Suddenly!
In the crowd, Li Guanqi's body trembled slightly, his fists clenched tight.
Li Sheng'an noticed Li Guanqi's strange state and thought, *Not good.*
He hurriedly tried to dissuade him, saying, "Brother! Don't be rash! Endure it for now."
He believed that with Li Guanqi's strength, he would definitely be able to join the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Acting on impulse right now was truly unwise!
Li Guanqi stared fixedly at the youth on the high platform, biting his lip so hard that blood seeped out.
Li Sheng'an noticed that in the blink of an eye, Li Guanqi's eyes had become completely bloodshot.
*Bang!*
The stone paving beneath the youth's feet instantly shattered into pieces as he roared, "Screw enduring!!"
Li Guanqi moved like the wind; the youths around him only felt a blur before their eyes.
All they saw was the boy striding forward with the sweeping gait of dragons and tigers, springing onto the high platform with an utterly ordinary post-walking footwork!!
Li Guanqi threw a smashing fist toward Zhao Yuanlin, who was holding forth on the platform.
Nearby, Meng Linhai's eyes narrowed. Seeing this, he moved to reach out and intervene.
Yet Xu Zhengjie, the purple-robed Second Elder of Tianlei Peak beside him, stopped him.
"Who is right and who is wrong has yet to be seen. How can we take one person's word for it?"
"Besides... that little lad can surely take this punch."
Seeing Li Guanqi close in with such an overbearing punch, Zhao Yuanlin sneered.
A faint ripple slowly radiated out as he raised his own fist, clashing head-on with Li Guanqi's strike.
*Bang!*
A dull thud rang out.
Blood surged violently within Li Guanqi. He held his ground, leaning back only slightly.
Zhao Yuanlin, on the other hand, was knocked back a full seven paces in an instant. A trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and his arm hung limply at his side.
"Damned blind bastard!! You want to die?!"
Zhao Yuanlin's right arm was bent at a grotesque angle.
Stark white bone pierced through the skin, shreds of flesh clinging to it as blood gushed out.
Everyone watching was secretly appalled.
Just now, Xu Zhengjie had actually thought of stepping in to stop Zhao Yuanlin, because Zhao Yuanlin had clearly begun drawing in heaven-and-earth spiritual energy!
Peak Body Tempering, and under communion with heaven and earth, he had already touched upon spiritual energy.
Yet what Xu Zhengjie had never expected was that the blindfolded boy would completely crush his opponent in raw physical strength!
The two were not on the same level at all...
Zhao Yuanlin's expression shifted slightly; clearly, he had not expected Li Guanqi to be this strong.
"Li Guanqi!! How dare you strike in front of all these elders?!"
"Are you afraid that I'll expose your evil deeds?!"
"Mud-footed cur, dog bastard, you're scared!! Hahaha!! You're afraid of me!!"
Accompanied by Zhao Yuanlin's curses, Li Guanqi looked to everyone like an evildoer lashing out in fury.
Curses and slander flooded the entire square.
"Hmph! He only attacked because he has a guilty conscience!"
"Exactly! Anyone who trades a relative's life for money is no good bird."
"Right! Didn't that senior brother say taking disciples starts with character? I'd say his character is vile to the extreme!"
"I'd be disgusted to share a sect with someone like him!"
"If someone like that can enter the sect, I'd be ashamed to stand among his peers!"
"..."
Li Guanqi silently endured all the vitriol, turning a deaf ear to it.
His fists remained tightly clenched, clearly preparing to strike again!
Xu Zhengjie's brow furrowed, his voice infused with spiritual energy to subdue the crowd.
"Enough! Silence!"
As the spiritually charged words rang out, the square fell dead silent.
Just then, Lin Dong clenched his fists within the crowd, his teeth gritted.
He had followed Li Guanqi all the way up the Heavenly Stairway and had chatted warmly with him.
In his eyes, Li Guanqi would never do what Zhao Yuanlin claimed!
The chubby Li Sheng'an hurriedly pulled him back, fearful and alarmed, keeping his head down as he whispered urgently, "What are you doing?! Are you crazy too?!"
"Even if Guanqi never did those things, Zhao Yuanlin has a heavenly spiritual root! He'll definitely be favored and become an inner disciple—maybe even a core disciple under an elder!"
"If you stick your neck out, aren't you afraid of his retaliation later?!"
But Lin Dong looked deeply at Li Sheng'an and said softly, "If everyone stays silent, if everyone chooses to close their eyes when they see injustice, then what are we cultivating immortality for?!"
A ringing voice suddenly erupted from the crowd!
"I believe he isn't that kind of person!!"
The crowd parted slowly, revealing the dark-skinned Lin Dong.
With anger in his eyes, Lin Dong stared at Zhao Yuanlin on the ground and said in a heavy voice, "What sharp words, cutting like knives to murder a heart!"
"If you say he's heartless and ungrateful, then bring forth proof!"
"Anyone can ruin a person with mere words and an empty mouth."
