After Lu Li battered two men to death with his bare fists, the remaining bandits of the Water Cloud Stronghold finally snapped out of their daze.
Roaring furiously, they hurled a myriad of techniques at him. Although they were all at the second level of Qi Refining, Lu Li did not dare to be careless. He casually summoned four explosive talismans, spun around, and tossed them out in four different directions.
The explosive talismans collided with the oncoming techniques. A thunderous blast immediately erupted, causing Lu Li's eardrums to throb with pain and sending the group of burly second-level Qi Refining men staggering.
"Intermediate-grade talismans!"
Dharma Protector Wang's pupils shrank fiercely, and he involuntarily staggered back two steps. His gaze flickered before he roared, "He can't hold on much longer! Quickly, surround him and kill him!"
Seeing the burly men actually rush forward to encircle Lu Li, Dharma Protector Wang quietly slipped out two talismans. He kept a fireball talisman clutched in his hand just in case, while simultaneously activating a speed-enhancing talisman and sprinting madly toward the valley exit.
From within the billowing black smoke, the burly men were sent flying backward one after another. With caved-in chests or cracked skulls, their deaths were incredibly gruesome.
Thud!
As the final man crashed heavily onto the ground outside the smoke, the area finally fell silent.
Lu Li dashed out, only to discover that the fat man was nowhere to be seen. His expression immediately sank.
He walked over to Fu Yao's corpse and took a glance. Her skull was split open, and her wide eyes were filled with lingering unwillingness and resentment. She was already dead. With a sigh, Lu Li returned to the center of the battlefield and pulled the dazed Junior Sister Ling to the side.
Worried that the Great Leader might return, he did not dare to linger. He took out the Blood Soul Banner and drove it into the ground amid the corpses. The blood from the surrounding bodies instantly reversed its flow, surging wildly toward the banner's pole. Strands of gray-black qi also struggled upward, drifting into the banner's surface.
The Blood Soul Banner's bloody aura grew a fraction thicker, and the vicious spirits within its surface roared incessantly.
To Lu Li's slight surprise, Luan Xin'an's bloody half-head had actually grown a sliver larger. However, when faced with Fu Yao's cracked skull, it did not dare to confront her head-on.
It seemed Fu Yao's resentment was quite profound.
"Are you alright?"
Once the bodies had all been reduced to dried husks, Lu Li retracted the Blood Soul Banner, walked over to the girl in pink, and asked.
He hadn't actually left earlier. Continuously executing the Gale Steps had severely depleted his True Qi, so he had simply taken the opportunity to hide at the top of a redwood tree. Dharma Protector Wang hadn't noticed him because he had activated the God-Concealing Jade, shielding himself from Divine Sense probes.
The girl kept her head buried, her body trembling slightly. She said nothing.
Lu Li frowned. "If you won't speak, then I'm leaving. That Great Leader will likely return soon. When that happens, you'll be on your own."
Saying this, he actually turned and began to walk away.
To be honest, his primary reason for intervening had been to snatch whatever Dharma Protector Wang was carrying. He just hadn't expected the man to flee so decisively. If the Blood Soul Banner hadn't reaped some benefits, this entire ordeal would have been a waste of effort.
As for this girl, although she felt somewhat familiar, he wasn't about to risk his life to help her.
"No, please don't leave Xiao Yun behind..."
Seeing Lu Li truly walking away, the girl suddenly burst into tears, looking genuinely like someone who had never seen the cruelties of the world.
"Xiao Yun?"
Lu Li stopped in his tracks. He finally realized where that sense of familiarity had come from. Back during the Awakening ceremony in Dragon Travel Town, the first one to Awaken-that spirited, energetic little girl-wasn't she named Xiao Yun?
Sigh!
Lu Li sighed and walked back. "Follow me away from here first."
Without waiting for her to agree, he grabbed her arm, pulled her up onto his back, and sprinted swiftly toward the valley exit.
Shortly after Lu Li departed.
The Great Leader indeed returned, with Dharma Protector Wang following right beside him.
