Volume One: Youthful Encounters in Lean Times, Chapter Ninety-Seven: Wan Kui’s Move

A severely wounded true spirit would bring, at best, a decline in cultivation and, at worst, a shattered mind. Wan Kui could only watch helplessly as the other side grievously injured Wan Yanyan’s true spirit, yet there was nothing he could do.

He knew this was the Li clan’s show of force. But their side was weaker, and however resentful they were, they could only swallow it.

After taking the true spirit, Wan Kui had intended to return it to Wan Yanyan’s body at once, but then an unexpected change struck.

The Spirit Binding Array, which Li Xiqing had been controlling, began operating again. From the sky above, a cold beam of light shot down toward Wan Yanyan’s true spirit. Wan Kui and Zhang Yue were caught off guard and could only watch as Wan Yanyan’s true spirit vanished into nothingness before their eyes.

Behind them, the Wan Yanyan they had been shielding seemed to be tugged by some unseen force. At once she lost all consciousness and became a soulless husk, without thought, without will, without even the breath of the living.

The turn of events left them all stunned, Li Xiqing included.

His face darkened as he thought, Impossible. I clearly sealed this array. How could it start up again?

Wan Kui glared at Li Xiqing, his eyes bloodshot. In his heart there was not only disbelief, but also fury at Li Xiqing’s utter contempt for him and for the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect. More than that, there was panic and unease at how he would face the sect master of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect—his own master.

With difficulty, he said, “What do you mean by this?”

Hearing that question, Li Xiqing knew the matter could no longer be peacefully resolved. He suppressed his own uneasiness and said forcefully, “I can only say that I do not know why this happened either. As for whether you believe me, that is your concern.”

Li Yu, who had been watching every step of the affair from the side, knew Li Xiqing’s attitude all too well. In fact, he had expected Li Xiqing to say exactly that.

In Li Xiqing’s world, only the Li clan was noble. All other sects, and even all other races, were beneath notice.

Sure enough, Wan Kui had tried to endure it, but now that the matter had reached a point of no return, the only thing left to do was strike back head-on. Otherwise, with his status as the chief disciple of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect and as Wan Yanyan’s betrothed, he could not stand by and watch the culprit walk away unharmed before his eyes after causing all this—even if the other side was the colossal Spirit-Dominion Li clan.

The two sides faced one another for only a few breaths before Wan Kui made his decision.

A gale rose around him, and after the wind passed, a three-headed flame lion appeared out of thin air between the two sides.

Wan Kui said, “In that case, then please accompany us to the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.”

Zhang Yue also promptly released her own life-bound spirit beast, which turned out to be a Vermilion Dawn Bird.

The appearance of the three-headed flame lion and the Vermilion Dawn Bird instantly raised the temperature of the area. Both were fire-attributed spirit beasts, and both were spirit beasts equivalent to the seventh realm by human standards.

In the world of cultivation, fighting someone from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect meant fighting that person’s life-bound spirit beast as well, as though one were battling both a person and a beast at once.

Thus the numbers on both sides were at least barely balanced.

Seeing that the other party actually dared to oppose the Li clan, Li Xiqing could not help but sneer. “People these days truly do not know the heights of heaven and the depth of earth. Just because you amount to something in your own sect, do you really think that makes you somebody? And you dare show off your beast-taming tricks before us of the Spirit-Dominion Li clan!”

The fact was that the Li clan’s arts could restrain most sects in the world, and this was especially true when it came to the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.

The true spirits of the beast race, especially those of beasts without intelligence, were far easier to control than human true spirits.

Thus, if the beast race sent an army of beasts, or if people from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect clashed with the Li clan, the Li clan had often stood invincible in past battles.

Li Xiqing looked at the two beasts before him and coldly said, “You are courting death.”

With that, he cast the character for subjugation toward the two beasts flying at him. Just as he thought this attack would be as effective as ever, a light shield suddenly burst out from the bodies of those two beasts, enclosing them tightly and saving them from the fate of being controlled.

In an instant, the subjugation mark shattered against the force of the barrier. The two beasts then charged straight at Li Xiqing with unstoppable momentum.

Li Xiqing suffered a hidden loss. He had lost the initiative: first he was struck by a fireball from the three-headed flame lion, then by a volley of flaming feathers from the Vermilion Dawn Bird. Fortunately, he reacted in time and shifted aside, and Li Ximing stepped in to block both attacks.

Li Xiqing asked in disbelief, “How is that possible? Why can your spirit beasts ignore our Li clan’s spirit-control art?”

Wan Kui looked at Li Xiqing as though he were staring at a frog at the bottom of a well. “After all these years, only your Li clan still treats its spirit-control art like some supreme law of the Dao. Yet you do not even know that people have already begun studying how to break it.”

“That is impossible. Our spirit-control art targets the true spirits of all things. No barrier or technique can perfectly isolate it,” Li Xiqing said, unconvinced.

