“You!” Lang Ya struggled but immediately collapsed to the ground.
The true yuan inside his body suddenly became completely empty.
“Is this charm technique? Illusion magic?!” Lang Ya quickly stood up, only to find his steps unsteady and his body weak.
“You poisoned me… when?”
“I didn’t poison you myself.” Lu Li removed the armor, revealing the water-colored long dress underneath.
“This is the effect of Thousand Day Drunk.”
“It’s actually… Thousand Day Drunk.” Lang Ya grabbed the nearby pillar, staring at the sighing Lie Shan.
“You set me up!”
“Yes, I set you up, but I didn’t expect you to be so ruthless.” Lu Li flicked the long sword, raising Lang Ya’s chin with the flat of the blade.
“If you had drunk the wine, nothing would have happened.”
“Thousand Day Drunk has a peculiar nature—the aroma is poisonous, but the liquid itself is the antidote.”
“However, you chose not to drink, so the aroma of Thousand Day Drunk completely paralyzed your body.” Lu Li said.
“This was brewed temporarily with Flower and Grass Dew; it only paralyzes you for a day. By tomorrow, you’ll be back to normal.”
“I won’t live to see tomorrow, will I?” Lang Ya closed his eyes and smiled bitterly.
“I’ve imagined countless ways I might die, but I never thought it would be at the hands of a Celestial Fox girl.”
“What, do you look down on the Celestial Fox Clan?” Lu Li tilted his head, looking at Lang Ya.
“Yes. All you do is play with charm techniques and illusion magic. What use are they on the actual battlefield? What good are they against a beast tide?” Lang Ya opened his eyes again, staring into Lu Li’s pink pupils.
“All these years, the Tianlang Wang has been the one to solve everything… I suspect Lie Shan only joined your side because he was seduced by your beauty.”
“Lang Ya, you’re wrong there.” Lie Shan picked up the wine glass from the floor and slowly turned around.
“The Celestial Fox Saint defeated me and Lie Shi through pure strength this time.”
“Impossible! Such a lowly fox woman?!” Lang Ya looked at Lu Li’s graceful figure.
“How is that possible?”
Hearing this, Lu Li’s expression grew even colder.
He himself was not a member of the Yao Race, nor the Celestial Fox Saint, so he naturally didn’t care about such insults.
But facing death, Lang Ya’s mind was still filled with thoughts of bloodline hierarchy.
“Since we still have time today.” Lu Li slowly lowered his long sword.
“Before I send you on your way, I might as well give you a demonstration.”
“I don’t want to resort to violence, but since your Wolf Clan tried to kill me, letting you off would only leave a future threat.” Lu Li raised his delicate hand.
“Having enemies scheming in the shadows is not part of my plan.”
“But then again… this is also the worst possible plan.”
“I have to make an example of someone.” With a sigh, Lu Li flicked his sword upward.
A full moon appeared in the hall.
Moonlight poured down.
“Mountain-Splitting Strike.”
Lie Shan could hardly believe what was happening before his eyes.
Sound seemed to lose all meaning in that moment.
The Wolf Clan Main Hall split cleanly in two, with Lang Ya’s position at the center.
It was as if a giant sword had fallen from the sky, smashing directly into the mansion.
“Whew…” Lu Li twirled the sword in a flourish, standing amidst the drizzling rain like a celestial maiden descending from the nine heavens.
If one ignored the sword strike just now.
Click
The long sword slid into its sheath, snapping Lie Shan out of his stupor.
“Let’s go. Let’s see what treasures Lang Ya has in his storeroom.” Lu Li clapped his hands together with a relaxed smile.
But that smile seemed utterly terrifying in Lie Shan’s eyes.
“…Even with my blade, I couldn’t stand against her…” Lie Shan stared at the blood and gore split across the floor, thinking to himself.
“Absolutely not.”
So while Lu Li rummaged through the heavenly materials and earthly treasures as if strolling through a market square, Lie Shan explained everything he knew about the items.
