"Before I knew it, the Azure Cloud Prefecture had become like my own flesh and blood—and how can one bear to sever their own flesh and blood?"
"We people of the Azure Cloud... are like a tree."
His voice had barely faded.
Duanmu Qi's expression changed abruptly, and he shot to his feet!
He sent his Primordial Spirit sensing out into the night in all directions. Light!
In the dark night, lights like fireflies were shining brightly, sweeping toward the Blue Moon Immortal Sect.
They were Spirit Boats, with banners fluttering atop them.
The auras of the cultivators inside the Blue Moon Immortal Sect began to plunge into chaos and panic!
Duanmu Qi looked down. Li Xinnian was still sitting upright, sipping his tea at a leisurely, unhurried pace. His voice remained serene.
"To the common observer, it appears that my Li Clan holds up the entire Azure Cloud Prefecture. But that is not true.
We have experienced too much. The name 'Li Clan' has long since ceased to be something sustained merely by bloodlines.
This is a truth I have come to fully understand over the past century."
"We are merely a part of this towering ancient tree that is the Azure Cloud Prefecture—perhaps the roots, perhaps the branches.
But the greater part is made up of every single person in the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
Just like us, they have dedicated their life's blood to this land we fought so hard to secure."
"For over a hundred years, we have remained silent, because we were waiting for this ancient tree to grow until it could hold up the heavens."
Li Xinnian slowly rose to his feet. Under the shocked gaze of Duanmu Qi, he straightened his robes and turned to face the Blue Moon Immortal Sect.
The radiance within the starry night grew increasingly brilliant.
It came from Spirit Boats surrounding them from all directions, densely packed—like a single spark falling into a haystack, gradually igniting a raging inferno!
How many people had come? How many factions?
Duanmu Qi's Primordial Spirit was actually unable to perceive it clearly.
All he knew was that even Qi Refining stage cultivators sat upon those Spirit Boats, their Spiritual artifacts and techniques at the ready, or drawing back their most ordinary of bows and arrows.
Spirit Boats... there were over ten thousand of them. It was practically every Spirit Boat owned by every single faction in the entire Azure Cloud Prefecture!
Streams of light filled the sky, resembling sparks sputtering from a stoked bonfire. These were countless cultivators traveling atop their Spiritual artifacts.
There were even Void Refining cultivators among them.
The sky above the Azure Cloud Prefecture seemed to be shielded by a membrane.
Duanmu Qi could not sense through it, yet his heart palpitated with dread.
High above the clouds, there was undoubtedly an existence that even he would fear.
At this moment.
The Blue Moon Immortal Sect appeared as insignificant as a single blade of grass in a sea of fire.
Amidst this blaze of light, Li Xinnian strolled forward.
The night wind lifted his robes and the long hair beneath his jade crown, revealing the resolute profile of his face.
"The tree we planted has only just grown strong with such difficulty, yet now crawling pests seek to defile it."
"If I do not crush them, what face would I have to meet my elders, and those Azure Cloud ancestors who sacrificed themselves for this?"
Duanmu Qi clenched his fists inside his sleeves. Watching Li Xinnian walk forward, veins bulged on his forehead!
Li Xinnian was warning him.
Warning him not to harbor designs on the Azure Cloud Prefecture!
But the strength in those fists gradually drained away.
"Elder Duanmu." Seeing Duanmu Qi's unkind expression, Li Chuyuan's heart tightened.
If Duanmu Qi exploded in a murderous rage, he feared he would not meet a good end.
However, Li Chuyuan was instantly relieved.
Duanmu Qi's shoulders slumped. He let out a long sigh and retreated, taking Li Chuyuan with him.
The two floated into the air.
An endless stream of cultivators brushed past them.
Like a flood, they surged into the Blue Moon Immortal Sect, roaring as they went to defend the "ancient tree" they had raised.
Li Xinnian laughed with wild abandon.
"Tonight, we continue the path of our forebears!"
"Tonight, the scoundrels shall find no road to the afterlife!"
"Tomorrow..."
"The Azure Cloud remains the Azure Cloud!"
...
Dawn broke.
High in the clouds, Duanmu Qi's face was pale.
He saw that the place where the Blue Moon Immortal Sect once stood had been razed to flat ground.
