Li Yunlin headed toward the sect's grand palaces and pavilions.
Though he had broken through to Foundation Establishment, he still showed no joy. His handsome face was especially calm, as if nothing had happened over the past twelve years—as gentle and composed as a gentleman orchid.
"As expected of my descendant. He's even steadier than Yaozu. That temperament of his takes after me."
Li Xiang was deeply comforted. He had agreed to let Li Yunlin venture into the Litian Sect back then, and had watched him run into one obstacle after another.
At last, the clouds had parted to reveal the moon!
[You used 'Love from the Ancestor' on Li Yunlin, consuming 20 Incense points!]
Li Xiang used the Level 2 skill without hesitation.
"Ancestor!"
After receiving his ancestor's blessing again, so many years later, even the usually composed Li Yunlin couldn't help but feel his throat tighten. He drew the ancestral tablet from his robes, set it before him, and bowed. "After seven years of arduous cultivation, not only did I break through with Master's Spirit Pool, but once I break through to Golden Core Stage, I'll be able to find a way to break the sect's restrictions!"
"The Litian Secret Canon, passed down by the Litian Sect for thousands of years, will belong to my Li Family!"
At his words, Li Xiang's expression grew even gentler.
He remembered how, when Li Yunlin had insisted on coming to the Litian Sect, Li Yaoqing had worried he would forget his original purpose. Yet Li Yunlin had never changed!
It was just...
"My child, your ancestor has already claimed the Litian Secret Canon. Your thoughtfulness... I appreciate it."
Li Xiang sent him another dose of warmth.
Soon, Li Yunlin rose to his feet.
With time flowing faster, Li Yunlin had already arrived outside a magnificent palace.
Many people dressed in the same white disciple robes as Li Yunlin stood in a square formation. In the center was a spacious, raised square arena, with a barrier of light stretching from its edges up into the clouds.
Eight cultivators fought within it, while an elder stood to the side, acting as judge.
[The Litian Sect is holding its once-in-a-decade Outer Sect Martial Tournament, allowing the elders to assess their disciples' potential and choose apprentices!]
"What's he here to do?"
Li Xiang furrowed his brow. Thinking of how Li Yunlin's master had died a miserable death outside the sect, and how Li Yunlin had been suppressed as soon as he returned, Li Xiang silently moved his cursor over to the Ancestral Tablet.
"Twelve years of cultivating his heart would smooth even Patrick Star's rough edges. Yunlin probably won't act rashly."
Seeing the calm look in Li Yunlin's eyes, Li Xiang chose to trust his descendant this time.
Still, to be safe, he had to remain ready to use the Ancestral Tablet at any moment.
"Go ahead and do what you need to do. Your ancestor's still standing strong!"
Li Yunlin stroked the Ancestral Tablet in his arms.
Given the occasion and what he intended to do, only his ancestor could ease his nerves.
Then,
Li Yunlin looked around. The Litian Sect's martial tournament was underway, with the sect master seated before the main hall and elders gathered all around.
The scene was lively, but he stood apart from it all.
Suddenly, he remembered the day thirteen years ago when his master had brought him to the Litian Sect. His master had treated him well, teaching him nearly everything he knew. Though Li Yunlin's three spiritual roots made him only average after joining the Litian Sect, his master had said that his temperament made him the perfect successor to the Nine Spirit Strange Fire.
A person's aptitude could change, but their nature was their foundation.
Only now did Li Yunlin understand: perhaps his master had already known that the battle against the Xuanwu Sect would be a fight to the death.
"Master was right."
"The blood of the Li Family flows through me. I'll be a member of the Li Family for as long as I live."
"I received my master's kindness and teachings. I must protect his legacy. Anyone who tries to destroy my master's inheritance—"
"Die!!!"
The words before that had been murmured under his breath. But when he reached the word "Die," Li Yunlin shouted it aloud, his face twisted with fury!
The Spirit Breath Flying Sword his father had given him thirteen years ago shot forth.
Under everyone's gaze,
the Spirit Breath Flying Sword flew straight toward a Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator watching from the edge of the arena.
In that instant,
nine palm-sized Flame Golden Lotuses appeared around him. Their flames roared with fury, heating the air within ten meters until it was scorching.
"Who's that madman? He dares attack right in front of the sect master and the elders? Has he lost his mind?!"
"I know him. He's Li Yunlin, the disciple Elder Huo Lin brought back more than a decade ago. Tsk... The one he's attacking seems to be his best friend, Su Cheng, an inner sect disciple. I heard Su Cheng was the one who told Li Yunlin where to find Elder Huo Lin's body back then. This is biting the hand that fed him."
