First Disciple

"Release him now!" Liu Qing urged. Seeing her younger brother in such a state, how could she not feel heartbroken?

Seeing this peerless beauty, then thinking that she was the one Liu Qianyang longed for, Li Tianming could not help laughing.

Among those figures of peerless elegance, some were rotten to the bone as well.

"Don't be in such a hurry. Let me ask all our friends from Thunder Lord Manor again: according to your rules, all your juniors have already been defeated. As Princess Qing's good friend, do I now possess this divine source? Please tell me!"

Li Tianming was like a mad demon at this moment. No one could be sure what he might do, so the moment they worried about Liu Qianyang's life, they had already been suppressed.

Even if they were elders, even if they were powerful, what could they do now?

The entire Lihuo City had been drawn over by the commotion, then stared blankly at this scene.

"I admit it. The divine source is yours," Liu Qing said through gritted teeth.

"Since everyone has announced it publicly, don't go back on your word afterward and make a spectacle of yourselves. After all, I can't afford to lose that kind of face."

Li Tianming gazed at Liu Qing, his resounding voice echoing beside everyone's ears.

With such bold and lofty spirit, this was the bearing of a true hot-blooded youth!

"Now, it is time to release him." Li Yanfeng had already reached the end of his patience. Today, he had truly lost all face.

"No hurry. There is still one private matter," Li Tianming said with another smile.

"Do not go too far. Otherwise, even Princess Qing will not be able to protect you!" Li Yanfeng said, each word deliberate.

He wanted to suppress Li Tianming with his aura. The aura of such a powerful man was indeed terrifying, but Li Tianming's heart was larger than the heavens at this moment, and he stood fearless!

"Of course it isn't excessive, City Lord. I merely hope you will follow custom and send the young man who obtained the Yanhuang Order out of the city, and wish me a bright future at Yanhuang Academy!" Li Tianming proclaimed once more.

Those words brimmed with towering pride.

He had merely repeated the request he had made a month ago. To him, it was more important than the divine source and the Yanhuang Order alike.

Because this was a matter of dignity—not only his own dignity, but his mother's as well.

Li Yanfeng wanted to silently sever decades of feelings and let his mother vanish without a trace. How could that be possible?

Since he dared do that, Li Tianming would make him lose all face and force him to personally see him off from the city.

At that moment, Li Yanfeng fell silent.

"City Lord, will you agree or not? If you cannot even do such a small thing, are you worthy of your newlywed wife?"

Li Tianming slapped Liu Qianyang across the face again, his gaze indifferent as he looked at Li Yanfeng.

"Agree to it. Just send him away," Liu Qing said, having lost all temper. Seeing her younger brother in such misery, her mind had gone blank.

She had given so much for her younger brother. This time, she had come to fight for the Yanhuang Order and divine source, yet both had ended up benefiting Li Tianming.

"City Lord, please prepare a carriage. A larger one," Li Tianming said.

Within the deathly stillness, Li Yanfeng's expression grew colder and colder.

There had actually been a moment when Li Tianming knew that he wanted to kill him. Reality was this laughable. Yet Princess Qing's jade pendant seemed to make him wary.

Li Yanfeng was going to Thunder Lord Manor, and in this regard, he had no desire to make an enemy through a mistake.

"A carriage!" Li Yanfeng finally uttered those two words. He had not directly agreed to Li Tianming, but those words undoubtedly showed his submission!

For Li Tianming, that was enough. He could not help wanting to laugh. You brought this upon yourself. Every bit of face you lost today came from the sins you committed yourself!

Before long, a luxurious carriage arrived before Li Tianming.

The three horses were all tamed vicious beasts at the First-Order level. Their speed was certainly astonishing.

Everyone now knew that unless they escorted him to the city gates, Li Tianming would not release him. Liu Qianyang's face was covered in blood, and Li Tianming himself was stained all over with blood as well.

"Thank you, City Lord." Li Tianming smiled and bowed.

When he had respectfully called him Father a few years ago, neither of them had likely imagined that they would one day reach this point.

His smile was filled with stubbornness and defiance.

