Chapter 187

Facing the Dao Sect's inquiry, the silver-haired girl lowered her gaze, raised her hand to pull up her hood, concealing her face, and replied calmly: "Since childhood, I was raised by my teacher and mistress, and I have never known my father."

"He left me at the doorstep of the Star Gazing Line when I was still very young."

"My connection to him is nothing but blood and this silver hair."

The Dao Sect fell silent for a long while, then said: "Your father..."

He paused, not uttering the title.

The Daoist spoke calmly: "In any case, he is a man of peculiar nature, utterly free and unbound, rising from obscurity, his knowledge encompassing all three teachings and nine schools, yet never entering the Imperial Academies; he excels in array arts and possesses strange techniques."

"During his years wandering the world, no one's arrays surpassed his."

"Not even Si Wei, the then head of the Imperial Academies' array arts."

"Angered by this, Si Wei left the Academies and made deals with the imperial courts of Chen and Ying, crafting grand arrays for both nations, then studied every array scripture in their imperial libraries."

"The man who defeated him left the land two years ago, riding the waves out to sea."

"He rode a tortoise to fish for whales."

"He is not evil, merely inept at expressing emotion; perhaps not as you imagine, for the Star Gazing Line is not particularly skilled in array arts."

Yao Guang replied: "So my birth was merely an accident to him."

"He disliked this accident disturbing his life."

"He abandoned me at my teacher's doorstep, leaving behind only the master scroll of an array technique."

The silver-haired girl lifted her head, her hands falling to her sides, unconsciously clutching her robe, her voice serene:

"This is not parental love."

"Only guilt, only regret, only concern for his own reputation."

The Dao Sect gazed at the girl before him, his eyes gentle and still, merely listening.

The silver-haired girl's tone quickened slightly, then paused, as if realizing her lapse; she regained her usual cold composure, her gaze calm, and asked:

"Senior Dao Sect, which is greater: the debt of nurture or the debt of birth?"

The Daoist replied gently: "Nurture."

The silver-haired girl said calmly: "I think so too."

She smoothed the folds of her robe, stood up, and spoke in a serene voice:

"It is time to go."

"Li Guanyi is not the kind to stay here waiting for everyone to thank him and bask in glory; when he returns, that is when we depart."

"I must prepare my travel gear, Senior, excuse me."

The Dao Sect nodded, watching the girl walk away, his expression tranquil, sitting there gazing at the sky, his voice cold as an observer: "Love, hate, attachment, longing, resentment, separation—how vast is the world, how grand the courts—who can truly explain them?"

"Human emotions: union leads to separation, success to ruin; humility invites humiliation, honor invites criticism; action brings loss, virtue invites scheming, worthlessness invites deceit. No man is purely one color—how then can there be good or evil?"

The Daoist rose and went to diagnose the bodies of the children whose blood had been drained for cultivation, personally tending to their depleted constitutions.

Li Guanyi had ridden his swift horse, following the path he inquired about, arriving at the foot of a mountain.

The boy tugged the reins tight.

He strapped the Songwen Ancient Sword to his side, gripping the battle bow given to him by the Xue family's general store.

The Xue family was famed in the Jianghu for their divine archery; their battle bows were top-tier.

The horse beneath him was trained by a disciple of the Divine Beast Manor, highly intelligent; now it climbed step by step, and Li Guanyi caught sight from afar of a building atop the mountain resembling a Daoist temple, where two disciples in martial attire stood guard at the entrance.

They looked like righteous sect disciples.

They were chatting: "I heard Elder Liu led a group down below."

"Yes, those brothers who got to go to the village are lucky—they can take Blood-Replenishing Pills now."

"And let off some steam."

"Hey, you're picky—village girls aren't worth it... you need girls from Beicheng..."

Their qi carried the bloody scent that stirred Li Guanyi's Golden Core of the Ten Thousand Ancient Moon Imperishable Body.

