Chapter 20: Top-Tier Demon Duel: A Rookie Lord vs. A Remnant Emperor

It seemed this old monster had hidden himself a little too well.

For centuries, no one had found his hiding spot. The solitude had gnawed at him, and his soul had withered to the extreme. If he didn’t seize a body within the next 100 years, he would dissipate into nothingness.

That desperation was why he had released the giant snake. It was a lure, a breadcrumb trail hoping to attract a curious cultivator to his cave.

In the previous timeline, some careless Senior Brother had simply chopped the snake’s head off without a second thought, completely ignoring the clue to trace its origin.

In this life, although Su Qianyi had ordered a search, the snake had wandered too far from the cave, and this location was too well-concealed. The search parties had failed again.

“Exactly,” the spirit of Mo Tianqing sneered, his voice dripping with arrogance. “I spent a great deal of effort hatching that beast. Kid, your aptitude is trash, but beggars can’t be choosers. As long as I can walk out of here, I’ll make do with a mediocre vessel. Hahahaha…”

The young man’s phantom looked down at Xiao Yifeng, laughing maniacally.

Xiao Yifeng shook his head, a look of pity on his face. “Mo Tianqing, do you really think you have a chance?”

The laughter cut off abruptly. Mo Tianqing stared at him, stunned.

“You know my name? And you recognize the Holy Sect’s Soul Trapping Array?” His eyes narrowed. “Are you a disciple of the Holy Sect? We are currently inside the Wentian Sect’s domain… Has the Holy Sect finally breached their defenses?”

“Mo Tianqing,” Xiao Yifeng chuckled, “The Wentian Sect is standing tall and proud. You, however, will never have the chance to destroy it.”

“You think you can stop me?” Mo Tianqing scoffed. “With this half-baked, amateur Soul Trapping Array?”

“Of course not. This array can only hold you for a few breaths,” Xiao Yifeng admitted calmly. “My reliance isn’t the flags. It’s Zhan Xian.”

He turned his gaze to the black sword stuck in the rock.

“Zhan Xian, what are you waiting for? Haven’t you had your fill of the heavenly treasures I fed you? There is a delicious, weakened Tribulation Transcendence soul right in front of you.”

Xiao Yifeng formed a hand seal and barked a single command.

“Rise!”

Clang!

Before the echo of his voice died away, the black sword ripped itself from the stone floor. It hummed with a bloodthirsty delight and slashed viciously at Mo Tianqing’s soul floating in mid-air.

Mo Tianqing was scared out of his wits.

Though shocked, his combat instincts remained. His soul form instantly shrank, diving back into his skeletal remains. A layer of protective golden light erupted from the bones, shielding him.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Zhan Xian slashed wildly at the barrier, causing the golden light to flicker and tremble like a candle in the wind.

“How is this possible?!” Mo Tianqing’s voice screamed from within the skull. “How can you manipulate Zhan Xian? That is my sword! My soul imprint is still inside it! Who are you?!”

The shock in his heart was cataclysmic. A cultivator’s bonded weapon was an extension of their soul. For a stranger to turn his own blade against him was impossible—it defied the laws of cultivation.

He frantically tried to recall the sword, sending mental commands, but Zhan Xian ignored him completely. It continued to hack at him under Xiao Yifeng’s direction, like a loyal dog biting its former master.

Xiao Yifeng didn’t stop his hand seals. He kept up the pressure, his voice calm and poisonous, chipping away at the demon’s will.

“Mo Tianqing, stop struggling. We both know Zhan Xian has the power to sever souls. Why fight it? Just obediently become nourishment for the blade.”

Xiao Yifeng’s eyes turned cold. “Look closely. What is this technique? Slash!”

Above the altar, the black energy swirling around the sword suddenly condensed. It formed a shadowy, blurred humanoid figure holding the sword.

The shadow raised the blade and brought it down in a devastating arc.

Crack!

The protective golden light shattered instantly. The force of the blow carried through, smashing Mo Tianqing’s Tribulation-grade skeleton into a pile of bone shards.

With his physical anchor destroyed, Mo Tianqing’s soul was forced back into the open air.

“Go,” Xiao Yifeng commanded.

Zhan Xian pursued the fleeing soul relentlessly. This was where the Soul Trapping Array shone. Mo Tianqing could have broken the array in seconds if left alone, but with a god-tier sword chasing him like a rabid dog, he couldn’t stop moving.

He flew up, down, and around, a streak of desperate black light. Every time the sword grazed him, a chunk of his soul mist was shaved off, dimming his existence.

“Why?!” Mo Tianqing roared, slamming fruitlessly against the invisible walls of the array. “Why can you use Zhan Xian? Why do you know my unique secret technique, the Sword Spirit Doppelganger? I never taught that to anyone! I comprehended that myself during my Tribulation!”

He was going mad. The impossibility of the situation was cracking his sanity.

