Volume One: When They Met in Their Youth, in Humble Days Chapter Ninety-Eight: Li Xiqing Is Killed

At this moment, there was no room for Wan Kui to dwell on Zhang Yue’s words. And Zhang Yue, just as she had promised, immediately summoned another demon beast to hold Li Xiqing at bay for a moment.

With her help, Wan Kui slipped out of the situation in the blink of an eye.

A single flash of movement, and he had broken free from the battlefield.

Li Xiqing had long sensed their intent to flee. Zhang Yue’s interference did not throw him into disarray; instead, he resolved the beast before him with ruthless speed.

As expected, once Wan Kui escaped, Zhang Yue no longer spared any effort to restrain Li Xiqing.

Li Xiqing glanced at her and thought, not too foolish.

Wan Kui paid none of this any mind. His entire focus was on finding a way out of the present trap; how could he possibly spare thought for whether Zhang Yue had truly intended to help him escape?

The instant he seized his chance and fled, he ran straight toward Heaven Gate Town.

Li Xiqing shot a glance at Li Yu and Zhang Yue, then said to the other two, “This man cannot be left alive. Li Yan, stay here and deal with her. Ming, come with me to kill him.”

Before taking Li Ximing away, he gave Li Yu and Li Yan another uneasy look, then reluctantly brought out his last lifesaving magical artifact: the Spirit Suppression Pagoda.

Under Li Xiqing’s spell, the pagoda transformed into a crystalline phantom tower that enveloped all three of them.

Only then did he smile in satisfaction. “Now let’s see what other trick you have to escape my hands.”

With that, he led Li Ximing in pursuit of Wan Kui.

Li Yu had been guarding Xu Kaijiang all along, continuously repairing the damage to his organs and meridians. As for everything Li Xiqing was doing, he was not unaware of it. He simply had never intended to seize this chance and run.

What he meant to do had only just begun; how could he abandon the excellent situation Xu Kaijiang had fought to win for him and flee on his own?

After Li Yu and Zhang Yue reached their agreement, he had even gone to Zhang Yue beforehand, asking her to help bring Wan Kui out of their sect. But exactly what Li Yu intended to do, Zhang Yue did not know.

She only remembered Li Yu telling her at the time, “If Wan Kui asks you to help him escape, do not refuse. Agree at once. And whatever happens, use the strongest means possible to win him that chance.”

So when Wan Kui asked for her assistance, she did not overthink it and immediately created an opening for him to flee.

But after Wan Kui escaped, she found something strange.

Right—the attitude!

By rights, Wan Kui was no simple-minded man. With Zhang Yue agreeing so readily to his request, he should have been suspicious, or at least hesitant. Why had he seized the opportunity and gone so directly?

As that thought crossed her mind, a flicker of doubt toward Li Yu rose in Zhang Yue’s heart. Could it be that he deceived me?

Before she could think it through, a new development arose on Wan Kui’s side.

Li Xiqing and Li Ximing caught up to Wan Kui at tremendous speed. Just as he was about to strike from behind, Wan Kui turned back, the corner of his mouth curling into a sinister smile.

“Children of noble houses are always children of noble houses—full of strength, yet empty of brains.”

Seeing that expression, Li Xiqing was startled and thought, Not good. There may be a trick here!

He was just about to retreat when another Wan Kui appeared behind them and unleashed one of his magical artifacts with thunderous force.

Seeing that he had no path of escape, Li Xiqing could only harden his heart and pull Li Ximing beside him in front of the blow to shield himself.

Poor Li Ximing never dreamed that the Qing-ge he trusted most would drag him out to serve as a human shield. In his final instant, he stared at Li Xiqing in utter disbelief, unable to say a single word before his breath vanished.

At this point, among the four from the Li family, only Li Xiqing remained, apart from Li Yan who was trapped.

Staring at Wan Kui before him, Li Xiqing’s hatred nearly tore the heavens apart. His eyes bloodshot, he roared, “I will grind your bones to dust and scatter your ashes, so your soul is shattered and your true spirit destroyed forever!”

Wan Kui said indifferently, “I may have been the one who killed him, but wasn’t it because of you that he died? I simply enjoy watching people like you from great families—always acting so brotherly and harmonious in ordinary times, only to drag someone else out as a substitute when life and death truly come knocking!”

Li Xiqing was choked silent by Wan Kui’s words and could only muster his meager spiritual power to fight him to the death.

But Heaven Gate Town itself suppressed and repelled the Li family’s people, and on top of that, he had already been worn down repeatedly by Li Yu. By now, he had only two or three spirit crystals left to rely on.

Wan Kui, however, only grew fiercer as the battle dragged on. Watching the exhausted Li Xiqing before him was like looking at a lamb waiting to be slaughtered; his greed was naked for all to see.

After weighing the struggle several times during the fight, Li Xiqing decided to swallow the loss for now. Saving his life was what mattered most.

Having made up his mind, he immediately sought a way to break free from Wan Kui’s grasp.

Wan Kui could hardly fail to understand this, but the more it happened, the greater his interest became.

Cat and mouse—only when the mouse scurries about in all directions is the game truly enjoyable.

