Spiritual Power!

When he saw injustice on the road, he drew his blade to help—this was the first time Li Ye had encountered such a thing. Especially in Wuzhou City, who did not know the Li Family's might? The title of Wuzhou City's foremost lineage was absolutely not something they had bragged into existence!

"Brother, I appreciate your goodwill, but you don't seem to be from Wuzhou City. You should leave quickly! Otherwise, trouble will come knocking!"

Although the burly man had drawn his blade to help, Li Ye immediately urged him in a low voice. He did not want to drag anyone else into this. He knew very well what the Li Family represented in this tiny patch of Wuzhou City!

"Leave? Too late!"

A cold laugh rang out, followed by the sound of something slicing through the air. Then the crowd saw a middle-aged man in his forties land on the ground, his chilling gaze sweeping over Li Ye and the burly man.

When he saw Li Ye, a flicker of astonishment clearly appeared in the depths of his eyes.

"Third Uncle!"

The moment Li Yue saw the newcomer, he was overjoyed. At the same time, he bared his teeth at Li Ye in a cold sneer.

"This junior, Yu Wen Tianhua, pays respects to the Third Master of the Li Family!"

"This junior, Wu Wenhao, pays respects to the Third Master of the Li Family!"

Upon seeing the man, Yu Wen Tianhua and Wu Wenhao stepped forward at once. This man was none other than Li Huangran, currently third in rank within the Li Family!

"Hmph!" Li Huangran gave the two of them a haughty snort through his nose, his arrogance unmistakable. He looked over the situation, then turned a cold face on Li Ye and began berating him outright!

"Li Ye! As a member of the Lineage, what exactly are you doing? Joining hands with outsiders to bully your own brothers! Such monstrous defiance—are you trying to betray the Lineage? What a disappointment!"

Those words immediately sent Li Ye's already utterly chilled heart plunging into the abyss. Though he had long known these people were birds of a feather, he had still held onto a thread of hope, hoping they might remember the old days and spare a thought for that sliver of familial affection.

Who would have thought that the instant Li Huangran appeared, without distinguishing black from white or right from wrong, he would make trouble for him? This could no longer be explained away as favoritism. This was deliberate!

Li Ye even suspected that Li Huangran had been watching from the sidelines all along, only revealing himself now because he had noticed something was wrong and feared that Li Yue, that genius, might come to harm.

And indeed, it was exactly as Li Ye had guessed. Li Huangran had arrived long ago and had witnessed part of what happened. Though he was shocked that Li Ye, once a useless good-for-nothing, had turned over a new leaf and cultivated a Blood Soul, he had not been worried. Only just now, when he realized matters were slipping out of control, did he reveal himself!

"Third Uncle! Li Ye harbors evil intentions and even joined forces with outsiders in an attempt to assassinate me! I believe we should capture him at once and take him back to the Lineage for judgment!"

Li Huangran's arrival seemed to give Li Yue a pillar to lean on, and he immediately spoke from the side.

As for the others nearby who knew what had happened, none dared to speak. After all, the Li Family was not someone just anyone could afford to provoke. Besides, this was the Li Family's own domestic affair!

"Li Ye, what else do you have to say? Submit obediently and let yourself be captured. Return with me to the clan hall for trial!"

After saying that, without waiting for Li Ye to object, he struck out directly to seize him!

Li Huangran, the Li Family's third-ranked member! He was no one Li Yue could compare with. The instant he moved, the crowd gasped in amazement! The eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm! Even in all of Wuzhou City, he counted as one of the notable experts!

Li Ye did not offer a single defense from beginning to end, because he knew it would be useless. Li Huangran was clearly on Li Yue's side, so the moment he attacked, Li Ye turned and ran.

What a joke! He could barely withstand a few moves from Li Yue at the seventh level of the Spirit Martial Realm. Li Huangran at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm was simply not someone he could deal with right now!

"Trying to run? Stubborn beyond redemption!"

Seeing that Li Ye actually intended to flee, a chilling gleam flashed through Li Huangran's eyes. Like a ghost, he appeared directly in front of Li Ye. "Come back obediently to the clan hall with me! Otherwise, don't blame me for disregarding the bond between uncle and nephew!"

Li Huangran was the third-ranked member of the Li Family's current second generation, while Li Ye's father, Li Kainian, was second in rank within the Li Family. Strictly speaking, Li Huangran was indeed Li Ye's biological uncle!

But how could he possibly be treating Li Ye as his own nephew now? With a ferocious grin, he grabbed for Li Ye's shoulder.

Yet to his surprise, that grab missed. Li Ye's speed had completely exceeded his expectations, and Li Ye narrowly avoided the grasp by a hair's breadth!

"Oh? You have some skill! No wonder you dared to fight Yue'er! But you're still too green!"

Li Huangran's hand formed a claw, like an eagle's talon. Gusts of fierce wind whistled as he clamped down on Li Ye's right shoulder. "Stay!"

This was the Eagle Claw Technique that Li Huangran had made his name with over many years. Though it was only a Yellow Tier Mid-Grade Combat Technique, Li Huangran had practiced it for more than thirty years and was already incomparably proficient. In his hands, its power even surpassed that of an ordinary high-grade Yellow-tier battle technique!

"Li Huangran!"

But at that very instant, Li Huangran suddenly saw Li Ye's blood-red eyes. It was as though he had glimpsed a boundless sea of blood, and his mind was instantly sucked into it. Then a stab of pain jolted his consciousness, allowing him to break free from that strange state at once.

