Chapter 435 - 388: Submission (Part 2)
Chen Li turned a deaf ear, his gaze still fixed on Li Sanli’s face. "Sanli Gang Leader. It seems your position carries little prestige. You’ve grown lax in disciplining your own men.
If this continues, you won’t need outsiders to finish you off. Sooner or later, this reckless bunch will drag you to your death. Make your decision quickly. My patience is limited."
"You’re courting death!"
The words were like pouring oil on a fire.
When had the River Hall Master ever suffered such contempt and humiliation?
With a furious roar, the long saber at his waist left its sheath. The gleaming blade erupted with a blinding, cold light as he ruthlessly chopped down toward Chen Li’s head.
And yet, faced with this vicious strike, Chen Li didn’t even raise an eyelid.
There was no visible movement, no eruption of Inner Qi, no attempt to dodge.
Just as the saber’s edge was about to make contact.
THUD!
A dull, heavy sound.
The River Hall Master’s charging figure was sent flying backward even faster than he had come. He slammed heavily against the cabin wall before sliding limply to the floor, the impact shaking the entire Tower Ship.
His long saber fell to the side with a CLANG. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth, his eyes rolled back, and he fell completely unconscious, his fate unknown.
It all happened in the blink of an eye!
Only then did Li Sanli’s right hand, gripping the hilt of his own saber, suddenly tense.
He felt a chill shoot up from the base of his spine and instantly spread through his entire body. His scalp prickled, and his heart almost stopped beating!
His movement to draw his saber froze midway.
’Fast! Too fast!’
’I couldn’t even see how he attacked!’
’Was it a fist, a palm, or some other technique?’
The River Hall Master, with his Cultivation at the Spirit Realm Second Level, had been as helpless as a three-year-old child before this man!
’This level of power is definitely far beyond my own.’
Even someone at Void Transformation likely couldn’t have defeated him so effortlessly and instantaneously, without anyone noticing how it was done.
As Li Sanli was reeling from the shock, the door was thrown open. Hall Master Jiang, who had been guarding outside, heard the loud noise and burst in.
He immediately saw the River Hall Master collapsed in the corner, his condition unknown. Then he saw his own gang leader, frozen as if facing a great enemy, his right hand stuck to the hilt of his saber. Hall Master Jiang’s face drained of color. "Gang Leader! What happened?! He..."
"GET OUT!!!"
Li Sanli snapped his head around and let out a fierce roar at Hall Master Jiang.
’Idiot!’
’Two idiots who belong in the Museum Pavilion!’
’What kind of monster did they bring back to me?!’
Right now, he just wanted to chop these two blind hall masters into pieces and feed them to the fish.
Startled by Li Sanli’s unprecedented fury, Hall Master Jiang hastily bowed. "Yes! Yes!"
He backed out of the room, a storm of shock raging in his heart.
Inside, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense.
Li Sanli took a deep breath, the palm of the hand gripping his saber hilt already slick with cold sweat.
He stared fixedly at Chen Li, his voice a little hoarse. "Your Excellency... who in the world are you?"
Chen Li let out a soft chuckle. "Sanli Gang Leader, years ago you swore an oath before me to lead the Tuo Long Bang out of Jiangzhou and never return. Now, not only have you come back, but you’re also running a Black Market business here in Thunder Shock Marsh. Do those words still hold true?"
"It’s... it’s you!"
Li Sanli trembled as if struck by lightning. The color drained from his face in an instant, leaving it paler than a corpse.
The hand that had just tightened its grip on his saber hilt abruptly loosened, even shrinking back instinctively.
The man who had killed Jiang Hengzhou and Shi Zhenshan, the man who had forced him to wander like a beaten cur for the past two years, had appeared!
’How did he get here? Why is he mixed up with Gossip and Peng Anming? Don’t tell me those eighty thousand boxes of Opium... belong to the Chen Family?!’
Countless thoughts flooded his mind in a tangled mess.
In an instant, cold sweat soaked Li Sanli’s back.
Overwhelming fear seized him, leaving him breathless.
But then, a stronger wave of shame and anger surged through him.
’I let myself get this scared over a few words?’
’Yes, Chen Li is formidable, but back then, his Cultivation was only at Void Transformation. Now, I’m at Void Transformation too!’
’Even if I can’t beat him, I can at least escape, can’t I?’
’Besides, I still have an ace up my sleeve!’
’And we’re on my home turf. If it comes to a real fight to the death, it’s not yet certain who will come out on top.’
’I must have just been spooked by his bizarre technique earlier!’
