For the past thousand years, the Su Clan had been the second most powerful clan in the Grand-Orient Sect. But after what had happened, they wouldn’t be able to recover from that devastating defeat within a hundred years.
Their meeting today was merely coincidental. When Su Wuyou and Su Yiran saw Tianming and the two girls following him, they paled and shrank to one side, afraid of making eye contact. The reaction from Su Tao and Su Li, the ones who bullied Qingyu, was even worse, as they were visibly shaking. It had barely been three months and the Li siblings had reached a height they found impossible to imagine. Even Su Wuyou, the prime disciple of her generation and the strongest among them, couldn’t fight Qingyu.
“Qingyu, do you want to vent your anger?” Tianming asked.
“It’s fine. The real culprit is dead, and I don’t want others to think that we’re abusing our power.” Qingyu bit her lips.
“Fine, they’re not worthy of being your opponent anyway.”
Su Wuyou could hear every single word that Tianming said. However, she couldn’t refute it at all.
“Scram.” Tianming didn’t want to see them anymore. Qingyu was way too kind, and if he were in her shoes he would have at least taught them a lesson.
Just as Su Wuyou’s group was about to leave, relieved that Tianming was letting them go, a gruff roar came from the crowd.
“Who are you to ask them to scram!”
Who in the Grand-Orient Sect still dares to taunt me? Tianming looked toward the direction of the voice. A short-haired disciple had made their way in front of Su Wuyou, and it was impossible to tell that person’s gender given their physique. They were more buff than a girl, but also more slender than a boy.
“Surely the junior sect master shouldn’t be terrorizing people on the streets of the sect. Unless you’re above the law here?” The person stared fiercely at Tianming.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Su Mu!”
Another member of the Su Clan? Tianming wasn’t happy to be accused of ‘terrorizing others’ just for telling them to scram.
“Big brother, she’s twenty-five years old and sixth-level Heavenly Will,” Qingyu introduced.
“Hmm.” Tianming nodded.
Just as Qingyu finished her introduction, Su Wuyou’s group hurriedly gathered around Su Mu, as if they had finally found someone they could rely on.
“Aunt!”
"Did Li Tianming bully you?" Su Mu asked through clenched teeth.
“Get lost, Su Mu. What makes you think the junior sect master would even waste his time on the Su Clan now?”
“How cheeky.”
Su Mu’s appearance sparked many reactions from the crowd.
“Shut up!” Su Mu had a fiery temper. Recently, much resentment had been building up inside her from constantly hearing others belittle the Su Clan.
“It’s a she? So both generations from the Su Clan are led by women?” Tianming had thought he was talking to a man until the others addressed her as ‘aunt’.
“Li Tianming, what do you have against women?” Su Mu scolded.
“Are you trying to taunt me?” Tianming scoffed. He wouldn’t let people get away with falsely accusing him twice.
“I just dislike people who abuse their positions. You’re just a nobody without the sect master to back you up,” Su Mu snickered.
Tianming admitted he had underestimated this girl. He thought she was just a fool looking for trouble, but she had successfully angered him in the shortest time possible. On top of that, she turned to Feiling.
“She may look attractive, but too bad she’s just another useless pretty face.” While Su Mu was briefly shocked by Feiling’s beauty, it hadn’t stopped her mouth.
“I haven’t offended you in any way. Why should a toad like you comment about me?” Even Feiling was beginning to get annoyed. She was cheered on by the crowd. Clearly, most of them supported her, rather than Su Mu.
Usually, Tianming would just ignore those kinds of people, but he wouldn’t let Su Mu get away after insulting Feiling.
“Come, I’ll make you shut up in the Second Grand-Orient Battlefield,” Tianming sneered. He could tell that she wasn’t just looking for trouble. She wanted him dead to avenge the Su Clan elders who had died. Unfortunately, Tianming had already seen through her ploy.
“Pfft, you need a good beating to learn that the Grand-Orient Sect isn’t yours!” Deep in Su Mu's seemingly insane eyes, murderous intent flickered.
They soon arrived at the Second Grand-Orient Battlefield, followed by many onlookers. It was a mini-arena normally occupied by practicing disciples.
“Have you heard? The junior sect master is about to fight that tyrannosaurus from the Su Clan!”
“She’s the most prominent member in the Su Clan now. Out of all of Su Yunzhi’s descendants, she’s the most likely to take over as a sect elder.”
News of the battle circulated fast, and they had already drawn a decent crowd. Su Mu clearly didn’t want a larger audience to gather, and she dashed up to Tianming the moment they stepped into the battlefield.
