Villain Cultivator

In the end, Miaomiao invested a lot in the AA weapons as his family's livelihood was on the line. He bought three 120mm cannons, 150 incendiary shells, and 150 armor-piercing shells. Combining with all the rifles, .50 caliber cartridges, and what he had consumed during the past months, Miaomiao's stash was left with only 100,000 essence cores as his last resources.

Fortunately, CJ was kind. He gave Miaomiao a bonus by giving him a thousand enchanted bullet-proof vests, which contained a reactive-armor spell that could deflect a strike from a 5th-stage cultivator once.

After getting all the wares, Miaomiao asked for another important matter.

"Can you open a path to the shadow tower? I have another business there."

"Ah, that," CJ looked away, reluctant to speak about the subject.

"… What's wrong?"

RUMBLE

The room shook and a passage was opened. It led toward the same direction that Miaomiao used to take when he visited the dungeon previously.

Miaomiao shrugged since he didn't need to worry about it anymore. He gestured Fogan and Liu Guang to follow him.

"…"

CJ gazed at the departing group. He had the urge to tell them about the changes in the tower ownership, but he didn't speak anything. He sighed and turned around to pack his stuff and sort his stacks of essence cores.

Now, CJ had enough resources to cultivate. He was confident that he could awaken his dao and reach the 6th-stage within this year.

…

The party reached the pylon tower. Upon seeing the place that he used to visit, Miaomiao squinted his brows.

The environment surrounding the tower had changed.

Standing straight in a formation was an army of 3-meter tall metal golems in black armor. After a brief counting, Miaomiao estimated at least three thousand metal soldiers were here.

However, the important part was their aura. They leaked the presence of 5th-stage cultivators, and they also wield the bigger version of rifles that Miaomiao had just bought.

This didn't include modern vehicles, which had been parked behind the golem army. Their sizes were also big enough to load these giant golems as passengers!

Fogan and Liu Guang looked at Miaomiao, asking him for his next move. Their faces were dark and sweaty, nervous and anxious by the presence of such a strange monster army.

"Relax. Let me talk to the person in charge first," Miaomiao coughed and spoke in a clear voice, "Mr. Dungeon Master, I'm here to enter the shadow realm at the top of that tower. Can you ensure our safety?"

RUMBLE

The wall behind them crumbled and a black metal wall replaced them. On the new metal wall, gold words appeared.

[You can approach the tower. Those golems and the sentries won't harm you.]

"…"

Though Miaomiao hesitated, he guided the group to the tower.

As the dungeon master had stated, no one harmed or paid attention to them. As if the golems were Terracotta Army, they simply stood there, looking forward.

Everyone reached the top floor unharmed.

The portal to the shadow world was still open. Moreover, it seemed stronger than before. The energy emitted by the tower was also cleaner as no poison and shadow miasma leaked from the blue gate.

Miaomiao entered the portal first.

Within the portal, the storm was no longer here. The toxic Qi and the shadow Qi in this world were the same, but the miasma couldn't go through the portal anymore.

Surrounding the portal, four wooden totems formed a filter array, preventing the Qi from leaking to the other side.

Miaomiao guessed that the dungeon master might have explored this world and created an array after his party left this place that day. Unfortunately, he hadn't removed the wandering death knights yet.

In the sky, death knights still roamed around aimlessly. Some of them wasted their energy, picking a fight against each other.

As Miaomiao had been observing the remaining death knights, Fogan and Liu Guang entered the shadow world. As soon as they entered, they coughed and circulated their Qi to drive out poisonous Qi from their system.

"Wow, you fought an 8th-stage lich here?"

Liu Guang had heard about Miaomiao's achievement. She was impressed that her husband managed to defeat a much stronger foe in a disadvantageous environment.

Fogan deeply exhaled and covered their party with a light element barrier. The light shone so brightly that death knights shrieked and kept their distance away from the barrier.

