Jiang Jiumei's longsword was the Mysterious Mirror Sect's ultimate treasure. It was carved with the light-mastery magic art's rune, allowing her to release potent light-mastery magic art if she channeled her essential Qi.

The magic art would have unexpected wonderful effects if it was released at a half-spirit beast, but the scholar was an Almighty Being that could disintegrate its power by turning his hand. Needless to say, his power could not be compared to Extreme Grade.

At the same time, the scholar extended his other hand to flick Ni Yinghong's longsword.

He was sharp-eyed enough to be able to tell at one glance that Ni Yinghong's martial art cultivation base was extremely low. Instead, he attached more importance to Jiang Jiumei because she was in Extreme Grade.

Nonetheless, the scholar's heart tensed up just as his fingers were about to touch Ni Yinghong's longsword; he sensed a threatening power. Without any hesitation, he swiftly withdrew his fingers channeled Qi to his eyes to release a fierce aura.

He wanted to crush Ni Yinghong with his forceful aura as someone who had surpassed Extreme Grade, and he intended to frighten the lady, who dared to attack him and challenged his pride.

Even so, the scholar soon noticed that Ni Yinghong's eyes lit up. The mental power that he released did not affect her at all, and she continued to stab with her sword without stopping at all.

The scholar's heart trembled as he sensed a strong backlash. His eyelids flickered as he used his immense willpower to withstand the backlash.

Nevertheless, as he hesitated for a second, the chilly sword-light from Ni Yinghong's sword penetrated his body.

Following that, the scholar's body quivered, and he immediately shifted his attention to Ni Yinghong. It was then when he realized that even though the lady's martial art boundary was not worth mentioning, her mental power was so notable that he considered himself inferior.

The chillness that struck him was a skill contained in the longsword, but the skill's power activated by Ni Yinghong through her mighty mental power was far more powerful than that released by Jiang Jiumei.

Being caught off guard, the scholar froze for a split second.

At the spur of the moment, Jiang Jiumei, who was initially hiding behind Ni Yinghong and seemed to be only releasing a skill, flashed to the front of the scholar. She wielded her longsword and mercilessly prodded it at the scholar's throat.

She gathered all of her power for this attack, causing the sword-light to be fast and ruthless. At this point, she vividly portrayed her martial art cultivation base.

Jiang Jiumei was so cold-blooded as though she bore a deep grudge against the scholar. Upon seeing this, Feng Yiyuan and the other spectators shivered in cold sweats.

The scholar scoffed as he was infuriated. Cultivators in the upper realm were separated into casters and warriors. Casters were powerhouses with remarkable mental powers, allowing them to release various magic arts; warriors, as the name suggested, were powerhouses that cultivated their bodies and essential Qi to resist casters with their overbearing physical qualities.

He made a wrong judgment earlier and realized that he was mistaken, but he could not break free from the awkward situation right away.

Seeing as the longsword was being poked at his throat, the menacing sword-light caused him to have goosebumps on his throat.

'A magic tool—this young lady's weapon isn't only a piece of Skill Equipment, but a magic tool!'

If his vital parts were directly stabbed by the magic tool, he dared not say that he could retreat unscathed.

During that crucial moment, the scholar's energy, essence, and spirit as a powerhouse were increased to their peaks. Subsequently, his power was fully unleashed.

"Boom…"

A vigorous power suddenly burst out from his dantian. It was so tyrannical that he instantly broke free from every constraint.

He raised his arm and quickly pulled out a folding fan, which he placed vertically in front of him.

"Ding!"

Jiang Jiumei's longsword hit the folding fan, but her great magic tool could not slash the fan.

A magic tool—the folding fan was also a magic tool, and it was also a kind of Qimen Weapon. In terms of value, it was certainly not inferior to Jiang Jiumei's longsword.

After the scholar blocked the attack, a faint chill arose from his heart, but he did not pay much attention to it because he thought he was only careless. However, just as the scholar moved his body and was about to lower himself to initiate an attack, Ni Yinghong reached out her slim hand and waved at him.

The airflow around him underwent an odd change at that instant as if tiny vortexes were formed. Each of them then transformed into a wind blade in the blink of an eye, and the hundreds and thousands of wind blades zoomed toward the scholar with fearsome whistles.

'A caster!'

The scholar's face changed, and he finally confirmed that he encountered a caster.

It was worth noting that casters were very rare even in the upper realm because there were far lesser beings gifted with mental power as compared to those gifted with physiques. Besides, a successful mental power cultivator would certainly be superior among those in the same rank, hence cultivators were more popular than warriors.