But at that moment, Lu Li was simultaneously scanning the storeroom with his divine sense while lost in thought.
In his female form, using full true yuan, he could only unleash 50% of the Mountain-Splitting Strike’s power.
However, the female form had a unique advantage: the Charm Spiritual Root’s exceptional affinity for the heaven and earth spiritual qi.
The Wind-Breaking Strike relied more on using true qi from within the body to expel sword qi.
But the Mountain-Splitting Strike poured all the true yuan into the long sword, slaying the enemy in an instant.
The more true yuan, the more powerful the effect.
For Lu Li, combining the power of the Charm Spiritual Root allowed the Mountain-Splitting Strike to achieve even greater results.
“Celestial Fox Saint, if there’s nothing here that catches your eye…” Lie Shan’s voice drifted into Lu Li’s ears.
“I recall Lang Ya had a mid-grade spirit stone hidden somewhere. It should be in a corner.”
“Oh?” Lu Li swept his divine sense over the area, only to find that many treasures were stored in boxes shielded by spirit-sealing arrays, making them difficult to locate.
“This is indeed troublesome.”
“We’ll probably need to have the guards search through them one by one.” Lie Shan opened a box, checked the age of the herbs inside, then shook his head again.
“But there’s no rush.”
“Is that so?” Lu Li focused his mind, a faint light flickering in his eyes.
In that instant, his vision revealed the differences in the spirit-sealing arrays on each box.
“Found it.”
“Huh?” Lie Shan looked blankly at the small palm-sized box squeezed in the middle, which was pulled out with a slight effort from Lu Li.
“You found it just like that?”
“Yes…” Lu Li extended a finger, gently scraping the edge of the box with his nail as he infused it with the power of the Mountain-Splitting Strike.
With a crack, an intense surge of spiritual energy began to leak out.
Then, the box flashed with light, and in an instant, it began to siphon the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual qi back into itself.
“Spiritual energy siphon—it really is a mid-grade spirit stone!” Lie Shan stared at the small stone inside the box.
“This is something only Golden Core cultivators use. For a Foundation Establishment cultivator to use it for a breakthrough would be an incredible treasure.”
“Using a mid-grade spirit stone to break through is far too extravagant.” Lu Li placed the stone back in the box.
“We’ll inventory everything in a few days. My subordinates should have results by then.”
When Lu Li left the storeroom, Lie Shan’s guards had already dealt with all of the Wolf Clan’s guards.
Those who resisted were killed on the spot; those willing to join were temporarily detained for observation.
Half an hour later, Lu Li returned to the Celestial Fox Clan’s mansion.
Yuan He was sitting with his eyes closed, a Buddhist light shining behind his head as he chanted the Rebirth Mantra for the Wolf Commander lying on the ground.
However, Liu Qingxi’s expression was complicated—she seemed to be holding back laughter, while also trying not to turn and look at Liu Qingyun.
“What happened?” Lu Li looked at the somewhat messy courtyard, everywhere covered with traces of sword qi. “Was he injured?”
“…Reporting to the Saint, no injuries, just a bit of true yuan depletion.” Liu Qingxi lowered her head, took a moment to regulate her breathing, then asked.
“Since you’ve returned, is the matter with the Wolf Clan resolved?”
“Yes. Next, we’ll have to persuade the other four clans.” Lu Li looked at the corpses on the ground and shook his head.
“Then we can start the second phase of preparations outside Blackstone City.”
“That soon?” Lie Shan stared at Lu Li, even though he had already heard the simple plan.
“Will the persuasion tomorrow go smoothly?”
“That… will definitely go smoothly.” Liu Qingxi tapped her jade disk, and an image neither of them could understand appeared above it.
“And it will be smoother than smooth.”
Because after tonight, the three hardest-to-shake forces in Blackstone City had all fallen under the Celestial Fox mansion.