Taking Food from the Tiger's Mouth

Palm strikes, jabs, kicks and all sorts of sword slicing techniques.

The ghastly apparition and the Town Mayor, Demi fought head-on, exchanging moves after moves.

The figures of the two blurred and each time they struck each other's bodies. The shockwave would destroy everything around them.

Demi's expression remained indifferent but the light inside his eyes didn't conceal his shock, "Not only he's an expert at close combat battle, all of his attacks also contains the frigid Yin element..." He inwardly thought and glanced at his numbing fists.

The ghastly apparition noticed that the numbing effect of his attacks was effective; taking the initiative. He continued his assault as Demi activated his Divine Art.

A brilliant light that resembled the sun manifested at the center of his body. A fierce heatwave scattered as the ghastly apparition retreated back in the darkness.

"Tccch! He cultivates a Yang Element Affiliated Divine Art!"

The bane of all creatures that lurked in the dark was the Yang Element that bestowed light upon the planet. However, that doesn't mean that the darkness couldn't consume the light. Taking a step forward, the apparition braved the incoming heatwave and resisted with his own Divine Art.

The Divine Art that the apparition cultivated in was called the Shadow Stalker Divine Arts. Using the veil of the darkness, he could move undetected and could utilize the devouring effects of the dark to extinguish his enemy's attacks.

A phantom of a puppet rose behind the ghastly apparition. The puppet stretched its two limbs and forcefully stopped the incoming heatwave. Dispersing its strength and eventually dissipating it into nothingness.

Their exchange merely lasted for about two minutes but the destruction that they cause could thoroughly be described as horrendous. The entire cave's ceiling was nowhere to be seen and the corpses that were strewn on the ground earlier were torn into pieces of flesh.

Dan watched the battle quietly behind a slab of rock with his Stealth reactivated. He didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

However, the curiosity of witnessing a fight between two Divine Soul Cultivators made him gutsy as he secretly asked the System to analyze their movements along with their Qi Circulation Pathways. If the System succeeded, Dan could use the findings as the foundation of his future cultivation route.

[Analyzing: 12%, Remaining Time: 15mins 12secs]

The process of analyzation had a requirement of looking at the battle with his very own eyes. This risked detection for Dan, but since he was in Stealth and the two old monsters were engaged in a fierce battle. The chance of him being discovered was low

"The devouring power of the Night Ranger Association's Divine Arts really is domineering. To think that it could even devour the light from the heavens itself," Demi honestly praised, he was clear about his Divine Art's true power, but it was easily devoured by his enemy's Divine Art which was a great feat in itself.

Demi's Divine Art was called the Burning Sun Art. It utilized the might of the sun to scorch one's enemies, while the ghastly apparition's Divine Art the Shadow Stalker Art, makes use of the darkness' strength in an effort to encompass, weaken and eventually devour one's enemies.

"Of course, only the dark can devour the light..." The apparition revealed in a sarcastic tone.

Demi lifted an eyebrow, "Is that so?" Assuming a stance, he said, "Then let's see what's powerful, the light or the darkness?!" A deafening boom echoed and his figure reappeared before the ghastly apparition as the two started their fierce exchange of techniques once again.

The surrounding beasts panicked before hurriedly retreating towards the deeper parts of the forest. Even those beast kings cowered when they felt the fluctuations that came from the cave.

Meanwhile, Dan, who observed the entire fight all this while, stuck his head out and found that the two monsters were flying in the air. Darting his gaze on the ground, his eyes shone in an excited light when he saw numerous shining rings littered on the ground.

They were Spatial Rings!

Since the owners of these rings were dead, one could just pick it up and infuse their blood essence to claim ownership and obtain everything inside it. Crawling on the ground, Dan stretched his hand as far as he could. Sweat filled his forehead, he knew that he must not activate his Spiritual Qi or he will definitely be detected by those two monsters.

With a quick sweep of his right hand, all three Spatial Rings were captured! Dan inwardly screamed in excitement before hurriedly retreating behind the slab of rock.

Since the System's analyzation was still ongoing. He needed to observe the fight with his own eyes.

The mid-air battle that ensued above the forest continued. By this time, both fighters suffered numerous injuries, Demi's expression looked pale and his left eye had a vertical gash that stretched from his eyebrow down to his cheek, while the apparition's body looked fainter than before.

