"Aunt, something seems wrong up ahead!"
Li Ao briskly knocked on the door to a quiet room aboard the flying boat.
The door opened, and Li Yixian drifted out.
Tilting her head slightly, her bright eyes gazed toward the elevated plateau, where massive stone pillars seemed to morph into living stone dragons, vividly animated.
Almost instantly, heaven-shaking battle cries rang out.
Her delicate brows furrowed slightly, filled with shock and doubt.
"It looks like Luo Chen and the others have run into trouble?"
Li Ao froze. "Should we go support them?"
Li Yixian pursed her lips, glancing at the Li family cultivators pitching camp nearby.
Taking a deep breath, she looked intently at Li Ao.
"Stay here and lead patrols around the perimeter. Do not let your guard down."
"I'll go alone to see what's happening."
"Understood!"
Li Yixian hesitated no longer. She leapt into the air, flying high into the sky.
As she hurtled forward at high speed, her body gradually faded toward nothingness under the circulation of her spiritual art.
The Huaiyin Art!
One of the Li family's three legacy second-tier cultivation methods, which could only be cultivated by someone with a Huaiyin physique.
Li Yixian happened to possess such a constitution.
Relying on this art, she had reached the Great Perfection of Qi Refinement by the age of forty-two.
However, though her cultivation progressed rapidly, breaking through realms proved extraordinarily difficult.
It took her a long time just to barely establish her foundation.
After Foundation Establishment, her demand for resources grew even larger.
Good as her constitution was, her spiritual root aptitude was mediocre in the end.
Now, several years had passed, yet she was only at the second layer of Foundation Establishment.
Fortunately, the art was exceedingly profound.
It was especially supreme when it came to concealment, survival, and speed.
Once she entered that state of concealment, very few could see through her disguise.
When Luo Chen had seen through her form previously, it was only because she had drawn too close, and his perception was truly formidable.
Just as Li Yixian was about to approach Gaoling Plain,
suddenly,
she abruptly halted in midair.
A gaze sharp as an eagle's locked onto her from high above.
No—it truly was an eagle's eyes!
"Sister Xian, halt your steps."
A soft, gentle voice drifted down as the dark clouds in the sky parted.
A glamorous young woman in an opulent palace gown stood atop the back of an enormous flying eagle.
The eagle was obedient and docile, covered in emerald-green feathers with a patch of snow-white plumage atop its head, resembling a celestial beast.
A Foundation Establishment True Cultivator!
A second-tier demon beast!
Li Yixian turned pale as she slipped out of her concealed state.
Gazing at the glamorous woman, she said bitterly, "Sister Rou, did you deliberately bring your clan's legacy spiritual beast, the emerald-feathered white eagle, just to deal with me?"
The glamorous woman was none other than Yu Rou, patriarch of the Yu family from Mount Yihua.
She sighed softly. "I didn't want to either. But as you know, the Yu family is about to enter an arranged marriage with the Huo family. Huo Hu asked this of me; how could I refuse?"
"Besides, I wouldn't call it 'dealing with you.'"
Glancing toward the flames of war erupting in the distance,
she said softly, "As long as you do not intervene in this battle, and hand over that magic treasure you acquired at the auction later on, I can guarantee that Huo Hu and the others won't touch your family."
Li Yixian sneered. "How despicable of Huo Hu. To have the nerve to rob back a magic treasure sold at his own auction?"
Yu Rou shook her head with a sigh.
The act was indeed rather vile. Had the Huo family ancestor not been in secluded cultivation, he would never have permitted such a thing to occur.
Yet who could help it when Huo Hu held power now?
Seeing that Yu Rou did not back down,
Li Yixian said stubbornly, "And what if I refuse!"
For that magic treasure, she had drawn upon the Li family's accumulated savings of many years.
Her sole purpose had been to nurture it thoroughly so she could better protect the family in the future.
Now she was expected to surrender it with both hands?
Who would be willing?
Who could resign themselves to that!
Yu Rou shook her head. "You only acquired that magic treasure a few days ago; it's impossible for you to have nurtured it properly. You can unleash ten or twenty percent of its power at most."
"And under the sharp eyes of the emerald-feathered white eagle, your wondrous concealment art has nowhere to hide."
"In other words, you are no match for me."
