The heavy snow never stopped falling in Tianxuan Gate.

Hovering in midair above the Black Cliff was Luo Leilei. With a pair of purple wings on her back and electricity buzzing around her, the young woman looked like a G.o.d that had descended upon the earth.

Before her was an ordinary young man with nothing but a sword in his hand.

Xu Xiaoshou smacked Hiding Pain, then turned and smiled. “You sure about this?”

“Yes!” Luo Leilei snapped back with stubborn determination in her sweet voice.

Xu Xiaoshou guessed he couldn't stop youngsters from their reckless impulsiveness… He shook his head and said mildly, “Your parents will mourn your decision.”

Luo Leilei fell silent, and her eyes flashed dangerously.

“How do you want to do this?” Xu Xiaoshou appeared unfazed.

He'd just advanced to the next level and was still uncertain about what he was capable of. It wouldn't be a bad idea to pit himself against a worthy opponent.

Yuan Tou, the other newly appointed member of the Inner Yard Thirty-Three, wouldn't have quite made the cut.

But this young woman was different. She was part of the Holy Va.s.sal… How impressive was that?

Xu Xiaoshou generously laid out the options. “Close combat, a sword fight or a fight using purely spiritual techniques Pick your poison.”

These were the three types of battles he knew right now. His impression of prodigies was that they excelled equally in physical fighting and the magical.

He was great with swords, spiritual techniques, as well as a simple old-fas.h.i.+oned fistfight. He was better than the average prodigy!

“I'm going to thrash you!” Luo Leilei scoffed coldly. Her four fingers touched and formed a triangle, and through that triangle, one could see Xu Xiaoshou right smack in the center of it.

She had no idea how physically powerful Xu Xiaoshou was. Naturally, she wouldn't try to fight him head-on. She wasn't a swordswoman. So, the only option left was long-range combat.

Xu Xiaoshou immediately sensed danger when he saw that hand seal, and he looked up to see dark storm clouds gathering above him with wildly dancing silver serpentine streaks.

“Are you trying to force an ascension on me?”

Xu Xiaoshou wasn't going to stand there like an idiot and wait for lightning to strike. He immediately shot up and burst through the gathering storm clouds.

A wave of burning, p.r.i.c.kling numbness a.s.sailed him. But the sensation was mild and tolerable.

“Haha, I wonder if your lightning bolts travel upwards too!”

Luo Leilei was stunned by Xu Xiaoshou's unexpected move, and it took her a moment to recover from her shock.

“Hah, you guessed it!”

Buzz…

A streak of purple lightning darted across the sky like a serpent and charged at Xu Xiaoshou.

He was prepared this time. He knew that he wasn't going to be fast enough to evade the lightning bolt… but he also knew his physics very well!

He flung Hiding Pain away, then darted aside. The move instantly drew the lightning bolt towards his sword.

Boom!

The nearby explosion nearly blew out his eardrums, and he could only pray that Hiding Pain was alright. He gazed at the thick clouds beneath him, then tightened his fist.

“Infernal Heavens!”

The spiritual source inside him diminished suddenly while the air around him rapidly started to heat up.

It was as if the ancient spiritual energies that had been floating leisurely between heaven and earth had just been given a shot of adrenaline. They transformed into wisps of mist and rose into the air.

The clouds hovering near the ground vaporized instantly with the tightening of Xu Xiaoshou's fist.

Without the layers of clouds between them, Xu Xiaoshou could see the amazement in Luo Leilei's eyes when their gazes met.

Pain flashed across her eyes the next second.

Crackle! Pop!

“Infernal Heavens… In a Blink of an Eye!” Xu Xiaoshou was immensely tickled.

The invisible flames of Infernal Heavens were burning Luo Leilei!

His spiritual techniques were extremely aggressive techniques, and nearly all of them had immediately taken effect!

“What kind of sorcery is this?”

Luo Leilei was having a taste of what Shao Yi had suffered that night. She'd reflexively used her spiritual source as a s.h.i.+eld, not expecting the flames to burn through her spiritual source as well!

Xu Xiaoshou was no longer the Xu Xiaoshou of that fateful night.

He had advanced to the Origin Court Level. Even though he was still at the early stage, the quality and quant.i.ty of his spiritual source were considerably more impressive now.

As someone who had acquired his spiritual source at the Acquired Stage, the subsequent transformation that his energy reserve had undergone at the Innate Stage was a growth that bordered on freakish.

He didn't need to level up High Spirits at all. His spiritual source remained unchanged despite the spiritual energy he was constantly expending. Hence, he wasn't worried about it at all.

Xu Xiaoshou caught Luo Leilei in the midst of building a s.h.i.+eld. With a curl of his finger, the flames of the Infernal Heavens burning on Luo Leilei shrank in size and intensified at the same time.

With his Cooking Expert at the Innate Level, he could now control his flames remotely.

Luo Leilei's body was ravaged by pain. She didn't have an Innate Level Physique, so if it wasn't for Thor's Form s.h.i.+elding her from most of the flames and mitigating the damage, she would have already been burned to a crisp.

