Purple-eyed Double Pupil Bird

"Isn't that Li Tianming?"

"That pervert is actually still alive."

"How ignorant. I only heard last night—the city lord divorced his mother and stripped him of his heir status. In a few days, when the city lord remarries, he'll name a new heir."

"That crippled mother and son really are the city lord's stain. By the way, who's the new heir?"

"What nonsense, it's Li Zifeng! He's no worse than Li Tianming was three years ago. Rumor has it he may even surpass his predecessor."

To some people in Lihuo City, Li Tianming had even lost the one identity that had once made them wary of him. They spoke loudly now, with no need to hide anything.

For three years, Mu Qingqing had destroyed his reputation and everything else. Even Lihuo City, where he had grown up, treated him like a rat crossing the street. By now, he had long since seen through the coldness of human sentiment.

His mother had once said that time would give answers to injustice and humiliation. A truly unyielding heart would not be defeated by gossip and slander.

Everything about him had weakened over these three years, except for his heart, which had become stronger than ever. He could even thank those three years for letting him see so many things clearly.

He arrived at the Starfall Chamber of Commerce.

Three years ago, he had been an honored guest whom even the president of the Starfall Chamber of Commerce would personally come out to greet. Now, he could not even enter the chamber and could only queue at the outermost window. Under the blazing sun, it took half an hour before his turn came.

"With these fifty Fire Jades, I can make a push for the fourth level tonight." After taking the Fire Jades, Li Tianming hurried back. Wherever he went now, he was the center of attention for the entire city.

The contemptuous, pitying, mocking gazes all came from the common folk who had once thought highly of him. Such was the harsh reality of life's ups and downs.

As he hurried back, a sharp, piercing bird cry suddenly rang out from the sky above the bustling street!

Whoosh!

After the bird cry, a scorching wave of fire swept over him from behind and struck Li Tianming in the back. He was unharmed, but the stalls around him were blown away, throwing people and horses into chaos.

Bang!

It was the sound of a massive beast landing. Li Tianming turned around and saw a purple giant bird descend into the middle of the street. Its wingspan reached a zhang, and its enormous body could carry many people. Most striking were its eyes—each eye contained two pupils, four pupils in total. These were the legendary double pupils.

The moment Li Tianming heard that cry, he knew what had arrived. This was Lihuo City's renowned fire-element avian Fifth-Order Companion Beast, the Purple-eyed Double Pupil Bird. The Double Pupil Bird was a sacred creature of Lihuo City, and this Purple-eyed Double Pupil Bird was a Companion Beast on the same level as Jin Yu. Its master was Li Tianming's half-brother, Li Yanfeng's son by another equal wife, Li Zifeng.

"Ah!"

"Mother, it hurts! Waaah!"

When Li Tianming turned back, he saw that the enormous Purple-eyed Double Pupil Bird had paid no heed to the crowds on the bustling street when it landed. Its huge, burning body had directly sent a group of playing children flying. Three children slammed into the wall, their heads broken and bloodied. One little girl's lower leg had bent unnaturally; her shinbone had likely snapped from the impact.

For a moment, the miserable cries of children filled the air. They were all too young to have endured such pain, especially that little girl. She would likely have to live with a broken leg for the rest of her life.

But the lifelong misery of the weak was nothing more than a trivial interlude to those who stood high above. Thus, when that group jumped down from the Purple-eyed Double Pupil Bird, they did not spare a single glance for the crying, broken-legged children.

The children's parents recognized the newcomers, and no matter how furious they were, they swallowed it down. They could only hurry away with their children. Only the broken-legged girl had no parents present. She could only curl up in a corner and tremble, her mind blurred by pain, her entire body convulsing like a stray dog.

"Brother, didn't I tell you that you're a jinx? You just had to walk through here, and now you've brought disaster upon these children." A youth in purple robes appeared before Li Tianming. He was exceedingly handsome, with refined features, clearly a dragon among men. His pair of dark-purple eyes were particularly exquisite.

He was Li Zifeng. When Li Tianming went to Yanhuang Academy three years ago, Li Zifeng had only been thirteen, still at the age of playing about everywhere. They had rarely met over the past three years, and Li Tianming had not expected him to have grown so much.

There were another four or five people behind him, all of whom Li Tianming recognized. They were Li Zifeng's fair-weather friends, all little brats who had once followed behind Li Tianming and begged him to watch over them.

The son of the city guard commander, Zhao Qing; the son of a senior instructor at Lihuo Academy, Gao Luan; the son of a civil official from the Commerce Department, Chen Qiong... The parents of this group made up Lihuo City's upper ranks.

"Wasn't this sin of yours?" Amid the gathered crowd, Li Tianming's expression remained calm. Only when he glanced at the broken-legged child did a flash of fierceness cross his brow.

"Brother Tianming, don't shirk responsibility. If you hadn't been wandering around here for me to see, would I have landed to meet you and caused that child to be injured?" Li Zifeng said with a smile.

Behind him, the youths burst into laughter, their eyes filled with mockery.

"Zi Feng, you're about to become the heir. You can't keep acting with such reckless disregard for life. A person with a crooked heart cannot become the rightful ruler of a city." Li Tianming shook his head. He had once cared for this younger brother quite a bit. Even when Li Zifeng had been beaten by his mother, Lady Mo, for being mischievous, Li Tianming had pleaded on his behalf.

