“Who taught you to be so vicious at such a young age?” Li Jingyu snorted.
In truth, this wasn’t a threat that could be laughed off. Who knew how terrifying Lady Long would be after a decade had passed?
“You’ve really wasted so many years of your life cultivating. How could you still not know the rules of this world? The strong eat the weak, as well as seize everything, kill everything that threatens them, and wipe away all enmities. Only through eliminating grass by the roots when you face enemies can you dominate everything.
“Today, you threatened my life. Another day, I’ll exterminate your whole clan! That day won’t be far off. That is the creed I live my life by, and my path of cultivation!” Every word of hers was delivered imposingly.
Li Tianming suddenly broke into the conversation with a chortle. “Alright, alright, stop bragging. I get it. You’re super duper awesome and badass, and one day, the world shall tremble at your feet, you’re the main character, you’re a special snowflake, blah blah blah….”
Lady Long’s eyes immediately shifted to him, evaluating him. “Ant!”
In this confrontation, a random illegitimate son of Li Wudi wasn’t worth her attention.
As for Li Jingyu, Lady Long’s words did concern her. It could be seen that she really was wary of future retribution.
Li Tianming could tell from the conversation that the Li Saint Clan wasn’t as glorious as it once was. Also, even though Li Wudi was the Grand-Orient Sect’s sect master, his word there wasn’t law. It seemed Li Jingyu had exaggerated somewhat. After all, she had been trying to entice Li Tianming.
It seemed challenges would await him when he went to the Grand-Orient Realm.
However, Li Tianming wasn’t worried about it, since he had approved of Li Jingyu and Li Qingyu because of their sincerity towards him.
He didn’t mind joining them and facing these challenges. Regardless, he did need challenges, resources, and status to accelerate his growth.
“Big brother, she, she stole five of my sealed abilities…” Jiang Feiling said worriedly.
“What?” Li Tianming was startled. He had originally thought she was fine when he saw she was unharmed. However, when she raised her right hand, he saw that she had lost the strange seals on those fingernails!
“I don’t know how that person did it, but he took those five seals and transferred them into a sphere for her to store them. He also wanted to take away the seal on my left hand, but failed. According to him, it’s because the five seals on my left hand form one complete whole, and I’ve already unlocked four. However, the fingernails on my right hand are only a vessel and they haven’t merged with my bloodline, so they were vulnerable. She then forced me to Spiritually Attach to her. It was a grade seven attachment and raised her strength, so she wanted me to be her maid. Fortunately, you came.”
Although she was unharmed, she still hated to part with those five seals, as she wanted to help Li Tianming more in the future.
Originally, Li Tianming hadn’t had a positive impression of this Lady Long. Now, it was completely ruined. He had already promised not to let anyone touch one hair of hers. However, not three days after he’d made that vow, this Lady Long had come along and gone much further than a hair.
“Illegitimate son of Li Wudi. She’s a good treasure, and you don’t qualify to own her! For the next few years, help me take care of her. When I exterminate the Li Clan, I’ll bring her away. If you take care of her until then, I promise to spare you your life.”
Li Tianming laughed coldly when he heard that. Did he really need to be told to protect Jiang Feiling? He asked Li Jingyu, “Grandma, could you help me seize those five seals back?”
He didn’t feel very pleased to let that arrogant Lady Long just take them like that, even if it didn’t feel as bad as with the matter of the Saintbeast War-Soul.
“I expect she used the Saint Origin Sphere to capture it, then stored it in her spatial ring. It’ll be troublesome to snatch it from her. After all, just now I was just threatening them and not actually attacking. If I really do attack, it’ll escalate to something unresolvable. For now, we’ve kept my granddaughter-in-law safe, which is the most important thing. For those seals, it’s not impossible for you to get them back in a few decades. After all, with your bane-rings, your talent isn’t any lower. You just have a later starting point.”
Li Tianming understood where she was coming from—life was indeed the most important thing.
Just threatening the other side had been met with a proclamation of clan extermination. An actual fight would probably have severe repercussions for Vermilion Bird; besides, it would be for the best if he could do it himself.
“Then it’s alright, big brother. I still have five,” Jiang Feiling hurriedly said.
Li Tianming raised his head. “Lady Long, you said that you’ll exterminate my whole clan in a decade, right?”
“Yes.”
“No need to wait a decade. I’ll go to Heaven’s Elysium myself before then, and remove your head in front of all of Heaven’s Elysium while I take back my Ling’er’s seals,” Li Tianming said. It was delivered with utter calm, but a dangerous light was in his eyes, exactly the same as when he executed Lin Xiaoting.
His words brought Li Qingyu and Li Jingyu some shock. However, it also finally made Lady Long laugh, so amused she was by Li Tianming.
“That is absolutely the biggest boast I have heard in my life.”
“Well, Lady Long, I have you, the best of the best, to learn from,” Li Tianming “gratefully” replied. He despised this Lady Long, and their grudge was irreconcilable.
“Ignorant fool.”
