[Special Event — Persuading Fourth Prince]
"Go and persuade Fourth Prince?"
The clan members gathered within the Ancestral Space.
Li Dalong spoke, "All these years, we have tried our best to avoid getting involved in court politics, prioritizing our rest and recovery.
However, the situation with the Wu Race is critical now.
Simply offering words of counsel to the Fourth Prince should be feasible. Otherwise, if the Wu Race truly breaks through, we will be left exposed to the slaughter."
"Fei Heng likely knows that Fourth Prince owes us a favor," Li Yaowen said with a smile.
"However, this favor alone cannot halt a great war; our Li family does not yet possess enough prestige for that."
"I believe there is a scheme at play here."
Li Changsheng's expression was grave. "I..."
Before he could finish, Li Changyao had already leapt onto Li Changsheng's back.
With a look of utter embarrassment, she clamped her hand over her older brother's mouth.
"Elders, please continue. You all continue."
Forget about whether there was actually a trap in the peace talks—if this brother of hers was lying on the Old Tree and a single leaf fell, he would think someone was trying to assassinate him.
"Whether the persuasion succeeds or fails, we must give it a try," Li Kuangren said in a deep voice.
"I will go. Senior White Qilin is most familiar with me; every time he comes to conduct transactions with us, I am the one who negotiates with him."
Everyone nodded slightly.
At night, Li Wei saw Li Kuanghua head to the family's back mountain, where rows of statues stood.
She sat for a long time in front of a lone grave, pouring wine as an offering in silence.
Then, Li Kuanghua giggled.
"Your big sis killed a whole lot more of the Wu Race.
Just you wait—don't mind that I got chased fourteen times; this time, Fei Heng is personally leading the campaign.
He is the Crown Prince, so they are definitely going to wage full-scale war on the Wu Race.
I will send all those Wu people down to you, my useless little brother.
You need to show some backbone and kill them all over again."
"...."
The wind tonight had grown chilly.
For so many years, Li Wei hadn't understood in the slightest why Li Kuanghua was always so determined to go to the battlefield to fight the Wu Race.
This girl acted like she had been injected with chicken blood; she didn't care a whit about family affairs, her heart set solely on killing the people of the Wu Race.
Li Wei did not disturb her. Instead, he silently summoned Li Xinnian into the Ancestral Space.
The next day.
Li Kuanghua boarded Fei Heng's spirit boat.
As the vessel rose into the sky, Fei Heng bowed respectfully to the Li family members.
Li Kuanghua, however, stood on her tiptoes, waving to her clansmen, and shouted, "I'm off to fight! Useless Xinnian, remember to send treasures and men over to this old lady!"
Li Xinnian's face turned black.
This Great-Grandaunt was really too much.
It was one thing if she called him useless in private, but after this outburst, he probably wouldn't dare to show his face in public for another two or three years.
The spirit boat drifted further and further away.
A light flashed upon Li Kuanghua's waving hand.
[Under your instructions, Li Xinnian has dispatched personnel to Shadowfell Prefecture to construct the "Combat Grotto-Heaven" for Li Kuanghua.]
[Cultivators from Azure Cloud sent to the Wu Race battlefield each year will gather within the Combat Grotto-Heaven.]
[Li Kuanghua received gifts bestowed by the family elders.
Obtained the Mid-Grade Dharma Treasure "Combat Demon Armor," forged by Li Yaotie.
Crafted primarily from the flesh and blood of the Zhao Clan members, it contains one ten-thousandth of the power of the Boundless Dead Sea.
It can negate ninety percent of the force from attacks at the peak of the Divinity Transformation realm and can self-repair after sustaining battle damage.
The Demon Armor can transform into tentacles to attack enemies with Spiritual power equivalent to the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.]
[Obtained a Fifth-Grade Spirit Object bestowed by Li Dalong: Soul of the Punishment Officer: Hellblade King.
Formed from the soul of the Punishment Officer: Hellblade King, a Void Refining realm Lord of the Hell Layer I: The Silence Maw in the Underworld, after his death.
The Spirit Object takes the form of an earring; it can withstand attacks against the divine soul, and any intruder upon the soul will suffer a slashing strike from the Punishment Officer: Hellblade King's soul.]
...
Another year passed.
Li Kuangren journeyed toward Duskwild Prefecture.
As soon as he reached the border of the territory, he witnessed the smoke of war and the lingering remnants of mana left behind by the clashes of cultivators.
Looking down from the sky, it appeared as if a god had carved a massive, long gash across the earth with a single stroke of a blade.
Li Kuangren understood that this was the battlefront established between the Azure Dynasty and the Fourth Prince.
The Azure Dynasty's vast armies converged from all directions.
The sky was filled with various array formations, creating a celestial chasm that severed the connection between the two lands.
On the ground stood a city wall a hundred meters high, constructed entirely from Spiritual power.
Li Kuangren could even sense something writhing within the grey structure of the wall.
Suddenly, as a bird flew near, a soldier manifested from the stone of the wall and cut the bird down with a single strike.
"Hiss!" Li Kuangren sucked in a breath of cold air.
"What a fine Formation, what a fine wall! When I get back, I must tell Xinnian to build one of these as well."
Arriving behind the wall, he saw a military city.
Hovering above the city were row upon row of spirit boats and war artifacts.
Countless cultivators were drilling, rushing toward the battlefield, or practicing array formations; the sight of arrays composed of thousands of people was truly awe-inspiring.
Following Li Kuangren, Li Wei was not seeing the Azure Dynasty's battlefield for the first time, yet witnessing it again still filled him with deep emotion.
The battlefield structures appeared ancient and rustic, yet they were far more advanced than the battlefields of modern weaponry that existed in his memory.
Before long, Li Kuangren entered the city.
The moment the inspecting cultivators heard that Li Kuangren was Li Tianyue's nephew, they bowed respectfully.
Before he had even met with Li Tianyue, quite a few people were already approaching him, bowing and scraping to curry favor, their faces beaming with ingratiating smiles.
"Nephew Kuangren! It's me—from the hidden Lin family. It won't be long before I become your Uncle-in-law. Come, let's go grab a drink together."
"Get lost, you shameless thing! Hahaha, Nephew Kuangren, does your Li clan practice the custom of recruiting live-in sons-in-law?
The world calls me a monstrous prodigy; what do you think of me?"
"This humble one lacks talent, but I am willing to spill my guts and brains for you, Nephew, if only you would help me see Yueyue just once."
"..."
Li Kuangren's mouth twitched.
He hadn't even seen his aunt yet, but a whole flock of her suitors had already emerged.
Looking at the ten-meter-wide road packed with a long queue, Li Kuangren broke out in a cold sweat.
He knew his aunt, Li Tianyue, was skilled at commanding troops in Duskwild Prefecture, but he had no idea... what were all these things here for?
Li Wei was also wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
[Your descendant Li Tianyue presides over the Duskwild Prefecture battlefield.
Her aptitude, bloodlust, command ability, and beauty are known to the world.
She is ranked third on the Azure Dynasty's Peerless Fairy List.
Her name is pursued by the cultivators of the world; to this end, as many as ten thousand cultivators have come to Duskwild Prefecture to join the army...]
"You motherf*ckers, do you not care about your lives anymore?"
Li Wei couldn't understand it.
One or two would be one thing, but so many people fawning all the way onto a battlefield?
With the way they were acting, if they went to the front lines, they wouldn't even know how they died.
Li Kuangren, surrounded and furious, roared, "Scram! My aunt has a house full of children and grandchildren—the whole world knows this! Are you all looking for death?!"
"That makes it even better!"
"..."
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