Must Remain Calm

"What, are you saying that because you picked up the Yin Thunder Umbrella, it's yours now?" Qi Jianzhu's expression turned grim.

"Of course," Wang Li glanced at Old Ancestor Tong Hui, who wasn't far away. "Didn't the Yin Thunder Umbrella also end up in your Huayang Sect's hands by being picked up before?"

Boom!

A commotion erupted in the sky around them.

This was indeed too difficult to communicate with.

Yet, his words made a strange kind of sense.

The Yin Thunder Umbrella was a famous artifact of Old Ancestor Tong Hui, but it wasn't actually forged by the Huayang Sect. Old Ancestor Tong Hui had acquired it during one of his trials.

Although Old Ancestor Tong Hui found the Yin Thunder Umbrella in a perilous place, strictly speaking, it was indeed a relic of an ancient cultivator that had been found.

However, saying such things in front of Old Ancestor Tong Hui, who had already successfully passed his tribulation, was incredibly bold.

Qi Jianzhu's expression shifted several times, but then he suddenly laughed and said, "According to your logic, whoever gets their hands on the Yin Thunder Umbrella owns it. So, I can just take it back from you then?"

"Are 'taking' and 'picking up' the same thing?"

Wang Li looked at Qi Jianzhu as if he were an idiot. "Unless I drop the Yin Thunder Umbrella and you pick it up, it's yours. Both the Huayang Sect and the Profound Heaven Sect are orthodox immortal sects. As a disciple of the Huayang Sect, how can you forcibly snatch an artifact from a disciple of the Profound Heaven Sect?"

Qi Jianzhu was furious. "Didn't you just forcibly snatch this artifact just now, and now you're saying it's an artifact of your Profound Heaven Sect?"

"How could I have snatched it?"

Wang Li put on an extremely helpless expression. "How could a cultivator at the Qi Refining stage possibly snatch an artifact from a Nascent Soul cultivator? Is that even possible? This artifact was clearly too damaged, so it was discarded, and I picked it up."

"..." The vast majority of cultivators present felt utterly exasperated.

It made too much sense.

A Qi Refining stage cultivator simply couldn't snatch an artifact from a Nascent Soul cultivator, no matter how you looked at it.

This wasn't difficult to communicate with; it was impossible to communicate at all.

"Heh heh."

He Lingxiu, who had been listening with pursed lips, couldn't help but chuckle upon hearing this.

"Lingxiu!" True Person Wu Yang, who had also been momentarily stunned by this absurd logic, turned and glared at He Lingxiu when he heard her laughter.

The Yin Thunder Umbrella was something He Lingxiu had been determined to obtain, but now she was just standing by, watching the show. How could he not be furious?

"Master."

Just then, he heard He Lingxiu's telepathic message, "The owner of the Yin Thunder Umbrella is here. He isn't in a hurry, so why should we be?"

True Person Wu Yang was taken aback, and his anger immediately dissipated.

He had indeed been a bit foolish.

With Old Ancestor Tong Hui present, who else had the right to decide the ownership of the Yin Thunder Umbrella?

He had realized this, but the other members of the Huayang Sect clearly hadn't.

Especially Qi Jianzhu.

He was solely focused on impressing Old Ancestor Tong Hui. If Old Ancestor Tong Hui were in a good mood today, even a casual bestowal of some opportunity would be immensely beneficial to him.

Hearing He Lingxiu's laughter at this moment, he felt she was gloating.

The anger that he had already been suppressing surged violently.

Since communication was impossible, they would have to resort to force.

"Fellow Daoist of the Profound Heaven Sect, it seems you truly believe my Huayang Sect has no one?" he said, looking at the innocent-faced Wang Li with a cold smile.

"Your Huayang Sect has so many people, how can it have no one?" Wang Li glanced at him and the surrounding True Person Qingyang and others. "Besides, what does the number of people have to do with me picking something up?"

His words were already quite exasperating, but he then muttered softly, "So many people couldn't pick it up, but I could. Are they going to blame me?"

A golden flame lit up in front of Qi Jianzhu.

With rhythmic spiritual energy fluctuations, the golden flame split into three, transforming into three golden, delicate flowers, each the size of a fingernail.

"Fellow Daoist Wang, I'll give you one last piece of advice. With your cultivation, even if my Huayang Sect were to let you leave, an artifact like the Yin Thunder Umbrella would only bring you disaster if you kept it. You absolutely wouldn't be able to protect it," Qi Jianzhu said, narrowing his eyes at Wang Li, his killing intent blazing.

"You make a very good point," Wang Li smiled. "But you don't need to worry about what happens after I leave. I don't need to keep it on me; I'm going to sell it at the Blackwater Market right away."

"..." All the cultivators present felt a prickling sensation on their scalps. He had even figured out how to dispose of the Yin Thunder Umbrella?

Qi Jianzhu could no longer hold back. The three golden flowers in front of him emitted a strange humming sound, fluttering like three venomous bees.

The targets of these three golden flowers were clearly Wang Li. Their speed as they flew through the air was astonishing, but their flight paths were incredibly erratic, leaping about chaotically, making them difficult to track.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

However, when the three golden flowers were still dozens of feet away from Wang Li, they suddenly exploded as if they had hit an invisible crystal wall.

"What, bullying my junior brother?"

His triumphant technique instantly broken, Qi Jianzhu's face changed drastically. He instinctively knew it wasn't Wang Li who had made the move, but before he could truly react, a female cultivator appeared like a phantom not far behind Wang Li.

"His senior sister is here too?"

