Lord of Phoenix Hall

"Disciple Li Tianming greets the hall lord."

Li Tianming knew the man, of course. He hurriedly bowed.

This was one of Yanhuang Academy's five hall lords, the legendary lord of Phoenix Hall: Wei Zikun.

At Yanhuang Academy, apart from its master and a few figures from the Heavenly Court, the five hall lords held the highest rank and status.

The man before him controlled all of Phoenix Hall.

To command Phoenix Hall, he had to be exceptionally accomplished for his age. He looked somewhat younger than Li Yanfeng, yet he was likely already among the Vermilion Bird Kingdom's strongest experts.

Four years ago, Li Tianming had spent a year cultivating at the academy and had barely seen this hall lord. He had hardly expected the man to appear before him so soon after his return.

Of course, Wei Zikun had not come for him.

"Mu Wan, is this your new disciple?" The lord of Phoenix Hall looked Li Tianming over.

"Yes, Hall Lord." Mu Wan was respectful and solemn, a far cry from her usual self.

"The ranking battles begin in three days. You may be a little older, but your strength is decent. Try to earn a good placing and bring honor to Phoenix Hall."

"After all, the ranking battles don't rank people by age," the hall lord said.

The qualifying battles took age into account, adjusting scores downward where appropriate.

But in the ranking battles, age would not affect the final standings. That kept things simple, and the junior-class disciples were all fairly close in age anyway.

Li Tianming was the oldest in the junior class, but that would not put him at a disadvantage. If anything, it gave him an edge.

"What are you standing there for?" Mu Wan shot Li Tianming a glance.

"Hall Lord, I will give it everything I have," Li Tianming said earnestly.

"All five hall lords will attend the ranking battles. We'll see how you perform."

Then the lord of Phoenix Hall smiled at Mu Wan. "Are you ready? The lantern festival is about to begin."

"Yes, Hall Lord." Mu Wan nodded.

"We're going out to relax. Just call me Brother Zikun. No need to be so formal," the hall lord said.

"Yes, Brother Zikun."

"After you."

The two of them had apparently arranged to see the lantern festival together.

The hall lord had waited for Mu Wan for a while, then heard the sounds of fighting nearby, so they had stopped by.

Now that they had driven Fang Zhao and the others away, they were naturally ready to leave.

As she went, Mu Wan glanced back and quietly glared at Li Tianming, warning him not to cause trouble.

Once they were gone, only Li Tianming and Little Yellow Chick remained.

"Heartbroken? That old man is trying to win over your instructor Mu Wan," Little Yellow Chick said, gloating.

"Can't you tell? She's so formal with him because she doesn't like him."

"I heard long ago that the hall lord was interested in her, but she keeps turning him down," Li Tianming said lightly.

Mu Wan probably had connections of her own. Otherwise, how could she have held off the advances of someone as powerful as Wei Zikun?

In Phoenix Hall, Wei Zikun's word was law, and Phoenix Hall made up nearly a fifth of Yanhuang Academy.

None of that had much to do with Li Tianming. What mattered to him was the ranking battles in three days!

All five hall lords would attend.

Many of the Flame Capital's most prominent figures would watch from the Yanhuang Battlefield.

The occasion would be at least ten times livelier than the qualifying battles!

Even high-ranking members of the Vermilion Bird royal family, Thunder Lord Manor, Tianji Palace, the Starfall Chamber of Commerce, and other powers would come to the Yanhuang Battlefield.

After all, their younger family members would be fighting for their futures and reputations.

How the junior class placed, and who became its top disciple, made the ranking battles the most closely watched event in the Vermilion Bird Kingdom each year.

The young were the future, after all, and the assurance that a lineage would endure.

If those great houses wished to carry on for generations, they needed a steady stream of geniuses.

How could they tell whether such geniuses were emerging? Simple: the Yanhuang Academy ranking battles!

Even Heavenly Court prodigies like Lin Xiaoting and Mu Qingqing might attend and watch from a private box!

Li Tianming returned to cultivation to prepare for the ranking battles.

He worked especially hard. He could have let Little Yellow Chick lead their cultivation while he simply reaped the benefits, but he did not.

He made every step of his progress solid, building a stronger foundation for the fight ahead.

Time passed. In the blink of an eye, two and a half days were gone. Tomorrow, the ranking battles would set the whole city abuzz.

Li Tianming had not forgotten his promise to his mother.

He would have no time tomorrow, so he planned to bring her over tonight.

Then she could watch him fight for her with her own eyes.

That mattered enormously to Li Tianming.

This might be his only chance to enter the Heavenly Court, and his first reason for going there was to cure his mother. He wanted her to see him do it.

With her watching, perhaps he could fight at two hundred percent of his strength!

He had been so busy cultivating that he had not visited Wei Jing for several days.

"I wonder if she's gotten used to life in the Flame Capital."

Li Tianming had hired an older woman to look after her daily needs. Were it not for her illness, Wei Jing should have been quite comfortable.

That night, Li Tianming made his way through the deep, narrow alleys.

