Ice Serpent

"It was the Nangong Family that sent you, wasn't it? Yet you belonged to the Beast Tamer lineage that had long vanished from the Immortal Realm. You wanted to disguise an attack as one by demon beasts? It seemed you still feared my father."

After Xiaoyu's introduction to the Beast Tamer lineage, Li Mu quickly pieced together the whole chain of events. Nangong Bo might have wanted nothing more than to kill him, but he feared the Li Family's power. That was why he had hired this rare Beast Tamer, intending to use Li Mu's entry into the Black Dragon Mountain Range as an opportunity to manufacture an accident.

The causes and consequences had already surfaced in Li Mu's mind, but he had actually given Nangong Bo too much credit. The scheme of disguising the attack as a demon beast assault had been the Blood Fiend Camp captain's plan. Li Mu had mistaken it for Nangong Bo's brilliant move.

"Hehehe... hehehe... I never expected that none of Li Yubai's sons were useless. The rumors said you had abandoned cultivation for years and drowned yourself in debauchery in the pleasure houses. So it was all a façade. Could Li Yubai have noticed something? Had he already begun laying hidden pieces on the board?"

At this point, Beast Armor looked completely like an ordinary person. He wiped the blood from his body and looked at the young man and woman before him. His words seemed to reveal many secrets, yet he did not avoid the subject at all, because in his eyes, the two of them were already no different from corpses.

"Xiaoyu, if things truly become impossible later, you leave first. I'll hold them off. Tell my brother everything that happened here, and have him begin guarding against the Nangong Family on every front."

Beast Armor's bearing and words filled Li Mu with deep unease. Had he truly been sent by the Nangong Family? What was this secret that could not be discovered by his father? Why would Beast Tamers, who were nearly extinct even in the Immortal Realm, appear here? Question after question crowded Li Mu's mind. Yet no matter how he analyzed them, these tangled clues were like banks of fog, obscuring the truth.

"Brother Mu, Xiaoyu won't leave. Didn't we agree just now? No matter what happens, we'll face it together."

Nie Xiaoyu shook her head like a rattle drum, firmly refusing the suggestion that she flee alone. Her determined eyes seemed to say that he had to give her a reason. Otherwise, no matter what, she would never cling to life alone.

"Xiaoyu, the situation is different now. We still don't know which faction this Beast Tamer belongs to, but a faction capable of this is anything but ordinary. What we can confirm is that the Nangong Family has countless hidden ties to this faction. And I keep feeling that some earth-shattering secret is buried within this. No matter what, this information must be delivered. Only then can my father prepare himself. So I'm not asking you to leave just for your own sake, but for the sake of all those people in Qinglan City as well. Do you understand?"

Li Mu's expression was exceptionally grave. He was no longer the kind-hearted but worldly inexperienced Li Mu of before. He was a new soul from the twenty-first century. In his original world, he had encountered five thousand years of human civilization and history. Beyond dazzling inventions and innovations, conspiracies, strategies, and war had also been vital parts of it. That knowledge made the current Li Mu instinctively wary.

"I understand, Brother Mu. If it truly comes to that, I'll leave. But no matter how powerful their faction is, Xiaoyu will spend the rest of her life doing whatever it takes, exhausting every possible method, to avenge you!"

The icy-clever girl instantly understood Li Mu's intentions. Looking at Beast Armor, bare-chested before her, her expression turned incomparably solemn. Her promise to Li Mu was far more than empty words. If she truly had to survive alone today, then for the rest of her life, she would have only one thought: revenge, whatever the cost!

"Have you finished arranging your last words? Don't worry. I'll make sure you become a pair of doomed lovebirds. Neither of you is leaving today."

Beast Armor's contemptuous manner also ignited Li Mu's anger. He was, after all, a transmigrator with a cheat ability. In other novels, that would have made him the invincible protagonist of the world. Though his golden finger had indeed been rather weak so far, it did not mean he deserved to be looked down upon like this. What could be endured could not be endured forever.

"We still don't know who won't be leaving today. None of us are in the Core Formation Realm, so what makes you think you can definitely keep me here? It's two against one now. The one who should be worried is you. But then again, you're a Beast Tamer. You've probably spent too long with wild beasts, so it's only natural that your intelligence declined. I understand."

Li Mu fully displayed the verbal skills he had tempered in a certain Canyon Game. Back then, he had also been a renowned figure on a server called Zu'an. When it came to trading insults, he had never feared anyone.

"Sharp-tongued indeed. I hope you can still say such things later. And let me make one thing clear: since you know I'm a Beast Tamer, you shouldn't judge me by the power rankings of your cultivation system. But it doesn't matter. None of that will be of any use to you after this. Today, you will die in the Black Dragon Mountain Range."

Beast Armor removed the remaining three bamboo tubes from his waist. Then he took a deep breath, as though making an enormous decision. Raising his hand high, he viciously smashed all the bamboo tubes onto the ground.

As the bamboo tubes shattered, three blue shadows shot forth. Their bodies wound like flowing water, their ice-blue scales were crystalline and translucent, and the blood-red tongues atop their triangular heads flicked in and out. They were three strange little snakes.

Li Mu suddenly felt the temperature around them plummet. Frost formed over the grass and plants the three little snakes crawled across. Looking closely, one could see that dense frost energy, visible to the naked eye, shrouded their bodies as well.

"Ice Serpents! Level 2 Demon Beasts!"

Nie Xiaoyu recognized the blue little snakes at a glance. They were demon beasts as well, and Level 2 Demon Beasts at that—far more powerful than Storm Wolves. A single one could already contend with a peak cultivator at Core Formation Realm Entry.

And now, three had appeared at once!

Li Mu's current strength stood at the peak of the Half-step Core Formation Realm. With the Shadowless Sword, the Li Family Sword Style, and the reserves of vital energy provided by the Innate Art, he could exchange a few moves with an ordinary Core Formation Realm Entry cultivator. But only a few. If the battle dragged on, defeat would be his only outcome.

Nie Xiaoyu's combat strength had not even reached the Half-step Core Formation Realm yet. They could be called two against one, but in a direct confrontation, Li Mu would still have to bear the burden alone. Nie Xiaoyu could only harass the enemy from the side.

With such strength on paper, dealing with three Level 2 Demon Beasts was utterly impossible. They would likely be defeated in a single exchange.

Li Mu's thoughts raced. The moment he heard Nie Xiaoyu cry out "Level 2 Demon Beasts," he had already prepared himself to have the girl leave alone. Otherwise, if the three little snakes entangled them, together with Beast Armor, they might not even have a chance to escape.

But the three Ice Serpents did not attack as the two had expected. Instead, they lunged straight at Beast Armor, bared their fangs, and viciously bit into his arms.

With Beast Armor's scream, strange energy linked him to the Ice Serpents. The three little snakes also seemed to go mad, pouring all their frost power into Beast Armor's body.

"It's the Sacrifice Technique. Just like his previous berserk state, he used some method to forcibly transfer the souls of these three Ice Serpents into himself, while also seizing their power."

Watching everything unfold before her, Nie Xiaoyu immediately realized that the Beast Tamer had once again used the soul-companion Sacrifice Technique.

"Then shouldn't we be glad? It's still better than facing three Level 2 Demon Beasts. We'll use the same tactic as before—force his true soul out, and that'll be that."

The moment Li Mu finished speaking, an ice arrow appeared out of thin air and grazed past his scalp.