"This... Our family has such a divine being among our allies?"
Outside Qilin Mountain, standing before the sacrificial altar, Li Xinghuo was gazing at everything unfolding within the mountain's bounds.
He watched as the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord rampaged wantonly within Qilin Mountain, a lone figure being relentlessly bombarded by the mountain's defensive formation, only to perish.
Then, he would immediately resurrect, engage in another great battle with the cultivators and Elders of the Qilin Mountain Lin family, perish once more, and then rise again to continue the fight.
For a moment, Li Xinghuo was left utterly transfixed by the sight.
He recalled that after receiving the clan's mission and being dispatched by the Old Ancestor, he had located the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord en route.
At the time, he hadn't understood how the clansmen could be so confident that the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord alone would be capable of storming Qilin Mountain. After all, it was home to one of the seven great families of Eternal Sun Prefecture!
"The elders always speak of Venerable Tian Xing as a heaven-defying 'monstrous talent'," he mused, "but in my eyes, it is the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord who truly fits that description."
Li Xinghuo let out a long breath. If not for the fact that the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord was currently only at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, he feared that with such abilities, even Venerable Tian Xing, with the power of all his avatars unified as one, would still be no match for him.
At this moment, standing beside Li Xinghuo, Li Wei was also observing all of this unfold.
This fellow, the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord, had now been with the Li family for nearly two hundred years, yet it was a pity that he had only managed to break through to the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
Fortunately, over these years, in addition to his demonic cultivation and saber techniques, the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord had also practiced the shamanistic techniques of the Wu Clan.
Although his strength was not enough to earn him a place on the Nascent Divinity List, were he to truly clash with the one ranked first on that list, Li Wei reckoned the Demon Lord could likely beat his opponent into a panicked retreat.
Today, however, expecting the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord to annihilate the entire Lin family single-handedly was, he feared, an impossible task.
He glanced at the panel.
[Your descendant, Qingyu, has successfully infiltrated the Puppet Hall of Heavenly Light Sect and obtained a large number of puppets.]
[Your descendant, Li Yaotie, did not adhere to the clan's plan of escaping from Heavenly Light Sect alongside Qingyu. Instead, he took a great gamble on his own, waiting within the Sect for the Heavenly Light Ancestor in order to formally request to become his disciple! New Identity Acquired: Heavenly Light Disciple.]
"It seems Yaotie has made his own choice."
Li Wei glanced at Li Yaotie's information on the panel but said nothing further.
Things in this world did not simply unfold according to his will; his descendants had their own minds, and Li Yaotie, too, had a right to his own choices.
Beyond that, Li Wei also felt a measure of pride for Li Yaotie.
That fellow had always possessed a straightforward, blunt personality. Yet this time, he had clearly put forth no small amount of effort; otherwise, how could he possibly have caught the eye of a powerhouse like the Heavenly Light Ancestor?
A sudden, explosive roar from within Qilin Mountain shattered Li Wei's train of thought, causing him to frown.
He observed that inside Qilin Mountain, after having slain the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord multiple times, the Qilin phantom seemed to have found a method to counter him.
This forced the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord to act with caution and prudence; it had even caused his strength to diminish slightly upon his most recent revival.
With a cold snort from Li Wei, outside Qilin Mountain, Li Xinghuo's eyes shot wide open.
He saw it: the Ancestor's spirit tablet was beginning to float upwards, and from it, the black mist that constituted the Old Ancestor himself began to gradually gather before the tablet!
"Old Ancestor! This humble child pays his respects!"
Li Xinghuo kowtows repeatedly.
The now-airborne Li Wei, his feet planted firmly upon a Yin-Yang Fish Diagram, slowly turned his head to glance at Li Xinghuo.
With a casual wave of his hand, he drew the storage ring from the altar into his grasp. In that same instant, Li Xinghuo found himself, to his astonishment, transported several miles away.
Li Wei's voice then resounded directly in his mind via a secret transmission: "Child, your task is complete. Depart at once; I shall await your future growth."
Li Xinghuo's face was wreathed in joy. The Old Ancestor... he was praising him!
Yet, in the blink of an eye, the Old Ancestor had vanished from sight. Not daring to hesitate for even an instant, Li Xinghuo hurriedly departed towards a distant horizon!
Meanwhile, within Lin Wudao's courtyard deep inside Qilin Mountain, the expression on this avatar of Venerable Tian Xing was exceedingly grim.
He had seen it: that same black mist figure from the Li family, the one who had once appeared in Merit City, the one who trod upon a Yin-Yang Fish Diagram and wielded a long spear, had appeared once more!
He didn't know what the secret was to this fellow's power, but just like that "undying and indestructible" Frenzied Blood Demon Lord rampaging outside, even if this black mist figure was slain, he would simply reappear before that bizarre spirit tablet in the very next instant.
It was precisely because of this man, as well as the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord, and on top of that, all the other powerful geniuses of the Li family, that Venerable Tian Xing had been so impatient to utterly exterminate this bizarre clan!
At this moment, Lin Wudao felt a surge of fear.
He suddenly understood it all: everything that was happening over at that Mountain near the Imperial Capital, the explosions at the Heavenly Light Sect, the appearance of the black mist figure here, and the Frenzied Blood Demon Lord's assault—all of it was within the scope of the Li family's plan.
Perhaps... he himself was the Li family's true target!
He was just like Lai Teng; he had no desire to become a sacrificial pawn.
He, too, harbored the ambition of becoming the final, true vessel!
In his moment of hesitation, Lin Wudao sensed it—that black mist figure was gazing intently, directly at him!
And in the very next instant, as the Yin-Yang Fish Diagram beneath the black mist figure's feet spun, he appeared in a flash within Lin Wudao's own courtyard.
What caused Lin Wudao's expression to drain of all color was this:
Within this very courtyard were nearly a thousand of his "caged birds," yet the black mist figure was, with unerring precision, holding the one cage in which Li Kuangren was imprisoned.
Lin Wudao had clearly established all manner of wards and protections, yet the figure had still found him. Not only that, but even the defensive formation... the black mist figure had precisely and effortlessly shattered the Dharma array!
Those cages were being opened, one by one, and his array formations were being systematically dismantled by the power of the Yin-Yang Fish Diagram.
Those "caged birds," at that very instant, opened their luminous eyes and slowly began to step out of their prisons.
The black mist figure's voice was low and ethereal.
"Lin Wudao. Tian Xing."
"I hear you have a fondness for collecting the geniuses of this world," the voice continued.
"But can you guess, now that they have been freed from their cages, what is the very first thing they will want to do?"
Lin Wudao looked at the furious gazes of those "caged birds," pair after pair.
The body of Tian Xing's avatar began to tremble.
In that one moment, he finally understood. From the very beginning, from the moment Ye Xiu had started his breakthrough, the one the Li family had truly been targeting... was him!!!
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