As the two stared at the ground littered with dried husks, their pupils constricted. The Great Leader whipped his head toward Dharma Protector Wang. "Are you certain he is truly a disciple of the Qingyang Sect?"
"I-I saw him wearing the Qingyang Sect's insignia with my own eyes," Dharma Protector Wang said, his teeth chattering.
"Heh. Good. Very good!" The Great Leader clenched his fists. "To think that the Qingyang Sect, ostensibly a righteous sect, would have someone secretly cultivating such a wicked technique."
A moment later, as if struck by a thought, his eyes narrowed, and he ordered, "Immediately inform the other brothers in the stronghold. We will launch a full-scale search for this brat!"
"Great Leader, I'm afraid our brothers won't be his match."
"Hmph. What are you afraid of? Have all the brothers carry signal flares. They don't need to engage him in combat-they only need to send up a signal."
"Yes!"
Elsewhere, in a hidden cave near the peak of a branch mountain range, Lu Li sat cross-legged on a large stone, his eyes closed as he recovered his True Qi. Ling Xiao Yun's complexion looked much better than before, and her large eyes sneakily assessed Lu Li.
About half a quarter of an hour later, Lu Li finally finished recovering. He suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Ling Xiao Yun. "Am I good-looking?"
"Ah?" Hearing this, Ling Xiao Yun hastily lowered her head.
Lu Li found the girl rather amusing, though her mind was far too innocent. If she were in the mortal world, someone like her would surely be praised by everyone. But in this cultivation world, driven by endless greed and desire, naivety meant she was destined to be bullied.
"Are you from Dragon Travel Town?" Lu Li asked, feeling a touch of sentimentality.
Upon hearing this, a flash of surprise appeared on Ling Xiao Yun's face. "How... how did you know?"
"Heh. Because I know how to divine."
"I don't believe you." Ling Xiao Yun stared at Lu Li suspiciously, as if trying to find clues on his face. Yet, no matter how hard she looked, she only felt a lingering sense of familiarity without knowing where it came from. Thus, she asked, "Senior Brother, what... what is your name?"
"Me? My name is Qin Shouren."
"Qin... Qin?" Ling Xiao Yun clearly froze for a moment before her eyes suddenly widened. "I... I know now! You're Lu Li!"
"Ah?"
Now it was Lu Li's turn to be utterly baffled. How did she know?
"Hehe, you're still trying to trick me," Ling Xiao Yun laughed triumphantly. "You didn't know, did you? Qin Shouren is my cousin. Whenever he came over to play in the past, he used to mention you. He said he had a friend called Mud Monkey, who was pitch-black and as cunning as a monkey..."
"Besides, I saw you during the Awakening ceremony that year."
"Uh."
Lu Li was completely defeated. He never expected that Qin Shouren actually had a cousin like this.
"Right, didn't you fail to Awaken? How... how did you...?" Ling Xiao Yun was clearly confused.
"Oh, I got lucky. Later on, I picked some wild fruits in the mountains and ate them, and then I suddenly Awakened..." It seemed she didn't know that Qin Shouren had already entered the Qingyang Sect. Not wanting to bring up those painful memories, Lu Li casually spouted some nonsense.
"So that's what happened. You really are lucky..."
Through their brief chat, Lu Li learned that Ling Xiao Yun actually possessed dual Water and Wood spiritual roots. After entering the Qingyang Sect, she had directly become a disciple of the Third Elder, Fang Buwei. In just three short years, she had already reached the third level of Qi Refining.
She was now at Perfection of the third level-half a step into the fourth level. Her cultivation was actually a hair higher than Lu Li's own.
It was just that she was far too innocent and had never engaged in any killing. She had no idea how to utilize her abilities at all. When facing enemies, she did nothing but cover her eyes and scream.
Feeling helpless, Fang Buwei decided to find two formal disciples to take his apprentice out for some practical experience.
And that had led to the earlier events.
To think she's actually that beast's cousin. This... makes things a bit complicated.