On the Path to the Great Dao

Li Qianyun led these brothers and sisters of the Li Family, trying hard to keep their bodies low, flying almost flush against the ground between the mountains.

She dared not fly high. Flying too high would attract the attention of Red Mountain Hall, and the next moment would likely bring a devastating strike.

The Li Family had fallen too quickly. Her mind was still dazed, unable to accept that the vast Li Family had been reduced to ashes in an instant.

"Will Ancestor Li Tang come to save us?"

Her thoughts wandered. "Maybe if I go back now, Ancestor Li Tang will have already returned to support us. He is King Chu Jiang, the most powerful. The Sect Leader once said his divine power rivals that of the Li Family's founding ancestor..."

Still, she did not stop. Still, she did not go back.

She led these brothers and sisters for several hundred li. Just as they were about to fly out of this mountain range, a figure appeared before them.

Li Tianqing.

Li Qianyun halted, dispersed her Dao Field, and spoke softly: "Tianqing, the Sect Leader knew you were nearby, so he instructed me to bring these brothers and sisters along this path. I hope you can still remember that we are all from the same clan..."

Li Tianqing was slightly startled. "The Sect Leader told you to take this path?"

Li Qianyun nodded gently. "Do you remember when I was pursuing you back then? The Sect Leader was also there, but he never intervened. He said not to seek revenge on you, nor to treat you as a member of the Li Family. It was only later that I understood—whether you consider yourself a member of the Li Family or not, you are still of Li blood. As long as you live, the Li Family is not truly extinct. He admired you greatly."

A glint of light flickered in Li Tianqing's eyes, making it impossible to discern his thoughts.

Everyone was tense, beads of cold sweat slowly rolling down their foreheads.

If Li Tianqing insisted on not letting them go, they would likely all die here.

"Did Li Xiaozai really say that?" Li Tianqing asked.

Li Qianyun nodded gently.

Li Tianqing was silent for a moment. "Take off the Patriarch's Robe, and you may go."

Li Qianyun hesitated. The Patriarch's Robe was the only immortal artifact the Li Family possessed. Now that the family was destroyed, the hope of rising again rested on this robe. With it, the Li Family could still grow strong in the future!

If they gave up the robe, the Li Family would be no different from a minor clan!

"Why must we leave behind the Patriarch's Robe?" one of the Li Family disciples asked.

Li Qianyun's heart tightened, fearing that Li Tianqing would turn hostile.

But surprisingly, Li Tianqing did not turn hostile. "Leaving behind the Patriarch's Robe is for dealing with Despair Slope."

Li Qianyun gritted her teeth but still took off the Patriarch's Robe and offered it with both hands.

Li Tianqing took the robe and said calmly, "You may go. From now on, no matter who you meet, you are not allowed to say your surname is Li."

"Qianyun understands!"

Li Qianyun immediately released her Dao Field, enveloping everyone inside, and with a stomp of her foot, she soared into the air.

One of the Li Family disciples couldn't help but speak out: "Li Tianqing, you also bear the surname Li. Why did you betray your own people? The Li Family raised you and made you what you are today. Do you have no conscience?"

Li Qianyun's face changed instantly as she looked at Li Tianqing, her eyes full of terror.

Despair filled her heart. Earlier, with the robe in hand, she still had a chance to fight Li Tianqing to the death. But now that the robe was handed over, she had no chance of victory!

Still, Li Tianqing did not strike. His expression darkened. "It's not that I wanted to destroy the Li Family. It's that the Li Family blocked the world's path. For Dao techniques to advance in the Western Ox New Continent, for people to survive and break free from Despair Slope's control, the Li Family must be eliminated!"

His perspective on the issue was different from Chen Shi's. Chen Shi saw the Thirteen Great Clans as evil spirits, while Li Tianqing saw them as thirteen great mountains blocking the people's way.

Li Tianqing watched Li Qianyun and the others depart.

"The Quanzhou Li Family is finished," Li Tianqing murmured.

After a moment, he spoke into the void: "Brother Yang, thank you."

Yang Bi's voice came from the minor heaven: "No need to thank me. I'm just bending the rules out of personal bias."

Li Tianqing said, "If you had stationed someone else here, the entire Li Family might have been wiped out. Either way, I must thank you."

"Isn't there still you in the Li Family?"

Li Tianqing nodded silently upon hearing this.

Indeed, there was still him in the Li Family.

The Quanzhou Li Family was finished, but the Li clan would continue to exist, just in a different way.

Meanwhile, Yang Bi sat in the minor heaven, taking in the entire battle situation among the three great clans—Li, Xu, and Yang—and dispatched nearly all the warriors to encircle and destroy them.

On the battlefield, the situation changed in an instant. His deployments allowed the Red Mountain Hall experts to always maintain an advantage over their enemies.

This kind of command was extremely mentally taxing, yet he remained composed and orderly, never once faltering.

So far, the Imperial Capital's warriors had not suffered significant casualties.

