"Father's swordsmanship... has ascended to another level!"
Li Xuanling and Li Xuanxuan both looked on, utterly stunned. Li Xuanling voiced his admiration, gazing with reverent awe at Li Tongya, who stood in serene stillness. Li Xuanxuan remained incredulous and muttered under his breath, "If I'm not mistaken, that was a peak Qi Refinement array!"
A peak Qi Refinement formation was virtually on par with the Sun Dial Profound Light Formation on Mount Lijing. Setting one up cost well over a hundred spirit stones, and it was formidable enough to leave peak Qi Refinement cultivators utterly helpless. It was the absolute pinnacle of defense that any Qi Refinement clan could muster.
Yet calling it a peak Qi Refinement array hardly meant it would be as fragile as paper before a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Against an ordinary early Foundation Establishment cultivator, it could hold out for the time it took an incense stick to burn with no trouble at all. If pitted against a Foundation Establishment cultivator lacking offensive prowess, it might hold on even longer. That Li Tongya had breached it with such casual ease was a testament to just how devastatingly potent a sword cultivator's offensive might truly was.
"Indeed," Li Xuanling replied with a faint smile.
Just then, he saw a Qi Refinement cultivator ascend from below. Clad in a long grey robe and wearing a jade cap, the man possessed what appeared to be the fourth stage of Qi Refinement. Brandishing a saber, he slashed away the flying dharma artifacts launched by the Embryonic Breathing cultivators below, seeking an opening to flee. Li Xuanling drew his sword and surged forward to intercept him. Li Xuanxuan snapped out of his daze and likewise brandished his blade to join the fray, still marvelling aloud, "Now that Yu Yufeng is dead, no one on the lake can keep Second Uncle under their thumb!"
Li Xuanling had already clashed with the man below. A faint grey sword ray from the Mystic Water Sword Art coalesced upon his dharma blade as he traded two blows against the enemy's saber, just as Li Xuanxuan's sword closed in to press the assault.
However, Li Xuanxuan possessed little attainment in sword arts. He merely wielded his dharma sword as a sharp instrument to hack and slash. Li Xuanling served as the vanguard while Li Xuanxuan circled around to harass and pin down their foe, flinging out offensive talismans from time to time. The man possessed commendable saber skills and a fourth-stage Qi Refinement cultivation, allowing him to contend with the two second-stage Qi Refinement cultivators with room to spare.
Yet while parrying their attacks, the fourth-stage Qi Refinement cultivator had no desire to linger. Seeing Li Tongya glancing down from above, his heart seized with mounting panic and dread, and he shouted, "I am a guest elder of the Yu family, not a man of the An clan! I am merely lodging here! You have misunderstood, my lords! It is a misunderstanding! Let me depart, and I shall repay your generosity handsomely in days to come!"
The man was clever enough. Within a few short words, he invoked the prestige of the Yu family, cleared himself of allegiance to the An clan, and dangled a future reward. An ordinary person might well have wavered.
Yet before Li Xuanling could utter a single word, the man was frightened out of his wits. Li Tongya gave his longsword a flick, sending forth a streak of sword qi wrapped in shimmering aqueous light from afar. The razor-sharp aura bore down on him, sending cold sweat pouring down his back. He had just enough time to raise his saber in defense.
*Clang!*
Even a casual strike from Li Tongya was not something a mere fourth-stage Qi Refinement cultivator could withstand. Straining with every ounce of his being, his dharmic power erupted outward, yet he still felt a colossal force crash through. The saber dharma artifact was wrenched from his grip. Spitting a mouthful of blood, he staggered and plummeted toward the ground. Before he could rejoice at surviving, a gleaming sword pierced through his chest—Li Xuanling had seized the opening to strike.
*This Foundation Establishment immortal cultivator has no dignity at all... To deal with a petty fourth-stage Qi Refinement cultivator like me, he actually ambushed me from behind...*
The man muttered faintly in his mind as his limbs went limp. As Li Xuanling snatched his storage bag, withdrew the sword, and stepped aside, the corpse plummeted into the woods below. Li Xuanling flicked the specks of blood from the blade and sheathed it.
As the corpse plummeted, a streak of sword light pursued it from afar, lightly circling the man's neck to sever his head before dissolving into clear water and dispersing. Only then did Li Tongya look away.
"Only a handful of men guarded Mount Huazhong. Yu Mugao was far too overconfident."
Li Tongya drifted downward, followed closely by Li Xuanling and Li Xuanxuan. Li Xuanxuan chuckled and said, "With the overarching might of the Xiao family pressing in, he couldn't have foreseen this even if he racked his brains."
Li Xuanling nodded and chimed in, "Though in truth, it was a stroke of luck for him. No matter how many Qi Refinement cultivators he stationed here, they would have only perished in vain beneath Father's hand. It is merely a matter of receiving the news a little sooner or later."
