Clang!
The man in black was already within reach!
His ten fingers, radiating endless demonic energy, were like blades, the clanging sound piercing his ears.
I could hear the sound!
Ming Qi's heart trembled, knowing that this was the moment for the man in black's supposedly foolproof attack. If it weren't for this, he would have made absolutely no sound.
At this very moment!
Seizing this opportunity, Ming Qi raised his hands without hesitation, his Great Destruction Battle Suit soaring without a gust of wind. Tongues of fire erupted as his fists struck fiercely!
He was still using acquired techniques!
He was still using Ming Qi's most proficient Wolf Fist martial arts!
But now that Ming Qi had reached the Xiantian realm, his Wolf Fist martial arts had undergone a complete transformation, from acquired to Xiantian, from physical strength to the mighty Xiantian energy.
The same technique, yet a different power!
A deafening wolf's howl echoed between heaven and earth, the mountains and rivers trembling, the earth rolling.
Puff!
The black-clad figure's eerie fingers had already pierced Ming Qi's defenses and pierced him!
But Ming Qi still didn't dodge. His martial arts wolf fist, the wrath of the Wolf God, enveloped the black-clad figure with an overwhelming and overwhelming pressure.
Aww...
A long, desolate wolf howl echoed, and the enormous, terrifying, and hideous head of the Wolf God erupted with boundless crimson flames.
Chi!
The Wolf Fist's ultimate power was unleashed, and a stream of blood spurted out from Ming Qi's body.
The black-clad figure's attack was perfectly timed, completely avoiding the protection of the Great Destruction Battle Suit and striking directly at the weakest point of his defense.
However, his seemingly perfect attack had a flaw.
The magical acrobatics he'd believed were invisible to the naked eye completely failed at this moment!
The Wolf God howled, its sharp, fiery fangs carrying a raging crimson blaze, completely engulfing the man in black in a flash of lightning and fire!
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
Feeling the immense threat approaching, the man in black was startled. Flames engulfed him, and it was too late to dodge. With a single thought, all his magical weapons flew out, desperately aiming towards the towering Wolf God's head.
Ding!
With a not-so-loud crisp sound, the innate spiritual sword suddenly broke.
The spiritual weapon shattered, completely losing its spiritual power, and fell to dust.
Then, a small, alternating black and white bell appeared.
The Wolf God's head charged forward, directly knocking the black and white bell away, then charging unhindered towards the man in black's face.
"How is this possible!"
Finally, the man in black uttered an incredulous cry.
He couldn't believe how the other party had pinpointed his location so precisely, as if they had seen him with a single glance!
He felt this way entirely because of the momentum of the opponent's attack, its resoluteness, its irreversible attack!
The only possibility for such a resolute aura was that the opponent had known his movements all along!
Red flames raged, and the man in black ultimately failed to withstand Ming Qi's long-accumulated, powerful attack.
As he struck the man in black, Ming Qi's body suddenly swayed, then quickly recovered.
His face paled. The blow had nearly drained his energy, but there was no time to rest. The man in black was clearly more powerful than him. If this attack didn't turn the tide, all his efforts would be in vain.
Although the man in black had been struck, he had no idea the extent of his injuries.
The Wolf God roared, its bloody maw gaping, spewing forth endless red flames.
Ming Qi had already leaped away, darting around, taking out a handful of Yuan-nourishing Pills and swallowing them whole.
The Wolf God raised its head high, brimming with endless flames, and tore at the black-clad man's shoulder.
"Finger-snapping Fire Thunder!"
Ming Qi swallowed the Yuan-nourishing Pill, and without waiting for a moment to recover, he suddenly spread out his ten fingers, ablaze with flames at his fingertips. With a powerful swing of his arms, the flames flew out, transforming into ten dazzling fire thunderbolts in the air, tracing a strange curve towards the black-clad man who was desperately trying to evade them.
Finger-snapping Fire Thunder, a magical power from the Suzaku Burning Heaven Sutra, was the most powerful innate magical power Ming Qi could currently unleash.
The ten dazzling fire thunderbolts flashed with arcs of flaming light, instantly enveloping the dodging black-clad man.
Crack!
The fire thunder exploded, and a sky full of flames once again engulfed the black-clad man.
Ming Qi gasped for breath, struggling to stabilize his surging internal energy, standing upright a foot away from the black-clad man.
After being struck twice by the power of the Crimson Skyfire, Ming Qi felt a sense of peace. Even if the man in black was formidable, he would likely be utterly exhausted by the incineration of the Crimson Skyfire.
And so it happened. By the time the sky-filled flames dissipated, the man in black was in a state of disarray.
His eyes had turned a dark red and fierce, staring intently at Ming Qi like a mad monster.
"I never thought I'd end up in a ditch!"
The man in black said sinisterly, and a stream of black blood spurted out of his mouth.
And then, to Ming Qi's astonishment, he saw the man in black aging at a noticeable rate.
In the blink of an eye, the man in black, who had once looked only thirty years old, had become a man in his seventies, his face covered in wrinkles, his body slightly stooped, and his eyes visibly cloudy.
