Sounding out the opposition

Li Yu wanted to leave, but no one present wanted him to go.

Ever since Ying Ruomu appeared, his gaze had never left Li Yu. Qin Jian, keenly aware of this, hoped Li Yu could draw some of the enemy's fire.

If they could buy a little more time, perhaps Yuan Hao and the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators would arrive.

Or perhaps...

Qin Jian glanced at the sword Xu Wei held beside him.

A metallic clang rang out as Ying Feiyun's blade slid back into its sheath.

That movement alone put Qin Jian on full alert, as though facing a formidable enemy. After exchanging blows for a while, he had a rough grasp of his opponent's strength: greater than his own. Yet the most terrifying moment was still the instant that blade left its sheath.

Luo Guan had taken one such unsheathing strike, and now he had only a breath of life left.

Just as Qin Jian braced himself, Ying Ruomu suddenly spoke, pointing at Li Yu. "Elder Brother, this man is a knot in my heart. If I don't kill him myself, I fear he'll become an inner demon on my future cultivation path. Please give me a little time to deal with him first."

Ying Feiyun glanced at Li Yu and nodded his agreement.

His left hand settled on the hilt of the Golden Light Sword at his waist, then clenched hard.

Boom!

A thunderous sword cry rang out. Ying Feiyun's Golden Light Sword left its sheath once more, and countless sword rays burst forth in an instant, like fireworks and shooting stars, slashing down at the sea where Qin Jian and Xu Wei stood.

"Fellow Daoist, please hold on! My junior sister and I will do everything we can to keep this formidable enemy occupied."

Seeing events unfold in precisely the best direction he had anticipated, Qin Jian did not forget to encourage Li Yu. He hoped this fine spectacle of fellow disciples slaughtering one another would last a little longer.

With two ringing sword cries, Qin Jian and Xu Wei struck simultaneously, taking the initiative to meet the Golden Light Sword.

Clear clashes of blades rang out one after another. Three swords and three colors of sword light collided repeatedly in midair, occasionally striking the sea and cleaving up roaring waves.

Since he had already been discovered, Li Yu no longer feared alerting anyone. He activated Taiyi Starshine outright. It was as though a third eye opened between his brows, capturing every spiritual presence across this stretch of sea.

The densest spiritual presence naturally belonged to Ying Feiyun, who fought two opponents alone with strength to spare. His spiritual presence was twice Qin Jian's.

Qin Jian's, in turn, was almost half again as great as Xu Wei's.

The last spiritual presence belonged to Ying Ruomu, who was flying impatiently toward Li Yu. In quantity, his was only slightly weaker than Qin Jian's.

Of course, on a reef not far away, there was another spiritual presence on the verge of fading away: Luo Guan's.

He was dying.

Holding the Azure Lotus, Ying Ruomu landed before Li Yu. Sensing the faint fluctuation of spiritual awareness as Taiyi Starshine swept over him, he sneered. "Death is staring you in the face, and you're still playing these underhanded tricks."

Li Yu asked a question instead. "Junior Brother Ying, what layer of Qi Refinement have you reached?"

After using Taiyi Starshine to compare Ying Ruomu against himself, Li Yu discovered that Ying Ruomu's current spiritual presence was stronger than his own had been at his peak. Knowing he would also have to face Ying Feiyun if he wanted to leave today, he wanted to learn his opponents' strength in advance.

At those words, Ying Ruomu stopped the attack he had been about to launch and burst into laughter. "You think you're worthy of calling me your junior brother? Back on Hanging Moon Peak, you never once beat me. You were nothing but a dog swaggering on its master's power when you stole my position as the outer sect's eldest senior brother. But since you've asked, I'll let you die knowing the truth. I'm at the Qi Refinement Tenth Layer, a Golden Core Dao seed!"

As a scion of an immortal Aristocratic Clan, with Xu Ying guiding him from behind the scenes, Ying Ruomu had known from the moment he joined the sect that the Qi Refinement Ninth Layer was not the final stage before Foundation Establishment. There were three more layers beyond it, corresponding respectively to the foundations for Golden Core, Nascent Soul Formation, and primordial spirit.

Thus, even though he had perfected the Qi Refinement Ninth Layer early on, he had always held himself back from attempting Foundation Establishment.

But no matter how hard he cultivated, perfection of the ninth layer was the limit of his potential. Beyond it lay what seemed like a heavenly chasm, impossible to cross.

Just as Ying Ruomu grew discouraged and prepared to attempt Foundation Establishment, news arrived from his lineage. The ruler of the Yan Kingdom had decided to establish the Heavenly Change Sect as the state religion and was preparing to overthrow Zhou and restore Xuan.

As a member of the lineage who had joined the Five Lotus Sect, he had the right to choose.

In the end, Ying Ruomu decided to take a gamble and chose his lineage.

That choice also earned him unprecedented support from his lineage. Along with all manner of spirit stones, pills, and other resources, he received access to texts reserved for the main branch. These finally enabled him to cross his bottleneck and advance to the Qi Refinement Tenth Layer.

This made Ying Ruomu begin to aspire to even higher realms.

Perhaps he could use this war to gather the resources and foundations needed to attain a primordial spirit in the future.

Afterward, following his lineage's arrangements and the Yan Kingdom's plans, he sought to drag the Five Lotus Sect's external affairs personnel and the Laoshan Sword Sect into the mire as well.

During this process, his luck also began to improve. Not only did he harvest a supreme-grade Pearl Spirit, he even heard news that Li Yu had failed at Foundation Establishment.

Back when Xu Yao and Wang Xiang spread this news together on Hanging Moon Peak, Xu Yao had done so at his instruction.

At the time, Ying Ruomu deeply regretted being unable to witness Li Yu's deathly gray face himself.

But Heaven favored him.

It had given him a chance to take revenge with his own hands.

After laughing as he declared his cultivation realm, Ying Ruomu saw none of the shock and terror he had expected on Li Yu's face. His brows involuntarily furrowed in displeasure. "If you kneel and beg me now, I might consider leaving your corpse intact and letting you die without any pain."

"So this is the spiritual presence of the tenth layer of Qi Refinement," Li Yu said instead.

Within Taiyi Starshine's field of vision, Li Yu marked the quantity of spiritual presence in Ying Ruomu's fluctuating true essence. He then compared it with the other three and discovered that Qin Jian was also at the tenth layer, while Xu Wei should only be at the ninth.

Ying Feiyun, however, was above the tenth layer.

Was he at the eleventh layer of Qi Refinement?

While Li Yu was sounding out everyone present, Ying Ruomu had already been thoroughly enraged by his attitude.

He saw no trace of fear of him in Li Yu's eyes.

"I've changed my mind! Even if you beg me now, I'll tear your corpse into ten thousand pieces!"

With a cold snort, Ying Ruomu sent a lotus petal flying from the Heart-Clearing Lotus in his hand. It suddenly shone with emerald light above the sea, then scattered into intangible azure vines that lashed like whips toward Li Yu nearby.

The vines tore even the sea apart as they whistled through the air. It was easy to imagine their power if they struck a person; they would likely whip him into a pulp.

But Li Yu shifted where he stood, merely using Wandering Yi Void Steps to evade every vine lashing toward him.

Seeing this, Ying Ruomu

merely sneered. He turned the Azure Lotus in his hand, and all the vines Li Yu had dodged continued to spread and intertwine under his control, forming an impenetrable net that trapped Li Yu in its center and steadily contracted.

At last, every space Li Yu could move into was sealed off, revealing his true body.

"I know you inside and out, but you know nothing about who I am now!"