But by then, Li Ye had already escaped his control. His figure flickered repeatedly, and he was already thirty feet away.

"Third Uncle, be careful! This kid knows demonic arts!"

Li Yue hurriedly shouted from the side. He had fallen for that trick earlier, and he had not expected even Li Huangran, at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm, to be affected. Though it had only lasted an instant, in many situations, that brief instant was enough to determine everything!

Li Ye himself felt somewhat vexed. He had used the Blood-Eyed Illusion almost instinctively just now, without thinking of anything else. He had not expected it to work. Unfortunately, his strength was still too low. Otherwise, in that moment when Li Huangran lost focus, he could have dealt him a heavy blow!

"Evil Outer Dao! It seems you have cultivated an evil art!"

His old face flushing red before turning iron-blue, Li Huangran flew into a rage. At last, he no longer held back. The powerful aura of the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm burst forth directly, making people feel as though they could barely breathe.

"What a terrifying aura! The eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm is actually so much more frightening than the seventh!"

The surrounding people had long since retreated far away, though a few bold souls with exceptional skill remained to see how things would turn out.

Just then, a clear, ringing voice sounded. "Third Master of the Li Family, I never expected the dignified Third Master of the Li Family to make a move against a junior. You have truly broadened our horizons!"

Then the crowd saw the burly man who had stopped Li Yue earlier appear directly before Li Huangran. He laughed heartily and said, "Then let this junior experience Senior's prowess!"

Without waiting for Li Huangran to reply, he threw a punch! There was no Combat Technique to speak of in that strike, yet it made Li Huangran's expression change slightly, because he discovered that this fellow who had appeared out of nowhere possessed strength hardly inferior to his own!

Boom!

The two exchanged a move and each retreated. However, the burly man took several more steps back, clearly losing by a slight margin in raw strength. But he had not used a Combat Technique, while Li Huangran had immersed himself in the Eagle Claw Technique for nearly thirty years.

Together with the difference in their ages, the burly man's strength was immediately made apparent!

"Who are you? How dare you interfere even in my Li Family's private affairs!"

Li Huangran shouted in a deep voice, his thoughts racing. This man is not old, yet his cultivation is nearly on par with mine. He looks reckless and crude, but his attacks are seasoned. He is definitely not of ordinary origin!

With that assessment in mind, he no longer rushed to attack.

"I, Xiao Qing, have always loved meddling in other people's business. Especially when I see shameless old men like you, my anger shoots straight to the roof! If you have the ability, don't interfere—let the juniors settle their own conflict. What kind of man are you, an old fossil, to make a move? Don't glare at me! Your Li Family might lord it over Wuzhou City, but this is nothing more than some backwater place. I don't even put it in my eyes!"

Even Li Ye did not know whether to laugh or cry at that. This man was helping him, yet his words blasted everything on the map. Not only did he drag the Li Family into it, but it was as if he had looked down on everyone in all of Wuzhou City.

Sure enough, many of the people around them immediately glared at him in anger.

"You insolent brat!"

As expected, Li Huangran roared in fury. The burly man calling himself Xiao Qing showed no fear at all, and the two began fighting once more.

But Li Ye turned his attention to Li Yue, that cousin who had repeatedly insulted both him and his father, Li Kainian!

"Looks like that old fool Li Huangran can't spare attention for you for the moment!"

"Li Ye! Hmph! Even without Third Uncle acting, I can easily deal with you! Don't forget, if that outsider hadn't interfered just now, you would already have died by my hand!"

That was not untrue. Li Ye truly was no match for Li Yue right now. But Li Ye discovered that he had overlooked one of his two greatest talents as a Vampire: bloodline illusion!

With the illusion-enhancing effects of the Dream Heart Sutra left behind by Li Kainian, even an expert like Li Huangran at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm had fallen victim to it. Someone like Li Yue, at the seventh level of the Spirit Martial Realm and weaker by far more than a notch, simply could not resist it!

"Profound Yin Palm!"

Li Yue chopped out with a palm, his hand seeming to be covered in a thick layer of frost. With vicious intent, he attacked Li Ye's left arm directly, clearly intending to exploit the injury Li Ye's left arm had sustained earlier.

But he did not know that Li Ye's physique had long surpassed that of ordinary people. Vampires were known as the undying nobles of the night! Though not truly immortal, such an injury had already recovered in a short time!

"Blood-Eyed Illusion! First layer of the Dream Heart Sutra, Dream-Making!"

Li Ye was absolutely no match for him head-on, but his greatest ability now revealed itself.

His eyes instantly became like a sea of blood, and powerful Spiritual Power invaded Li Yue's eyes directly before pressing into the soul within his sea of consciousness.

The Blood-Eyed Illusion and the Dream Heart Sutra were, in truth, both forms of cultivating and using Spiritual Power. Everyone possessed Spiritual Power, but ordinary people could scarcely sense it, and they had pitifully little of it. Yet some extraordinarily gifted people possessed several, even dozens of times more than ordinary people, while Vampires were the finest among them. Li Ye had never calculated it, but he felt that compared with ordinary people, his Spiritual Power exceeded theirs by at least several hundred times!

That was why even Li Huangran at the eighth level of the Spirit Martial Realm had fallen for it!

Of course, the higher a martial cultivator's realm, the more their Spiritual Power would increase accordingly. Unfortunately, they simply did not know how to use it!