As they spoke, they saw a young Daoist riding toward them on horseback, and both prepared to shout a rebuke.

Before they could speak, a soft hum sounded—two arrows pierced straight through their mouths, spinning into their brains, dropping them instantly dead. Li Guanyi held the bow.

The arrows carried the inner qi trait of the Jade Arm Divine Bow Art.

They exploded with fierce, brutal force.

This was also the trait of the 【Break-Cloud Shatter-Sky Bow】, capable of strange effects even within the Nine Cauldrons Space.

The Xue family's battle bow hummed faintly.

Li Guanyi rode slowly, activating the third layer of the Jiangnan Misty Rain Twelve Storied Tower, his soul-sense detecting the Yin-Yang Rotation Sect disciples, then calmly shooting them down; his soul technique concealed his presence while his Xue family's divine archery executed silent assassinations.

The basic disciples were merely Inner Qi, Entry Level.

To Li Guanyi's hands, killed by Xue family archery, they had no chance to resist.

Three quivers, each holding twenty-five arrows.

Just ordinary hunting arrows.

But it did not matter—in Li Guanyi's hands, they remained absolute killing tools.

One... two...

Twelve...

Thirty...

The boy's hands were steady; the bow's hum echoed like wings flapping. When the first quiver was empty, the air reeked of blood; when half the second quiver was spent, someone finally noticed something wrong and shouted: "Someone's attacking!"

"Brothers, form the formation!"

A line of martial artists, all similarly dressed, burst forth—men in white robes, women in black, their qi interweaving like yin and yang, forming a military array.

Their leader, a middle-aged man, roared:

"This is the Northern Branch of the Yin-Yang Wheel Transformation Sect. Who are you, coming here to pay respects?"

"What sect, what school!"

Li Guanyi gave no answer to his name.

He drew his bow and fired in rapid succession.

The middle-aged man had not expected the intruder to be so disrespectful of martial norms; enraged, he slashed his blade and shattered the incoming arrows, his internal energy surging—already at the Second Heavenly Layer—but the next instant, something pierced the air before his eyes.

He still reached for his sword to block it.

He pushed all his internal energy to its limit.

With a single crisp snap, the sword shattered outright, and a battle halberd pierced straight through his heart.

Opposite him had thrown a battle halberd of solid dark gold!

The halberd's tip punched clean through the martial artist's back.

What immense power.

A Second Layer martial artist was flung dozens of zhang away by the throw, crashing heavily to the ground, spewing blood; the warhorse, carrying the young Daoist, galloped onward, and Li Guanyi, while riding, snatched up the halberd and swung it violently upward.

The middle-aged overseer was flung away like a giant pendulum, crashing down and knocking over a cluster of men.

The youth held the battle halberd; the steed, personally trained by Lei Laomeng of the Divine Beast Manor, carried a trace of demonic blood and grew frenzied at the sight of blood, neighing loudly as it charged back and forth across the training ground, Li Guanyi wielding the two-handed halberd, slashing and fighting, his internal energy surging forth.

Close range: the halberd. Far range: divine archery.

Moreover, internal energy burst from his body, forming streaks of qi-light that tore through the air.

Finally, someone recognized him and screamed: "Riding a warhorse, aura like a general…"

"It's—it's Halberd Madman!"

"It's Li Guanyi!"

Li Guanyi flicked his wrist in an instant; his internal energy tore into a crescent moon shape, instantly slaying the man. The disciples screamed and tried to flee, but as they rushed out, they saw that all four sides of the gate were shrouded in dust, thunderous noise echoing everywhere—as if hundreds of people surrounded them from all directions.

If they charged out from there, death was certain.

But straight ahead stood only Li Guanyi.

This way, there was still a chance of survival.

They all shouted as they charged forward, unleashing their martial arts; Li Guanyi gripped the halberd, spurred his warhorse, his internal energy exploding, riding back and forth in slaughter, the halberd wild and uncontested.

Inside the quiet chamber of this branch temple.

