Duan Ze was waiting for the other party to explain their reason, but instead, he was met with a sword strike. He quickly retreated a few steps to dodge the attack, but still ended up with a bloody scratch on his leg from the opponent’s sword qi.

“Can’t we just talk it out?” Duan Ze took out his fan from his storage ring to block another incoming sword strike. Xiao Wuchen, hearing his words, only attacked more fiercely, “No.”

Duan Ze sighed, “Fine, if you won’t say, but if you want to harm me, don’t blame me for returning the favor.”

The other party was completely unwilling to communicate, so it seemed Duan Ze would have to investigate their grudge himself.

Outside, the thunderstorm continued unabated, and Xiao Wuchen was both resisting the lightning and attacking Duan Ze. Duan Ze’s body was that of a cultivator, and while the elixirs he carried could treat external injuries, those meant to restore spiritual power were specifically for demons and couldn’t be consumed by cultivators.

After a few moves, Xiao Wuchen was already exhausted. Overexerting his spiritual power left him drenched in sweat, his face pale, and his eyes bloodshot as if they were about to bleed.

Seeing that his opponent was about to collapse, Duan Ze was ready to wait for another lightning strike to finish him off and then collect the body. Unexpectedly, when the lightning struck, Duan Ze himself went limp.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw the demon lord in front of him, holding the exquisite fan, wearing a tattered dress, and he smirked, “No way…”

Xiao Wuchen, having just regained his body from a muddled state, hadn’t fully processed his surroundings. Duan Ze forced himself to stay calm, planning to seize the opportunity to reclaim his belongings.

However, as soon as he took a step forward, his whole body screamed in pain, as if a steamroller had run over him, his bones felt like they were about to shatter. Duan Ze broke out in a cold sweat, unable to move.

What kind of pain had Xiao Wuchen been enduring while fighting him?

Realizing he had to act before Xiao Wuchen could kill him, Duan Ze gritted his teeth and forced himself to move forward, grabbing Xiao Wuchen’s hand. As Xiao Wuchen reflexively counterattacked, Duan Ze used the motion to strip away the fan and the storage ring from Xiao Wuchen’s fingers.

Duan Ze quickly took an emergency elixir from the storage ring and swallowed it, then opened the fan to block the incoming lightning strike. He also retrieved Xiao Wuchen’s sword into his own storage ring.

His actions were smooth and fast.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wuchen quickly regained his senses and launched another fierce attack.

Now fighting barehanded, Duan Ze still felt a bit overwhelmed. During a brief pause in their fight, he asked, “Can we take a break?”

“No.” Xiao Wuchen, after a brief moment of joy from regaining his body, turned grim again upon realizing he was wearing a dress.

All he could think about now was—killing Duan Ze.

Duan Ze had no choice but to hold on. The situation had completely reversed with their sudden body swap.

Fortunately, Duan Ze had taken an elixir, and his spiritual power and stamina were quickly recovering. He gradually stopped merely dodging Xiao Wuchen’s attacks.

Moreover, with the half-artifact exquisite fan in hand, Duan Ze managed to stay alive despite being at a disadvantage.

Both were in an extremely tense and fierce state. After taking the elixir, their bodies received signals and began rapidly and thoroughly absorbing the elixir’s medicinal properties.

As they continued to fight back and forth, their spiritual power and stamina returned to their peak.

With their cultivation levels being similar, Xiao Wuchen, lacking the support of a magical artifact, quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Duan Ze knew that the opponent was affected by the lack of a magical artifact, so he intentionally trapped him in a cave, blocking his escape.

If Xiao Wuchen encountered Mo Han and the others, he would naturally have no shortage of magical artifacts, and Duan Ze also needed to protect the storage ring belonging to Xiao Wuchen that he held.

He couldn’t give the opponent a chance to turn the tables.

Unexpectedly, the cave was gradually eroded by the shockwaves from their clashes, leaving a large empty space below and causing the upper part to collapse without support.

Duan Ze was forced to leave the cave, and he and Xiao Wuchen hovered above the collapsed pit, standing on opposite sides. “You can’t beat me now, so why not give up?”

The latter snorted coldly. If not for the lack of a magical artifact, how could he lose to Duan Ze?

“Those eight magical artifacts are in your storage ring, right?” Duan Ze glanced at the surrounding demons, “Don’t let your subordinates come to their deaths.”

Xiao Wuchen ignored him and nodded towards Mo Han in the distance, “Bring a magical artifact for Benzun.”

