Chapter 336: Plan Before Moving, One Battle for Total Victory |
On the second day after Chen Shi's mother woke up, she was already able to get out of bed and move around. The family of three walked out of the house and went to the village to pay respects to the village elders. Chen Shi then went to arrange a reunion feast, treating the villagers to fish and meat. Everyone in the village came to the banquet, making it a lively affair.
On the third day, they went to pay respects to Grandpa, pay respects to Godmother, pay respects to Scholar Zhu, and entered the mountains to pay respects to Xuan Shan, Madam Zhuang, and other spirits of Qianyang Mountain.
On the fourth day, they went to see Granny Sha, Hu Xiaoliang, and other elders.
On the fifth day, the Red Mountain Hall's Celestial Court token was delivered to Hu Feifei. Hu Feifei activated the Celestial Court token, opening a passage between Xinxiang and the minor heaven. Then she delivered the other Celestial Court tokens to Granny Sha, Blue Goat, Hu Xiaoliang, and others. Chen Tang also received one.
Top Scholar Chen Shi returned to his usual routine: getting up every morning to do his morning lessons, cultivating for a while, then going to Yellow Earth Mound to pay respects to Godmother and Scholar Zhu, listening to Scholar Zhu lecture on scriptures, and then going home for meals.
But beyond that, he now had an additional task—going to the minor heaven to give lectures, expounding on the cultivation techniques from the stele forest outside the True King's Tomb.
Whenever this happened, many people would gather in the minor heaven. They were fellow provincial graduates and presented scholars from Chen Shi's cohort, scattered across the fifty provinces of the Western Ox New Continent serving as officials. The highest-ranking among them was Hu Feifei, County Magistrate Hu. Although their official positions weren't high, they were all young and promising.
There were also some like Sun Yisheng, minor clerks dismissed by the Ministry of Revenue, who were now talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall and came to the minor heaven to listen to the lectures.
These minor clerks had extraordinarily impressive cultivation levels. They were often at the Divine Descent realm or the Emptiness Refining realm, with many having cultivated a thirty-foot Primordial Spirit and even formed their own Dao Fields!
Chen Tang said to Chen Shi, "These are talents selected through the empire's full national effort. It's much faster than you going around visiting and picking them out yourself."
Chen Shi looked thoughtful. "In the future, I will also participate in the imperial examinations and select even more talent. Why not start experimenting within Red Mountain Hall first? Let Zhuge Jian draft a charter for selecting talent!"
He was brimming with enthusiasm and immediately set to work.
Chen Tang watched his departing back and said to his wife Wu Qingyu, "My son has rebellious intentions."
Wu Qingyu's eyes flickered, and she smiled. "There's no evidence of that. Don't talk nonsense."
Chen Tang glanced at her, always feeling that this mother and son pair was hiding something from him.
...
As night fell, Black Pot pricked up its ears, quietly leaped out of the yard, and quickly arrived outside the village.
In the dense forest of Qianyang Mountain outside the village, where moonlight couldn't reach, there was a patch of darkness. Within that darkness, a pair of eyes slowly opened, and the sound of whispering came through.
Black Pot followed those eyes into the darkness and descended into the underworld. A large and a small Huo Dog ran wildly across the desolate plains of the underworld. The Huo Dog taught Black Pot how to cultivate, how to fight, and passed down cultivation methods. It also led Black Pot deep into perilous, unknown places in the underworld, throwing it into desperate situations surrounded by swarming evils, making it fight and kill.
Before dawn, the Huo Dog brought back the battered and bruised Black Pot. Black Pot crawled home, exhausted from the night's work, and lay motionless on the ground.
When Chen Tang and Wu Qingyu had finished cooking, they would call it up to eat, but the couple didn't ask much about the injuries on its body. They had both seen Black Pot sneaking out in the middle of the night.
These past few days, Wu Qingyu had also cultivated to the Nascent Soul realm, making astonishing progress. The technique she cultivated was the Supreme Sun Moon Primordial Chaos Sutra, which Chen Shi had selected from the Ten Books of Cultivation. However, the dangerous part of this technique was that it required using moonlight for cultivation. If one absorbed the moonlight of the Western Ox New Continent, they would often become corrupted and turn into an evil spirit.
