Indestructible Hegemon Body

Moonlight stretched Li Qingqiu's shadow across the courtyard. He took up his sword and walked toward the house, already able to hear the breathing of the people inside.

His steps were light, making not the slightest sound.

He reached the door and pressed his palm against it. It was shut tight; he couldn't push it open without using force.

He took a deep breath, then suddenly snapped the door latch behind it. He immediately rushed toward the direction the breathing came from.

Lü Taidou, the first alliance leader of the Seven Peaks Alliance, was fast asleep in bed. A peerless master whose fame shook the world, he was extraordinarily alert. The instant the door opened, even in the middle of sleep, his eyes flew open.

He caught sight of a streak of swordlight sweeping toward him through the darkness. Startled, he rolled out of bed and twisted aside to dodge, but the sword still caught him in the shoulder.

Lü Taidou was in his forties, with a bear-like face and tiger eyes. He widened his eyes, his temples and long beard fluttering as though flames of fury were burning around him.

Li Qingqiu was a little surprised. He hadn't expected his opponent to dodge this fatal strike.

This man's martial arts were far superior to Yang Jueding's!

"How dare you!"

Lü Taidou roared. Internal Energy gathered in his right palm, which burst into flames as he struck at Li Qingqiu.

Li Qingqiu leaped backward, raised his sword, and channeled his energy to block.

Boom—

The windows shattered beneath the powerful airflow. The tables and wooden cabinets on either side suffered the same fate, and the entire house shuddered.

Lü Taidou's eyes widened. His full-strength palm strike had actually been blocked. A shield of energy had appeared around Li Qingqiu, holding back the endless torrent of fiery Internal Energy.

The ground beneath Li Qingqiu's feet had been crushed, a testament to the sheer power of Lü Taidou's cultivation.

"Who are you?"

Lü Taidou asked in a low voice. He didn't dare withdraw his hand; if he did now, the backlash would surely injure his internal organs.

Li Qingqiu looked up. His left hand suddenly slipped behind his waist and flicked forward. His movement was so fast that Lü Taidou had no time to react when he saw it.

Three silver needles pierced through Lü Taidou's fiery Internal Energy. Threads of lightning crackled along their shafts as they drilled through his throat with irresistible force.

Lü Taidou's imposing aura vanished in an instant. The powerful force sent him flying into the wall. He fell back onto the bed, crushing it beneath him as it collapsed, sending dust billowing into the air.

Li Qingqiu withdrew his hand, then turned and left the room.

He picked up a Seven Peaks Alliance disciple who was lying in the courtyard, leaped onto the roof, and ran swiftly to the roof of a house a hundred zhang away. Then he used the Spring Return Ghost Immortal Needle to wake the disciple.

The Seven Peaks Alliance disciple opened his eyes as if jolted awake from a nightmare, gasping for breath.

Li Qingqiu clamped a hand over his mouth and whispered, "Keep leading the way. Take me to the other alliance leaders."

The disciple was named Chen Ye. He'd joined the Seven Peaks Alliance less than half a year ago and currently did odd jobs like standing watch and running errands. He hadn't yet learned any of the alliance's superior martial arts.

In Chen Ye's eyes, the first alliance leader, Lü Taidou, was the greatest master under heaven. So he'd led Li Qingqiu to Lü Taidou's courtyard first, hoping to make Li Qingqiu walk into a trap of his own making.

But judging from what Li Qingqiu had just said, had Lü Taidou already died at his hands?

How could that be!

Chen Ye stared at Li Qingqiu in disbelief. Face-to-face, he could see clearly how young Li Qingqiu was.

So young it felt unreal.

Li Qingqiu frowned and asked in a low voice, "Are you stupid, or deaf?"

Chen Ye came back to himself and frantically blinked. Li Qingqiu immediately hoisted him up and made him point the way.

The commotion at Lü Taidou's courtyard had woken the nearby disciples. They rushed out of their rooms and hurried toward the source of the earlier noise.

