The Fierce Battle

"Whoosh!"

A cool breeze swept past. Among the Foundation Establishment cultivators surrounding Li Xiang, a mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert from the Hu Family had been cut clean in half!

[Energy consumption has reached 56%!]

[The left arm has sustained severe damage. The shoulder-mounted Laser Cannon has exhausted its spiritual energy!]

[Warning: Blade Storm must not be used again. It will cause severe damage to the War Puppet!]

The Wang Family was far more troublesome than Li Xiang had expected!

They had all kinds of trump cards. Just moments ago, the Wang Family had even brought out ten magical artifacts and deployed them in a grand formation, badly damaging the War Puppet's armor.

Fortunately, though the War Puppet had sustained significant damage, the Wang Family's two remaining peak Foundation Establishment experts were also covered in wounds.

On the map,

Li Xiang watched as the Li Family members were drawn into a fierce battle.

Xu Cuihua led the spirit beasts in the first charge, their goal merely to break through Tailin Town's traps. They faced the Hu Family's ancestral Spear Forest Formation. The formation had somehow linked the spiritual energy of every Hu Family member, and spears rained down like a blanket from the sky.

In an instant, more than a dozen slow-moving spirit beasts failed to dodge in time and fell dead.

Then came close-quarters combat.

The Li Family faced the various traps, formations, talismans, and magical artifacts the Hu Family and Wang Family had set up throughout Tailin Town... Against the centuries-old foundations of these two lineages, the spirit beasts the Li Family had spent years raising seemed terribly fragile.

But soon after the Spear Forest Formation in Tailin Town was broken, the villagers of Zhien Village came storming in under Li Dalong's leadership!

The Li Family's guard squad launched the first attack.

Most of them were still ordinary people, but years of training and a wealth of equipment had made them formidable.

They could even mount effective attacks against Qi Refining cultivators!

They halted, drew their bows, and loosed.

Arrows forged from black iron fell like rain in their first volley. Every archer had fifteen iron arrows in his quiver.

As they fired,

the nearly thousand villagers of Zhien Village refused to be outdone.

Once the cultivators inside Tailin Town stopped attacking from a distance, the villagers rushed closer. They were not foolish enough to engage cultivators in hand-to-hand combat. Instead, under Li Yaotie's leadership, they brought out all their weapons.

In an instant, villagers were hurling cleavers, hatchets, and other sharp weapons toward the cultivators' previous attack lines.

Then,

all the Foundation Establishment cultivators on the Li Family's side, along with the Li Family's three spirit beasts, seized the opportunity to charge into Tailin Town!

Li Xiang could no longer keep track of everyone!

He could only fend off the two peak Foundation Establishment experts

while waiting for the game interface to alert him!

[A villager from Zhien Village is in critical condition...]

[One of your family's spirit beasts has been gravely wounded!]

[A villager has died...]

"Damn it!"

In the room, Li Xiang gritted his teeth as he controlled the War Puppet, watching the game interface through its eyes.

After playing this game for so long,

he had realized that these were most likely real, living people!

One vivid life after another was ending right before his eyes, but he knew he had to stay clearheaded at a time like this.

[Incense: 1342]

The brutal truth was that even with a great deal of Incense, he couldn't save everyone. He could only keep his eyes on the Li Family members and make sure none of them came to harm!

[Using skill 'Charge My Children,' consuming 115 Incense!]

This wasn't the first time Li Xiang had used the skill. It could raise every attribute of his family members by 10%!

But the stronger his people became, the more the skill cost.

Using it on a Foundation Establishment expert cost 50 points, while using it on a Qi Refining cultivator cost only 5!

"It's the Ancestor!"

"My power has increased!"

"With the Ancestor lending me strength, let's see how you'll die!"

The Li Family members who had already charged into Tailin Town all felt a powerful surge of true energy flow to them from their Ancestral Tablets!

That was right.

Every Li Family member now carried a memorial tablet of Li Xiang against their chest, taking their Ancestor into battle with them!

Though... Li Xiang could use the skill on them even without the tablets, carrying their Ancestor's tablet into battle had become a fine Li Family tradition.

"Boom!"

Amid the battle inside the Hu Family compound, the Chen Family Ancestor and the entire Chen Family used their secret technique to break through the Hu Family Protective Array!

At that moment,

the Hu Family Talisman Array exploded. Hu Wei, who had once sent men to gravely wound Li Dalong, stood amid the ruins with several Qi Refining experts.

"Ha ha ha! You're punching above your weight! You Li Family brat actually thought you could avenge your father? Have you even looked at yourself? You're not fit to stand against me!"

Amid the ruins,

Li Yaozu could be seen standing with difficulty atop the rubble, sword in hand. The moment he had broken into the Hu Family compound, he had charged straight for Hu Wei without hesitation.

There hadn't been a single day in all these years when he hadn't wanted revenge for his father!

But he hadn't expected that, even after killing one ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator guarding Hu Wei and fighting his way through the encirclement, he still wouldn't escape the Hu Family's deep reserves. They had all kinds of formations!

"Someone, kill this brat who doesn't know his place! A country bumpkin thinks he can kill me?"

Hu Wei stared coldly at Li Yaozu.

Even though he was badly wounded, Li Yaozu showed no fear as the cultivators rushed at him.

