Only I am Venerable

The girl in the yellow skirt had initially been terrified of this young man, Qin Li, and his frightening power. She had seen with her own eyes how he’d fought her Senior Sister for the better part of a day before calmly escaping with another person. He had then managed to hide right under her Senior Sister’s nose for days on end, evading her completely.

It was impossible to do all that without real skill.

However, his words made her instantly furious. She shouted, "These things don’t belong to anyone! Finders keepers! What gives you the right to just claim them as yours?"

Then, likely remembering Qin Li’s formidable Combat Value, the girl’s voice weakened. "Besides, there are so many... How could you possibly take them all?"

"Heh heh. Your Senior Sister and I are mortal enemies," Qin Li said with a cold sneer. "If I can’t take them, I’ll just destroy them all. I won’t leave a single one for you. Now scram, unless you want to die!"

"No! How can you be so unreasonable? My Senior Sister is the one who provoked you, not me! And... and how can you be so cruel? These flowers are so beautiful! How could you bear to destroy them? I won’t let you!"

Her angry expression was actually quite adorable. She glared at Qin Li, shielding the flowers with her body.

Qin Li bared his teeth in a grin. "If you don’t get out of the way, I might just pluck you, too!"

"I’m not a flower, why would you pluck me..."

The girl was a bit dense. She only realized what he meant halfway through her sentence. Blushes bloomed across her pale cheeks, and she shot Qin Li a fierce glare, cursing, "Pervert!"

Qin Li rolled his eyes, unsure whether to laugh or cry. The truth was, he held no ill will toward the girl in yellow. From the very beginning, she had never said a single bad word about him, making her an anomaly among her martial siblings. To Qin Li, she was just a naive, kind-hearted girl who didn’t know the ways of the world. No matter how ruthless he could be, he saw no need to harm a girl like her.

His eyes darted about for a moment. "If you tell me where you all are from," Qin Li asked, "I might consider sparing a few of these flowers for you..."

"Hmph! You big villain! I’m not going to tell you that I’m from the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace!" the yellow-skirted girl declared, watching Qin Li warily, completely oblivious that she had just spilled the beans.

Qin Li’s pupils contracted sharply. He almost lost control of his emotions.

Moon Shaking Immortal Palace!

It was actually the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace!

’To think I’d hear that name again!’

Forcibly suppressing his shock, Qin Li put on an indifferent expression and sneered, "Hmph. Don’t think I don’t know you’re from the west!"

"Ah! Y-you... how did you know? But we’re *not* from the Land of the Far West!" The girl in yellow pouted, a flicker of triumph in her eyes as if she had seen right through his plot. She snorted. "Nice try, but you can’t fool me!"

Qin Li rolled his eyes, almost bursting out laughing. ’This girl is just too naive, isn’t she?’ he thought.

"Alright, alright, I won’t ask anymore. I’m taking everything except for the one flower in front of you!" Qin Li said. He spared a glance at the intense battle raging in the sky over the distant sea, then waved one hand. A gale seemed to sweep across the ground.

The wind shrieked and howled!

The girl’s yellow skirt was suddenly blown upward. With a cry of surprise, she reached down to hold it, her face flushing crimson. But before she could call Qin Li a pervert again, her eyes widened. She stood there, completely dumbfounded. Aside from the single Cold Jade Flower still standing before her, the area that had just been a sea of flowers was now completely bare!

Even the ground itself had been scoured away, leaving a layer nearly two feet deep completely gone!

’He... How did he do that?’

The girl in yellow dazedly turned back to look at Qin Li, her face a mask of horror, her eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

And then, an endless rage welled up inside her. ’He... he’s gone too far! How could he do that!’

’So selfish!’

’So shameless!’

Tears welled in the yellow-skirted girl’s eyes as she glared furiously at Qin Li. "You’ve gone too far!" she shouted. "How could you do that?"

Qin Li stared, a bit stunned, at the adorably indignant girl before him, utterly speechless. He had met countless people and could tell her outrage wasn’t an act. He couldn’t help but wonder, ’How on earth did a girl this hopelessly naive manage to survive in the Moon Shaking Immortal Palace?’

’Looking at her martial siblings... every single one of them is ruthless and calculating, if not outright cunning. How did someone like her end up in their midst?’

Qin Li broke into a chilling smile, revealing a mouthful of pearly white teeth. His voice was icy, devoid of all emotion as he threatened her. "Little girl, do you have any idea that I could turn you to ash with a flick of my wrist? We’re enemies, not friends. Why on earth should I leave anything for you? You still dare to yell at me? Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?"

At his expression, the girl in yellow couldn’t help but shrink back. Still, she puffed out her budding chest and declared defiantly, "We have no grievance between us. Why would you kill me?"

"..." Qin Li glanced at the sky over the distant sea. Suddenly, he saw the woman in white transform into a long streak of light, shooting toward his position like a bolt of lightning. She had clearly spotted him.

