"We are peripheral members of the Smith Family. Young Master Javier sent us to escort you to North America, Young Master Li Xia! With the two of us accompanying you, we should be able to spare you some unnecessary trouble along the way, lest any petty scoundrels spoil your mood! After all, North America isn't exactly peaceful these days...!"
The two men spoke respectfully.
Their manner was impeccably proper.
They stood in stark contrast to the two men from the Li Family.
"Thank you!"
Li Xia smiled.
At that moment, a less experienced young man in his position might have developed quite a favorable impression of these two men from the Smith Family. He might even have forgotten his earlier displeasure with their family.
Comparisons really could sting!
The men from the Peninsula Li Family were aggressive and overbearing, while these two outsiders were polite and courteous. Anyone might have developed a personal preference when faced with that contrast.
But he remained wary.
Looking past the surface to what lay beneath, it was easy to see that the Smith Family was pulling the strings behind all of this.
If someone from that family hadn't broken the rules of their deal and disclosed the details to the Li Family's main branch, none of this nonsense would have happened. And had Young Master Jung-gi of the main branch really lost his mind and decided to target him just to vent his anger? Or had he received a generous payment from the Smith Family and chosen to help outsiders make trouble for a member of his own clan? Or did he truly intend to have Li Xia help acquire the Maya legacy, hoping to kill two birds with one stone?
Furthermore, speaking with the two men face-to-face at close range, he could clearly sense danger radiating from them!
Even though they were most likely suppressing their presence, and the aura they displayed wasn't particularly powerful, he could still instinctively tell that they were far more dangerous than the father he had inherited in this life, far stronger than cultivators at his father's level!
Like certain small animals, Li Xia had an acute sense for danger. It was an innate ability he had possessed even before he began cultivating.
He had never mentioned it to anyone.
Not even his father.
He had once guessed that this talent came from having lived two lives, which made his soul stronger than those of most people.
Previously, he had considered this talent practically useless. It hadn't helped him at all with cultivating within the family. Now, however, it seemed every talent had its value; its owner simply hadn't explored it deeply enough.
Did a simple escort mission really require two powerful cultivators?
This probably wasn't about protecting him, but making sure their chosen prey didn't escape!
Why have they targeted me?
Quietly raising his guard, Li Xia pondered without letting anything show:
Could it be because of something I possess...?
"Gentlemen, I need to ask my father's opinion before deciding whether to go to North America. Please wait a moment while I make a call..."
With that, he shut his bedroom door and walked toward the living room.
As he did, he noticed the two outsiders peering into his room.
He said nothing, but became even more certain that they had come with ill intentions.
It also strengthened his resolve not to go to North America.
He had to contact his father now, preferably the family's senior leadership as well. Then he could either use the family's influence to turn away these two middle-aged men who kept giving him a sense of danger, or learn the family's position and gather some information from them. He needed to determine exactly what the Smith Family wanted.
A little while later.
The call connected.
However, the person who answered at his home on the peninsula wasn't his father, but an uncle from a collateral branch.
"Huh? Uncle Yao, why are you answering? Where's my dad?"
"Oh, Xia! Your dad got so happy last night that he drank too much! He still hasn't woken up!"
"He drank too much?"
"Yes! You haven't heard yet, have you? Apparently, the main branch is planning to find him another partner with a talent for cultivation..."
Li Xia's mouth twitched at those words.
At the same time, an uneasy feeling rose in his heart.
It was too much of a coincidence.
Only yesterday, he had refused the proposal to study abroad in North America through his father. That very night, someone had gotten his father drunk.
Yes, someone had definitely gotten him drunk.
Because if the father he had inherited in this life had wanted to remarry, he would have done it over a decade ago. Why would he have waited until now?!
He remembered the three siblings raising the subject during a family meal, making it clear that none of them minded their father finding them a stepmother. Yet his father had firmly rejected the suggestion. How could he possibly have become beside himself with excitement upon learning that the family would arrange a partner for him?
One coincidence could be dismissed.
But several coincidences together were certainly no mere coincidence.
At that moment, Li Xia felt as though an enormous hand was using the family's internal factions to surround him with ambushes on every side.
To confirm this suspicion.
He called one of the three Clan Elders.
He had obtained this number after helping the Clan Elder successfully capture the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit.
But a young man answered, claiming that his grandfather was discussing important business with an important guest and couldn't take the call right now.
"Discussing business? Isn't the Clan Elder usually quite free?"
Without a doubt, this was another excuse.
"They can even interfere with the Clan Elder?"
Li Xia felt that something was increasingly wrong.
His unease deepened.
He met again with the two men from the Li Family's collateral branches and the Smith Family's two concealed experts.
