Chapter 159: Young Lord

Three carriages pulled by exotic beasts traveled for nearly an hour along a complex, winding route, leaving the city and entering Cloud-Veiled Mountain, which borders Bingzu Marsh.

Since ancient times, Qiu Province has been home to many followers and practitioners of the Dao, leading to the construction of numerous old Daoist temples and monasteries.

Mirror Moon Monastery on Cloud-Veiled Mountain is thousands of years old. Built into the mountainside, its upturned eaves are hidden among dense trees. Several green lanterns drifted in the night, casting the entire monastery in a mysterious, desolate gloom.

The three carriages pulled by exotic beasts stopped in succession outside the temple.

Two blue-skinned Variant Human martial cultivators carried down a black metal box.

Li Weiyi noticed that the man and woman emerging from the third carriage were extremely powerful cultivators, so he kept his distance, wary of being detected by their senses.

"Creak!"

The wooden doors of the Daoist temple opened, and two identical young Daoist priests stepped out side by side.

They wore green Daoist robes, had long, thin faces, slightly dark skin, thick eyebrows, and large eyes. Each held a silver-threaded whisk. Their gazes were sharp and full of hostility, lacking the peaceful demeanor of mountain hermits.

As Li Weiyi watched them from afar, the thought immediately struck him, "They are Daoren."

Twins are not necessarily Daoren, of course, but the association often comes to mind.

Chen Xun showed great respect to the two young Daoist priests. After bowing, he meticulously reported the events that had transpired inside the Heavenly Pavilion.

One of the twin young Daoist priests, arrogant and aloof, said coldly, "You Three Chen Palace couldn't even handle such a minor matter, and now you come to bother Young Lord?"

Suppressing his anger, Chen Xun dared not voice any objection. "Regarding the person in the iron box, we Three Chen Palace wanted to simply kill them to be done with it. But Lord Qi insisted on keeping them alive, saying they still have a purpose. Now, with a large number of Jiuli tribe experts appearing in Juzhe City, we can't just be left holding this hot potato, can we?"

Chen Xun did not know how many Jiuli tribe members had arrived.

He knew that only by exaggerating the severity of the situation would the other party take it seriously.

The Daoist priest scoffed, "Only you good-for-nothings from Three Chen Palace would take the Jiuli tribe seriously. What 'Cang Li'? What 'young Jiuli experts'? Young Lord can suppress them all with a single finger. Our purpose here is..."

The other twin young Daoist priest interrupted him.

"Since it's Lord Qi's consignment, bring it inside!" he said.

Li Weiyi could tell that the two twin Daoist priests were extremely powerful cultivators, with long and profound auras and intensely aggressive gazes that seemed to shoot out like blades.

The temple behind them was definitely a den of dragons and tigers, surely equipped with arrays or powerful talismans. Once the metal box was taken inside, Li Weiyi would have no further opportunity to discover its contents.

The hotter the potato seemed to the enemy, the more essential it was to seize it.

He was already here! And he had his protector wife, after all!

Li Weiyi continued to persuade himself to take the risk, silently calculating the distance to the metal box, the time needed, and which item to use for retrieval...

By the time he had everything organized in his mind, the two Variant Human martial cultivators had already carried the metal box up more than thirty stone steps, just a few paces from the temple gate.

"Rustle!"

A gentle breeze wafted up from below.

The fallen leaves on the stone steps all began to spin.

Chen Xun, who was closest to the two Variant Human martial cultivators, immediately stopped, sensing something amiss. With a clang, he drew his half-moon fish-scaled saber.

"Thump! Thump!"

The two Third-Stage Five Seas Realm Variant Human experts had barely sensed the danger and hadn't yet released their qi when they were struck by two palms. Their robust bodies were thrown backward.

The black metal box crashed to the ground with a clatter of chains.

Without a suitable dimensional pouch, Li Weiyi prepared to use the Evil Camel Bell for collection.

Li Weiyi landed next to the black metal box. The moment he took out the bell, Chen Xun's horizontal saber slash, like a curtain of light, already swept before his eyes.

"What a quick reaction," he thought.

Li Weiyi did not meet the attack head-on. He wrapped the iron box in qi, pushed off the stone steps with his foot, and shot out like an arrow from beneath the bright saber curtain.

However, before he could land, Sheng Qingyan, whose movement technique was incredibly fast, was already waiting on the ground.

She had a slender waist and full hips, and her red lips curved into a smile. All the leaves on the surrounding ground rose, covered in a metallic sheen, and shot towards Li Weiyi like thousands of flying knives.

