A Failed Strike-Does Fate Favor the Lis?

Windriding Pavilion.

The inevitable route Li Yanzhao and his party had to take back to Green Maple Valley.

Several dozen riders galloped along the main road at full speed.

"Once we pass Windriding Pavilion, there will only be thirty li left."

Li Yanzhao thought to himself.

"Everyone, pick up the pace!"

Li Yanzhao waved his horsewhip and urged them onward, but everyone had already reached their limit. No matter how much they wanted to go faster, they could not.

At Windriding Pavilion.

A mysterious figure stood there, entirely shrouded in a black robe. Only his eyes were visible as he watched Li Yanzhao and the others race toward him, cold killing intent spilling from them!

"They've finally come."

Elsewhere.

Li Yanzhao had also noticed that something was wrong.

He raised a hand, and the several dozen riders behind him hastily reined in their horses. They drew their blades and vigilantly shielded the Lineage's new blood in their midst.

"Who might you be? I am Li Yanzhao, Sixth Elder of the Li Family!"

Li Yanzhao cupped his hands and called out loudly.

"The Li Family? Heh heh, it is Li Family people I came to kill!"

The mysterious figure sneered in a hoarse voice.

Then, a powerful aura surged directly toward Li Yanzhao and his group.

Facing that overwhelming aura head-on, Li Yanzhao was horrified. His expression turned ugly as he said, "Qi-Blood Realm!"

Though he had long expected that someone harbored ill intentions, he had never imagined they would dispatch a Qi and Blood Realm Cultivator to assassinate them outright. What audacity! What an extravagant move!

With his strength, facing a Qi and Blood Realm Cultivator meant certain death.

Yet he still drew his blade.

At the same time, he shouted to the Li Family Cultivators behind him, "I'll hold him back! You get out of here!"

"Your courage is commendable, but that is all. Today, I'll let you understand why all beneath Qi-Blood are ants!"

The mysterious man said disdainfully.

His body shot forward, attacking Li Yanzhao at blinding speed.

In the span of a breath, the mysterious man appeared before Li Yanzhao. He clenched his hand into a fist and smashed it toward Li Yanzhao's chest.

Li Yanzhao hurriedly raised his blade to block. The tyrannical force of the punch snapped his blade in two and struck heavily against his chest.

Li Yanzhao's chest caved in on the spot beneath the tremendous blow, and his body was sent flying several hundred meters away.

"Puh!"

He spat out a mouthful of bloody mist. Li Yanzhao's face instantly turned deathly pale. He struggled to rise, but not a shred of strength remained in him.

A Qi and Blood Realm Cultivator is truly tyrannical. If the Blood Spirit Fruit had not allowed me to break through to the Grand Completion Realm, that punch would have killed me!

Li Yanzhao was shaken to the core.

Seeing that Li Yanzhao had survived one of his punches, the mysterious man was somewhat surprised. But Li Yanzhao was not his target today.

Watching the Li Family's new blood flee under the protection of the Li Family Cultivators, he immediately gave up on killing Li Yanzhao and pursued them instead.

Sensing the killing intent behind them, several Li Family Cultivators exchanged glances before turning their horses around.

"Take good care of my family!"

With that, they fearlessly raised their blades and charged straight at the mysterious man.

"You still dare come and throw away your lives!"

Seeing several minor Body Forging Realm lackeys daring to obstruct him, the mysterious man sneered inwardly.

He flicked out several bursts of finger force. Several Li Family Cultivators fell from their horses, their eyes wide open, each forehead bearing a gruesome bloody hole.

Though those Li Family Cultivators had died, they had at least successfully delayed the mysterious man for two breaths.

Several more riders charged over with grim resolve, only to die beneath the mysterious man's fingers as well.

The remaining men followed suit, hoping to trade their lives for a sliver of survival for the new blood.

But the mysterious man's patience had run dry. Vast Qi and Blood power erupted forth, transforming into blood arrows in midair.

