Wandering Yi Void Steps

Li Yu rose without betraying anything. As he disembarked, his gaze shifted toward the person seated in the corner on the right.

He realized this was the last person to have boarded. His face was ordinary, the sort one would overlook after a glance and immediately forget.

But that impression felt very wrong. Since the outer disciples of Hanging Moon Peak relied entirely on self-study, Li Yu had deliberately strengthened his memory. However inconspicuous a person, passage of text, or object might be, anything he saw would leave an impression in his mind.

Who could it be?

Li Yu thought back over his enemies. During his forty years of cultivation on Hanging Moon Peak, he had settled almost every grudge on the spot. Only those whose strength rivaled his own, such as Ying Ruomu, Zeng Yang, and Yin Ya, remained.

Was it Ying Ruomu? But it seemed he had only just learned I was coming here.

Then was it Zeng Yang?

Li Yu had previously asked Yin Ya to deal with Wang Xiang, which had dealt Zeng Yang a humiliating blow. Afterward, he had even taken Yin Ya to meet Ge Jin, seriously threatening Zeng Yang's coveted position as senior brother of the outer disciples.

Add in the grudges that had accumulated between them in everyday life, and Zeng Yang was the most likely person to make a move against Li Yu.

At that thought, Li Yu felt somewhat reassured.

After all, Zeng Yang himself was only at the ninth level of Qi Refinement. Any underlings he could recruit would surely have lower cultivation than his own.

And thanks to the Purple Glow Art, Li Yu's injuries had already healed. Although the portion of his true essence foundation he had severed had not yet recovered, the spells and combat experience he had accumulated over forty years were solid and real.

If Zeng Yang came in person, the outcome would be uncertain. If it was merely an underling, however, Li Yu did not believe the man could be his match.

Still, to be cautious, Li Yu hooked his right little finger around a talisman concealed inside his sleeve.

He had bought it on the main peak for ten spirit stones. It was a "Yi Firmament Lightning Talisman," from the same lineage as his cultivation method.

At the same time, his divine sense drove the true essence in his dantian throughout his body. His footsteps grew light and nimble, as though he were a drifting cloud. Avoiding the crowded harbor, he headed toward bustling Haо City at the foot of the mountain.

This was the movement technique paired with the Taiyi Scripture: "Wandering Yi Void Steps."

It could be practiced as soon as one gained an initial grasp of the cultivation method. In its early stages, it allowed only short-range evasive movements, making the practitioner's position elusive and preventing enemy spells from locking on.

Once one's cultivation grew profound, however, this movement technique could condense a phantom double. Beyond taking blows and evading attacks, it possessed the power of a single strike from the original body, making it difficult for opponents to distinguish the real from the illusory.

More than a century ago, Jiang Taiyi, then in the Nascent Soul Realm, had used it to evade Emperor Tianwu's sword strike across the distance, winning great renown.

After reading the Taiyi True Explanation, however, Li Yu had learned that "Wandering Yi Void Steps" was a divine ability from the Taiyi Divine Chapter. Cultivated to its utmost, it could create an incarnation outside the body, free of all restraints.

And it was not just "Wandering Yi Void Steps," but also "Subtle Yi Qi Control," "Taiyi Starlight," and "Yi Firmament Mystic Lightning."

Jiang Taiyi had translated all four spells in the Taiyi Scripture from the Taiyi Divine Chapter. After being simplified, they could be learned by any Qi Refinement cultivator with sufficient talent.

Without a teacher's guidance, Li Yu had relied entirely on his own exploration and understanding, so he had learned only "Wandering Yi Void Steps," "Subtle Yi Qi Control," and "Yi Firmament Mystic Lightning."

Yet those three supreme arts had already made him one of the strongest Qi Refinement cultivators among Hanging Moon Peak's outer disciples.

The Taiyi True Explanation also contained two divine abilities Jiang Taiyi had translated but never passed down, called "Yi Primordial Qi Shield" and "Yi Light Condensed Edge." The former focused on defense, the latter on attack.

Li Yu did not know whether the sect's True Disciple Taiyi Scripture contained them, but only by mastering those two divine abilities could one truly unleash the Taiyi Scripture's power.