The woman in white roared from mid-air, "Villain! If you dare touch my Junior Sister, I swear I will hunt you to the ends of the earth and torture you to death!"

Qin Li flashed a grin at the girl in yellow. "We’ll meet again, little miss!" With that, his body transformed into a faint shimmer of light and vanished into thin air with incredible speed.

The giant beast with the bloodline of the Hou roared, its sights locked on the woman in white, and continued its relentless pursuit right behind her!

The girl in yellow stood there in a daze, staring at the single Cold Jade Flower left before her. A single tear rolled down her cheek. "Shameless, horrible villain," she muttered resentfully. "I hope my Senior Sister beats you to death... beats you to death, beats you to death!"

One fleeing, one chasing, Qin Li, the woman in white, and the giant beast shot across the vast expanse of the sea, covering twenty or thirty li in an instant!

The white-robed woman’s junior martial siblings couldn’t possibly keep up. They could only remain on the island, sighing as they stared at the long-vanished figures of the two humans and one beast. In their hearts, they all prayed that their Senior Sister would finally capture that bastard. They wished they could skin him alive!

"You can’t escape! I won’t be letting you die today!"

The woman in white moved like flowing water, sticking to Qin Li like a maggot on a bone, a lingering Yin Soul that refused to dissipate. Her voice was ice-cold, filled with endless resentment and fury. "I will capture you alive and drag you back to my sect. I will sever the tendons in your arms and legs, then have them reattached. I will destroy your Dantian, cripple your entire cultivation, and gouge out your eyes. Then I’ll make you the lowliest of servants, emptying chamber pots for the female disciples! I will make you... beg for death!"

’Damn, this woman is vicious!’ Qin Li cursed inwardly as his body skimmed just above the surface of the sea. But in truth, he wasn’t afraid she could catch him.

For one, Qin Li had immense confidence in his unparalleled Lightweight Skill. For another, the woman still hadn’t grasped his true strength. She assumed he was relying on some formidable combat technique to be so powerful. She could never have imagined that the energy inside his body wasn’t Primordial Power at all.

But... Innate Purple Qi!

He wouldn’t dare say his power was greater than Han Mei’s, but at the very least, she could forget about catching him if he flew at this speed for half a day.

He dared to run far, but she wouldn’t necessarily dare to give chase for too long.

The reason was simple: she didn’t dare get too far away from her martial siblings. If they ran into danger, she couldn’t bear the consequences.

More importantly, the terrifying giant beast seemed to have identified the woman in white as its mortal enemy. Even after all this time, it was still in hot pursuit!

In fact, if the beast weren’t chasing Han Mei and had turned back instead, she probably would have abandoned her pursuit of Qin Li long ago. Her martial siblings were no match for that creature.

An idea struck Qin Li. He shouted over his shoulder, "Hey, Brother Beast back there! Can you understand me? How about we team up, knock this woman off her high horse, and toss her into the sea to feed the fish?"

The woman in white, Han Mei, turned pale with rage. Her eyes filled with venomous hatred as she gnashed her teeth.

Just then, the giant beast threw its head back and let out a furious roar. The mighty bellow seemed to change the very color of the sky. Winds howled, and dark clouds roiled, appearing as if from nowhere!

From that roar, Qin Li got the answer he wanted. In mid-air, he suddenly executed a sharp turn, carving a wide arc as he flew toward the giant beast!

"Brother Beast, let’s take down this arrogant woman together!" Qin Li shouted. His Blood-Drinking Sword left its sheath, and a bolt of purple Sword Qi shot out like a violet rainbow, slashing toward Han Mei!

"You’re courting death!" The woman in white nearly shattered her teeth from gritting them so hard. She, too, unleashed a sword strike to meet Qin Li’s Sword Qi.

BOOM!

A deafening, thunder-like explosion erupted. The shockwave from the clashing Sword Qi made the very air seem to twist and distort. Reflected against the dark, overcast sky, the sight was terrifying!

At that moment, the giant beast opened its maw and spewed a torrent of crimson flame. Upon leaving its mouth, the fire instantly took the form of a dragon, baring fangs and claws as it lunged for the woman in white!

The raging flames in mid-air, the distortion of space, the roiling black clouds overhead—the world looked as if it were ending!

The woman in white didn’t dare meet the flames head-on and dodged to the side. Just then, Qin Li’s second and third bolts of purple Sword Qi arrived, each infused with a sharp, murderous Sword Intent!

’What damn technique did he cultivate to be able to unleash Sword Intent so easily?’ the woman in white wondered, her eyes turning bone-chillingly cold as she stared at Qin Li. ’It seems I can’t take him alive. Letting him live would be inviting endless trouble! I’d just be creating a powerful new enemy for myself!’

’So, I have to kill him, even if it means getting injured in the process!’

But just then, the giant beast suddenly began to undergo an unexpected... transformation! (To be continued...)