Yu Xiaogui squinted into the distance, where the dark blue lake reflected the cloudless sky. Not far away, the perpetual lightning and thunder over Lake Zhongzhou intermittently illuminated a large swath of the lake, and a white speck gently appeared within sight.
As the figure drew closer, Yu Xiaogui could finally make out that it was a man in white, holding a sword, walking on air. Beneath his feet, the lake water surged and roared, transforming into serpentine sea beasts of various shapes, crowding around him as he approached slowly.
"Father! Father!"
Yu Mugao called out several tis, but saw Yu Xiaogui staring motionless at the horizon with a grim expression. He clenched his sleeves tightly, his lips pressed firmly together, uttering not a word.
A heavy sense of foreboding suddenly gnawed at Yu Mugao’s heart, and he hurriedly looked in the direction of his father’s gaze, but he saw nothing.
"Father!"
Yu Xiaogui’s aura erupted, his sleeve making a rustling sound in the wind, the grey clothes emitting a faint Dharma Light. He spoke through clenched teeth with a trace of fear,
"Li Tongya..."
"Li Tongya. Li Tongya!"
Yu Mugao was hit as if by thunder, his complexion turning instantly pale. He hesitated in mid-air, his mouth opening but no words coming out, his eyes downcast, murmuring,
"How is that possible? How is that possible? It can’t be!"
"Impossible... There must be sothing wrong with Li Tongya! There must be sothing wrong with Li Tongya!"
The sky grew increasingly somber, and scattered clouds blown by the north wind approached from the south. A fine drizzle began to fall from the sky. Yu Mugao’s eyes widened, and indeed, he saw a man in white coming across the lake surface.
This man walked on air but rode on serpentine sea beasts. The waters of Wangyue Lake surged, the dark blue serpents opening their jaws and claws vividly, obediently snaking beneath his feet as they moved forward.
He was simply dressed in a flowing white robe, his eyebrows long and relaxed, his cheeks gaunt, his shoulders broad, exuding a commanding presence. In his arms, he held a sword, its shape concealed within its sheath.
"It’s raining... Rain shouldn’t be falling now... It’s never rained on the North Shore..."
The Yu Family mbers all looked up at the sky, the fine, cold raindrops hitting their faces. They were startled by the solemn atmosphere and stopped in unison, looking towards the lakeshore from afar.
"The Moon Que Sword Li Tongya!"
"The Li Family patriarch... Foundation Establishnt Sword Cultivator Li Tongya!"
The cultivators from both families directed all their attention toward the man in white, whispering to each other in horror. Thirty-six Qi Refining Cultivators and over a hundred Fetal Breathing Cultivators were all overwheld by his presence, not daring to make a move.
"It’s raining..."
Li Tongya simply held the sword and stopped on the shore, reaching out to catch the falling raindrops, cold to the touch but not forming frost or snow, trickling down one by one.
Li Tongya rarely wore white, but the rush of True Yuan throughout his body from the Huacang Fruit in his stomach brought him a surge of battle intent he had never felt before. For once in high spirits, he donned the elegant white robe.
With his Immortal Foundation unstable and his cultivation level continuously leaking, he had ascended to an unprecedented peak thanks to the Precious dicine that damaged his ridians and Qi Sea. The weather itself was influenced by the "Vast Sea" within him, giving him the semblance of the imposing aura of a Foundation Establishnt Peak Cultivator.
In the sky, Yu Xiaogui’s eyes were filled with fear. For a mont, he was at a loss for words. He extended his Spiritual Sense cautiously towards the man, sensing an imnse presence as vast as the sea.
"What is his cultivation level... Foundation Establishnt Middle Stage? Foundation Establishnt Late Stage? Impossible!"
Just standing on the shore, Li Tongya had already caused the weather to change. Combined with his reputation for slaying Maha with a sword, Yu Xiaogui felt a rising sense of dread, contemplating an early departure.
"Yu Elder."
Li Tongya looked up at him, his bright eyes brimming with calm. He took asured steps, ascending the sky, and ca to a halt before the Yu Family mbers.
His tone was as calm and firm as it was back when he, at the Seventh Layer of Qi Cultivation, t Fei Wangbai and Yu Xiaogui at the lake banquet, neither humble nor arrogant.
"Long ti no see."
The effects of the Precious dicine Huacang Fruit spread through his organs, gradually smoothing away the wrinkles on his face, turning his white hair black, and falling behind him in a graceful manner.
Li Tongya’s face had transford from that of an old man full of worry and contemplation to the reliability and grace of middle age, and then slowly reverted to the handso, sharp-edged appearance of his sixteen-year-old self—a visage he had buried too early in the pile of his life’s old papers, never shown to anyone.