Three people were in secret discussion; this was truly a matter of great importance, tied to the Hunting Qilin Assembly, so heavy Qing Stone sealed the door—no sound could leak out, even if one stood outside, and the outside was equally silent.

A beautiful lady said: "The blood pills prepared for Lady Huarui should be ready."

"One hundred and sixty-six pure yin women, born at yin hours, yin months, yin days, their blood sprayed at the instant their virginity was broken—finally boiled down into this, capable of preserving beauty uncorrupted for one year."

The middle-aged man smiled: "Your complexion looks so radiant—I suppose you've gained considerable benefits."

The beautiful lady laughed seductively: "Only a few dregs of the medicine."

"Not a drop was withheld from Lady Huarui."

The middle-aged man said: "Good. Send them to Beicheng before the Hunting Qilin Assembly."

"Then prepare the blood pills for next year."

The beautiful lady asked: "Is this Hunting Qilin Assembly truly so important?"

The middle-aged man said: "Naturally. Ha! Do you think everyone is here for the Fire Qilin? Not at all. Even those few, though they've reached Master level, with martial arts and internal energy that have founded their own schools, simply dislike strife, so they don't appear on the Master Rankings."

"But this is the Fire Qilin—a celestial demonic beast, ranked among the top ten of the Divine Beast List since ancient times."

"The previous Fire Qilin was guarded by Gongyang Su Wang, the invincible sage of the Confucian Great Dao in the Imperial Academy; before that, this Fire Qilin was kept in the Chen royal palace, and even earlier, by Tai Ping Gong, the Fifth Divine General of the realm."

"Even Masters cannot contain it. And even if they could, endless trouble would follow. This Hunting Qilin Assembly is merely meant to draw together the martial masses from Chen's northern border and Ying's southern border."

"Then, to elect the leader of Cidide Alliance."

"I won't hide it from you—this time, even members of the Yuwen family are involved."

The beautiful lady's expression changed drastically: "The Yuwen clan, the single pillar holding up Ying's sky?"

Seeing the beautiful woman's shock, the middle-aged man spoke calmly:

"Yes."

The elder at the head lowered his gaze; the middle-aged man fell silent and smiled:

"Let the abbot himself explain what comes next."

The elder spoke slowly: "I was going to tell you anyway—just waiting for the right moment."

"The world is changing. Chen is weak. The Regent has reappeared, and as storms gather, this is our chance to rise. The Yuwen clan seeks to aid the Ying Emperor and unify the realm."

"If we become the ministers who helped him ascend, perhaps one day I'll be a marquis, and you, a noble lady."

"Wouldn't it be delightful, to be sustained by a thousand hundred people?"

"As for Halberd Madman—he's merely a brat with no experience."

"Just an extra."

The beautiful lady said: "But I've heard Halberd Madman has done many things—he once breached the defenses of an entire city…"

The elder said coldly: "Hmph. Such rumors are likely fabricated by Chen's nobles to save face after their defeat."

"I've cultivated for sixty years—I dare not claim to have done such a thing."

"That boy is fifteen, or sixteen by lunar age—can he rival my sixty years of internal energy, and all the Blood Pills I've consumed?"

"As for why Chen spreads such tales—hmm—it's easy to understand."

"The stronger and more prodigious the enemy, the less shameful it is to lose to him."

The beautiful lady understood fully.

The middle-aged scholar laughed: "Ha! The abbot is right."

Then he frowned slightly: "Strange—why is there such commotion outside? Even with the quiet chamber sealed, we can hear it clearly…" He looked displeased, rose, and walked over to activate the chamber's mechanism: "What are you doing? What's happening that you're in such a panic—"

His voice choked off.

With a thud, a corpse landed on the ground, sticky and crimson.

Before him, a warhorse reared up, its rider a boy in a Daoist robe, gripping a battle halberd in one hand, backlit, his face obscured—only the crimson aura, the flaring robe, and the icy gaze brought a terrifying pressure.