Li Yu said from the side, “What you say is not wrong. Spirit-control arts do target the true spirit, and if the true spirit cannot be perfectly sealed away, then the effect is indeed not complete. But do not forget where you are. This is Heaven’s Gate Town, a place that stands against your Li clan’s tyranny. Do you still think your spirit-control art can show its full power here?”

Yes. This was not the outside world. The spirit-control art of which Li Xiqing was so proud could not bring him the same strength here.

It was not that Li Xiqing did not know this. He simply did not want to believe it for the moment, did not want to accept it from the depths of his heart.

It was from this point onward that he understood that the people of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect truly had the ability to match the Li clan toe to toe.

He turned to the three beside him and said, “All of you, go all out. Do you understand?”

As he spoke, he even glanced meaningfully at Li Yan, as if to remind him: especially you.

Seeing the opposing side look as though they were facing a great enemy, Wan Kui found it even more amusing. The secret exhilaration in his heart surged to a height he had never reached before. He thought, Who could have imagined that one day they would also find themselves in such a plight?

Neither side spoke further. Li Xiqing struck first, though this time he no longer relied solely on spirit-control art.

The Li clan could not only command all spirits, but also subdue them for its own use. On this trip, Li Xiqing had brought many rare beast spirits with him.

Since they were dealing with beasts, of course beasts should be used against them.

Li Xiqing brought out two water-type spirit beasts: the Azure Mother Water Python and the Azure-Shelled Mystic Tortoise. Once their true spirits were released, the surrounding heat immediately began to ebb.

The other three also released the true spirits they had subdued, yet Wan Kui had even more spirit beasts at his side. Thus the two sides fell into a deadlock, with neither true spirits nor beasts able to gain the upper hand.

The beast front was locked in stalemate, but the struggle between Wan Kui and Li Xiqing’s side was different. Li Xiqing’s group outnumbered Wan Kui’s to begin with. If not for the suppressive effect Heaven’s Gate Town had on them, they would likely have been defeated very quickly.

Still, Li Xiqing’s side did not gain much advantage either.

In the previous exchange, Wan Kui had risked being severely injured by Li Xiqing in order to strike Li Da dead with a single blow.

Fortunately, before Li Xiqing’s fatal strike could land, Wan Kui activated a protective spirit jade he had collected many years ago. He had once acquired this jade by chance in a small separate realm, and over the years he had kept it on his person to nourish it. Used now, it was just enough to block Li Xiqing’s killing blow.

Even so, he still suffered a minor injury. But compared with Li Xiqing’s side, the situation was far better.

Seeing Li Da lying on the ground, not even breathing, Li Xiqing’s anger reached its limit. He had never expected that what was supposed to be a simple matter of dealing with the small fry named Li Yu would develop into this.

People from the Li clan could die, but they could not die in a situation dragged into being by Li Xiqing’s own mistakes.

Though Li Da was not one of the Li clan’s important younger members, he was still one of their people, and he had died while working for Li Xiqing. If the Li clan were to pursue the matter, Li Xiqing would certainly not end well.

Thinking of this, Li Xiqing became even more enraged. At this point, he had no reason left, only a single thought: how to grind Wan Kui and the others to dust.

After killing Li Da, Wan Kui hastily retreated to stand shoulder to shoulder with Zhang Yue, watching the three before him warily. He sent Zhang Yue a message by voice transmission. “Junior sister, we cannot withdraw unscathed from the hands of the three of them. Our only course now is for you to hold them off for a moment. Once I break away, they will certainly split their forces to pursue me. Only then will we have a thread of hope.”

Hearing Wan Kui’s words, Zhang Yue did not show anything on her face, but inwardly she sneered. So you think I am a fool? You want to leave me here to die in your place.

That was what she thought, yet what came out of her mouth was another matter entirely. “All right. I’ll hold them here. Brother, once you get away, hurry and find someone to come save me.”

Wan Kui was momentarily stunned when he heard her agree so readily. In his memory, his junior sister had always been easy to talk to, but she was also extremely intelligent. He did not believe she could not see through his intent, so why had she agreed so easily?

But there was no time to think about it further. He had overestimated his own strength and underestimated the foundations of the Li clan’s younger generation. In this battle, he had believed that with years of bitter cultivation and the geographical advantage of Heaven’s Gate Town, he could wipe out the Li clan’s younger members. Yet in actual combat, he had learned only then that the Li clan were not famed in vain.

The dead Li Da and Li Ximing were still manageable. The truly troublesome ones were Li Yan, who had remained silent from the beginning to the end, and the ruthless Li Xiqing.

Their attacks could be called nothing less than precise, each strike accurately targeting the weak points in Wan Kui and Zhang Yue’s defenses.

What was more, their techniques were endlessly varied. As expected, the foundations of a family with a heritage spanning a thousand years were not something an ordinary sect could compare to.