Five Seas Realm?

"Perfect timing!"

Li Weiyi's heroic spirit soared to the heavens. With a loud shout, he unleashed the Clear Void Cicada Evasion Step and took the lead in intercepting the heavily bearded Seven Springs expert, who had already developed a fear of him.

A sword swept open the sea, its yellow radiance stretching over ten feet and forcing the man back.

Without pursuing, Li Weiyi spun around and charged at the middle-aged man with the large black mole between his brows. Before the other man could blast open the building's gate with a punch, the sword tip had reached the center of his back.

Left with no choice, the man with the black mole between his brows lowered himself and rolled to the right.

This was exactly the opportunity Li Weiyi had been waiting for. Once an opponent dodged in disarray, blind spots would appear in their vision. Every battle technique, every shred of cunning, every ounce of courage would collapse like a thousand-mile dike once their footing was thrown into chaos.

"Swish! Swish! Swish..."

Li Weiyi attacked like a raging storm, each sword faster than the last, the sword shadows cascading like a plunging waterfall.

By the time the heavily bearded Seven Springs expert rushed over to rescue him, both arms of the man with the black mole had been severed. Blood streamed from his shoulders, leaving him like a human stump.

He shrieked hoarsely, unable to accept the miserable state he had been reduced to.

The heavily bearded Seven Springs expert was scared out of his wits. All fighting spirit vanished, and he turned to flee.

The stump-like man with the black mole had an even stronger desire to live. He had already taken off toward the gate ahead of him.

"You think you can leave after crossing that gate?"

Li Weiyi gave chase.

If a Martial Cultivator who had opened Seven Springs possessed unyielding battle intent, the courage to fight to the death, a calm and rational mind, and the spirit of "none but I," then dealing with any one of them in a frontal clash would not have been easy for Li Weiyi.

If the two joined forces, they could pose a life-and-death threat to him.

But once their spirit broke and they began to run, dealing with them became much easier.

"What on earth is happening in that residence? The fighting sounds so fierce. It sounds like people have died in there. How terrifying."

In the brothel diagonally across the way, many young women dressed in dazzling finery stood by the railings. Some were curious, some frightened, some excited as they discussed the matter with the wealthy patrons beside them.

"What dense black fog. Could it be dead spirits and Baleful Intent demons?"

"Don't be afraid. We definitely won't get caught up in it here. Those Changlin Gang people tried to rob the newcomers, but it looks like they kicked an iron plate!" A Martial Arts Master who vaguely knew the inside story laughed.

"Who exactly are these newcomers? How dare they challenge the Changlin Gang? Don't they know the Changlin Gang has the final say in this part of the city?"

"Look, the City Defense Camp is here."

"They came so late. They must be in collusion with the Changlin Gang."

"Boom!"

The heavily bearded Seven Springs expert smashed through the courtyard wall, leaving behind a man-sized hole. His body flew more than ten feet before he landed flat on his back in the street, as if someone had blasted him out with a single punch.

Broken stones from the wall scattered across the long street.

Shrieks rang out from the direction of the brothel.

"Crash!"

Almost in the same instant, Li Weiyi leaped over the courtyard wall. His flying knee slammed into the man's chest, followed by a punch that battered his face beyond recognition. Even the stone paving beneath him cracked.

"Stop!"

"Have you gone mad? You dare kill someone in the streets of Jiu Li City?"

A squad of more than twenty City Defense guards rode in on fine steeds. Each was armored and carried a halberd, shouting their warnings from afar.

"Rumble!"

The iron hooves drew closer, swiftly surrounding Li Weiyi.

They wore white armor, and the powerful horses beneath them had consumed the blood of exotic beasts and mutated, becoming nearly twice as strong as ordinary horses.

Li Weiyi slowly rose to his feet, both fists covered in blood. His gaze swept over the City Defense guards, who stood like a wall of bronze and iron, yet their murderous aura did not cow him. He cupped his hands in salute. "I am Xie Jin, a citizen of the Cangli Tribe. Greetings, sirs. These villains broke into my home and intended evil. I have already subdued them."

The captain of this squad was named Chen Chuan. He was a Seven Springs Deformed Race member, over sixty years old, with a tiger's head and a three-meter-tall body. He looked immensely powerful.

"They have stopped breathing and their hearts have stopped beating. You call this subduing them?" Chen Chuan snorted.

With his cultivation, he could hear the faintest condition within the body of the person lying on the ground even from several yards away.

