Chapter 49: Five Sea Realms?

"Excellent!"

Li Weiyi, filled with heroic spirit, roared. Then, employing the Clear Void Cicada Chase Steps, he took the lead in intercepting the heavily bearded Seven-Springs expert, who was already showing fear towards him.

A single sword strike, like parting the sea, sent a yellow glow spanning a zhang, forcing the opponent back.

Not pursuing, Li Weiyi turned and charged towards the middle-aged man with a long black mole between his eyebrows. Before the man could punch open the building's main door, Li Weiyi's sword tip reached his back.

Forced into a corner, the man with the mole could only duck and roll to his right.

This was the opportunity Li Weiyi had been waiting for. Once an opponent awkwardly dodges, a blind spot in their vision appears. All their combat techniques, mental composure, and courage would then crumble completely due to disarray.

"Swish! Swish! Swish..."

Li Weiyi attacked like a fierce storm, each sword strike faster than the last, sword shadows cascading like a waterfall.

By the time the heavily bearded Seven-Springs expert rushed forward to assist, both arms of the man with the mole had been severed, his shoulders gory, reduced to a mere torso.

He shrieked in agony, unable to accept his own tragic state.

The heavily bearded Seven-Springs expert was utterly terrified, losing all will to fight. He turned and fled.

Meanwhile, the mole-faced man, now a torso, had an even stronger will to survive; he had already begun to hobble towards the main gate.

"You crossed that door, and you still think you can escape?"

Li Weiyi pursued.

If a Seven-Springs martial cultivator had unwavering combat will, the courage to fight to the death, a calm and rational mind, and an indomitable spirit, then for Li Weiyi to deal with any one of them in a head-on confrontation would not be an easy task.

If the two had joined forces, they could have posed a life-or-death threat to Li Weiyi.

But once their spirit collapsed and they started to flee, it became much easier for Li Weiyi to deal with them.

"What exactly are they doing in that residence? The fighting is so intense, it sounds like people are dying. It's truly terrifying."

In the brothel diagonally opposite, many elaborately dressed young women stood by the railings, some curious, some frightened, some excited, conversing with the wealthy patrons beside them.

"What thick black mist! Could it be the spirits of the deceased or fiendish demons?"

"Don't be afraid, we definitely won't be affected here. It's the Changlin Gang trying to rob the newcomers, but it seems they've hit a formidable opponent!" A martial arts master, who seemed to have some inside knowledge, chuckled.

"Who exactly are these newcomers? How dare they challenge the Changlin Gang? Don't they know that the Changlin Gang runs this district?"

"Look, the City Defense Brigade has arrived."

"They arrived so late; they must be colluding with the Changlin Gang."

"Boom!"

The heavily bearded Seven-Springs expert crashed through the courtyard wall, creating a man-sized hole. His body flew more than a zhang, landing spreadeagled on the street, as if he had been punched through the wall.

Debris from the wall littered the long street.

Screams erupted from the direction of the brothel.

"Wham!"

Almost instantaneously, Li Weiyi leapt over the courtyard wall, landing with a flying knee to the man's chest. He then punched him, disfiguring his face, and cracking the street's stone pavement.

"Stop!"

"You're rebellious! How dare you kill someone on the streets of Jiuli City!"

A squad of City Guards, mounted on sturdy horses, numbering over twenty, each clad in armor and carrying a spear, shouted warnings from a distance.

"Rumble!"

The thundering hooves approached, swiftly surrounding Li Weiyi.

They wore white armor, and their mounts, sturdy horses that had consumed mutated beast blood, were transformed, nearly twice as strong as ordinary horses.

Li Weiyi slowly stood up, his fists covered in blood. His gaze swept over the formidable City Guard army, unfazed by their imposing aura. He cupped his hands in a respectful salute: "Xie Jin, a commoner of the Cangli Tribe, greets you, esteemed officers. These villains trespassed into my private residence with ill intent, and I have subdued them."

The captain of this City Guard squad was Chen Chuan. He was a Seven-Springs Deformed Species, already in his sixties, with a tiger's head and a three-meter-tall body, looking exceedingly powerful and muscular.

"They have no breath or heartbeat left. Is that what you call subduing them?" Chen Chuan snorted coldly.

With his cultivation, even from several zhang away, he could discern the subtle internal condition of the bodies lying on the ground.

