my potential and increase my kill rate, I grew unsatisfied with killing Zouma Guards one by one. Consciously, I began drilling into denser groups of them.

Yan Luo followed closely without missing a step. Her potent Ice Howl continuously swirled within an eight-meter radius around me, smashing and battering. The frigid aura and intense magical fluctuations saturated the space within those eight meters.

The Ice Howl relied on powerful cryogenic freezing and physical impact to harm enemies. Usually, creatures hit by the Ice Howl would instantly solidify due to the terrifying low temperature, much like flexible vegetable leaves becoming brittle and hard once frozen. At that point, the blade-like ice shards within the Ice Howl became the fatal killing blow; their intense impact could shatter frozen objects instantly—this was the horrifying dual physical and magical assault of the Ice Howl. However, this scenario could never happen to me.

My innate Demon Devouring Body meant that even if struck by the Ice Howl, I would not be frozen by its cryogenic properties. Under the Ice Howl's shroud, I only felt a pleasant coolness—that was the only effect the magical damage had on me.

Furthermore, with my level of Dou Qi cultivation, the physical impact of the Ice Howl was negligible. Thus, enveloped by the Ice Howl, I suffered no damage or interference whatsoever. But for the Zouma Guards, it was a significant headache.

Although the Ice Howl couldn't kill them directly—due to their astonishing magic defense effectively mitigating the freezing effect—it only mitigated it. Facing the terrifying freezing power of the Ice Howl, the Zouma Guards couldn't defend completely. Affected by the freeze, their movements became severely distorted; they moved like clumsy, puppet-like zombies. How could they pose any trouble for me? Before my startling speed, the Zouma Guards were like straw targets, ripe for the slaughter.

For a time, the screech of the sharp sword slicing the air, the dull thud of the Ice Howl striking its target, and the furious, unwilling roars of the Zouma Guards composed a bizarre, purgatorial slaughterhouse.

Yes, the combined efforts of Yan Luo and me against the Zouma Guards could only be described as butchery. Under the sharp edge of my Dragon Shadow Sword, the Zouma Guards lost the defense that was their life insurance. Hammered by Yan Luo's Ice Howl, their speed dropped to less than seventy percent of its original pace. With no speed and no defense, how could such opponents withstand my attacks?

It could be said that Yan Luo's and my combined effort formed the most perfect partnership. Under the cover of Yan Luo's large-area magical attacks, I could do virtually as I pleased. That’s what the innate Demon Devouring Body afforded me.

Qian Yue, watching from the side, grew increasingly excited. Eventually, unable to remain idle, she hid behind Yan Luo and occasionally launched a fireball. Though her fireballs barely stung the Zouma Guards, the girl remained undeterred, clearly enjoying the thrill.

Finally, around midnight, our fervent training pace gradually cooled down. Only then did I realize my entire body felt like it was falling apart, and Yan Luo was utterly exhausted, sitting down to meditate. Meditation after fierce combat is one of the most effective paths for magical cultivation.

Qian Yue conscientiously set up the tents for us. After all, today she was mostly just tagging along for the excitement and still possessed plenty of stamina. Although this was the first floor of the Zouma Temple and theoretically no need for camping out, long-held habits made us feel safer resting only after setting up a tent.

After enjoying the lavish dinner Qian Yue prepared, the utterly drained me burrowed into the tent and fell into a deep sleep. Guard duty naturally fell to Yan Luo. Since meditation was also a form of cultivation for a mage, maintaining a clear mind while meditating was effortless for her, so I felt no need to feel guilty.

In the days that followed, the three of us maintained our high-efficiency training pace, slaying monsters as we went. What struck us as odd, however, was that the entire five floors of the Zouma Temple seemed to host only the three of us cultivating; we never saw any other figures. Of course, the reality might be different; the area of each floor in the Zouma Temple was astonishingly vast, almost the size of the city of Tu Cheng. Moreover, not many experts reached the level required to cultivate on the fifth floor. Therefore, a sparse population below the fifth floor was probably normal.

We proceeded level by level, clearing monsters as we advanced toward the sixth floor of the Zouma Temple. Our goal was to fight our way all the way to the very bottom, and if possible, to take a peek at the High Priest's lair—the High Priest’s Home. Of course, that was just wishful thinking; the High Priest’s Home was no place for us at our current level.

In the blink of an eye, two months passed. During this period, Qian Yue’s progress was nothing short of miraculous. Perhaps "a high starting point brings high achievement" truly applied to this girl. Through long periods of intense monster-slaying cultivation, she, a mere intermediate-level junior mage, transformed into someone at the peak of the intermediate level. At this rate, she could break through the threshold of a high-level mage at any moment. Naturally, Yan Luo and I also progressed continuously. I distinctly felt that the Dou Qi within me had become much deeper than before; breakthrough to the mid-tier Scarlet Moon Dou Qi cultivation seemed imminent. As for Yan Luo, her magical reserves remained at the high-tier Scarlet Moon level, but her combat techniques were now much more refined. Her spell casting speed, angle of attack, and flexible positioning in actual combat had all significantly improved. While her magical reserves accumulated slowly, they were still increasing at a steady pace. For someone at the high-tier Scarlet Moon, this rate of growth exceeded Yan Luo's expectations. Undoubtedly, our partnership benefited each of us immensely.

We cleared monsters virtually all the way from the fifth floor to the sixth, and then from the sixth floor into the Zouma Pavilion, finally reaching the Zouma Great Hall. Here, we finally encountered our own kind—humans!

The spacious hall was the size of a football field, with several large wooden sheds erected around the perimeter. On the east side hung a large plaque bearing the character Zhan (Stall/Shop). The west side simply had storefronts packed with bottles and jars at the entrance—blue, red, green, yellow—a dazzling array of everything imaginable. The main entrance of the shed to the south had a horizontal plaque inscribed with the word Gongzheng (Fair/Just), which was the character Za (Miscellaneous). The north side was even more interesting: a large broadsword hung there, while next to it, on a slightly shorter wooden shed, hung a set of armor. They didn't even bother with lettering; the Blacksmith and the Clothier were surprisingly right next to each other. In the empty space in the center stood a banner planted straight in the ground, bearing a wildly calligraphic character. Upon careful inspection, I recognized it as the character Dou (Fight/Struggle).

I remembered a classic line from Ashes of Time: Where there are people, there is Jianghu (the martial world); where there is Jianghu, there is conflict. And this character Dou signified the place where conflicts were resolved—the Duels Field. However, having been in this world for nearly two years, I realized the people of the Marfa world were incredibly lazy. If they could express an idea with a single character, they wouldn't write another one; often, they wouldn't even bother with the character. I wondered what kind of cultural custom this reflected. Modern trends favor simplicity as fashion, but compared to the people of the Marfa world, it seems we still lack a certain level of minimalism.

Around the hall, there were only a few scattered figures, all dressed in eastern styles, busy hauling things in and out.

The three of us strolled casually into the Zouma Great Hall, this peculiar inn.