Holy Maiden, wait a minute. Why are you asking me to cultivate again?

Upon seeing Song Zhao's unparalleled performance among his peers, the Blood Demon Sect leader's fierce eyes revealed approval.

"Boy, come to my Blood Demon Sect. To be honest, a talent like yours is being wasted in a small sect like the Heavenly Martial Sect."

"Come to the Blood Demon Sect, and I guarantee you'll achieve the Golden Core stage within ten years!"

"A ruthless character like you is not suited for cultivating immortality; you're better suited for cultivating demonic arts."

Song Zhao raised an eyebrow. The Heavenly Demon Pearl in his hand refined the three dead Blood Demon Cult members into three strands of Crimson Profound Qi, which were then incorporated into the pearl, revealing a demonic pattern.

"Huh? The magical artifact in your hand looks somewhat similar to one of our Blood Demon Cult's artifacts. You wouldn't happen to be a rogue cultivator from the demonic path, would you?"

The Blood Demon Leader laughed loudly and extended an olive branch once again: "Boy, join my Blood Demon Cult, and I'll pretend what just happened never occurred."

Song Zhao stood silently, offering no response.

Although he himself cultivates demonic arts, he has absolutely no connection with the Blood Demon Cult.

His current strategy is simply to stall for time, to delay the arrival of the Tianwu Sect elders to come to his rescue.

The Blood Demon Helmsman clearly realized Song Zhao's thoughts and said coldly, "You won't be able to wait for your elders to come and help."

"Come back to the Blood Demon Cult with me!"

As he spoke, the blood sacrifice artifact with the human skull in his hand emitted a bright blood light, forming an enormous blood hand that enveloped Song Zhao in its palm!

He wanted to bring Song Zhao back to the Blood Demon Cult. Even if he couldn't become a member, he could still make him a decent blood zombie puppet.

"I agree, come back!"

As Song Zhao fled from the blood-stained hand, he mentally connected with the flying sword, sending it to pierce through the blood-stained hand and return.

"My current spiritual sense is insufficient to unleash the Yin Thunder Divine Power. Damn it, I haven't even mastered the Golden Core Dharma Eye's divine power yet..."

Just as Song Zhao was about to be covered by the giant bloody hand, the flying sword "Heyi" rushed over and, in the blink of an eye, used its sword energy to carry Song Zhao out of the bloody hand.

"Such a fast flying sword! It's truly a rare treasure!"

The Blood Demon Helmsman secretly praised him, and the giant blood hand transformed into hundreds of blood swords that suddenly accelerated, blocking Song Zhao's path.

"What are you all standing there for? Aren't you going to come and help?"

Several Blood Demon Cult members nodded and also summoned blood sacrifice artifacts, surrounding Song Zhao from three directions and trapping him inside.

"Kid, you can't escape now, can you?"

Just as the Blood Demon Helmsman was about to laugh triumphantly, he discovered that Song Zhao was not standing there at a loss, but instead was attacking him again.

"You're asking for it!"

With a thought, those terrifying blood swords, like a swarm of fish returning to the sea, stabbed towards Song Zhao's back.

"Your blood sword isn't as fast as mine!"

A smile appeared on Song Zhao's face; victory was within his grasp at this moment.

He intended to strike a fatal blow while the Blood Demon Helmsman was distracted and careless, as he was controlling the Blood Sword.

But the sword light on Song Zhao's flying sword was extremely condensed, and in an instant it broke through layers of magical power and attacked fiercely!

A flicker of panic crossed the Blood Demon Helmsman's eyes. He completely abandoned controlling his flying sword, attempting to block the attack.

It's a pity that this flying sword was originally the natal flying sword of a Golden Core cultivator. Although Song Zhao added all his magic power to it, he could only unleash one or two tenths of its power, but that was still enough.

blah-

The flying sword "Heyi" pierced through the hands of the Blood Demon Cult leader and plunged into his chest, striking straight at his heart.