As this thought took root, an unnatural flush appeared on Li Sanli’s face. He tightened his grip on his saber hilt again. "Patriarch Chen, the He Family has been destroyed, and the threat is gone. What’s wrong with me returning to my old home to make a living? For Patriarch Chen to be so aggressive, aren’t you disregarding the code of the Jianghu?!"
Chen Li’s expression remained unchanged, but his tone grew several degrees colder. "Let’s not dwell on the past for now. I ask you only this: the matter I just instructed you on, will you do it, or not?"
Li Sanli said defiantly, "The Celestial Sword Sect and the Su Family are both like tigers and wolves, and the Sect is even more mysterious and unpredictable. Dealing with them is like asking a tiger for its skin—incredibly dangerous. In my opinion, it would be the path to long-term stability to have my Tuo Long Bang distribute the goods slowly. Why take such a risk?"
Hearing this, Chen Li suddenly chuckled softly.
The laugh was faint, but it made every hair on Li Sanli’s body stand on end.
Chen Li’s tone held a hint of mocking amusement. "It seems the Sanli Gang Leader thinks... he’s got what it takes again?"
Before his words had even faded, Chen Li moved.
No, in Li Sanli’s perception, Chen Li hadn’t moved at all.
A single finger, plain and unremarkable. There was no sound of wind, no flash of brilliant light.
But in Li Sanli’s eyes, it was as if he saw a finger wreathed in a faint golden halo, suffused with an aura of annihilation...
It ignored the distance, pierced the boundary between the illusory and the real, and before he could even begin to react, it had already tapped lightly on the spot between his eyebrows.
Li Sanli’s whole body trembled violently, as if struck by lightning.
He felt that within his Divine Hall Acupoint, the soybean-sized Divine Embryo he had painstakingly cultivated and condensed had been lightly tapped by the index finger of a boundless, gigantic hand wreathed in golden runes.
An endless darkness, accompanied by the icy aura of death, swallowed him in an instant.
His vision went black. Without so much as a grunt, his body swayed, and with a THUD, he fell backward, stiff as a board, losing all consciousness.
The room returned to silence once more.
There was only the occasional CRACKLE of the oil lamp’s sputtering wick.
「Time passed, bit by bit.」
Li Sanli struggled to open his heavy eyelids.
His vision was blurry, but it gradually came into focus.
He found himself lying on the floor, completely drained of strength. A sharp, needle-like pain pulsed from the spot between his eyebrows. But what terrified him more was that he could no longer sense his Divine Embryo at all.
His Divine Sense was sealed!
In that instant, terror flooded his heart.
He struggled to turn his eyes and look to the side.
He saw Chen Li sitting calmly in what was usually his own seat of honor, holding a cup of tea and sipping it leisurely.
Bai San, Gossip, and Peng Anmin stood in attendance nearby.
Chen Li seemed to notice he had awoken, and his gaze swept coolly over.
The look was calm and rippleless, yet it made Li Sanli feel as if he had been plunged into an icy abyss. Whatever lingering unwillingness, shame, and wishful thinking he had felt was utterly annihilated by that single glance.
He finally understood. The gap between them was as vast as the heavens and the abyss.
’Void Transformation? An ace up my sleeve?’ In the other man’s eyes, he was probably no different from the River Hall Master he’d just witnessed being taken down.
’This isn’t Void Transformation!’
’He’s at least at the Divine Intent level! Or possibly even... Guiyuan!’
’Was he hiding his true strength all those years ago?!’
Regret and fear surged in his heart, but more than that, there was a sense of dejection and... resignation that came with accepting reality.
Chen Li set down his teacup, glanced at him, and spoke coolly, "Awake?"
Li Sanli took a deep breath and struggled to his feet. He ignored his pathetic state and bowed deeply before Chen Li. "Li Sanli pays his respects to the Patriarch. I deserve death for my earlier offense. I ask the Patriarch for punishment!"
He knew it full well. ’Resistance? A complete joke.’
’Just submit. I’m tired.’
’Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve knelt.’
’I knelt that first time long ago. What’s wrong with kneeling a hundred more times?’
Chen Li studied Li Sanli for a moment before saying slowly, "Get up."
"Thank you, Patriarch!"
Li Sanli rose and stood with his arms at his sides, awaiting orders.
"Get to work on the matter I instructed you on as soon as possible."
Chen Li’s tone brooked no argument. "Also, the Celestial Sword Sect, the Su Family, and the Sect. Tell me everything you know about what has happened with them recently."
"Yes!"
Li Sanli bowed and agreed. Not daring to hide a single detail, he began to tell Chen Li everything he knew.