“Why are his spiritual techniques so powerful too?”

Luo Leilei knew few defensive spiritual techniques, so she decided that the best defense was offense.

She curled her fingers into claws, stabbed the air, and ripped a tear in the very heavens.

“Forbidden Lightning Purgatory!”

A Master Stage spiritual technique!

As far as the eye could see, the very s.p.a.ce around Xu Xiaoshou for hundreds of yards collapsed, and black lightning formed a web that crossed and converged with one another like the roots of an ancient tree that had just gained sentience.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Endless lightning bolts rained down on Xu Xiaoshou as the heavens became like a deadly see of lightning where only corpses could float.

Luo Leilei panted heavily. The attack had taken a lot out of her. Without any warning, her pupils contracted and her scalp p.r.i.c.kled with numbness.

A bathtub… had appeared in the middle of the Forbidden Lightning Purgatory!

What was that?

Where had Xu Xiaoshou gone?

She extended her spiritual senses, then whipped her head up to the sight of a sphere of energy with an unsteady glow heading toward her.

“Lesser Fireball!”

The scorching heat of the refined fireball was a terrifying sight to behold, and Luo Leilei instinctively dodged it.

Boom!

A loud explosion sent waves of heat rippling across the sky, and the falling snow vanished as the heat turned it into a mist, a mushroom cloud appearing in the heavens.

The force of the explosion sent Luo Leilei flying into the distance.

She was horrified when she realized that another Refined Fire Seed was waiting for her in the distance.

Farther away was Xu Xiaoshou with an infuriating smile on his face and three more Refined Fire Seeds in his hand.

“Don't worry,” he said. “Let's take it slow.

“You may have dodged the last one, but there's another one waiting for you. After you dodge that one, you'll still have another three to deal with!”

Luo Leilei was quickly approaching the Refined Fire Seed. When she heard these words, she immediately reacted to dodge the impending danger.

“Purple Flas.h.!.+”

Xu Xiaoshou stared as Luo Leilei s.h.i.+fted and transformed into a bolt of golden lightning that dodged the Fire Seed in the nick of time.

“Yellow Flash?” Xu Xiaoshou was startled.

How he envied these cultivators who had such a wide a.r.s.enal of cool and flashy spiritual techniques.

Unfortunately, with his level of talent, he was fated to be stuck with boring spiritual techniques that he'd created himself and had to rely on their actual destructive force to intimidate his enemies.

While Xu Xiaoshou's mind was wandering, Luo Leilei chose to pull closer to Xu Xiaoshou instead of rapidly retreating, and appeared right in front of him.

Buzz. Zap. Buzz.

What sounded like the birdsong of a hundred starlings rang in Xu Xiaoshou's ear, and he caught sight of the electricity coiled around Luo Leilei's hand…

“Chidori?”

“Lightning Strike!” Luo Leilei thrusted her clawed hand forward in what seemed like an attempt to skewer Xu Xiaoshou.

Xu Xiaoshou might have a Master Physique, but so what? Her Master Stage spiritual technique was possibly the most powerful attack that a single cultivator could unleash on her enemy!

Gasp!

It was then, at that most critical moment, that Xu Xiaoshou suddenly took a sharp breath in her face.

This was the amazing close-combat skill that Xu Xiaoshou had stumbled upon in an epiphany at the Spirit Library Division and had used to consume Elder Sang's Infernal Fire Seed.

Contrary to the stench that he'd had to endure then, the scent that Xu Xiaoshou caught was the refres.h.i.+ng perfumed fragrance of a young woman.

Buzz.

The sudden churning of her spiritual source inside Luo Leilei left her bewildered. She had no idea what was the cause of this.

The electricity snaking around her hand weakened instantly and only managed to burn Xu Xiaoshou's clothes… Her clawed hand didn't manage to pierce his skin at all and instead became a gentle caress.

Xu Xiaoshou stared stupidly at the snowy hand that Luo Leilei had placed on his chest.

“Are you copping a feel again?”

Luo Leilei was livid. But before she could blow up, Xu Xiaoshou grabbed her pale wrist and yanked it up, leaving her chest vulnerable to attack.

His fingers turned into blades, and Xu Xiaoshou showed no mercy for his female opponent as he pierced her chest with his fingers!

“Hnn!”

Luo Leilei widened her eyes and spat out a mouthful of blood that landed on Xu Xiaoshou's face.

Xu Xiaoshou exhaled softly, a distant look in his eyes.

This was his first battle since reaching the Innate Stage. He'd expected Luo Leilei, who was an Upper Spiritual Level Holy Va.s.sal, to be stronger than him. But, honestly… she was extremely weak!

“Remember, no matter how powerful your spiritual techniques are, you shouldn't try to engage in a close-combat battle with me. That's a hopeless fight.”

He wiped the blood off his face, and, as he stared as Luo Leilei's eyes gradually glazed over, said in a measured voice, “You lost.”