Chapter 213 - 153: The Original Intention of the Martial God Hall
"A thousand years?"
Bailan asked, surprised.
The Spirit Lord, who had only been around for five hundred-odd years, already possessed such terrifying power.
This energy...
It had supposedly vanished a thousand years ago.
’So why has it reappeared in the mortal world now?’
"Longer than that."
Li Yu shook his head.
"According to the Martial God Hall’s records, the last time this energy appeared before the world was two thousand years ago. But who knows when it first emerged?"
"Li Yu."
"What are you implying?"
Bailan’s expression grew serious.
Li Yu’s expression didn’t change. He took a lollipop from his pocket and put it in his mouth, the artificial sweetness spreading across his tongue.
Ever since that incident,
he’d started eating one whenever he was troubled.
Perhaps it was like smoking—a way to relieve stress.
"Let’s go back."
"Something big might be about to happen."
Li Yu tapped the dashboard, signaling for Bailan to stop idling and start driving.
"Yes."
"Aren’t we going to the Sword Hall?"
"Besides that energy, there was also the aura of sequential energy and a Martial Artist. This matter is likely related to the Spirit Realm and that mysterious expert."
Bailan pulled the handbrake, then seemed to remember something and turned to ask Li Yu.
"There’s no need."
"The mysterious expert is trustworthy."
"Besides, this matter is important enough that we must report it to my father immediately."
"The operation to annihilate the Spirit Realm..."
Li Yu hesitated for a long moment before saying, "It might not be as easy as we thought."
"Understood."
Bailan nodded, then slammed her foot on the accelerator. The engine roared to life, and the car shot forward.
Indeed.
The Spirit Realm didn’t just have one Eighth-Rank expert.
Now, it was also connected to this mysterious existence.
’A direct confrontation would be perilous. On top of that, the Martial God Hall has yet to show its hand. No one knows what they are planning or what their stance on the Spirit Realm is.’
’If those two powers were to join forces...’
Li Yu’s expression grew grim.
Even if they didn’t ally, the Martial God Hall could simply reap the benefits from the sidelines, which would put the Special Organization in an extremely difficult position to clean up.
To be honest,
Li Yu didn’t quite understand his father.
Why did he suddenly decide to launch an all-out attack on the Spirit Realm? It was as if something was nipping at his heels.
He had asked before,
but Li Longxuan had only given a one-word answer:
"Intuition."
The word ’intuition’...
It was the least trustworthy thing,
and yet also the most trustworthy.
Now that Li Yu had discovered the Spirit Realm might possess this energy that had vanished for over a thousand years, he finally felt he’d gotten a glimpse into Li Daofeng’s intuition. Still, he didn’t think it was reason enough to annihilate the Spirit Realm at this particular moment.
’Perhaps...’
’The Spirit Realm has other secrets.’
’Perhaps...’
’The true threat from the Spirit Realm’
’never came from the Spirit Lord at all.’
"HUFF."
Li Yu sighed, his lips pressing together as he bit down and shattered the candy in his mouth. One thing after another kept happening.
Suddenly,
it felt like a storm was brewing.
***
「Martial God Hall.」
Within the main hall.
The Martial God’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, the four Extraordinary Stewards who served under the Martial God were present.
They each sat in their respective seats, while the highest, most ornate chair remained empty.
"Why have we been summoned?"
The one who spoke
was an elderly Martial Artist.
Though his age was great and his body had weakened somewhat, his cultivation had reached the Eighth Rank, granting him a long life.
Even with a weakened body, his power was still immense—a level of might that ordinary Extraordinary Beings couldn’t even fathom.
He
was the very one
who had thrown a punch at Su Xing from across a great distance.
If not for the child in the sky who blocked the blow for Su Xing, the gap of two major realms between them would have meant Su Xing would have been severely injured on the spot, or even killed outright.
"What’s the rush?"
"If you were summoned, it’s obviously for a reason."
"Look at all of you, cooped up in the grand hall all day. Isn’t it nice to get out and stretch your legs now that something’s actually happening?"
The speaker
had a relatively young face,
though he already had the appearance of a middle-aged man in his forties.
The man wore a traditional tunic suit and a pair of rather elegant glasses, but what contrasted with this image was...
...his absurdly, almost freakishly large muscles, which were like steel plates laid across his frame, inspiring fear in anyone who looked at him.
"You brat."
"The Martial God isn’t here. As the one with the least seniority among us, how dare you boss around the other Stewards?"
The old man who had spoken first, already displeased at being interrupted by this man, retorted immediately.
The Martial God Hall,
unlike the Spiritual Sect,
was not quite the same. The Spiritual Sect was like a religion, with its own positions and codenames, but the Martial God Hall was more like an unstructured clan.
Although
they had a hierarchy,
there was no real difference in authority.
In other words,
even if you were the disciple of a Steward,
as long as you could defeat that Steward or display comparable combat strength, you could immediately be promoted to a Steward yourself. You didn’t need things like "contributions," as was required in the Spiritual Sect.
Therefore,
this relatively young man
was the only one who had been promoted to Steward during the truce between the Martial God Hall and the Special Organization.
Because he was young and immensely powerful, he had once become the most prestigious Steward in the Martial God Hall, and there were even whispers that he could become the next Martial God.