by A P Gore
Wei gnashed his teeth. Arrogance had slipped into Du Su’s very bones, and he had the urge to smack him to the ground.
“There’s no point in hiding from you, Li Tim. I broke through a decade ago and was in closed-door cultivation. Recently I reached Bone Baptization Realm layer two and thought of coming out.” A proud smile played on his lips. “But then I thought of meeting an old friend to see if he’d achieved a breakthrough as well, but I didn’t think he would prove unable to reach the peak of Foundation Realm.”
“Senior Du, what’s the point in hiding this information? If you’ve reached a Tier 4 clan, then say it so we can act accordingly.” Ancestor Tim’s voice faded like the end of a flute song.
“Li Tim, why should my Du clan tell a dog about our achievements?” his voice turned icy as frost. “A dying clan doesn’t need to know about it.”
“Du Su. State your demands.” Grandfather Shua said in a hoarse voice, his emotions leaking through. “We can compensate you for your loss. As for the Earthly Fruit Tree, that information has already been passed to Divine Fragrance Palace. You’re free to take it away if you have the guts.”
Grandfather Shua shivered in humiliation, but he couldn’t do anything.
The speed of Du Su’s beard stroking increased. “Give me one hundred low-quality Qi Stones and Li Wei, your grandson. Then hand over the coordinates to the ancient treasure you obtained. Then I shall consider leaving a few of your young generation alive.”
Grandfather Shua’s face tightened. “Don’t talk nonsense. We don’t share enmity. Why would you kill us? If we’ve offended you, then we will make compensation. Don’t make it hard on us. Remember, a wounded wolf always bite harder. I can offer you fifty low-quality Qi Stones in exchange for fifty years of truce. There should be no conflict between the Du and Li clans. As for the coordinates, we don’t have them.” He looked pained to part with that much profit, but he had no other choice.
What were these coordinates this man wanted, Wei wondered but couldn’t think of anything that the Li clan in his previous life had known.
Du Su stepped forward like a gust of wind and slapped one of the Li clan’s Foundation Realm elders. It was one slap, but the elder died miserably.
Everyone’s faces turned grim, and their killing intent rose. Their faces were red, and they looked like they could burst in anger anytime.
Wei stood a bit apart from the Li clan members, but he couldn’t control the gnashing of his teeth. This was insane. After a lifetime, he got his family back, but he had to see them facing humiliation again and again.
Although he didn’t care about most of the Li clan members, a family humiliation was family humiliation.
Was he going to see without doing anything?
“Consider that a warning,” Du Su said. “There will be no negotiation. Coordinates, one hundred Qi Stones, and that brat Li Wei. I want to tear his tendons apart and offer them to my personal disciple, Du Xin.”
Wei’s throat went dry. How could this bastard know about him killing Du Xin? Had he missed something that led to him? Then he suddenly remembered Du Xin threatening him with his master’s name. So, this was that bastard master of his.
“Du Su, don’t go overboard,” Grandfather Shua replied hurriedly. “My grandson is a cripple, and you know it very well. He can’t even cultivate. How can you believe he killed your grandson?”
Du Su’s face wracked with a strange expression. “I used a Spirit Severance Talisman to confirm it from my disciple. He spoke one name, and that was your grandson, Li Wei.”
Wei felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck his brain. How could he forget about this talisman? If one found a remnant of a recently dead person, they could use this talisman to initiate a conversation.
Damn, why had he left their bodies behind? If he had hacked them in tiny pieces and fed them to wolves, this situation could have been avoided.
“Should I believe it simply because you say it, Du Su? Don’t even think of touching my grandson. You want one hundred low-quality Qi Stones, I’ll give you one hundred, but you must give up on that dream of yours.”
Tides of overwhelming emotions flooded Wei’s heart. His grandfather could have sold him out, but he didn’t. Instead, he tried to protect him. This man didn’t show it on the surface, but he cared in his heart.
No matter what, Wei had to save his grandfather today.
“Then I shall destroy your Li clan and unearth that brat.”
“Father, why are you not giving that bastard to Du clan?” Li Tang opened his mouth and vomited vile shit. “That bastard is nothing but trouble.”