Back then, he had not yet embarked on the path to immortality. He rose early and returned late, often facing the morning sun to thresh wheat in the fields, scattering sweat amongst the thin mists, brimming with smiles. Li Xiangping chattered incessantly by his side while his elder brother, Li Changhu, sat atop the field ridge, laughing.
"I... I’ve had the honor of eting you, Taoist Fellow..."
Yu Xiaogui silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva, feeling the overwhelming authority emanating from Li Tongya, his panic unspeakable, his speech trembling with trepidation.
He looked at the sixteen-year-old visage of Li Tongya before him, as if witnessing a venomous snake that had been in hiding for years finally revealing its fangs or a nesting eagle that had cast aside its worries, now just quietly hovering in the sky, appearing as a white Immortal Sword hanging overhead, sending shivers down his spine.
It was only then that Li Tongya collected himself, his gaze moving across the faces of the Yu Family mbers as he said warmly,
"The Fei Clan is blaless; I beseech your noble family to withdraw its troops."
The words were authoritarian, indisputable—as if a longsword screeched when they poured from Li Tongya’s mouth, leaving the Yu Family mbers trembling in fear, ill at ease, Xiaogui’s face flushed red, but he dared not utter a word of dissent.
Yu Xiaogui’s hand hidden in his sleeve trembled incessantly, the choking sensation tightening around his throat as if the air itself were becoming so dense it might drip with water. The Yu Family cultivators had silently stowed away their magic artifacts, exchanging glances, until the voice of a man burst forth in anger,
"He’s bluffing! Attack!"
"Li Tongya! You’re bluffing! You can’t possibly leave unscathed! Cast your spells! What are you all looking at? Cast your spells!"
This voice was hysterical, cold, and impatient, and it exploded over the deathly quiet Hanyun Peak, jolting everyone to attention—it was Yu Mugao, with bloodshot eyes, on the verge of splitting, shouting,
"Li Tongya! Impossible! Stop pretending!"
Li Tongya responded neither affirmatively nor negatively, rely gazing at him calmly, and reminded by his eldest son, Yu Xiaogui finally broke free from the intense shock, greed rolling in his eyes, revealing a sliver of hope as he gritted his teeth and said,
"Hanyun Peak must be ours; you have offended, Taoist Fellow!"
With that, he flicked his sleeve, and a fist-sized piece of Yu Yanshan floated out, expanding rapidly upon eting the wind. He committed his full strength from the outset, transforming it into the size of a small hill before smashing it downwards.
"Edict!"
Li Tongya’s white robe rustled in the wind. Facing the overwhelming assault of Yu Yanshan, he revealed a gentle smile, his Green Ruler Sword leaping forth from his bosom.
"Clang!"
A cyan and white light shone forth from the summit of Hanyun Peak, darkening the sky, without a hint of light. The drizzle fell like fine strands of hair; the dense cyan and white light was so piercing that onlookers could barely keep their eyes open.
A cyan and white moon lit up on the North Shore.
"Boom—"
Yu Yanshan, as heavy as a great mountain and suppressing all spells, rely paused in the air for a split second before it was swept away by the surging cyan and white Sword Qi, tumbling several tis and crashing heavily onto the Cloud Gathering Southern Sky Formation, shaking Hanyun Peak.
"What?!"
Yu Yanshan deflated like a punctured ball, shrinking back to the size of a fist. But Yu Xiaogui, caught in the rebound of his magic artifact, spat out a mouthful of blood even before the Sword Qi reached him, crying out,
"rcy, Taoist Fellow!!"
Yu Xiaogui slapped his Storage Bag, releasing three Foundation Establishnt Talismans he had accumulated over the years. They transford into three Dharma Shields, gold and white, which were successively shattered by the relentless Sword Qi, which then lightly landed on his waist, slicing him in two.
"Father!"
The Yu Family mbers were thrown into chaos. Yu Mugao’s expression was terribly shaken, his vision filled with the cyan and white sword light until his father’s cry of pain brought him to his senses. He quickly caught his father’s bisected body, using mana to staunch the blood and piece it back together.
"rcy, Taoist Fellow!! rcy, Taoist Fellow!!"
With his vision a blur of cyan and white, Yu Xiaogui, as if soulless, kept screaming continuously as Li Tongya rely watched quietly as the Yu Family mbers rescued him. Raising the cyan and white sword in his hand gently, a chill ran down everyone’s spine on Hanyun Peak in a mont of trepidation.
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