As soon as Li Langfeng had appeared, Nie Tian had formed a Heaven Eye and used it to determine his cultivation base. “He’s at the late Greater Heaven stage!”
Normally speaking, as long as his target’s cultivation base was lower than the Worldly realm, he would be able to get a good idea of the target’s cultivation base with a Heaven Eye, which contained a wisp of his soul power.
Li Langfeng was no exception.
Since Gu Yu had led the other Blood Skull members out of the mountain valley to chase after their enemies, the middle Greater Heaven stage Shi Qing was the most powerful expert among those who had stayed behind.
Pei Qiqi was only in the late Heaven stage, and Cai Yue hadn’t even entered the Heaven stage.
Their strength was clearly not enough if they were going to fight Li Langfeng with just the few of them.
Perhaps this was why Li Langfeng had appeared as if he had nothing to fear.
“What if I don’t leave?” Pei Qiqi asked coldly.
“It won’t change the result.” Li Langfeng seemed very calm and poised. “I’ll take the teleportation portal from you and the kid will die. You’ll end up wasting your strength for nothing.
“Pei Qiqi, you probably know that the reason why the Dark Moon picked this location to set up their teleportation portal was that there was seldom any spatial rift activity in this valley.
“In light of this, you won’t be able to display your advantage as you would in other areas of the mountain range. Also, you must have spent a lot of energy to crack that teleportation portal. I think it’s safe to say that you haven’t fully recovered yet.”
Li Langfeng took his time to turn to Shi Qing and say, “I ran into and killed a couple of Blood Skull members early on. Through them, I learned that Gu Yu wasn’t coming back anytime soon. Without him here to help you, I seriously doubt that you can get around me and escape.”
“You killed our people?!” Cai Yue said angrily. “Do you imagine that my father will let you off?”
Li Langfeng put on a fake smile and said, “I’m a guest elder of the Dark Moon. What do you expect? As long as I don’t kill you, your father won’t make a big deal of it. Do you take it your father doesn’t have better things to do than launching large-scale operations against me just because of a couple of his foot soldiers?”
Shi Qing took some time pondering and said, “Brother Li, you’re only the Dark Moon’s guest elder. You don’t have to do this. Considering your strength, you don’t need to use a teleportation portal to return to the Land of the Abandoned. Plus, why not come to Shatter City with us? We’re in need of powerful allies like you.”
To everyone’s surprise, Shi Qing showed weakness.
“Uncle Shi! How can you say that!?” Cai Yue shouted indignantly, assuming Shi Qing had sullied the Blood Skull’s fierce reputation.
What she didn’t know was that Shi Qing was actually doing all this to save her.
Both he and Pei Qiqi had heard stories of this man, and knew that even though he said he wouldn’t want to enrage Pei Qiqi’s master or Cai Lan by killing them, and that if he did it, his life in the Realm of Split Void would become very difficult, the man was actually a hothead.
He was capable of doing anything when he was provoked.
The reason why he had come to the Realm of Split Void was that he had messed with the wrong person, a person who was even more influential than Cai Lan and Pei Qiqi’s master.
“I’m sorry. Now that I’ve taken the Dark Moon’s identity medallion, I’m bound by moral principles to honor my identity.” Li Langfeng once again began to cough intensely. He shook his head as he took a small bell from his ring of holding, and then turned to Pei Qiqi and said, “I’ll ask you one last time. Do you wish to leave?”
“No,” said Pei Qiqi.
Face still pale and indifferent, Li Langfeng nodded and turned to Cai Yue. “What about you?”
“I’m not leaving either!” Cai Yue yelled.
Shi Qing realized things had gone beyond negotiation when he saw Li Langfeng take out his bell. His face immediately changed as he yelled at Cai Yue for the first time, “NO! You have to go!
“Little Lord! You must keep a clear head. We need you to leave so that you can inform Gu Yu of what’s happening here with a Sound Stone!
“I’m sure he’ll rush back as soon as he receives the message, possibly in time to save us!
“We need you to save us! But you have to leave now!”
Shi Qing begged for her to listen.
Even though Li Langfeng had long since seen through Shi Qing’s intentions, and knew that Shi Qing was only saying those things to make Cai Yue leave, he let Shi Qing finish his words and acted as if he hadn’t heard him.
After all, he didn’t intend to make Cai Lan his sworn enemy.