Li Weiyi said, "Perhaps I struck a little too heavily! But I had no choice. These villains were too highly cultivated and too vicious. I had to fight for my life."

Chen Chuan recognized the middle-aged man lying on the ground and knew his strength. He therefore understood very well that the boy before him possessed unfathomable cultivation. For a moment, he found himself in a difficult position, uncertain whether he should offend such a formidable figure for the Changlin Gang.

After all, the Changlin Gang only gave him a thousand Silver Coins every month.

"You say you are a citizen of the Cangli Tribe. Do you have a citizen registry?" Chen Chuan asked.

"I do!"

Li Weiyi took out the citizen registry that Zhao Zhizhuo had helped him obtain in Yaoguan City.

More than eighty percent of the people throughout Lizhou had been born into the Nine Great Tribes and were collectively known as Li citizens.

Citizen registries could be obtained in every city in Lizhou. With the Young Tribe Leader Cangli's word, many assessments were waived, and it was merely a matter of going through the motions.

Naturally, anything easy to obtain was also easy to forge.

In recent years, as the great tribes of Nine Li had declined and the provinces outside had suffered war year after year, many outside forces had poured into Lizhou, either fleeing the flames of war or seizing profit and territory.

Quite a few crooked and wicked people used forged citizen registries to run rampant throughout Lizhou.

Chen Chuan had been born into the Chili Tribe, so he naturally saw that Li Weiyi's registry was unusual. It even bore a village fief, along with an exact geographical location.

It proved nothing else, but at the very least, it showed that this boy's citizen registry was not forged.

After all, forging such a registry was easily exposed, and the price of exposure was steep.

With a clatter, Chen Chuan jumped down from his fine horse, which was likewise clad in white metal armor plates. He tossed the citizen registry back to Li Weiyi, then stepped through the large hole in the courtyard wall and over the rubble into the residence.

When he saw the scene inside, Chen Chuan sucked in a breath of cold air. When he looked at Li Weiyi again, his eyes held considerably more wariness.

At the end of the street, the two Changlin Gang members assigned to keep watch fled in panic and vanished into the darkness.

The residence of the Changlin Gang's leader covered nearly a hundred acres. Its walls were high, its courtyard vast, and its gate thirty feet wide.

Bone lamps hung high before the gate, while four Deformed Race Martial Arts Masters stood on each side, all armed.

Yang Qingxi wore a veil as she sat in the main building, in the seat that had originally belonged to the gang leader, Xu Changlin, reviewing the account books from the past three months. As a Pure Immortal Body, her hair and skin shone with a luster unlike that of ordinary people. Even her five snow-onion jade fingers possessed a beauty that made hearts tremble.

The pair of exquisite eyes not concealed by her veil were spirited and focused.

Xu Changlin, Deputy Gang Leader Tang Yan, and Banner Leader Shi Chuan Yu stood nearby. They had once been ruthless figures feared by everyone in this part of the city, yet now they all struggled to restrain their gazes, not daring to display the slightest impropriety.

That was because they knew the Young Lady before them possessed not only the beauty of a Pure Immortal Body, but also Five Seas Realm cultivation and an iron-blooded means of killing people with a smile.

After Yang Qingxi finished reading, she closed the account book.

Her slender fingers picked up a bamboo writing brush from the brush holder and toyed with it. Her beautiful eyes calmly swept over the three men. "Your Changlin Gang has become increasingly skilled at making money. This season's income is equivalent to half of last year's. Should I praise you, or should I reward you?"

Deputy Gang Leader Tang Yan smiled ingratiatingly. "Earning money for Young Lady is our duty... Ah..."

"Swish—"

The writing brush flew from Yang Qingxi's fingers like a streak of light. It grazed Tang Yan's cheek and struck an artificial rockery sixty or seventy feet away.

The rockery could not withstand the surging magical power contained within the brush and collapsed with a thunderous crash.

The shattered stones splashed layer upon layer of water into the pond.

One could imagine what would have happened if that strike had landed on a person.

A streak of blood appeared on Tang Yan's cheek. His legs shook like sieves from fright. In that instant, he had nearly believed he was doomed, that his head was about to explode. He had been utterly incapable of dodging.

They were both in the Five Seas Realm, but the Pure Immortal Body was vastly stronger than him. She needed only an ordinary writing brush to kill him.

