"Others may have a good background, high status, and even if their talent is average, they can be nurtured with elixirs and equipped with powerful weapons, becoming strong. But me, I don't have a good background, everything relies on my own strength," Li Xiaoyao murmured in his heart.

In his previous life, there were too many helplessness and constraints. To succeed, besides hard work, luck, opportunities, and a strong backer were all needed. Especially when trying to reach the top, it was incredibly difficult. In this life, life is still not absolutely fair, after all, one's birth is determined, but through later efforts, destiny can be changed.

As long as your talent isn't too weak, you can rely on your relentless effort and a determined heart to fight and struggle through a life full of illusions.

As for Li Xiaoyao, not only was his talent far from weak, but it was terrifyingly strong. Since that was the case, how could he not rely on his own power to forge ahead?

Thinking of this, Li Xiaoyao's figure flashed and moved. After a short while, a one-horned rhinoceros came into view ahead of him. The beast was feasting on a smaller demon beast, blood staining the ground—a truly gruesome scene.

At this moment, Li Xiaoyao withdrew the black mist surrounding him and walked forward slowly.

Sensing something amiss, the one-horned rhinoceros turned its massive body around. Its huge blood-red eyes locked onto Li Xiaoyao, and a savage, bloodthirsty glint flickered in its copper-bell-sized pupils.

A human. There was actually a human bold enough to venture into its territory.

The one-horned rhinoceros, born with a single horn, was naturally bloodthirsty and violent. A fully grown adult one-horned rhinoceros was a first-tier Beast, typically six feet long and three feet tall.

The one-horned rhinoceros before him seemed to match these dimensions. It was likely newly matured—a first-tier beast.

"The one-horned rhinoceros is fast, and its horn is sharp. But its greatest strength lies in its defense. A spirit martial warrior at the first level of the Spirit Martial Realm would be utterly incapable of even scratching the defense of a one-horned rhinoceros of the same level."

Li Xiaoyao recalled the information he had about the creature in his mind. Without the ability to penetrate its defense, encountering one meant certain death unless one had speed surpassing the rhinoceros.

At this moment, the one-horned rhinoceros began pawing at the ground with its front hoof. A hole appeared where it struck, a clear signal it was ready to launch an attack at any moment.

Li Xiaoyao's lips curled into a trace of cold indifference. Suddenly, a sharp sword aura burst forth from his body, tearing through the air with its ferocity.

With each step he took, the intensity of the sword aura grew stronger. After just a few steps, the very space around him seemed to hum with a faint whistling sound.

The fur on the unicorn rhinoceros bristled as if sensing the sharp edge of a blade slicing through its body. With a furious roar, its massive frame suddenly turned and bolted in the opposite direction.

As a spirit beast with intelligence, it could sense the overwhelming power of this violent sword aura and knew that this human was not someone it could afford to provoke.

"Phantom Flash！！"

How could Li Xiaoyao allow it to escape? His figure blurred as he moved, and a dazzling sword radiance erupted without warning.

"Life-Taking Sword."

A torrential sword energy surged, overwhelming everything in its path. A white sword slash descended from the heavens, striking the ground below.

The fleeing unicorn rhinoceros was instantly cleaved in half, its body splitting cleanly down the middle. Yet, even in death, it did not halt its forward momentum, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

Li Xiaoyao's figure flickered again, and a wave of dark medicinal mist spread out, instantly enveloping the unicorn rhinoceros's corpse. Within the mist, sword glints flashed. Moments later, the mist dissipated like a breeze.

Spirit beasts were highly sensitive to the scent of blood, and the Black Ze Forest was teeming with powerful creatures. Knowing this, Li Xiaoyao wasted no time after slaying the unicorn rhinoceros. He swiftly retrieved its beast core and vanished like lightning, leaving not a trace behind.

The Life-Taking Sword... Li Xiaoyao was quite satisfied with his performance of that strike just now. Despite the unicorn rhinoceros's formidable defenses, it had still been split open instantly without the slightest resistance.

Elsewhere, a similar scene played out once again. However, this time, the spirit beast was not a unicorn rhinoceros but a ground-splitting bear, a first-tier beast. It too was felled with a single slash.

...

Two days later, at the edge of the Black Ze Forest, a disheveled young man stood with a sword in hand. Opposite him was a massive coiled serpent.

The serpent stretched over twenty meters long, its thick body coiled tightly as its head rose five meters into the air. It exuded a menacing and terrifying aura.

What was especially chilling were its enormous eyes, glowing with a green light as it stared down at the young man below. The serpent hissed, continuously spitting poisonous mist from its mouth. From a wound on its abdomen, fresh blood kept seeping out.

