Chapter 53 : Chapter 53
Chapter 53: Lingxu Sect
Under ordinary circumstances, Song Zhong would naturally have been able to react, but right now he was at the very crucial moment of a life-and-death duel with Li Xingge. There was no room whatsoever for distraction.
By the time he sensed the danger, it was already too late to evade.
The light arrow whistled through the air and pierced straight through Song Zhong’s chest. The heart-rending pain twisted his entire face.
Song Zhong lowered his head and looked. In his chest was a gruesome bloody hole, from which blood gushed in streams.
He turned his head and saw, not far behind him, the Zheng Family Head Zheng Lingjun, who looked like a middle-aged Confucian scholar.
Zheng Lingjun was also looking at him, and his eyes were full of ridicule.
“Zheng Lingjun!”
Song Zhong gritted his teeth, his eyes burning with hatred.
That despicable villain had actually launched a sneak attack with a hidden arrow.
High in the sky, the vast sword shadow had already gained the upper hand. With a tearing sound, it split apart Song Zhong’s saber intent and crashed down!
Sensing the immense disturbance, Song Zhong suddenly raised his head. The sword shadow in his pupils grew larger and larger.
“No!”
BOOM!
A heaven-rending explosion thundered out, and even the earth seemed to tremble. In the next moment, a blinding brilliance erupted.
For an instant, it illuminated the black night as though it were day, and a magnificent mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
An invisible shockwave of terrifying force spread out from the center of the blast in every direction. Wherever the shockwave passed, everything was destroyed.
That enormous disturbance drew everyone’s attention. All of them stopped what they were doing and stared, dumbstruck, toward the place where the mushroom cloud had risen.
After a short while, a figure slowly emerged from the smoke and dust.
No one dared blink. Everyone stared fixedly, because they all knew that the person who walked safely out of the smoke would determine the winner of this battle.
The figure gradually revealed its true appearance. When they saw that youthful face, the world first fell silent for a heartbeat.
Then weapons were raised high, and a thunderous cheer exploded forth.
“Long live the Family Head! Long live the Family Head!”
As for the cultivators on the Song Clan alliance’s side, all of them drooped with dejection, looking as though their parents had just died.
The Yan Family Head and the Yuan Family Head exchanged glances, then retreated at the same time with perfect unspoken understanding. With one turn, they fled toward the mouth of the valley.
As they ran, they shouted, “Disciples of the Yuan family, retreat!” “Disciples of the Yan family, retreat!”
Their greatest backer had lost. Continuing the fight was meaningless. If they did not leave now, they feared they would not be able to leave at all later.
But how could Li Xingge possibly let them go?
Those who had bared their fangs at him all had to die.
He formed seals with his hands. Zhanxu in his grasp trembled with a humming cry, then transformed into ten thousand flying swords. Li Xingge raised both hands, and the ten thousand flying swords became streams of light as they pursued the two fleeing men!
The pair were fleeing madly when they suddenly felt a chill on their backs.
Instinctively, they turned their heads to look, and their eyes widened violently.
“No!”
Bang! Bang!
After two shrill screams, their bodies exploded into clouds of blood mist.
As for Song Tianbo, the Song Clan Family Head, he too met a bitter end beneath the combined siege of Li Xuantong and the other two.
At this point, all five Qi-Blood Realm cultivators on the Song Clan alliance’s side had fallen.
As for the countless men under the alliance, once the Li Clan’s Qi-Blood Realm cultivators had freed their hands, they slaughtered them like pigs and dogs.
“After today, no one in Baihe County will dare contend with your Qingfeng Li Clan ever again.”
At some unknown point, Zheng Lingjun had appeared beside Li Xingge. Looking down at the one-sided massacre unfolding beneath them in the valley, he sighed with emotion.
Seeing who had arrived, Li Xingge smiled. “If not for Brother’s timely aid today, my Li Clan would most likely have suffered grievous losses. Li Xingge offers my thanks here to Brother.”
With that, he cupped his fists and bowed to Zheng Lingjun.
This bow came from the bottom of his heart. If Zheng Lingjun had not stepped in with that hidden arrow, then to kill Song Zhong—who had already reached the extreme limit of Minor Accomplishment in the Qi-Blood Realm—Li Xingge would have had to pay a tremendous price.