Wei’s gaze turned cold. Even if he died, he would kill this bastard Li Tang.
Chapter 57 A rare hope
Li Shua’s heart thumped in turmoil. His back was drenched in sweat, and his nails almost bore inside his palm. But his face remained calm as an evening lake in an empty land.
“Du Su. Don’t push me too hard.” His clan was in danger, and a single display of weakness would lead to destruction faster than anything else. Somehow Du Su had dashed into Bone Baptization Realm, and that had already affected the morale of his clan. If they crumbled under pressure, it might leave a shadow in their heart forever.
However, Du Su was a true Bone Baptization Realm cultivator, and the gap between them was too large to surpass.
How was he supposed to save his clan? And this bastard also wanted his grandson, Li Wei. After he’d failed to save his daughter, a heart demon had stuck with him, and it had stopped him from reaching Bone Baptization Realm. Heck he couldn’t even reach the peak of Foundation Realm because of that heart demon. Whenever he tried to breach that barrier, he failed miserably, so he’d been stuck at layer eight for so long.
Now he just wanted to let Wei’er live a normal life. So even after Li Sua, Min’er’s fake husband, beat Li Wei up, he didn’t act upon it because he knew he couldn’t harm Wei’er no matter what.
Du Su flicked his sleeve. “What if I do? Are you going to threaten me?”
A man came running out of the woods, his chest heaving like he ran a thousand-mile race. “Elder Su, you are here.” It was Du Lufang, and two Foundation Realm cultivators followed him. “Elder Su, why didn’t you tell us before coming here? Please forgive me for not attending to you directly.”
Heaviness gripped Li Shua’s heart. Du Lufang joining the fray meant more trouble for him. Suddenly the Li clan’s chance of survival reduced by a huge margin.
“Do I, Du Su, have to inform you when I come to your wastrel city? Have you broken through Bone Baptization Realm?” Du Su mocked Du Lufang heavily.
“Elder Su . . .” Du Lufang shivered and then prostrated on the ground. “Ancestor Su, please accept my apology and punish me for not seeing mountain Tai with my lowly eyes.”
Li Shua furrowed his brow. Even Du Lufang hadn’t known about Du Su breaking through to Bone Baptization Realm. It seemed like the Du clan had hid it pretty well, and Du Su didn’t want anyone else to know for some reason. But as Du Lufang was already nearby, it was impossible for him not to notice Du Su. After all, everyone had spies around everywhere.
“Lufang, you failed to protect my disciple, Du Xin, so I’ll deal with you later. But first—“ His vicious gaze turned toward the Li clan, and Li Shua felt chills.
A Bone Baptization Realm cultivator was not something a Foundation Realm cultivator could hold out against. If it came to that, he had to rely on his final trump card and leave everything to ancestor Tim.
“Ancestor Tim,” he whispered, so low that only the ancestor could hear what he was saying. “If it comes to it, I’ll utilize that pill and then you take everyone away.”
Ancestor Tim’s face stiffened. “Shua’er. Give that pill to me. If it comes to it, I should eat it. My old bones should have already turned to dust, but I kept using Life Extension Pills for this purpose. I should eat it and turn to dust.” Despite his words, his voice was heavy and reluctant.
Li Shua had a complex ex
pression on his face like he was stuck between a rock and hard place. What should he do? His trump card was a demonic pill he’d ransacked from an ancient cultivation vault. It allowed a Foundation Realm expert to break through once. If he or ancestor Tim ate it, they could breakthrough to Bone Baptization Realm right away, but it wouldn’t last long. In ten minutes, they would die from blood explosion. But if they held Du Su off for ten minutes, it could save all the other clan members from this calamity.
“Patriarch Li Shua, are you talking about Blood Berserk Pill?” A voice rang in Li Shua’s mind, startling him.
“Who is this?” Li Shua looked around but couldn’t see anyone talking to him. Was it a ghost?
“Li Shua, have you already lost it?” Du Su chuckled as he pulled his sword out. “I haven’t even started massacring your clan, and you’ve already lost your wits. How pathetic. I despise myself for being friends with you once.”
