A clash of spells

Was the young man before him actually True Person Yuan Yong?

He looked even younger than Li Le!

But Lin Ke also knew that, for cultivators, appearances did not reflect their true age or strength.

This seemingly ordinary young man was a mighty cultivator of the Nascent Soul Realm!

"Oppose you? No. Li Le likes this girl, and I will ensure she forms her Golden Core." True Person Yuan Yong slowly shook his head and looked at Lin Ke beside Rain Spider True Person.

"In addition, I will give you an Ape-Arm Scorpion and ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones."

An Ape-Arm Scorpion?

Lin Ke frowned as the relevant information flashed through his mind.

The Ape-Arm Scorpion was a spirit-grade superior spirit insect. Kings of its species might possess spirit grade supreme-grade talent. Native to the Poison Tempering Mountains, it had been brought into the sect by an elder and raised in the Ape-Arm Forest. They were exceedingly rare and exorbitantly expensive.

The Ape-Arm Forest? Is that where Li Le's father comes from? Connecting it with True Person Yuan Yong's name, Lin Ke immediately linked the two.

He turned his gaze toward Rain Spider True Person beside him, just as she looked at him.

Rain Spider True Person's gaze held a question, asking whether Lin Ke agreed to True Person Yuan Yong's proposal.

Lin Ke's gaze held a plea, asking Rain Spider True Person to stand up for him.

Their eyes met, and Rain Spider True Person raised her eyebrows in slight surprise, seemingly not expecting Lin Ke to act so familiar with her.

What she did not know was that Lin Ke had already guessed she would help him.

After all, although Lin Ke did not know what the Golden-Wing Queen's glance had meant, he knew that since Rain Spider True Person had already helped him, she would see it through.

Since Rain Spider True Person had already offended True Person Yuan Yong in full view of everyone, she would not be afraid now.

"True Person Yuan Yong, release Zong Ya." Rain Spider True Person turned back and looked him straight in the eyes. "She is a disciple of our sect. Do not break our rules."

"There is only one rule in this world: the strong reign supreme," True Person Yuan Yong replied coolly.

At the same time, a scorpion slowly crawled onto his shoulder from behind. Its two arms were covered in long hair, and its tail resembled an ape's arm. Fully the size of a human head, it bared its claws and brandished its tail at Rain Spider True Person.

"What you speak of is the law of beasts." Rain Spider True Person sneered. "Our sect has put down roots here. We ought to support one another, not coerce and slaughter each other!"

Lin Ke did not disagree with True Person Yuan Yong, but he also strongly agreed with Rain Spider True Person.

He himself, for instance, could understand the sect's stance very well.

Based on the cultivation novels from his previous life, a disciple like him, whose cultivation had regressed to the first level of Qi Refining, should simply have been thrown out to fend for himself.

Yet the sect had not abandoned a half-crippled disciple with no potential like him. Instead, it had sent him to live out his days in the Green Mulberry Garden. That could be called very merciful.

Of course, it was normal for the sect to have a few rat droppings like Li Le.

A forest big enough would harbor every kind of bird.

"Oh? By your reasoning, our sect did not establish itself in the Poison Tempering Mountains through the strength of its fists? And the White Name Sect and the Reverse Life Sect refrain from attacking us because we support one another internally?" True Person Yuan Yong replied coldly.

"If we did not help one another, you would have starved to death two hundred and thirty years ago. It was because the sect protected you back then instead of abandoning you that you can challenge me like this today."

Rain Spider True Person's smile was thick with mockery.

"That is true." Unexpectedly, True Person Yuan Yong agreed with her. He even clasped his hands and bowed his head. "Thank you for taking me in back then, Rain Spider True Person."

So that happened? Just as Lin Ke thought True Person Yuan Yong would compromise, the man spoke again after his salute.

"But in the first half of my life, Le'er was my only son. I will not make him let go of the woman he loves... I do not want him to end up like me. Because I let go of the person I loved back then, Le'er has no mother today."

As he spoke, the scorpion on True Person Yuan Yong's body abruptly extended its tail and stabbed toward Rain Spider True Person's brow.

"You dare!" Rain Spider True Person shouted coldly, a wave of spirit pressure erupting from her body.

"You dare bare your claws at me?"

Rain Spider True Person's slender brows rose sharply. With a fierce sweep of her hand, a spider with yellow-and-black markings and a pair of wings on its back appeared before her, while she herself rose into the air.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...

The spider beat its wings, shooting strands of silk from its abdomen like bullets toward True Person Yuan Yong's Ape-Arm Scorpion.

"I have done nothing to betray the sect, but I will have this girl." The Ape-Arm Scorpion on True Person Yuan Yong's shoulder instantly merged into his body. Clearly, he had used the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method. "I will not back down."

"Shameless! Your son loves Zong Ya, but have you ever asked what Zong Ya wants? Li Le is not you!" Rain Spider True Person snorted coldly.

She waved her hand, pushing Lin Ke behind True Person Yuan Yong, then used the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method herself.

But their use of the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method differed from Lin Ke's.

Three scorpion-tail stingers longer than his body abruptly sprouted from True Person Yuan Yong's back.

Rain Spider True Person, meanwhile, grew eight spider legs from hers.

Both had clearly mastered the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method, using it with transcendent skill.

True Person Yuan Yong barely had time to glance at Lin Ke, whom Rain Spider True Person had thrown over, before her attacks drove him backward.

In moments, the two had retreated several miles and were fighting among the clouds.

Only Lin Ke, Li Le, and Zong Ya remained where they had stood. Zong Ya could not move at all and could express her fury only through her face.

"To think you actually managed to break through!" Li Le extended a hand, his gaze sinister. An Ape-Arm Scorpion rested on it. "Looks like I should have killed you back then! If I'd killed you then, I would only have been punished. Now... it's still not too late!"

