Read Novel Full Chapter 1224: Chapter 1218: Western Frontier Trap
Chapter 1224: Chapter 1218: Western Frontier Trap
[Special Event — Western Frontier Trap]
[Your descendant Li Yunlin was ambushed by the Peerless Hall in the Western Frontier.
Though the ambushers numbered over a hundred, they vastly underestimated his capabilities.
Without even needing to unleash the Skyveil Hall, a single sweeping strike of his long spear executed the Void Refinement technique, ‘Skyveil Slash.’
Every cultivator below the Void Refinement realm was annihilated, body and soul.
Condensing twenty-five rules into that single strike, he instantly slew an early-stage Void Refinement cultivator and departed the Western Frontier with elegant ease.]
[Acquired Family Will: 20,000]
Li Yunlin had safely departed, but his Old Ancestor wasn’t having such an easy time.
Beneath the Blood Moon, a cluster of black fire seemed to suddenly ignite.
Shrouded in the dark mist, Li Wei stared at the glowing panel before him.
Unseen by the others, a bitter expression crossed his face as he tallied the numbers under his breath.
“Over the years, I’ve saved up nearly a hundred and thirty thousand. Plus this twenty thousand from Yunlin, that makes a hundred and fifty thousand… Fuck, coming out this time cost me another hundred thousand.”
“In other words, after all these years, I’ve barely banked fifty thousand Family Will. Why is my appearance fee so damn expensive? Can’t the system give me a discount?”
The people surrounding him, of course, could not hear his internal, heartbroken wails.
Li Wei was finally experiencing the same suffocating pressure Uncle Rain had once faced.
To his left stood Ba Siyu; to his right, Min Tiange. In front of him was the painted-face, tattered-clothed He Qianxia, and blocking his rear was an old acquaintance—Dharma Master Hongzhen.
The Dharma Master had vanished during the battle at the Dusheng Nunnery; to think that upon her reappearance, she had already broken through to the Body Integration realm.
The clown-like figure, He Qianxia, was a stranger to him, yet the aura he exuded was undeniably extraordinary.
And Ba Siyu… heaven only knew why he was mixed up with this crowd.
The man was obsessed with weighing the pros and cons, arguably even more calculating than Supreme Elder Pu Ci.
The moment Li Yunlin arrived, these four had shown up.
Though Li Wei appeared calm on the surface, his heart was exceptionally heavy.
In the past, despite the presence of the Blood Moon in the Western Frontier, Min Tiange hadn’t dared to show his face—even Mahayana experts wanted him dead.
But now, Min Tiange and Ba Siyu had joined forces.
There was only one explanation: Min Tiange had transitioned from the shadows into the light, finally gaining legitimacy.
The four cultivators surrounding him didn’t speak a word, yet their intersecting auras had already locked down the entire space. The cloudy sky above could transform into a crushing Dao Domain at any second.
Still, sensing that Li Yunlin was safely out of range, Li Wei breathed an inward sigh of relief.
After a tense standoff, Min Tiange finally broke the silence, his voice heavy. “I have met Li Xinnian of your Li Clan.”
Li Wei remained silent.
“We are the same kind of people,” Min Tiange continued. “Many years ago, I invited your clan to join me. He agreed, yet you never followed through.”
“…” Li Wei paused for a moment before replying smoothly, “The time is not yet ripe. We have already been plotting in the background.”
After all, spouting a little nonsense wouldn’t cost him a piece of flesh.
“No, you haven’t,” Min Tiange scoffed.
“It is the most amusing thing I have encountered in a long time. I never expected it, yet I believed his words for nearly a century. Right up until your Li Clan evacuated the Western Frontier, I was still buying into his lies.”
Li Wei was left momentarily speechless, wondering how Xinnian’s words could have been so incredibly convincing.
Suddenly struck by a thought, Li Wei mentally opened Li Xinnian’s status panel.
Beneath the ‘Destined Villain’ trait, there were several others—one being an innate ability to easily persuade wicked people…
He just hadn’t expected that Xinnian’s silver tongue could deceive someone as astute as Min Tiange, let alone string him along for a century.
“Uncle Rain died in your Azure Cloud Prefecture,” Min Tiange said, taking a deep breath. “Did he die with dignity?”
“He did.”
Although he didn’t know why Min Tiange was asking, Li Wei still held a measure of respect for Uncle Rain.
He replied earnestly, “He stood alone within his Dao Domain, and his Dao assimilated into heaven and earth.”
“You are a man of few words.” Min Tiange let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“You handled the matter well. I never liked Uncle Rain. Even after having the Dao Seed planted in him, he always looked down on me. Yet, I still held the utmost respect for him. Do you know why?”
Because you’re a masochist, Li Wei thought dryly.