Hearing these words, Li Yixian's heart sank continuously.
Yu Rou continued to persuade her.
"Besides, even if you won't think of yourself, you must think of the Li family..."
"Don't you dare!"
Li Yixian snapped her head up, glaring at her like a tigress protecting her cubs.
A sharp sword hovered loosely in her grip.
Yu Rou said nothing, merely watching her with that quiet gaze.
Gradually, Li Yixian's hand slumped open in despair, the sharp sword floating motionless before her.
"Yu Rou, are you certain you can protect my Li family from Huo Hu?"
"If he goes back on his word, you are free to flee alone, and I will not stop you. With your abilities, if you throw aside your pride, who in the entire Huo family could stop you?"
Her pearly teeth bit into her red lip as Li Yixian gazed into the distance toward Gaoling Plain.
"But Luo Chen and the others..."
"I don't know what terms you agreed on with that Luo Chen," Yu Rou said mildly. "But for now, at least, don't dream of getting past me to aid them."
The night wind gusted.
Standing before the woman and the eagle, Li Yixian felt completely powerless.
The survival of her family lay in another's hands, while an allied Daoist friend was besieged.
Yet she could do nothing.
Did those who left their homeland truly amount to nothing at all?
Suddenly, she turned her head toward the rear.
Flames lit up the sky, billowing upward into the night.
Snapping back, she stared at Yu Rou in terror.
"You struck at the Nangong family as well?"
...
Fire!
Flames everywhere!
As far as Nangong Jin's eyes could see, blazing fire dragons crisscrossed the terrain, completely cutting off and dividing the Nangong family's encampment.
"What scoundrels dare provoke my Nangong family!"
He was both shocked and furious.
A scroll unfurled before him, revealing an ocean-like expanse of vast wetlands and marshes.
Spiritual power surged, and boundless Gui Water True Essence poured forth, turning into a towering river.
Under the wash of this great river, the fire dragons dissipated, leaving behind only billowing billows of dense smoke.
"Father!"
"Stand behind me!"
Nangong Jin's face was grim. Refusing to look at the heavily slaughtered mortals of the Nangong family, his eyes locked onto the front.
Cultivators clad in green robes bearing the emblem of the you cypress emerged one after another from the veil of night.
The man at their lead radiated the vigorous spiritual power fluctuations of Foundation Establishment.
"Bai Lun!"
Bai Lun opened his arms in a gesture of welcome.
"Fellow Daoist Nangong, having arrived at my Liuguang Market, how could you not say hello?"
Nangong Jin glanced at the surviving cultivators of his clan; they hadn't suffered serious injuries.
However, less than one in ten of the mortals remained alive.
He said in a chilling voice, "Is this how one says hello?"
"Tsk, tsk. This is merely a token of hospitality from the host."
"The real show is yet to come!"
Bai Lun waved his hand. Under the curtain of night, numerous rogue cultivators emerged from all directions.
Pairs of eyes gleamed like those of long-starved lone wolves.
All of them were bandit cultivators of Liuguang Market!
Nangong Jin's eyes widened.
Behind him, Nangong Qin sucked in a cold breath, despair flashing in his eyes.
Bai Lun gave a savage grin and raised his hand high.
"Kill them! The spoils are yours for the taking!"
Countless rogue cultivators charged forward as the vanguard.
The Bai family cultivators followed close behind, the glow of their Dharma artifacts shimmering brightly under the moonlight.
Nangong Jin's body trembled slightly. Paying no heed to the attackers, he turned back to stare at Nangong Qin.
A spiritual sense transmission entered Nangong Qin's ears.
Nangong Qin's eyes widened, his fists clenching tightly.
"You must remember your father's words!"
"But..."
"There are no buts! I have a defensive magic treasure; they cannot kill me."
With those words, before Nangong Qin could speak again, Nangong Jin erupted with spiritual light and swept his sword across.
Glistening ice and snow spread in an instant.
To the northeast, a large swath of rogue cultivators froze solid in their tracks.
An escape route immediately opened up.
Bai Lun's brow twitched, and he immediately moved to intercept him.
"Isn't striking at low-tier cultivators beneath your dignity?"
Nangong Jin sneered. "You attacked mortals—why don't you talk about dignity then?"
