A few days back, Wei Lingxuan had already given Li Tianming a preview of her ‘stunned’ face together with her siblings. But the annoyed look on her face right now was far more spectacular.
Li Tianming smirked. “Just look at that stupid look of yours. Compared to your acting back then, this is what being stunned truly looks like.”
Wei Lingxuan was speechless with anger. To make things worse, there was a weird smell lingering around her, and the source seemed to be the wet part of her dress.
“Li Tianming, you are dead! Dead, you hear me?!” Wei Qingyi was even more angry. The burning pain from his abdomen and his involuntary incontinence were all reminders of his defeat. The shame that this battle had brought him would last for years to come; killing him would be a mercy now. To add fuel to the fire, it was precisely that Li Tianming whom he so despised that had caused him all this shame.
“There is no way he could have beaten me even with the help of Princess Ling. This cannot be real! I have yet to send out my lifebound beast, I have not lost yet!” Wei Qingyi couldn’t imagine what would happen if the news of his defeat spread in the sanctum, and could only try his best to comfort himself.
Cursing in his mind, Wei Qingyi summoned his lifebound beast from his lifebound space. A huge golden bird took to the air, its body covered in glittering gold feathers. Its feathers were like brilliant daggers, but that wasn’t as surprising as the six wings it had — each of them was like a golden broadsword glistering under the sun.
“That’s the high-tier six-star lifebound beast, the Six-Winged Goldroc, a flying metal-type beast.”
Li Tianming stared at the Goldroc, shocked momentarily. How could he not? It was just too similar to his brother, Midas. Midas was also a Goldroc, but it had only four wings, making it a five-star beast compared to the six-star one that Wei Qingyi had. Li Tianming would never forget about the brother that had accompanied him for sixteen years of his life.
“But this is Wei Qingyi’s lifebound beast. It’s not Midas.” Li Tianming knew better than anyone that Midas would not return.
“Li Tianming, you brought this upon yourself. One of us will not be walking out of here alive today!” While Li Tianming was still stunned, the enraged Wei Qingyi had already closed in onto Li Tianming together with his Six-Winged Goldroc. The beast of course wouldn’t care about who Li Tianming was, its intention to kill Li Tianming painfully obvious.
“Wei Qingyi, who exactly isn't walking out alive?” Just as Wei Qingyi was about to strike, an icy cold voice called beside him. That was the voice belonging to a master cultivator, and it made Wei Qingyi shudder instantly, forcing him to stop his moves.
Li Tianming had seen the woman walking out of the Flameyellow Pagoda before Wei Qingyi even summoned his Goldroc. She had short hair and was dressed in a neat workout suit that portrayed her figure well. Aside from her handsome features, she also looked like an experienced, respectable senior.
Li Tianming knew her. She was Princess Qing and Wei Lingxuan’s supernal mentor, Qin Shi.
“I, I, I… I was joking, mentor. Just a joke.” Wei Qingyi hurriedly halted his assault. No matter how much anger he was, there were rules he had to follow within the sanctum, rules that couldn't be disobeyed even if he was Wei Zikun’s son. And one of them was: Do not disobey the supernal mentors.
Wei Qingyi could feel his face twitch. He had to hide all his frustration in front of Qin Shi, and anyone unaware who saw him right now would think he had constipation.
“If your mentor sees you yelling and screaming in the sanctum like this, you’d be in for some punishment.” Qin Shi stared at him. She was always known to be one of the stricter supernal mentors.
“Yes, mentor.”
Even the rest of the chattering disciples were all silenced by QIn Shi’s appearance.
“Get back to cultivating, all of you.” With a single sentence, Qin Shi sent all the bystanders scurrying away, with most of them returning to the Flameyellow Pagoda to cultivate.
That was one of Li Tianming’s favorite things about the sanctum. The rules here were strictly followed, and all disciples were treated indifferently. Even a little princess like Wei Lingxuan was just another regular disciple in front of the mentors.
Well, at least that’s how it was in public.
“Lingxuan.” Once the crowd dispersed, Qin Shi turned her attention to Wei Lingxuan. Her gaze was like a mountain, crushing her.
“Yes, mentor.” Wei Lingxuan hid her resentment and forced out a smile.
“I have high hopes of you. Place your focus on making it to seventh level Spiritsource and stop wasting your time on unimportant matters,” Qin Shi instructed.
“Yes, mentor.” Wei Lingxuan nodded.
Out of all the disciples in the sanctum, Wei Lingxuan was sixth level Spiritsource at the age of eighteen, marking her talent as above average. But if she managed to breakthrough to the seventh level, then she would become one of the better ones.
“As a member of the Wei Manor, you should know what is expected of you,” Qin shi added.
“Oh.” Wei Lingxuan pouted.
“Then stop wasting time here.”
“Yes, mentor!”