"This monk understands why you need our help, junior Mao. Leave this place to the professional and stay here," Fogan laughed as he erected a light element Qi barrier around the two youngsters, planning to battle against the death knights alone.

SCREECH

SCREECH

SCREECH

Unfortunately, their light barrier caught the attention of every death knight in the shadow realm. They expanded their shadow domain, planning to overcome their weakness with their raw power.

Fogan stripped his monk robes, changing his outfit to a custom-made battle gear, aka a chest guard and a battle axe.

The orc lord left the barrier and charged at the death knights in the sky right away.

Miaomiao and Liu Guang patiently waited for Fogan to finish his task. Although Miaomiao had the urge to assist Fogan in combat, the orc lord seemed to be having fun fighting weak 7th-stage undead monsters.

Each time Fogan swung his battle axe, a skeleton knight was cleaved in half. Many death knights showered the orc with shadow spears, shadow daggers, and shadow energy balls. However, Fogan's light element domain dispersed all shadow element attacks with ease.

The elemental advantage created a gap between their power outputs. Even with the shadow world provided infinite of shadow Qi in the air for death knights, their uncoordinated attacks were meaningless.

"Are these monsters that weak? Senior Fogan seems to be a lot stronger than them even though he is outnumbered."

As Liu Guang had never seen 7th-stage experts battling each other, she was curious how Fogan had an easy time against the death knights.

"Elemental advantage, I think. Light element Qi can purify sinister Qi, and those death knights are shrouded in shadow element Qi, poison Qi, and death Qi. Some elements can be ineffective against an opposite element, such as fire against water, wind against earth. However, if the users have a stronger volume of Qi, the elemental disadvantage can be negated."

"Oh?" Liu Guang was amazed that her husband knew a lot about elemental Qi, "Where did you learn this?"

"Xu Chu."

"Ah, that explains a lot."

Miaomiao had many mentors. Xu Chu, Jia Shan, Ma Ping, Ju Shoufen, and Lu Fengxian lectured him about general knowledge and cultivation tips. Before anyone had realized it, Miaomiao seemed smarter.

While Miaomiao and Liu Guang didn't pay attention to the fight, one of the death knights heard the conversation. It turned around and delivered an energy spear toward the light barrier, which had been protecting Miaomiao and Liu Guang.

BOOM

CLANK

With just one attack, their barrier shattered.

"Uh-oh."

"Yikes."

Liu Guang dryly laughed. She leaped backward, jumping into the portal.

Seeing how his slave was smart enough to leave this realm when they were attacked, Miaomiao chuckled in satisfaction. However, it irked him since she basically abandoned everybody here without hesitation.

"Well, being smart can be cruel," Miaomiao tilted his head from side to side, and the bone joint cracking sound was audible. Then, he shuttled to the sky, avoiding the ground as death knights could attack him from the subterrain.

Still, being in the sky drew attention from other death knights. Five bone warriors expanded their domain and put Miaomiao within their range.

Two red energy swords appeared from Miaomiao's palms. He held and waved them around. At the same time, Killer Queen operated separately, flying around and charged at the nearest death knights.

A dark spear appeared behind Miaomiao's back.

VHOOM

The red lightsaber suddenly changed color into golden light as Miaomiao injected light element Qi into his energy swords. He rotated and deflected the spear.

However, instead of sending the spear away, the light sword disintegrated the shadow spear.

Seven shadow spears manifested and surrounded Miaomiao. One of the death knights also rushed him.

Still, in a relaxed manner, Miaomiao sighed in boredom. He floated backward while he faced the charging death knight. At the same time, he activated a system skill to leave a clone behind to replace his real body. As for his real self, he became invisible with the mermaid stealth skill.

Seven spears accelerated, three spears from the back, one from above, one from below, and two from the front.

The clone's eyes flared in red light. His hands blurred while light swords created golden afterimages.

Death Sword Fortress Style, Projectile Devourer

Seven black spears disintegrated in an instant.