Outwardly, he said in a deep voice, “I’m listening.”
“He was always loyal to the Imperial Dynasty, loyal to the Human Emperor. Back when I saved him and offered him the Dao Seed, do you know what he asked me?”
Min Tiange’s expression filled with reminiscence.
“He asked me if swallowing it would make him forget His Majesty.
I have already investigated and confirmed that he went to see the Empress prior to his death. Does Your Excellency know why he went to Azure Cloud Prefecture?”
“Because the Empress told him that Azure Cloud Prefecture was a threat to the Dynasty. If he eliminated this threat, he would once again be the Imperial Dynasty’s honored Uncle Rain.
He had been hunted by them for tens of thousands of years; even I could sense how incredibly excited he was at the prospect of redemption.
But by making that trip… the Empress remained the Empress, while Uncle Rain remained a traitor in the eyes of the world.”
Hearing this rhetoric, Li Wei felt a prickle of agitation.
He had heard this exact kind of speech before.
Whenever Xinnian bewitched demonic path cultivators, he always appealed to their emotions and reason first, before painting a grand, illusory picture of a shared future.
“We have always been the same kind of people.”
Min Tiange’s gaze turned surprisingly gentle.
“We have common enemies. You killed Uncle Rain, you harbored the fugitives of the Grand Tower and the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, and Li Xinnian deceived me—none of it matters. We share the ultimate goal. I am willing to give your Li Clan one last chance.”
“I will cooperate with you,” Li Wei said, offering a slight nod.
“That is not enough.”
A sparkling seed materialized in the air and floated gently toward Li Wei.
“Consume it. All our past enmities will vanish into thin air, and together, we can obtain everything.”
Li Wei caught the seed.
He looked up and asked, “So, the Peerless Hall is now loyal to the Empress?”
“We are loyal to ourselves.” Min Tiange remained perfectly composed, as if no worldly event could cause even the slightest ripple in his heart.
Li Wei stared down at the Dao Seed in his palm, lost in thought for a long time.
Seeing the Li Clan’s Old Ancestor remain motionless, Ba Siyu finally spoke up, his voice a deep rumble.
“Daoist friend, a few days ago, General Min met with the Empress. Her Majesty officially bestowed upon him the title of Grand Marshal of the Western Frontier.
The Blood Moon you see above us is General Min’s grand arrangement, spanning many years of preparation. It is capable of causing the Wu Tribe to turn their weapons against their own kind.
As we speak, the Rising Sun Sage Elder and the Moon Dragon Tribe have already fled in panic.”
“You speak too much!” He Qianxia snapped, glaring angrily at Ba Siyu.
“I understand now.”
Li Wei kept his eyes fixed on the Dao Seed, his voice growing faint.
“Gu Fenghua’s life meant nothing. Uncle Rain’s life meant nothing. And the lives of all the soldiers stationed in this Western Frontier mean absolutely nothing in your eyes.”
“What the Empress truly wants is territory, and she is willing to raise a vicious hound like you, Min Tiange, to get it.
No wonder she sent your father to the Northern Frontier—she was afraid he would kill you himself.”
Li Wei exhaled a long, heavy breath.
“When that bitch schemes, every link in her chain tightly locks into the next. She isn’t even afraid of plotting herself into an early grave.”
“Insolent!” Ba Siyu and He Qianxia roared in unison.
Min Tiange’s calm expression instantly turned gloomy.
Li Wei closed his fist around the Dao Seed and ruthlessly crushed it into dust.
In truth, swallowing the Dao Seed wouldn’t have posed a fatal threat to him.
However, Li Wei knew perfectly well that since he would automatically return to the system space a hundred days after consuming it, his sudden disappearance would lead Min Tiange to suspect the Li Clan was connected to Holy Monk Yidian breaking his Dao Seed in the past.
“Has Your Excellency thought this through?” Min Tiange’s voice was like ice. “Angering me is by no means a wise move.”
Li Wei merely sneered. “Is this also how you forced Gu Fenghua’s hand?”
The four cultivators fell into a chilling silence.
Gu Fenghua’s only response to their threats back then had been the thrust of his long spear.
When the four from the Peerless Hall had besieged him, of the two elders involved in the vanguard, only He Qianxia had managed to survive.
Even now, the mere memory of Gu Fenghua’s merciless spear filled He Qianxia’s eyes with a lingering, visceral dread.
And now…
The Li Clan’s Old Ancestor standing before them, just like Gu Fenghua, wielded a spear of his own!
The group watched as the Li Clan’s Old Ancestor waved his hand slightly.
A glowing array materialized in the cloudy sky, and a blue long spear dropped directly into his grasp, its mid-grade Spirit Treasure aura radiating a piercing, unmistakable sharpness.
“Uncle Rain’s Spear,” He Qianxia muttered, his expression darkening further.
