Intense battle always yields great benefits

Fang Xian slipped past the man's counterattack, aiming to slice his knife at the side of the man's torso. As his knife approached the man, he suddenly disappeared, reappearing behind Fang Xian, instantly slicing at Fang Xian's neck.

Fang Xian felt the wind generated by the blade and crouched down reflexively, strengthening his grip on the knife and attempting to stab the man in his stomach, narrowly missing due to the man dodging. Fang Xian dashed back, preparing for an attack. He and the man stopped moving in order to collect their breath. Fang Xian deduced some facts about the man.

'The rank two reappearance soul beast, a common soul beast used by mainly rank two cultivators. He didn't use this soul beast again, instead choosing to dodge my attack, showing his lack of soul qi and soul qi recovery rate, another common characteristic of rank two cultivators. He is most likely a rank two cultivator, so as a mortal, it will be extremely difficult to prevail against him. However, I still have an advantage, the unyielding demon immortal soul!'

In this world, cultivators cultivated their soul in order to gain a deeper connection and comprehension of heaven. The soul is the only connection to heaven, heaven is the only truly transcendent domain. When a cultivator refines a soul, it is used as food for the original soul, Fang Xian's soul was the unyielding demon immortal soul, unlike other souls which only needed a fraction of a soul to awaken, it needed a full soul.

A soul awakens by feeding for the first time. The appetite of a soul increases with each rank and the time needed between each feed also shortens. For instance, Fang Xian's unyielding demon immortal soul was an immortal rank six soul, it needed five souls every three weeks to survive. However, at the moment, it wasn't awakened and had no hunger, it only needed one soul to awaken and develop hunger, once hunger fully developed, it would need four souls straight away.

Soul beasts are the main assistance in cultivation, a cultivator without any soul beasts was like an ocean devoid of water. Soul beasts are similarly sorted into sixteen corresponding ranks, a soul beast is an ethereal beast that had a soul of its own and the connection with heaven through a soul beast's soul was exponentially greater than the one from a human's soul.

'At the last moment of my last mortal rebirth, I refined the unyielding demon immortal soul as my only soul, destroying my previous soul, the rank three true blade soul. Once I awaken my soul using this cultivator, I will have the power of a rank six immortal soul in a mortal body, gaining a huge boost in strength!'

Even though he couldn't use the unyielding demon immortal soul, he could release the aura of the unawakened soul to the outside world, suppressing all mortal souls and soul beasts. A rank six immortal soul isn't something to be joked about, rank six is the fourteenth rank in the ranking system with eight mortal ranks and eight immortal ranks.

There were fewer rank six immortals than the number of moons orbiting Jupiter and there were fewer rank six lone cultivators than the number of planets in the solar system. Fang Xian wasn't a lucky person or someone nurtured by anyone, his cultivation was the result of nine hundred years of true diligence and relentlessness. This man in front of him was a mere rank two mortal, who was he?

Fang Xian released the aura of the dormant unyielding demon immortal soul, rendering the man's object storage soul beast completely useless. His katana disappeared from his hand, sinking back into the soul beast in his aperture.

"What technique is this? This aura, this is the aura of an immortal! Impossible, a child like you can't be an immortal!" The man was shocked, shouting incredulously. "Who are you?"

"Haha, I am Fang Xian, a disciple of True Heaven Sect. I am a rank eight mortal cultivator and I have an immortal soul beast." Fang Xian laughed.

This was an outright lie.

Fang Xian as of now wasn't a cultivator, much less a heavenly cultivator.

He said this in order to brew fear in the heart of the man by mentioning True Heaven Sect and that he was a rank eight mortal. As a rank two, the man couldn't hold a candle to a rank four mortal, how he could compare to the peak of mortality, a rank eight cultivator? Even if he attempted to battle Fang Xian, mentioning the strongest sect in Southern Continent and one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful sect in the entire world, True Heaven Sect, meant the cultivator wouldn't dare to incur the wrath of True Heaven Sect.

"I was ordered by my superiors to execute you, if you escape me, you will only prolong your own death by a day or two, an immortal will come after you." Fang Xian said in order to discourage his opponent from fighting back or fleeing.

"I see. An order from immortals at True Heaven Sect, at least that gives me some degree of importance." The man said, smiling. It was his lifelong dream to join True Heaven Sect and now, ironically he was going to die at the hands of a True Heaven Sect disciple. In his opinion, he couldn't have a better death. "Kill me then." He said, beckoning Fang Xian with his hand.

Fang Xian was already in the process of doing so, he launched the knife straight at the man's head while the man was still speaking. He threw it with a fair bit of force, killing the man in one blow.

Seeing the man's death, Fang Xian's expression didn't change, he had seen countless death before.

'This man was a pitiful human. He would rather die than put up a fight either out of fear or reverence of True Heaven Sect. He could not confirm that I was a rank eight cultivator or that I was related to True Heaven Sect, yet he believed my words at face value. This man was a disgrace to humanity, to the will of mankind, he deserved more than anything to die. What a stupid human!' Fang Xian sighed. 'This man did have some level of intelligence - he destroyed all of his soul beasts before death.'

After a soul beast was refined, the owner could do as they please with it, a single thought could destroy an immortal rank eight soul beast effortlessly.

He quickly ran over to the man's corpse in order to refine the man's soul and awaken his unyielding demon immortal soul, becoming a rank one cultivator!