But the chasing death knights already got close. The skeleton's face of the knight was clearly visible in front of Miaomiao.

Suddenly, it laughed and activated the dark domain, shrouding everything in the range of 100 meters into complete darkness.

Miaomiao's clone raised his eyes as his Qi sense was disable under the darkness. Yet, his instinct cried that a strike was coming from his right side, aiming for his temple.

PFSHHHH

A golden light flashed and the lightsaber hit an object. The clone's right energy sword hit an energy barrier, surrounding the death knight.

Another energy spear appeared above Miaomiao's head and descended.

WHOOSH

The spear went through the head and exited from his toes, but the clone's body turned into smoke.

The real body reappeared behind the death knight. The invisible man had been sneaking around to avoid attention, but he lost to his urge to kill somebody.

Miaomiao's palm touched the back of the death knight's head.

Bomb Transmutation!

BOOM

Dragon Fire Element entered the death knight's skull and incinerated it on fire. The flame expanded and devoured the skeleton body in an instant.

After the death knight was gone, the darkness domain was dispelled. Miaomiao regained his sight and his Qi sense.

But three more death knights already surrounded him and swung their swords.

A black katana suddenly descended and punctured through one of the three dead knights. The blade got stuck in the skull, but the talking sword laughed.

[MINE!]

The death knight's Qi and Essence, including all sinister Qi, vanished in an instant.

At the same time, Miaomiao also let his body fall from the sky, dodging the slash attacks.

The slashes missed, but one of the knights activated their darkness domain while the other created a shadow domain. Their power overlapped each other!

But a rotating giant golden axe flew toward one of them, cleaving the torso and left behind the golden flame.

The injured death knight disintegrated and the darkness domain was dispelled yet again.

FKSHHHHHK

Miaomiao's flying lightsaber also punctured through the spine of the remaining death knight and exited through its skull. Another bone was turned into dust.

Miaomiao landed on the ground and patted his shoulder. He cracked his knuckles as he planned to get serious.

Fogan also landed next to him.

"Junior Mao, are you alright?"

Seeing how Miaomiao performed in real combat, Fogan was uncertain if this young man need help against the 7th-stage death knights. There were many close calls in the brief 10 seconds after the light barrier had been broken.

"Ah, I was warming up. It takes a while before my dantian is ready."

"Then, it's too late," Fogan snickered and pointed at the sky. "The realm is cleared. You just killed the last one."

"Already?" Miaomiao was disappointed. He had planned to measure the death knight's strength and compare it with clones in ITS.

Although from the previous skirmish, Miaomiao believed that their potential level should be somewhere between five to ten percent of ITS difficulty. The attacks of these undead creatures were blunt and direct. Even if they coordinated well, they failed to use their shadow element Qi and death Qi efficiently.

Fogan smiled, "These things are without a master, so they are even weaker than average 5th-stage cultivators with advanced element Qi. Even if they can create domains, they lacked proper techniques, tactics, and a variety of attack patterns. Had you fought a real 7th-stage cultivator, you would have died seven times during that exchange."

"True."

Miaomiao scratched his cheek in embarrassment. The exchange was too fast, and he didn't even use several good techniques, such as killing domain, elemental domain, SLB, or various system skills.

In the end, Miaomiao created a handicap for himself by limiting his abilities to fencing techniques and light element energy swords in a real fight, excluding the clone skill and Killer Queen's skill. It was not a good habit since he might die before he revealed his true skills in the future.

Miaomiao reevaluated his combat experience again. It seemed that he had developed a habit of overusing basic techniques because of his training routines and the frequent combat against armies of ITS clones. It was the time that he added some more techniques to the fight.

'After this, I should practice fighting with my full strength. It should be about time that I add more skills to the training other than killing domain, basic fencing, and weapon throwing.'

"Let's go bring Liu Guang back."

Fogan and Miaomiao landed on the ground and exited the portal to fetch Liu Guang.

Now that the realm had been cleared, it was the time to summon the Liu Clan's Vault.