Lin Ke did not answer. Instead, he looked at Zong Ya.

Something had presumably immobilized Zong Ya. She could not even open her mouth and could only make muffled sounds.

Lin Ke frowned. First, he merged with his Amethyst Longhorn Beetle through the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method, then spoke. "Aren't you and your father afraid of the sect's rules?"

"Ha! The sect's rules?" Li Le sneered. "War is coming. Strength is all that matters!"

"Do you think the sect will choose a Myriad-Leak Body that has yet to mature, or an actual Nascent Soul elder?"

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So with war approaching, the rules no longer mattered?

Did that mean Li Le wanted to act without law or restraint?

Naive!

In wartime, troubled times called for even harsher laws!

"I have nothing to say to you." Hearing that, Lin Ke wasted no more words. He circulated his Spirit Power, and two masses of earth instantly surged out of the ground.

One enveloped Zong Ya, then became a solid wall under Turn Earth to Steel.

The other became an earth spike that shot out toward Li Le's body.

"Ape-Arm Stinger!" Li Le leaped up, and the Ape-Arm Scorpion in his hand merged into his body.

This Ape-Arm Scorpion was presumably Li Le's life-bound spirit insect, and its quality also appeared to be spirit-grade superior. Once it merged into his body, a phantom of its scorpion tail formed behind him.

Whoosh!

The phantom scorpion tail smashed downward, shattering the earth spike, then abruptly lengthened and stabbed toward Lin Ke.

An Amethyst Carapace appeared over Lin Ke's body. He stood still and blocked the blow, then conjured more earth spikes out of thin air, each shaped like a javelin.

He had thought it over afterward: his earlier use of Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning had been too crude, its power too dispersed.

It was suitable for attacking a group, and the average cultivation level of that "group" needed to be lower than his own.

To fight someone at the same level, he still needed to concentrate his power into a single point.

Pressing hard with five fingers certainly could not deliver the same force as a punch.

That was the benefit of actual combat.

After learning Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning, Lin Ke had neither used it in combat nor watched anyone else do so.

But after the Sect Grand Tournament, he had gained plenty of experience and learned many lessons.

For instance, when he fought Lin Quan-meng, the total Spirit Power he had unleashed in one burst had actually equaled that of a single strike from a Golden Core Stage cultivator.

But what about its potency?

A Golden Core Stage cultivator concentrated their Spirit Power into one whole. A single flying sword would probably have been enough to kill him.

Meanwhile, with his Spirit Power spread across so many earth spikes, he could not even have brushed the hem of a Golden Core cultivator's robes.

Thus, the earth-spike spear he now formed to attack Li Le was a single spear created using Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning and Turn Earth to Steel.

Bang!

Li Le's Ape-Arm Scorpion tail lashed wildly, beating back the earth-spike spear Lin Ke had formed. The nimbly whipping phantom tail actually served as a defense.

At the same time, Li Le formed a Hand-Seal Formula. Huge fireballs materialized out of thin air and hurtled toward Lin Ke.

Li Le had established his Dao Foundation long ago, so his Spirit Power was fairly substantial, and his command of spells was far stronger than Lin Ke's.

But when it came to the depth of Spirit Power, who in the Dao Foundation Initial Stage could compare to Lin Ke?

Whoosh!!!

Lin Ke rose into the air. Spirit Power roared through his body and surged outward, forming seventy or eighty enormous spheres of water, each four or five meters in diameter.

Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning!

The water spheres surged forward, extinguishing Li Le's fireballs in an instant and attempting to envelop him as well.

"Not a chance!" Li Le shot backward, summoning a spirit-grade superior flying sword beneath his feet. With another wave of his hand, he summoned five Ape-Arm Scorpions that clung to his body.

The five Ape-Arm Scorpions swung their powerful tails, taking over defensive duty from the phantom scorpion tail Li Le had formed through the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method.

The phantom Ape-Arm Scorpion tail instead began extending, focusing solely on attacking.

"Your father certainly spares no expense." Seeing all those spirit-grade superior possessions left Lin Ke somewhat speechless.

He then dispersed the overly slow water spheres, defended himself with his Amethyst Carapace, and used Mountain-Moving and Sea-Overturning and Turn Earth to Steel to form more and more earth-spike spears.

Although the earth-spike spears could not match low-grade spirit flying swords in strength, fifty or sixty of them harrying Li Le continuously under Lin Ke's mental control still posed a considerable hindrance.

"Your mental power is actually that strong? A Myriad-Leak Body... Junior Brother, you've hidden yourself well all these years!" Li Le's face was icy. "I'll kill you here today, you little bastard, or someday..."

He did not finish, but Li Le's meaning was already clear.

Lin Ke was already displaying such powerful talent. If he were allowed to grow, he would surely become a great threat!

"You aren't capable of that." Lin Ke did not bother trying to win a war of words.

Li Le had established his Dao Foundation so long ago, yet still could not defeat him. Talking was all he could do.

But this also revealed Lin Ke's own weakness.

His Spirit Power was so immense, yet he had spent all this time exchanging spells with Li Le, only to fight him to a standstill...

Clearly, he still lacked an offensive spell that could settle the outcome with a single hammer blow.

Or perhaps...

Lin Ke glanced at the Ape-Arm Scorpions crawling over Li Le's body, the flying sword beneath his feet, and his other possessions.

All of them were spirit-grade superior. It took no thought to realize they had come from Li Le's father.

Understanding dawned within him.

Perhaps what he lacked was spells, spirit artifacts, and other such things. They were all useful.

But right now, those were not actually what suited him best.

What he needed was a powerful spirit insect he could command and merge with through the Moisture-and-Egg Transformation Method!