Chapter 7

Li Keyi licked his lips, still savoring the taste, and thought about the terrifying cultivation speed. If he were to tell others, they probably wouldn't believe him. From the red marks initially increasing his cultivation speed by several times to now, they had increased it by forty times, allowing him to break through from the early stage of the first level of the Refining Soldier Realm to the early stage of the second level in just three short days.

With such a cultivation speed, who would dare to say his soldier soul was a trash or a waste?

Unfortunately, the acceleration effect of the red marks was not without limits!

"This cultivation speed is too fast! It's better to proceed step by step! Hmm... I'll first pass the Overbearing Decision to Brother Yun, then report to the Iron Horse House. I'll also go to the second floor of the Military Tactics Tower to see if there are any suitable body techniques or leg techniques to practice!"

After breaking through, Li Keyi decided to pause his cultivation. With his current cultivation speed, as long as there were no unexpected events, breaking through the Refining Soldier Realm within a year would be no problem. Moreover, refining the soldier soul couldn't be rushed; it required a gradual approach. Therefore, he chose to do other things instead of continuing to cultivate frantically.

After all, to survive in the Divine Soldier Continent, high power alone didn't mean much. One needed to be strong in all aspects. Military tactics, body techniques—divine weapons, elixirs—none of these could be missing!

Rising, he straightened his clothes and was about to step out of the inner room when he suddenly heard a loud roar from outside the door.

"Li Keyi, you piece of trash, come out and face your death!"

Then, "Bang!" Li Keyi knew that the front door of his house had been kicked in, and someone had come to bully him.

"Li Keyi, if you don't show up, I'll have my cousin kill you!"

"Xu Ting, let me go!"

Angry shouts came from outside the door.

In the courtyard, as the front door was kicked in, a middle-aged, muscular man in golden clothes slowly walked in. He was carrying Ling Yun in one hand and swaggered into the courtyard, grinning maliciously at Li Keyi, who was coming out of the inner room.

Behind the middle-aged man was Xu Ting, also in golden clothes, and the other named disciples.

At this moment, Ling Yun was being held high like a chicken, his right cheek bruised and swollen, clearly having been beaten up, but not fatally. As a sixth-rank family member, though only a collateral branch, if Xu Ting were to kill Ling Yun, he would have to think about the aftermath, as killing Ling Yun would involve the two major families of Hanzhou and Xu Ling.

Seeing his brother being humiliated like this, Li Keyi's eyes immediately shot out a cold, sharp light.

"Let Ling Yun go!"

Li Keyi said coldly.

"Little horse slave, little piece of trash, Master is back today!"

Xu Ting sneered, his eyes filled with coldness, eager to grind Li Keyi to dust. The previous humiliation Li Keyi had inflicted on him had almost ruined his reputation, and many disciples in the Twin Saber Sect were still talking about it, making his mood extremely irritable. If not for being in the Twin Saber Sect, he might have already killed a few people.

After observing quietly for three days, Xu Ting found that no one cared about Li Keyi anymore, so he decided to act directly.

He wanted to cripple Li Keyi's soldier soul and turn him back into a complete piece of trash!

This was what Xu Ting wanted to do, to vent his anger.

"A trash soldier soul dares to challenge me! Today, I'll cripple you and beat you up!" The middle-aged man in golden clothes laughed loudly, baring his teeth, and looked at Li Keyi with a cold, sinister smile.

Li Keyi completely ignored Xu Ting, his gaze fixed on the middle-aged man in golden clothes.

"Xu Zheng, you old dog, are you here to avenge your trash cousin?" The middle-aged man in the inner disciple's uniform was Xu Ting's cousin, Xu Zheng. However, Xu Zheng's father was not a member of the Xu family but had been adopted into it. Although Xu Zheng was nominally Xu Ting's cousin, they had no blood relation.

"Trash?" Xu Ting's face turned ashen, his veins bulging, and he shouted, "Li Keyi, you're the trash! You're the big trash! A garbage soldier soul, a little horse slave!"

Xu Ting's shouts were loud, but Li Keyi treated him as if he were air, completely ignoring him.

Contempt, complete contempt!

No matter how much of a waste Li Keyi was, no matter how low his soldier soul's rank, he was a genuine inner disciple, so he didn't care about Xu Ting, an outer disciple.

Killing Xu Ting now would be as simple as moving a finger.

But dealing with Xu Zheng was not so easy.

Xu Zheng had mediocre talent and took thirty years to reach the ninth level of the Condensing Qi Realm. However, his soldier soul was a sixth-rank orange soldier soul—the Snowflake Bright Silver Saber.

The sixth-rank Snowflake Bright Silver Saber elevated Xu Zheng's status instantly, transforming him from a mediocre, often ridiculed waste to an inner disciple of the Twin Saber Sect. This experience had twisted his mind, and he now enjoyed bullying and humiliating outer disciples and named disciples.

"Anyone who dares to touch my Xu family member will suffer a fate worse than death today!"

Xu Zheng moved, threw Ling Yun with his right hand, and "Bang!" Ling Yun was thrown against the wall, his mouth bleeding.

Seeing Ling Yun's mouth bleeding, Xu Zheng laughed maniacally.

His eyes suddenly flashed, and he took heavy steps. Orange light swirled in his hand, and a short-handled, long-bladed, single-edged three-foot-long saber appeared. The Snowflake Bright Silver Saber, with orange light and snowflakes swirling, had three segments of its form refined.

This was the third level of the Refining Soldier Realm!

"Swish!"

The saber rushed straight at Li Keyi, a gust of wind following it.

"Wind Rising Clouds!"

Wind Rising Clouds was the first move of the Yellow-grade superior saber technique, the Wind Chasing Saber Technique. When fully mastered, it could create wind with each strike, far more powerful than the Wild Wind Saber Technique that Xu Ting practiced, and should not be underestimated.

