Chapter 331: The Taishi Clan

The five experts from the Rice Sect boarded the ship, each radiating a formidable aura like demons from the Netherworld.

Everyone on the ship was trembling with fear.

Li Youyi did not deliberately release his spiritual sense; relying only on his hearing, smell, and other perceptions, he could precisely grasp the position and state of everyone, forming images in his mind.

The two with the strongest auras flew onto the third deck; Yi Zhou Xue was one of them.

The only spiritual master among the five, with green spiritual light overflowing from his glabella and a light shield formed around his body, walked slowly along the corridor of the second deck. The sounds of breaking cabin doors, screams, crying, and objects falling continued to come from above.

Finally, there were the two black-robed martial cultivators in the dining hall wearing masks with blood-valley patterns. They walked past each table, scrutinizing everyone carefully.

Many of those they stared at collapsed to the ground, fear filling their hearts.

The cabin of Zuoqiu Baiyuan and Qi Xiao was on the second floor, and the spiritual master would find them soon.

A great battle was inevitable!

Li Youyi focused his hearing entirely on the spiritual master on the second floor. He knew clearly that Zuoqiu Baiyuan and Qi Xiao would strike to kill the moment the door opened.

That moment would also be the time for Li Youyi to strike and take care of the two in the dining hall.

He would use thunderous momentum to behead the three first, then deal with Yi Zhou Xue and the other one slowly.

The dining hall was abnormally quiet; one could hear a pin drop.

"Tap, tap!"

The slow, heavy footsteps of one of the black-robed martial cultivators gradually approached Li Youyi. Beside him, He Gan and Guo Zhensheng were both breaking out in cold sweat, their bodies stiffened like stone, devoid of their previous demeanor as experts.

Li Youyi was calm and natural, but the four spiritual stars in his Yintang Spirit Realm were spinning rapidly.

On the second floor, Zuoqiu Baiyuan and Qi Xiao, who had suppressed their auras, had pushed their magic power to the limit, ready to break through the door at any moment to deliver a fatal blow to the spiritual master.

"Clatter!"

A dense sound of chains rang out in the night, coming from every direction, as if a thousand troops and horses had surrounded the courier ship.

Li Youyi looked around.

From the doors and windows of the dining hall, dense magic power surged in. These magic powers twisted and entangled into white chains of varying thickness, crisscrossing like a dense net, imprisoning everyone.

Li Youyi looked down and saw white chains passing through his leg bends, arms, neck, waist, and abdomen simultaneously. The thinnest ones were like spider silk.

The two black-robed Rice Sect experts holding scythes were the most severely imprisoned, with dozens of chains wrapped around their bodies.

The entire courier ship was shrouded.

"External manifestation of the Dao heart, a hundred locks and a thousand chains. It is Taishi Bai of the Taishi clan; he is actually on the ship." In the dining hall, a young martial cultivator exclaimed with excitement, no longer fearing the evil sect's demons.

The first person of the Jiazi generation is called the Jia Shou.

The second person is the Jia Ci.

"Ah..."

A shrill scream came from the third deck.

The Rice Sect expert accompanying Yi Zhou Xue was an elder nearing a hundred years of age, but he was killed by two flying swords that flew out of the cabin in a single exchange.

Both flying swords were only one foot long, one cyan and one white.

One sword pierced the throat, the other pierced the heart.

The corpse fell from the third deck, *splash*, into the icy river water.

Everyone on the ship rejoiced; the evil sect demons deserved their bad luck for running into a hard wall.

A young, cold, and heavy voice came from above: "Your evil sect is becoming more and more arrogant; I have long wanted to meet you. Since you have come, you shall all stay here!"

"Clatter!"

The white magic power chains spread throughout the first-floor dining hall seemed to be pulled up by someone from above, dragging the two black-robed Rice Sect experts, wrapping them up, and flying them outside.

It was as if two people had been caught in a fishing net, and the fisherman had not even appeared.

Li Youyi could see that the two Rice Sect experts were at least at the Fourth Layer of the Dao Seed Realm, capable of holding their own in any faction. Yet, they were pulled away by Taishi Bai from a distance, unable to resist; the method was terrifying.

"Boom!"

The sound of a clash between Yi Zhou Xue and Taishi Bai came from the third floor; the magic power surged and vibrated, and the metal frame of the courier ship creaked.

Yi Zhou Xue spat out blood and flew backward, his body crashing through the railing and falling toward the river surface.

"To be able to take my full-strength palm, your strength is enough to be listed in the 'Jiazi Register'; your status in the evil sect should not be low, right?" Taishi Bai's movement technique was elegant and swift, like a flying immortal, chasing toward the river surface.

On the second-floor corridor.

The spiritual master let out a long whistle, and green brilliance surged in his spirit realm, shattering the magic power chains wrapped around his body.

Then, dense green light-trace threads flew from his glabella, shooting wildly in all directions.

Everyone on the ship below the Dao Seed Realm trembled all over, green light appearing in their pupils, their mental consciousness lost, revealing bloodthirsty and ferocious expressions.

Those with weapons drew them and began killing everyone they saw like madmen.

Those without weapons used their hands, claws, teeth, or any part of their bodies to attack any living thing they could see.

The entire courier ship was like it had been possessed, filled with manic laughter, slaughter, slashing, and screams—a chaotic mess.

If anyone boarded the ship at this moment and saw the scene, they would be horrified and turn to flee.

The two black-robed Rice Sect experts who had been trapped took this opportunity to cut the chains with their scythes, broke free, and leaped toward the river surface, wanting to escape.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

The cyan and white flying swords pierced their chests, and even their magic-artifact battle robes exploded instantly; they could not block them at all.

The two Fourth Layer Dao Seed Realm experts died on the spot, their corpses sinking into the river.