"Hey, where are you going...? What? You want to help Su Cheng and make a good impression on the sect master? Wake up. If the sect master weren't holding Li Yunlin back, do you think he'd make it ten steps?"
A strange scene unfolded.
Li Yunlin had disrupted the Litian Sect's extremely important tournament, yet not a single person dared block his way. Such a thing had never happened in the more than ten thousand years since the sect's founding!
Li Yunlin and Su Cheng were already fighting.
Su Cheng was extraordinary, and had likely been stuck at Foundation Establishment Early Stage for many years. His techniques were dazzling.
He must have cultivated puppet arts. He summoned the Twelve Bronze Men from his Storage Ring and formed them into a formation, then used the Thunder-Invoking Golden Scripture: Human Character Formula—a technique cultivated by the Li Family—to summon Heavenly Thunder.
Twelve bolts of thunder struck the bronze men, then coursed through the formation and attacked Li Yunlin.
And that wasn't all.
A hundred flying swords shot from his Storage Ring and gathered above Li Yunlin, forming a giant sword that plunged down, its sharp edge aimed straight at him.
Su Cheng had opened with a killing move and said not a word. He must have realized that something was amiss: Li Yunlin was acting so brazenly, yet no one had come to his aid. This fight could only end in life or death—and Li Yunlin had to die quickly!
"Impressive."
Li Xiang remained calm as he praised Su Cheng, who was fighting Li Yunlin.
The scene showed
the Heavenly Thunder channeled through the Twelve Bronze Men's formation crashing toward Li Yunlin. By rights, thunder should have been a level above fire in power. The game's visuals bore that out, too: the flames bursting out in all directions from Li Yunlin couldn't devour the lightning. Bolts arced from the formation on the ground and surged toward him.
It seemed they had already paralyzed Li Yunlin.
The blade was over his head, plunging down at incredible speed. Li Yunlin could only serve as its target.
But Su Cheng, who had clearly been about to kill Li Yunlin, suddenly widened his eyes, as if he'd seen the King of Hell!
The Heavenly Thunder passed straight through Li Yunlin's body, leaving only a streak of flame across him. The blade from above split him in two, yet no spray of blood and flesh followed.
The blade split into a hundred swords, weaving in and out through Li Yunlin's body with a constant metallic clatter.
The flames around Li Yunlin scattered, only to quickly take the shape of his body once more.
At that moment, Li Yunlin was fire itself!
Li Yunlin reached Su Cheng.
Every disciple at the martial tournament watched in terror as Li Yunlin withdrew the Nine Fire Lotuses, took up his sword with his true flesh-and-blood body, and gave Su Cheng a swift death!
At that moment,
the Litian Sect fell utterly silent!
But Li Yunlin wasn't finished.
Under everyone's gaze,
he picked up the Spirit Breath Sword from the ground without the slightest hesitation, collected the magical artifacts on Su Cheng's body, and put them in his Storage Ring. Then, as if nothing had happened, he stood there and got dressed. His original outfit had long since been destroyed. Only then did he stroll forward.
When he reached the main hall, he calmly bowed to the sect master and the elders on the steps.
"Reporting to the sect master: this disciple, Li Yunlin, was too eager to purge a traitor from the sect and disturbed all of you. I ask the sect master to forgive me!"
"Hmph."
The Litian Sect's sect master looked young. His name was Daoist Zhenyang, and he wore white robes embroidered with cloud patterns. He sat with his legs spread wide, yet though he gave a cold snort, his voice was gentle. He hardly seemed angry at all. "Why did you kill him?"
Only then did Li Yunlin recount what had happened all those years ago.
As it turned out, after Elder Huo Lin died, the Spirit Fire Peak where Li Yunlin lived had been taken over by Su Cheng's master!
Afterward,
Su Cheng had pretended to be Li Yunlin's friend, hoping to learn the whereabouts of Elder Huo Lin's spiritual treasure, the Nine Spirit Strange Fire. In the end, Li Yunlin had kept his lips sealed. Since all the sect's disciples had restrictions on them, anyone who killed a fellow disciple would bear a sigil. So Su Cheng had deliberately revealed where Elder Huo Lin's body lay.
Then he had tried to join forces with disciples from the Xuanwu Sect and force Li Yunlin to reveal the whereabouts of the Nine Spirit Strange Fire.
But he had never expected that Li Yunlin's master had left him a fragment of divine consciousness!
And that was how things had unfolded.
"This disciple spent five years at the Cliff of Reflection tempering his heart!"