Gu Fenghua’s Spear Dao had been forged with a relentless, suicidal momentum; he had been perfectly willing to perish in both body and Dao just to drag one enemy down to hell with him.
Thankfully, the target he had locked onto wasn’t He Qianxia, otherwise, he would have had no path to survival.
Now, standing before them was another fierce spear user who had similarly refused the Dao Seed. He Qianxia felt a familiar surge of fear.
With the long spear gripped firmly in hand.
Li Wei looked at the enemies surrounding him. It seemed his wish to linger in the mortal realm a little longer was not meant to be.
“Daoist friend,” Ba Siyu said, narrowing his eyes dangerously. “You are not Gu Fenghua. Remember, the entire Li Clan stands behind you.”
“Do you truly believe your mastery of spatial rules allows you to do whatever you please in this world?”
Dharma Master Hongzhen took a deep, steadying breath. “The Peerless Hall is not the Dusheng Nunnery.”
Li Wei turned a deaf ear to their warnings.
He fixed his gaze solely on the gloomy-faced Min Tiange.
“The Empress is a fool. She can never satiate a ravenous wolf like you. Your Blood Moon is already expanding toward Deston Prefecture. Past Deston Prefecture lies the straight path directly into the Central Plains—to Grandhaven City.”
Hearing this unmasking of his plans, a sharp trace of coldness flashed through Min Tiange’s eyes.
“You want the Wu Tribe to cross the border, you want the Fourth Prince to cross the border… Your appetite is far greater than Wenren Xianyi ever imagined.”
Li Wei let the harsh winds of the Western Frontier batter against his robes.
“You claimed we are the same kind of people. We are not. I harbor none of your massive ambitions. My only desire is for my descendants to multiply, thrive, and live in peace.”
“My greatest joy is hearing the loud cries of a newborn in my family. It’s watching Dalong carry the baby in a joyous circle, shouting to the heavens that the child has the aptitude for farming.
That is a truly beautiful thing. But now? When children are born, their parents can only pray they have the talent to become cultivators, because the world around us has never allowed us a moment of peace.”
“When they grow up, my deepest wish is for them to simply be ordinary commoners, to plow the fields, to be humble shopkeepers, to worry only about mundane things like firewood, rice, oil, and salt.
It may be trivial, but it is a secure life—a life that doesn’t place them on the edge of a blade.
Yet, they are forced to cultivate. Every single year, my descendants die attempting perilous breakthroughs, or they die bleeding on battlefields. My family’s halls are far too frequently draped in white mourning silk.”
“I want to watch them enter the marriage halls. Sure, some of the brats are troublesome, seducing commoners’ daughters before they even come of age. Our family traditions strictly forbid such things, so they come crying to me, begging their Old Ancestor to save them from punishment.
But now? They don’t even have the time for romance. They don’t know if they will survive to see the next sunrise, so they refuse to drag a beautiful, innocent girl down with them.”
“When the time comes for ancestral sacrifices, I want to see my children safely gathered in the hall, burning incense for me. I want joyous reunions, banquets overflowing with laughter and warmth. Instead, the only things discussed at our tables are killing, plotting, and deceit.”
“People like you force our Li Clan to live without peace, generation after generation, pushing us forward into the crushing waves of the Imperial Dynasty, leaving us battered by wind and rain, unable to step away from the board even if we try.”
Li Wei exhaled a long breath, his earnest gaze piercing straight through Min Tiange. “Could we ever just find a time to sit down at a table, and have you all finally let us go? Is that even possible in this world?”
A clear, solitary breeze swept through the oppressive, cloudy sky.
It lifted the hair of the gathered cultivators.
Dharma Master Hongzhen quietly chanted another Buddhist mantra, He Qianxia’s painted eyes darted around erratically, Ba Siyu’s frown deepened, and Min Tiange merely narrowed his eyes.
For a long time, the group remained entirely silent.
Breaking the silence, Min Tiange slowly produced another Dao Seed. “No one in this world can escape the current. Swallow the Dao Seed, Your Excellency, or your Azure Cloud Prefecture will have no future.”
“Hahaha!”
Beneath the crimson glow of the Blood Moon, Li Wei’s hearty laughter echoed out, startling the night.
Abruptly, his laughter ceased. His gaze turned incredibly piercing, his expression contorting into something truly ferocious.
“No future? Good! Very good! Our hands are already stained with blood anyway. Then let’s see if it’s you who denies our Li Clan a future, or if our Li Clan carves out its own future through absolute slaughter!”
“Come, fight!”
With a fierce, heaven-shaking roar, the sharp edges of his spear shadows gleamed beneath the Blood Moon, and the black mist crackled violently in the wind, erupting outward like a roaring inferno.
—
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