Chen Shi first had his mother enter his small temple to cultivate. Wu Qingyu already had a foundation in cultivation. During the time her soul had left her body, Chen Shi and Chen Tang had helped her cultivate, laying an excellent foundation for her, which was why her cultivation speed was so fast.
"I wonder how Tianqing is doing?"
Chen Shi thought of Li Tianqing and mused, "I told him to come to Qianyang Mountain to escape the Li Family's assassination attempts. If he's still on Qianyang Mountain, he should have come by now. Could something have happened?"
He went to ask the great snake Xuan Shan. The great snake Xuan Shan told him that Li Tianqing had been on Qianyang Mountain two months ago, settling Grandpa Li Jindou and his mother in a rural household. Many Li Family experts had come to hunt him down, and worried about implicating his family, he had left.
Chen Shi couldn't help but feel worried. He took out the Western King's Jade Seal and used the Topographic Map to search. However, the Topographic Map within the jade seal only had a few places like Xinxiang and Gongzhou illuminated. There weren't many places he could search, and he couldn't find Li Tianqing's location.
"Tianqing, where exactly are you?"
Xianzhou, Wuhuai Mountain.
At night, the sound of spells and talisman-weapons breaking through the air echoed through the mountains. In the darkness, countless branches flew up and down, and from time to time, a Li Family expert would be caught by them. The assembled Li Family experts each activated their Primordial Spirits, urging spells and talisman-weapons to sever the branches.
They had been chasing Li Tianqing, only to be led by him into the territory of an extremely powerful spirit and attacked by it.
This evil spirit was likely a locust tree in the mountains. Its roots connected the yin and yang realms, with extremely heavy yin energy. Over time, it had become an evil spirit. Its branches and roots appeared and disappeared unpredictably, able to travel from the underworld directly to the mortal world, putting the Li Family experts in a very tough spot.
In the darkness, a pair of eyes were calmly watching every spell, technique, and talisman-weapon used by every member of the Li Family.
"Li Tianzheng cultivates the Azure Sea Surging Waves Technique. His cultivation base is deep, and he excels at using the 'Boundless Surging Waves' technique, creating a wave-crashing-shore momentum with a wide attack range and immense power. But this spell takes time to cast; his casting speed requires two finger-snaps. Within two finger-snaps, I must pierce his Primordial Spirit force field, and then I can defeat him."
The owner of these eyes was Li Tianqing. His gaze moved from Li Tianzheng and landed on Li Mo.
"Li Mo cultivates the Dragon and Phoenix Golden Splendor Record. When he casts spells, dragons and phoenixes dance, with extremely strong offensive power, as if they were real dragons and phoenixes! He excels at using speed to overwhelm speed; his spells can be executed seven times in one finger-snap! His casting speed is fast, but his favorite technique is the True Fire Five Dragons Slash. When he executes this move, he has a habit of pressing his right hand down, causing the third dragon in the Five Dragons Slash to have insufficient neck strength."
Li Tianqing said silently to himself, "I can use a wisp of sword qi from my sword fingers to pierce the third dragon's neck, break through his spell, and pierce through his spleen. And then there's Li Shuang."
His gaze fell on Li Shuang, another core member of the Li Family.
Li Tianqing's eyes flickered. Li Shuang cultivated the Auspicious Clouds Three Transformations. This technique forged a body as agile as clouds and mist, moving at extreme speed, and the body could gather and disperse at will, dodging others' divine abilities and spells, and even magic treasures couldn't harm it.
"His Auspicious Clouds Three Transformations seem to have unpredictable movements, but in reality, his landing points have traces that can be followed! The flaw is in the moment he solidifies his form. When he solidifies his form, if you throw a pebble into it, his body will solidify that pebble inside himself, severely injuring him!"
Li Tianqing's gaze fell on Li Qianyun. This woman was also a core member of the Li Family and had received the true inheritance.
"They even passed the Minor Tribulation Salvation Formula to her. It seems she's the next Sect Leader of the Li Family!"
Li Tianqing was quite surprised, then carefully observed Li Qianyun's techniques and movements, furrowing his brow slightly.
He couldn't find any flaws.
The Minor Tribulation Salvation Formula was one of the cultivation techniques in the Ten Books of Cultivation, and also the supreme ultimate art of the Li Family, a secret that was never passed on. Cultivating this technique allowed one to cross tribulations and ascend!
