Competing in Backing

"Who might you be? I am Changli Jinxi, head of the Changli Clan of the Heaven Domain." Changli Jinxi cupped his hands.

The figure before him was merely a phantom, yet the pressure it gave him was even stronger than that of his ancestor. It was utterly terrifying. At the very least, he was at the peak of the Lesser Saint realm.

Among Saints, even a ten-percent difference in mastery over the power of laws was a chasm between heaven and earth. However, Saints possessed tenacious life force. Even if they could not win, they could still run—though whether they could actually escape was another matter.

A Saint's phantom could manifest through the power of laws. Although its strength fell short of the true body, the gap would not be too great.

"You are not qualified to know my name yet." Jiang Lingtian spoke calmly. "I heard you wanted to teach my son a lesson in my stead?"

"Senior, your esteemed son struck ruthlessly and destroyed my son's physical body. This truly is..." Changli Jinxi said.

"So what? If you're weak, train more. If you can't win, don't fight. If you brought this beating upon yourself, then you deserved it. At your age, you should be capable of bearing the consequences." Jiang Lingtian said.

"Since that is the case, then I shall take my leave first."

"Did I say you could leave?" Jiang Lingtian glanced sideways.

"Does Senior intend to wipe us out completely?" Changli Jinxi asked through gritted teeth.

Gusu Zhouling, hiding off to one side, broke out in cold sweat. It seemed even Changli Jinxi could not handle this. If they were wiped out completely, he would be finished too.

"Ancestor, save me!" Gusu Zhouling kept chanting silently.

"Ling'er, what happened?"

Gusu Zhouling roughly explained what had happened. It seemed that a Saint had intervened.

"Hmph! Since this entire family is so bent on killing, there is no need to be polite. Kill them on the spot!" As he spoke, the phantom of the Gusu ancestor appeared.

"Oh? Another one? Are there any more?" Jiang Lingtian smiled faintly.

"Arrogant! You and I are both Saints, yet you dare speak such wild words!" The Gusu ancestor had not broken through to the Saint Realm long ago. The immense power had made him lose himself, sink into indulgence, and feel invincible beneath heaven!

At this moment, Changli Jinxi also summoned his own ancestor. Seeing that they outnumbered their opponent, the Changli ancestor did not back down either.

"You truly taught a fine son. Since you do not know how to teach him, let us help you teach him!" The Changli ancestor laughed loudly. Two Saints and one at the Ninth Layer of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm—he could not imagine how they could lose.

"Any more?" Jiang Lingtian asked blandly.

"Arrogant! I would like to see what strength you possess!" With his two Saint ancestors present, Changli Jinxi no longer feared anything. Jinxi took the lead and attacked!

"Heh heh." Jiang Lingtian laughed disdainfully.

Before Changli Jinxi could even touch Jiang Lingtian, an indescribably immense force scattered his phantom.

"Old Changli, this opponent is rather troublesome. Let's attack together!" The Gusu ancestor had no interest in playing the righteous man and fighting a one-on-one duel.

Putting aside whether they could win or not, since they had the numbers, why gang up when they could duel alone? Was that not simply wasting effort?

The Changli ancestor had also fought and killed his way to sainthood. After a brief consideration, he nodded and agreed to the Gusu ancestor's strategy.

Two powers of law pressed down upon Jiang Lingtian at once. One had to know that, with the Jiang Clan's methods, Jiang Lingtian was no ordinary Saint. He had completely mastered a law, surpassing even a Greater Saint and becoming a genuine peak Saint.

If the Emperor's Path had not been severed, he would only need the Heavenly Dao's bestowal to become a Great Emperor!

Jiang Lingtian narrowed his eyes, and a sharp intent spread through the air.

He raised his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, used his fingers as a spear, and casually pointed.

Yes, what Jiang Lingtian cultivated was the Spear Dao, and he had completely mastered the laws of the Spear Dao. If he wished it, others would not even be qualified to embark upon the Spear Dao. They simply could not comprehend so-called spear intent. Whenever someone practiced the spear, it would instead grant Jiang Lingtian new insights.