As for Li Yu and the others, once he confirmed that Li Xiqing had left with Li Ximing, he rose and said to the two still fighting, “He’s gone. Now we can speak properly.”

At his words, Li Yan and Zhang Yue immediately withdrew their hands.

Li Yan walked over and asked, “Should I call you Li Xiyu, or Li Yu?”

Hearing this, Zhang Yue finally became certain that the youth before her truly had ties to the Li family—and from Li Yan’s words, Li Xiyu was actually a direct member of the Li family’s main line.

With such a status and background, he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the sect’s hereditary successor disciple.

She had been deeply puzzled why those people seemed to have such an intimate relationship with Li Yu, and why Li Yu appeared to know the Li family’s arts so thoroughly.

Li Yu said flatly, “I am not a member of the Li family. I am only Li Yu. Do not put that other name on me. It disgusts me.”

Li Yan said nothing. Instead, he asked, “You were so certain just now that I would definitely help you?”

What he was referring to was the matter moments earlier, when Li Yu had sent him a voice transmission asking him to alter the Spirit Locking Array and use it to strike Wan Yanyan’s true spirit.

Li Yu did not answer immediately. Instead, he tossed over the light orb his master had given him. After Li Yan took it and looked it over, he smiled in understanding.

“So that’s how it is.”

“From the day I realized you had been following us, I knew you were not as obedient to Li Xiqing as you seemed. Besides, in a place like the Li family, the strictest distinctions are between principal and subordinate, superior and inferior—and only after that come one’s personal talent in cultivation. Li Xiqing targeted me because I lacked cultivation talent yet occupied the resources of the main line. He was desperate to seize my share of those resources. And you—since you already harbor disloyal thoughts toward him, I’m sure you also want to rise through your own standing in the Li family. The distinction between principal and subordinate cannot be changed, so the only option is to drag him down from the main line.”

Li Yu’s words were like a sharp blade, laying bare the Li family’s disgrace.

Yet Li Yan asked again, “I’m curious now—had you calculated all this from the very beginning? Then let me ask you this: if I had refused, how would you have dealt with us?”

Li Yu did not rush to answer. He only looked toward the direction they had come from, and then said, “It’s all over.”

Yes, it was all over.

Because Li Xiqing was dead.

No one found his death more shocking than Li Xiqing himself—or Wan Kui.

After Li Xiqing decided to flee first, he no longer fought recklessly. Instead, he searched for a chance to break away while maneuvering against Wan Kui.

And he truly did not disappoint fate. At last, he found an opening.

Just as he was about to use it to escape, Wan Kui also noticed his intent. He sneered inwardly. Wanting to run? Not so easy.

In the time it takes a spark to fly, he brought out his natal battle blade, calculated Li Xiqing’s retreat route in advance, and aimed at the places where Li Xiqing was most likely to be wounded.

Though he believed his plan to be flawless, reality always contained unforeseen turns when it came to execution.

In the end, just as Li Xiqing seized the chance to flee in a certain direction, Wan Kui’s strike arrived soundlessly.

Yet in the end, Wan Kui’s blade still came down on Li Xiqing’s head—perfectly, precisely, and with a single stroke that took his life.

According to Wan Kui’s calculations, this strike should have landed just on Li Xiqing’s back at most. If it failed slightly, it should have missed entirely. It should never have cut him down.

At that moment, Wan Kui panicked. He had indeed intended to keep Li Xiqing from escaping, but never had he imagined it would happen like this. He knew perfectly well how special Li Xiqing’s position in the Li family was, so even though his junior sister’s true spirit had been ruined by the man, he had never once thought of killing him—at the very least, not letting him die at his own hands.

He truly was in a panic, or else he would not have failed to notice that just before Li Xiqing died, his body had stiffened for a split second. It was that brief pause that caused Li Xiqing’s death.

But there was no time for him to look back and think on it.

Because someone else had come.

On Li Yu’s side, he turned back to Li Yan and said, “Didn’t you want to know what I would do if you refused to help?”

With that, Li Yu formed a hand seal. From eight directions centered on him, streaks of golden light flew into the Spirit Suppression Pagoda, and then eight array discs formed above his head. At the same time, a beam of light also flew toward the direction where Wan Kui and the others had gone—only this beam was hidden beneath the ground, and upon closer inspection, a pearl could be seen wrapped within it.

It was none other than the Nine-Origin Heaven-Punishing Array that had vanished without a trace, along with the Dragon Pearl taken away by Li Xiqing.

“If you had refused to help me, I would have used this array to cut you all down inside it. But since you did help me, I would disperse these nine array discs to nine different positions and use the hands of the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect to kill Li Xiqing—or use Li Xiqing’s hands to kill the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect.”

Li Yan could not help admiring Li Yu’s mind to the utmost. After he came to himself, he asked again, “What if Li Xiqing killed the man from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect? Would you simply let him go then?”

Li Yu looked at him as though he were an idiot. “Would he not want this tower anymore? Would he not want my life anymore? If he truly could kill the man from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect, he would certainly come back. By then, with the three of us together, could we still not kill him?”

Li Yan was left speechless by Li Yu’s mockery. Indeed, he had overlooked that.

“And if the man from the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect killed Li Xiqing? How would you settle that?” Li Yan asked.