Terrifying pressure was unleashed without restraint!
Sword qi crisscrossed the void. Ye Xuan’s chest heaved violently, his ragged breathing echoing through the hall.
A chilling glint flickered within the man’s bloodshot eyes.
"Xuan’er... the truth is not yet clear. Do not act in haste or anger."
Ye Xuan whipped his head around, his eyes glaring furiously at the old woman as he spoke in a frigid voice.
"All these years..."
"Leng Qingze has latched onto our sect like a bloodsucking leech!"
"Out of respect for your blood ties, Mother, every time he caused trouble over all these years, I wiped his ass again and again!"
"He is a heap of mud! Useless mud!! You can't plaster mud onto a wall! Do you still not understand?"
"Anger? If what happened to Bingxin truly was his doing..."
At this point, Ye Xuan’s voice grew eerily calm.
Yet this very calm carried a bone-chilling murderous intent that sent shivers down the spine.
"I will personally... kill him with my own hands!"
Upon hearing this, the old woman’s expression changed drastically. She stumbled backward, collapsing into her chair.
Ye Xuan gave a slight nod toward Li Guanqi, an apologetic look in his eyes.
He seemed inevitably embarrassed, as if an outsider had just witnessed his family’s shameful laundry.
Li Guanqi’s expression remained impassive, his gaze entirely free of judgment or odd looks.
Every family had its own closet full of skeletons, and no one liked exposing their raw wounds before a stranger.
Now that he understood the relationship between them, it was hardly his place to meddle.
Before long, after Ye Xuan’s voice roared across the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect, the atmosphere began to shift.
After all, Ye Xuan had been gone for so long that the sect felt as though it had lost its backbone.
During this time, virtually all matters across the sect had been handled by the sect master’s maternal uncle, Leng Qingze.
Yet Leng Qingze could never command respect; he had simply done far too many disappointing things over the years.
Shortly after, a middle-aged man who bore a slight resemblance to Ye Xuan walked into the hall.
The man was not particularly tall, well-proportioned with a slight paunch, slightly dark-skinned, and high-bridged in the nose, with features that could be considered respectable.
However, the silk robe of mixed red and yellow he wore made Li Guanqi frown slightly.
Two pricey dharma artifact jade pendants hung from his waist. He walked with a duck-footed splay, though he reined it in somewhat before stepping inside.
What caught Li Guanqi’s attention most was the man’s eyes.
The moment Leng Qingze entered the hall, his gaze landed squarely on Ye Xuan’s mother.
Then, plastering an ingratiating smile across his face, he looked toward Ye Xuan and spoke with a trace of delight in his voice.
"Sister..."
"Xuan’er, you’re back? Why didn’t you send word beforehand?"
"I hear the Seventh Domain has plenty of Immortal Realm cultivation methods and secret scriptures. Did you bring any back for your uncle to see, Xuan’er?"
Only then did Leng Qingze look at Li Guanqi, offering a casual nod by way of greeting.
This was the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect, after all; Leng Qingze did not hold a young lad like Li Guanqi in much regard.
In the cultivation world, concepts of seniority and hierarchy ran deep.
Perhaps only truly powerful experts respected other powerhouses. In the eyes of sect freeloaders like Leng Qingze, Li Guanqi’s strength might well be formidable, but strictly speaking, Ye Xuan was his senior, and he was Ye Xuan’s maternal uncle. Naturally, he felt no need to act too subservient.
Leng Qingze glanced up at Ye Xuan, whose face was cold as frost upon the throne, still unaware of what had transpired.
Taking a seat beside the old woman, he frowned and transmitted his voice: "Sister, what... is going on?"
"Did Xuan’er return because of Bingxin’s matter as well? Why does he look so cold?"
Yet the old woman beside him merely remained as she was, casting a glance at him with a slight shake of her head, offering no reply.
Holding his teacup, Li Guanqi sneered inwardly. With a subtle flick of force, he shattered the spatial fluctuations of their secret transmission right under his nose!
Even Leng Qingze, who had initiated the message, completely failed to realize that Li Guanqi had intervened.
Sitting atop the throne, Ye Xuan looked on coldly. Naturally, he had heard the man’s transmission loud and clear.
A useless wretch who had used the sect’s resources to pile himself into the Body Integration Realm, yet after so many years, he remained merely in early Body Integration.
In all likelihood, he would remain stuck at this realm for the rest of his days.
Back when Leng Qingze broke through to the Body Integration Realm, Ye Xuan had swallowed his pride and gone to the Qin Imperial City to beg for several high-grade array plates on his behalf.
Even though he was only in early Body Integration, Leng Qingze was certainly no fool.
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. The man surely knew that any transmission at this moment could not escape their ears.
Yet he had spoken anyway.
Those two brief remarks served a double purpose: first, to remind Ye Xuan of his maternal blood ties, and second, to feign total ignorance and detach himself from Ye Bingxin’s plight.
Ye Xuan’s murderous intent roiled in secret, his furious gaze casually sweeping across Leng Qingze!
Li Guanqi chose to keep quiet.
At this point, it was an internal family matter of the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect.
*Creak—bang!!*
The heavy doors of the grand hall slammed shut with a thunderous crash.
Li Guanqi glanced at the tightly barred doors and sighed inwardly.
It seemed Ye Xuan had truly made up his mind to kill...
Steady as a mountain, Li Guanqi held his teacup and took a light sip, his gaze drifting nonchalantly over Ye Xuan.
In his perception, there was nothing unusual about Ye Xuan.
Judging by the fluctuations of the inscribed talisman Gu Li had left on him, Ye Xuan had been flying at frantic speed the entire way, never stopping for even an instant.
Which meant...
He had not crossed paths with anyone else along the journey!
This caught Li Guanqi somewhat by surprise.
If the mastermind was targeting him, perhaps only someone close like Ye Xuan could make him lower his guard.
Launching a violent ambush at the exact moment he was least wary might actually offer a chance to severely wound him.
In Li Guanqi’s deduction, if he were the mastermind orchestrating this scheme, he would certainly foresee that Ye Xuan would return to the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect no matter what.
Many knew of Ye Xuan’s habit of utterly doting on his daughter.
Needless to say, Ye Bingxin meant the world to him.
From start to finish, Li Guanqi had never heard mention of Ye Xuan having a Dao companion; it seemed Ye Bingxin’s mother had passed away long ago.
That was why Ye Xuan treasured her so dearly.
If someone held Ye Bingxin hostage to coerce Ye Xuan, using a secret technique to violently spike his strength before ambushing Li Guanqi the moment his guard dropped, they might truly stand a chance of grievously injuring him.
Yet from the moment Ye Xuan departed the Seventh Domain, Li Guanqi had kept him under watch.
Even after meeting face-to-face, he had found nothing amiss.
Li Guanqi frowned slightly, murmuring inwardly:
*Could it be... the enemy's true target really is just Ye Bingxin?*
*A mere female cultivator in the Body Integration Realm—even if intended as a furnace vessel, there's no reason to go through such immense trouble just to capture her!*
*What in the world is their goal?*
As these thoughts crossed his mind, Li Guanqi’s eyes drifted toward Leng Qingze before him, then up to Ye Xuan upon the dais.
Just then, Ye Xuan’s frigid voice abruptly pierced the stillness of the hall!
"Leng Qingze, are you seeking death?"
Chapter 1395