Snow drifted down on a winter's day in Azure Cloud. The sky was a milky white expanse, making heaven and earth a single, seamless color.
*Shiing!*
The battle in the sky between Li Yaozu and the God of War ceased as the Li family gathered below. Li Yaozu landed among his kin, stumbling in mid-air before being caught by the roots of the ancient tree formed from Li Yaoqing's Dharma Body. The life force from the great tree began to heal his wounds.
Even with the forces of the Azure Cloud Region assembled and the Skynet members caught in their encirclement, Li Wei did not let his guard down.
"Old Ancestor."
Li Yaowen was already floating beside Li Wei. In the past, as a spirit soul, she had drifted across the world, always accompanied by the Li family's spirit tablets to shield them from heavenly secrets. But the Li Yaowen of today carried nothing with her.
She flew to Li Wei's side and said in a low voice, "A Void Refining aura. It came, and then it left."
Upon hearing this, both Li Wei and the other members of the Li family breathed a sigh of relief.
And at that same moment, Dongfang Xuan of Skynet also spoke in a low voice to her companions. "The boss has fled."
"What?!!"
Han Yun had already retracted his golden throne. Surrounded by the Li family, it was better to be as inconspicuous as possible; otherwise, he feared he wouldn't even get a chance to escape.
Hearing Dongfang Xuan's words, his face turned ashen. "Miss Dongfang, are you sure?!!"
"There's no need to be sure." The old man retracted his cane and gave a derisive smile.
"Did you really think the boss was going to save us? He was once the subordinate of someone with an imperial bloodline, and back then, he was only at the half-step Void Refining realm. When his master was ambushed by enemies, do you know what the very first thing he did was?"
"He went back to his master's place to steal Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, and that's how he broke through to the Void Refining realm!"
Once these words were spoken, Han Yun no longer held even a shred of hope for Skynet's 'boss'.
He shot a vicious glare at Gu Yinming, but then felt a sense of resignation.
They were all just looking out for themselves, after all. Forget the boss; even he would choose to flee in a situation like this.
Daoist Poxu was supporting the God of War.
The God of War was in a bad state; his body was covered in sword wounds, and his golden staff had been sheared shorter by a third. While tending to his injuries, Poxu asked, "Miss Dongfang, what do we do now? Do we run?"
He looked around apprehensively.
Even back when he was thrown into the dungeons, he had never been this terrified.
"If they wanted to make a move, they would have done so long ago." A glint flashed in Gu Yinming's eyes.
He could see the battle intent in the gazes of the Li family, but it wasn't directed at them.
It was aimed at… the distant battlefields of Eternal Sun Prefecture, and the entire Duravia Trade Prefecture!
"You mean…"
A flicker of joy crossed Daoist Poxu's face as it dawned on him. From the moment they had first appeared in the Azure Cloud Region, the Li family had been prepared. If the Li's had truly wanted to kill them, they would have been met with a furious storm the instant they arrived.
And whether it was the God of War or Gu Yinming, it was as if they had all been deliberately lured by the Li family here!
"What they want," Gu Yinming concluded, his voice low, "is more."
Dongfang Xuan's eyes met those of the cold and detached woman beside the Li family's Old Ancestor. In that moment, she understood why the Li family had surrounded them but not killed them.
...
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
In the end, no great battle took place at the Grand Hall of Region Prince Jiang.
The members of Skynet vanished without a trace, and the Azure Cloud Region returned to its former tranquility.
However, the entire Eternal Sun Prefecture had not forgotten the successive explosions from three days prior. The rebellion of its many great powers also plunged the prefecture into even greater chaos.
Merit City also simulated the weather of the outside world.
On this day of heavy snow, the entire city was clad in a mantle of silver. Children could be seen having snowball fights in the streets. It seemed that no matter how chaotic the world became, this place would always remain a rare Pure Land.
The Li family's sky-piercing old tree, with its crimson crown, stood out in Merit City.
But at the roots of the Old Tree, and beneath the snow-covered soil, layer upon layer of formations swirled. Entwined on the tree's trunk was a battered body, and beneath it, a silver coffin.
This person was none other than the old Daoist Baimei, who had been blasted to pieces by Li Wei.
Under the suppression of the Old Tree, the Heaven-Piercing Coffin, and numerous formations, Baimei could only cling to his last breath of life.
Drip.
Crimson blood trickled down Baimei's toes and dripped onto the Heaven-Piercing Coffin, which was held aloft by the roots of the Primal Blood Tree.
The drop created a sound like a droplet hitting water, yet amplified a hundredfold. Subsequently, ripples of a Qi wave, invisible to the naked eye, spread out from the silver coffin and washed over the entirety of Merit City.
Li Wei was currently present in an ethereal form beneath the Primal Blood Tree, staring intently at the panel before him.
[Congratulations! Through your tireless efforts, you have suppressed the family's mortal enemy, Venerable Elder Baimei!]
[Family Will acquired: 3000]
To deal with the old Daoist Baimei, Li Wei¹ had consumed a massive amount of Family Will, as well as his anti-matter bombs.
But Li Wei felt it was well worth the cost!
Li Dalong and the Old Tree knew better than anyone the immense value of a Void Refining cultivator's physical body.
For the past three days, the members of the Li family had all been circling the body of that old thief Baimei.
[You have obtained spoils of war—Sealed Void Refining Cultivator x1]
[Acquired Rank 5 Spirit Vein x2]
[Acquired a large quantity of Artifact Refining materials...]
[Acquired several Dharma Treasure fragments, a large quantity of supreme-grade Spirit Stones, supreme-grade Spirit Artifacts, Rank 5 Spirit Objects...]