Li Shua steeled his heart. “Du Su. I guess you don’t see how high the heavens are.” He flipped his hand, and a blood-red pill appeared on his palm.
“A Blood Berserk Pill. Li Shua, where did you get your hands on that?” Du Su’s face turned grim for a moment. “Did you collude with demons and receive this pill?”
Li Shua laughed. “Du Su, you don’t need to know anything, just like I need not know anything about your mysterious breakthrough. But if you force my hand, I’ll fight you with my life on the line, and you know when you provoke a nasty beast what you will get in return. I might not be able to kill you, but giving you a heavy parting gift won’t be difficult once I eat this pill.”
Li Shua didn’t want to do this, because if he ate this pill he would die. But if he didn’t, then he’d die too and his entire clan alongside him.
Du Su looked bewildered by the sudden change of situation but then pulled a wooden disc out and swirled it in his hand. “Do you think you can pull one over on me? I came prepared this time.” He laughed.
Li Shua’s face fell. It was a Yin Yang Disc, a Du clan Spirit Artifact. It was said that it could even go against a hit from a Marrow Cleansing Realm cultivator, so what could a Bone Baptization Realm expert do?
This was bad. No, worse than bad. “Ancestor Tim. Go with the young generation. If heaven permits, we will meet in the afterlife.” He brought his palm to his mouth and threw the pill in his mouth.
However, before the pill entered his mouth, a hand grabbed it. “Patriarch Li Shua. Who said you have to eat a Blood Berserk Pill to enter Bone Baptization Realm? There’s another way that won’t take your life. Are you interested in knowing that?”
Chapter 58 Forbidden Technique
Li Wei scanned the black and white wooden disk in Du Su’s hand. It looked like a child had painted it for fun, but that wasn’t the case. It gave off an ancient aura, and as soon as the disk appeared, the surrounding space turned sluggish and dark. Scanning the others’ faces, he realized they might not have noticed it, but his divine sense could feel a strange suppression.
His eyes lit when he spotted a shiny, strange symbol marked in the center of the disk. It wasn’t a normal martial artifact found in the Mortal World. In fact, the Mortal World shouldn’t have this thing in it. In the wrong hands, it could turn very nasty.
It was a spirit artifact. While martial artifacts were classified from Bronze to Heaven Grade, there was another type of artifact present in this world: spirit artifacts. Those were artifacts left behind by ancient people, and every artifact had a heaven-turning power embedded in it. But only a few people in the Martial World had a spirit artifact.
How did it end up in the Du clan’s hands. This was inconceivable.
Anyway, it exuded a familiar aura: A Yin and Yang aura. He had sensed it from the Yin Yang fruit, and when he sensed it again, he itched to snatch it from Du Su’s hands.
But before that, he had to change his grandfather’s mind. The old man was going to suicide by eating a Blood Berserk Pill. It was a tyrannical pill made of demonic blood and would overload one’s meridians with baleful qi, elevating their power to a higher realm for ten minutes.
But it killed the user. It absolutely killed that person, and there was no way around it.
He couldn’t let his grandfather eat it, not after realizing his grandfather cared for him.
“Patriarch Li Shua.” He sent with his divine sense. “Who said you have to eat a Blood Berserk Pill to enter Bone Baptization Realm? There’s another way that won’t take your life. Are you interested in knowing that?”
“Who are you?” Grandfather Shua seemed startled for a moment, but he regained his composure. “Senior, please tell me what you are planning.”
“I’m your grandson’s, master. Don’t worry. I’m using a secret method to communicate so this Du Su won’t hear us talking.”
“What method you are talking about?” Grandfather Shua asked, his voice lower than previously.
Wei took a deep breath and explained a forbidden technique he had found in his previous life. When he found this, he was already a high-realm cultivator, and this technique didn’t work after Houtian Realm, so it wasn’t useful for him. It was a strange technique where one used lots of medicinal pills and a strange cultivation pathway to boost their cultivation to a new level. Unfortunately, these powers would wane after an hour, and they would be weakened for a period and fall back to the base layer of their current cultivation. For his grandfather, that would be the first layer of Foundation Realm.