Li Weiyi replied, "My methods might have been a bit heavy-handed! But I had no choice; these villains were too powerful and too ferocious. I had to fight with my life on the line."

Chen Chuan recognized the middle-aged man lying on the ground and knew his strength. He therefore clearly understood that the young man before him possessed unfathomable cultivation. For a moment, he was troubled, unsure whether to offend such a formidable individual for the sake of the Changlin Gang.

After all, the Changlin Gang only gave him a thousand silver coins each month.

"You claim to be a commoner of the Cangli Tribe. Do you have a commoner's registry?" Chen Chuan asked.

"Yes!"

Li Weiyi pulled out the commoner's registry from his bosom, which Zhao Zhizhuo had helped him acquire in Yaoguan City.

Over eighty percent of Lizhou's population were born into the Nine Great Tribes, collectively referred to as commoners.

The commoner's registry could be processed in any city in Lizhou. With a word from the Young Tribal Chief Cangli, many assessments were waived, making it a mere formality.

Naturally, things that are easy to process are also easy to fake.

In recent years, as the Nine Li's major tribes declined, coupled with continuous warfare in other states, many external forces flocked into Lizhou, either to escape the conflict or to seize profits and territory.

Many evil cultivators and unorthodox practitioners, armed with forged commoner's registries, were rampant throughout Lizhou.

Chen Chuan, born into the Chili Tribe, naturally saw that Li Weiyi's commoner's registry was no ordinary one. It even specified a village fiefdom with precise geographical coordinates.

While it didn't prove anything else, it at least indicated that this young man's registry was not forged.

Forthwarting this type of commoner's registry was easily exposed, and the consequences of exposure were severe.

With a clatter, Chen Chuan dismounted his sturdy horse, also clad in white metal armor plates. He tossed the commoner's registry back to Li Weiyi, then, stepping over the rubble, he walked through the large hole in the courtyard wall and entered the residence.

Upon seeing the scene inside, Chen Chuan gasped, and his gaze, as he looked at Li Weiyi again, immediately held a newfound wariness.

At the end of the street, two Changlin Gang members, who had been on lookout, hastily fled, vanishing into the darkness.

The residence of the Changlin Gang's leader covered nearly a hundred mu, with high walls and a large courtyard, and its gate was three zhang wide.

Bone lanterns hung high in front of the gate. On either side stood four deformed martial arts masters, all bearing weapons.

Yang Qingxi, wearing a veil, sat in the main building in the seat that originally belonged to Gang Leader "Xu Changlin," reviewing the past three months' accounts. As a Pure Immortal Body, her hair and skin had an unearthly radiance. Even her five snow-white, jade-like fingers possessed a breathtaking beauty.

Her exquisite eyes, not hidden by the veil, were sharp and focused.

Xu Changlin, the gang leader, Tang Yan, the deputy leader, and Shi Chuan'yu, the flag bearer, who stood nearby, were originally ruthless figures feared by everyone in this city district. But at this moment, they all diligently restrained their gazes, daring no disrespectful behavior.

This was because they knew that this young lady before them not only possessed the beauty of a Pure Immortal Body, but also the cultivation of the Five Seas realm and a ruthless, iron-fisted approach that could kill while conversing.

Yang Qingxi finished reviewing and closed the ledger.

With her slender fingers, she picked up a bamboo writing brush from the brush holder and toyed with it. Her beautiful eyes calmly swept over the three men: "Your Changlin Gang is getting better and better at making money. This year's first quarter income is equivalent to half of last year's. Should I praise you, or should I reward you?"

Deputy Leader Tang Yan flattered with a smile, "Making money for the Young Lady is our duty... Ah..."

"Whoosh—"

The brush, like a streak of light, flew from Yang Qingxi's fingers, grazing Tang Yan's cheek, and struck a rock garden six or seven zhang away.

Unable to withstand the immense magical power contained within the brush, the rock garden collapsed with a crash.

The shattered rocks from the collapse splashed layers of water in the pond.

One could imagine what would happen if that strike had landed on a person.

A bloody scratch appeared on Tang Yan's cheek. He was so terrified that his legs trembled like chaff. In that instant, he had almost felt certain he would die, his head exploding, and he couldn't even dodge.

Both were in the Five Seas realm, but the Pure Immortal Body was far more powerful than him; to kill him, a mere ordinary writing brush was sufficient.

