Chapter Sixty-One: Oneself

The blackness all over the dark shadow's body was like a layer of skin. As that strand of black Qi within its body burrowed into the evil seed, the black skin also slowly began to peel off upward from the bottom.

Looking ahead at the dark shadow that was already half melted, Yu Qi felt a sense of familiarity when he saw the exposed clothes on its lower body, yet he could not recall where he had ever encountered this figure.

Finally, the black skin peeled off completely, revealing its face.

Black hair, beneath which was a delicate yet striking visage, sharp eyes, and a straight, knife-carved nose, giving an overall impression of steadfastness and resilience.

"This... This is impossible." When Yu Qi clearly saw the other's face, his eyes widened abruptly, his body instinctively taking a few steps back, and his face turning pale.

Because the other's appearance was identical to his own—or rather, this was another version of himself.

Yu Qi stared coldly at the figure, and the figure stared back at him.

"Who are you?" Yu Qi asked coldly.

"I am you!" The figure let out an evil laugh, and even the voice was exactly the same.

Yu Qi took a step forward, a chilling aura emanating from his body as malevolent Qi instantly drifted outward.

At that very moment, the figure made the exact same movement, and cold, wicked Qi similarly hovered around its body.

In an instant, this entire space was engulfed in a frigid atmosphere.

In disbelief, Yu Qi looked at the person who looked identical to him. "This is impossible!"

The Seven Clans Demonic Seed was a cultivation technique that could only be practiced by someone holding the Demonic Seed Sword. In the present world, apart from Yu Qi, no one else possessed it, yet this mysterious person right before his eyes actually commanded this very martial art.

The figure seemed to relish Yu Qi's expression, its eyes revealing a greedy glint. "This martial art is not bad, and its demonic nature is very strong. Your martial art now belongs to me."

"Whether you are human or demon, I will force you to reveal your true form today!"

With an angry roar, Yu Qi integrated the evil seed's Qi into his body, transforming his gray pupils to flash with a sharp, piercing light.

The half-broken demonic seed in his hand bloomed with cold radiances. With a motion of his body, he thrust straight toward the figure.

Simultaneously, Yu Qi circulated the "Light" technique within his body. In a flash, the demonic seed transformed into countless sword afterimages, striking rapidly toward the adversary.

The mysterious figure smiled eerily, integrating the evil Qi around its body inward as well. With an empty-handed grab in the air, black Qi immediately manifested, transforming into a sword radiating surging black energy.

The figure's arm moved with incredible swiftness, thrusting its black sword rapidly to clash against Yu Qi's demonic seed with a flurry of overlapping sword images.

A series of faint roaring sounds echoed across the platform. The inner Qi operating within both men caused their garments to ripple violently, emitting snapping sounds in the air.

When their final swords collided, a massive surge of internal Qi instantly burst outward, driving both men backward.

While still sliding backward, Yu Qi grit his teeth, kicked off the ground with his heel, and a gray swallow instantly manifested beneath his foot.

Leveraging the power of the Treading Swallow technique, his backward momentum instantly converted into a forward charge.

And the adversary mirrored his actions, executing the exact same maneuver.

The two figures collided once again, the sound of weapon-like impacts constantly ringing in their ears.

After exchanging several blows with the figure, Yu Qi suddenly blasted backward.

Hardly had he steadied his footing when a mouthful of blood spewed from his mouth, accompanied by waves of intense agony surging from within his body.

His internal injuries had never fully healed, and this intense combat had aggravated his wounds, causing his combat capability to drop by another notch.

The mysterious figure watched Yu Qi, walking toward him step by step with a curved smile at the corner of its lips. "Injured, are you? Perfect, that saves me time. I will gladly take this body of yours."

Watching the figure continuously close in, Yu Qi wanted to resist, but the moment he circulated his inner Qi, a fierce, stabbing pain wracked his body, forcing him to halt his movements.

The mysterious figure arrived right in front of Yu Qi, extending an arm to grab him.

Yu Qi stared directly into the other's eyes, a profound sense of unwillingness surging within his heart.

He did not want to die, nor could he die!

Even as he roared inwardly, the adversary's hand continuously magnified in his vision. Just as it was about to touch him, the dark shadow's body shuddered and suddenly halted right before him.

Simultaneously, the mysterious figure's face began to contort. Its skin started to crack, slowly revealing the original blackness underneath.

"Impossible! How could this be?" Transforming back into the dark shadow, it let out a fierce roar, its voice gradually degenerating into something sinister.

Yu Qi watched this scene coldly; he knew it was the effect of the evil seed.

Just a moment ago, the evil seed had suddenly vibrated intensely, pushing out the demonic Qi that had already eroded inward.

As the dark shadow began to struggle, the evil seed within his dantian underwent another bizarre transformation.

Amidst the violent trembling, several strands of evil Qi erupted from the evil seed, entangling the black Qi that was attempting to invade once more.

The black energy wriggled constantly, but to no avail. The evil Qi slowly enveloped it, and then gradually assimilated it into one.

"This martial art is trying to devour me! No!" The dark shadow sensed that the trace of black Qi connecting it to Yu Qi's dantian was actively merging into the malevolent Qi emitted by the other.

Moreover, the opponent possessed a progressive tendency of nibbling away at it. At this rate, it would sooner or later be completely devoured by Yu Qi.

The dark shadow struggled, wishing to sever the connection with that thread of black Qi, but that thread was the very source that enabled it to mimic Yu Qi's martial art; it simply could not cut it off.

Yu Qi also sensed a subtle anomaly. As the evil Qi devoured the adversary's black Qi, it was actually capable of augmenting the malevolent Qi condensed by the Heaven-Forging technique.

"Could it be that using the Heaven-Forging technique accelerates the rate of assimilation of the evil Qi?"

With this thought, Yu Qi took action. He sat cross-legged and began to circulate the mental formulas of the Heaven-Forging technique.

The evil Qi inside his body seemed stimulated, accelerating its devouring speed.

Joy surged in Yu Qi's heart as he further expedited the refining process.

"Stop this right now!" The dark shadow roared uncontrollably, as if suffering immense agony. It wanted to attack Yu Qi, but found itself entirely unable to move, forced to watch helplessly as its own energy was consumed by Yu Qi.

Closing his eyes, Yu Qi ignored the dark shadow's roars and concentrated entirely on refining the black Qi.

This pavilion was completely sealed off, making it impossible to tell whether it was day or night.

After an unknown duration, Yu Qi opened his eyes. The dark shadow before him had completely vanished, having been entirely swallowed into his evil seed.

At the same time, Yu Qi perceived the changes in his own strength.

Previously, the evil Qi condensed by the Treading Swallow technique only numbered in the hundreds of strands, but after absorbing the dark shadow, the malevolent Qi generated by the Heaven-Forging technique had increased by a full thousand strands.

If he were to use the Treading Swallow technique to refine all of this evil Qi, it could grant him another hundred-plus strands of mutated evil Qi, elevating his strength once again.

All things considered, once this was done, eighty percent of his unleashed combat power would reach the level of Wu Weihe, or perhaps even surpass it slightly.

If Yu Qi pushed his strength to the absolute limit—reaching the ten-percent threshold that triggered that intense agony—Wu Weihe would likely not last more than a few exchanges before being defeated by him.