"The Black Python, the overlord among second-tier beasts, is indeed formidable." Li Xiaoyao's tattered clothing bore a massive tear, exposing his skin, where a large bruise had formed—a wound inflicted by the Black Python before him.

Over the past two days, Li Xiaoyao had slain over a hundred spirit beasts. Most were first-tier beasts, with a few second-tier ones in the mix, but this was his first encounter with such a domineering second-tier beast.

"Hiss... hiss..." The Black Python flicked its forked tongue, spewing out a thick cloud of venomous gas. Li Xiaoyao's body flickered, narrowly evading the attack.

Almost simultaneously, the Black Python's colossal body descended from the sky, sweeping its tail across the ground like a shadow blotting out the sun.

A massive tree above Li Xiaoyao's head was struck by the tail and instantly shattered into splinters, offering no resistance to the python's sheer force. Its sweeping tail, imbued with a tyrannical momentum, sent forth a violent gust of wind before it even made contact.

If Li Xiaoyao were to take the blow head-on, he would undoubtedly be severely injured. As one of the overlords among second-tier spirit beasts, the Black Python's attacks were extraordinarily powerful.

Li Xiaoyao's figure flickered through the air like a reflection in water, a sharp sword light slicing through the python's body, leaving behind a bloodstained wound before vanishing without a trace.

A mournful cry that seemed to echo from the depths of the underworld rang out. Li Xiaoyao felt an overwhelming sense of oppression bearing down on him as the Black Python's massive body continued to sweep toward him.

"Boom! Boom!"

Trees exploded into splinters as Li Xiaoyao's figure shifted direction once more. Yet the Black Python pursued relentlessly. If an observer were present, they would only see Li Xiaoyao's body flitting like a shadow, while the Black Python raged wildly, its tail whipping through the air, sending shockwaves throughout the forest. The python's tail dominated the space, casting a chaotic flurry of shadows that upended the world around them.

A Tier-Two Spirit Beast like the Black Python was formidable enough to make even the third level spirit martial warrior avoid it, unwilling to provoke such a foe. Yet Li Xiaoyao had only broken through to the second level of the Spirit Martial Realm two days ago.

"Life-Taking Sword!" Li Xiaoyao whispered, his voice steady yet sharp. A surge of violent sword energy erupted, striking the Black Python's body and causing blood to gush forth.

But this time, the Black Python seemed unfazed. Its eyes burned with unbridled rage, its sole intent to kill Li Xiaoyao. The beast had been driven into a state of complete madness and fury.

"I'm done playing with you."

Li Xiaoyao narrowly avoided being struck by the black python's sweeping attack, his heart turning cold as ice. In the span of two days, his sword had been honed to perfection.

Now, he was confident that with just his "Deadly Sword Strike," he could overwhelm the vast majority of Spirit Martial Realm Level Two cultivators. After all, how many of them could claim to be stronger than the black python?

As the first level of his Tenshō Martial Soul unlocked, Li Xiaoyao's pupils instantly deepened, revealing a world cloaked in darkness once more. Every blade of grass, every tree, every motion and stillness—all were laid bare before his heightened senses. Even the black python's ferocious attacks seemed to slow in his eyes.

With a swift sidestep, the black python's assault missed him by a hair's breadth. Li Xiaoyao gripped his soft sword tightly, his gaze icy and determined.

A chilling sword aura erupted from his body, radiating an intense sense of destruction and death.

Lifting his head, Li Xiaoyao watched calmly as the massive body of the black python lunged toward him. In his pupils, a streak of deadly sword intent flickered, mirroring his resolve and emotions.

"The Sword of Death."

His lips moved slightly as he spoke. Raising his sword, its blade gleamed brilliantly. In addition to its dazzling radiance, a faint gray aura enveloped it—aura of destruction and death.

"Shhh! Shhh!"

A blinding gray light shot skyward, accompanied by a deafening wail. The mighty and robust body of the black python was severed in one clean strike, crashing heavily to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

Its massive body convulsed violently. Taking a step forward, Li Xiaoyao swung the Sword of Death once more, aiming directly at the python's vital seven-inch spot. Finally, the intense trembling ceased in an instant, and the world seemed to fall into silence.

One of the second-tier spirit beasts' rulers, the black python, was dead!

The Sword of Death was the fruit of Li Xiaoyao's two days in the Black Ze Forest. Of course, it also came at the cost of numerous spirit beast cores.

Stepping forward, Li Xiaoyao spent some effort extracting the python's beast core. With that done, his figure flickered as he left the area, heading toward the outskirts of the Black Marsh Forest.

Two days had passed. The beast horde had already receded, and it seemed that the Canghai Sect's tournament is about to begin.