"You?" Seeing the girl she had bullied all her life shielding Tianming behind her, Ye Ziyi laughed so hard she clutched her stomach. Li Chiling, Li Chenlei and Li Linghe couldn't help but laugh, too.
"Li Qingyu, go home. I’ll teach your big brother to respect me today and make sure he bows to me whenever he sees me at Azure Immortal Mountain in the future. A loser like you should just back off," she spat.
But in the next instant, a grade-six beastial weapon appeared in Qingyu's hands—the Fullmoon Blade. It was the first time Tianming had seen that long and thin blade. It was so thin it resembled a cicada's wings, and its length and slender look made it appear slightly curved.
Blades were generally considered to be savage weapons with lots of variation in size. Large blades with long handles could even be used to fell horses. Thick, palm-wide heavy blades with chain links on the back of the blade would cause excessive bleeding. Fine blades, on the other hand, were usually around two fingers wide and had really sharp points. Fullmoon Blade definitely belonged in the last category; it was even thinner than Tianming's Grand Thunderflare Sword.
Apart from that, Qingyu also had mastery over another kind of weapon. Tianming noticed three bright silver throwing knives between the fingers of her left hand, being no longer than ten centimeters and shaped like crescent moons. They were also grade-six beastial weapons, called Crescent Spinblades.
With both weapons in hand, Qingyu approached Ye Ziyi while she continued the mocking. All of a sudden, she sent her Crescent Spinblades flying toward her foe. With her fifth level Unity cultivation and Feiling's Temporal Field and Spiritual Attachment, the blades flew at a shocking speed.
Ye Ziyi's smile suddenly froze, then her embarrassment turned to anger. How could she allow someone she had bullied for more than ten years to take the initiative and attack her? Not to mention, she was furious that all she could do to avoid the blades was roll and tumble on the ground away from it in an uncouth manner.
"Li Qingyu, I'll make sure to strip you naked here today, so you won't be able to show your face in public anymore!" she spat with venom.
Right as the rest were dodging out of the way, Ye Ziyi's lifebound beast, a Purplewing Batdrake, jumped out of her lifebound space. It was a top-tier eight-star lifebound beast, being only a step away from being a saint beast. It sported a draconic head, body, talons, teeth, and horn. It was even closer to a true dragon than the Blizzard Dragon was, and it had two large bat wings.
However, since coming to the Grand-Orient Sect, Tianming had learned that real divine dragons were considered saint beasts. As such, this Purplewing Batdrake wasn't considered a true dragon by the sect's standards; the same would go for a Blizzard Dragon. Incidentally, the Ink Qilin wasn't considered a true qilin saint beast either. At the end of the day, it was just a matter of categorization; it didn't change the fact that the Purplewing Batdrake was still powerful. Ye Ziyi charged toward Qingyu with her Purpledrake Wingsword.
"I didn't think you'd dare to challenge me just because you got yourself an elder brother. If I don't teach you a lesson here, nobody in Azure Immortal Mountain will know who's boss!" Being a fifth-level Unity beastmaster, she manifested the Purplecloud Field with her lifebound beast. Right after its deployment, the field enveloped Qingyu and caused the temperature within to fall.
Qingyu didn't respond at all. Her three Crescent Spinblades had returned to her, and with her Moonlight Field protecting her, she was safe from the effects of Purplecloud Field. When she waved, her Pentamoon Skybane Grandwhite Kunpeng suddenly charged out.
The spectators backed off quite a bit in fear of being hurt from the attacks. It wasn't just a fight between two girls; their lifebound beasts had joined in as well.
Ye Ziyi, with her lifebound beast, executed the Splitsea Ninefold Sword Art, causing nine sword strikes to sweep through the forest. The Purplewing Batdrake struck out with nine claw strikes in tandem with Ye Ziyi and their unity field further amplified the attack by gathering spiritual energy from the surroundings. Each strike was unleashed without mercy.
"Shuo Yue, Moonlight Mirror," Qingyu called out softly. The white roc beside her immediately turned into a large white fish that caused waves to manifest and gather and form a mirror, within which a round moon hung. This spiritsource ability was a fusion of the moon and ice attributes! Qingyu, with her fine blade in hand, executed Brightmoon Slaughter. Even though she was a girl, she’d been mastering methods of slaughter in recent years.
Though the day was still bright, her moonlight shone bright with no equal. Ever since becoming a Pentamoon Skybane, she was completely different. To her, the spiritsource ability of the Purplewing Batdrake was more of a threat than Ye Ziyi's own attack. It had used Purplewing Twister, causing a purple-colored tornado to form that could even uproot trees. It then breathed frost, shooting out a purple beam that froze everything.