"Fifth-Stage Five Seas Realm!"

Li Weiyi never imagined that this beautiful woman, who appeared as gentle as water, possessed such terrifying cultivation. She was yet another top young expert from a whole province.

He was finished. As someone who had cultivated for less than a year, he had stumbled into a nest of supreme experts.

"Boom! Boom!"

Li Weiyi activated his Corpse Cloak soft armor. Blood mist and crimson scriptures burst from his body, colliding with the incoming leaves.

These leaves, though inherently fragile, each struck like a heavy punch under Sheng Qingyan's qi, continuously dispersing the blood mist.

"Hehe!"

Sheng Qingyan's laughter contained soul-disrupting illusions.

With her slender hand, she brandished a soft sword. Instantly, one sword became a myriad. Countless bright sword shadows formed a net, slashing towards Li Weiyi, who was still suspended mid-air.

Li Weiyi formed a palm seal in mid-air, and a battle intent manifested on his back, as if an old immortal was fighting behind him.

"Boom!"

The Golden Sky-Overturning Divine Seal was unleashed with his palm technique. The sword net shattered, and the sword qi dissipated.

The palm technique's divine seal pressed down towards Sheng Qingyan, who was below the stone steps.

Sheng Qingyan let out a soft exclamation. She had never seen such a miraculous palm technique, so incredibly firm and fierce, unlike anything human. She knew her soft sword would be insufficient to block it; there was no way to overcome such might with softness.

"Whoosh!"

With an incredibly subtle movement technique, she took a step back and instantly flew to the top of a tree behind her. This allowed her to evade the palm print, survey the situation, and intercept Li Weiyi if he tried to escape.

Li Weiyi did not land, knowing that once he touched the ground, he wouldn't be able to leave today!

A whirlwind appeared beneath the soles of his feet, which were clad in Wind-Controlling Boots. He rode the wind and qi, dashing towards the woods to Sheng Qingyan's right. This direction was closest to Bingzu Marsh and thus the easiest escape route.

However, none of the top young generation cultivators were fools. A third person, besides Chen Xun and Sheng Qingyan, had already secretly moved to that position.

A silver spear shot out from the ground, its shaft and silver light rising dozens of meters high, forcing Li Weiyi back to land on the open stone steps outside the temple.

"Clang! Clang!"

The young figure, holding the silver spear, walked out of the woods. "Huo Qiankun, of the Heaven's Unity Sect."

The entire exchange had taken less than a breath. Each strike from the three experts was executed with the utmost precision in timing and angle.

For a martial cultivator to emerge unscathed from these three attacks, Huo Qiankun believed the opponent was worthy of knowing his name.

Li Weiyi dispelled his invisibility. Being invisible held no meaning before figures of their caliber.

As if no one else were present, he put the black iron box into the Evil Camel Bell and said, "I know you, Huo Qiankun, the top young expert of the Heaven's Unity Sect, the 'Little Cang Li'! Among the young spear users of Li Province, you're one of the best, second only to Cang Li!"

The two twin Daoist priests, who had already entered the temple, turned back, but had no intention of intervening throughout.

One of the Daoist priests said coldly, "You truly are useless! You didn't even realize you were being tracked. Deal with him quickly; we cannot allow Mirror Moon Monastery to be exposed."

"Do you really think I came alone?"

Li Weiyi had no intention of fighting them all by himself. He immediately communicated with Chan Hai Guanwu, preparing to have her emerge and resolve the situation. If she didn't come out, as the master of Shaoyang Star, he could forcibly pull her out.

Everyone present stiffened and quickly released their senses.

Sheng Qingyan stood atop the tree canopy, her body seemingly weightless, her skirt appearing empty. She said with a smile, "It sounds like bluster!"

"May I ask who you are aligned with, esteemed sir? Do you know what's in that iron box? Some muddy waters are not meant to be waded through."

Chen Xun raised his saber and descended the stone steps one by one, continuously closing in on Li Weiyi.

"There's no muddy water in this world I dare not wade through. Frankly, I'm more curious about who is behind this temple of yours," Li Weiyi retorted.

As soon as Li Weiyi finished speaking,

Silver light surged from Chen Xun's body, shattering the stone steps beneath his feet. An immensely tall battle intent rose, and he unleashed a domineering saber slash towards Li Weiyi.

The saber light was densely covered with fish scales.

Although it was only a single slash, the saber wind seemed to come from all directions.

