With the defense to ignore normal attacks from Spirt realm cultivators, Wu Guang did not need to defend himself. And so when he broke into the group of ten such cultivators defending the entrance to the cave, he wholly concentrated on attacking.

After quickly and successively making a series of five vertical and horizontal slashes, he simply proceeded forwards while ignoring everything around him.

Did he kill any of the opponents? He did not stop to check, but his aura scan revealed that three of the presences had disappeared.

As for the rest, they were either wounded or distracted enough for the soldiers to gain the advantage.

Inside the cave resembled a coarsely dug tunnel, which continued for a hundred or so feet before transforming into a single, bigger round room that was used as a resting or gathering spot. This latter was Wu Guang's actual objective, where he had and continued to sense the three Soul realm cultivators that served as this band's vice-commanders.

He id not hide his approach, even more, he announced himself before stepping inside

"Wu Guang, here as part of the 'Black Crow' group. Surrender or fight"

There was a reason for such strange conduct which could be called cultivator etiquette. Obviously, bandits did not think much of the unspoken rules about one-on-one duels and so, but these three were part of the Warrior caste, and so even after losing their honor and being disgraced, such etiquette was engraved into their conduct anyway. A thing to note was that normally such traditions only worked when the side forcing to comply with them was losing... But on Black Island, they indeed cared too much about their own honor. Even if they had lost the public one.

And when the response voiced by the three of them was heard, it did not surprise Wu Guang.

"Fan Shun"

"Fan Wuhan"

"Fan He"

"We three brothers will leave this cave either free or beaten. According to the customs, you can select any one of us to duel. If you win, we will surrender to your mercy. If you lose, then your will be the one in ours"

"Agreed. But, I will allow you to decide who duels" As Wu Guang answered, he entered the cave-room and released his full strength aura for them to feel.

As they examined it and traded a few qi transmissions which basically were an attempt to guess his real cultivation and strength. This was logical, after all, Wu Guangs aura had signs of being on the 2nd level of the Soul realm, but the strength and presence conveyed by it was two levels above, the 4th level.

"I will be the one" In the end, the one to step forward was the middle brother, Fan Wuhan. His cultivation was the strongest amongst the brothers, being on the utmost peak of the 3rd level, close to breaking to the 4th level of the Soul realm.

Wu Guang also used the opportunity to examine the opposing side. The three brothers shared similar looks. Being of normal, about 5 inches lower than Wu Guang, stature and having trained, if not burly, bodies. Their faces looked identical as well, with the only differentiating quality being their hair. The oldest brother sported a short, spiked cut. The middle one, and Wu Guang's opponent, had long, unkempt hair. While the third brother seemingly took care of his looks, as his long hair was clean and neatly brushed.

"I promise upon my honor to surrender to your mercy or die fighting if I lose. I will repeat the pledge before my comrades in arms, so let's duel outside" Wu Guang proposed. He wasn't interested in making a show of all this, but his senses had caught a few qi disturbances in the cave, that could mean traps, so he preferred to play it safe.

"Regretfully that is not possible. We will not leave this cave if we are not freed or are captured by force"

"Hmm? I see. Then let's start then" Such a reaction confirmed Wu Guang's suspicions about the cave being not normal. Granted, he considered that people so hung to ritual and traditional duels would not recur to traps, but their unwillingness to leave was questionable. Anyway, he had to fight, so after marking the disturbed spots to avoid them, Wu Guang took guard while holding the 'Gravity Slasher' horizontally with both hands.

"..." Fan Wuhan did not respond but assumed a readied position with his weapon, a rare meteor-hammer.

________________________________________________________________________

Neither of the two moved for a par of minutes, with each other trying to find a weak point or goad the opponent into action.

Still, the Fan brothers' situation was far worse, with soldiers possibly arriving anytime and so Fan Wuhan was forced to act first.

Swinging the two heads around him, he generated enough momentum before making a quick lunge forwards and sending one of them at Wu Guang.

*Whoosh*

Seeing the trajectory thanks to his senses, Wu Guang made a quick sidestep before lunging forwards as well.

With the hammerhead passing only a pair of inches from his body, he closed the distance and made a wide, horizontal slash. Such an attack was easy to evade, but it would make Fan Wuhan lose his weapon tempo and force him to move, thus achieving Wu Guang's main objective of disrupting his opponent and using the advantage of close range. After all, the meteor hammer was a weapon meant to be used at its maximum chain range, having far less impact up close.

And indeed, Fan Wuhan quickly moved aside to avoid the slash while pulling on the chain connected to the head he had sent forward.

*Clink*

He was also forced to block Wu Guang's quick follow-up slash, doing it so with the second hammer-head he had been holding in his right hand.

Intending to not leave a single moment for his opponent to gain momentum and counterattack Wu Guang released a quick series of practically unaimed slashes.

*Clink* *Clank* *Screech* *Clink*

All of them being blocked by either the hammer-heads or the chain, they still did accomplish their task, giving Wu Guang the time to determine and prepare a decisive slash. Which as soon it was possible he released.

