Asura's heart raced as he realized he had been discovered. With the man chasing after him, Asura had no choice but to confront him. He swiftly turned to face his pursuer, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword—the very same spiritual sword Xie Ling had made for him.
The man from the foreign kingdom approached cautiously, his eyes locked onto Asura. With a sudden burst of speed, the man lunged at Asura, unsheathing his own weapon, a gleaming sword that was also a spiritual sword. The clash of metal echoed through the quiet forest as their blades met.
Asura was blown back by their clash, and he was very surprised because he detected the opponent's cultivation realm. The man was at the seventh stage of the Sky Realm, but he was far stronger than the leader of the Crimson Cobra Syndicate.
According to Asura's estimate, this man was as strong as an ordinary peak Sky Realm cultivator, despite being only in the seventh stage of the Sky Realm. But this realization didn't dishearten Asura; instead, it ignited his fighting spirit.
Blood dripped from the corner of Asura's mouth. The man looked at Asura and sneered, "A little cultivator in the Spiritual Realm trying to fight against a Sky Realm cultivator? What a joke." He also detected Asura's cultivation level but was a little surprised. That clash could easily kill an ordinary Spiritual Realm cultivator, but this child survived with some internal injuries. Still, he didn't regard Asura highly because Asura was just a Spiritual Realm cultivator, and he believed he could kill him at any time.
The man did not waste time and raised his left hand, saying, "Erase." It was his spiritual attack. The man wanted to kill Asura as quickly as possible because he didn't want to attract unwanted attention. He knew there was a very low probability of anyone coming to the deeper part of the Dark Forest, but he remained cautious.
when that man was gathering his spiritual energy for his spiritual attack, Asura activated his hidden strength. After his experience inside the pseudo-life-and-death match, he can activate his hidden strength by his own will but the condition was he had to be in a life-and-death situation or against something that could threaten him and the current scenario met the requirement and now he could use his hidden strength.
A black aura began to emanate from Asura's body. The man chasing him noticed the changes but ignored them, focusing on releasing his spiritual attack, "Erase." Asura didn't have time to use his spiritual attack, but he had already begun gathering his martial energy upon seeing the man gathering spiritual energy.
As a result, Asura managed to counter the man's spiritual attack, "Erase," by employing his Battle skill, the "Heaven Breaking Fist." This was possible because Battle skills took less time to prepare compared to spiritual attacks, enabling Asura to counter the man's attack in time.
On the other hand, the man's expression soured. He couldn't believe his eyes. The young cultivator who should have been dead had nullified his spiritual attack using a Battle skill. What shocked him even more was Asura's dramatic increase in strength, which he suspected was related to the black aura emanating from his body.
The man assumed that Asura was using some forbidden technique to temporarily boost his strength, unaware that it was Asura's hidden strength. This type of hidden strength was only a legend, and people typically didn't believe in legends. There was no need to blame him because according to his knowledge, three was no one in Xiao or even in neighboring kingdoms possessed this level of hidden strength.
If that man knew there were more people present in the Xiao sect who had this type of strength, no one would know what would be his reaction.
After nullifying the man's spiritual attack, Asura moved like a rocket, charging at the man with his increased speed. Within seconds, the man realized that Asura's current strength was comparable to his own, leaving him in disbelief. He had already been surprised by Asura's ability to nullify his spiritual attack, but now, Asura was able to compete with him, which was hard for him to believe.
They engaged in a serious battle, and Asura began gaining the upper hand. However, just as he was considering using his spiritual attack to end the match, another person joined the fight. that person was none other than the woman who had arrived with the man.
With her participation, Asura's advantage disappeared, and he began to find himself at a disadvantage. Asura thought, "I need to find a way to escape their reach, or I'll die if I continue fighting them."
Asura then punched the ground with his "Heaven Breaking Fist," causing the ground to shake and sending dust and rocks flying. This created an opportunity for him to break free from the fight. He fled at full speed without checking the direction, solely focused on escaping the situation. He hoped that the two pursuers would separate from each other, as there would be no chance to defeat them if they remained together. However, if they got separated, Asura was sure he could kill them one by one.
Surprisingly, the direction in which Asura was running led him deeper into the core region of the Dark Forest. When the dust settled, the man said, "Chase him, we can't let him get away." Both that Man and the woman chased after Asura with determination.