The lingering Spiritual power from the great battle mixed with the smoke curling up from the earth.
The Blue Moon Immortal Sect was defeated. It was a defeat ordained by fate!
Duanmu Qi still could not forget the scene he witnessed last night—countless cultivators rushing in from every direction of the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
These cultivators were clearly prepared, arriving in perfect formation. And beyond them, the cultivators of the Azure Cloud continued to pour in endlessly, every one of them with eyes bloodshot, like a swarm of hornets whose nest had been struck.
The heavens and the earth were filled with cultivators.
The Blue Moon Immortal Sect... with its mere ten thousand cultivators...
Duanmu Qi could hardly believe his own heart—that there would come a day when he would use the word "mere" to describe ten thousand cultivators.
The Blue Moon Immortal Sect had been drowned by the "flood." Now, not a trace of its existence remained.
What mediation? What lending the Li Clan a helping hand?
The battle last night had left Duanmu Qi shaking to his very core.
At least within the boundaries of the Azure Cloud Prefecture, forget the Blue Moon Immortal Sect—even his own Eternal Immortal Sect would have to weigh whether they might be drowned in the spit of the entire prefecture's cultivators!
"The Li Clan has taken root too deeply in the Azure Cloud Prefecture. Just as Li Xinnian said, I fear the Azure Cloud Prefecture is long past the point where outsiders can covet it."
Duanmu Qi sighed deeply.
"To control the Azure Cloud Prefecture, one would have to slaughter every single faction within it until none remained.
Who in the world would dare commit such a heinous sin? And who could even achieve it?"
When he arrived, he had held many ideas in his mind, but now, every single one of them had been dispelled.
Beside him.
"Impossible."
Li Chuyuan gazed blankly at a distant Spirit Boat, where numerous members of the Li Clan had gathered in the aftermath of the battle.
He murmured in disbelief, "This is... this is my family?"
Last night, he had witnessed many of his elders rushing back to the Azure Cloud Prefecture, and for the first time, he had truly felt the immense power of those elders!
There were the rumored "Three Thieves," sitting upon lotus platforms like immortal gods.
There was the Golden Ape King, Li Kuangren, who transformed into a giant ape, wielding a colossal sword, summoning the Sword Formation to slaughter the enemy.
There was Li Changyao. Under the aim of her arrows, there were hardly any survivors.
And there was the Jade-Faced Gentleman, Li Chang'an. With an iron fan in hand, he charged into the enemy formation as if entering an uninhabited land, emerging without a single hair out of place.
And these six elders—even Elder Duanmu held them in high regard, remarking that all six had reached the extreme limit of the peak Divinity Transformation realm.
Given time, if the opportunity arose, it was not impossible for them to break through to the Void Refining realm.
Apart from them, there was his own Immortal Martial lineage.
Watching the clansmen of the Immortal Martial lineage standing on the Spirit Boat, supporting one another and healing their wounds, Li Chuyuan felt an indescribable bitterness in his heart.
Duanmu Qi was also gazing at that Spirit Boat.
He saw a young man with the bearing of an immortal sage sitting cross-legged, smiling as he spoke to a cultivator who looked as rough and wild as a lion, along with many other clansmen.
Duanmu Qi couldn't help but click his tongue in wonder. "Chuyuan, even though two of your Li Clan elders lost their lives at the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, the Li Clan's potential remains limitless."
"Li Zhiheng, Li Zhijing, Li Jianshu, and Li Jianning—these four are all brilliant, peerless talents of the current age..."
His voice had barely faded.
Duanmu Qi was instantly stunned.
He felt a gentle breeze brush past him, and upon seeing the person who had arrived by his side, he hurriedly bowed. "Ancestor Lan!"
Raising his head slightly, Duanmu Qi thought it strange.
Ancestor Lan had only made an appearance a few days ago; by all rights, the affairs of the Azure Cloud Prefecture should not have been enough to disturb him.
Yet, he saw Ancestor Lan's eyes shining brightly.
The patriarch stroked his beard as he gazed at Li Jianning, his delight clearly visible.
"A Body of Primordial Spirit, a Physique of the Five Elements... a fine seedling, truly a fine seedling."
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