“Use two Essence Burning Pills to stimulate your qi flow like this.” He imparted the strange qi flow to his grandfather and also passed it to ancestor Tim. “You won’t die if you use this technique, but there’s a caveat: your cultivation will fall to Foundation Realm layer one after an hour, and it will be twice as difficult to raise it back to the previous level.”
Ancestor Tim’s eyes widened when he looked at Wei’s disguised appearance. “Senior, does this thing really work?” He shook his long face in disbelief.
“It won’t kill you to try,” Wei replied through his divine sense. It was better than eating the Blood Berserk Pill. Although the spirit artifact in Du Su’s hands looked powerful, if they had two Bone Baptization Realm cultivators, escaping shouldn’t be an issue.
“Shua’er. Let me try it out first and see if the artifact is really as formidable as the Du clan claims.” Ancestor Tim had a definitive look on his face, and then he stuffed two Essence Burning Pills in his mouth.
Du Su was watching them, and when ancestor Tim ate the two pills, his hideous face broke out in a smug smile. “Li Tim, have you gone mad because of your age? Or are you trying to impress your ancestors in the afterlife with how you died heroically?”
“Ancestor is wise. He saw through a fool’s motive in a single glance.” Du Lufang joined the laughter. “Li Tim thinks to raise his cultivation to Bone Baptization Realm by using two pills.” He took a step back and put on a mock-fearful expression. “This lowly one is afraid. It seems to be a new technique developed by the Li clan to exterminate themselves. We might as well just end our lives.”
Other Du clan elders joined in the laugh. Their eyes lingered on ancestor Tim like they were waiting for a good show to happen. It was given. If a person ate two Essence Burning Pills, they should explode and die.
A powerful aura gushed out of ancestor Tim, and his cultivation jumped to layer nine of Foundation Realm.
“Look brothers, I’m about to die now.” Du Lufang laughed, clutching his stomach with one hand. “If he breaks through, I’ll eat stones.”
Just wait, you fool. The corner of Wei’s lips lifted upward, and he chuckled in his mind. When ancestor Tim broke through, would these fools eat the stones?
Ancestor Tim roared in pain, his eyes almost popping out of his eye sockets. He looked to be on the verge of death, like he might explode at any moment.
“Look, he is exuding so much pressure. He is about to reach Bone Baptization Realm,” one of the Du clan elders shouted, and everyone from the Li clan fell deadly
silent. Even grandfather Shua couldn’t hide worry on his face.
But ancestor Tim didn’t explode. Instead, his cultivation continued pushing forward.
Du Lufang stopped laughing. “How is that possible? How did he break past the peak of Foundation Realm? He is almost at Bone Baptization Realm.” The color drained from his face, and he staggered back and fell on his ass.
Boom! Ancestor Tim’s clothes fluttered, and an even stronger aura gushed out of his body, instantly pushing him to layer one of Bone Baptization Realm, and the pressure he gave off was higher than Du Su.
Du Su’s face turned grim. “How did you— That’s genuine Bone Baptization Realm cultivation.”
“Ancestor Su, did he really—” Du Lufang crab-walked backward, scuttling across the ground. “It’s impossible. How can he?”
Ancestor Tim pulled his thick brown sword out, and bright red fire gushed out of his body, enveloping the sword. “Junior Su, come, let me test the might of your artifact. I don’t believe you have enough powers to use its full might.” And then he charged forward like a cheetah, dashing through the air and reaching Du Su instantly.
“You’re courting your death,” Du Su roared and brandished his sword to counterattack. Their swords met in midair, sending sparks everywhere. The impact was so fierce that it generated a shockwave, sending one of the Du clan elders staggering back.
“Good attack. I haven’t felt this alive in the last two decades.” Ancestor Tim laughed haughtily. “Du Su, come fight with me.” It seemed that he liked this feeling of power.
Chapter 59 Fire Beast Explosion
Du Su grunted heavily. The strike from Li Tim had pushed him back a step. If he hadn’t dug his heels into the rough ground, he might have been pushed a few steps more.
This was inconceivable. His heels had left a furrow several inches deep on the tough ground.
“How could you eat two pills and reach Bone Baptization Realm? It’s impossible.”
