The Imperial Preceptor and the Grand Tutor, these two figures of immense power and authority, had rushed here from the distant Imperial Capital and the Northern Border.
The three most ancient seniors of the Azure Cloud Pavilion, who now possessed Li Tianyi's body, had actually discovered the arrival of these two powerful figures even faster than Li Yaowen and Li Wei.
This made Li Wei pause, stunned. They seem to... know each other?
Azure Cloud had existed for one hundred and thirty thousand years, and these old seniors of the Azure Cloud Pavilion were even more ancient.
Though the Azure Cloud Pavilion had now fallen into decline, and though the remnant souls of these old seniors were weak, not even Li Tianyi himself knew for certain what kind of past these figures possessed.
The affairs of the world are ever-changing. Back when Elder Tianqing of the Azure Cloud Pavilion was grievously wounded and wailed in humiliation, Fang Linglong had said from her sickbed that the Azure Cloud Region had never been a simple place.
It was only that after eras too distant to recall, and under the erosion of time, it had become a borderland, unable to garner Qi Luck.
Furthermore, it was stripped of its resources, bit by bit, by the Eternal Sun Prefecture, until it finally became the oppressed party.
"Old Ancestor."
Li Yaowen glanced at Li Wei.
Seeing this, Li Wei nodded slightly. He glanced at the two great powers, then reached out and pulled the Old Tree's root from his own abdomen, casually inserting it into Li Yaowen's soul.
With that, he slowly faded from the world, transforming into an illusory shadow that watched over his descendants.
The longer he remained in this world, the more Li Wei could sense how extraordinary it was; so many people possessed such incredible abilities.
Regardless, he was the Li family's final hidden card, and he could not, under any circumstances, allow Min Youguo and Lin Jiu to see through his peculiarities.
For that which is mysterious is always the most feared.
[Congratulations! By absorbing the Tian Xing avatars, you have obtained a massive amount of Heaven and Earth essence Qi and have broken through to the peak of the Divinity Transformation realm!]
[Congratulations! Your Yin-Yang Diagram Domain has entered the next stage. Domain Acquired—Swimming Fish.]
This refers to the twin fish that swim within the Yin-Yang Diagram.
[Where the white fish is present, if the body is injured, it can be mended with the Spirit Qi of Heaven and Earth. The Qi of the white fish can break through all techniques and suppress all evils.
Where the black fish is present, the Spirit Qi of Heaven and Earth will enter your body, multiplying your strength. The longer an enemy remains within the black fish's part of the diagram, the more the surrounding Spirit Qi will be absorbed by you.]
[Domain Ability: 'No Distance' – Allows for free movement to any point within the Yin-Yang Diagram.
Domain Ability: 'Borrow Techniques' – Within the Yin-Yang Diagram, you can borrow the Rules and techniques of any other person inside the domain.]
[By absorbing the Primordial Spirit of Venerable Tian Xing, you have obtained the Primordial Spirit Technique: Qilin Ascension Technique.]
[In Heaven and Earth, there is the Qilin; its body merges with the myriad of techniques, yet it is never extinguished. The one who cultivates this technique will gain a body vast and boundless—like the sea that accepts a hundred rivers—capable of temporarily holding the power of countless techniques, amplified a thousandfold!]
Gazing at the Domain and the Primordial Spirit Technique he had obtained after absorbing Tian Xing's powers, Li Wei was thoroughly content.
The "Qilin Ascension Technique" was a Primordial Spirit Technique that most would consider impractical—hard to use, and with little value on its own.
After all, how often could someone actually borrow another's power in the heat of battle?
But the Li family was different. They had the Ancestor Spirit Formation Diagram.
He still remembered that time on the Azure Cloud border, when he had slain the Moon God with a single thrust of his spear.
In the end, he had perished alongside her... not because the Moon God had killed him, but because the Formation had drawn in the power of all of Azure Cloud's masters, and his body had been torn apart from the sheer excess of it.
For others, the Qilin Ascension Technique was nearly useless. But for him, it was a divine technique.
"No wonder that bastard Tian Xing was so powerful," he mused.
Li Wei let out a long breath.
He already possessed two Domains—"No Distance" and "Borrow Techniques"—yet he still hadn't been able to withstand a single one of Tian Xing's attacks.
It was all because Tian Xing possessed that Primordial Spirit Technique!
....
The descendants of the Li family did not cease their absorption at the arrival of Lin Jiu and Min Youguo.
The grand formation remained active, and the essence Qi of the world continued to flow into it.
Min Youguo and Lin Jiu merely glanced at the spectacle and said nothing more. At that moment, it seemed their attention was more focused on 'Li Tianyi.'
"One hundred and thirty thousand years," the voice from Li Tianyi said. "I never imagined that while this old man, with the body of a Peak Divinity Transformation expert, was undergoing his final transformation in the Azure Cloud Pavilion, you two juniors would rise to stand above the masses. Your cultivation is surely not lacking."
"Hahaha!"
Before the assembled Li family, Li Tianyi actually stepped forward and began to laugh and converse freely with these two powerful ministers???
Their conversation lasted for 30 minutes.
The Li family members looked at one another in bewilderment, but this also allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief.
When the two great powers had first appeared, their hearts had clenched with tension.
After all, given what had happened with Tian Xing, they couldn't help but be wary when encountering such true experts.
Especially since... they and these two had had many dealings behind the scenes.
After their lively conversation, the old senior let out a long sigh. "Getting old, getting old," he lamented.
With that, he returned to Li Tianyi's body.
Only then did Li Tianyi put away his zither. Calmly, under the watchful eyes of the two great lords, he suppressed the descent of his heavenly tribulation.
He was truly worthy of being called the Li family's "Heaven's Favored Son" of his generation.
A man who had seen great things, he could face anyone with spirit and vigor!
When he had walked back inside the grand formation and stood before Li Yunlin, he murmured in a low voice, "Elder Uncle, steady me. My... my legs have gone soft."
"..."
Lin Jiu and Min Youguo remained outside Qilin Mountain, and no one could read anything from the expressions of these two.
They surveyed their surroundings: the Li family members were still absorbing the cultivation base and Qi Luck of their "spoils of war," while a dozen or so juniors who had emerged from the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode were undergoing the Nine-Nine Nascent Soul Tribulation.
The hundreds of chains connecting the ground to the sky scraped and rattled, and the thunder was incessant.
The soldiers of the Azure Cloud Army and the other Azure Cloud cultivators all stared nervously at the sky.
Even though those two men had not moved in the slightest, they inexplicably radiated the oppressive might of true superiors.
The many cultivators of Eternal Sun Prefecture wanted to step forward, but they hesitated, afraid of saying something improper and incurring the wrath of the powerful ministers.
Li Dalong and Li Xinghuo exchanged a look and stepped forward together.
One was the most senior member of the Li family, the other was the Grand Tutor's adopted son; they were the most qualified to speak with these two.
From the ground, Prince Feiheng and Prince Xingyu also rose into the air.
Feiheng nodded towards Li Dalong with a smile brimming with the goodwill of an ally, signaling to the Li family not to be nervous.
But just as they arrived before Lin Jiu and Min Youguo, before they even had a chance to offer their salutes...
They never imagined someone would be even faster!
A Buddhist light appeared in the sky. The newcomer's every movement seemed to fill the air with the scent of temple incense.
The golden rings on the monk's staff in his hand jingled, and when he spoke, it was with a voice full of great mercy and compassion. "Amitabha."
"Greetings to you, two lords. This humble monk is Yuming, the abbot of Great Ming King Temple."
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