The Xuan Clan's Northern Faction

In the land of Beiming, snow and ice reigned year-round. A figure sped through the void, astounded by the sheer vastness of the region. Li Guanqi's brow was tightly knit. He still could not reach Meng Wanshu at all, leaving him in the dark about what she was undergoing or how she was faring. Rumble! Amidst the roaring void, Li Guanqi wasted no time, heading straight for Beiming's Xuan clan. Three days later, unleashing his primal energy without reserve, he finally arrived at the heart of the Beiming Glaciers. Here, cultivators were no longer an exceedingly rare sight, and he crossed paths with them from time to time. Yet every cultivator who encountered Li Guanqi stood reverently in the void where they were, not daring to advance even an inch. At the same time, the Beiming cultivators were curious about the identity of this suddenly appearing powerhouse. After all, the lightning coiling around Li Guanqi made it abundantly clear that he was not from the Beiming region. Moreover, the direction Li Guanqi was heading toward was the very hinterland of the glacial lands—Zhongzhou. Buzz! Li Guanqi shattered the firmament in an instant and burst forth! Piercing, freezing winds howled across the glaciers, the scent of bitter chill saturating the air. As far as the eye could see, glaciers stretched for tens of thousands of li, an endless frozen plain blanketed in pure white snow. Towering glacial mountains rose into the clouds in the distance, an unbroken chain of peaks extending beyond the horizon. The primal energy within Li Guanqi gently surged. Wearing the earrings Xu Junlin had gifted him on his ears, he barely felt any of the biting cold. Checking his bearings, Li Guanqi confirmed that the Xuan clan resided within this very glacial mountain range and immediately shot toward the mountains. A moment later, atop a glacier several hundred zhang tall, Li Guanqi discovered a line of large characters carved into the ice. "Beiming Forbidden Ground, Xuan Clan Territory!" Li Guanqi scoffed. He had not expected the Xuan clan to put on such grand airs, claiming tens of thousands of li of glacial mountains as their private domain. Even so, this put him on guard. For the Xuan clan to dare act this way, they undoubtedly possessed the backing to support it. The clan was very likely to harbor peak Mahayana Realm powerhouses, or perhaps even an ancestor at the Tribulation Transcendence Realm. Ignoring their warning, Li Guanqi charged straight toward the center of the hundred thousand glacial mountains! Whoosh! He made no attempt to conceal his tempestuous aura, which alerted the clan's powerhouses while he was still a hundred li away from the Xuan clan's estates and pavilions. Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. Amid the distant peaks, a vast plain suddenly appeared, densely covered in pavilions, halls, and terraces. Rumble! His figure cleaved through the raging winds like a sovereign inspecting his domain. The gales of heaven and earth halted abruptly, not daring to advance in the slightest. A moment later, several figures suddenly vaulted into the air from within the Xuan clan. The man in the lead wore an ice-blue robe, his features resolute and upright. His hair was combed meticulously and held by an ice-blue jade crown, and he gripped an ice-blue longsword in his hand. Beside him, the auras of three elderly men surged incessantly. Accompanying them was a handsome, tall young man, his brow slightly furrowed. "Who is this person? Why are they heading straight for our Xuan clan?" The man in the lead was Xuan Zhen, the current patriarch of the Northern faction of the Xuan clan. A bona fide late Mahayana Realm powerhouse, he stood merely a single step away from the peak Mahayana Realm, placing him on the same tier as Qin Xiao and Ye Xuan. Taking a deep breath, the man stared gravely at the figure hurtling toward them from the distance and shook his head. "I don't know, but this person's aura is not to be underestimated. Watch my cues, and remember not to act rashly. Wanshu is currently at a critical juncture. Whether she can secure the legacy's recognition and become the Empress of Beiming is of paramount importance!" Hearing this, the young man, Xuan Lan, immediately beamed with excitement. "Father, if Wanshu truly obtains the legacy, does that mean I can propose marriage to her?!" Xuan Zhen frowned. "Lan'er, I urge you to put an end to that thought right now! As for the reason..." The man went quiet for a long moment, ultimately holding back what he knew. His urgency to have Meng Wanshu accept the legacy was partly due to this very concern. If that fellow showed up unexpectedly, things would become quite troublesome. Thus, the moment he sensed the aura of lightning, his heart leaped into his throat. Looking at his son, he could only offer a different explanation. "She is the daughter of the Five Yang Ghost Emperor, not to mention rumors say she already has a Dao companion and is no longer a maiden. Once she receives the legacy and hands over the latter half of the Bingqi Immortal Art to our Xuan clan, all ties between us and her will be severed." Yet Xuan Lan merely sneered with utter indifference. "A former Dao companion, that's all. I don't care about anything else." At those words, the man's expression soured, and he cursed inwardly. *Fool! Even now, you still haven't thought about who stands behind Meng Wanshu?!* Even the elders behind him could not help but sigh. However, a sharp gleam flashed in the eyes of one of the elders. "Heh, the way I see it... Nephew Xuan Lan is simply coveting the pure, utmost Yin essence energy within that woman's body, isn't he?" Xuan Lan flew into a rage on the spot. "Second Uncle, don't slander me! If Xuan Yunxiang likes Wanshu, he can compete fairly. Don't go spouting nonsense!" With his hands tucked into his sleeves, the elder chuckled, pulled his fur coat tighter around himself, and sneered, "Whether that's true or not, you know best in your heart. Heh, since when did the eldest young master of the Xuan clan take a liking to used goods?" Xuan Lan spun around sharply, glaring at the elder. "You..." "Enough!" As Xuan Zhen's voice fell, terrifying frost energy surged around him, causing the surrounding temperature to plummet drastically. Countless ice crystals even condensed out of the surrounding void, raining down from midair. The elder snorted coldly and held his tongue, while Xuan Lan also shut his mouth, his face ashen. As he lowered his head, a barely perceptible venomous glint flashed in his eyes. *Old bastard! If you hadn't meddled last time, I would have had her already!* Buzz! Xuan Zhen took a slow step forward, narrowing his eyes as he looked toward the figure coming into clear view. Dressed in a white robe with one hand behind his back, Li Guanqi crossed ten thousand zhang in a single stride, arriving before the four of them in the blink of an eye. With his hands hanging loosely at his sides, Xuan Zhen looked at the handsome youth three zhang away and asked with a hint of perplexity, "Your Excellency, what business brings you barging into the Beiming Forbidden Ground?" As Xuan Zhen spoke, his brow furrowed deeply. By his perception, Li Guanqi's Dao age could not possibly exceed forty years! He had no idea when such a monstrous genius had emerged in the Ethereal Immortal Domain. Li Guanqi's gaze swept over the group before ultimately coming to rest on Xuan Zhen, who had stepped forward. Though the man had not deliberately unleashed his pressure, the faint, lingering weight still imparted an inexplicable sense of oppression to Li Guanqi. The surging aura around the man was like an abyss or a vast sea, its true depth impossible to gauge. As for the others, they posed no significant threat in his eyes. In particular, that youth with the unstable aura was, by Li Guanqi's estimation, practically no different from an empty vessel that merely held the cultivation realm of the Mahayana Realm. Even back when he was at the late Body Integration Realm, killing such a person would not have taken much effort.