Li Tianming’s words made Lady Long’s expression lose all mirth. With Li Jingyu here, she couldn’t do anything, and talking more with Li Tianming would only debase herself.Only contempt and derision were in her eyes. Elysium child and junior sect master sounded equal, but was that really so?
“Li Jingyu, when the time comes, remember to lead the whole clan into battle for me to kill.” With those parting words, Lady Long brought her posse and left.
During the entire conflict, Yueling Ji had only dared to stay at the back and keep quiet. Not even Li Tianming was aware Lady Long was Yueling Ji’s younger sister.
Li Tianming finally understood when Li Jingyu told him Yueling Long’s name and legend. The internally decided victor of the Abyssal Trials and the Yueling Clan taking over the Aquamarine Sanctum were all orchestrated by Yueling Long!
“Don’t you fear this genius of the Grand-Orient Realm?” Li Jingyu asked.
“Why should I? It’s not like she has three heads and six arms. She’s only human.” To Li Tianming, no one could snatch away what belonged to him or Jiang Feiling. Not Lin Xiaoting, not Yueling Long, not anyone!
She wanted to massacre the Li Clan in a decade? Perhaps, with the right opportunity, they wouldn’t need a decade, nor would it happen to the Li Clan. The ten Primordial Chaos Beasts and first ten bane-ring physique ever had given Li Tianming boundless confidence.
There could only be one verdict for making Jiang Feiling unhappy: death.
Despite how flippant Li Tianming seemed to be toward Yueling Long, killing intent was already stirring in his heart. He was now someone who wanted to spoil his wife, and Yueling Long had been the first to touch this taboo.
Well, she wasn’t actually his wife yet, but when Jiang Feiling had pleaded with the king to let her brave the world with him, she had become the most important girl in his life.
Now, Li Tianming brought Li Jingyu along to find the king. He had fainted, and Jiang Qingluan was by his side, bawling in the midst of despair when she saw Li Tianming bringing Jiang Feiling back.
“Ling’er!” Jiang Qingluan was incredibly emotional, and her tears turned into happiness. She looked at Li Tianming, knowing he was the reason why she came back.
“Good job. You didn’t let Ling’er down after she spent three days pleading with father and me to let her go!” Jiang Qingluan smiled, causing tears to fall again. She really couldn’t bear to part with Jiang Feiling; they had grown up together, and she was even closer to her than her real sisters. After all, it was difficult for royal princesses to get along.
“So you agree?” Li Tianming asked.
Jiang Qingluan grit her teeth and glared at him. “We’ll see what my father says. Ling’er is too great, so we can’t make things too easy for you.”
Not long after that, the king woke up. Li Tianming introduced Li Jingyu and Li Qingyu to him. Coincidentally, he had heard of the Grand-Orient Sect and the Li Saint Clan before. He was stunned to hear that Li Tianming had a high level bloodline of the Li Saint Clan flowing through him.
“Your Majesty?”
“Li Tianming, if something happens to my daughter, I’ll hold you accountable!” the king threatened.
“Yes.”
It was only a single word, but it made the king relax.
Next came the touching scene of the two sisters bidding each other farewell. Li Tianming felt very moved to see it, but when he thought of how he was going to bring away Jiang Feiling, he nearly burst out laughing.
“Jiang Qingluan, if I do manage to stabilise my position there and gain authority, I’ll bring you over there to cultivate so you can continue being with Ling’er,” Li Tianming whispered in Jiang Qingluan’s ear before leaving.
“Really? So you do have a conscience. Also, before you come to Vermilion Bird to ask for her hand, you’re not allowed to touch Ling’er!” Jiang Qingluan winked at him.
“Relax, I won’t touch her.” So saying, he tightly held Jiang Feiling’s hand.
Was that called not touching? Jiang Qingluan grit her teeth, but she was powerless to do anything. After all, Li Tianming was her ticket to the vast outside world. In fact, it was only due to the uncertainty regarding the junior sect master position that he wasn’t bringing her along already.
The next journey had finally begun!
They got on Li Jingyu’s lifebound beast. It was a high-tier eight-star beast, even better than Mu Yang’s Ink Qilin. It was called the Raging-Sea Kunpeng, a rarely seen dual-species lifebound beast. Normally, only dual-types were heard of.
Being a dual-species beast meant it was two races in one. The kunpeng had two forms: one was a bird, the peng, that could take to the skies, and the other was a fish, the kun, that could roam the seas. In the past, the Li Saint Clan had even been called the ‘Kunpeng Clan’.
The Wei Clan’s goldrocs were descendants of the peng half of the kunpengs.
Now in the form of a bird, the Raging-Sea Kunpeng shot into the sky. Within a day, they crossed thousands of kilometers worth of mountains and rivers.
By daybreak, they reached the Grand-Orient Sect.
The instant Li Tianming saw the vast, ancient sect, he immediately knew he had correctly chosen to go there.
“Tianming, my grandson, come in with me… to become the junior sect master!” Li Jingyu urged him as soon as they arrived, as if he waited any longer, the opportunity would be lost.
End of Volume 2: The Bane of Life
Next, Volume 3: The Grand-Orient Sect