Book One: Meeting in Humble Beginnings Chapter Ninety-Six: The Dragon Pearl Is Taken

In terms of cultivation, Li Yu was no match for the men before him. Even though he had trained in the Dragon God Art, he still relied only on the power of the dragon spirit. The dragon spirit itself was already close to the threshold of the Dao, but for Li Yu, the strength he could draw upon was still far below the dragon spirit’s peak.

But when it came to schemes and calculation, Li Yu considered himself far more astute than they were. They had not lived through what he had. Even if they had tempering within their own clan, their lives could not have been more miserable than his.

He had a firm grasp of Li Xiqing’s temperament, and provoking the man was a matter of a single breath. Once Li Xiqing lost his temper, the next step would become much easier.

Everything was unfolding exactly as Li Yu had planned.

Li Xiqing made no unnecessary move. As soon as he struck, he produced the Spirit-Sealing Disc he had long prepared. Then he drove the few spirit crystals he had into it. Instantly, the disc erupted in a blaze of brilliant seven-colored light, enveloping Li Yu within it.

This time, he had come fully prepared. He did not rely on his spirit-control power. After their previous clash with Li Yu, he had already understood that using his cultivation together with spirit-control power here would bring him no advantage at all.

So on this trip, he had brought out every magical treasure his grandfather had prepared for him. The most powerful among them were the Compassion-for-Life Sword and the Spirit-Sealing Disc.

Unlike the sword, which had been sealed and could display only a pitiful fraction of its true might, the Spirit-Sealing Disc was different. It was a magical instrument forged jointly by the elders of the Li clan, and within it was contained the most profound spirit-control arts of those elders. More importantly, when used here, it could greatly reduce the restrictions imposed by Heaven’s Gate Town.

One Spirit-Sealing Disc meant the combined force of many elders wielding spirit-control arts. It could catch an opponent utterly off guard. Moreover, since each elder cultivated spirit-control arts of a different nature, attacks could be launched from many directions at once.

The disc Li Xiqing had brought out was of a quality that, by appearance alone, seemed to have been forged by no fewer than three elders.

The moment Li Yu was engulfed by that radiance, he sensed it. In truth, Li Xiqing’s every move had been within his calculations.

During those years in the Li clan, although he had been unable to cultivate, he had read every book he could get his hands on. Aside from the Li clan’s deepest spirit-control arts, he had mastered every basic principle related to the clan’s spirit-control methods.

It could even be said that if a test paper were placed before him and the young people of the Li clan alike, asking all of them to answer questions on the basics of Li clan spirit-control arts, very few would perform better than Li Yu.

Before he had provoked Li Xiqing, he had already guessed that the other man would use the Spirit-Sealing Disc against him. Given Li Xiqing’s present cultivation and status, even if that sword had been an accident, there would not be a second such accident.

The Spirit-Sealing Disc was precisely the most useful thing for him right now.

Li Yu was carried upward into the sky by the disc. As its name suggested, the Spirit-Sealing Disc was meant to seal away every trace of true spirit within Li Yu, reducing him to a spiritless being.

A basic spirit-sealing formation could only lock away a person’s true spirit and leave them a walking corpse. The higher the level of the formation, the more functions it possessed. The one trapping Li Yu now made him feel, with painful clarity, that the true spirit within him was being dragged outward beyond his control.

Li Yu’s face twisted in agony. This, too, had been part of his plan. He had anticipated that Li Xiqing would take his dragon spirit into account and would therefore use a spirit-sealing formation with spirit-siphoning power against him. Thus, he had agreed in advance with the dragon spirit: once he was covered by the formation, the dragon spirit was not to resist, only to submit and allow itself to be drawn away.

But no matter how carefully he had planned, it was still all theory on paper. He himself had never experienced spirit-siphoning. How could he have known that being stripped of spirit would be so excruciating?

The dragon spirit was not part of his own body, so it was drawn out of him with ease. And because of that, he did not suffer intense pain when the dragon spirit was taken.

After the dragon spirit had been fully drawn out, it obeyed Li Yu’s instructions and did not take human form to fight. Instead, it curled itself up inside its dragon pearl, waiting for the next development.

And then the spirit-siphoning did not stop. It continued, as relentless as before, digging deeper into Li Yu, as though it meant to drag even his life-bound true spirit out of him.

The spirit-siphoning power of the Spirit-Sealing Disc had been unleashed by one of the Li clan elders. Though the power it contained was not as formidable as it would be beyond Heaven’s Gate Town, it was by no means easy to withstand.

What Li Yu felt now was like countless fine needles probing deeper and deeper into his body, from the surface to the flesh, then into the marrow, and finally reaching the depths of his soul.

Just as Li Yu was about to reach the limit of what he could bear, no one knew that a gentle current of power quietly arose from within his soul. It completely melted away the spirit-siphoning force, and then destroyed the entire spirit-sealing formation.

Everything happened soundlessly and without warning.

Li Xiqing had been savoring Li Yu’s agony and thinking about how he would torment Li Yu after he had been reduced to a spiritless corpse, but he had never expected the change to come so quickly.