In the dining hall, Li Youyi waved his hand and knocked He Gan and Guo Zhensheng, who were attacking him, to the ground, knocking them unconscious.

Looking at the chaotic, bizarre, and bloody scene before him, he put on the golden mask given by Yao Qingxuan. Without hesitation, he formed a finger seal, and spiritual light bloomed from his glabella.

He chanted a single word: "Zhe!"

"Zhe" is one of the nine characters of the Daoist Six-Jia Secret Incantation. Combined with spiritual power, it turned into a circle of sonic spiritual light, spreading out with Li Youyi as the center.

"Clatter!"

All the green light-trace threads were shattered.

The spirits and souls of those on the ship who had gone mad and bloodthirsty were instantly cleansed; their eyes regained clarity, and they all looked at their own hands in horror, not knowing what had just happened.

The golden mask was very special; it could cover Li Youyi's magic power and spiritual sense aura, causing them to change.

The spiritual master on the second floor never expected that there would be a spiritual power expert on the ship proficient in methods of cleansing the heart and clarifying the mind. He immediately condensed a pair of light wings on his back, wanting to escape.

"Where are you going?"

The main hall door of the third-floor cabin opened, and four figures rushed out, all of them top-tier experts. One drew a bow and arrow, one threw a precious wheel magic artifact, one spread wings to chase, and another cast a Daoist technique.

The four were retainers of the Taishi family.

On the other side, Taishi Bai, who was chasing on the river surface, heard a melodious flute sound in his ears and looked toward the shore.

A black-robed figure stood straight under a tree by the river, dozens of zhang away, playing a flute melody, his body flickering between real and illusory.

The falling snow within dozens of zhang of the river surface turned into layers of snow waves, crashing toward Taishi Bai.

Each flake was stained with magic power, sharper than a blade.

Taishi Bai struck out with a palm; the palm force was thick and heavy, and the erupting brilliance illuminated both sides of the river, causing the river surface to cave in and turning all the flying snow within dozens of zhang into fine powder.

Li Youyi had already put away the golden mask and walked outside the dining hall, first glancing at Yi Zhou Xue, who had disappeared into the night.

He then looked at the black shadow playing the flute on the shore, secretly thinking: "He should be Yi Zhou Xue's brother, Can Yexue. Indeed well-prepared; if we were surrounded by them, it would truly be a troublesome matter."

How could Li Youyi not understand his enemies?

Legend has it that Can Yexue's talent is higher than Yi Zhou Xue's. He uses the flute as a weapon; he is not a successor, but he dares to challenge the cultivation of great arts, and his cultivation speed is no slower than a successor's.

In the flute melody, the giant waves on the river turned into a ten-zhang-tall white frost giant, punching Taishi Bai, the frost seemingly wanting to freeze the entire river.

"Swish! Swish!"

The cyan and white flying swords were recalled by Taishi Bai, slashing the frost giant into pieces.

He looked toward the riverbank again.

The flute sound had dissipated, and the black-clothed person had disappeared.

The spiritual master failed to escape and was captured by the four retainers of the Taishi family, taken to the third floor.

Li Youyi had already returned to the second-floor cabin to meet up with Zuoqiu Baiyuan and Qi Xiao.

Qi Xiao transmitted his voice: "The Taishi family is one of the four great families of the imperial court. Their ancestor, Taishi Gong, is a pillar of the millennium, a Saint King spiritual master. It is said that he once received guidance from the Mist Emperor and mastered half of the defensive formations of the Cloud Heaven Immortal Plain, Lingxiao City, and the four passes. The other half is controlled by the Third Palace Master of the Lin Terrace."

A Saint King spiritual master is an transcendent on the path of spiritual power cultivation; there are only a handful of such people in the entire Lingxiao Life Realm.

Zuoqiu Baiyuan said: "This is not quite right! I have heard of Taishi Bai's prestige even in the Northern Region. He is the grandson of Taishi Gong and the son of Taishi Qingcang with the highest talent. He is definitely a top-tier young noble in the imperial court. When such a person travels, he should have his own official ship or treasure vessel; how could he be squeezed onto a ship with so many people?"

Qi Xiao laughed: "Aren't we also on this ship? Yes, Taishi Bai is indeed prestigious, the second-highest expert under sixty in the Taishi family, but we are also not what we used to be; we are no longer the young juniors of two or three years ago."

Li Youyi remained silent for a long time, and after thinking it over: "I struck just now; the people of the Taishi family must have noticed. Now, we have two paths."

"The first path is to leave the ship immediately, but we are likely to encounter Yi Zhou Xue and Can Yexue."

"The second path is to stay on the ship and borrow the influence of the Taishi family to travel unimpeded. Can Yexue and Yi Zhou Xue do not yet know we are on the ship."

"But if the aura fluctuation of my strike just now has already been detected by the 'Jiazi Register', and the Lin Terrace sends people to investigate, it will be no small trouble."

Qi Xiao laughed: "The imperial court's supervision is no longer that strict, unless you have caused some earth-shattering event. I think the bigger trouble is that Zuoqiu Baiyuan and I are pure immortal bodies, which is hard to explain. If we give our real names, we will definitely be investigated thoroughly."

"Should we just leave? It's just Yi Zhou Xue and Can Yexue; it's a good opportunity to hone our fighting will." Zuoqiu Baiyuan said.

Li Youyi made a gesture to be quiet and looked at the door and window.

A knock on the door came.

A young girl's voice sounded outside the door: "The spiritual master inside, my mistress is very grateful for your righteous action just now and has specially sent this servant to invite you, elder, to the third floor for a chat. I hope you will not refuse and will grant us the favor."

Qi Xiao and Zuoqiu Baiyuan laughed and winked at each other, finding the word "elder" quite interesting.

(End of chapter)