Zi Moyan didn't understand what was happening.

  His arm, HIS arm, had fallen to the ground? His arm had been cut off by a simple cultivator at the third layer of Qi Refinement, when he was only one step away from attempting a breakthrough to Foundation Establishment?!

  He stared in disbelief at the void where his arm should have been. Blood was still pouring out in great quantities.

  Zi Moyan's eyes reddened with fury and he kicked Qing Xuanling, sending her flying several meters.

  "Damn brat! How dare you hurt me?!"

  Zi Moyan chased after Qing Xuanling's figure, determined to kill her on the spot. But a figure stepped in his way.

  Instructor Huan suddenly appeared in front of Zi Moyan and grabbed the spear still lodged in his shoulder. He pulled the spear toward himself, this time managing to remove it easily.

  Zi Moyan had been too focused on attacking Qing Xuanling and had completely lowered his guard. Therefore, he was unable to contract the muscles surrounding the spear, so instructor Huan had no difficulty extracting his weapon.

  "Pretty impressive, isn't it?" Instructor Huan smiled. "Even I didn't expect the girl to pull off something like that! I didn't even think something like that was possible!"

  He laughed heartily. At first, he had thought that Qing Xuanling's presence on this mission would be a good experience for her. But now she had even dealt significant damage to an enemy that even he found difficult to face.

  'Ling'er's contribution won't be small... Now it's my turn to show why I was put in charge of this mission.'

  Instructor Huan looked with satisfaction at the madness-filled gaze of Zi Moyan.

  "So this is your true personality. It suits you much better than that poor attempt at looking carefree." Instructor Huan thrust his spear forward with force.

  Zi Moyan roared and attacked with his only remaining arm. He executed a palm strike, clashing directly against Instructor Huan's spear. But this time, he retreated half a step.

  Instructor Huan mocked him. "Looks like losing an arm really did affect you!"

  His assault continued, with no intention of giving Zi Moyan time to recover. A series of thrusts forced Zi Moyan to retreat further and further. In the process, the madness in Zi Moyan's eyes gradually faded, replaced by fear and regret.

  He was losing strength rapidly, and his Qi was in disarray from the loss of his arm. On top of that, Instructor Huan attacked with greater ferocity, inspired by Qing Xuanling. Zi Moyan had lost every advantage in just two minutes of battle.

  He could smell the stench of death closing in on him.

  His eyes trembled as he quickly made a decision.

  'I won't die here so easily!'

  "Arrrghhh!"

  Zi Moyan suddenly roared with tremendous force. A sound wave brimming with dark Qi forced Instructor Huan back several steps. Zi Moyan glared at him with venom as he formed several symbols with his hand.

  "Qing Huan, you've forced me to do this!" Zi Moyan's eyes turned an intense red. "I can't beat you or escape in my current state, so don't blame anyone but yourself and that brat over there for what's about to happen!"

  "I'll laugh at all of you once I regain my sanity!"

  Zi Moyan's hand movements began to pick up speed as a dense, bloodthirsty, sanguine aura gathered around him. Instructor Huan tried to attack immediately, sensing a bad premonition, but the bloody aura seemed to chain him in place.

  Zi Moyan smiled savagely. He extended his hand upward and clenched it. Piercing screams could be heard in the distance. Soon, streams of an oddly dense and pure Qi, surrounded by intense resentment, flowed into Zi Moyan's body.

  Instructor Huan's mouth trembled when he saw that. He couldn't help but take an unconscious step back. He watched in disbelief as Zi Moyan's body began to tremble.

  His skin started to bubble as its pale color faded, shifting to an intense red. At the same time, Zi Moyan's body began to grow in size and width, reaching three meters in height and two in width.

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  The strangest part was that Zi Moyan's body kept absorbing that Qi surrounded by resentment, but it didn't seem capable of growing any larger. Instead, red tentacles began sprouting from his back.

  Even someone as experienced as Instructor Huan couldn't help but grimace in disgust. The sight was simply too revolting.

  "Zi Moyan, did you really have to turn into this just to wi—Argh!"

  A tentacle interrupted Instructor Huan's taunt, striking his stomach with such force that his eyes went wide. He staggered back several steps from the power behind the blow.

  He touched his stomach and felt how his inner armor had cracked. He smiled uncomfortably.

  "...I should stop talking. That blob of flesh is in a bad mood."

  Instructor Huan sighed as he dodged another tentacle that flew in his direction. They weren't that fast; they had only caught him off guard. Even so, there were many of them.

  Sweat ran down his forehead as he stared at the dozens of tentacles poised to attack him. He couldn't help but swallow hard. Still, an inexplicable emotion surged in his heart. It had been a long time since he'd gotten into something this dangerous!

