Chapter 649: I'll Handle This [Second Update]
This world is never short of fools, and fools all share a few common traits.
Blind self-confidence, conceit, and never holding a sense of awe towards this world.
These traits, Liu Mang had them all, which made him a true fool.
Even before breaking through, Li Xiaoyao had fought a tough battle against Gui Hai of the Seventh Rank Spirit Condensation Realm and eventually emerged victorious. Although Li Xiaoyao had used the heaven-defying Patching Heaven Arrow in that battle, a win is a win. Posterity only looks at who survived; as for the one who loses, they're forever without a say.
Liu Mang was but a mere First Rank Spirit Condensation practitioner; Li Xiaoyao really did not take him seriously.
The commotion from the battle below drew Li Xiaoyao's attention, and he was taken aback to see Li Yunchen and the Second Elder together struggling against an old man.
How could this old man be so formidable?
To fight alone against both Li Yun Chen, his cultivation level must be at the very least the peak of the Spirit Condensation Realm.
"He must be an elder from an Ancient Sect!" Li Xiaoyao thought to himself.
"After I kill you, I'll go and deal with that old guy. Today, not a single one from your Rakshasa Sect will escape." Li Xiaoyao's voice carried a cold breath as he bared his teeth and sneered.
"Courting death!" Liu Mang's eyes turned frosty as he made the first move.
The aura of the Spirit Condensation Realm was unrestrainedly released from Liu Mang, and the air around his body instantly solidified at this moment. Liu Mang gripped a black flute in his right hand and, with several hundred vengeful spirits, thrust it in Li Xiaoyao's direction.
These vengeful spirits were originally intended to nourish lesser spirits, but now that the lesser spirits had been killed by the shadow, they were of no use to Liu Mang. He decided to use them directly for attack.
An ordinary cultivator would find such an assault impossible to fend off.
Vengeful spirits ignore physical damage, and can directly invade the adversary's sea of consciousness, interfering with their spirit.
Liu Mang seemed to already see the scene where Li Xiaoyao's sea of consciousness was being controlled by the vengeful spirits, exposing flaws, and he couldn't help but laugh with pride.
"Souls, eh?" Li Xiaoyao saw Liu Mang's move and chuckled lightly, "Such a technique might work on average cultivators, but employing it in front of me is rather like bringing an axe to the class door."
"Sizzle sizzle..."
"Ahhhh!!!"
As soon as the vengeful spirits neared Li Xiaoyao, they immediately let out a piercing scream, then vanished into nothingness as if meeting their natural predator, struggling in vain to escape.
"What!"
Upon witnessing this, Liu Mang's eyes nearly popped out of his head, struck with utter shock.
This technique, Hundred Ghosts Devouring, had never failed in battle before.
How was it that everything about this junior from the Li Family of Xuan Country was so bizarre?
Liu Mang felt like he was going insane. First, that mysterious shadow had dealt him a great loss. And now Li Xiaoyao, whose cultivation level might be ordinary, had an endless array of methods at his disposal.
"My turn now." Li Xiaoyao's smile, in Liu Mang's eyes, appeared like a messenger from Hell, causing him to shiver with cold.
"Run!"
Without a second thought, Liu Mang decided to escape, turning his body and swiftly flying downwards.
"Trying to escape?" With contemptuous scorn, Li Xiaoyao shook his head and thunderous sounds rose underneath his feet. Like lightning, he chased after Liu Mang.
"Bang!"
Li Xiaoyao's speed was dozens of times faster than Liu Mang's, catching up to him in half a breath's time before Liu Mang could even react. He only felt an overpowering aura enveloping him from behind.
Liu Mang was greatly alarmed and wanted to turn his head, but before he could do so, Li Xiaoyao had already thrust a palm strike into his back.
"Pfft!" Liu Mang spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, looking down in disbelief at a blood-stained hand that pierced through his chest.
Li Xiaoyao slowly withdrew his hand, holding a still-beating heart in his palm. With a cold smile, he squeezed tightly, and the heart was crushed instantly.
Liu Mang's vitality rapidly faded away. Li Xiaoyao brushed aside his Dantian, took out the Golden Core, and under the terrified gaze of the onlookers below, he swallowed the Golden Core into his stomach.
The energy contained within a Spirit Condensation Realm First Rank Golden Core was extraordinarily terrifying.
Li Xiaoyao had just broken through to the Fourth Rank of the Golden Core Realm not long ago. His fifth Golden Core was still in a semi-translucent state; even after devouring this Golden Core, it would only make the fifth Golden Core solidify slightly from its semi-transparency. If he pinned his hopes of advancing on devouring Golden Cores, he feared that without eight or ten of them, it would be decidedly impossible to condense the fifth Golden Core.
"Bang!" Liu Mang's corpse fell from the sky, creating a huge crater on impact and sending dust flying.
Upon seeing this, Huang Yi was greatly enraged. In addition to his anger, he was also somewhat surprised by Li Xiaoyao's strength.
To be so young and yet capable of killing a Spirit Condensation Realm First Rank Liu Mang, this talent, this cultivation level, was unparalleled even in the Rakshasa Sect.
Since when did the Li Family of Xuan Country have such a genius?
Huang Yi's brows furrowed deeply as he punched Li Yunchen's shoulder, sending him flying dozens of meters away, then turned with a kick, colliding with Li Tinghai's attack and forcing him back as well.
"It seems I've underestimated the strength of your Li Family," Huang Yi said, having repelled both men in an instant. Now, standing with his hands behind his back, he tilted his chin and looked at Li Xiaoyao standing aloft.
Li Yunchen and the other got up from the ground, felt a sweetness in their throats, and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. Nevertheless, they didn't hesitate and got ready to charge again.
"Great Elder, Second Elder, rest for now. I'll handle this old bastard," Li Xiaoyao flicked his fingers, sending two white jade porcelain bottles flying towards the two, his light voice echoing across the entire island.
"You're going to deal with me? Such big talk!" Huang Yi laughed in fury, Li Xiaoyao's arrogant tone igniting all the murderous intent in his heart.
Li Yunchen and the other caught the porcelain bottles, looking at Li Xiaoyao with some concern.
Li Xiaoyao landed slowly, saying to the two, "I never fight an unprepared battle."
Hearing him speak so, the two didn't say any more. Li Yunchen warned, "Be careful, he's very strong!"
"Hmm." Li Xiaoyao, looking at the two with pale faces and blood at the corners of their mouths, said word by word, "I'll reclaim the dignity that belongs to the Li Family with his life!"
Li Yunchen and the other had fought Huang Yi, not caring about the threat of death, just to buy a few more minutes for Li Xiaoyao to escape. This care coming from a blood connection deeply moved Li Xiaoyao.
Because of Xie Nan and Li Pengcheng, Li Xiaoyao had stubbornly thought that apart from his father, everything else in the Li Family was unrelated to him.
But now, he suddenly felt a sense of belonging.
Li Yunchen and the other took the Pill Medicine, sat down on the spot. Li Xiaoyao faced Huang Yi, feeling the vigorous qi and blood and the formidable aura emanating from him, and he couldn't help but lick his lips, "The peak of the Spirit Condensation Realm, indeed very strong."
Before today, the strongest person Li Xiaoyao had fought was Gui Hai of Da Lin Temple, Seventh Rank of the Spirit Condensation Realm.
Although Huang Yi's Cultivation Level seemed to be only three ranks stronger than Gui Hai's, the gap between these three ranks was as vast as a chasm.
Even after advancing two ranks consecutively, Li Xiaoyao, without using his trump cards, didn't dare to claim that he could certainly defeat Huang Yi.