"Shou Yue!" At the prompt, the Grandwhite Kunpeng morphed into its avian form and executed its spiritsource ability, Ten-mile Moonbreeze, an ability that utilized both the moon and wind attributes! When the wind swept past, it managed to suppress the purple beam attack.
It was now Qingyu's turn to counterattack.
"Ye Ziyi, those who shun shall in turn be shunned. I thank your seniors for taking care of my clan, but that isn't an excuse for you to bully me. I hope you'll show me some respect from now on." Today, Qingyu had finally overcome some of her traumatic experiences.
She traced Fullmoon Blade in a beautiful arc while masterfully causing all three of her Crescent Spinblades to orbit her, grabbing Ye Ziyi's attention. The spinning blades were far too quick, much quicker than before. There was no way Ye Ziyi was aware that it was thanks to the Temporal Field's effects. Right as she was about to strike, she rammed into a wall, stunned and ignorant of Feiling's Spatial Wall ability.
"Qingyu, go!"
Though Qingyu only had a synchronization rate of sixty percent with Feiling, Spiritual Attachment was still a huge help to her in suppressing her opponent. The odds could help even a normal person dominate a genius on that level.
Tianming was all too aware of how impressive Feiling's abilities were. Without her, he would at most be able to take on someone at fourth-level Unity.
Qingyu now was somewhat familiar with Temporal Field, Spiritual Attachment and Spatial Wall. Had she been well versed with Celestial Wings, she would be even more terrifying in battle.
The Crescent Spinblades, sped up by Temporal Field, flashed past Ye Ziyi and embedded themselves in the abdomen of the Purplewing Batdrake, opening three bloody cuts. Right after that, the Fullmoon Blade came slashing toward her. Each of its eighteen consecutive strikes caused Ye Ziyi to back off haggardly, with the last one removing a lock of her hair and making a cut on her face.
"I could've cut your head off just now," Qingyu said. At that moment, her agile blade was pressed flat against Ye Ziyi's neck, ready to cut through at any moment. By then, Ye Ziyi's sword had been sent flying and plunged into the ground, still vibrating from the force and she was slumped on the ground.
The Purplewing Batdrake was hit by the spinning blades and held down by the Grandwhite Kunpeng, completely unable to do anything but struggle and groan.
Ye Ziyi had unquestionably and unilaterally lost!
It was over before she even managed to land a hit on Qingyu, yet the Apex Branch scion didn't so much as hurt her, much less kill her. Had it been Tianming, he would have given her a slap at least. Girls were gentler, at the end of the day. She had only wanted to vent her frustration and prove herself.
Ye Ziyi wanted to stand back up and try something else, but the blade pressed against her neck prevented her from doing so. Instead, she grit her teeth and shot an ugly glance at Qingyu while all her minions stared blankly on.
Back then, Ye Ziyi had completely dominated her. Something like that was without precedent. Li Chiling, Li Chenlei, and Li Linghe were equally stumped, as Qingyu's abilities were merely on par with Li Chiling back then. The cold young girl wielding her Fullmoon Blade seemed like a completely different person.
They felt their face tingle with fear. Why was Qingyu growing more to be like Tianming? That kind of devotion and ruthlessness wasn’t unlike what Tianming had shown them when he dominated them. Ye Ziyi, grimace though she may, couldn't do anything about the current situation.
"You're not my match anymore. From now on, you've lost all qualifications to be my opponent," Qingyu said, reciting what Tianming had taught her. Now that she was a Pentamoon Skybane from the Apex Branch, she should carry herself with courage and confidence.
If she couldn't even overcome someone like Ye Ziyi, there was no way revenge would be within her grasp, not to mention the revival of the Li Saint Clan. When Qingyu withdrew her blade, Ye Ziyi was still stunned, angry, frustrated, and down. She had been completely humiliated from the loss in front of her clique; this was sure to leave a huge taint in her psyche.
"How is this possible? How could I have lost to her? Grandpa has guided me since I was a child.... I got anything I wanted! How could someone like her, from the dirt-poor Li Saint Clan defeat me? She even has to hunt wildbeasts herself for spiritsource abilities!"
Tears flowed from her eyes amidst the chaotic torrent of feelings she was struggling to process. Tianming and Qingyu were headed to the Abyssal Battlefield, and Li Linghe and the rest made way for them. Who would dare obstruct these siblings now?
"Li Qingyu!" Ye Ziyi called out when they were at the entrance of the bottomless hole.
"I heard you're going to marry Li Jincan! Congratulations!" Perhaps that was the only retort she could think of to relieve the frustration of her loss.