“I need to save them…” Cai Yue hesitated for a brief moment before she braced herself and said to Shi Qing with great determination, “Hang on, Uncle Shi! I’m going right now, and I’ll come back with Uncle Gu and my brother in no time!”
“Go! We’ll only survive if you can find them quickly!” Shi Qing urged.
“Alright!” Then, Cai Yue shot a fierce glance at Li Langfeng and said, “I’ll be back, sicko! Next time you see me, it will be the end of you!”
With these words, she sped away to get reinforcements to save Shi Qing.
“Thank you, Miss Pei.” Shi Qing said with a smile. “Now that Little Yue has left, you can take Hua Tian and leave. Don’t mind me.”
He had always referred to Cai Yue as Little Lord. Never had he used Little Yue.
However, now that Cai Yue had disappeared from their sight, and knowing that the odds were against him, he revealed his true sentiments and referred to her as Little Yue.
He had been taking care of Cai Yue over the years. Even though he had never revealed her feelings to her, he had doted on her and taken her as his own.
He was well-aware that part of the reason why Pei Qiqi had insisted on staying was that she would like to make sure Cai Yue was safe.
Obviously, Pei Qiqi didn’t do it for Cai Yue’s sake, but rather, it was out of her guilt towards Cai Yuan.
“You take care. I hope we can still meet some day.” Pei Qiqi nodded gently before turning her body and shifting to Nie Tian’s side with a swift move. Then, she grabbed Nie Tian by the arm and dragged him away, dashing in the direction Cai Yue had disappeared in, where she could see a few spatial rifts slithering in the air.
“I hope we can.” Face sad and dreary, Shi Qing said with a voice so soft that it was as if he was talking to himself.
It was clear to him that even though Ma Jiu and Gu Yu were also in the late Greater Heaven stage, neither of them would be able to defeat this man.
If the man truly intended to kill him, he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Therefore, knowing that certain death awaited, he didn’t even blink while watching Pei Qiqi take Nie Tian dashing out of the valley at full speed.
Nie Tian couldn’t help but turn his head back to look at Shi Qing as he staggered along after Pei Qiqi.
He had never expected that Pei Qiqi, who had always insisted on staying and fighting, would take him and flee the moment Cai Yue left, as if she had only stayed to see Cai Yue leave safely.
Ever since Cai Yue had seen Pei Qiqi, she had found numerous ways to taunt her and give her a hard time.
Nie Tian had thought that Pei Qiqi would loathe her and be glad to watch her die.
Her decision to stay and fight had greatly surprised him.
However, he never expected that she would decide to leave as soon as Cai Yue left, completely unconcerned about Shi Qing’s fate.
BLUB! BLUB! BLUB!
Just as Pei Qiqi and Nie Tian were about to run out of the valley, a dark-green wall of water that reeked of a foul smell suddenly appeared in front of them.
As Pei Qiqi approached it and the light shield around her made contact with it, her spiritual power shield was immediately dissolved.
Pei Qiqi, who was about to crash into the dark-green wall of water, instantly stopped her dashing momentum, her expression flickering.
Li Langfeng didn’t move a bit. He said casually, with his back facing Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi, “I said you can only leave after handing over the teleportation portal and the kid.”
He had obtained a thorough grasp of the situation from the few Blood Skull members he had killed.
Therefore, he had long since made arrangements for this.
Cai Yue could leave only because he let her.
Pei Qiqi and Nie Tian had decided to leave without his consent. Thus, they triggered the spell formation he had deployed.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Without uttering a word, Pei Qiqi unleashed spatial magics against the dark-green wall of water.
Separated from her by the wall of water were a few spatial rifts, which answered her summoning and slowly moved towards her.
“You’re such a ingrate for not appreciating my kindness.”
Li Langfeng shook his head. An unpleasant expression appeared on his face as he shook the bell in his hand.
CHING!
The crisp sound of a bell rang out.
Pei Qiqi, who was manipulating spatial rifts using spatial magics, suddenly let out a muffled groan as an unnatural redness appeared on her face, as if she had taken a heavy blow.
RUUUUMBLE!
A violent turbulence that could shake Heaven and Earth was created in Nie Tian’s soul as soon as he heard the bell ring.
He shuddered fiercely as he experienced an excruciating pain in his head, like someone had hit his head with a giant hammer.
“It’s a psychic attack!”