After speaking, he dragged Liu Qianyang toward the courtyard and pushed open the room door with a creak.

"Mother, are you ready? It is time to go," Li Tianming said.

"Let us go." Wei Jing was standing at the doorway. At some point, she had already risen.

She had also placed her companion beast inside the Companion Space. At this moment, she carried nothing, utterly unburdened.

She stepped forward and gently helped wipe the blood from Li Tianming's body.

She said nothing about everything that had happened today. Yet the smile on her face and the ease in her bearing made it clear that she had already been set free.

"Mother, please." Beneath countless gazes, Li Tianming led a woman with a head full of white hair out of the courtyard.

Though that woman was old, her gait remained graceful and her temperament remained extraordinary. Anyone could imagine that she had once been a peerless beauty who had bewitched countless people.

Li Tianming roughly dragged Liu Qianyang with one hand while gently supporting his mother with the other, helping her into the carriage.

At the moment he lowered the carriage curtain, Wei Jing glanced in Li Yanfeng's direction.

Li Yanfeng looked utterly dazed at that moment. He had not expected that she, as she was today, could remind him of her splendor in her youth.

Back then, he thought every day about what virtue or ability he possessed to be able to pursue such a woman.

But what shamed him even more was that the woman still wore a smile even today. In the instant the curtain fell, he saw that smile.

That composure and serenity made his whole world seem to collapse. He even felt the illusion that she was beyond his reach.

She was clearly a cripple!

What right did she have to be more composed than him when she left?

In truth, that smile was like a blade, truly tearing open his heart, far crueler than Li Tianming's interrogation.

He had no chance to strike back, because the curtain had fallen, and from then on, there would never be another chance to meet.

Li Tianming also climbed onto the carriage and personally took the reins.

But before leaving the city, he wedged Liu Qianyang beside him, then turned back to Li Yanfeng and said, "City Lord, remember to follow along. Otherwise, after I leave the city, I might toss this genius beastmaster onto the ground, and no one will come pick him up."

No one answered him. Li Yanfeng's heart was bleeding now. He still could not understand that smile, could not understand why she could be so composed. Was it because he had just humiliated himself?

Yet when Li Tianming whipped the horses and departed, he had no choice but to chase after him. The people of Thunder Lord Manor were worried for Liu Qianyang's safety, so they had to follow as well!

Thus, such a magnificent scene appeared in Lihuo City!

Led by Li Yanfeng, all the powerful figures of Lihuo City—including the instructors of Lihuo Academy, the commanders of the city guards, as well as the experts and geniuses of Thunder Lord Manor—chased after a carriage together, "seeing off" Li Tianming as he left the city!

Li Tianming drove the carriage through the familiar streets of Lihuo City.

Countless citizens along the streets stared blankly as this youth sped away in a cloud of dust. His glory at this moment was enough to make everyone remember him for a lifetime.

People would never forget that he had left Lihuo City in this manner, escorted by the powerful figures of Lihuo City and Thunder Lord Manor, from then on free as a bird beneath the vast sky!

Li Tianming rode into the wind, leaving countless streets and countless gazes behind him.

He felt as if he were about to take flight. It was an unprecedented exhilaration!

"Perhaps this is the meaning of cultivation!"

To reclaim dignity, to repay kindness and vengeance with relish!

From this day onward, everything in Lihuo City was over. He swore that he never wanted to return to this heartless place or see those heartless people again in this life.

His goal was still Yanhuang Academy. It was the place where he had lost everything, and also the place where he wanted to reclaim everything!

He wanted to roar into the wind and vent the joy in his heart, but felt that would be too childish and would not suit his temperament.

"Saucy, truly saucy! From now on, change your name to Saucy Tianming. You have truly severed all ties with your father!" Little Yellow Chick stood atop the horse's head, fluttering in the wind.

"Get lost!"

Li Tianming laughed.

He had lost much family affection, but he had gained a brother. Perhaps in the future, even more brothers and sisters would emerge from the Companion Space.

That was enough.

He could already see the city gates. They seemed a little too close; in truth, he had already crossed half of Lihuo City.

