Meanwhile, at the Yuwen household on Fengtian Mountain, fog blanketed a large waterway, obscuring everything in it.
All of a sudden, a giant beast's roar could be heard shaking the surroundings and causing half the lifebound beasts on the mountain to shudder in fear. The terrifying roaring lasted for a few days without stopping.
Up on a cliff in the clouds stood a young man in black. His black hair and robe gently swayed in the air, making him seem like a deity descended from the heavens. There was a slight sheen on his skin and thousands of sparkles coming from his eyes.
He was so handsome his angular features almost seemed sculpted. Though his outer appearance seemed a little normal on first glance, the glow that emanated from his eyes was shockingly charming. His fluttering hair and sharp eyebrows might cause someone who wasn’t on their guard to freeze in their tracks. His tall nose and thick, luscious red lips formed an enchanting smile as he looked down into the distance.
He was waiting for someone. At that moment, a bear-like person two meters in height walked up to him from behind.
The youth turned around and nodded, smiling. "Third Uncle."
"How's it going?" the bald man asked, standing nervously at the edge of the cliff and looking down.
"Grandfather and Father are busy, but I believe it's almost done," he said.
"Congratulations! You're the first ever prime disciple to have a fourth-order saint beast before the age of twenty!" the bald man passionately said.
The young man merely laughed. "What about Shengcheng? He said he wanted to see my fourth-order saint beast. Why isn't he here?"
"He got pissed off at the Imperial Ninefold Gates and left for the Abyssal Battlefield with his group of beauties."
"The Abyssal Battlefield is chaotic... who knows what kind of dirty antics he’s up to over there with those beauties."
The bald man merely chuckled.
"How did he get angered?" the young man asked.
Yuwen Kaitai recounted the events of that day to him, but got little response from the youth. "Oh? I was expecting more of a reaction from you. That's a pentabane, you know," he said.
"Oh." He merely looked toward the mountains.
"Third Uncle, my enemy is an elysian child. From now on, I won't concern myself too much with those in the Grand-Orient Sect. Let Shengcheng handle trivial matters like this himself. He needs to experience hardship."
The bald man looked into the eyes of the young man. He knew that the kid he had watched grow up was now beyond them. There was nobody else in the sect that piqued his interest.
"Shengcheng is getting older now, so he does need some training and hardship. Big Brother already prepared a manna that can let his lifebound beast evolve into a second-order saint beast. In a few years, the sect will count on him. As for you... your battlefield is now the whole of the Grand-Orient Realm!"
The youth kept silent, letting the strong winds ruffle his robes.
......
There was no endless hole into the Abyssal Battlefield in Fatepath Peak. Usually, when Qingyu wanted to go there, she would head to Azure Immortal Mountain. As the battlefield was watched over by the Grand-Orient guardians, the disciples could only enter it through the bottomless hole at Azure Immortal Mountain.
It didn't take long for the three of them to reach the foot of the mountain where the hole was.
"With the Grand-Orient Mountains in the Abyssal Battlefield at the center, there’s four domains stretching north, south, east, and west, respectively. They’re the Grandpeace Domain, Skyhang Domain, Bladeriver Domain, and the Desolate Domain," Qingyu briefed.
"Where is manna most likely to show up?" Tianming asked.
"Grandpeace, perhaps. There’s many wildbeasts and treasures there. But normal disciples wouldn't dare head that way. I've only been there with a dozen other members of the Wuyou Faction.”
"Let's go to Grandpeace then."
Apart from manna, Tianming wanted to try his luck and see if he could hunt and kill a few wildbeasts to gain some spiritsource abilities for Ying Huo and Meow Meow. Even though the souls of wildbeasts couldn't unlock their bloodline abilities, he would still try his luck.
Now that Qingyu and he had just broken through, they would be roughly equally powerful with Feiling out of the equation. Currently, the siblings had no other goal than to cultivate and grow even stronger.
They had arrived at Azure Immortal Mountain and saw the bottomless hole. There were a few buildings from the sect nearby that were used as outposts of the sect to react to emergency situations.
"The wildbeasts in the Abyssal Battlefield are far stronger than you can imagine. A few waves of beasts had once broken through the Hall of Hunters' defenses and even came through the bottomless hole to the Flameyellow Continent. They caused quite a lot of damage to our sect, especially during the past hundred years when the beasts numbered even more. There are two ways disciples of the sect can be rewarded. The first is to fulfill missions given by the sect, which requires going on an assignment outside the sect and being rewarded with merit points that can be exchanged for cultivation resources, such as spirit ores, herbs, hazards, beastial weapons, and battle arts.
"The second method is to kill wildbeasts at the Abyssal Battlefield and trade trophies from the beasts' carcasses as proof for merit points. On the sacred mountain is the Orient Hall where they inspect the trophies. You can trade the trophies for spirit gems there. You can spend the spirit gems for cultivation resources at the Grand Hall; they sell things much cheaper than other places there, but only inner disciples of the sect may use it. Outer disciples aren't afforded that luxury."
