Ishihara Kai's heart plunged into an abyss.

A devil. Xu Lai is a devil. He doesn't just want to kill, he wants to crush my spirit!

He was suddenly filled with regret. Not for strutting around Dongli University, but for making a bet with Xu Lai. Otherwise, I wouldn't have ended up in this predicament!

"I'm sorry."

With endless regret reflected in his pupils, Ishihara Kai crashed to his knees with a THUD. He pressed his forehead to the ground, forcing out the words through clenched teeth.

The kneel itself was light, yet it completely shattered the pride within him and filled Ishihara Mai with boundless humiliation.

"I'm sorry," Ishihara Mai and the others also managed to say.

Hu Yanjie and the two other boys Ishihara Mai had kicked in their vital areas were somewhat at a loss. Though they were injured, years of fine education in Hua Country made them subconsciously want to forgive. After all, it wasn't a big deal. In a martial arts spar, winning and losing were common, and getting beaten and injured was even more so.

"If you repay resentment with virtue, how then shall you repay virtue?" Xu Lai sighed softly before turning to leave.

Hu Yanjie and the students in the hall fell silent. Indeed, how should kindness be repaid?

As everyone stood deep in thought, Ishihara Kai, whose forehead was still pressed to the ground, slightly raised his head. His eyes, fixed on Xu Lai's retreating figure, flickered with a chilling and daunting coldness.

I have to kill him. If I don't personally kill Xu Lai, this walking nightmare, my martial boundary will never advance even a single step for the rest of my life. I will be forced to relive the fear that dominated me today, day after day, year after year. I have to take another gamble! I'll bet on him being careless enough for me to assassinate.

He believed that even if he killed this Martial Ancestor from Hua Country, Sakura Country would spare no effort to ensure his safe return. After hesitating for only a second, Ishihara Kai made his move.

He drew a finger-length dagger from within his clothes. Gold and silver light constantly shifted across its surface, giving it a strange appearance.

This was a sinister weapon Ishihara Kai had acquired by chance when he advanced to the Martial Ancestor boundary. It appeared to be forged from gold and silver, yet it held the unpredictable power of ghosts and gods. Indeed, if this dagger pierced a target's body, it would forcibly drain all their Spiritual Energy. Even their awakened Talent Seed would be absorbed.

As long as the dagger made even a small cut on Xu Lai, he would become a desiccated corpse within three breaths' time. And he would gain a portion of the Spiritual Energy absorbed by the sinister weapon, using it to nourish his own martial boundary.

Although he had been a Martial Ancestor for a long time, Ishihara Kai had used this dagger less than ten times. He feared leaving behind evidence that would lead to other martial artists hunting him down as a heretic. But today, he could no longer afford to care.

If Xu Lai doesn't die, he will become my heart-demon!

Having awakened a Wind Talent Seed, Ishihara Kai pushed his speed to its absolute limit, nearly at the cost of damaging his Dao foundation. In that instant, he was the wind itself.

He moved at a speed unimaginable to ordinary people, appearing behind Xu Lai in the blink of an eye. A look of delighted surprise crossed his face. He didn't react!

Just as he thrust his arm forward to strike, Xu Lai suddenly turned around, his face expressionless.

BOOM!

An extreme terror surged through Ishihara Kai's heart. His scalp went numb and his limbs trembled. A shudder originating from his very soul screamed at him to stop his attack.

But it was too late. The dagger froze a mere inch from Xu Lai's body, unable to advance another millimeter. No matter how the sinister weapon writhed, it was useless.

"A Spiritual Artifact..." Xu Lai frowned.

Artifact Refining was divided into ten grades. In the Immortal Domain, ordinary cultivators used Mortal Instruments, followed by Treasure Instruments and then Heavenly Instruments. Spiritual Artifacts, however, were on a completely different level from Heavenly Instruments because they were sentient.

Previously, Mo Shan of the Ancient Demon Clan, an expert at the peak of the Golden Core Realm, had only possessed a mere Treasure Instrument.

With Earth's current resources, even the most talented Artifact Refiner couldn't possibly forge a Spiritual Artifact; even forging a Mortal Instrument would be a challenge. Only Hua Country's Sky Ranking, which had been accumulating power for three hundred years, had a chance to evolve into a Spiritual Artifact. And even that was only a chance.

So the question was, how did Ishihara Kai, a Seventh-Grade Martial Ancestor from Earth—a Level One civilization in the Solar System—obtain a Spiritual Artifact? And a demonic one at that, stained with the blood and souls of countless victims.

A soul-search will reveal the truth.

As Xu Lai closed his eyes, his Divine Sense invaded Ishihara Kai's mind. In an instant, the Sea of Consciousness of this Martial Ancestor from Sakura Country, who had just tried to assassinate him, collapsed, turning him into a drooling imbecile.

Not even a being at The Supreme Emperor Boundary could ever hope to heal Ishihara Kai.

Xu Lai quickly found his answer. This gold and silver dagger was found in a cave in Sakura Country. All other information is unknown...

Xu Lai opened his eyes and rubbed his temples. This is a headache. I'll have to make a trip there myself and use the Retrocognition Technique to understand the full story, which is a bit of a hassle. Hmmm... I'm too lazy for that. I'll just go home tonight and yell for that brat, Heavenly Dao, to answer my questions.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Teacher Feng, Dongli University's physical education instructor, suddenly roared, startling everyone. He had just seen Ishihara Kai lunging at Xu Lai with a dagger. He just didn't understand why the man's attack had suddenly stopped...

Teacher Feng kicked aside the now vacant-eyed, lifeless Ishihara Kai and planted himself in front of Xu Lai, saying solemnly, "Teacher Xu, don't be afraid! I'll protect you!"

The students were speechless.

As if you weren't scared to death a moment ago!

But no one called him out on it, because they had also been terrified by that horrifying tornado and its wind blades.

"Father!"

"Teacher!"

Ishihara Mai and the other students from Sakura Country stood up and ran over.

"Teacher Feng, I'll leave this to you," Xu Lai said. With a wave of his hand, he beckoned the dagger into his palm. After saying this, he left the Martial Arts Hall under the shocked and admiring gazes of the hundreds of students present.

The martial arts exchange between Dongli University and Imperial Capital University concluded on a rather sour note.

Any further conflicts or grudges were no longer Xu Lai's concern. Gao He, the president of the East Sea Martial Dao Association, whom he had met a couple of times, had already informed him that the association would take full responsibility for the day's events, including all follow-up and diplomatic exchanges.

「Back at Haitang Court that evening.」

Ruan Tang lay on the sofa, utterly exhausted, while Xu Yiyi tenderly massaged her mother's shoulders and neck. "Mommy, does that feel good?" she asked softly.

"It feels wonderful. Yiyi is the best," Ruan Tang said happily. She had nearly worked herself to death at Xu Yaoyao's place today, helping with just about everything. Fortunately, the majority of the work was done, and the rest could be left to Xu Yaoyao and Liu Beiming.

"Sis, your husband was quite the star at school today," Ruan Lan commented casually while sipping fresh-squeezed juice.

Before Ruan Tang could respond, Xu Yiyi's eyes widened with excitement. "What did Dad do? Auntie, tell me, quick!"

Ruan Lan briefly recounted the story, emphasizing, "You have no idea. So many female students were asking me for your husband's contact info."

Xu Yiyi peeked at Xu Lai, who had checked his phone at least seven or eight times since getting home, and said worriedly, "Daddy must have been entranced by a fox spirit."

Ruan Tang was speechless.

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