He continued to stare intently at Ming Qi, blood drenched at the corner of his mouth, a faint innate aura emanating from him.
"I can't believe you hid so well!"
The man in black, knowing his escape was impossible, calmed his tone.
Although the Yuan-nourishing Pills were not very effective for restoring Xiantian cultivators, Ming Qi, after swallowing a handful, recovered a bit of his Yuan-nourishing energy.
Seeing the man in black no longer had the strength to resist, he felt relieved.
"You're just too greedy."
Ming Qi didn't immediately kill the man in black, but spoke patiently.
"Greed?"
The man in black scoffed. "Who in the world isn't greedy?"
He spread his hands and glanced at himself. "I'm greedy because I'm a demon. I have no choice! But what about you? You all put on a sanctimonious front, but at heart, what's the difference between you and the demons?"
These irrelevant words, yet at this moment, he spoke with such excitement.
Ming Qi remained silent. The man in black perfectly lived up to the demon's identity: untrustworthy, greedy, cruel and brutal. But at this moment, he didn't feel a strong desire to exterminate the demon. Because at that moment, he suddenly remembered Meng Ling, the ancient demon known as the most vicious demon in the world, the Blood Demon Qin.
"Greedy or not, it means nothing to me now. I'm dead, haha. But you will face the wrath of the entire Jinchuan Bai Mansion. They will always miss you, the one who can control the heavenly fire."
The man in black chuckled, then a hint of sadness.
He had let a cultivator from the Bai Mansion escape, effectively revealing his true identity to the Bai Mansion. Now the man in black had nowhere to escape, facing certain death. The Bai Mansion's vengeance would inevitably target Ming Qi.
"What difference does it make? The Bai Mansion has always had a bounty on my head."
Ming Qi suddenly gave a strange smile, and a stream of crimson heavenly fire shot out.
Boom!
Before the fire reached him, the man in black's body had already disintegrated into a bloody mist.
The heavenly fire struck empty, completely consuming the man's remaining flesh and blood.
Having eliminated the final threat, Ming Qi circled the battlefield mountain, collecting all the magic weapons the man in black had previously unleashed.
Excluding the short sword, after one round, Ming Qi now possessed exactly ten magic weapons: six high-grade spiritual artifacts and four mid-grade spiritual artifacts.
These were just the magic weapons the man in black had conjured. Ming Qi then fished out his own storage magic weapon from the ashes of the man's burning remains.
The man in black's storage magic weapon was also a ring, a strange black color, with a venomous scorpion carved into its hollow form.
As soon as he touched the ring, Ming Qi felt a powerful aura wash over him. It was clear this ring was no ordinary item. Judging from its aura, it was at least a top-grade spiritual artifact.
Among the many types of magic weapons, storage magic weapons are particularly precious. Every storage magic weapon imbues a certain amount of spatial power, and the spatial power within this ring was significantly more powerful.
Ming Qi extended his divine consciousness, wiping away the last trace of the man in black's consciousness from the ring, and then imprinted a strand of his divine consciousness into it.
The ring had changed hands, and Ming Qi immediately examined what was stored within.
The sight of the ring shocked Ming Qi!
Putting aside other things, the sheer number of Yuan Crystals alone made Ming Qi excited. While there weren't many low-grade Yuan Crystals, there were at least thousands of mid-grade Yuan Crystals, and even hundreds of high-grade Yuan Crystals!
A single high-grade Yuan Crystal was worth more than ten thousand low-grade Yuan Crystals. There were probably hundreds of them here, plus nearly a thousand mid-grade Yuan Crystals. Ming Qi suddenly realized that his wealth had suddenly become immense.
Who was this man in black, and how could he have amassed such a vast fortune?
Magic weapons, Yuan Crystals?
These were extremely rare items for innate masters, and the fact that they were so plentiful and high-quality in the man in black was truly incredible. However, Ming Qi naturally didn't dwell on it too much, because from now on, these things belonged entirely to him.
Besides the Yuan Crystals, the ring also contained a considerable number of low-grade spiritual artifacts and various elixirs.
As his strength grew, Ming Qi became more familiar with elixirs. While there were numerous types of elixirs, like cultivators, elixirs were categorized by realm: Spirit-level elixirs, Saint-level elixirs, Divine-level elixirs, and Immortal-level elixirs.
Based on the quality of the fire and the ingredients, elixirs of the same realm were further divided into three categories: Human, Earthly, and Celestial. While the factors involved were numerous and complex, Ming Qi knew one thing: to refine elixirs of a high realm and quality, every step of the alchemy process must be flawless. For example, the Five Elements Reversal Elixir that Yue Qinglong had taken out earlier in the Tianqing Palace was only a Human-God-level elixir. The Tianyuan Pill, which increased the chance of achieving innate enlightenment, was at least a Human-Immortal-level elixir or higher.
Most of the elixirs in this ring were also Human-level. While there were also a number of Earth-level elixirs, Earth-Saint-level and Earth-God-level elixirs were few and far between.
After a rough check and throwing away all the useless things, Ming Qi had a black diamond-shaped plate in his hand.