Li Wei listened as Venerable Baimei recounted the tale, sentence by sentence.
After Tian Xing had used all of his fellow sect brothers at Azure Mist Mountain to trigger a heavenly tribulation, aiding his own breakthrough to the Divinity Transformation realm, he (Venerable Baimei) had immediately begun to investigate everything about Tian Xing.
This continued until he finally managed to track down one of Tian Xing's avatars, at which point he was able to deduce the full truth of the matter.
A man like Tian Xing would never be content to simply let things be; he was one who had always contended with Heaven and Earth themselves.
It was also during that investigation that Venerable Baimei discovered the terrifying truth: Tian Xing had cleverly seized the secrets of Heaven, allowing him to transform his single body into a myriad of avatars.
Yet, there are ten thousand Great Daos under heaven, and even the most heaven-defying of techniques will always have a flaw and come at a price.
And over the decades that the Li family had been engaged in their clever struggle against Tian Xing, he had also managed to deduce the critical flaw in Tian Xing's cultivation method.
When Tian Xing attempts to be fully reborn, all his power must gather into a final, single core. And that, he concluded, is precisely his moment of greatest vulnerability.
And his Primordial Spirit, in turn, begins to reincarnate again and again, passing through a hundred lifetimes, perhaps even a thousand. During this process, his core must remain situated in a single location, held suspended within the void.
That location... is Eternal Sun Prefecture!
Venerable Baimei requires a century.
Within these hundred years, using everything he has deduced, he will unleash his great spiritual power to thoroughly expose Tian Xing's Cave Abode to the world.
The purpose is not only to rescue the thirteen members of the Li family, but also for Venerable Baimei himself to utterly destroy Tian Xing.
And on that day, Tian Xing will absolutely not permit his core to suffer any harm.
All of his avatars will rush to protect that core, sparing no expense!
Within the Ancestor Space, all the clan members remained silent; they, too, had clearly understood everything.
After a long while, it was Li Changsheng who finally spoke.
"Old Ancestor..." he began, his voice trailing off, "...a hundred years..." He got no further, for upon seeing the resolute expressions in the eyes of his fellow clansmen, he trailed off, saying no more.
One hundred years... it was far too short a time!
Even if Venerable Tian Xing truly did fall into a state of weakness, and even if that Venerable Baimei genuinely took action to "clean house," what they, the Li family, would still have to face were those incredibly powerful avatars of Venerable Tian Xing.
Their investigations over the years had shown that with the death of each and every Tian Xing avatar, the remaining ones were always elevated to a new, greater height of power.
"For us, a hundred years is by no means a short amount of time," Li Yaowen's voice was low and somber.
"They suffered a setback at Ye Xiu's Breakthrough Mountain last time; Tian Xing will absolutely not let the matter rest. We must seize the initiative."
Upon hearing this, all the members of the Li family nodded in agreement.
The affairs of this world would never unfold simply as they wished.
It was just like that year, when they had been unable to react in time, when they had not yet even known the full truth about Venerable Tian Xing, and their enemy had already made its move!
Furthermore, they were certain that Tian Xing was by no means like the ordinary foes they had faced in the past.
His avatars would, without a doubt, also be devising ways to deal with the Li family; perhaps they had already begun to set their plans in motion.
As Li Yaowen's voice faded, all eyes turned to the Old Ancestor, who stood at the very center of the gathering.
Gaze after gaze fell upon him.
Li Wei remained expressionless, the black mist that formed his body swirling like fiercely burning flames.
Within his eyes, the Yin-Yang Fish Diagrams spun with frantic speed, forming vortexes that seemed poised to devour all of existence!
Once, he had been powerless to save his kin.
He had languished in despair for five years.
For decades, he, like every one of his clansmen, had been filled with a burning hatred. But over the years, he had learned to be calm. Time and time again, he and his clan had proven that Tian Xing was not invincible; they had proven that they themselves could be even more terrifying than Tian Xing.
And now, the ones who should be afraid were not his clansmen—it was Tian Xing!
"From this day forward," Li Wei's voice was like the biting wind of a blizzard, "we live every day as if it were our last. One hundred years from now, either we shall vanish from the face of this world, or... it will be Tian Xing's day of reckoning!"
"Yes, Old Ancestor!" their voices rang out as one.
The voices of the Li family members were resonant and forceful; one by one, their spirit souls vanished from the Ancestor Space like dissipating smoke. After a moment, only Li Yaowen and Li Changsheng remained.
Li Changsheng was, by his very nature, a cautious and prudent man.
Never mind a hundred years; he would likely have felt that even ten thousand years was too short a time.
He contemplated for a moment, his thoughts turning to the final scene they had witnessed within the mountain cave in Tian Xing's Cave Abode through the eyes of Nangong Yazhi.
His voice was grave as he spoke, "Old Ancestor, the original Tian Xing ought to have already passed away through. In that case, who exactly was that person who appeared afterwards? This humble child suspects," he continued, "that there is still a true mastermind behind all of this."
Upon hearing this, Li Wei and Li Yaowen exchanged a meaningful glance.
Only after Li Wei gave a slow nod did Li Yaowen finally let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Perhaps," Li Yaowen said, his voice filled with weariness, "a long, long time ago, our family clan stumbled into a catastrophe in which we never should have been involved."
Li Changsheng was left speechless.
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