Mo Han asked blankly, “Weren’t the magical artifacts collected by the Lord into his storage ring when we were on the ship?”

“What?” Xiao Wuchen turned his gaze to the leisurely Duan Ze before him, his eyes flashing with anger. Compared to his own dignity, Xiao Wuchen was more concerned about those eighty magical artifacts, each collected by his ancestors, and he couldn’t let them all be destroyed in his hands.

He quickly calmed down and said, “Even if you know the artifacts are in the storage ring, no one but me can take them out.”

“What if I forcibly erase the spiritual imprint?” Normally, when a storage ring’s spiritual imprint is erased, it falls into an ownerless state, and its contents are expelled.

Most people in the business of killing and looting would bring along one or two individuals with exceptional divine sense to cleanse storage rings that couldn’t be automatically unbound due to the owner’s survival.

Xiao Wuchen seemed to have anticipated Duan Ze’s words and raised his hand slightly, “You can try.”

Duan Ze felt resistance when trying to erase the spiritual imprint on the storage ring, and his instincts told him not to force it.

He examined the storage ring and found an extremely small rune engraved on it. If the spiritual imprint were forcibly erased, the contents would be destroyed and irretrievable.

The two exchanged glances and then gritted their teeth, smiling at each other.

While dealing with the storage ring, Xiao Wuchen took the sword from Mo Han’s hand. Duan Ze saw this but didn’t stop him.

As sworn enemies, they were both top-tier in their respective fields and would never easily bow to each other.

They had to fight again.

Mo Han and the others boarded the flying ship again, steering it further away.

The struggle between those two was not something they could get involved in, nor did they even have the privilege to watch.

The location of their fight was still far from the Cangyu Sect, but their actions were so destructive and loud that many sect leaders and elders came out of their sects to watch from a distance.

Observing a battle between powerful beings could only benefit their cultivation and mindset.

Duan Ze and Xiao Wuchen fought for nearly ten days. Out of respect for his opponent, Duan Ze didn’t take any elixirs during this time, and in the end, Xiao Wuchen slightly lost due to the inferior quality of his magical artifact.

“How about a trade?” Duan Ze took off the storage ring belonging to Xiao Wuchen, “One for two, I give you one, you give me two.”

“No way.” The hilt of Xiao Wuchen’s sword cracked under his grip.

“No trade, fine, with eighty magical artifacts, I can restore my reputation.” Duan Ze was waiting for this response. This way, both storage rings would belong to him, and Xiao Wuchen wouldn’t be able to defeat him anytime soon.

After saying that, Duan Ze was about to leave, but Xiao Wuchen moved to block his path. He couldn’t let those magical artifacts be taken away by outsiders.

He gritted his teeth and finally spat out a word, “Trade.”

In the end, Duan Ze exchanged four magical artifacts for the eight artifacts from the Cangyu Sect.

“And the spiritual qi you absorbed from the small world.”

“That will be a one-for-ten trade.” Xiao Wuchen immediately raised the price.

Duan Ze raised an eyebrow, his tone sharp, “I’m in the dominant position now, what right do you have to set the price?”

However, Xiao Wuchen remained unmoved, using the same tone to reply, “You can choose not to trade, but in three days, that small world will be completely ruined, and you won’t be able to retrieve anything.”

A small world, besides nurturing a cultivator with an immortal bone, could also increase the concentration of spiritual qi in the surrounding area, promoting cultivation for those nearby.

The larger the number, the greater the area it encompassed, and the higher the concentration.

Therefore, near the treasure pavilion was a ring-shaped cultivation ground for cultivators, separated by walls and barriers, not interconnected.

In the cultivation realm, there were countless sects, and everyone aspired to join the four major sects. Besides being located on spiritual veins with abundant spiritual qi, they also had these small worlds.

Obtaining these small worlds not only benefited their disciples’ cultivation but, if they encountered someone who ascended, that person would surely elevate the sect to new heights.

In short, small worlds were important.

Regardless of whether Xiao Wuchen’s words were true or false, Duan Ze had no choice but to believe him, and those spiritual powers belonged to the original spiritual qi of the small world, irreplaceable.

Duan Ze pondered for a moment. Even if he gave the other party ten more, he would still hold the majority. The man nodded, “Let’s trade.”

After obtaining everything he needed, Duan Ze had no reason to stay here any longer. He needed to quickly return to clear his name.

He wasn’t sure how much the situation had escalated during his absence, and the lightning strikes hadn’t stopped since the beginning.