Once they had gathered force to the limit, dozens of blood arrows shot out in a concentrated barrage with lightning speed.

Just as everyone was about to be annihilated by this ultimate move.

Two furious voices rang through the mountains and forest like thunder!

"Villain, how dare you!"

Two figures whose auras soared into the heavens appeared before the mysterious man. Joining forces, they transformed their Qi-Blood into shields and blocked the lethal blood arrows!

The appearance of the two men made the mysterious man's expression change drastically.

Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and fled.

The instant the two appeared, the mysterious man knew that his assassination plan had failed.

Faced with two cultivators of the same realm, no matter how confident he was, he would not dare claim he could fight one against two. One careless misstep, and he might even leave his life here.

Seeing the mysterious man flee in panic, the Second Elder was about to give chase when the First Elder beside him stopped him.

The latter shook his head. "Do not pursue him any further. His heart is set on fleeing, and we cannot catch him. The urgent priority is to protect the new blood and return to the Lineage. Do not let these young men die in vain."

The Second Elder looked at the many corpses on the ground, his expression filled with grief and fury. These were all fine young men of the Li Family!

"Where is the Sixth Elder?"

The First Elder asked the surviving Li Family Cultivators behind him.

That cultivator said sorrowfully, "The Sixth Elder held that man off alone to buy us time. We do not know whether he lives or dies."

The First Elder and Second Elder's expressions changed drastically.

They urgently ordered, "Find him at once! If alive, we must see the man; if dead, we must see the body!"

"Yes."

Not long afterward, the barely breathing Li Yanzhao was carried back on someone's back.

Only after seeing that the new blood had survived did his vision go black and he faint.

Seeing that Li Yanzhao still had a breath in him, the two Elders finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If they lost an Elder, especially such a young Elder, the blow to the Li Family would be far too great.

"Gather the bodies of our clansmen. Bring them home with us!"

The First Elder sighed with his eyes.

"Yes, First Elder."

The surviving Li Family Cultivators, their eyes red-rimmed, tied up the bodies of their fallen brothers and carried them on their backs without a word.

"Let's go home."

Baibo Song Clan.

The Song Family Elders, who had been waiting anxiously, finally saw their patriarch Song Tianbo return.

Song Tianbo removed his face covering amid everyone's expectant gazes.

He said hoarsely, "The attempt failed!"

"What?"

Several Elders were aghast.

To guard against every contingency, even the patriarch himself, a Qi and Blood Realm Cultivator, had personally acted. Yet he had still failed to deal with a mere Li Yanzhao. Could it be that the Li Family's Qi and Blood Realm Cultivators had been hiding within the party?

"I was about to succeed when two Qi and Blood Realm Cultivators from the Li Family arrived and saved them. Left with no choice, I could only retreat first. Otherwise, I fear I myself would have been left there."

Song Tianbo explained, and everyone suddenly understood.

"Then, Patriarch, was your identity exposed?"

The Song Family's First Elder hurriedly asked.

Song Tianbo shook his head. "I did not exchange blows with them, and I had disguised myself. They should not have recognized me."

"That is good."

The many Elders all breathed sighs of relief in unison. In truth, they were not yet prepared for an all-out war with the Li Family.

But Song Tianbo's next words left them looking as though their parents had died.

"I have some bad news for you. After Li Xinge and Li Xuantong, the Li Family's Second Elder has also advanced to the Qi-Blood Realm."

"This time, it was those two who joined forces to force me back."

"Now, the Li Family alone possesses three Qi and Blood Realm Cultivators."

At those words, the Song Family's First Elder collapsed into his chair and said with a bitter smile, "How meagerly Heaven has treated my Song Family!"

With his half-step Qi-Blood Realm cultivation, he had attempted to break through the Qi and Blood Heavenly Pass three times in succession, all ending in failure. In this life, there was little hope that he could advance to the Qi-Blood Realm.

The other Song Family Elders also wore gloomy expressions. Did fate truly favor the Green Maple Li Clan?