As Jiang Taiyi's detailed descriptions of these supreme arts and divine abilities flashed through his mind, Li Yu slipped among the people on the mountain road like a wisp of smoke. He drifted like clouds rolling freely across the sky with the wind, yet stirred not a speck of dust.

Seeing him head downhill, Wang Xiang, who had been watching Li Yu all along, frowned slightly. He hurried off the ship and employed the Gale Wind Sea-Treading Art, following close behind.

Haо City was bustling, but the harbor where the flying ship docked lay on its outskirts, amid many undeveloped woodlands and lakes. As Li Yu passed through a small grove, a streak of spiritual light swept past him from behind like a fierce gust. It resolved into the man who had watched him aboard the ship, coldly blocking his path.

His movement technique is quite fast. A trace of surprise crossed Li Yu's face.

Still, this was mainly because "Wandering Yi Void Steps" excelled at short-range maneuvering, whereas ordinary movement techniques were better suited to traveling long distances.

"Who are you, and why are you blocking my way?" Li Yu asked.

The man gave a cold laugh and said in a deliberately rough voice, "Even on the road to the Yellow Springs, I'll leave you a ghost who died in ignorance."

With that, Wang Xiang took a gleaming blue throwing knife from his storage pouch, infused it with true essence, and hurled it at Li Yu.

Li Yu shifted his feet, moving half a body's width in the space of a breath.

Wang Xiang's throwing knife immediately missed, but at a beckoning gesture from him, it wheeled back and whistled toward the back of Li Yu's head.

With Wandering Yi Void Steps active, however, Li Yu's figure flickered between illusion and substance. He shifted back to his original position, and the knife skimmed past his shoulder, instead hurtling toward Wang Xiang.

"Even with your severe injuries, you can still use Wandering Yi Void Steps?" For the first time, emotion disturbed Wang Xiang's expression: bewilderment.

"You know Wandering Yi Void Steps, and you know I was injured after failing at Foundation Establishment. It seems you really are an enemy of mine from Hanging Moon Peak." Hearing this, Li Yu confirmed his judgment.

"You sent Yin Ya to kill me. You should have known the day would come when I killed you! This is karmic retribution!" Wang Xiang's eyes flashed as he laughed coldly, no longer disguising his voice.

"Wang Xiang! It's you!" Li Yu truly had not expected this fellow. Then his face immediately darkened. "That brat Yin Ya actually dared deceive me!"

"Your Foundation Establishment failed. You're worthless now. Rather than keep his promise to you, he was better off using me to win Senior Brother Zeng's friendship. Yin Ya rose from a commoner to where he is today precisely because he's ruthless enough," Wang Xiang sneered.

"When I get back, they'll all die." Li Yu marked down this debt against Yin Ya in his heart, then decided to take his anger out on Wang Xiang first. "I'll kill you first to vent some anger."

"What shameless boasting. You failed at Foundation Establishment. Without heavenly treasures, there's no way your injuries could heal in a mere month. You must have used some secret art to force your injuries down and drive your true essence." Wang Xiang snorted coldly, convinced Li Yu was bluffing. He only needed to push harder, and Li Yu would bring about his own destruction.

With a surge of blue true essence, another six throwing knives flew from Wang Xiang's storage pouch. Joining the first knife, they formed an array of three in front and four behind, sweeping over every space where Li Yu could dodge like a roaring sea and a raging gale.

In response, Li

Yu simply stopped dodging and drew a lotus-leaf talisman from his sleeve.

Driven by Taiyi true essence, strands of blue-white lightning flashed from the fingertips holding the talisman, instantly unleashing the "Yi Firmament Lightning Talisman" he had activated earlier.

Boom!

Like an arrow loosed from its bowstring, blue-white lightning blasted from Li Yu's fingertips. Amid a piercing thunderclap, it tore through the gale of throwing knives and easily punched through Wang Xiang's chest.

Hiss!

Blood spurted from Wang Xiang's seven orifices. He stared incredulously at the hole in his chest, then collapsed.

How is this possible?

As Wang Xiang felt his life ebb away and his divine sense scatter, he heard Li Yu's indifferent voice in his final moment before death.

"For attacking a fellow disciple, I sentence you to death in accordance with the sect's laws."