Yang Qingxi looked coldly at Tang Yan, who was now kneeling on the ground in fear, and said, "Do you think the exact amount of money your Changlin Gang has made in the past few months can be hidden from the Yang Clan?"

Xu Changlin hastily explained, "Young Lady, it was Deputy Leader Tang who recruited a formidable insect master for the Changlin Gang. That insect master raises a nest of armored spiders, which must be fed human martial cultivators. Each time, he is the one who kills people to feed the spiders and insects; we merely handle the aftermath. In this way, the unexpected gains have been quite substantial."

Yang Qingxi did not believe the Changlin Gang could recruit any truly powerful insect masters, and showed no interest in the matter. Her gaze turned serious: "It's acceptable for a gang to be ruthless to establish itself. But in as little as three months, or at most half a year, Lizhou is bound to descend into chaos. I fear you might pursue small gains and ruin something important."

"In the past few days, several important friends of the Yang Clan will arrive in Jiuli City from other regions. Their identities are special, and it's not suitable for them to enter the city, so you will host them temporarily. During this period, everyone must behave themselves. Don't let their whereabouts be exposed because of you."

An old man hurried to the outside of the main building, his expression urgent.

Xu Changlin exchanged a glance with Shi Chuan'yu. Shi Chuan'yu bowed to Yang Qingxi, then quickly went out, asking the old man what had happened.

After a whispered conversation, Shi Chuan'yu's face instantly changed. "Are you certain it's a Five Seas realm expert?"

The old man nodded: "Extremely strong! The lookout brothers said that a single person killed over a dozen of our experts, including two Seven-Springs guest cultivators. Even Master Qi, the insect master, was captured. Furthermore, the opponent wields a Dharma artifact and even placed ancestral tablets in the courtyard, acting with complete confidence. If that's not Five Seas realm, then what is?

"What's more terrifying is that the owner of that residence, the six-meter-tall giant Deformed Species, never appeared from beginning to end. Clearly, he is even more unfathomable."

Shi Chuan'yu's heart pounded. He realized that the reason he hadn't detected any magic power when he had taken the other person's hand earlier that day was likely because the opponent's cultivation was too high.

The old man added, "There's also something else."

Shi Chuan'yu tried to calm the shock in his heart. He looked at Yang Qingxi in the building, and only then did his mind settle slightly. He said, "Speak!"

"Chen Chuan of the City Guard has already rushed over. The other party claims to be a commoner of the Cangli Tribe."

Immediately after, the old man waved towards the distance.

Two strong gang members carried over Zhao Zhizhuo, who had been beaten to a pulp.

Zhao Zhizhuo lay on the ground, covered in blood, his face disfigured. Both his arms were dislocated. His eyes, swollen from bruising, struggled to open slightly. He weakly said, "They are truly guests of the Cangli Tribe's Young Tribal Chief. You, Changlin Gang... had better not harbor ill intentions. The Young Tribal Chief will not let you off..."

After being captured, Zhao Zhizhuo had no other option but to invoke the Young Tribal Chief's name, hoping to intimidate the Changlin Gang into retreat.

But he was met with the gang members' mockery and even more brutal beatings. Some asked why he didn't invoke the name of the Cangli Tribal Chief, while others told him that invoking Xu Fodu's name would be more effective.

Shi Chuan'yu looked at the old man with a questioning gaze.

The old man was also troubled: "At that time, who would have thought that Cangli's guests would rent a residence in the outskirts? Furthermore, what credibility could an old servant who had opened only two springs have? If I had to verify everyone who dropped a name, then anyone could bluff us. But if the person living inside is truly a Five Seas realm expert... then it's a different story!"

Yang Qingxi, sitting inside the room, naturally heard every word spoken by the people outside. She glanced at Xu Changlin and sneered, "This is your so-called formidable insect master? Whoever caused this trouble, go resolve it yourself."

"Your subordinate will handle it properly."

Tang Yan quickly stood up and walked out, eager to escape the oppressive room that was suffocating him.

Thinking of something, Yang Qingxi called out to him. After careful consideration, she said, "Cangli is consistently generous and lavish. If this truly is a powerful person he befriended, it's unlikely they'd be arranged in the outskirts. Unless there's another motive... Investigate! You must find out exactly who they are."