“Su Mu, I respect your courage. But, you do realize that there’s no way you can make it out alive if you kill me here?” Tianming was fearless.
“You realized? That’s all the more reason for you to die! It doesn’t matter if I die here today.” Su Mu was wielding her Terra Blast Mace, determined to trade her own life for Tianming’s.
At the same time, Feiling had attached herself to Tianming and disappeared into his body, shocking the audience.
“If you think my Ling’er is useless, then I’ll show you that no one in the Su Clan is even worthy of being her maid.”
When Tianming finished speaking, Su Mu’s fourth-order saint beast, the Terra Draconic Snake dove into the ground. It swam underground like a fish in water, ready to use its various abilities on Tianming at any time.
“Li Wudi destroyed the Su Clan, and I’ll destroy you! Your blood will be used to pay respects to my father, uncle, and brother!” Su Mu grit her teeth, her face that of a murderer. As the youngest daughter of Su Yunzhi, she was the current leader of the Su Clan. Knowing that this was her only chance for revenge, each strike of hers was aimed to kill.
Su Mu used the first stance of her Asura Mace Art, Asura Dance. She was surprisingly swift as she approached Tianming. However, it wasn’t long before she got trapped in the Temporal Field, and her mace was completely blocked by a Spatial Wall. Before she could even touch Tianming, he had already launched himself into the sky. With an aerial advantage, Tianming was unbeatable.
“See, these are all thanks to Ling’er. You may be older than me, which is why you can reach sixth level Heavenly Will. But did you really think I’d be defeated by a narrow-minded fool like you?” Tianming snickered as he drew the Grand-Orient Sword from his spatial ring.
She’s just a bit stronger than Sikong Lingfeng, so that means Yuan Chen should be seventh-level Heavenly Will. Using Su Mu’s strength, Tianming had a rough gauge on what level Yuan Chen was at. Not only was Yuan Chen younger, but he also had a superior lifebound beast.
“Die!”
Suddenly, Su Mu hopped on her snake and they leaped into the air. Although the Terra Draconic Snake was a ground-type beast that could maneuver underground, it also had giant wings that granted it flight. With the mace over the top of her head, she used her next move, Earth Fissure, and smashed her mace onto Tianming from above.
“At least she can be my training dummy.” Tianming merely smirked, his hands holding the Grand-Orient Sword. He was confident that no one in the realm could possibly imagine how fast he was improving.
Tianming used Pyros Imperius of the Shenxiao Sword Art, as his beast ki and the Grand-Orient Vortex gathered onto his sword. This was further enhanced by his own Imperial Will, as well as Ying Huo’s Infernal Will. It was a move that he had practiced more than a hundred times over the course of ten days, and having Feiling’s Spiritual Attachment only made it even more powerful.
The sword ki formed a flaming tornado, with Tianming’s Imperial Will infused in it. Each person’s will was a display of their own understanding of Heavenly Will, and likewise, Su Mu had her own will as well as her own heavenly-ranked battle arts. But before Tianming’s sky saint-ranked battle art and his Imperial Will, Su Mu didn’t stand a chance.
As the mace crashed into the sword, the mace was almost instantly shattered into millions of shards. Tianming’s sword intent engulfed Su Mu in flames, tearing through whatever protection she had. At the very last second, he tilted his sword and smashed the flat of the blade into her head.
With a crisp crunching sound, Su Mu’s eyes nearly popped out of her sockets as she fainted and fell off her mount. Her snake quickly caught her using its mouth and disappeared back into the ground.
Su Mu had been defeated. Tianming expected that, since he had already reached second-level Heavenly Will and used his strongest move while in prime condition. It would have been more surprising if he lost. As for whether she was dead or not, it was a mystery to the onlookers. Tianming didn’t kill her, out of respect for her courage. However, it would take half a year for her to recover from that hit on the head.
“The junior sect master just murdered someone.…” Suddenly a cry of despair could be heard. It came from none other than Su Yiran.
“What did you say?” Tianming landed before Su Yiran and fixed his eyes on her.
“Don’t kill me, junior sect master, it was all Su Mu’s idea. I had nothing to do with it.” Su Yiran dropped to her knees, her legs trembling. Just a few months ago, Tianming was no different from a swine to her, but now the table had turned.
“Be careful what you say next time.” Tianming patted her on her cheek, but there was no reaction other than tears of humiliation. As he raised his head and looked around, he saw Su Wuyou backing away, her eyes also red and swollen. At the same time, the Terra Draconic Snake tunneled out of the ground and quickly slithered away.
There was no one left in the Su Clan that could stop Tianming. All that was left was fear.