Li Yan's face contorted, and beads of sweat rolled down his face. His sneak attack had been thwarted, and his leg was now useless.
Strategist Ji's face was also a mask of agony. He felt he could not hold on much longer. He pulled again with his right hand, and Li Yan was dragged to within inches of his body. He was about to be pressed against Ji's left hand. Li Yan had seen how Hong Linying died and had his suspicions. Dong Fuyi had warned him that Strategist Ji had mastered several immortal arts. That last one must have been one of them.
Li Yan felt the pull from the large hand on the crown of his head intensify. He channeled his spiritual power even more frantically, directing it to both the crown of his head and his lower body. He wanted to make his lower body heavier, hoping that Strategist Ji's Fire Poison would claim his life before his own spiritual power was completely drained.
And so, the two of them held on desperately. Strategist Ji's vision was already starting to blur, and his head spun. A wave of fury surged through him, his eyes feeling as if they would pop out of their sockets. He bit his tongue, and his mind cleared slightly. His eyes were bloodshot. He suddenly released all the spiritual power that was suppressing the Fire Poison within him, splitting it into two streams. A smaller stream flowed to his left hand, while the majority poured into his right hand as he gave one final, ferocious pull.
Li Yan gritted his teeth and held on, his body drenched as if he had been pulled from water. His own reckless output of spiritual power had brought him to the brink of exhaustion. He could feel his heart pounding like a drum. Suddenly, he felt an even greater force pulling from the crown of his head. He knew this was Strategist Ji's final gamble. Steeling himself, he abruptly withdrew all the spiritual power he was channeling to his lower body and the crown of his head.
Strategist Ji felt all resistance from his right hand vanish. Li Yan flew towards his chest like a feather. Although his goal had been to pull Li Yan over, the sudden change caught him off guard. It was an uncomfortable feeling, like throwing a full-force punch and hitting nothing but air. The coordination of his left hand's seal was now significantly delayed.
It all happened in a flash. Li Yan was already upon him. The moment he fell into his embrace, he snapped his head up and then whipped it viciously to the side. A cold glint of light flashed under the moon.
Before Strategist Ji could react and follow through with the Fireball Art to blast Li Yan away, he felt a sharp pain in his throat. Then, all his strength and blood seemed to find an escape point, jetting out from that spot. In a panic, he instinctively tried to pull his right hand back to cover the wound, but the Spirit-Absorbing Grand Art was still slowly running, and he could not pull it away. In his desperation, the last vestiges of spiritual power in his body surged to his right hand and gushed out, trying to push Li Yan away.
The spurting blood danced and spun in the night like a Flower of the Other Shore, splashing all over Li Yan's face, making him look like a ghoul. Clenched between his blood-spattered teeth was a thin blade, shimmering with a dark light. In a daze, he felt a stream of spiritual power shoot into the crown of his head. He could feel his own fire spiritual power that he had sent over, as well as an unfamiliar wood spiritual power, and mixed within it, a Fire Poison many times more concentrated than his own, pouring into him. He had no strength left to resist. In the space of two breaths, all of it had been forced into his body.
...
Li Yan leaned against the tree, his breath weak. The thin blade in his mouth had long since fallen powerlessly onto his chest. Beside him, Strategist Ji lay in a pool of blood.
The life force of a cultivator was indeed far greater than that of a mortal. In the pool of blood, Strategist Ji's throat had a deep, mangled wound with flesh turned outward. His body twitched, his eyes staring fixedly up at Li Yan, bloody bubbles forming at his lips as he made a hissing sound.
"You... practiced... coughed up... blood..."
"Hehe, you figured it out too? Hiss..." Li Yan leaned against the tree, showing no fear at the bloody scene. It was as if he were looking at a mortally wounded demonic beast he had hunted in the Great Green Mountains. He drew a sharp breath as waves of excruciating pain shot up from his legs.
"From the moment I knew you were raising me like a pig in a sty, I started planning how to escape, how to do it without you harming me or my family. Hehe, you can stop with that hissing sound. I know you want to know many, many things, but if I told you everything, would you even last long enough to hear it? So, as for how I knew your intentions and what immortal arts you practice... you can go 'seek immortality' in your next life."
Li Yan spoke weakly, looking at Strategist Ji's wide, unwilling eyes. Ji's chest heaved violently, and the hissing from his throat grew louder. Li Yan chuckled lightly. He knew Strategist Ji understood the meaning behind his words, "seek immortality."
"I used the books you annotated to practice your handwriting. I used the scent of countless flowers and plants to place the Concordance Worm scent on you. I kept buying all sorts of things to tire out your divine sense..."