In a battle between high-level experts, it would usually only take about a hundred exchanges before victory would be decided. However, the tenacity of these two enabled them to last longer than the average as they sent crazed attacks one after another.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? Is that the best that you can do? And to think that I wasted two decades of my life chasing after your trail!" Demi lifted his head and roared, his killing intent surged towards the heavens.

The ghastly apparition took advantage of this slight opening to take a breather. The apparition's expression could not be accurately discerned under his hood but judging from the faint trembling of his body, one could say that he felt shaken.

Earlier, the apparition activated the First Stance of the Shadow Stalker Art, but could only deal superficial damage towards Demi, while when the latter activated his first stance, the apparition looked fainter and its light, dimmer.

Staring at his enemy, the apparition could vaguely feel something strange. According to the information that he had, the Town Mayor Demi was a cultivator of the righteous path and when one thought about it, the reason why he was chasing after the Night Ranger Association wasn't something strange. After all, everyone on the righteous path despised everyone on the opposite path.

However, now that he took a closer look at Demi, he could feel the aura of the demonic path on the latter's body!

A killing intent that could pierce the heavens itself, a crazed will which disregarded even his own body, an arrogance that looked down on everything and a ruthlessness which could make even the gods above, scared.

A cold shiver ran through the spine of the ghastly apparition.

Just what kind of a monster did we provoke?!

No matter how much he regretted everything, he had a mission to complete and everything was already too late for regrets. Calming his nerves, he activated the Second Stance of the Shadow Stalker Art, the Puppet Manifestation!

Behind him, a three-meter puppet clad in the veil of darkness rose into being. The puppet glared at Demi as the latter snickered and mumbled, "This is more like it..." Assuming a stance, he shouted, "Come!"

The two fiercely collided.

The collision generated a shockwave, blowing away everything.

Demi flew backward like an arrow while the ghastly apparition remained undisturbed.

Dan's expression revealed his bewilderment. Just what is going on? The Town Mayor clearly had the upper hand earlier but now why does he look like he's the underdog?! Knitting his eyebrows, Dan focused his gaze on the puppet and found the answer.

Although the puppet looked the same as earlier. The power that it held was more condensed and stronger.

The ghastly apparition pounced towards the flying Demi.

Bang!

A fierce sound reverberated, the ghastly apparition's expression widened in shock when he realized that Demi looked unharmed and not only that, he even counter-attacked!

"Do you really think that you're the only one that has his own cards?" Demi sneered, the apparition could see a faintly shining finger on his ring. Clearly, the Town Mayor used a defensive artifact in withstanding the former's attack.

"Since you're done with yours, then it's time for mine..." the ghastly apparition's limbs along with the puppet repeatedly blurred as the two of them hurled consecutive attacks at Demi's direction.

The latter avoided it like a boss. And those that he didn't manage to avoid only struck the barrier before dissipating into nothingness.

"Second Stance of the Burning Sun Art..."

The same brilliant light surged. But this time, it converged into the tip of his sword.

"The light doesn't only bring warmth, it is also renown for its speed, and the darkness? You need not ask..." Demi shook his head, his eyes revealed the pure confidence that he had with his techniques...

The sun and the cloud of darkness met in mid-air. Generating a huge explosion which decimated everything around them including the beasts, the trees, and even the river evaporated in an instant under their attacks.

Dan felt dizzy, his eyes narrowed and he found that his seven orifices were bleeding. Clicking his tongue, he knew that he couldn't stay here any longer. His measly cultivation base couldn't withstand the shockwaves of their attacks and if he insisted in staying here, he would definitely suffer severe injuries.

Using Flicker and Stealth in a combo, Dan swiftly retreated and only until the System told him that he's within a safe viewing distance did he stop. Standing atop a tree branch, a vicious smile lifted on his lips as he took his Barret M82 and scoped in, staring at their battle with his index finger on the trigger.

"Go on, fight for me, fight for me, fight for me more...Keep on dancing on my palm..." Dan mumbled, his eyes flashed in a light of killing intent. He was so absorbed in their figures that he didn't notice a system notification briefly flashing at his peripheral vision.

[The host is in an abnormal state...]

[Cause: Excessive Absorption of Negative Energies]