The two had gone only a short distance when a mysterious horn sounded in the distance, startlingly loud beneath the night sky.

Li Qingqiu saw people pouring out of courtyards in every direction. He had no choice but to press Chen Ye down and crouch with him, hiding from the Seven Peaks Alliance disciples' view.

"What is that sound?" Li Qingqiu asked quietly.

Chen Ye swallowed and said, "That's the Seven Peaks Alliance's Invasion Horn. The moment anything seems amiss, the horn is sounded. Even if it's a false alarm, the alliance leaders won't blame anyone. But if an enemy sneaks in and the disciple responsible for the horn fails to sound it, he'll be severely punished, no matter the reason."

Just then, horns began sounding from other directions as well. There was more than one Invasion Horn.

Li Qingqiu had to admit he'd underestimated the Seven Peaks Alliance's vigilance. No wonder there were no disciples patrolling at night; it turned out they'd secretly set up a defense like this.

"Once the Invasion Horn sounds, it'll be almost impossible for you to approach the other alliance leaders without anyone noticing," Chen Ye whispered. If Lü Taidou was dead, Chen Ye was afraid Li Qingqiu would take him to face the other alliance leaders, too.

Li Qingqiu heard him and struck him again, knocking him unconscious.

Then Li Qingqiu began stripping off Chen Ye's clothes and quickly put them on himself. He even took Chen Ye's sword before leaping down from the rooftop.

He continued in the direction Chen Ye had pointed out.

More and more Seven Peaks Alliance disciples poured out of their rooms, and Li Qingqiu encountered quite a few head-on. Only then did he feel the depth of the Seven Peaks Alliance's foundations.

Three thousand might not sound like much, but when you actually faced that many, you could feel how terrifying they were.

And the Seven Peaks Alliance was a true martial arts powerhouse; all its disciples knew martial arts.

As he walked, Li Qingqiu recalled Lü Taidou's Internal Energy.

"The martial path is no simple thing."

Li Qingqiu thought to himself. If he hadn't broken through to the third layer of the Nourishing Yuan Realm, killing Lü Taidou would have been a huge challenge. Slaying him would inevitably have exhausted all his Origin Energy, and escaping the Seven Peaks Alliance afterward would have been no easy feat.

Lü Taidou was only a martial arts master from Guzhou. The Great Li Dynasty had other provinces, and there were surely people under heaven stronger than him.

From now on, he couldn't underestimate anyone in the world!

Though Li Qingqiu had successfully killed the enemy leader, the experience had made him even more cautious.

Of course, if he had to do it all over again, he'd still make the same choice—though he'd try to find a better opportunity.

With a master like Lü Taidou, the Seven Peaks Alliance was no force the Qingxiao Sect could afford to provoke right now. He couldn't exactly restrict the disciples' movements and wait for the Seven Peaks Alliance to launch a full-scale invasion.

Wearing the uniform of a Seven Peaks Alliance disciple, Li Qingqiu didn't arouse suspicion. Nor did he go out of his way to avoid anyone; that would've looked strange. He strode ahead openly, brushing shoulders with one Seven Peaks Alliance disciple after another.

Suddenly.

He stopped outside the gate of a courtyard and turned his head, frowning.

He heard a faint sob. Someone seemed to be crying quietly, and there was more than one person. The other person wasn't crying, but their breathing was weak.

He hadn't wanted to meddle, but for some reason, he thought of his junior brothers and sisters.

When Zhang Yuchun, Jiang Zhaoxia, and Li Dongyue had first arrived at the Qingxiao Sect, they had been afraid, too, and would hide away to cry. Wu Man'er wasn't so sentimental; all he needed was a meal. Li Sifeng and Li Sijin had each other for company, so they weren't as frightened or lonely.

After hesitating for a moment, he went into the courtyard and made his way to a room. The courtyard was piled with firewood and odds and ends, and no one was guarding it.