The slash was a half-overhead cleave, during which Wu Guang activated the weight runes to double the saber weight to gain more force.

*Chink* *Clatter*

But, it was a duel between cultivators and not weapon masters, so it failed to decide the duel as Fan Wuhan activated a strange, floating-like, movement technique and allowed the saber to meet, and be entangled with the chain of the hammer that he threw forwards before retreating.

Sensing that his opponent would use this moment to attack him with a technique or skill, Wu Guang also released his saber and quickly moved from the spot he was on.

This turned out to be the right decision, as not more than a moment later Fan Wuhan jumped and landed a devastating, qi-infused, kick on the spot he was just on.

"Hand-to-hand is it?" Wu Guang smirked before kicking the ground and launching towards his opponent.

He did not have any close combat techniques except the 'Flaming' set punches and kicks, but being at the Soul realm, he could infuse enough qi as to equal the destructive force of the techniques without actually activating any.

*Whoosh* *Slap* *Smack* *Splat*

Standing practically on the same inch of ground, Wu Guang and Fan Wuhan began an exchange of attacks, blocks, feints, and counterattacks. Being so close meant almost no way to avoid a strike, so the fight turned into a contest of who could resist longer.

With his better senses and qi control, Wu Guang could infuse enough qi to shrug off missed attacks in time, while Fan Wuhan had a bit more experience, or had trained specially, in such type of combat and so the match appeared more-or-less equal.

But even as Wu Guang landed only one hit against his opponent's two, he was still the one to be unharmed while his opponent was already sporting bruises and even spat out some blood.

________________________________________________________________________

Initially, Fan Wuhan saw that he had a slight upper hand in this exchange. But as he felt more and more impacts successfully landing on his body and breaking through the layer of qi that naturally protected it, he understood that he would lose in the end.

After all, his far more numerous landed hits were shrugged off like nothing.

And he could not even begin to guess why the young boy in front of him had such defense, still, without no manner to break through... what did his attacks even serve for?

At this moment he received a qi transmission from his older brother, Fan Shun

"The boy seems to have less experience but has a strong defense, you will not win like this. But he has not used any techniques, using raw qi to improve his strength and keep up with your 'A Hundred Punches Equal One'. Break off after the next attack and try using techniques!"

With this tip being reasonable and on the same note as his thoughts, Fan Wuhan decided to do so right away.

After landing another, shrugged off, hit at the boy's body, he used the small moment between the continuation to break off by jumping backward. To avoid being closed up right away, he also activated his 'Sand riding the Wind' movement technique to increase the distance and speed of the jump.

Unbeknownst to him, his opponent was not only ready for such a development but in fact, was waiting for it!

________________________________________________________________________

Wu Guang's combination of senses and mind-power allowed him to intercept any qi transmissions made by cultivators below the Earth Realm. This ability was something untraceable, and so he had never stopped using it. Thought even without hearing the words said by his opponent brother he could guess that Fan Wuhan would sooner or later break off, knowing the timing was a welcome bonus.

He indeed had only a few techniques at his disposal, with most of them being practically outdated at the moment... But, he had something else to use, something that he wanted to try out during a fight. And also the reason why he searched for a Soul realm cultivator opponent. A Martial Skill!

Truly he had not practiced any of them physically, but he had memorized two during the incidents surrounding his inheritance and learned one of them mentally during his coma. The skill in question was called 'Green Demon Claw'. It was a low-level, low-rarity, martial skill that used a cultivator's aura and qi to cover, akin armor, one's arm with poison.

As for the poison itself, it was created from a mix of elemental particles coming from the surrounding qi, with the Wood element being the main one and giving it the distinctive, and naming reason, green color.

So as soon his opponent began to distance, Wu Guang activated 'Counting steps to Heaven and Hell' to follow after him while preparing for his first, physical, use of a martial skill.

"Green Demon Claw!" Martial skills did not require any type of martial cultivation, being activated by the timely infusion of Soul power, Qi, and being visualized correctly. Because of the latter, and as most cultivators learned dozens if not hundreds of different techniques and skills, it was the usual way to use their name as a cue. Which was the reason of Wu Guang calling it out in place of attacking silently.

Even though Wu Guang had exclaimed the name of the skill, Fan Wuhan had simply no opportunity to react. Not only he did not expect Wu Guang to approach so rapidly, not allowing even a single moment of respite, but neither he expected his opponent to use a technique or skill right away.

*Grab* *Rip* *Splat*

And so, because of underestimating his opponent, Fan Wuhan had no way to avoid Wu Guang's poison-covered right arm as it grabbed his shoulder, ripped his clothes, and left a deep wound that left his bones discovered.

"You are poisoned with a qi-poison created by the technique. The duel is sealed. Surrender and I will dispel it" Wu Guang indeed could have killed him with this attack, but he did not see the need. After all, the three brothers had behaved themselves with full honor... So why could he not reciprocate?