"Is that Lü Shenliang from the Profound Heaven Sect, the one who threatened to self-detonate her Golden Core at the slightest disagreement?"

The spectators, always eager for more drama, were instantly energized by the appearance of this female cultivator.

Qi Jianzhu's breath hitched.

This female cultivator was extraordinarily beautiful. Her beauty was the kind that struck one as stunning at first glance, and upon closer inspection, her features were so exquisitely refined, so perfectly balanced, that one couldn't imagine a single change.

But beyond her breathtaking beauty, what made his breath catch was the pure, cold aura emanating from her. It was the innate, powerful spiritual pressure that high-level cultivators exerted over lower-level ones.

"This Yin Thunder Umbrella was desperately retrieved by my junior brother amidst tribulation lightning. You all saw how dangerous it was just now. Now that the tribulation lightning has passed, you're going to force my junior brother to hand over this artifact? Are you bullying my Profound Heaven Sect, thinking we have no one? Are you forcing me to self-detonate my Golden Core?" Lü Shenliang glared at the people from Huayang Sect, her face like frost, and continued.

Boom!

A burst of strange noise echoed through the surrounding sky again.

Upon hearing the first half of her statement, most of the onlookers felt that her words were perfectly reasonable. However, as they heard the latter half, their scalps tingled, and they all had the same thought: as expected.

"You..."

Qi Jianzhu was utterly astonished.

The absurdity of the situation was beyond words.

What is going on?

We've only exchanged a few words, and suddenly it's about self-detonating a Golden Core?

He's only at the Qi Refining stage himself. No matter how strong a Qi Refining cultivator acts, against a high-level cultivator like her, the difference is like an ant to a giant beast. Why would she be talking about self-detonating her Golden Core?

"Are you bluffing me?" True Person Qingyang let out a cold laugh.

While his disciple's mind was filled with a thousand questions, he himself was not intimidated by these two strange cultivators from the Profound Heaven Sect.

Qi Jianzhu was his most prized direct disciple. He had intended for him to make a good impression in front of Old Ancestor Tong Hui. Any poor performance now would reflect badly on him.

"Self-detonate my Golden Core?"

He looked provocatively at Lü Shenliang, his contempt evident in his eyes. "If you have the guts, self-detonate one for me to see."

"Okay."

Lü Shenliang suddenly smiled.

Her expression had been too cold, but her smile bloomed like a thousand peach blossoms on a mountain, making her exceptionally radiant and captivating.

Judging by her expression, she wasn't angered by True Person Qingyang's provocation at all. Instead, she seemed somewhat excited, even intrigued.

True Person Qingyang's face suddenly stiffened.

He instantly felt that something was wrong.

Everyone else felt it too.

Boom!

A terrifying, destructive pressure erupted from Lü Shenliang's surroundings.

Her body suddenly began to glow, and in the next instant, her entire form seemed to swell outwards. Horrifying, translucent lines of light appeared on her skin.

"Hiss... hiss... hiss..."

Accompanied by sounds like a viper's breath, wisps of visible golden crystalline light emerged from the translucent lines on her skin.

The moment these crystalline lights left her body, they unleashed a terrifying power, transforming into beams of terrifying golden light that radiated outwards.

Strange, irregular fluctuations of Vital Energy rippled around her.

"Ah!"

Qi Jianzhu and the others screamed in terror.

One moment she was like an ethereal fairy, untouched by the mortal world, and the next she was like a terrifying demon.

"Are you really..."

True Person Qingyang's face turned deathly pale. He frantically controlled his flying artifact and retreated rapidly.

As a Golden Core cultivator himself, he could tell whether she was bluffing or truly intending to self-detonate her Golden Core.

His first instinct was to shout, "Are you crazy?" But the moment he opened his mouth, he realized that she was already mentally unstable.

"Uncle-Master Qingyang, it's quite something that your few words have driven her to self-detonate her Golden Core. It's just that the Ancestor is in the early stages of forming his Nascent Soul. I wonder if her self-detonation will cause any interference for Old Ancestor Tong Hui." At this moment, he heard He Lingxiu's voice.

True Person Qingyang, along with his flying artifact, abruptly stopped in mid-air. He and the Five Elders of Huayang behind him broke out in a cold sweat.

Self-detonating a Golden Core was the ultimate suicidal move for a Golden Core cultivator. Even a remnant core possessed the power to kill opponents of a higher cultivation level. Now, although Old Ancestor Tong Hui had successfully passed his tribulation, he was in the crucial period of consolidating his Nascent Soul. If this female cultivator from the Profound Heaven Sect were to self-detonate her Golden Core at this time, Old Ancestor Tong Hui might not even be able to withstand it.

If Old Ancestor Tong Hui were injured and his foundation affected, they would be in serious trouble within the Huayang Sect.

"I really am sick. Why did I have to provoke a lunatic?"

True Person Qingyang was filled with regret.

"Senior Sister, don't be impulsive! Stay calm!"

"You people are something else! You knew my Senior Sister couldn't handle provocation and deliberately provoked her!"

"For such a broken artifact, you resorted to such tactics! Aren't you afraid of implicating your Ancestor?"

"If you really want this broken artifact, wait until I sell it in the market and then buy it back. Can any amount of spirit sand be compared to the safety of a Nascent Soul cultivator?"

"Senior Sister, calm down, you must calm down. They are acting in a way that harms others but not themselves, but there's no benefit for you in self-detonating your Golden Core either."

Wang Li's voice rang out repeatedly.

Most cultivators felt that these words seemed to make sense, but upon reflection, they felt something was amiss.