"Very well, let us fight first before speaking further!"
The two soared into the sky. Spiritual light detonated, and barrages of attacks scattered across the heavens and earth.
Nangong Qin struggled to pull his gaze away from his father's back. Looking at the Qi Refinement enemies swarming from all directions—several times their own numbers—he felt overwhelming despair.
Remembering his father's words, he gritted his teeth and dashed straight out.
He headed toward the very path of survival Nangong Jin had just cleared.
It had not yet been closed off.
As he broke away, several figures immediately gave chase right on his heels.
In the sky, Bai Lun, who was being pressed back in combat, sneered at the sight.
"At such a critical juncture, you let your own son flee first while leaving your ordinary clansmen to die. That is hardly the mark of a qualified family patriarch!"
Nangong Jin came to an abrupt halt.
"Whether I am qualified or not, ask yourself first!"
With those words, he abandoned his assault on Bai Lun entirely.
Like a bolt of lightning, he dove straight toward the Bai family's low-tier cultivators.
Wherever he passed, stunned heads flew into the air one after another.
Watching this unfold, Bai Lun felt his eyes nearly tear from their sockets in rage. A surge of fury rushed straight to the crown of his head, flushing his face crimson.
"You are unworthy of Foundation Establishment!"
He immediately directed his flying sword, putting everything into a downward cleave aimed straight at Nangong Jin's head.
As fellow Foundation Establishment cultivators, Nangong Jin's assault on the low-tier cultivators left his defenses completely wide open.
It was riddled with openings!
Against this strike, it was virtually impossible to evade.
Yet Nangong Jin had no intention of dodging at all.
The Marsh Country Gui Chart unfurled with a rustle, taking the sword strike head-on.
Clang!
The sword plunged into the watery expanse, churning up towering waves.
A lethal strike—
blocked!
However, a full-power strike from a Foundation Establishment cultivator was hardly so easy to withstand when one was not fully focused on defense.
Even with a defensive magic treasure, Nangong Jin suffered severe trauma to his back.
Like a tattered sack, he was flung backward through the air.
"Pfft!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth, his face turning pale.
Yet even in such a wretched state, a crazed grin spread across his face.
As he hurtled backward, his fingers rapidly formed incantation seals, and his flying sword reaped lives all along the path.
By the time he came to a stop, another dozen-odd heads had rolled to the ground.
"I know what you're scheming!"
"Aren't you just trying to pin me down, let the rogue cultivators slaughter my Nangong family's low-tier cultivators, and then wait for the Foundation Establishment cultivators besieging Danchenzi to join you and gang up on me?!"
"I know everything!"
"Since my clansmen won't survive anyway, we might as well drag each other down!"
"If my Nangong family suffers, your Bai family will be buried with us today!"
Gazing at the severed heads of the Bai family cultivators strewn across the ground, Bai Lun trembled violently.
All along, whether in battles between sects, cultivation families, or rogue cultivator gangs,
a mutual tacit understanding had always been maintained.
That was: king against king, general against general, and pawn against pawn.
If your side deployed no Core Formation experts, my side would deploy none either.
If your side fielded a Foundation Establishment True Cultivator, my side would match them with one as well.
As for battles among Qi Refinement cultivators, high-tier cultivators would rarely intervene unless the outcome was already settled.
This tacit understanding was neither pedantry nor rigidity.
It was because everyone knew that the destructive power of a high-tier cultivator was virtually impossible for low-tier cultivators to withstand!
It was like mowing grass—
mowing down swathes at a time!
Under such circumstances, everyone had to maintain this unspoken rule.
Otherwise, if high-tier cultivators on both sides disregarded everything and simply set about slaughtering the other's low-tier cultivators,
then once the battle concluded, both factions would likely be left with nothing but their two strongest leaders.
Wouldn't they just become solitary sovereigns with no one left to lead?
Where would the meaning of the battle lie?
How could a lone individual manage the spoils of war afterward?
How could there be any talk of future growth?
But tonight!
Nangong Jin had broken this unspoken rule.
He discarded the dignity of a Foundation Establishment True Cultivator, ignored the grave threat posed by the enemy beside him, and, relying on a defensive magic treasure, began slaughtering low-tier cultivators with reckless abandon.