  He gripped his spear tightly, advancing with heavy steps as he shouted:

  "Seventh movement of the Unstoppable Spear, Dance of the Tireless Steed!"

  Instructor Huan spun his spear with great speed around him, forming a large continuous line in the air with the trail of light left by his red aura. His spear moved so fast that the red lines seemed on the verge of forming a sphere around him, though it still had many gaps.

  Even so, no tentacle was able to pass through those openings.

  Instructor Huan made sure his spear always passed through wherever the tentacles came from.

  His charge was unstoppable, advancing no matter how many tentacles attacked him.

  The monster Zi Moyan had become roared when it saw this. It raised its huge, bloated fist as high as it could and brought it down suddenly, slamming it against the ground with fury!

  The ground within more than twenty meters around it shattered to pieces!

  Such a sudden move caught Instructor Huan off guard, who was now floating in the air with no footing. His movements momentarily slowed, and his technique halted for an instant.

  Three tentacles didn't miss the opportunity and struck Instructor Huan three times in succession!

  Instructor Huan was sent flying by a fourth blow!

  "Bleargh!"

  He coughed up blood as he tumbled across the ground. His face went pale from the internal injuries, but he ignored the pain and quickly swallowed a healing pill while getting to his feet. He couldn't help but look carefully at the new Zi Moyan once more.

  Surprisingly, the monster Zi Moyan appeared uninjured. None of his tentacles had been damaged after clashing with Instructor Huan's spear multiple times.

  He was somewhat surprised by this, but quickly accepted the reality. After all, the seventh movement of the Unstoppable Spear was more defensive than offensive.

  His thoughts were interrupted by the simultaneous attack of five tentacles.

  Instructor Huan gritted his teeth and quickly gripped his spear, which already had several fissures from blocking so many tentacle attacks. He clenched his jaw and barely managed to block the assault of the tentacles.

  His desperate defense lasted for two minutes. But that was all the time he could buy.

  A tentacle coated in dark Qi appeared suddenly, joining the attack of the previous five! The power of the dark Qi-coated tentacle was so overwhelming that Instructor Huan's spear was sent flying from his hands!

  The instructor's eyes opened wide in disbelief. He was completely defenseless now.

  'Am I... Am I going to die here?'

  Fortunately, the heavens seemed to be on his side.

  A sword coated in an almost white, sharp Qi appeared out of nowhere, slicing through all six tentacles with ease.

  "Instructor Huan, this is the second time I've saved you, isn't it?" Qing Xuanling joked, her face pale. "Please stop playing around and finish this. I'm already at my limit!"

  Qing Xuanling was breathing heavily, still feeling a sharp pain in her ribs where Zi Moyan had kicked her before transforming into a monster. The damage had been too great to heal in just a few minutes with a single healing pill.

  She was enduring tremendous pain just by standing right now.

  Instructor Huan looked at Qing Xuanling's figure, which stood as straight as a mountain, and at her sword, which bore a layer of sharp Qi two inches thick. He couldn't help but be astonished.

  'She improved again!'

  He had already been impressed by the application of sharp Qi that Qing Xuanling had demonstrated when cutting off Zi Moyan's arm. Although flawed, she had somehow stumbled upon the path that sword cultivators followed to improve.

  That path was: condense sharp Qi as much as possible. After that, create a trail of sword Qi and finally call themselves true sword cultivators.

  Qing Xuanling had taken several steps down that path without realizing it, but looking at her sword now, Instructor Huan realized that the girl had discovered the deficiencies in the method she had used before and had somehow found the true path.

  'Talent! This can only be described as talent, and an absurdly monstrous one at that!'

  Instructor Huan looked at the severed tentacles. He had faced them himself and recognized how tough they could be. Of course, he could cut them if he tried. But it should have been impossible at Qing Xuanling's cultivation level.

  "Haha, yeah, you've saved me several times already..." Instructor Huan smiled bitterly. "I've shown you far too shameful a sight. It's time to show off a little... But I'll need your help, Ling'er."

  "Are you willing?"

  Qing Xuanling smiled. Her normally plain face took on a unique charm as she laughed wildly. Her eyes filled with excitement and madness as they gazed at the monster Zi Moyan had become.

  "Of course! The clan should increase the rewards for this whole garbage mission, shouldn't they?"

  Instructor Huan nodded, showing an expression similar to Qing Xuanling's.

  "Obviously!"

  "Good, that's exactly what I needed to hear to give my one hundred percent!"

  Both of them charged toward Zi Moyan. Instructor Huan took the lead while Qing Xuanling stayed in his shadow, ready to launch a decisive strike at any moment.