Zheng Lingjun quickly helped him up and laughed boldly. “What are you saying, worthy younger brother? Since you call me Brother, then your affairs are my affairs.”
Li Xingge’s face was filled with gratitude. “My Li Clan will remember today’s favor in our hearts. If Brother ever has need of me in the future, then so long as it is within my power, I will not refuse.”
Though Li Xingge’s face showed gratitude, in his heart he understood clearly that there was no love without cause and no hatred without cause in this world.
Zheng Lingjun had befriended him and helped him because he had his own designs.
But whatever Zheng Lingjun’s motives might be, today he had truly rendered the Li Clan a great favor. Li Xingge might be cold in his actions and focused on利益, but that did not mean he was an ungrateful man.
So long as it lay within his power, it was not as though he could not lend the Zheng family a hand in the future.
Zheng Lingjun had invested and given so much for the sake of hearing precisely this promise from Li Xingge.
Others only cared about what stood before their eyes.
The Zheng family, however, was looking toward the future.
The current Li Xingge already possessed the air of a child of fortune, a latent dragon hidden in the deep. Zheng Lingjun believed that it would not be long before his investment paid off with abundant returns.
“Since you have already come, Senior, will you not step out and let us meet face to face?”
Li Xingge’s eyes suddenly shifted toward a certain direction as he spoke lightly.
“Hahahaha! What keen senses the young friend possesses. Zheng Clan—Zheng Cangfeng!”
A bold, elderly laugh rang out from within the mountain forest. Within only a few breaths, a white-haired old man with the face of a crane-haired immortal appeared before Li Xingge.
At the side, Zheng Lingjun promptly reminded him, “That is my Zheng Clan’s Old Ancestor.”
Li Xingge nodded. He covertly probed the Zheng Clan Old Ancestor’s aura, only to find that he could not see through it at all. It was as though dense mist shrouded the old man’s presence.
This was an exceedingly terrifying expert, one who far surpassed Song Zhong.
The Zheng family truly ran deep beyond measure.
A trace of caution quietly arose in Li Xingge’s heart.
After all, it was possible to have the will to harm others, but impossible to do without the will to guard against others.
Though he felt wary in his heart, on the surface he respectfully cupped his fists and said, “This junior greets Senior Zheng.”
“Seventeen years old, and already at Minor Accomplishment in the Qi-Blood Realm. This old man has lived for over a hundred years, and this is the first time I have ever seen a young man who has amazed me to such a degree.”
Zheng Cangfeng praised him with a smile, his eyes full of admiration as he looked at Li Xingge.
“Senior flatters me. It is only luck.”
Li Xingge answered modestly.
“Hahahaha! Young friend, you are too modest. With your aptitude, it may not be long before it is my turn to call you Senior.”
Zheng Cangfeng said half in jest.
Yet there was no real exaggeration in his words.
After all, this world was not one in which the old were respected and the young cherished. It was a world in which might reigned supreme.
Li Xingge only smiled and said nothing.
“You and my Lingjun address each other as brothers. In that case, let this old man presume a little and call you Nephew. What do you say?”
(There is no need to care too much about seniority in a xuanhuan world. People live for all sorts of absurd lengths of time.)
“That would be this junior’s honor.”
Li Xingge answered with a smile. In front of someone stronger than himself, lowering his posture was no disgrace.
Zheng Cangfeng laughed heartily, then said with a mysterious expression, “Nephew, have you ever heard of Lingxu Sect?”
“Lingxu Sect?”
Li Xingge was inwardly puzzled, not understanding why Zheng Cangfeng had suddenly brought up this Lingxu Sect. Still, he truly did not know what it was.
So he shook his head.
Zheng Cangfeng was not surprised. With his hands behind his back, longing appeared in his aged eyes as he said, “Lingxu Sect is a hidden sect of Yangzhou. Within its sect, there sits a Divine Palace Realm cultivator.”
“A Divine Palace Realm cultivator!”
Shock surged through Li Xingge’s heart. A Divine Palace Realm cultivator was an existence that stood above even the Innate Realm.
It was said that those at the Divine Palace Realm possessed the power to move mountains and overturn seas, and could live for as long as three thousand years!
It should be known that even the incomparably mighty Great Zhou Dynasty, which held eighteen provinces and one hundred and seventy prefectures, had only existed for six thousand years!
“And one of my Zheng family’s ancestors was once an Innate Realm elder of the Lingxu Sect!”