“I can control it because I am its master,” Xiao Yifeng said, his smile turning cruel. “As for the Sword Spirit Doppelganger… I comprehended it too. Why wouldn’t I know it?”

He paused, letting the words sink in.

“Don’t you understand yet, Mo Tianqing? You are just a remnant soul. I have already broken free. You are merely the discarded fragment I left behind!”

“Liar!” Mo Tianqing shrieked, looking as if he had been struck by lightning. His conviction was collapsing. “Impossible! I remember it clearly! I fought Wuyazi! I was injured! I hid here! I am real! I cannot be a remnant!”

“Ten Thousand Spirits Zhan Xian Sword!”

Xiao Yifeng seized the moment of mental instability. He shouted the name of the ultimate technique, and the sword flared, landing a heavy blow that nearly cleaved the soul in half.

Mo Tianqing’s light dimmed dangerously.

“Oh?” Xiao Yifeng said nonchalantly, twisting the knife. “Then think. Why can’t you control the sword? Why do I know your secrets? Check your memories, Mo Tianqing. Are they complete?”

He stepped closer to the barrier.

“Do you remember what Master, the Withered Heart Daoist, said before he died? Do you remember exactly why Junior Sister died?”

“Why… why do you know the Ten Thousand Spirits…” Mo Tianqing stopped moving. He clutched his spectral head, trembling. “Why can’t I remember? Master? Junior Sister?”

He howled in agony, ignoring the sword that was now freely drinking his soul essence.

Xiao Yifeng rapidly formed seals, accelerating the absorption. He kept whispering details—secrets that only the true Mo Tianqing would know—driving the remnant soul deeper into madness.

Soon, Mo Tianqing stopped screaming. He floated in mid-air, dazed and broken, his soul light fading to a dull gray. Threads of energy connected him to the Zhan Xian sword, siphoning him dry.

Xiao Yifeng smirked. Zhan Xian was truly the nemesis of all spirit bodies. It was almost over.

Suddenly, a strange light flickered in the dull eyes of the dazed soul.

Snap.

The soul split in two.

A large, unstable portion remained locked by the sword’s suction. A smaller, condensed spark of soul fire detached itself and shot toward Xiao Yifeng.

“Blast!”

The larger soul portion detonated.

BOOM!

The explosion was massive. The shockwave blasted the Zhan Xian sword away and incinerated the five array flags instantly. Xiao Yifeng, standing too close in his arrogance, was lifted off his feet and hurled backward like a ragdoll.

Through the dust and chaos, the smaller soul fragment shrieked like a banshee, diving straight into Xiao Yifeng’s defenseless body.

“Ugh!”

Xiao Yifeng grunted, his eyes rolling back as he collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

[Location: Sea of Consciousness]

Inside the metaphysical void of Xiao Yifeng’s mind, the intruder manifested.

Mo Tianqing’s remnant soul reformed, staring hungrily at Xiao Yifeng’s main soul avatar.

“Whether you are me or not doesn’t matter!” Mo Tianqing sneered, his face twisted in a mask of malice. “As long as I Seize your body, I will be the true self! Even if you are the main body, I will devour you!”

Xiao Yifeng’s soul avatar looked at him and let out a bitter laugh.

A Tribulation Transcendence demon is truly not to be underestimated, he thought. I calculated that he was on the verge of dissipation, yet he still had this much fight left.

The breakdown earlier? A performance. Mo Tianqing had feigned madness to lower Xiao Yifeng’s guard, waiting for the perfect moment to detonate his own soul and force this internal confrontation.

Was Xiao Yifeng panicked? A little.

But he also knew Mo Tianqing better than Mo Tianqing knew himself. The Bloodthirsty Sword Demon was a muscle-head. He knew swords and he knew body refinement. Soul attacks? He was a novice.

“Die!” Mo Tianqing roared, pouncing forward.

Xiao Yifeng didn’t run. Instead, his soul began to glow with a majestic, golden light.

The supreme Buddhist heart sutra, the nemesis of all evil possession, flared to life. At the same time, jagged, dark spikes materialized around him—the Soul Severing Spike, a vicious mental attack from the Demon Sect.

Outside, he was limited. But in here? This was his house.

It was a Reincarnated Mahayana Demon Lord versus a weakened, remnant Tribulation Demon Emperor.

It was a reunion of old friends in a strange land. Or perhaps, just two rookies pecking at each other in the mud.

Xiao Yifeng’s soul avatar grinned, mirroring the demon’s expression.

“Little Mo,” he mocked, his voice echoing like thunder in the mindscape. “There was a road to Heaven, yet you refused to walk it. There was no gate to Hell, yet you broke your way in.”

He licked his lips, looking at the intruder not as a threat, but as a feast.

“What a great supplement you are…”

With a demonic laugh that sounded even more evil than the intruder’s, Xiao Yifeng pounced.

Mo Tianqing paused, a sudden chill running through his spectral form.

Wait… am I the one Body Seizing him? Or is he Body Seizing me?

Who is the real demon here?