King Chu Jiang, Li Tang, rushed at full speed to the underworld of Quanzhou. From afar, he saw the remaining nine layers of hell in disarray, with soldiers of the Heavenly Pool Kingdom sweeping the battlefield. He was both shocked and enraged, his body trembling. "My Li Family's six thousand years of accumulation..."

"Your Li Family's six thousand years of accumulation were all the people's flesh and blood. As rulers, you could only slaughter the common people viciously, yet you were powerless against Despair Slope. Useless abroad, but experts at oppressing the masses!"

Li Tang followed the sound and saw a sea of blood hanging upside down in the sky. A skeleton rose from the depths of the blood sea, holding a blade as he walked. The sea of blood stood upright with him, and within it was a Primordial Spirit like an immortal. Though standing in the blood sea, it seemed to be in a celestial realm.

That immortal-like Primordial Spirit was in the form of Chen Shi.

"How many of your clan's experts had their Divine Embryos dug out from the poor? How much of your luxurious food and clothing was stolen from the poor? How much of your divine power came from the kowtows of poor ghosts? Whether I am unjust in killing you is not for you to judge, but for the world to judge!"

Skeleton Chen Shi soared into the air, his long blade slashing down. In an instant, sword aura filled heaven and earth, like the Milky Way rushing toward him, stars shining brightly, engulfing King Chu Jiang and the other nine judges!

King Chu Jiang, Li Tang, had boundless divine power. For over a thousand years, through the eighteen layers of hell, countless ghosts had prostrated to him. When he unleashed his divine power, he used the ultimate technique from the Li Family's Southern City Sect Yi Collection, the Azure Sea Surging Waves Technique.

Countless waves formed a vast ocean in the sky, colliding with the stars.

His strength lay in his immense divine power. Knowing the power of the Tianluo Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, he did not clash directly with it. Instead, he used divine abilities and spells to break Chen Shi's techniques.

As long as he wasn't hit, the blade's power was useless no matter how strong!

In the air, Chen Shi was upside down, holding the blade with both hands. The divine blade spun, sending countless rays of light forming a cluster of flowers, slicing through the thousand layers of blue waves. The blade light poured down, breaking all the moves of the Azure Sea Surging Waves Technique!

Li Tang immediately switched to the Inherit Heaven Azure Cloud Art, clapping his hands upward in succession. The azure clouds above his head hung like a sky dome, layer upon layer of sky domes lifting upward, exploding one after another, trying to push Chen Shi farther away.

But in the next moment, the blade light cut through the layers of azure clouds and descended.

Chen Shi was now less than a hundred zhang away!

King Chu Jiang, Li Tang, quickly switched to another technique, the Dragon and Phoenix Golden Splendor Record. Dragons and phoenixes swirled around him, divine dragons and divine phoenixes carrying immense power, weaving and charging toward Chen Shi.

Hurriedly, he looked around and saw that among the six judges he had brought, three had already been captured by Daoist Willow. Of the remaining six, one had been struck by the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade, his divine power crumbling and collapsing. The blood energy in his body surged uncontrollably toward the blade.

The other five judges were being entangled by a woman.

That woman was dressed in white, her flowing ribbons fluttering with an ancient charm. She looked like a beauty stepping out of a painting, but her moves were exceptionally strange and ruthless.

Her techniques carried traces of prehistoric times. Her immortal power surged violently, and shamanic ritual markings intertwined to form a black Dark Bird, dancing around her.

Whenever her divine abilities clashed with the five judges, the black phoenix's power surged explosively. Around the black phoenix, Dao realms formed into massive rings, containing the ultimate power of the Great Dao, far more fierce and domineering than the incense offerings and hell power the six judges had accumulated over a thousand years.

Her every move was crystal clear, yet the five judges who received her techniques found their divine powers broken and collapsing.

The five judges fought fiercely with this woman in hell, unleashing all kinds of techniques. In a short time, they had traveled ten thousand li, turning heaven and earth upside down. Suddenly, Judge Li Lifang of the Crushing Hell screamed, her head exploding out of nowhere, even blasting a huge hole through the Crushing Hell behind her!

Her corpse wobbled and fell, and instantly countless ghosts, monsters, and ghost gods surged out of hell like a nest of cockroaches, fleeing in all directions.

The Heavenly Pool Kingdom's ghost clan army attacked in all directions, rushing toward these ghost gods.

"This woman is the evil immortal from Qixia Taoist Temple? Truly formidable!"

King Chu Jiang, Li Tang, withdrew his gaze. The Dragon and Phoenix Golden Splendor Record was also broken by Chen Shi. As he retreated, he switched to the Minor Tribulation Salvation Formula.

Skeleton Chen Shi swung his long blade like a rolling snowball, cutting into the calamity's fate. Suddenly, all blade light disappeared, leaving only a single long blade chopping down from above. As the blade shrank, he broke through the tribulation.

The distance between them was now only a few dozen zhang.

Li Tang's technique was broken again. Growing anxious, he switched to another technique, thinking, "Has he broken all of my Li Family's techniques? I don't believe it!"

The Myriad Phenomena Creation Technique was broken.