"Hmph!"

Facing Xu Zheng's determined strike, Li Keyi coldly snorted, not dodging or avoiding. Red light flashed in his hand, and his flying saber soldier soul appeared, striking forward.

"Clang!"

Red light splashed like flames, orange light flowed, and sparks flew.

The soldier souls collided, and Xu Zheng's face showed shock. He felt the terrifying resilience of Li Keyi's flying saber soldier soul. His Snowflake Bright Silver Saber was a higher-rank soldier soul, naturally much harder than a seventh-rank soldier soul. Moreover, Xu Zheng had been in the Refining Soldier Realm for four to five years, with three segments of his soldier soul refined. Logically, in a direct collision, Li Keyi's flying saber soldier soul should have shattered.

But it didn't!

What surprised him even more was that Li Keyi's body only wobbled slightly and then stopped as if nothing had happened, completely neutralizing the rebounding force.

Although Li Keyi's soldier soul was low in rank, his cultivation of the Overbearing Decision in the Condensing Qi Realm made his divine soldier aura fierce and powerful. In the Refining Soldier Realm, he cultivated the Wind Cloud Decision, making his soldier soul both hard and soft, incredibly tough. Additionally, the Earth-grade middle-rank body technique, the Nine Dragon Swimming Technique, he had practiced before, allowed him to skillfully neutralize the rebounding force.

"Now it's my turn to act!"

Just as Xu Zheng was shocked, Li Keyi suddenly raised his saber. The three-inch-seven-fraction flying saber had a bright, cold edge, reflecting a sharp light. One strike, like a celestial being descending, seemed to come from the left, but when Xu Zheng reacted and tried to dodge, it appeared above his head.

No place to hide, no place to avoid!

This strike was the first move of the Mystic-grade superior military technique, the Three Divine Strikes...

Heavenly Descent!

"Crack!"

Li Keyi's strike fiercely split into Xu Zheng's shoulder, shattering his shoulder bone. The blade stuck in the middle, blood gushing out, and Xu Zheng looked at Li Keyi in shock.

Even Li Keyi was secretly relieved. This strike was from the Mystic-grade middle-rank military technique, the Three Divine Strikes, which he had brought from his family. Mystic-grade techniques were difficult to understand, and although he had practiced for some time, he could only grasp a vague sense of the blade's intent.

But when he struck this time, he felt a sense of integration, making the strike smoother and more thorough. This allowed him to severely injure Xu Zheng, piercing his shoulder bone.

"Hmm! This feeling... so smooth!" Li Keyi looked at his right hand in slight surprise. He felt that this move had the power of the fifth or sixth layer of a Mystic-grade technique, and he had almost mastered it to that level.

If not for this, with Li Keyi's second-level Refining Soldier Realm power, it would have been difficult to injure Xu Zheng, who was at the third level.

"How is this possible? A seventh-rank soldier soul, at the first level of the Refining Soldier Realm, how could it break my Adamantine Body?" Defeated in one move! Xu Zheng couldn't believe it, looking at Li Keyi with deep shock.

"This... " Li Keyi's one move completely defeated Xu Zheng, severely injuring him, and the flying saber soldier soul was deeply embedded in Xu Zheng's shoulder. This scene left everyone, including Ling Yun, speechless.

"How is this possible? How is this possible? Cousin Xu Zheng has been in the Refining Soldier Realm for five years, how could he be defeated in one move by this little piece of trash?"

"Li Keyi, you must have used some despicable means! Yes, that must be it!"

Xu Ting couldn't believe what he saw. Three days ago, Li Keyi defeated him in one move, and now, he had defeated his cousin, Xu Zheng, who was at the third level of the Refining Soldier Realm, in one move. The double blow made his heart unable to bear it, and he stared at Li Keyi with eyes full of hatred, shouting wildly.

At this moment, Li Keyi finally turned his gaze to Xu Ting and said coldly, "Xu Ting, you've caused me trouble multiple times! Today, let's end this!"

Saying this, Li Keyi walked toward Xu Ting step by step, his gaze cold, his face stern, the cold edge of his saber reflecting a blinding light in the sunlight.

Killing intent flowed.

"What? You want to kill me?" The cold aura slowly crept over, and Xu Ting's heart raced. At this moment, he finally felt how close death was.

"You should have died long ago!"

"No! You can't kill me? I'm an outer disciple, one of the three major outer disciples, you can't kill me! You can't kill me..."

Xu Ting screamed in panic, retreating step by step, his eyes bulging with deep fear.

"Three days ago, that might have worked! Now..." Li Keyi paused, then said coldly, "Now— you— are— doomed!"

With that, Li Keyi raised his saber and advanced.

"Two segments?" Behind Li Keyi, Xu Zheng, who was about to stop him, suddenly felt his eyelids twitch. From his angle, he could see that two segments of Li Keyi's flying saber soldier soul had been refined, a characteristic of the second level of the Refining Soldier Realm.

"This..." This reality was hard for Xu Zheng to accept. He stood there, stunned, staring at Li Keyi's flying saber soldier soul in disbelief.

"Is this still a seventh-rank trash soldier soul?"

Xu Zheng couldn't believe it. The news of Li Keyi's seventh-rank red flying saber being a trash soldier soul had spread throughout the Twin Saber Sect. Although many outer disciples and named disciples marveled at Li Keyi's astonishing cultivation talent, the seventh-rank flying saber soldier soul was always looked down upon by inner disciples.

A seventh-rank soldier soul, of poor quality, slow cultivation speed, and low power, especially a flying saber, which was almost unrecognized on the Divine Soldier Continent.

"Three days— breakthrough!"

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