In the blink of an eye, Li Yu dropped from the air and landed on the ground. He withdrew the dark glint from his eyes, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and said, “Looks like your spirit-sealing formation lacked stamina after all.”

Li Xiqing’s expression darkened. He glanced at Li Yu on the ground, then at the dragon pearl floating in the air. Greed lit his eyes. “I’ll take your dragon pearl first. We can play properly afterward.”

With that, he began to draw the dragon pearl into his hand.

Unexpectedly, another sudden change erupted.

From behind them came a surge of power that struck first and snatched the dragon pearl away.

Li Xiqing was no fool. He knew it would not be so easy to seize the pearl, so he had kept a careful eye on events, waiting for any change. He had not expected anyone to dare snatch meat from a tiger’s jaws.

With a cold snort, he activated yet another great formation he had long arranged in secret. The dragon spirit, which had been flying off uncontrollably into the distance, was blocked by the formation Li Xiqing had triggered and trapped in place, unable to move.

Yet the person behind it still did not reveal themselves.

Li Xiqing snorted again. “You dare strike, but not show your face? Then let me see exactly who you are.”

He began forming hand seals and murmured, “Come without trace, go with shadow. Gather shadow into thread, bind yourself in chains. Come!”

As the words fell, rings of faint marks appeared around the dragon spirit. Those marks twisted into threads, and the threads wove themselves into a rope that shot off in a certain direction.

On the other side, the few people from the Beast Taming Sect had actually been lying in wait nearby for a long time. They had been waiting for the right moment to profit from the chaos. They had never expected Li Yu to be so weak, nor had they expected the Heaven’s Gate Li clan to subdue him so easily, leaving him no room for resistance.

Just as it seemed the dragon pearl was about to be taken by the Li clan, Wan Yanyan could no longer hold back. She moved at once, trying to draw the pearl away, but to her surprise, she was stopped by Li Xiqing.

What was more, the other side seemed able to lock onto her position based on her move and form a rope to seize her with.

The rope surged toward Wan Yanyan. She hurried to strike it down, but no matter how hard she tried, it remained utterly unmoved. Before long, the rope was about to coil around her body.

And yet, in the end, nothing seemed to happen at all.

Wan Kui knew the Li clan was not easy to deal with, which was why he had not rashly made a move. He had feared exactly this sort of outcome, but he had not expected Wan Yanyan to spoil everything in the end.

Watching the rope fly toward Wan Yanyan, he too was at a loss, unable to think of a response. Yet when the rope fell upon Wan Yanyan, nothing happened.

Wan Yanyan’s mood was like a bird in flight, rising and falling without warning. Just when she thought it had been all thunder and no rain, another change occurred.

Li Xiqing felt that he had already bound the one who had struck from hiding. He let out a cold laugh. “I’d like to see which reckless fool has the nerve to steal from our Li clan.”

Then he formed a sword seal with one hand and pointed in Wan Yanyan’s direction. “Come.”

At his command, Wan Yanyan felt something within her body tighten as if bound, then uncontrollably surge toward Li Xiqing and the others.

In an instant, Wan Yanyan collapsed to the ground, her eyes wide open yet utterly lifeless. Seeing this, Wan Kui’s expression changed drastically. “Bad! This is the Li clan’s Binding Spirit Art. Junior Sister’s true spirit has already been taken!”

A cluster of clear light flew out from Wan Yanyan’s side toward Li Xiqing and the others, followed by a man and a woman, both flustered and hurrying forward.

Wan Yanyan’s true spirit was quickly seized by Li Xiqing. Wan Kui and the others also came to a stop before him, and the two sides simply studied each other.

Wan Kui spoke first. “I’m sorry. My junior sister was rash and offended you. I hope Your Excellency will be generous and not bother with her.”

Seeing their attire, Li Xiqing naturally guessed they were from the Beast Taming Sect. He smiled faintly, though the smile did not reach his eyes. “And why should I give you that face? What have you done to deserve it?”

Those two sentences left the other side utterly choked, without even the slightest room to argue.

Wan Kui knew this matter could never end peacefully. Looking at Wan Yanyan’s true spirit, now held in Li Xiqing’s grasp, he felt a moment of difficulty and resentment. But then he thought that Wan Yanyan was, after all, the daughter of the Beast Taming Sect’s sect master. If anything happened to her, he would have no way to answer to his master, the current sect master.

He took out his interspatial pouch and held it out with both hands. “This is a small token of my sincerity. Since this is our first meeting, I hope Your Excellency will accept it and let this foster goodwill between us.”

Li Xiqing motioned for Li Ximing to take it. After receiving it, Li Ximing quietly checked it with his divine sense, then nodded to Li Xiqing.

Only then did Li Xiqing speak again. “In that case, I’ll give your Beast Taming Sect a little face. But in the spirit of reciprocity, I’ll also give you a small return gift.”

Having said that, and not waiting for the Beast Taming Sect people to say another word, he directly struck out and severely wounded Wan Yanyan’s true spirit. Then he hurled it back to Wan Kui.