The house he had bought was not far from Yanhuang Academy. He could make the trip in about seven or eight minutes.

The lantern festival had brought life to the Flame Capital's streets and alleys. Song and dance filled the city, painting a picture of prosperity and happiness.

Lihuo City could not compare with the Flame Capital's splendor.

Still marveling at it, Li Tianming reached home. From a distance, he saw that every light in the house was out. It was pitch-black.

Had Mother gone to bed so early?

Not wanting to wake her, Li Tianming quietly opened the door and entered the courtyard. The largest room, in the east wing, was now Wei Jing's bedroom.

But he heard no steady breathing. Instead, he heard pained murmurs in her sleep!

Wei Jing was inside, but something was definitely wrong!

Was her illness causing her pain, or was it something else? He would only know once he went in.

In the dim night, his own eyes could barely make anything out, but the eye in his left palm saw as clearly as it did by day.

Without another word, Li Tianming pushed the door open and went in.

Please be all right.

Wei Jing was so frail now that his heart began to pound.

As he pushed the door open, he saw Wei Jing lying on the bed.

A blanket covered her, as though she had gone to sleep normally. But now she seemed to be struggling, making faint sounds of pain.

"What's happening?" Pain stabbed through Li Tianming's head.

He could not bear to see Wei Jing hurt. Her faint, anguished voice told him how badly she was suffering.

His heart flared with fury.

He rushed to his mother's side and threw back the blanket.

In the next instant, Li Tianming's eyes widened almost to bursting. They reddened, savage veins spreading across them.

Dozens of blood-red, thumb-thick fleshy worms were crawling over Wei Jing's body.

The worms were revolting. One end of each bore ring upon ring of teeth. They had torn through Wei Jing's skin and were sucking her blood!

The sight nearly tore Li Tianming's heart in two!

"Bloodfiend leeches!"

Li Tianming recognized them at once. These vicious, disgusting creatures were enough to strike terror into anyone who heard their name.

Bloodfiend leeches were a kind of leech that lived by feeding on human blood.

Who had put bloodfiend leeches on Wei Jing?

Wei Jing had no strength to resist. Her lifebound beast was also tormented by the minor life calamity and lay curled in a corner.

It, too, was covered in bloodfiend leeches—more of them than Wei Jing.

Who would put such cruel creatures on a defenseless, bedridden woman?

The sight nearly made Li Tianming explode. His surging Beast Essence swelled, and in an instant, his aura rose like a towering wave.

If he had come back any later, would he have found Wei Jing dead, every drop of blood drained from her?

He would have blamed himself for the rest of his life. The guilt would have driven him mad.

He did not need to be told that someone else was in the room.

That person had done something that filled Li Tianming with a fierce desire to kill.

"Li Tianming of Yanhuang Academy. You finally came out. I've been waiting a long time."

A sinister voice sounded behind him.

When Li Tianming turned, he saw a man standing in the darkness, dressed in tight black clothing with black gauze over his face.

Only his eyes were visible. The most striking thing about his clothes was the blood-red, bewitching flower on his chest.

"Blood Flower Hall."

The emblem was unmistakable. Li Tianming knew it at once.

It belonged to the Vermilion Bird Kingdom's most dreaded assassin organization, which operated from the shadows and killed for bounties.

Its prices were steep, but its success rate was high. It had an excellent reputation among assassins.

Li Tianming had never imagined that the legendary Blood Flower Hall would come for him!

It was clear that he, not Wei Jing, was the target. Otherwise, she would already be dead.

But placing bloodfiend leeches on Wei Jing to kill him was unforgivable.

Li Tianming would not ask who had paid to have him killed. The assassins' most basic rule was never to reveal a client.

This assassin might not even know who the client was. He would simply have been assigned the job.

Assassins like him had no contact with their clients.

Whoever had come to kill Li Tianming surely knew his strength. Blood Flower Hall would have sent someone confident of finishing the job.

Now he and Wei Jing were both in danger. With death so close, mother and son could easily die here.

A killing bought with a bounty was merciless. No one would pity the prey.

This enemy was nothing like the ones Li Tianming had faced before.

In those earlier fights, he could still laugh and talk. Now death was a knife pressed against his throat.

As the man spoke, Li Tianming noticed a huge fleshy worm lying on the floor.

It was as thick as a leg and writhed along the ground, with a mouth at each end.

The mouth at its head was lined with rings of sharp teeth. From the mouth at its tail, thumb-thick bloodfiend leeches crawled out without end.

There were thousands of them. They had spread throughout the room, swarming over the eaves, floor, and doorposts.

That enormous worm had to be the Bloodfiend Mother Empress!

It was a vicious lifebound beast, not a wild beast.

The Bloodfiend Mother Empress belonged to a special category in both species and attribute: a rare dual-special lifebound beast.

Its species was leech, making it an annelid-type lifebound beast.

Its attribute was the mother-empress type, which could produce large numbers of offspring to attack with.

Some ant-queen and bee-queen lifebound beasts also belonged to the mother-empress type.

The Bloodfiend Mother Empress was therefore a mother-empress-type annelid lifebound beast!