"I told you, don't look at me like that. Since I can cultivate other immortal arts, of course I know about the existence of divine sense. I also know that you are at the peak of the third layer of Qi Condensation, and you scanned me with your divine sense every day."
"When you thought the things I was buying were all insignificant, your guard dropped. I had my brother at the Ironware Pavilion forge the Concealed-Blade Boots, the Soft Sword Belt, and this tiny thin blade that can only be held in the mouth. These are just simple mechanisms and items. My brother might not have known how, but his senior brother and master did, hehe."
"Except for the Soft Sword Belt, which was too conspicuous at my waist and might have been discovered by a careless scan of your divine sense, I practiced with the other items on my person whenever your divine sense grew tired of paying close attention to my purchases every time I entered the city. The Concealed-Blade Boots have a simple mechanism; a few practice runs were all it took. Cough, cough, cough."
The Fire Poison in Li Yan's body had been drawn out by the backlash of wood spiritual power and the Fire Poison mixed within it. He felt as if his insides were on fire, so much so that he no longer felt the pain from his broken leg and the wound on his other thigh. He gasped for breath for a moment.
"But secretly practicing with this thin blade under my tongue every day was true agony. My mouth was always full of blood, and I had to pretend it was a backlash from the Fire Poison caused by my practice, terrified you'd find out. But in the end, it was worth it, hehe. This wasn't my final trump card. The mountains, the forest, the belt, the boots—they were all my final trump cards. I wasn't sure which one would kill you, so every time, I put everything into that one strike. Cough, cough, cough."
Li Yan tilted his head slightly against the tree and glanced at the spot not far away where only a small piece of charcoal remained, and at the burly man who had been turned into a "kebab."
"I just didn't expect Marshal Hong to meet such an end. I wonder what will become of the State of Meng..." He thought of his parents back home, his third brother, his sister, that small mountain village, his childhood playmates, and the dogs that used to weave between his legs with their tails tucked.
His mind roared, and he felt his abdomen turn into a sea of fire. In his last moment of consciousness, he saw that Strategist Ji, lying in the pool of blood, had at some point stared with wide, unseeing eyes. He had been dead for a long time.
...
"Senior Brother Wu, over here!"
Half an hour later, several streaks of light streaked across the sky, arriving over the valley and circling continuously. After a dozen breaths, one of the streaks of light descended into the forest.
The light receded, revealing a slightly chubby youth with a round face and large eyes. He was looking down at Strategist Ji in the pool of blood at his feet.
Two more streaks of light followed, landing one after another. When the light faded, a youth with a long, dark-skinned face and a gentle-looking youth appeared. All three wore long, dark green robes.
The long-faced, dark-skinned youth walked a few steps to the chubby youth's side.
"Junior Brother Lu, your 'Lesser Exploration Art' is becoming more and more refined. You were the first to find him." Before the long-faced youth could speak, the gentle youth behind him spoke with a smile.
"Hehe, your junior brother is a coward. I have to be extra careful and check my surroundings when I'm out. I hope Senior Brother Yu isn't laughing at me." The chubby youth heard this and turned to the gentle youth with a bashful smile, though a hint of pride still lingered in his expression.
After the three of them stood firm, they looked around.
"This is the strategist."
The long-faced, dark-skinned youth, addressed as "Senior Brother Wu," crouched down to examine Strategist Ji in the pool of blood, then spoke in a cold voice.
Hearing this, the other two quickly gathered around to look as well.
After a moment, the chubby youth nodded. "He does resemble the image in the jade slip sent by the Law-Enforcement Team's senior brother. It's just that his face is covered in too much blood and so contorted. And this wound, tsk tsk, whoever did this was truly ruthless."
"Senior Brother Wu is right. It must be him. His face is seventy to eighty percent similar to the one in the jade slip. Aside from the pained contortion from having his throat cut, the rest looks like the effects of improperly practicing the 'Night Curtain Art.' Besides, there's the item in Senior Brother Wu's hand, hehe."
Senior Brother Wu was now holding the jade book that had been at Strategist Ji's waist. He nodded as well.
"Mm, this is indeed the cultivation manual that was taken by that Outer Sect traitor. Check his body to see if that paper book is also there."
The gentle youth smiled at his words and flicked a finger. Strategist Ji's black robe spread open. He crouched down, and after a moment, he pulled a book from under Strategist Ji's inner clothes.
"Hehe, he actually carried it with him. Saves us brothers the trouble of searching his residence." The gentle youth handed the book to Senior Brother Wu.
"This person is already dead, so he won't get to 'enjoy' the Soul-Entangling Silk Worm. That disciple of his should be this person leaning against the tree. He has clearly also practiced the incomplete 'Night Curtain Art.' He's on the verge of death now."