The Star River Guiding Art was broken.

When Li Tang switched to the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Summoning, Skeleton Chen Shi stepped directly in front of him, less than two zhang away.

A god, a skeleton, and a demon blade.

Strikes as fast as lightning. In a brief instant, like a hare swooping and a falcon dropping, they clashed several times.

Divine power shook mountains and rivers; blade light eclipsed sun and moon.

King Chu Jiang, Li Tang, raised his hand to cover his throat, an expression of disbelief on his face. His divine power was collapsing all around him, and blood energy uncontrollably flowed outward.

"Were all my Li Family's techniques broken by you?"

He asked indignantly, "Who betrayed my Li Family and leaked our techniques?"

Skeleton Chen Shi sheathed the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade and said calmly, "Ten thousand years of rigidity, never adapting. The Li Family's extinction is nothing more than following the Celestial Way. Your family's techniques were left by the True King. Where is there any betrayal?"

Li Tang roared and lunged at him, but suddenly, the divine power accumulated over a thousand years crumbled. His Primordial Spirit involuntarily flew up, fell into the Blood Sea Hell, and became a puppet within.

Skeleton Chen Shi summoned several Celestial Court tokens, activated them, and turned them into gates standing in the air.

Many Heavenly Pool Kingdom ghost clan soldiers flew over and passed through the gates with a roar.

"A mountain of corpses as steps for my imperial foundation; a sea of blood as a path to prove my immortal way. Warriors, follow me to pacify the Gu Family. Eradicate evil thoroughly, kill them all!"

He stepped through the gate.

The Little Duan Immortal killed the last Li Family judge, then flew up and passed through the final gate just as it was about to disappear.

In Lingzhou, the Xu Family's defeat was already sealed.

Xu Changge led over a dozen Xu Family disciples in a desperate breakout, charging out of Lingzhou City. Using various escape techniques, they finally fled a thousand li from Lingzhou. He thought, "Even if the bandit Chen has someone skilled in command, the battlefield is complex. It would be hard for that commander to control the whole situation in such a short time. Having escaped this far, we should be safe."

Just then, he heard the sound of Cao Qie's pipa. From afar, he saw a fragrant carriage heading toward them. In the carriage sat a noble-looking woman in a blue jacket and white skirt, wearing a phoenix hairpin. Beside her was a lovely, snow-like adorable girl, looking back at them.

That phoenix hairpin woman played the pipa and chanted, her tune soft and sorrowful.

"'Clouds weave fine work, shooting stars bear grudges, the Silver River far, far across... When golden wind and jade dew meet, it outshines countless mortal encounters... But alas, if love lasts long...'"

She sighed deeply, plucked the pipa once, and covered her face with tears.

Suddenly, invisible strings of sound came from all directions, crossing over. Xu Changge was about to defend himself when he felt something pass through his body.

He froze, motionless, and said hoarsely, "Madam Hua Li?"

Ding Ding took the pipa from the lady's hands and said, "It is indeed the lady."

Xu Changge choked out, "You showed no mercy in slaughtering my Xu Family. You deserve to have been abandoned by Chen Yindu..."

Madam Hua Li's face changed instantly. She waved her hand and struck the pipa in Ding Ding's hands. Xu Changge was torn into pieces.

On the other side, Xu She led over a dozen Xu Family disciples, breaking through the encirclement and fleeing in haste. Just then, a rainbow light flashed, and a young scholar-like youth landed before them, hands behind his back, quietly waiting for their arrival.

Despair filled Xu She's heart. He recognized this young scholar. The two ancestral masters of the Xu Family had died at this man's hands. He had heard the two ancestors call him Long You the Freeholder.

A master nearly at the level of an immortal had come personally to kill them. They were doomed!

Just then, an old voice came from behind: "Master, your disciple humbly comes to plead for mercy."

Long You the Freeholder turned around and saw Old Man Cold Mountain Freeholder walking toward him, hunched over.

"Cold Mountain, how did you become so old?" Long You the Freeholder asked, surprised.

Old Man Cold Mountain Freeholder was already in his twilight years, on the verge of death, aged beyond recognition. His expression was half-smile, half-weep. "Master, the last time we met was thirty years ago. Your disciple is nearly dead from old age."

Long You the Freeholder was still a youth. Hearing this, he said, "Was it thirty years ago? I thought it was not long ago that I saw you."

Old Man Cold Mountain Freeholder knelt and kowtowed. "I beg you, Master, to show leniency and leave some roots for the Xu Family."

Long You the Freeholder sighed. "I too would like to show mercy, but I carry the True King's command."

Old Man Cold Mountain Freeholder begged, "I once taught the True King the Ten Thousand Mile Flying Sword Technique, which can be considered a merit. Could this merit be used to trade for these people's safety?"

Long You the Freeholder waved his sleeve and drifted away. "Since you have shown kindness to His Majesty, I will show leniency. Cold Mountain, from today onward, the Xu Family no longer exists. You must warn them not to appear before the world under the name of the Xu Family."