His instincts told him that he couldn't handle those two experts.
So he asked a tentative question:
"When are we leaving?"
The two Li Family men snorted and curled their lips.
"Young Master Jung-gi has already gone over. Are you really going to make him wait for you there?"
It was a perfectly sound reason.
Yet it further demonstrated how thoroughly the Smith Family had covered every angle.
Sending one or two outstanding members of the Li Family's main branch ahead, then demanding that a collateral branch member follow immediately, couldn't have seemed more reasonable.
"All right, I'll go back to my room and pack!
"By the way, have our plane tickets been booked?
"Given how powerful your family is, I imagine you wouldn't mind chartering a flight or using a private aircraft?"
Having an entire North America-bound flight to themselves, or taking the Smith Family's private plane, would certainly make for a pleasant experience.
He said all this purely to placate the Smith Family's two experts.
Sure enough, one of the two middle-aged outsiders immediately rose with a smile.
"I'll make the arrangements right away. We certainly won't disappoint you, Young Master Li Xia."
He promptly borrowed the phone there and, suppressing his delight and excitement, reported the situation to Javier Smith.
"Oh? He wants to take a private plane?
"Even better!
"I'll arrange for him to take my Sky Warhawk. Let him experience the grandeur enjoyed by members of a great family's main branch here in the United States!"
Javier wore an amused expression.
A lamb walking into a tiger's jaws without the slightest awareness. The Peninsula Li Family really was a bunch of idiots.
No, that wasn't quite fair.
After all, he was operating in the shadows while the Li Family was out in the open.
Scheming against the entire Li Family was hardly something worth boasting about.
Soon.
Li Xia and the others went to Javier Smith's private airport in Tokyo and boarded a luxurious private plane stocked with fine wine and beautiful women.
Looking at the three attractive flight attendants who brought him wine, each possessing a different beauty-Eastern, Western, and African-Li Xia sighed inwardly:
I'm sorry!
When the time comes, please take your grievances to the Smith Family. They're the ones responsible!
Only after the private plane took off and reached the skies above the Pacific Ocean did he pick up his glass and pretend to sip, studying the others' reactions through their expressions and other subtle details. Then, catching a fleeting mocking look in the two middle-aged men's eyes, he dropped the act and asked bluntly:
"Gentlemen, could you tell me how I offended your family?
"Or has something I possess caught the Smith Family's interest?
"Otherwise, why target me? Why go to such lengths to trick me into going to North America?"
Li Xia exhaled, his face becoming noticeably flushed.
He hadn't been much of a drinker in his previous life, and clearly wasn't cut out for it in this one either. Besides, he couldn't possibly guarantee that the wine hadn't been tampered with.
Naturally, he hadn't actually drunk any.
"What are you saying, Young Master Li Xia? Why can't either of us understand?"
The two middle-aged men's previously mild expressions immediately became stern and cold.
Their entire bodies tensed.
They were poised to strike.
Like cheetahs ready to pounce on their prey at any moment.
Come to think of it, if they hadn't been aboard a plane thousands of meters in the air, they would surely have attacked already. But neither of them could fly. Or rather, almost none of the cultivators from the great families of this era could fly.
For instance, among the Li Family's seven or eight Clan Elders, barely two could fly before contracting the Demon-Worshipping Child Spirit as a Shikigami.
The same was true of the Smith Family.
Flying freely through the sky was every cultivator's dream.
Since it was still only a dream, it naturally hadn't yet become reality.
"Heh...!"
Seeing the two experts tense up, ready to attack at any moment, Li Xia grinned.
Those subtle changes in their behavior made him even more certain of his suspicions.
If these two truly harbored no ill intentions toward him, they should have looked confused. Why would they turn stern and cold, as though he had stepped on their tails? Their reaction was far too intense.
"It doesn't matter if you won't admit it. With two experts joining me in death, at least this life won't have been wasted!"
Despite saying that, he clearly had no intention of going to hell.
The Strength Talisman he had attached to his arm beforehand activated fully, and the Lightness Talismans already affixed to his legs activated as well, releasing their power. The Agility Talisman and Divine Wind Talisman also activated!
Furthermore, he put a hideous, scarred mask over his face!
Then, as the two men lunged at him from over ten meters away, their eyes widening in horror, he smashed a fist into the private plane's side window.
On the ground, he would most likely be no match for these two men who kept giving him a sense of danger. He might also find himself surrounded and attacked by other Smith Family experts lurking in the shadows.
But up in the sky, without all those hidden threats watching him from the shadows, there was no telling who would have the last laugh.
As for why he had been targeted?
There were only those two possibilities!
Before you continue