"Heh, pfft!"

The Blood Demon Helmsman broke free immediately, staggered back a hundred feet, coughed up blood, and his eyes dimmed.

Within his heart cavity, wisps of white frost and lightning sword energy were interfering with his life force, and his heart had already stopped beating.

"Heh, what a clever tactic, what a cunning scheme."

He inserted the blood-headed magical artifact into his heart, temporarily keeping him alive.

"A Qi Refining cultivator with Foundation Establishment combat strength is quite remarkable..."

"It's no big deal that I got caught by you."

"But next time, you won't be so lucky."

The Blood Demon Lord laughed cruelly and vanished into the market as a gust of bloody wind.

Song Zhao wanted to chase after him, but he was too exhausted.

The three Yin Thunder Divine Powers and that sword strike had exhausted all his magical power and divine sense.

"A Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator is actually so difficult to kill..."

He exhaled the pent-up frustration in his chest, recalling how the Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Demon Slayer Division had died at his hands, which was also due to bad luck.

Without the Supreme Yin and Yang energies, and given that Sun Qianwei was seriously injured, it would have been impossible to succeed.

Looking around, the remaining Blood Demon Cult members had already run far away, but were still within the Golden Core's field of vision.

"You can stay here..."

Song Zhao took a deep breath, swallowed a mana-restoring pill, and began his hunt.

After killing the last Blood Demon Cult member and refining him into the Heavenly Demon Pearl, they had already left the territory of Tianwu Market and arrived at a wasteland.

Clap clap clap!

Suddenly, a crisp clapping sound rang out.

A young man in fine clothes and a pale face, holding a folding fan, slowly walked over: "Not bad, old man."

"Killing eight Blood Demon Cult demon cultivators in one go is a significant achievement for the righteous path of Xuanzhou."

The young man praised her, but his face was filled with gloom.

"I originally intended to go to the Tianwu Sect to seek justice for my brother, but it seems there's no need to go now."

"Alas, it's a pity that my younger brother, in the prime of his life, was killed by you, you old handyman."

"The Heavenly Martial Sect is just a bunch of unreasonable barbarians, saying they're inferior in skill and deserve to die?"

"Now it's your turn to be outmatched."

Du Shaoyi stretched and walked up to Song Zhao: "I'll let you die knowing why."

"I am Du Lingfeng's older brother, and I have come to avenge him."

Song Zhao met Du Shaoyi's gaze: "Don't you know it's dangerous to be that close to me?"

"Oh dear, where is it dangerous?"

"How come I didn't see it?"

Du Shaoyi emanated three layers of protective spiritual light, revealing that he was carrying three defensive spiritual artifacts.

"On the contrary, you dared to kill someone from the Du family. I won't let you die so quickly."

He took out a poisoned dagger from his storage bag and held it to Song Zhao's ear: "My brother gouged out your eyes and cut out your tongue."

"Today I will cut off your ears, rip your mouth apart, and smash your nose!"

Just as the poisoned dagger was about to strike, Song Zhao's figure flickered and disappeared from the spot.

"Heh, so he has magic power? I'd like to see how much magic power a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining can have."

"Killing you is enough!"

Song Zhao attacked from the shadows, delivering a punch that struck the three layers of protective spiritual light.

Buzz!

The protective aura trembled, withstanding the attack of that punch.

"You can't even break through my defenses, yet you dare to try and kill me?"

Du Shaoyi turned around and slashed at Song Zhao's ear with his dagger again.

To everyone's surprise, Song Zhao didn't dodge this time. Instead, he tilted his head and pointed the tip of the dagger at Song Zhao's eye.

He knew that this was the only way to survive; otherwise, he would be worn down and die.

The Golden Core Eye is an object of the Golden Core Realm. No matter how sharp that poisoned dagger is, it cannot pierce Song Zhao's eyeball. On the contrary, it may activate the eye's protective consciousness!