When one's heart was exhilarated, the road naturally became shorter.

The carriage crossed the city gates without anyone stopping it. At the instant it rushed out, Li Tianming threw Liu Qianyang out!

Li Yanfeng and the others who had chased after him hurriedly helped Liu Qianyang up. When they looked up, Li Tianming had already vanished into the dust!

"City Lord, hurry and wish me great achievements at Yanhuang Academy!"

As he departed, Li Tianming's voice still echoed between heaven and earth, lingering without end, as though it would never disappear.

"Where is the Thunderfire Chain?" Li Yanfeng's face darkened. He could not find the Thunderfire Chain on Liu Qianyang.

That was because Li Tianming had happily accepted that third-order Beast Weapon.

Such a fine thing had naturally been taken along with him.

"That beast!" Li Yanfeng stood up, his face ashen, preparing to chase after him.

"Forget it, forget it!" Liu Qing shook her head helplessly. They had already lost too much face today. Chasing after him again would only make them seem even more petty.

The entire Lihuo City was still silent now, and all of them could only remain silent as well.

To be toyed with to such an extent by a youth left everyone caught between laughter and tears.

Looking at the mess covering the ground, everyone's feelings were complicated.

"Actually, he can only be proud this one time. Even if he has the Yanhuang Order, he cannot enter Yanhuang Academy. At the very least, he will never pass the 'Hall Entrance Assessment,'" Zhang Zixuan's father, Zhang Chong, said.

He felt that saying this might make everyone feel a little better.

"A First-Order Companion Beast entering Yanhuang Academy would be the real joke," Jiang Tao said.

"I heard that this year's 'Hall Entrance Assessment' will be especially difficult, and the competition even fiercer, because this year's youths are generally stronger. However, Yanhuang Academy's rules are fixed, and the final number of people who can enter the hall remains unchanged."

"That is right. Although there are several top-tier geniuses, among all disciples who pass the hall assessment, only the one who ranks first in the assessment and becomes the 'First Disciple' can directly enter Heavenly Court!"

The First Disciple of the hall assessment, directly entering Heavenly Court—this was everyone's dream.

After entering Yanhuang Academy, there would still be many chances to cultivate in Heavenly Court. But directly ascending to Heavenly Court as the First Disciple was enough to shake the Vermilion Bird Kingdom. Such an honor belonged to only one person every four years.

Four years ago, the First Disciple of the hall assessment from Li Tianming's cohort had been Lin Xiaoting of Thunder Lord Manor!

And now, he was already Heavenly Court's number one genius!

"Four years ago, it was Lin Xiaoting. This year, who will become the First Disciple and directly enter Heavenly Court to cultivate?"

"I do not know about the others, but Lin Xiaoxiao of our Thunder Lord Manor is absolutely one of the hottest candidates. She is the genius from Thunder Lord Manor who has come closest to Lin Xiaoting in all these years."

"Moreover, she is Xiaoting's biological younger sister. Like Xiaoting, she is an extremely rare twin beastmaster! Each of them possesses two companion beasts!"

"Xiaoxiao has taken her brother as her goal all these years and worked extremely hard. Although there are competitors from the Vermilion Bird royal clan and other great aristocratic families, I estimate that the genius of our Thunder Lord Manor will create another sensation."

Li Tianming did not hear what they said in Lihuo City.

Four years ago, Li Tianming had barely passed the hall assessment and entered Yanhuang Academy to cultivate. Such results had made him the center of attention in Lihuo City, but in the Flame Capital, they amounted to nothing.

But this time, Li Tianming had changed his goal.

Four years later, today, he wanted to become the First Disciple of the hall assessment!

[New Book Event, Phase Two] Question: Please list the three orange Heavenly Pattern spiritual essences that have appeared in this book.

Note: There are three kinds. Only listing all three counts as a correct answer!

Also: A single incorrect character means the answer does not count as correct!

New Book Event, Phase Three Preview: 8 PM on the 29th of this month (next Monday). There will also be a fourth phase, a fifth phase... Stay tuned!

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