He gently pushed the door open and narrowed his eyes as he looked inside. The room was full of dry firewood, and a child sat leaning against the pile. Moonlight streamed through a hole in the roof, falling right on the child.

The child looked only seven or eight years old. Most importantly, he was holding an even smaller child in his arms. He was the one making the crying sounds.

Li Qingqiu stepped into the room, startling the child, who turned to look at him.

"Do you want to leave?"

Li Qingqiu looked at him and asked directly.

The child wore ragged clothes and was filthy, much like Xu Ning had been back then.

At Li Qingqiu's question, the child stared blankly at him and asked, "Can I?"

"If you're willing, I'll take both of you with me," Li Qingqiu replied.

The child immediately stood up, clutching the child in his arms. That little one looked only one or two years old, and a foul stench wafted from the two of them.

"Who are you?"

The young Yuan Qi asked cautiously. He had never seen Li Qingqiu, but at the thought that he might be able to leave the Seven Peaks Alliance, his heart began to race.

Li Qingqiu replied, "I don't belong to the Seven Peaks Alliance, at any rate. I killed one of its alliance leaders, and I'm about to leave."

Yuan Qi wasn't frightened by this. His eyes widened, tears brimming in them, and he actually began to smile.

"I'll go with you, but you have to take my little brother, too!" Yuan Qi wiped away his tears and looked at Li Qingqiu as he said this earnestly.

Li Qingqiu nodded and said, "From now on, you and your little brother can join my sect. How does that sound?"

"No problem. We'll join your sect, and we'll repay your kindness someday!"

Yuan Qi agreed without hesitation. Li Qingqiu immediately walked over and took his little brother from his arms. Using a dirty piece of cloth on the ground, he strapped the child, who was not yet two, to his chest. Then he picked Yuan Qi up with one arm and hurried out of the room.

After they left, Yuan Qi finally saw Li Qingqiu's face in the moonlight. His pupils dilated, and his eyes shone with wonder. The sight would be etched into his mind forever.

Once outside, Li Qingqiu leaped onto the roof and continued forward with light steps.

He then opened the Legacy System and checked his disciple count. Sure enough, Yuan Qi and his little brother had been added. He tapped Yuan Qi's portrait to check his loyalty.

90/80!

Not bad. The boy had a conscience.

Li Qingqiu didn't examine his Fate and moved on, then subconsciously checked Yuan Qi's little brother's portrait.

The moment he opened it, he regretted it. The child was so young and unconscious; how could he possibly have any loyalty?

Just as expected, Yuan Qi's little brother, Yuan Li, had a loyalty score of 0.

But the very next second, Li Qingqiu's eyes widened and his face filled with disbelief. He even stopped walking.

[Name: Yuan Li]

[Gender: Male]

[Age: 1]

[Loyalty (Leader/Sect): 0/0 (Maximum: 100)]

[Cultivation Aptitude: Extremely Low]

[Comprehension: Transcendent]

[Fate: Indestructible Hegemon Body, Master's Heart, Tenacity]

[Indestructible Hegemon Body: A rare ancient physique found only once in a generation, a great gift from heaven and earth. But because its bearer was born into the mortal world, a special method is needed to awaken it.]

[Master's Heart: Possesses exceptional insight and imagination in the way of battle, excels at creating, and delights in sharing.]

[Tenacity: No matter what ordeals he endures, his resolve will never waver.]

What a treasure he'd found!

Three Fate entries. Indestructible Hegemon Body and Master's Heart both looked powerful, especially Indestructible Hegemon Body. That thing was so mysterious!

Li Qingqiu lowered his head and looked again, feeling as though Yuan Li in his arms was glowing with golden light.

Seeing him stop, Yuan Qi glanced down at his little brother and asked nervously, "What's wrong with my little brother?"

Li Qingqiu looked ahead and continued walking, replying casually, "Looks like he wet himself."