After taking the book, Senior Brother Wu glanced at Strategist Ji's corpse and then turned to look at Li Yan.
He saw the thin blade that had fallen onto Li Yan's chest and frowned.
"That strategist was likely killed by this person. The two people over there were clearly killed by the 'Fireball Art' and the 'Wood Thorn Art.' What's going on here?"
He turned his head again to look at the pile of charcoal that was once Marshal Hong and the burly man who had died so horribly.
"Hehe, Senior Brother Wu, that strategist clearly made a mistake while practicing our sect's technique. What use could this disciple of his be? Hehe," the gentle youth said faintly.
"Mm, judging by the scene, this disciple of his must have been in league with those two. It's possible the disciple saw through the strategist's intentions and joined forces with two martial world masters to ambush him, leading to this outcome." After hearing this, Senior Brother Wu surveyed the scene again, and after a moment of thought, seemed to have an epiphany.
"Hmph, that strategist was a fool. To think he could cure the Fire Poison in his body through such a low-level method. Truly laughable. What did he take our sect's cultivation manual for?" the chubby youth snorted coldly.
"It's just a pity about his disciple. He must have suffered an unexpected disaster," the gentle youth said, shaking his head.
"Then let me finish him off. There's no need to take him back to suffer the Soul-Entangling Silk Worm. It would just be a waste of effort and medicinal pills to heal him."
The chubby youth bent his finger, about to form a hand seal. Senior Brother Wu also nodded coldly.
"Wait!" Just as the chubby youth's immortal art was about to be unleashed, the gentle youth, whose gaze had fixed on Li Yan, quickly shouted to stop him.
The sudden shout next to his ear made the chubby youth's hand tremble, and the hand seal dissipated, nearly causing a backlash.
"Senior Brother Yu, you can't do that! So close... you're going to scare someone to death," the chubby youth grumbled.
The gentle youth took a step forward and sent a stream of spiritual power into Li Yan's abdomen. Senior Brother Wu had only frowned when he heard the shout and had not said anything. Now, seeing the gentle youth's action, he also focused his gaze on Li Yan. The next moment, he could not help but let out a soft "eh?"
A few breaths later, the gentle youth looked up at Senior Brother Wu. They both spoke at the same time. "Fragmented Poison Body."
The chubby youth, who had been watching them in confusion, was stunned when he heard this. "How can we kill this?"
...
The eastern sky was brightening. It was another clear early summer day.
In the early morning, the air at the foot of the Great Green Mountains was fresh. Birdsong echoed above the small village, where smoke was already rising from kitchen chimneys, curling and drifting into the distance. Fields of verdant green wheat surrounded the village, and terraced fields stretched out in layers. Occasionally, a few acres of yellow rapeseed flowers dotted the green wheat fields.
Since spring, the weather had been favorable. The consequences of the locust plague would likely be over in another month.
Uncle Chang put down his bowl and chopsticks, wiped the grease from his mouth, and grinned. The past few months had been very pleasant, and his family's finances had gradually improved. Besides the large sum for his fifth son's enlistment, the little rascal also brought back more than ten silver taels every month. In just over half a year, they had accumulated a lot, enough to live comfortably in this remote little village for decades.
Yesterday, someone from the city had brought back a belt. The village chief said it was a gift from Lord Ji in the city and had to be placed in the village's ancestral hall. Uncle Chang had argued quite a bit with Li Guoxin about it, finally agreeing with reluctance, but his face was full of pride. Li Guoxin had promised that at this year's ancestral worship, his family would be at the very front of the entire village. They would light the incense, offer it, and recite the prayers. Uncle Chang had spent a good part of yesterday strolling around the village, just wanting to see the envious looks of the villagers and hear their occasional respectful greetings.
"Not going to the fields today. I called some laborers from the village last night. With this good weather, we need to properly repair the house. In the afternoon, we'll start building a few more rooms next to it. Third son's wedding can be held in the autumn." After putting down his bowl, Uncle Chang stood up, full of vigor, and walked outside. Li Wei scratched his head in embarrassment, picked up the tools leaning against the wall, and limped out after him.
Li Yan's mother watched them. "Look at you two, so capable you could fly. Xiaozhu, later you and I will go cut up and wash that half a pig, so the people helping with the house can eat and drink well at noon. That way, they'll work even harder on the new rooms."
She paused and looked at the beaming Li Xiaozhu, her expression changing. "And you! How can that suitor's family be so worthless? Spring is already past, and they still don't have the money to marry you. Fine. Our family doesn't lack the food to feed you now. After we finish building your third brother's house, I'll find a matchmaker and find you a new family."
Li Xiaozhu stomped her foot and ran out.