Li Tongya nodded without a word and landed before the magnificent hall. Looking at the gilded carvings and the white jade steps, he murmured softly, "Quite the display of extravagance!"
***
Inside the lavish, resplendent hall, a disheveled, middle-aged man drew his saber and rose to his feet, staring in utter disbelief at the trembling servant below.
"Damn your mother! An Zheyan? An Zheyan brought men back?! Have you lost your mind?!"
An Zheyu roared in fury and kicked over the low table before him, sending items clattering and crashing across the floor. His lips quivered with terror, and he cursed as if to bolster his own courage, "Where would he get the nerve to cross the Yu family?! It would take only a single palm strike for Yu Xiaogui or Yu Yufeng to crush him! Where did he get the dog-gall?!"
*Bang!*
While the reporting servant knocked his head furiously against the floor, the jade plate in the center of the hall rattled violently with an ear-piercing screech. Plumes of flame erupted from it, and after a brief shudder, it finally gave way under the strain. It shattered into a spray of debris, searing holes of various sizes into the pelt rug on the floor and filling the air with the smell of singed hair.
This had been An Zheyu's favorite beast-pelt rug, but right now he had no heart to grieve over it. His mind went blank, and he slumped heavily onto the floor, murmuring, "How could it be so fast? How is that possible?! How is that possible?!"
"Report! The grand array... The grand array was cleaved open by a single sword strike from Li Tongya!"
Another servant came scrambling in on hands and knees, shrieking in trembling hysterics. An Zheyu's face alternated between pale and ashen, and he stammered, "One strike... How could it be one strike?!"
His expression contorting ferociously, An Zheyu seized the servant by the collar, spitting saliva as he snarled, "It cannot be one strike! Do you take him for Yu Yufeng?!"
An Zheyu was far more tyrannical and brutal than An Zheyan had ever been. The servant was so terrified that his legs shook violently, wetting himself on the spot. An Zheyu released him in a daze, and then a sudden spark lit up his eyes as he yelled, "Where is the immortal master from the Yu family?! Quickly, fetch him to bring reinforcements! Hurry!"
An Zheyu retained a sliver of reason. He knew that a Li Tongya who could shatter the array with a single strike was far beyond what ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators could resist; his only hope was that the Qi Refinement cultivator could fetch reinforcements. Trembling, he rose to his feet, only to hear the servant stammer, "The immortal master took flight on the wind... and vanished without a trace..."
"No... No..."
An Zheyu shook his head violently, muttering under his breath, "An Jingming's corpse... An Jingming has already been... An Zheyan and I are irreconcilable foes. I cannot sit here and wait for death!"
He frantically shoved aside the throne at the head of the hall, retrieved a storage bag from beneath it, and hastily shoved it into his robes. Stumbling forward, he scrambled down the steps, kicked the servant aside, and tripped clumsily onto the flat floor. Slowly lifting his head, he found a pair of plain cloth shoes standing right before him.
An Zheyu rolled over and scrambled backward in panic. Standing before him was a broad-shouldered, lean-faced middle-aged man with greying temples and a calm, commanding gaze, his hands clasped behind his back.
Two men flanked him on either side. The one to his left appeared slightly older, bearing a solemn demeanor and a somewhat square jaw, carrying the air of someone long accustomed to high status. The one to his right looked far younger, yet carried himself with steady composure.
An Zheyu dropped to his knees with a loud thud and began kowtowing frantically. Scared out of his wits, he begged for mercy over and over, weeping, "Spare my life, my lords! Spare my life! The Yu family forced me... It was the Yu family..."
Li Tongya shook his head faintly and asked in a low voice, "What did you say just now... What happened... to An Jingming?"
With Yu Yufeng dead, the person Li Tongya feared most on Lake Wangyue was neither the Yu family's surviving Foundation Establishment cultivator, Yu Xiaogui, nor Fei Wangbai—it was the genius of yesteryear, An Jingming.
That young man had shone far too brilliantly, casting his peers and even seniors like Li Tongya into the shadows. Hearing his name now instantly put Li Tongya on high alert, unwilling to let slip any chance of learning more.
An Zheyu continued to kowtow relentlessly, stammering, "An Jingming... An Jingming was... by me..."
He choked on his words, unable to finish the sentence. Li Xuanling gave a cold snort, making him jump in terror as he shivered and struck his head against the ground.
"He was eaten by him."
Just as Li Tongya was wondering, an armored soldier standing by the steps spoke in a chilling voice. His eyes burned with hatred as he glared fixedly at An Zheyu. The shocking words caused everyone present to freeze.
"He was... eaten?"
Chapter 242