This was the prototype of a legendary general; such a warrior appearing before any enemy.

Many lacked even the courage to draw their swords.

The middle-aged scholar swallowed hard, his voice trembling:

"Halberd… halberd…"

Boom!!

Man and horse as one, riding the beast's forward charge and downward strike, the halberd crashed down—the man had no time to speak, raising his folding fan, but using it to block that heavy, tyrannical halberd filled his face with despair.

His internal Qi was shredded outright.

The halberd descended, the steel folding fan bent and was driven straight into the middle-aged scholar's body.

The halberd kept descending.

It shattered the shoulder blades, the sternum, the ribs.

With a swift pull, blood gushed—the poison master collapsed, already dead.

Meeting, clash—just an instant, and he was dead.

The beautiful woman's face turned ashen; the old man opened his eyes, staring at the man entering the chamber—the warhorse paced, the boy Daoist sat atop it, black hair slightly lifted, right hand gripping the halberd, blood dripping slowly, yet radiating an almost regal calm, like a general walking the battlefield.

No words needed.

Such youth. Such Wu Gong. Such a halberd.

Such presence.

The world held no second.

The old man spoke slowly: "Halberd Madman…"

The warhorse neighed sharply; the boy completely ignored the woman, charging straight at the old man. The beautiful woman turned pale, darting about to flee—but all she heard was the ring of a sword.

The boy did not turn back—only threw.

The ancient Song-pattern sword glowed with the radiance of Chixiao Sword.

The spirit of Chixiao Sword took control, turning it into a streak of light.

In an instant, it pinned the woman to the wall from behind, blood spurting—she writhed, watching her skin wither as blood poured out, emitting a series of shrill, agonized screams, clutching only her face and eyes.

"No, no!"

"My face—give it back! Give it back!"

Li Guanyi rode the warhorse, charging toward the old man.

The warhorse reared up; Li Guanyi spun the halberd.

He brought it down.

Leveraging the beast's furious charge and rearing strike, he slammed down hard—the old man had already summoned a spiked club, bracing it against Li Guanyi's halberd; internal Qi erupted violently, shaking the entire chamber.

Tables, chairs, decorations, porcelain—all shattered into dust.

The Tiger Roar Halberd shattered the spiked club—but did not cleave it completely.

The old man condensed his Qi into a weapon, forcing the spiked club to fully regenerate.

Li Guanyi's internal Qi was only Second Heaven; the Tiger Roar Halberd adjusted its power according to the user's state—its maximum sharpness now was only this much. The old man roared, unleashing a torrent of internal Qi.

Li Guanyi's physique held.

But the warhorse let out a mournful cry and spat blood.

Li Guanyi suddenly understood why legendary generals needed beast mounts.

Nothing else—too great a cost.

Li Guanyi leapt into the air, sending the beast away, then kicked down from above—the aged Altar Master punched out; Li Guanyi retreated with the momentum, landing on the ground, gripping the halberd, his internal Qi heavily depleted—the old man's palm was numb.

Li Guanyi saw the old man's body shimmer with internal Qi armor.

Condensing Qi into armor—Third Heaven technique.

A mere branch abbot of Yin-Yang Cycle Sect—yet he was a sect leader in ordinary martial circles.

Li Guanyi stared at the thick crimson hue on the old man's Qi.

Chixiao Sword was howling in fury.

The old man loosened his fingers, then clenched them again to ease the numbness, roaring:

"Halberd Madman, what are you doing here? We have done nothing to offend you!"

Li Guanyi ignored him entirely, advancing with the halberd, unleashing internal Qi, slamming down hard—the old man swung his spiked club, wind roaring, dense Qi blocking Li Guanyi's strikes; the old man's internal Qi was immense.

Greater than that of the Young Sword Saint Xu Huiyang.

But extremely impure.

Not refined at all.

Li Guanyi now knew the old man's Qi likely came from the so-called 【Blood Return Pill】.