"By that logic, I could claim you fancy men. What could you do about it?"
At these words, many disciples immediately cooled down.
Some even burst out laughing.
Li Guanqi clearly hadn't expected Lin Dong to speak up for him at a time like this.
Li Guanqi raised a hand slightly, signaling to Lin Dong that it was enough.
Then he slowly turned his head toward the more than a thousand prospective disciples below, a derisive sneer curling at his lips.
Though his eyes were covered by cloth, everyone felt as if he were looking each of them in the eye, and the sensation made them uneasy.
Showing neither joy nor sorrow, Li Guanqi merely looked toward the crowd and spoke softly.
"When a dog at the village entrance barks, the other dogs bark along."
"Yet none of them know why they are barking."
"The greatest difference between a human and a beast is that humans should possess minds of their own."
"If you don't even have the brains to tell right from wrong... heh."
Li Guanqi slowly turned around and walked step by step toward Zhao Yuanlin.
His steps were steady and forceful, and the sword case behind his back made him look overwhelmingly intimidating.
"What are you doing?!"
Zhao Yuanlin's voice rose in pitch, fury flashing in the depths of his eyes.
That fury... stemmed from his fragile, haughty pride.
He had never imagined that someone who once could only scavenge his leftover scraps could now defeat him with a single punch!
Deep down, he could not accept this reality!
He was a heavenly spiritual root!
Xu Zhengjie's eyes lit up as he looked at Li Guanqi. He found this boy utterly fascinating.
Not because of that bizarre sword case, nor because of his rock-solid foundation at the peak of Body Tempering.
Rather, it was what he had just said—proof that he was a person with a clear mind of his own.
A blind boy?
In Xu Zhengjie's eyes, Li Guanqi saw more clearly than anyone else.
Li Guanqi slowly crouched down, then slowly pulled off the strip of cloth covering his eyes!
A pair of pale, cloudy eyes was revealed, drawing gasps from the young men and women below the platform.
Looking into those ghostly pale eyes, Zhao Yuanlin felt a chill run through him!
Li Guanqi's voice, thick with suppressed rage, slowly sounded.
"That's right, I took ten strings of copper coins from your Zhao Manor!"
"But do you dare tell everyone... what kind of money that was?"
Panic flickered in Zhao Yuanlin's eyes.
"I... I already said it, that was from selling—"
*Smack!* Li Guanqi slapped Zhao Yuanlin hard across the face, roaring, "Shut up!!"
"Those ten strings of copper were the compensation for my sister, Li Cuiwei, who worked herself to death in your Zhao Manor!"
"In barely more than a month... my sister was worked to the bone and starved to death!"
"Even in death... when the servants in your manor threw her corpse out, your Zhao Manor couldn't even spare a tattered padded coat to cover her!!"
"And that gatekeeper, Zhao Qing, wanted to embezzle those ten strings of copper for my sister's wrongful death!!!"
"Speak!!!"
As he spoke to this point, Li Guanqi's eyes were utterly bloodshot, his voice trembling slightly.
An icy killing intent almost coalesced into something tangible!
His cheeks tightened with fury, veins bulging on his forehead, his entire face flushed red.
"Yes, I was a beggar from childhood! The rich leftover meats from your Zhao Manor were life-saving meals to me!"
"When a servant dies, the master's family pays ten strings of coins—it has always been so."
"Yet in your eyes, people like us have cheap lives! We should remain beggars forever! You can't stand seeing anything good happen to me!"
"Were those ten strings of coins for my sister's life?"
"Yes, and no."
"Eight years ago, I was only six years old. At the time, Zhao Qing gave me only four strings of copper coins."
"At that moment, only one thought filled my head: that was my sister's final dignity, and it had to be paid to me!"
Li Guanqi slowly stood up. Looking down with utter contempt at Zhao Yuanlin, he said coldly, "That... is the ten strings of copper you spoke of!"
Zhao Yuanlin's face turned pale. Looking around, he found that the way everyone gazed at him had completely changed.
Driven mad with humiliation and fury, he screamed, "So what?! You're born with a worthless life!!"
"So what if you came to seek entry into the sect? I have a heavenly spiritual root!! A heavenly spiritual root!!"
"What about you?! You probably don't even have a spiritual root at all!!"
To the side, Xu Zhengjie's face had long darkened to iron. With a sudden kick, he sent Zhao Yuanlin flying more than a dozen zhang!
Opening his palm, crackles erupted, and a black lightning whip a full zhang long manifested in an instant. He raised his hand, ready to flog him.
Meng Linhai wore a conflicted expression. Just as he opened his mouth, he was met with Xu Zhengjie's furious glare!
"Old Xu... he..."
Yet Xu Zhengjie, the Tianlei Peak elder consumed by fury, pointed right at Meng Linhai's nose and roared, "Shut your mouth!!"
"Meng Linhai! Over a mere heavenly spiritual root, you would violate our sect's ancestral precepts?!"
"If you dare try to stop me today, I'll thrash you along with him!"
Chapter 11