Moreover, he paid no attention to the Liuguang Market rogue cultivators besieging the Nangong family.
He singled out the Bai family cultivators specifically to slaughter!
The crux was that Bai Lun had no way to stop him.
The man had a defensive magic treasure; Bai Lun could not kill him in a short time, only injure him severely at best.
By the time Bai Lun finally killed him, few Bai family cultivators would likely remain.
When that time came, even if the Bai family wiped out the Nangong family entirely, what meaning would there be?
"No wonder you let your son flee first. While dragging us down with you, you wanted to preserve a seed for your Nangong family!"
Bai Lun gave a wretched laugh, his trembling body gradually steadying.
Nangong Jin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, a ferocious expression on his face.
"You forced my hand!"
At this moment, he cast aside schemes and hesitations.
All that remained was the ruthless resolve to tear down everything in mutual destruction!
"Now, what do you propose?"
Bai Lun looked at the severed heads of the Bai family cultivators on the ground, their unclosed eyes filled with shock and bewilderment.
In just this short span, more than thirty people had died beneath Nangong Jin's sword.
Those were all the elites of his Bai family!
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.
"Let it end here!"
"Stop!"
With this command, the Bai family members who had been besieging the Nangong family cultivators immediately halted their hands.
However, the Liuguang Market bandit cultivators had grown bloodthirsty and refused to listen.
Many of them were even squabbling over loot, on the verge of infighting.
"I said, STOP!"
Bai Lun snapped his eyes open, and his flying sword shot out like a streak of light.
Whoosh!
Ch! Ch! Ch!
Wherever it passed, low-tier rogue cultivators were impaled through the chest.
Even as its momentum waned, it still skewered three bodies in succession.
Thud!
The tip of the sword drove into the ground, three corpses strung along the blade like candied haws.
Only at this moment did the Liuguang Market bandit cultivators come to their senses.
They stared at Bai Lun in terror.
"Senior Bai..."
"Get lost!"
Bai Lun growled. The mob of rogue cultivators taking advantage of the chaos scattered like birds and beasts.
Seeing this, Nangong Jin flew back to the Nangong family's camp.
Yet, after gathering what remained, only a dozen-odd Nangong family members were still alive.
No mortals!
No early or mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators!
All of them were late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators.
Outnumbered several times over, each of the Nangong family's Qi Refinement clansmen had faced two or three enemies.
Moreover, their opponents had all been bandit cultivators with extensive combat experience.
How could they have held out?
Eyes bloodshot and body trembling,
Nangong Jin clenched his teeth so hard they nearly cracked. He glared at Bai Lun with a gaze sharp enough to gouge bone and carve out heart.
"Are we done fighting?"
Bai Lun panted heavily, glaring back at him with equal hatred.
"Each side collects their kin's bodies. This battle ends here."
It seemed almost like a farce.
Beginning with great fanfare only to end anti-climactically, a fierce battle had concluded just like that.
However,
before departing, Bai Lun said with venom, "Nangong Jin, you won't escape. Huo Hu has his eyes on that defensive magic treasure of yours. His Huo family isn't as reasonable as I am."
The Huo family!
Nangong Jin's heart trembled.
Yet his words did not yield in the slightest.
"If Huo Hu wishes to come, I'll be waiting. Bai Lun, my Nangong family will remember today's enmity."
"Hmph! Next time we meet, I will see the Nangong name erased!"
After trading harsh threats, neither side wished to look at the other for another second.
Suppressing the grief and indignation in his chest, Nangong Jin supported his waist with one hand and said, his posture hunched,
"Quickly gather their belongings. We leave at once."
"B-but Patriarch, what about our clansmen's bodies?"
"Burn them to ash!"
In less than half the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the surviving clansmen gathered up whatever belongings and spoils they could manage,
and boarded the flying boat.
Standing on the flying boat, Nangong Jin looked down at the corpse-mountain piled high below—those were clansmen who shared his own bloodline!
Pursing his blood-stained lips, he released a wisp of Foundation Establishment True Fire.
Raging flames instantly illuminated the moonlit ground.
Thick, charred smoke drifted into the night along with the weeping of the Nangong family cultivators.
Casting a venomous glance toward the distant Liuguang Market, Nangong Jin closed his eyes.
"Let us go!"
Chapter 213