Above the hundred mountains, it was incomparably silent.
Venerable Tian Xing, who, in the eyes of the Li family, was incomparably powerful, who had schemed for Eternal Sun Prefecture for ten thousand years, and whose avatars had spread throughout the entire Azure Dynasty, and who had once driven all the people of the Li family into despair, now had a ferocious expression on his face, as if he were silently crying out against the injustice of fate.
Li Dalong remained silent.
After a long time, Lin Wudao finally said with a sorrowful sigh, "It was your Li family that forced me to a dead end. I originally could have had more time. Perhaps in another ten thousand years, or twenty thousand years, I would have become even more powerful, and I would have been able to escape the Grand Tutor's eyes and ears. It's a pity that you people exposed me completely. I could only leave one wolf's den to step into another tiger's lair."
"Min Youguo."
Li Dalong spoke a name without a moment's hesitation. Above the entire Imperial Dynasty, besides the Human Emperor, there sat two men high above all others.
They manipulated everything in the entire Imperial Dynasty; from the moment they sat in those positions, they already held the authority of Heaven in their hands.
"Hahaha, Min Youguo!" Lin Wudao laughed maniacally. "I could only use every method I had to please him. Do you know what I was in his eyes? He saw me as a dog, a dog that could be abandoned at any time! I did so much for him, yet he was wary of me at every turn..."
"And among the things you did for him, did that include breaking into my Merit City that day?"
At this moment, Li Dalong was surprisingly no longer angry.
Once upon a time, in the eyes of the Li family, Venerable Tian Xing was an insurmountable mountain, an invincible existence before them.
Now, it seemed that he and his clansmen had been wrong. Tian Xing was actually no different from other people; he was just stronger than others, and the techniques he cultivated were a bit more heaven-defying, that's all.
"I did so much for him, yet he wanted me to tell him the locations of all my avatars. He wanted me to swear on my core and pledge my eternal loyalty to him!"
Lin Wudao finally calmed down.
He saw pity in Li Dalong's eyes. Perhaps the people of the Li family would never know, for a person like him who came from a small family, just how many unimaginable difficulties he had experienced to have walked step-by-step to where he was today.
For a moment, he actually no longer wanted to argue or debate any further with the Li family. He only stared with a grave gaze.
"Li Dalong, my conflict with your Li family ends here. You are the same as me!"
"Do you think you belong to the Grand Tutor's faction? In reality, your Li family's Li Changseng has already become a vessel that can be seized at any time. The Grand Tutor doesn't even care about the lives of his own adopted sons, and you people are also just fish on a chopping block, ready to be devoured at any moment."
"You people oppose Min Youguo at every turn; he regards you as a nail in his eye, a thorn in his flesh."
"We are facing the same destiny. We don't have to continue slaughtering each other over things that are already in the past. If we leave a path of survival for each other, then one day in the future, perhaps we can cooperate. We will break free from the control of the Azure Dynasty!"
"We both rose from the ordinary; together, we can ascend the Heavenly Ladder!"
...
In an instant, the wind surged and the clouds roiled.
The two men high in this vast sky were as if controlled by the boundless heavens. And that Lin Wudao was maniacally trying to ascend to Heaven in a single step!
However, what made Lin Wudao's face change was that Li Dalong only furrowed his brow slightly and said faintly, "After saying so much... back then, when you fell into such a predicament, why didn't you just neatly and crisply find my Li family and explain the situation? Perhaps at that time, we could have stood on the same side. It's not impossible that I would have lent you a hand."
"You..." For a moment, Lin Wudao was at a loss for words.
Li Dalong continued, "Oh, that's right. Back then, in your eyes, our Li family was nothing more than ants. You say your path has been full of nothing but dangers and obstacles, yet you were the one who slaughtered the children of my Li family. If we were still as weak as we were back then, would you still be standing before me now, saying these things?"
With his words having reached this point, Li Dalong's figure flashed and, in an instant, appeared before Lin Wudao!
He narrowed his eyes, and in them, Lin Wudao's ethereal form was like that of a dead thing.
"Don't act pathetic in front of me, and don't think that your struggle against the world is as extraordinary or as noble as you say!"
Li Dalong made no effort to hide the chilling coldness and fury on his body. "For these past hundred-plus years, I have not forgotten our family's hatred for a single day. There are still two years left. The Tian Xing Cultivator Abode is about to open. You, too, should remember that day, and you, too, should have anticipated this one!"
"Foolish!"
Lin Wudao's eyes went wide. "Have I not made myself clear enough? Wake up! What's past is past, and the dead cannot return. If you continue to fight me, it will only result in mutual destruction!"
But Li Dalong was unmoved. "Even if it means mutual destruction, I still want you to live in fear. Even if we perish together and go to the underworld, even if I turn into a vengeful ghost, I will become your nightmare. Besides, we have prepared a grand gift for you."
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