Li Tianqing had heard of this technique but had never seen it. Now, witnessing it from Li Qianyun, he found the techniques complex, subtle, and exquisite, with no flaws to be found.
But he wasn't worried at all.
The Li Family experts joined forces to kill the ghost locust tree, and Li Tianqing quietly disappeared.
Li Qianyun's gaze swept around, and she slightly furrowed her delicate brows. She sensed that Li Tianqing had led them here, but strangely enough, Li Tianqing hadn't made a move.
"The person with the highest talent among the Li Family's outer sect, who never learned the family's supreme ultimate art, arrogant because of his talent, and betrayed the Li Family for some commoners in the Qingzhou medicine fields! Let me show you the true ultimate art of the Li Family!"
Chen Shi thought of Li Tianqing and mused, "I told him to come to Qianyang Mountain to escape the Li Family's pursuit. If he's still on Qianyang Mountain, he should have come by now. Could something have happened?"
The next day, Li Tianqing led Li Qianyun and the Li Family experts into Dayang Ridge. There, a group of exotic beasts called the Three-Headed Heavenly Cicadas were startled and flew out from the mountains, besieging them.
Li Tianqing still didn't act, calmly observing. He had already grasped all the techniques of the Li Family pursuers, leaving only Li Qianyun's Minor Tribulation Salvation Formula unsolved, requiring more observation.
That night, Li Qianyun and the others pursued him to Yuhuang Mountain. There, demonic flowers grew out from the underworld, and ghosts would periodically grow from the flower stamens, unable to break free from the demonic flowers, becoming one with them.
The demonic flowers controlled these ghosts, coming out at night to eat people.
The many Li Family experts were led here and almost lost their lives to the demonic flowers and ghosts. Li Qianyun was forced to go all out, fighting desperately against these demonic flowers and ghosts.
Li Tianqing continued to observe.
On the third day, he led Li Qianyun and the others to another dangerous place, the Black Wind Valley. In the black wind, evil spirits appeared and disappeared unpredictably.
On the night of the fourth day, Li Qianyun and the others pursued him to the White Bone River. This river appeared at night, and countless bones came to life, searching for flesh and blood.
...
"Found the flaw!"
On the eighth day, Li Tianqing's eyes lit up, and he quietly withdrew.
He went to a nearby county town, checked into an inn, bathed, changed clothes, and washed the dirty clothes he'd been wearing for the past few days. He also got a haircut, bought a new pair of shoes, and slept in the county town for one night.
The next day, full of energy, he ate breakfast before leaving the city.
Li Qianyun and the others, following the traces he deliberately left, found their way to Jiangyuan Ancient City. There used to be a Jiangyuan County town here, but one day, all the people and livestock in Jiangyuan County suddenly disappeared. The houses remained, turning it into a ghost town where no one dared to settle.
The Li Family members scattered, one every hundred paces, searching everywhere for Li Tianqing's trail.
Li Qianyun called out loudly, "Tianqing, you've led us into dangerous places time and again, just to use these dangers to kill us or to observe our techniques for flaws. But you've been observing for so long, haven't you had enough? Still dare not make a move? Are you going to be a spineless coward for your whole life?"
No one answered her.
The other Li Family experts started laughing.
"Li Tianqing, you dared to betray the Li Family, yet you don't dare to show yourself?"
"Within the Li Family, they've made you into a whetstone. Whoever among the younger generation kills you can become the next Sect Leader!"
"Li Tianqing, not easy being a traitor, is it?"
...
A wave of laughter rang out, and suddenly Li Tianzheng's delighted shout came: "Good lad, you're hiding here!"
Everyone was both surprised and delighted, and quickly rushed toward Li Tianzheng's direction. They saw a great flood of water covering several streets. Then came a muffled grunt, followed by a series of banging sounds as walls were smashed through.
Li Qianyun, being the fastest, was the first to follow the sound and arrived to find Li Tianzheng leaning against the city wall, head down, unconscious.
Li Qianyun was startled. Li Tianzheng's Azure Sea Surging Waves Technique was extremely powerful, only slightly inferior to her Minor Tribulation Salvation Formula, but not by much. She hadn't expected him to only manage one move!
Just then, a startled cry came from not far away, followed by a thunderous explosion that shook the ground!