Li Weiyi felt the ground beneath him sink, the sky collapse, and destruction spread in all directions.

There was no escaping, no avoiding.

But he was prepared. He brandished the Ghost Flag, striking its surface with a palm from behind.

Nether mist permeated the air, and a ghostly figure in armor, wielding a battle halberd, emerged from the Ghost Flag.

After reaching the Second-Stage Five Seas Realm, the ghostly figure in the Ghost Flag became incredibly massive, three zhang tall. Its body was no longer a shadow but seemed physically real, its armor and battle halberd appearing cast from metal.

"Boom!"

The ghostly figure swung its battle halberd, colliding with Chen Xun's full-force saber slash. Instantly, dozens of stone steps cracked, and surrounding trees were stripped to bare branches by the energy ripples.

The ground beneath Li Weiyi cracked, and the Ghost Flag's surface vibrated.

Chen Xun staggered back two steps, and dozens of stone steps completely collapsed, shattering into rubble.

"Interesting!"

Li Weiyi gained a new understanding of the Ghost Flag's power. It was as if it contained a Fifth-Stage Five Seas Realm departed spirit expert, far more reliable than the Blood-Refined magical artifact he had sold to Yin Twenty-Four.

The two twin Daoist priests burst into laughter, then said in unison, "It is somewhat interesting. That flag of yours is quite extraordinary. Our Left and Right Attendants will take it!"

Without seemingly taking a single step, their bodies moved from left and right at a speed beyond Li Weiyi's sight, far surpassing Sheng Qingyan, who was known for her speed.

"Swish!"

Before Li Weiyi could summon Chan Hai Guanwu, a folding fan spun out of the darkness.

The folding fan was like a miniature world, with hundreds of characters floating on its surface. As it spun, the world seemed to spin with it, releasing powerful gusts of wind that swept Chen Xun, Sheng Qingyan, and Huo Qiankun away like scarecrows, flinging them in three different directions.

Finally, the fan blades struck horizontally, sending the Left and Right Attendants crashing through the temple walls, forcing them to retreat back inside.

Their skin was damaged, and faint sparks could be seen emerging from their bodies, remarkably visible in the darkness.

"He really did have help... Who is this newcomer?"

The Left Attendant roared, stomping his foot. The ground beneath him transformed into a scorching sea of fire.

Li Weiyi was also stunned. The cultivation of the Left and Right Attendants was already terrifying, but he hadn't expected Zuoqiu Ting, that show-off from the Zuoqiu Family, to be so powerful. He hadn't even arrived, yet he could send them flying with just a folding fan.

He recognized the folding fan; he had seen it in the immortal realm space of Buried Immortal Town.

Since he had arrived, Li Weiyi temporarily decided not to summon Chan Hai Guanwu.

"Whoosh!"

The characters and radiance on the folding fan receded, and it spun back into the darkness.

A moment later, Zuoqiu Ting, still fanning himself, arrived with graceful steps, walking up to Li Weiyi. He glanced at him and said, "You go first. Wait for me in Juzhe City. I'll deal with the master of this place."

It was late at night, in winter, and he was still fanning himself – what a show-off!

Li Weiyi didn't stand on ceremony. He immediately activated the stealth ability of his Night Stalker's Robe and quickly vanished into the darkness.

Behind him, Zuoqiu Ting's resonant voice, imbued with qi, rang out: "Young Lord, since you've come to Zuoqiu Family's territory, why hide your head and tail? A notice would have allowed Ting to greet you sooner!"

Zuoqiu Ting's figure flickered, and he appeared at the temple gate.

From inside the temple, a voice retorted, "A mere inheritor dares to challenge my strength? My opponents are those from your human race's elder generation. Among the younger generation, there's no one qualified to face me."

After fleeing several miles, Li Weiyi looked back.

Two massive palm prints, with distinct power fluctuations, collided above the temple. The residual qi extended several miles, reaching him.

Trees on the mountainside swayed, and a hurricane howled.

The temple, built into the mountain, completely collapsed with a roar.

Then all light vanished, and the world fell silent.

"Is this still a clash between the younger generation?"

Li Weiyi cursed under his breath, then rushed back to Juzhe City at top speed, wanting to be as far away from Mirror Moon Monastery as possible.

As for Zuoqiu Ting's safety, he wasn't worried in the slightest. After all, this was Zuoqiu Family territory. It would be a colossal joke if the inheritor of the Zuoqiu Family died on his own turf.