Three days later, morning dew rolled down Magnolia Flower petals in the courtyard of the Spirit Hall Branch in Heaven Dou City.
Xiao Wu’s Mother braced herself against a veranda pillar and slowly straightened. The wound on her shoulder, once wreathed in dark blue evil energy, had scabbed over, and pale pink soul power flowed steadily beneath her skin.
Qian Daoliu had cleansed it with divine power every day. Though the evil energy had not been completely eradicated, it no longer hindered her movements.
"We can set out now."
Qian Daoliu stood at the courtyard gate, his pale golden hair glowing softly in the morning light. Behind him, Golden Crocodile, Guang Ling, and Jiang Mo were ready to depart. Their soul power fluctuations were restrained like the depths of an abyss, yet radiated an undeniable pressure.
Bibi Dong helped Xiao Wu’s Mother into the carriage. Xiao Wu, the Soft Bone Rabbit, nestled in her mother's arms, her ruby-like eyes curiously studying the scenery outside the window.
"Are there soul masters like Yu Xiaogang living where we're going?"
She asked softly.
Bibi Dong traced the silver patterns on the carriage curtain with her fingertips, her voice turning colder:
"It's his clan-the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. Yu Xiaogang didn't just steal Spirit Hall's secrets..."
Xiao Wu’s Mother gently stroked her daughter's fur, conflicting emotions in her eyes:
"Are all human clans... like this?"
"Not all of them."
Qian Daoliu's voice came from ahead as the carriage slowly began to move,
"But those who do wrong must always pay the price."
The convoy traveled northwest. The closer they drew to the Icebound Mountains, the more biting the air became.
A day later, an unbroken range of snowy peaks rose along the horizon. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's mountain gate lay hidden in a valley embraced by ice and snow. Black stone walls had been built against the mountainside, and enormous dragon heads carved into the cliffs were faintly visible.
The cold winds of the Icebound Mountains swept up powdery snow and battered the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's bluestone gatehouse with a mournful howl.
Qian Daoliu and his companions approached through the thin snow, the hems of their golden robes fluttering in the wind.
Behind him, the soul power fluctuations radiating from the three Enshrinements-Golden Crocodile, Guang Ling, and Jiang Mo-were like invisible mountains, their pressure making even the snow before the mountain gate seem frozen in place.
"Whoa-"
The carriage stopped a hundred meters from the mountain gate. Jiang Mo was the first to leap down. He slammed his Coiling Dragon Staff against the frozen earth, and a three-foot blaze of energy surged from its black-and-gold shaft:
"Yu Yuanzhen, you old mud loach! Get your ass out here!"
His voice crashed into the mountain gate like thunder, shaking loose showers of snow.
"After all the food your son Yu Xiaogang ate at Spirit Hall, he still dared steal the fruits of our predecessors' painstaking work from our Library Pavilion! He even leaked my eldest brother's identity, leading Chen Jianjun to challenge him! Unless you hand him over today or produce some decent 'tuition fees,' the signboard of your Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan might be getting a new look!"
The disciples on the mountain immediately stirred, and several figures hurried deeper into the clan grounds.
His words had barely faded when a savage dragon roar erupted from beyond the mountain gate. Purple-black lightning shot into the sky like giant pythons, and level 94 soul power pressure swept toward them like raging waves.
"Who dares run wild in my Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan!"
Moments later, a group of soul masters in blue martial attire strode through the massive mountain gate, surrounding a man in purple robes-Yu Yuanzhen, the master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
Yu Yuanzhen's beard and hair bristled, blue-purple electricity crackling around him,
But when his gaze swept over Qian Daoliu and Golden Crocodile before the carriage, his pupils abruptly contracted, and his arrogant bluster vanished in an instant.
He remembered accompanying his father to pay homage at Spirit Hall as a child. Even then, Qian Daoliu had been like the sun at its zenith, while Golden Crocodile had awed the soul master world with his peak level 98 strength. Even his father had treated these two with the utmost reverence.
"So it is you two seniors."
Yu Yuanzhen forcibly suppressed the alarm in his heart and cupped his hands,
"I did not know you would honor us with your presence, and failed to come out to welcome you. However, this gentleman's words..."
"What about my words?"
