Chapter 199 : Chapter 199
Chapter 199: The Furious Brother, Entrusting the Child
Seeing someone intervene, Ning Tianrong's face darkened. He glared at Lu Qingyun and snapped.
"Who the hell are you?"
With a wave of his hand, Ning Tianrong recalled the Liuli Tower, now cleaved in two.
Though it was merely a replica of the sect's supreme treasure, it wasn't something that could be so easily destroyed.
Lu Qingyun placed herself between Ning Tianrong and the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer, her tone flat and cold as ice.
"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm protecting this Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer. Leave."
Hearing that Lu Qingyun intended to claim the deer for herself, Ning Tianrong assumed she wanted to monopolize it. Fury twisted his face.
"Absolutely not. Get out of my way."
"Leave, or die."
To protect the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer, Lu Qingyun didn't hesitate to level her sword at Ning Tianrong and the others.
Seeing her go this far, Ning Tianrong snapped.
"Everyone, attack together! Deal with this woman first — we'll discuss the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer afterward."
"Under no circumstances can we let it finish giving birth. If it does, there'll be no chance of taming it ever again!"
The Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer was in the middle of labor. If they didn't seize this opportunity to subdue it, once the birth was complete, any hope of taming it would vanish.
Seeing Ning Tianrong take the lead, the cultivators who had been furious at his earlier attempt to hog the prize threw caution aside and attacked alongside him.
Watching them close in, Lu Qingyun's voice turned cold.
"Since you're courting death, you can't blame me."
Lu Qingyun gripped her Immortal Sword and struck first.
While the Myriad Wood Saint Body wasn't renowned for combat prowess, that was only relative to other Saint Bodies.
Under normal circumstances, the Myriad Wood Saint Body was still far stronger than the Immortal Body or the Spirit Body.
On top of that, Lu Qingyun cultivated the Evergreen Myriad Wood Scripture, a technique of staggering caliber. With such a deep foundation, these cultivators couldn't hope to compare.
And so, with every sword strike Lu Qingyun delivered, another cultivator lost the ability to fight.
Lu Qingyun was merciful enough — she only stripped them of their combat strength without killing them.
Before long, only Ning Tianrong was left standing.
The rest of the cultivators, once Lu Qingyun had beaten them into helplessness, had all scrambled to flee.
"Damn it! Fine — don't say I didn't warn you!"
Face contorted in rage, Ning Tianrong glanced at the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer in the distance, now on the verge of finishing its delivery. Throwing caution to the wind, he summoned the Liuli Tower.
The next instant, a tremendous surge of power flowed from the Liuli Tower into his body.
In mere moments, his realm leapt from the Peak of the Saint King Realm to the Late Saint Monarch Realm.
"Though it can only boost me to the Late Saint Monarch Realm, dealing with you should be more than enough."
Temporarily elevating one's realm inside the Azure Heaven Secret Realm was extraordinarily difficult. Only treasures on the level of the Liuli Tower could achieve such a feat.
He refused to believe Lu Qingyun also possessed a treasure comparable to the Liuli Tower.
But clearly, he had overestimated himself.
Dealing with him, Lu Qingyun didn't need to raise her strength at all.
After the power-up, Ning Tianrong grew brazen. A glimmer of lust flickered in his eyes as he regarded Lu Qingyun.
"Your strength is quite impressive. Swear a Heavenly Dao Oath and serve me as your master, and I'll spare your life!"
Plainly, he had set his sights on Lu Qingyun.
With strength like hers, if he could make her his personal plaything, that would be quite the prize.
Lu Qingyun was about to strike him dead on the spot, but then she sensed something and quietly sheathed her sword instead.
Seeing this, Ning Tianrong assumed Lu Qingyun had given up. He was about to say something when an ice-cold voice came from behind him.
"So it's you — you want to make my sister your plaything?"
"What?!"
Ning Tianrong whipped around, only to see a flash of cold light growing rapidly before his eyes.
The next instant, half of his skull was pulverized.
But it didn't stop there. He felt a crushing force slam into his midsection, blasting him into the ground and smashing out a deep crater.
When Ning Tianrong recovered his senses, he looked up to see Lu Xiaoyao hovering in midair, eyes brimming with murderous intent.
"Who... who are you?"
Ning Tianrong was terrified. Though the man before him appeared to be merely at the Peak of the Saint King Realm based on his aura, the oppressive dread he radiated was unlike anything Ning Tianrong had ever felt.
Even the top ten on the Prodigy Rankings couldn't make him feel this kind of pressure.
"Who I am? You don't need to know. Die."
The moment he'd heard Ning Tianrong say he wanted to make his sister his plaything, Lu Xiaoyao had mentally sentenced the man to death.
"Primordial Heavenly Dragon Strike!"
The spear in his hands seemed to be coiled by an ancient heavenly dragon. As Lu Xiaoyao brought the strike down, the dragon lunged at Ning Tianrong with gaping, blood-red jaws.
Feeling the power behind the blow, Ning Tianrong's face was a mask of terror.
He knew instinctively that even giving everything he had wouldn't be enough to stop this attack.
"Wait! I'm the Holy Son of the Liuli Sect! If you kill me..."
But before the plea could leave his lips, Ning Tianrong was annihilated.
After killing Ning Tianrong, Lu Xiaoyao immediately rushed to his sister's side.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Brother. He couldn't have hurt me."
Lu Qingyun spoke honestly, and only then did Lu Xiaoyao breathe a sigh of relief.
Once he had calmed down, Lu Xiaoyao's tone turned mildly reproachful.
"Don't take risks like this in the future. Your safety is the most important thing."
"I know what I'm doing, Brother."
Lu Qingyun shook her head. She had a clear grasp of her own strength. If her opponents had been too strong, she never would have acted rashly.
"That's still not good enough. If something happened to you, Father would beat me within an inch of my life."
Lu Xiaoyao spread his hands.
Knowing his father as he did, if he failed to protect his sister, or if she got hurt inside the secret realm, he was guaranteed a beating that would leave him half-dead.
Just as Lu Qingyun was about to say something in rebuttal, a cry rang out from the distance.
The siblings forgot everything else and followed the sound to the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer.
The deer had already delivered a tiny fawn, no bigger than the palm of a hand.
But looking at the mother, they could see that her aura was fading rapidly. Those dozens of cultivators had clearly wounded her badly.
"She... probably won't last much longer."
A single glance was all it took for Lu Xiaoyao to assess the situation.
Having delivered the fawn, the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer was beyond saving.
But then, to the siblings' surprise, the deer looked at Lu Qingyun, then gently nudged the fawn toward her.
"Human... protect my child."
The Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer's plea echoed through Lu Qingyun's mind.
Faced with the dying mother's request and the crying fawn before her, Lu Qingyun's heart softened, and she agreed.
The instant Lu Qingyun accepted, the Seven-Colored Heavenly Dao Deer's aura vanished entirely. She was gone.
The fawn cried even louder, as though it could sense that the only family it had ever known had departed from this world.