Having said that, this was the lower realm, where the universe's spiritual power was far from what could be found in the upper realm.

Over here, even if casters possessed great mental powers, they could only release limited magic art powers and could not resist equal-ranked warriors. Therefore, there were rarely qualified casters in many of the lower realms.

Different cultivators were trained from different environments—this statement was beyond doubt regardless of the place.

The scholar was troubled by a question.

'How could someone cultivate mental power to such a terrifying state in this world?'

As the scholar sensed the whistling wind blades, he flashed and launched continuous attacks with his folding fan. As such, he disintegrated the blades by either blocking or dodging them.

Despite that, Jiang Jiumei charged forward again at this moment. The sword-light on her weapon flashed and carried an intense and striking light.

The scholar was taken aback. Jiang Jiumei's longsword was nothing much to him, but he was rather afraid of her light-mastery magic art. The light on her sword could be vaguely seen, but it was not released. It was similar to a ferocious beast that was ready for an attack, which would be a pain in the *ss if it pounced.

Upon seeing this, the scholar shifted his body while wielding his folding fan.

On the other hand, Ni Yinghong stood still and released an ice-mastery skill through her longsword. She also kept releasing the wind-mastery magic art she was skilled at with her other hand. As the two skills complemented each other, the power that she released increased by a few times.

Of course, if Ni Yinghong was the only one attacking, the scholar could get close to her to kill her even if he was injured. That said, Jiang Jiumei was in front of her. The lady was fiery, but she had an extraordinary talent in combat. She maneuvered her longsword such that unbelievable effects were brought into play, and the light-master skill from the sword was especially distressing.

As both parties moved around in the small area, they became entangled.

Far away, Feng Yiyuan and the others were stupefied because they did not expect this outcome.

They imagined the scholar to cause a massacre as soon as he attacked, and that he was completely irresistible. Even if Ou Yangming could summon the spirit beasts outside the city, he would likely also be killed by the scholar first.

Who knew, Ou Yangming did not show up at all, but the young ladies were able to be well-matched against the scholar when they joined hands.

Feng Yiyuan and Xiao Hualing looked at each other anxiously.

'When did this world become so bewildering?'

Nonetheless, they did not know that Ni Yinghong's mental power was already increased to the world's limit through Ou Yangming's help. Moreover, as she rode the goshawk and comprehended the wind's power, she gained a new understanding of the wind-mastery magic art.

Apart from that, the Skill Equipment made using Wu Hanning's ability as a sample, as well as the Mysterious Mirror Sects' magic skill tool, increased Ni Yinghong and Jiang Jiumei's strengths drastically.

The various factors were the exact reason the young ladies could fight the scholar without being badly defeated.

In spite of that, the powers from their pieces of equipment were not cultivated by them, after all. During the start of their fight, the scholar played it safe and resolved their endless killing intents. Once he gained a firm foothold and became familiar with the ladies' tricks, he became at ease.

Ni Yinghong's wind-mastery magic art was unpredictable, but the ice-mastery magic art and Jiang Jiumei's light-mastery magic art were always the same. As soon as the scholar grasped their patterns, he no longer feared them.

The scholar sneered after some time and uttered, "Juniors, hand it over now!"

He shook his folding fan several times and fended off Jiang Jiumei's longsword in a strange way. The young lady groaned and incited her sword's light-mastery magic art at once, but the scholar was well-prepared, thus he opened his fan and blocked the magic art just like that. Afterward, the covering of the fan moved forward abruptly and hit the longsword with a sweeping force.

Jiang Jiumei moaned and flew backward, and blood was seen flowing between her thumb and her index finger.

Seeing as the situation was unfavorable for them, Ni Yinghong released the Freeze Skill again.

However, the well-prepared scholar turned around smoothly and evaded the chillness in a bizarre and unimaginable way.

It was incredibly difficult to dodge a magic art's attack through one's speed and prediction, but Ni Yinghong was controlling a piece of Skill Equipment and was not that familiar with the skill it contained. As a result, the scholar spotted the loophole and was able to avoid the attack.

Just as Ni Yinghong's face changed, and she was about to release her wind-mastery spell, the scholar flashed and lunged at her.

He seized the timing so perfectly that even Jiang Jiumei could not assist her because she was caught off guard too.

Ni Yinghong smiled bitterly. 'It turns out that our combined power isn't enough to resist a real powerhouse.'

She closed her eyes, but it was then when she heard a bark.

"Woof!"