He had only stopped watching over him for three years, yet he had already changed completely.

"Brother, you really know how to joke. You were capable of drugging and violating someone, yet you still have the nerve to say my heart is crooked?" Li Zifeng laughed in disbelief. His fair-weather friends draped their arms over one another's shoulders and doubled over with laughter as well.

They had barely seen each other over the past three years, but these little brats' wings had grown hard. It was hard to remember how they had once followed at his heels so eagerly.

Things had changed, and people had changed with them.

"Anything else?" Li Tianming truly did not want to deal with them right now. Some debts could wait until the Yanhuang Academy Selection to be settled. After all, this younger brother would be his greatest rival then.

"Nothing. Just move aside." Li Zifeng waved a hand after laughing himself tired.

Li Tianming turned back and saw that behind him stood the Jadeite Tower, Lihuo City's most famous pleasure house, filled with famed beauties known throughout the city.

He understood. This group had not come down because of him at all. They merely wanted to enter the Jadeite Tower.

Li Tianming stepped aside and made way for them.

"These little beasts really know how to enjoy themselves. I've never even been inside the Jadeite Tower." Li Tianming curled his lip. Back then, he had been devoted to cultivation, and both Li Yanfeng and his mother had set strict demands for him, so he had been rather disciplined.

He had not expected Li Yanfeng to no longer care about Li Zifeng's character. Why had he demanded so much from Li Tianming back then?

The women of the Jadeite Tower had already come out to welcome them. Dressed in seductive finery, graceful and alluring, they clustered around Li Zifeng's group as they entered. Amid the sea of blossoms, Li Zifeng seemed all the more dashing and carefree.

"Wait." Li Zifeng turned back to look at Li Tianming once more and said condescendingly, "For the sake of how you took Father's beatings for protecting me in the past, I'll call you brother one last time and give you one last piece of advice."

"If you've got shit to say, spit it out," Li Tianming said.

Facing such a younger brother, his feelings were inevitably complicated. There was no life-or-death hatred between them, but perhaps Li Zifeng still needed a beating.

"Just listen. My advice is this: get the hell out of Lihuo City. Wherever you go, you're the laughingstock of our family and the laughingstock of all Lihuo City. Right now, you're nothing but a wild dog reeking to high heaven. Do you understand?"

Li Zifeng said those words with complete seriousness.

"So you're saying our whole family is a family of wild dogs? Li Yanfeng is the biggest one?" Li Tianming laughed.

That child who had once looked at him with worship had grown up and formed his own thoughts.

"Anyway, disappear. It'll be better for everyone," Li Zifeng said, unwilling to say more. He wrapped an arm around a girl on each side and swaggered into the Jadeite Tower. The laughter of the beauties lingered endlessly, while inside awaited pools of wine, forests of meat, singing, dancing, and every pleasure under heaven.

After they left, Li Tianming alone remained standing there.

Many people had gathered to watch, and every one of them looked at him with pity. They truly thought Li Tianming pitiful now, but after pitying him, they all added the same sigh: pitiful people must have something hateful about them!

Heh heh.

"Li Tianming's character may look better than Li Zifeng's, but judging by what happened at Yanhuang Academy, a hypocrite like him is even more detestable than Li Zifeng," the people concluded.

"He really should get out of Lihuo City. Even looking at him makes me feel ashamed."

Li Tianming turned a deaf ear. The day of the Yanhuang Academy Selection would arrive in the blink of an eye. A clever person chose the right moment to speak to the world through his actions about who he truly was.

He walked over to the broken-legged girl. Her father had arrived, a dark, thin man whose tears had nearly run dry. Yet from beginning to end, he had not given Li Zifeng a single hateful look, because he was afraid.

Instead, when Li Tianming came over, he glared at him fiercely. "It's all because of you, Li Tianming! Get lost!"

He looked vicious enough to tear Li Tianming apart alive, yet he seemed not to have the courage.

Li Tianming ignored him. He crouched down and gently touched the child's head. She had lost a great deal of blood and was already close to losing consciousness.

"Little girl, you know who truly hurt you, don't you?" Li Tianming asked gently.

Amid the hazy agony clouding her mind, she nodded. Adults were always blind, but children's eyes were bright.

For Li Tianming, that was enough. He took out ten Fire Jades. To ordinary people, this was an enormous fortune. He placed the Fire Jades in the girl's father's hand and said, "Get her treated. Set her leg."

The girl's father froze. More than money, this gave the girl a chance to live again instead of suffering a miserable life.

"You think I'll be grateful to you?" He put away the Fire Jades and snarled at Li Tianming. Yet when he looked up, Li Tianming was already gone.

"Where is he? Fleeing to escape punishment?" the girl's father blustered, fierce on the outside but weak within.

The onlookers were also astonished. In the time it took them to blink, Li Tianming had vanished.

Only a very strong beastmaster could accomplish that through movement techniques.

"Damn it!" everyone said.

Only the little girl clenched her fists tightly as tears fell.

[New Book Event, Phase One] Question: What is Li Zifeng's mother's surname?

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