Yang Qingxi looked coldly at Tang Yan, who had been frightened to his knees. "Did you think the Yang Clan could not learn of the things your Changlin Gang has done in recent months, or the exact amount of money you earned?"

Xu Changlin hurriedly explained, "Young Lady, it was Deputy Gang Leader Tang who recruited a formidable Insect Tamer for the Changlin Gang. That Insect Tamer keeps a nest of Armored Spiders, which must feed on human Martial Cultivators. Every time, he is the one who kills people and feeds the spiders. We merely handle the aftermath. Over time, the unexpected wealth we gained was quite substantial."

Yang Qingxi did not believe the Changlin Gang could recruit any truly formidable Insect Tamer, so she had no interest in the matter. Her gaze turned stern. "For a gang to establish itself, harsher methods are acceptable. But within three months at the shortest and half a year at the longest, Lizhou will inevitably fall into great chaos. I fear you will ruin major affairs for petty gains."

"In the next few days, several important friends of the Yang Clan will arrive in Jiu Li City from elsewhere. Their identities are special, so it would be unsuitable for them to enter the city. You will receive them for the time being. During this period, all of you had better behave yourselves. Do not let their whereabouts be exposed because of you."

An Old Man hurried to the outside of the main building, his expression urgent.

Xu Changlin gave Shi Chuan Yu a meaningful look. Shi Chuan Yu saluted Yang Qingxi before quickly heading out to ask the Old Man what had happened.

After a brief whispered exchange, Shi Chuan Yu's expression changed abruptly. "Are you certain it is the Five Seas Realm?"

The Old Man nodded. "Extremely strong! The brothers keeping watch said that only one person made a move, yet he killed more than a dozen of our experts, including two Seven Springs retainers. Even Master Qi, the Insect Tamer, was captured. Moreover, the other side possesses a magical artifact and even set up Spirit Tablets in the courtyard. They are brimming with confidence. If this is not the Five Seas Realm, what is?"

"Even more frightening, the owner of that residence, the giant Deformed Race member standing six meters tall, never appeared from beginning to end. He is clearly even more unfathomable."

Shi Chuan Yu's heart pounded wildly. He realized that the reason he had not sensed magical power when he touched someone's palm during the day was likely because the other party's cultivation had been too high.

The Old Man added, "There is one more matter."

Shi Chuan Yu struggled to calm the shock in his heart. Only after glancing toward Yang Qingxi in the building did his mind settle slightly. "Speak!"

"Chen Chuan of the City Defense guards has already rushed there. The other party claims to be a citizen of the Cangli Tribe."

Immediately afterward, the Old Man beckoned into the distance.

Two strong and sturdy gang members carried over Zhao Zhizhuo, who had been beaten until he was barely alive.

Zhao Zhizhuo lay on the ground covered in bloody wounds, his face beaten beyond recognition. Both arms had been dislocated, and his eyes, swollen from bruising, struggled to open a sliver. He weakly said, "They truly are guests of the Young Tribe Leader of the Cangli Tribe. Your Changlin Gang... had best not harbor evil thoughts. The Young Tribe Leader will not let you go..."

After being captured, Zhao Zhizhuo had no other choice but to invoke the Young Tribe Leader's name, hoping it would frighten off the Changlin Gang.

Instead, he was mocked by those gang members and beaten even more brutally. Some asked why he had not invoked the Cangli Tribe Leader's name, while others told him that invoking Xu Fudu's name would work better.

Shi Chuan Yu looked at the Old Man with questioning eyes.

The Old Man was also troubled. "Who could have expected Cangli's guests to rent a residence in the outskirts? Besides, what credibility could there be in the words of an old servant who had only opened Two Springs? If I investigated every name anyone gave, then anyone could bluff us. But if the people living inside truly are Five Seas Realm... then this will be difficult!"

Yang Qingxi, seated inside, naturally heard every word spoken outside. She glanced at Xu Changlin and gave a cold laugh. "This is the formidable Insect Tamer you spoke of? Whoever caused this trouble can solve it himself."

"This subordinate will certainly handle it properly."

Tang Yan hurriedly rose and headed outside, wanting only to leave this room that pressed down on him until he could barely breathe.

Thinking of something, Yang Qingxi called him back. After careful consideration, she said, "Cangli has always been bold and generous, lavish in his spending. If these truly are formidable people he befriended, it is unlikely he would arrange for them to stay in the outskirts. Unless there is another purpose... Investigate. You must find out exactly who they are."