Jiang Lingtian's casual strike created an invisible rift, making Jiang Ming feel as though heaven and earth themselves had been pierced through.

Only then did Jiang Ming realize that this was probably nothing more than an ordinary spear gleam.

The overwhelming, surging might of the two ancestors rapidly shattered beneath the spear gleam. The spear gleam encountered no obstruction whatsoever and drifted lightly onward, slashing toward the two ancestors.

The two ancestors seemed not to have reacted at all. Their phantoms shattered and vanished.

"These fools dared to fight in the False Spirit Realm. Were they trying to destroy my son's travel destination?" Jiang Lingtian said. "Fortunately, I stabilized this False Spirit Realm from the start. Are you alright, son?"

Seeing the expression on Jiang Lingtian's face practically begging for praise, Jiang Ming fell silent for a moment. "Impressive!"

Jiang Lingtian waved his hand, his face full of smiles. "Haha, just so-so. By the way, son, when are you coming home? Your mother talks about you every day."

"After a while." Jiang Ming said. He wanted to go home too, and while he was at it, see the several maidservants. Next time he went out, he should bring more things with him. He even had to deal with enemies himself, and the key was that they were all minor trash. There was no thrill of battle at all—what a waste of time.

"That works too." Jiang Lingtian nodded. "I'll leave these two for you to handle. You don't need to worry about the clans."

"Mm." Jiang Ming nodded.

"I'm leaving, son!" Jiang Lingtian waved and disappeared.

Jiang Ming stroked his chin. His father had indeed been watching him all along. Fortunately, he had not gone too far. He wondered what they had been thinking.

He understood very clearly that although he was an Imperial Son, it was all given to him by his father and the others. Before he knew their bottom line, he still could not act too recklessly. After all, he did not yet know the situation within the clan. If some other elders or ancestors took a dislike to him, and his father could not protect him, he would be finished.

Shaking his head, he stopped thinking about it. He was still young—what could he do now? He would deal with it later.

"Well, well! Isn't this Chang Litian? We haven't seen each other for a moment, and you're already this miserable?" Jiang Ming laughed as he reached out and grabbed Chang Litian's Nascent Soul.

Chang Litian's face was filled with terror. He had never expected even his own ancestor to be unable to protect him. He had merely taken a fancy to a maidservant.

"Oh! Brother Gusu is here too. Why aren't you running?" Jiang Ming looked toward Gusu Zhouling beside him with a smile.

"Heh heh." Gusu Zhouling's smile was somewhat forced. "Big Brother, you must be joking. I only did this for Big Brother's own good."

When Jiang Lingtian had left, he had incidentally crippled him as well. He now had no spiritual power at all and could not even run.

"When you're out in the world, you still have to talk about backing. If you have no backing, don't mess around!" Jiang Ming raised a brow and flicked his finger. A tiny flame drifted onto Gusu Zhouling's foot, then began to burn.

"Ah!" Feeling the flames scorch him, Gusu Zhouling could not help crying out. "Big Brother, spare me! Big Brother, spare me!"

Jiang Ming found it rather boring and no longer wished to play with them. He casually crushed Chang Litian's Nascent Soul, then turned and left.

As for the miserable Gusu Zhouling, he was burned inch by inch by Sunfire—starting from his feet, then his calves, thighs, buttocks, waist, chest, shoulders, arms, and head. Gradually, he became a human-shaped pile of black ash upon the ground, scattering with a single gust of wind.

"Young Master!" Zhang Lingyue happily stepped forward when she saw Jiang Ming return.

"Brother Ming, where are they?" Chen Xuanjia asked curiously.

"Dead." Jiang Ming said flatly.

"Dead?" Chen Xuanjia's eyes widened in disbelief.

Jiang Ming did not say much. It was only a trivial matter. He had discovered something far more important.