He reached out with his left hand, its flesh torn enough to expose bloody bone, and clutched the Ancestral Tablet against his chest. Then he grinned, looking like a demon crawling out of hell.

"Do you think you're the only ones with deep reserves? The Li Family has them too!!!"

"What?"

Hu Wei's expression changed.

As Li Yaozu roared, the memorial tablet in his hand began to glow white, and his wounds healed before their very eyes!

[Consuming 100 Incense to use 'Ancestral Embrace' and heal Li Yaozu's wounds!]

His wounds healed rapidly!

Li Yaozu held his sword and walked toward Hu Wei with a grim expression. "Today, I'll take your head and avenge the day my father nearly died!"

"Head of the Li Family? Just a country bumpkin. You know nothing but a mundane sword technique and a footwork technique you learned from my Hu Family, yet you dare make trouble in my home!"

Inside the Hu Family compound,

Li Dalong gripped his long saber and faced the fierce assault of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert!

Though Li Dalong possessed four special traits, the Foundation Establishment expert was right: his Foundation Establishment cultivation was full of holes. Every technique he had learned was commonplace. After breaking through, he hadn't even had time to master any spells. He was no match for an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, possessing only a body full of true energy.

At best, he could fight a draw against an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Now, facing a mid-stage expert, he was already in a sorry state after barely a dozen exchanges.

"Today, I'll use your head to decorate the threshold of my Hu Family home. From now on, every one of my descendants will step over your skull whenever they come and go!"

As his opponent's attacks grew more and more ferocious,

Li Dalong, whose technique had been chaotic, suddenly grew calmer and calmer. The Hu Family cultivator couldn't help but wonder, "You still dare fight back? Where did you get the nerve?"

Li Dalong bared his teeth.

"The Ancestor gave it to me!"

In an instant,

the Ancestral Tablet in Li Dalong's arms floated out and appeared before him!

"What kind of magical artifact is this?"

The mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert froze.

It looked like nothing more than a memorial tablet. Who would carry their ancestor's tablet into battle?

But then a terrifying sight unfolded before him!

The Ancestral Tablet split into ten, and each copy flew toward him before exploding!

Each blast was as powerful as a peak Qi Refining cultivator's attack. Even he had no choice but to defend himself.

The same thing happened to every Li Family descendant!

Xu Cuihua had been fighting a mid-stage Foundation Establishment expert. She, too, had never experienced a life-or-death battle, so she had been at a disadvantage.

But the Ancestral Tablet in her arms suddenly appeared and struck her opponent at a crucial moment!

Li Yaotie roamed the battlefield, hammer in hand.

He was a complete brute. Wherever he found a Qi Refining cultivator at his level, he charged. As long as no one stronger than him showed up, he would even dare charge into a crowd of a hundred.

An Ancestral Tablet appeared beside him as well, always killing the Qi Refining cultivators who tried to ambush him!

Compared to the rest of his family,

Li Yaoqing had it far easier. She sat atop a giant eagle at the peak of its strength, drawing her bow and shooting at the enemy.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator had even been pursuing her from behind, but he didn't dare get close. Li Yaoqing's poisonous powder kept drifting back toward him.

She was reaping lives, too.

"Hmph! You despicable Li Family cur! Do you think you can get away?"

The Foundation Establishment cultivator was so frantic he was ready to stamp his feet. At last, he used the secret Shift Shadow Technique to appear right in front of Li Yaoqing.

But she remained unfazed, calmly drawing her bow.

Then,

two Ancestral Tablets flew out from Li Yaoqing's arms and launched a deadly attack on the early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Her poison-coated arrows followed right behind them!

Across the battlefield,

one Ancestral Tablet after another rose into the air.

Even the two Wang Family Ancestors locked in fierce combat with the War Puppet had noticed.

"So they had a special treasure!"

The Wang Family Ancestor's Seal was still attacking Li Xiang, but he remained completely unflustered.

The Ancestral Tablets couldn't change the course of the battle. They had the numbers and the experts; as time passed, the scales of victory would tip in their favor!

"I admit we underestimated the Li Family. None of the families in Tailin Town could probably stand against you."

One of the Wang Family Ancestors laughed, trying to shake Li Xiang's resolve. "But your family is too foolish! You dared to enter the spider's web we had laid across Tailin Town all by yourselves. Your family is doomed to be wiped out today!"

Before the screen,

Li Xiang remained unmoved. He admitted that entering Tailin Town for this battle had been reckless, and that the fight had been difficult.

But...

He slowly tapped the map, checking on the one Li Family member who wasn't fighting. "It's all up to you. If you don't get here soon, I really won't be able to hold on!"

As his words fell,

figures suddenly appeared atop the rooftops of Tailin Town, running along the eaves and vaulting over the walls!

Several experts appeared in the sky above the battlefield, flying on their swords!

They rushed toward the battlefield and joined the Li Family's side!

A flying knife shot through the air. Though the Wang Family Ancestor dodged in time, his right arm was still sliced off.

The Wang Family Ancestors all turned to look behind them.

A middle-aged man in purple robes drew back the flying knife that had just severed the Wang Family Ancestor's arm!

"Su Yun, you wretch! What are you doing?!"

Watching the scene, Li Xiang let out a sigh of relief.

Far away, at the Su Family estate,

Li Yaowen was pushed forward by a maid. Sitting in her wheelchair, she wore a relaxed smile.

At her sides, the Su Family members charged out with weapons in hand!