Yan Li had been lying in wait while Dai Zheng and the other two were busy attacking the dark-flame tiger.

Then, as a spurt of black flame came roaring out of the tiger's mouth, Yan Li knew it was his time to strike now.

He was like a leopard, quickly leaping into action and thrusting his sword towards the back of that bucktooth disciple in a bone-cras.h.i.+ng manner while the latter was focused on dodging the flame and did not for the world expect an ambush coming his way.

The sword was buried into his back with a stifling sound, which immediately caught the attention of the other two disciples who were standing across the bucktooth one.

Dumbfounded, they began searching for the attacker, but were only more stunned to see Yan Li's face show up.

The bucktooth went rigid for a second at Yan Li's attack when the black flame swept across and engulfed him in almost an instant. Yan Li jumped at the scene, and without bothering getting his sword back, swiftly retreated with a tap of his foot.

The dark-flame tiger growled indignantly after spitting out its flame and calmed down a little. But the sparks were now flying between Yan Li the remaining two disciples, Dai Zheng and Zhou.

“How dare you, Yan Li!” Dai Zheng, regaining his composure, snapped, “Don't you know you'd get stripped of your skills and expelled from Da Huang Palace for attacking your fellow disciples?”

With his steel sword melted by the tiger's black flame, Yan Li slowly pulled out another one, the Bladeless Sword from behind, and pointed it at the s.p.a.ce in front of him, smirking, “With all due respect, s.h.i.+xiong Dai, you are the ones who wanted to kill me and I'm just being proactive!”

Dai Zheng's expression altered slightly, eyes dark with malice, “If that's the case, then you should know who really wants you dead, right?”

“Exactly! I'm sure it's Lin Pou who sends you guys to kill me, huh?” Yan Li replied with perfect calmness that almost bordered on arrogance.

“Bold of you to call s.h.i.+xiong Lin by his full name! You are just an outdoor disciple!” Zhou barked at Yan Li.

“That's not my concern!” Yan Li deadpanned, “Why don't you two worry about your own safety now?”

Dai Zheng just laughed, “Do you really think you are undefeated just because you took down that loser Ye Tianyu? And you got some serious b.a.l.l.s to a.s.sume that you could kill us!”

“Try me! Enough talking and let's get to business, since we both want each other dead!”

Yan Li said in a steady tone as his Bladeless Sword curved towards Dai Zheng's chest with a flick of his wrist.

“You asked for this!”

Eyes cold, Dai Zheng swung his sword to block Yan Li's strike.

The metal rattled as two swords collided in the air. But after going back and forth for a little while, Dai Zheng was surprised to see that he, a top-notch Ningyuan realm disciple, couldn't get the upper hand in this.

He struggled to block another swing from Yan Li before stepping aside and looking at him suspiciously, “You are at Ningyuan realm, not Lianqi realm!”

Yan Li replied with a smile, “You are right. I reached the Ningyuan realm right before taking on Ye Tianyu; and also, I got lucky and used nine whirls to form the sea of vigor, so even if you are at the completion stage of the Ningyuan realm, you would be no match to me strength-wise!”

“What? Nine whirls?” Dai Zheng was completely thrown off guard by his words, eyes flas.h.i.+ng green out of envy, for that he only had three whirls now, which couldn't even begin to compete with what Yan Li had in him.

A flicker of dark was all he caught before Dai Zheng felt a sharp pain on his chest and looked down abruptly, only to see the length of a dark sword peeking out.

“s.h.i.+t!”

He lifted his head up and looked towards Yan Li, indignation written all over his face.

“Careful, s.h.i.+xiong Dai,” Yan Li said in a steady tone, “Don't get distracted on the battlefield! Hope you can still remember that in your next life!”

He then yanked his sword out and laid his eyes on the only disciple alive, who, sensing his cold stare, s.h.i.+vered and sprinted off.

“I can't let him go!” Yan Li thought to himself as he infused all the Mixed Yuan vigor he had into the Bladeless Sword and threw it towards Zhou.

Black and white flashes appeared on the sword as it traveled at lightning speed through the back of Zhou and then had him pinned against a giant tree using its remaining momentum.

Yan Li teleported himself there to retrieve his sword, sending Zhou's lifeless body slumping to the ground, to which he mumbled, “Sorry, but I have to do this; otherwise I'd be in bigger trouble.”

He didn't enjoy the feeling of killing people, but he had to go this far in order to keep himself safe.

Suddenly, he felt something odd was going on with the sword and as he looked down at it, he was caught in disbelief because the blood on the sword was quickly swallowed up by it.

Then, the Bladeless Sword rattled and vibrated violently as if to break loose his control.

Witnessing this, Yan Li was cold from head to toe.

“Something's off!” He thought as he loosened his grip involuntarily.

Without the harness, the Bladeless Sword flung itself towards Zhou's body and plunged into it.

A strange noise sounded off, as if someone was drinking out of a straw. Yan Li's eyes followed the sound to the dead body, but only to see it shriveling like a deflated balloon before finally turning into a mummy.

Stunned, Yan Li took a few hasty steps back to get away from the sword, which then jerked itself out of Zhou's body and latched onto that of Dai Zheng, sucking the blood empty!

“Evil sword! This is an evil sword!”

Yan Li stared at it alarmingly while he reached down for Dai Zheng's sword on the ground, ready to fight.

However, what caught him by surprise was that, after devouring Dai Zheng's blood, the Bladeless Sword, seemingly satisfied, came flying towards him and planted itself on the ground in front of him.

Hesitantly, Yan Li reached out for the handle, which felt icy cold to the touch.

Then, his expressions changed almost immediately as he sensed a violent surge of power flooding into his body through where his palm was connecting with the sword.

“s.h.i.+t!”

Yan Li scrambled to shake if out of his hand, but a strangely adhesive pull prevented him from doing so, as if his palm was glued to the handle.

Desperately, he tried to summon the Zhen vigor inside him and smash it at the handle, but before it reached there, that strange pull coming from the handle disappeared all of a sudden,

In the meantime, Yan Li noticed that the surge of power didn't hurt him; instead, it blazed a winding trail inside his body before joining into the sea of vigor, forming a maroon trace of Zhen vigor.