Li Qianyun rushed over without a second thought. When she arrived, she saw that five or six buildings around had collapsed into dust. Li Mo stood in the center of his Primordial Spirit force field, his face pale. Seeing her approach, he rasped, "Qianyun, sister, he pierced through my spleen! Save me!"
Li Qianyun scowled and tossed a bottle of medicine at him, looking around. She saw traces of the True Fire Five Dragons Slash in the destruction Li Mo had caused. It was clear he had just used this move when Li Tianqing found the flaw, struck through the spell with one blow, and pierced his spleen!
At that moment, another scream came from afar. Li Qianyun's figure flickered, and she rushed over at top speed. She saw Li Shuang kneeling on the ground, clutching his stomach, his face deathly pale, unable to move from the pain.
His Auspicious Clouds Three Transformations had been broken!
Three streets away, several short, sharp screams rang out. Li Qianyun rushed over and found five Li Family experts lying scattered on the ground. These five were positioned very close to each other, only about ten paces apart. It was clear that all five experts had been attacked by Li Tianqing at almost the same time!
One strike.
Just one strike was all it took!
Li Tianqing had broken their techniques or spells and struck their vital points in a single blow!
But these people weren't dead. Clearly, because they were members of the Li Family, Li Tianqing had still shown mercy and didn't strike to kill.
Scream after scream came from various places in the city. Li Qianyun rushed over at lightning speed, only to see Li Family experts lying severely wounded, one after another. No one could withstand a single move from Li Tianqing.
Cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
This kind of achievement—she could certainly do it too—but she cultivated the supreme ultimate art of the Li Family. What Li Tianqing cultivated was merely the Southern City Sect Yi Collection, a secondary ultimate art!
"Can one person's talent really reach such heights?"
The last scream came, and Li Qianyun rushed over to find the Li Family expert lying on the ground.
There was also a handwritten note on the wall, in Li Tianqing's handwriting.
"Qianyun, sister, I will spar with you over a hundred-li distance to determine the victor."
Li Qianqing clenched her fists. Suddenly, her Primordial Spirit soared into the air, looking down from a height. This time, Li Tianqing didn't hide his form, racing through the sky toward a hundred li away.
Li Qianyun withdrew her Primordial Spirit and waited quietly, using her spirit sense to probe Li Tianqing's movements.
A moment later, Li Tianqing arrived a hundred li away.
"Face your death!"
Li Qianyun shouted, urging the divine ability within the Minor Tribulation Salvation Formula. Tribulation energy traveled a thousand li, with bolts of lightning crackling and striking parallel toward Li Tianqing, covering a hundred-li distance in an instant!
At the same time, Li Tianqing's spell invaded Jiangyuan Ancient City!
The two of them ran, using the terrain to dodge each other's Dao techniques, while casting spells and divine abilities to attack their opponent.
Around Li Qianyun, buildings exploded one after another, dust billowing everywhere. Her Primordial Spirit force field spread out, preventing any dust from getting near her.
But then, Li Qianyun suddenly noticed a wisp of dust crawling into her Primordial Spirit force field like an insect, winding its way forward until it floated half a foot beside her.
Cold sweat dripped from her forehead. A sword qi as fine as a strand of hair shot along the path of the dust, drilled into her Primordial Spirit force field, pierced her left chest, and punched through her body!
"Qianyun, sister, a hundred-li distance—that's the range at which my spells weaken and can't kill you."
From afar, Li Tianqing's voice came faintly, "I was afraid that if the distance were too close, I wouldn't be able to control the power of my spells and would accidentally kill you. Don't chase me anymore. Next time, I will show no mercy!"
True energy surged chaotically within Li Qianyun's body. Her blood churned, and she trembled from the pain. Her voice was hoarse, but she still transmitted her voice: "Tianqing, what good does betraying the Li Family do you?"
"The Li Family has become corrupt, parasitic on the world, no different from evil spirits."
Li Tianqing's voice came from farther away, "I want to destroy the evil Li Family and rebuild the Li Family!"
Li Qianyun shouted in anger, "Our ancestors won't forgive you!"
Li Tianqing's voice became somewhat ethereal.
"A thousand years from now, I will be the ancestor!"
Li Qianyun was both furious and shocked, then fell unconscious.
Meanwhile, Li Tianqing had already gone far, heading toward Qianyang Mountain.
—It's Saturday, so only one chapter today!