Li Guanyi saw the old man's sparse eyebrows, thin teeth, blackened sinews, red eyes—already the visage of a cannibal. His weapon slashed with furious rage, dragon roars and tiger roars echoing—the old man relied on his dense condensed Qi to hold firm, seeing Li Guanyi had not formed Qi armor: "Your internal Qi is only Second Heaven—come here to die?"

Their clash shook the chamber violently; both burst out—the old man saw the corpses everywhere, froze for a moment, then his eyes bulged with rage: "You!!!"

"What have you done? My disciples, my pupils!!!"

Li Guanyi said: "Don't worry—all the disciples on the mountain."

"Dead. Not one left."

The old man's eyes bulged, his chest heaving: "What kind of madman are you!!!"

"Heartless, ruthless!"

"What grudge do we possibly hold against you, that you'd strike so ruthlessly!"

Li Guanyi remained silent; he wanted to say someone had bought their lives, yet feared that even if the Black Tortoise Phantasm concealed his face, should anyone somehow trace back to his words, he might doom those civilians.

What if someone deduces it anyway?

The young Daoist Priest lowered his gaze, then smiled faintly: "Nothing."

The battle spear slammed down again; the old altar master coughed blood and staggered back.

The youth held the spear and said:

"Only testing my spear!"

Nothing more—just came to test my weapon.

The old man nearly spat blood, roaring: "What madman are you? Old man will fight you to the death!"

The old man lunged with his weapon, but Li Guanyi merely flicked two fingers—his Nascent Soul guided the Shaoyang Sword into a streak of light, instantly striking the old man.

The old man parried, barely holding back the blow.

His inner Qi armor was pierced clean through!

His expression changed instantly: "Nascent Soul weapon control? A Daoist Priest of the Third Story?!"

The old man roared in fury: "You tricked me!"

The Jiangnan Mist Rain Twelve Stories: the first three stories form one major tier; before reaching the Third Story, the benefits are negligible; once ascended to the Third Story, Nascent Soul power rivals the Third Heavenly Realm's Nourishing Soul stage.

The old man was stunned and enraged; Li Guanyi had no intention of prolonging this.

His technique was brutal—the Spirit Split of Chixiao Sword landed upon the Shaoyang Sword.

Li Guanyi need not constantly focus; the Chixiao Sword would autonomously strike enemies.

Like two Li Guanyis attacking together.

The old man's inner Qi armor was pierced and shattered outright by the Shaoyang Sword.

The old man cried out: "No! I have blood pills—true blood pills! They won't extend life much, but at least ten years! I'll give them to you, take them!" He pulled out a blood-red pill.

But the youth's motion did not falter.

The battle spear spun and thrust forward.

Without hesitation.

Directly detonated the blood pill coveted by countless souls.

The blood pill turned to crimson dust; the old man reached out wildly, trying to grasp it.

The next instant, the Tiger Roar Heaven Battle Spear spun and pierced straight through his heart.

Pulled free, spun, spear swept horizontally.

A head of white hair flew upward.

Even in death, his hand kept reaching out, trying to grasp the powdered pill dissolving in the air.

After this slaughter, Li Guanyi's stamina remained full.

The youth spun the battle spear once in his hand, then swung it sideways.

The spear dissolved into ink-black malevolent mist and vanished.

He bent down and picked up the sword.

The disciples on this mountain—large and small—numbered one hundred thirty-seven.

All were dead.

"Am I villain or virtuous man?"

Li Guanyi walked through the blood-soaked ground, pondering—but he knew, no matter what, he could never turn back. He recalled Xue Lao's words: "The sword in its sheath sings when unjust."

In this chaotic age, he might endure once, twice—but someday, he would break.

Li Guanyi went to check whether anyone had been missed.

Whether any civilians were still imprisoned.

At that moment, the Black Tortoise Phantasm suddenly emerged.

There was hesitation, doubt.

Yet it tugged at Li Guanyi, then flew off in another direction.

It flew straight into a house.