Jiang Mo stepped forward and spun the Coiling Dragon Staff in his palm, its black-and-gold afterimages almost merging into an unbroken blur,
"Your son Yu Xiaogang stole from Spirit Hall's Library Pavilion and incited an outsider to challenge the Great Enshrined. Shouldn't that debt be settled?"
Yu Yuanzhen's expression darkened:
"My unworthy son has acted improperly. I will discipline him myself. Spirit Hall need not trouble itself."
"Trouble ourselves?"
Jiang Mo scoffed. His soul power erupted, his level 96 aura colliding with Yu Yuanzhen's pressure and stirring up a sky full of snowy mist,
"You'll discipline him? Teach him how to go from bad to worse, or teach him to steal secret manuals from the Clear Sky Sect next time?"
"Insolence!"
Stung where it hurt, Yu Yuanzhen unleashed a surge of electricity. The phantom of a blue-purple tyrant dragon appeared behind him,
Nine soul rings-two yellow, two purple, and five black-suddenly blazed to life,
"Do you really think my Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan is so easily bullied?"
"Try me and find out!"
Rather than retreating, Jiang Mo advanced. His nine soul rings appeared—Two Purple, Seven Black. Yu Yuanzhen was too furious to notice, but the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's disciples saw them.
The Coiling Dragon Staff swept out in a halo of black-and-gold light. Before the wind of its swing even arrived, several deep gouges had already torn through the ground.
"Arrogant fool!"
Yu Yuanzhen roared,
First Soul Skill: Thunder Dragon Claw!
A blue-purple dragon claw wreathed in electrical currents seized at the staff.
Clang-
The deafening clash of metal rang out. Yu Yuanzhen felt an immense force travel up his arm, forcing him several steps backward and leaving his palm numb.
He stared at Jiang Mo in horror. This seemingly rough-hewn Enshrinement possessed such terrifying strength!
Before he could regain his footing, Jiang Mo closed in. The Coiling Dragon Staff darted like a nimble snake leaving its den, sometimes becoming a sky full of staff shadows that sealed off every retreat, sometimes gathering into a single point aimed straight at a vital spot.
Yu Yuanzhen drove his soul power to its limit. The tyrant dragon phantom roared as it unleashed soul skills such as Thunderous Might and Dragon's Wrath,
Yet Jiang Mo's staff techniques kept him trapped within a tiny patch of ground. The blue-purple lightning was scattered again and again by black-and-gold staff shadows, and even his robe had been torn in several places by the wind of the blows.
"Yu Yuanzhen, is that all you've got?"
Jiang Mo's voice carried through the fierce wind,
"Back then, even your father had to bow his head before my eldest brother, yet you dare put on airs here?"
Shocked and furious, Yu Yuanzhen lit up his seventh and ninth soul rings. He activated his Martial Soul Avatar, transforming into a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon more than ten meters long, its Thunder power almost tearing the air apart.
But Jiang Mo merely sneered and activated his seventh soul skill, Coiling Dragon Avatar, at the same time. A gigantic black-and-gold dragon phantom merged with the staff. One blow crashed onto the dragon's head, brutally sending the enormous lightning dragon stumbling backward and even cracking one of its horns.
"Father!"
A startled cry came from the mountain. Several young disciples tried to rush down, only to freeze in place beneath a cold glance from Golden Crocodile.
Qian Daoliu had stood with his hands behind his back throughout. Watching the utterly overwhelmed Yu Yuanzhen, he spoke calmly:
"Sect Master Yu, let us end this spar here. We did not come to destroy your clan, only to demand an explanation."
At his words, Jiang Mo withdrew his staff and stood still, the black-and-gold blaze of energy slowly subsiding.
Yu Yuanzhen released his Martial Soul Avatar. Pale-faced, he clutched his chest and looked at Qian Daoliu with both apprehension and resentment:
"What explanation does Enshrinement Qian want?"
Qian Daoliu raised his eyes toward the mountain gate covered in carved dragon heads, his voice carrying clearly throughout the valley:
"How does your Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan intend to compensate us for these?"
A wisp of holy soul power gathered at his fingertip, forming images in the air of the books Yu Xiaogang had studied in the Library Pavilion all those years ago...
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