It turned out that five or six Xu clansmen had flown in through the air on magical artifacts. After landing, they all began arguing at once. Xu Zifeng stood to one side as well, listening to them speak.
A woman in green, her face full of indignation, said, “Senior Xu, our Xu family clearly found that cave residence too, but the Tian family had greater numbers, so they simply seized it and drove all of us away!”
A young man in scholar’s robes added, “Exactly. The Tian family is far too overbearing. If it hadn’t been only the few of us scouting there, how would they have dared act like that?”
The others chimed in one after another.
“We were unwilling to accept it, so we argued a few words with them. Who would have thought that Tian brat would actually attack someone? He practically ground our dignity into the dirt!” The woman in green was furious. She grabbed the arm of the burly man beside her and raised her voice. “Senior Xu, look! Brother Chengwu’s arm was cut like this. They’ve gone far too far!”
Xu Zifeng glanced at Xu Chengwu. Sure enough, his arm had been viciously slashed. The wound was so deep the bone could be seen, and with only a little more force, the arm might have been severed cleanly.
The young man in scholar’s robes bowed respectfully. “Senior Xu, please stand up for us and curb the Tian family’s arrogance!”
Xu Zifeng considered for a moment, then flicked a milky-white pill straight into Xu Chengwu’s mouth. “Take this first and heal your arm.”
Xu Chengwu was also a disciple of Feijiu Mountain, so naturally he recognized the Flesh-Regeneration Pill, which could reconnect meridians and regrow flesh over bone. He immediately sat down to circulate his spiritual power. Before long, the wound on his arm began rapidly closing, fresh red flesh growing at once as even the torn sinew and skin knit back together. In only two breaths, the surface of his arm was smooth again, without so much as a trace of a scar!
His face immediately lit up with joy, and he bowed in thanks. “Many thanks for the pill, Senior Xu!”
Xu Zifeng nodded. “Now tell me about the cave residence.”
The woman in green was close to Xu Chengwu. Seeing that he was all right, she too felt grateful, and some of her hotheaded anger subsided. Calming herself somewhat, she said, “Reporting to Senior Xu. This morning, Brother Chengwu, Brother Chenghan, Chengru, and several of us went out searching. There are many treasures in the secret realm, so naturally we gained something. We were chasing a One-Horned Golden Rhinoceros when we suddenly sensed spiritual power surging ahead. Thinking there might be something unusual there, we abandoned the rhinoceros and went to investigate. Sure enough, we found a cave residence in the mountain wall blazing with spiritual light. It was astonishing.”
She paused to catch her breath, then continued, “Naturally we wanted to go inside and search for treasure, but dozens of Tian clansmen were traveling together and arrived there as well. We may have gotten there half a step ahead of them, but they had far more people, so they drove us… Senior Xu already knows the rest.”
Xu Zifeng’s expression cooled. “Was Tian Tao there?”
The woman in green looked extremely aggrieved. “That Tian… Senior.” She was clearly unwilling to address him that way and ground the words out through clenched teeth. “He was there too. Otherwise, with our cultivation, we wouldn’t have been afraid simply because the Tian family had more people.”
Xu Chengwu’s group truly were outstanding members of the Xu family. There were six of them in total, each with cultivation between the seventh and eighth layers of Qi Refinement. They were formidable indeed. Had they not encountered a Foundation Establishment expert, they would never have been forced into such a state.
Xu Zifeng asked again, “Who injured Xu Chengwu?”
The woman in green replied, “Tian Liang.”
The instant Xu Zifeng heard the name, killing intent erupted from him. “Him?”
Facing that pressure head-on, the woman in green was caught off guard and stepped back, her face already pale. She lowered her head and said, “Yes. That bastard originally had only fifth-layer Qi Refinement cultivation. Somehow, he has risen to the seventh layer, only slightly below Brother Chengwu.”
As the person involved, Xu Chengwu had even more authority to speak and added, “Chengbi is right. Tian Liang’s cultivation may be unstable, but when I tried to resist, some tremendous force pressed me down and left me unable to move.”
That made everything clear. Tian Tao must have intervened, allowing Tian Liang, who was inferior to Xu Chengwu in every respect, to injure him. If the scholar-robed Xu Chengru had not been close enough to pull Xu Chengwu aside, the arm would certainly have been lost. With cultivation as shallow as theirs, once a limb was truly severed, even a Flesh-Regeneration Pill could do nothing.
This conversation had not been particularly concealed, so all the Xu disciples who had remained in the valley could hear it.
The Tian family had acted so despicably that even Xu Ziqing could not help feeling contempt.
Seeing the righteous indignation between Xu Ziqing’s brows, Old He approved of his character a little more. At the same time, he thought that the boy was still young after all. He handled himself with reasonable measure, but there remained many matters in which he was still lacking.
Then Old He remembered something and asked, “Do you still remember Tian Liang?”
Xu Ziqing thought for a moment. The name sounded extremely familiar. Suddenly he gave a small “ah” as he remembered. Wasn’t Tian Liang the son of Tian family head Tian Cheng, the very man whose rejected marriage proposal had caused the Tian and Xu families to fall out completely? From what Xu Zifeng and the others had just said, Tian Liang seemed to have used some method to become a high-layer Qi Refinement cultivator.
Thinking of this, Xu Ziqing could not help giving a bitter smile. “Of course I remember him. I only hope he doesn’t remember me.”
Old He understood as soon as he saw his expression. “Most of the Tian clan are narrow-minded. Tian Liang and his father Tian Cheng lost a great deal of face at the Xu residence and are doing everything they can to make trouble for our family. You offended Tian Liang. Tian Cheng himself couldn’t enter because he had to operate the secret-realm key, but Tian Liang is another matter.” His expression turned serious. “For these next few days, don’t leave my side. We need to guard against treacherous people striking in secret.”