"For seven years, I blended into the crowd. The Nine Spirit Strange Fire has long since entered my dantian, bound to my soul. The Heavenly Pool Spirit Spring my master left behind tempered my body. Before the age of thirty, I reached Foundation Establishment—and gained dual spiritual roots!"
"By killing this villain, Su Cheng, I've upheld my master's memory and purged a traitor from the Litian Sect."
"If the sect master gives the word, I'm ready to die and report to my master!"
At these words, seeing Li Yunlin's resolute expression, the elders grew anxious.
One after another, they pleaded with Daoist Zhenyang.
"Sect master, Li Yunlin may be bold, but Elder Huo Lin rendered great service to the sect. How can we kill his only disciple?"
"That's right. Besides, how can young people not be hot-blooded? Yunlin only wanted to purge a villain from the sect."
"If we kill a disciple this loyal, we'll break the sect's heart, sect master."
Watching those elders—whose ages he couldn't even guess—plead in the game, Li Xiang's mouth twitched.
"Fine, fine. So this is how everyone's playing it?"
He'd seen through Li Yunlin's intentions long ago, which was why he'd never been worried!
Li Yunlin had even chosen to kill Su Cheng specifically because of today's martial tournament.
After all,
cultivators had lifespans. A Foundation Establishment cultivator with a spiritual elixir lived only a little over two hundred years. Golden Core experts lived five hundred years. Those who reached Nascent Soul lived two thousand!
Yet breakthroughs in cultivation were far from easy. Otherwise, they wouldn't have seen so many False Core cultivators during the battles in the Silver Iron Forest and Tailin Town.
Thus,
whenever a cultivator of exceptional talent appeared, a family or sect would treasure them as if they were rare jewels, never allowing the slightest harm to come to them!
Now Li Yunlin was not yet thirty and had already broken through to Foundation Establishment. He'd also shown off his abilities and his exceptional nature.
Could the Litian Sect's elders—or even its sect master—really bear to kill him?
Especially...
Li Xiang searched through the event log for the notification from when Li Yunlin had broken through.
[Your descendant bathed in the Heavenly Pool Spirit Spring and used it to break through to Foundation Establishment, retaining only his metal and fire spiritual roots!]
[Heavenly Pool Spirit Spring: Elder Huo Lin was nearing the end of his lifespan, and spent a hundred years gathering spiritual liquid from heavenly treasures. When the time came to break through to Foundation Establishment, the liquid cleansed his body and marrow, washing away a large amount of impurities from his dantian and qi sea!]
[Li Yunlin's metal and fire spiritual roots: breakthrough chance increased by 85 points!]
At twenty-nine, with Foundation Establishment and a perfectly balanced pair of spiritual roots, he was already a rare genius. He was sure to reach Golden Core before the end of his lifespan!
[Your descendant, Li Yunlin, obtained a spiritual treasure, the Nine Spirit Strange Fire. He took it into himself, and his body became flame. As long as the lotus fire burns, his body cannot perish!]
[Nine Spirit Strange Fire: nine lotus flames that can be nourished with true qi and forged with the power of a Golden Core.]
This spiritual treasure alone was comparable to a top-grade Spirit Artifact, and it had become one with Li Yunlin.
With the right opportunity, Li Yunlin might even reach Nascent Soul.
That was the trump card that gave Li Yunlin the nerve to raise hell at the martial tournament!
And that wasn't all.
Li Yunlin had done this deliberately to show everyone in the Litian Sect that he was now its greatest treasure!
He had done it for Su Cheng's master, too.
Only by killing Su Cheng in front of everyone would those old men—who wanted nothing more than to coddle Li Yunlin—become wary of Su Cheng's master!
Forget whether Su Cheng's master would dare touch him on his disciple's behalf. If Li Yunlin tripped in the street, they'd probably suspect Su Cheng's master.
Sure enough,
amid the elders' pleas, Daoist Zhenyang glanced at Su Cheng's master. "Elder Qiu Ye, what do you think? Should we kill this boy?"
Elder Qiu Ye looked middle-aged and honest, the sort of man who seemed simple and sincere at first glance.
He forced a smile. "Sect master, absolutely not. Ah, one of my disciples turned out to be a villain. Nephew Yunlin did me a favor by cleaning house."
"Hmph. Whatever his motives, killing someone in front of everyone is a heinous crime. How could this sect possibly let him off?"
Daoist Zhenyang gave a cold snort and gazed at Li Yunlin with icy eyes.
"However, the death penalty can be spared, but you won't escape punishment. This sect sentences you to face the wall at the Cliff of Reflection."
"Five days!"
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