Duan Ze didn’t return the storage ring to the other party, and the other party didn’t seem to intend to ask for it. During this time, Xiao Wuchen exchanged everything he could for magical artifacts, perhaps deciding not to want this storage ring anymore.

In this frame-up, Xiao Wuchen lost both his wife and his army.

He did manage to harm Duan Ze, but in the end, everything was returned to him, and he even lost sixty-six magical artifacts.

Duan Ze glanced at him and smiled, “You look pretty good in a dress.”

Seeing the other party about to charge at him with a magical artifact, Duan Ze quickly dodged and slipped away.

…

Li Qingyuan had also noticed the commotion in the distance in recent days, but he didn’t go over.

To cause such a big impact, it was likely related to his shizun.

Since shizun was busy, it was best not to disturb him and stay in the sect until shizun returned.

The man had just started meditating a moment ago. Handling matters continuously for several days had exhausted him, and he needed to rest for a while.

Li Qingyuan, with his white hair, looked much more haggard than he did ten days ago.

Although the disciples in the treasure pavilion claimed that only Duan Ze had entered during the theft, based on his impression of Duan Ze, shizun would never do such a thing.

Before the matter was clarified, all he could do was suppress the spread of the news and privately search for Duan Ze’s whereabouts.

Li Qingyuan’s eyelashes trembled. The commotion in the distance had stopped for a while, so why hadn’t shizun returned?

He calmed himself, planning to wait a little longer.

Just then, in the room covered by his divine sense, where there should have been no one, a cool and familiar voice suddenly came, “Can the spiritual qi from the small world be returned?”

“Yes,” Li Qingyuan shivered all over, instinctively answering, and then, in a daze, opened his eyes to find that his shizun, whom he had been thinking about for over ten days, had returned. He tentatively called out, “Shizun, you’re back?”

Duan Ze nodded. Compared to Xie Qingyu, his little apprentice who was always plotting against him, this second apprentice was much more worry-free.

He took out all the magical artifacts he had exchanged from the storage ring, including the original spiritual qi belonging to the small world. Those spiritual powers had been condensed by Xiao Wuchen into a milky white orb, floating in the air.

Then, Duan Ze raised his hand and placed a tight barrier around the room. Li Qingyuan didn’t feel any fear, instead sitting upright, waiting for Duan Ze’s next move.

Unexpectedly, with a wave of Duan Ze’s hand, a large pile of high-grade magical artifacts filled with demon qi appeared in the space he occupied.

Li Qingyuan was surrounded by them, completely stunned.

Seeing that the time was right, Duan Ze spoke, “This operation was too sudden, so I didn’t have time to inform you.”

One sentence brought Li Qingyuan’s drifting consciousness back. His eyes showed no doubt, instead looking as if everything made sense, “Shizun means that taking the eight magical artifacts was part of your plan?”

Duan Ze replied without hesitation, “That’s right.”

“You should have noticed that I’ve been dueling with someone these past few days, right?”

The person opposite nodded. Having been the sect leader of the Cangyu Sect for hundreds of years, his mind worked quickly. With Duan Ze’s slight hint and those magical artifacts, Li Qingyuan immediately understood, “The one dueling with shizun is the Demon Lord of the demon realm?”

“Correct,” Duan Ze pointed at the magical artifacts, “These are treasures from the demon city and were the main goal of my operation.”

“Although I didn’t achieve the quantity I wanted, it’s still enough,” Duan Ze said, stroking his chin as he surveyed the magical artifacts and demon artifacts filling Li Qingyuan’s room, “I’ll leave these for you to handle.”

With that, he pushed open the door, leaving behind his accomplishments and name, and walked out under Li Qingyuan’s admiring gaze.

On his way back, Duan Ze noticed that Li Qingyuan had been doing his best to prevent the matter from spreading too far, although privately, many people were aware of it.

Fortunately, Duan Ze’s reputation was high, and not many believed the rumors. Li Qingyuan was also adept at handling the situation, subtly spreading the word that Duan Ze had reasons for his actions.

In a few days, Duan Ze no longer had to worry about being struck by lightning whenever he went out.

He spent ten leisurely days at Zeshuang Pavilion, catching up on the storybooks he had missed recently, enjoying a rather pleasant time.

While he was enjoying himself, Xie Qingyu suddenly came knocking.

“Shifu, are you there?”

Author’s Note: It’s all fixed now!

Consider the previous update a dream~