The foundation for the development of any sect or Immortal Clan lies in its Spirit Veins.
In the past, the one beneath the Li family's land was merely a Rank 8 Spirit Vein, and even after so many years, the new ones they'd managed to find were few and far between.
Now, the concentration of Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi in all of Merit City had increased by more than threefold. Furthermore, the Old Tree's roots had taken hold within the new Spirit Veins.
From now on, the tree could easily use the spirit qi absorbed from the veins to power Merit City's formations, unlike before, when using its abilities would consume a massive amount of its stored Blood Qi.
In addition, when the Old Tree was at the Demon King stage, it took fifty years to bear fruit a single time. After reaching the Nascent Soul realm, its fruit-bearing ability had not changed.
Even when the Old Tree received a boon from Heaven and Earth that restored its vitality, and even after it absorbed the vast Worldly Essence Qi from Tian Xing's grand formation, it still had not broken through to the Divinity Transformation realm.
But now, the Old Tree's cultivation bottleneck had finally begun to loosen!
[Your family's Divine Tree, having taken root in the Rank 5 Spirit Veins, now possesses the conditions to break through to the Divinity Transformation stage. The blood of a Void Refining cultivator nourishes the Divine Tree and replenishes its Qi and Blood!]
[The family's Divine Tree breaks through to the Divinity Transformation stage! (Merit City shields from heavenly secrets; it can complete the breakthrough upon leaving the city.)]
[Your family's Divine Tree has evolved into—the Primal Origin Blood Tree!]
[Having devoured the blood of all of Tian Xing's avatars, it has obtained a new bloodline ability: the Primal Origin Blood Fruit. It bears fruit once every 500 years. This process can be accelerated with a large amount of blood from powerful cultivators.]
[By consuming the Blood Fruit, a cultivator can awaken the ancient bloodlines within the flesh and blood of the Human Race. The stronger their comprehension, the more powerful the bloodline they obtain!]
Bloodline!
In this world, bloodlines were actually extremely important.
The Seven Ironclads, for example, had obtained the bloodline of the Wu Clan through a Wu Bone.
Every member of the Li family had consumed a drop of 'Qilin Blood,' which emerged from the 'Sacred Qilin Crystal' once every five years. But as for that thing… Li Xinghuo ended up with a Qilin Arm, and Li Xingchen got a Qilin Root. For everyone else in the Li family, the results could only be described as minimal.
And awakening a bloodline was something that relied purely on fortuitous opportunity.
The Human Race had a long and storied history, and after tens of thousands of years, their bloodlines had become diluted and mixed to an unknown degree. But those who could awaken a bloodline on their own were, without exception, geniuses of their generation.
The appearance of the Primal Origin Blood Fruit, on top of the Old Tree's breakthrough, made Li Wei feel that this venture, though costly, was an incredible bargain.
Besides all that, the most precious treasure of all was the body of that old thief Baimei.
[Your family, using its grand formation and the Old Tree, is maintaining Venerable Elder Baimei's life force to continuously harvest his blood. As long as his body does not die and his Divine Soul is not extinguished, his life force can be sustained for a hundred years, yielding one drop of Void Refining Essence Blood per year.]
This Void Refining Essence Blood was incredibly potent. It dripped onto the silver coffin, spread down its sides, and then flowed into the grand formation of Merit City.
Every year from now on, the entire Grotto-Heaven Blessed Land of Merit City would become even more stable and resilient.
This Essence Blood could even make the Corpse Emperors of the Heaven-Piercing Coffin more powerful. Once the body's blood was drained dry, the battered corpse could be used to refine a new zombie, or it could be chopped into pieces to be used in artifact or pill refining—just like Tian Xing's Lin Wudao body had been.
Lost in thought, Li Wei glanced into the depths of the Old Tree. He heard a furious roar from within its trunk, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
Years ago, when Tian Xing had fallen into the family's hands, his Divine Soul was suppressed within the body of the Old Tree. And now... There was an additional remnant soul inside. Baimei!
Now, Baimei's remnant soul had awakened!
"A reunion between master and disciple."
Li Wei gave a slight smile and vanished on the spot, not wanting to disturb the joyous reunion of a master and disciple who hadn't seen each other in years.
...
Inside the body of the Old Tree.
It was a vast and desolate world, a place where, aside from a stretch of stark white, there was nothing else. This was the nature of this world, and there was nothing more despair-inducing.
The Divine Soul of Lin Wudao had been trapped here for forty years!
He was on the verge of madness!
For forty years, his Divine Soul had wandered in this world devoid of hope and future.
He longed to fall into a deep sleep, but the Old Tree would not allow it.
The Old Tree forced his Divine Soul to remain conscious at all times, even drawing out his memories and making him constantly relive his past.
He longed for death, but every single day, the Old Tree sustained his Divine Soul.
Every so often, the Old Tree would torment the Divine Soul of Lin Wudao.
But for some reason, as the world grew ever more desolate, Lin Wudao actually began to crave the Old Tree's torment. It was the only way he could temporarily stop reliving his past, the only way he could feel that he still truly existed.
But the Lin Wudao of today discovered that his world was a little different.
Floating before him was another remnant soul—a soul he hated to the very marrow of his bones.
He waited, waited for the remnant soul of Baimei to awaken from its deep slumber!
Finally, Baimei's Divine Soul opened its vacant eyes and saw the savage face of Lin Wudao.
The Li family's undying Old Ancestor, the endless, successive explosions—those had not been the beginning of despair.
This was.
And there would be no end.
---
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