Words couldn't describe how satisfied Li Tianming felt as the two Weis were lectured by Qin Shi. Wei Qingyi had no choice but to return the Six-Winged Goldroc back to his lifebound space and follow Wei Lingxuan back into the Flameyellow Pagoda.
The only disciple still left outside was Li Tianming, who was accompanied by Jiang Feiling.
“Ling’er, you can achieve complete Spiritual Attachment with him?” Qin Shi turned to ask Jiang Feiling, her face visibly confused.
“Yes, mentor,” Jiang Feiling answered.
“And Qingluan agreed for you to hang out with him?” Qin Shi asked.
“She does. The three of us are good friends.”
“Good friends? The three of you?” Qin Shi was puzzled, given that she was aware of Li Tianming’s history.
On top of that, his position in Heaven’s Sanctum was just temporary, and it was likely that he wouldn’t be able to stay here for long. No matter how she looked at it, Li Tianming was on the verge of being expelled, and was in no position to be ‘good friends’ with the two princesses. She could hardly be impressed by a disciple who got into the sanctum using age advantage and a stroke of luck.
“Anything wrong, mentor?” Jiang Feiling questioned gently.
“Nothing. Since you are his friends, then remind him to abide by the sanctum's rules and stay out of trouble.” With that said, Qin Shi turned around and left.
As for Li Tianming, he still had plans to enter the Pagoda. That be said, Wei Lingxuan, Wei Qingyi, and all the spectators were still waiting for him inside there.
“Don’t worry, big brother, fighting is prohibited in the pagoda. If anything happens, I can protect you.” Jiang Feiling raised her fist up playfully, her brilliant smile shining under the sunlight.
“Ling’er, don’t bother about him, he wouldn’t be dying anytime soon. I’m the one who deserves your protection.” The little chick on Li Tianming’s shoulders interrupted bashfully, like the shameless thing it was.
As for the Flameyellow Pagoda, what was there to stop him from entering? Not only did he walk in, he did it with Ling’er’s arm in his, and in full view of all the spectators.
“Li Tianming is here.”
“A piece of filth like him appearing in front of the ‘Flameyellow Rock’, it’s an insult!”
All kinds of whispers filled the pagoda, most of them derogatory. As for the topic of people’s discussion, Li Tianming himself was fascinated by the Flameyellow Rock they were talking about.
The first level of the Flameyellow Pagoda was quite spacious, and just the height of this floor was more than thirty meters. The reason for that was because up to a third of the space here was occupied by a massive, irregularly shaped rock.
The moment he entered, Li Tianming could feel the wave of spiritual energy buffeting him. He wasn’t even close to the rock, but he could already feel the impact of the treasure. The rock itself looked ancient, its surface covered in red and yellow stripes. The stripes were complicated, changing with each passing second, and spoke of myriad mysteries that Li Tianming could not understand.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that everyone in Vermilion Bird knew of the legends surrounding the Flameyellow Rock. Li Tianming too had dreamed that one day, he would achieve the opportunity to cultivate in front of the stone. Today, he finally found out for himself why many would give anything just for an opportunity to cultivate here. Be it the visual impact or the waves of spiritual energy that he felt, he could barely imagine just how much benefit this rock had for cultivators.
“Big brother, are you familiar with the Flameyellow Rock?” Jiang Feiling asked.
“Do you want to introduce it to me?” Li Tianming smiled.
“Sure.” Jiang Feiling continued, “The Flameyellow Rock was said to be placed here by our ancestors on the day the Institute was first established. It was told that the rock is a spirit ore with black heavenly patterns, and it is also the largest, finest one that the nation had ever seen.”
“The Flameyellow Rock took in an endless amount of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and it was said that it had even developed its own consciousness throughout the course of history. It was as if the Flameyellow Rock was a living creature, capable of absorbing and guiding the flow of spiritual energy.”
“One of the most incredible things about the rock was that it could pick out cultivators whom it appreciates, and chase away those that it disliked. Every disciple of the sanctum has a unique synchronization level with the rock, where a higher level would mean more effective cultivation. Black heavenly patterns are the second best patterns, right after white ones. That means ores with black patterns are only inferior to those with white patterns. Big brother, can you see the black magical formation there? Those are the black heavenly patterns.”
Li Tianming looked up, and sure enough, there was a black magical formation that encompassed the entire rock. The formation was in fact a web made up of innumerable black veins, all part of the rock’s heavenly patterns.
Patterns of higher level were capable of forming magic formations, and it was precisely these formations that stored the power of heavenly will, which gave the Flameyellow Rock its unique qualities. Red, orange or yellow patterns were nothing compared to those magic formations in the stone.
It went without saying that the Flameyellow Rock was the crown jewel of Heaven's Sanctum, and countless generations had cultivated here before making a name for themselves in this nation.