Tianming got to know much about the Grand-Orient Sect, thanks to her explanation. Basically, disciples of the sect had to serve it for more avenues of progress in their cultivation, whether it be fulfilling direct missions or hunting wildbeasts. It was a win-win for the sect and the disciples.
Had it not been for the fact that he had access to Li Shenxiao's tombstone, he would have to use these methods to obtain cultivation resources. At the very least, he still didn't have a unity-ranked battle art of his own, so he decided he would try earning one. Not to mention, the sect missions and hunts could also help him improve.
Even though he was the junior sect master, he was really poor and had nothing else apart from his two weapons. As for Jingyu's assets, she had spent much of it to nurture Qingyu without leaving much for Tianming. Li Wudi, on the other hand, had nothing but alcohol. Tianming was prepared to sustain his new household through honest work, if he had to.
Right as he and Qingyu were about to step into the hole, a group of people emerged from it. Immediately, Tianming set eyes on Ye Ziyi, who hadn’t had anything good to say about him during Ye Shaoqing's lecture two days ago. Apart from her, Li Linghe and some ten other young girls were also there. Tianming even spotted Li Chiling and Li Chenlei.
They were all disciples of Azure Immortal Mountain. Ye Ziyi, as Elder Ye's granddaughter, was the leader of the group. She recalled that she had vowed to make him pay, and now was her chance.
"Don't think you can run," she said as her minions surrounded Tianming and Qingyu.
"Why would you go to such lengths?" Tianming hadn't done much to her, yet she was so hostile toward him.
"What do you mean 'why'? You offended me last time. Now that my uncle isn't here, you're cowering away? Well, if you want to back down, kowtow to me and I'll let you go," she said.
"That's right!" Li Linghe cheered.
"We don't owe each other anything, nor do we have grudges. Why bother going so far?" Tianming really didn't know what those feisty young kids were thinking about.
"It's nothing much. I just want to see if a so-called pentabane like you is really a genius, or if you're just roadside trash." It seemed she still hadn't heard about Tianming breaking through at the ninth gate, something that had even shocked Yuwen Shengcheng.
"Ye Ziyi, don't go overboard. We have never wronged you," Qingyu spat. It was one thing for her to go after Qingyu, but it made no sense for her to demand that Tianming prostrate himself to her.
"Never wronged me? Li Qingyu, I simply want to mess with you. Unhappy? Then do something about it. Let's see if you'll still be my second uncle's disciple. What's with all the hype about the Li Saint Clan's Apex Branch? You guys are laughingstocks, just like the junior sect master."
Tianming sighed at the ridiculousness of the situation. Like Yuwen Shengcheng, Ye Ziyi was at fifth-level Unity. She had suppressed Qingyu back then, thanks to her one level advantage, and Li Chenlei and Li Chiling obediently followed her around. Nothing she did really escalated as Qingyu quietly endured their torment over the years. After all, her grandmother had told her that they had to count on Elder Ye, so risking his support by offending his granddaughter wasn’t something she could afford.
Yet that had merely exacerbated the bullying over the course of the years. Tianming could tell that Qingyu held lots of pent-up resentment. Just because she was from the Apex Branch and didn't suck up to Ye Ziyi, she was targeted. Even the most saintly person had a temper.
"Well, do you want to give it a try?" Tianming asked Qingyu.
"I’ve never defeated her before," she said with her head down. Ye Ziyi had been taught by the elder since childhood, not to mention the tons of resources she easily got. She was also a few months Qingyu's senior.
"It might be different this time." Tianming smirked. After all, the two girls were now at the same level, and Qingyu had even awakened her latent potential. She was no longer the bullied girl she was before. More importantly, Tianming grabbed her hand and transferred Feiling to her. Even with a synchronization rate of only sixty percent, it was enough to greatly boost Qingyu's abilities.
"Qingyu, beat her up! Vent all your resentment that piled up over fifteen years!"
"But, she's Elder Ye's granddaughter," she said with grit teeth. She was really frustrated. This had been troubling her for years; most of the trauma she had suffered was thanks to Ye Ziyi's minions.
"Don't worry. Since she made you cry so many times, you're only returning the favor once. It's not like you have to really hurt her anyway."
Tianming trusted Elder Ye to not be an unreasonable person, or he wouldn't have bothered helping the Li Saint Clan in the first place.
"We always have to overcome our fears. Only then can we go on living. Teach her a lesson and make sure she turns the other way when she sees you in the future."
"Got it, Big Brother!" Qingyu's eyes began burning passionately.
There were some kids who went too far before they matured and took advantage of their seniority or family background to bully others, relishing in the suffering of their victims. This time around, Qingyu wanted to make her cry just this once.