Xu Ziqing was deeply grateful. “Yes. Thank you, Steward He.”
By the time their conversation ended, Xu Zifeng had finished discussing matters on his side as well.
Among the Xu clansmen still in the valley, anyone at the fifth layer of Qi Refinement or above who wished to go was ordered by Xu Zifeng to accompany him to the cave residence in search of treasure. The rest would remain in the valley to rest, though anyone unafraid of danger was free to leave the valley and search on their own.
Altogether, thirty or forty Xu clansmen followed behind Xu Zifeng. They rose into the clouds together on magical artifacts, forming a grand and imposing procession.
Old He grabbed Xu Ziqing by the arm and leaped with him onto an enormous, wobbling smoking pipe. Smoke was even curling from its bowl. Xu Ziqing recognized it as the very pipe Old He usually smoked from and had never imagined that it too was a magical artifact.
Xu Ziqing had already ridden on Xu Zifeng’s flying sword, whose sword-light was extraordinarily swift and steady. Old He’s cultivation was not weak either, and the magical artifact he summoned was linked to his mind, so its performance was quite respectable. It was steady enough, but in terms of speed it was indeed slightly inferior.
Countless streams of light from magical artifacts flowed around them. Xu Ziqing glanced from side to side and saw many men and women with robes fluttering in the wind, some delighted, others excited, all of them clearly enjoying themselves.
Before long, the group arrived at a place surrounded by mountains on every side, with a jade-green lake nestled in the middle, its surface glittering beautifully. Many people had already gathered there, dressed in different styles. There seemed to be some friction among them, yet no one was willing to leave, and they already occupied roughly thirty percent of the available ground. Once the Xu clansmen landed with Xu Zifeng, the dense spread of footprints brought the occupied area close to half.
Xu Ziqing looked up and saw the Tian clansmen stationed before a cave residence halfway up the mountainside. Though they kept some distance from the entrance itself, they firmly controlled the way in.
People from the Luo, Meng, and Wei families had also arrived. Quite a few were unable to conceal their impatience, looking around anxiously and repeatedly raising their heads. Presumably they had arrived with too few people and had already sent messages calling for reinforcements.
The Tian clansmen clustered around a bearded middle-aged man wearing a magical robe shimmering with multicolored light. He wore a smile and looked perfectly composed. His eyes, however, were somewhat narrow and gave him a sinister air.
Xu Zifeng put away his sword and fixed the man with a sharp stare. A streak of sword qi immediately shot toward him.
The sword qi knocked several Tian clansmen off their feet before reaching the middle-aged man. He swept up his sleeve to block it. Although the force still blew his beard upward, he did not take a single step back.
This man was Tian Tao. He had only just passed fifty. He had reached Foundation Establishment at the age of forty and was still at early-stage Foundation Establishment now, but he had been in the realm far longer than Xu Zifeng.
Tian Tao swept his sleeve again, lifting the clansmen who had been knocked down. A trace of displeasure appeared on his face.
Beside him, a slick-faced young man in Daoist robes had just scrambled to his feet and was still badly shaken. He said nervously, “Senior, this Xu Zifeng is incredibly strong! I heard he’s a sword cultivator. Wh-what should we do?”
Tian Tao looked even more displeased and snapped, “What are you panicking for? He’s only a brat who has just reached Foundation Establishment. Sword cultivator or not, what can he possibly accomplish?”
The Daoist-robed young man immediately bent at the waist and nodded repeatedly. “Yes, yes. Senior’s power naturally far exceeds his. This junior is useless, though, so I ask Senior to look after me…”
Tian Tao snorted. “Before the formation is broken, I’ll take him down. None of you need to worry.”
The surrounding Tian clansmen hurriedly echoed him. “Yes, yes. Many thanks, Senior! Please make your move…”
Xu Zifeng’s gaze was bright and keen, the long sword on his back. After giving the Tian clansmen a warning the moment they met, he turned his attention to the several formation masters standing by the cave entrance.
Formation masters were those who broke formations.
Cultivators seeking immortality and the Dao were divided among a hundred schools according to the cultivation methods they practiced, and among them were those who possessed specialized arts. Those outstanding at refining pills were alchemists. Those who deeply studied the Dao of formations were formation masters. There were also talisman masters skilled at drawing talismans, artifact refiners skilled at refining magical artifacts, and practitioners of many other crafts. Of these, alchemists and artifact refiners were the rarest. Formation masters were somewhat more common, though truly outstanding ones were still few.
Xu Ziqing’s cultivation was among the lowest present, so he obediently stayed beside Old He and watched the Xu and Tian families negotiate.
He saw several people outside the cave residence holding iron flags and an iron disk, furtively doing something with them, and could not help asking curiously, “What are they doing?”
Old He glanced at him and explained, “Those iron flags are formation flags, and that iron disk is a formation disk. Those three or five fellows who look so suspicious are actually formation masters carefully trained by the Tian family. Right now they’re trying to break the unusual protective formation outside this cave residence. Who knows how much progress they’ve made.”
Xu Ziqing grew even more interested, but also somewhat puzzled. “Doesn’t our Xu family have formation masters?”
Old He said, “Of course we do. But the Tian family seized the initiative. Since the Xu family arrived later, it wouldn’t be proper to demand a share outright. Young Master Zifeng is probably waiting for the other three families to arrive. Once everyone speaks together, the Tian family won’t be able to refuse.”
The moment he finished speaking, many more people truly did come drifting down from the horizon.
The reinforcements from the other three families had arrived!