Mo Zhu, the young lord of the Qilin clan, stood with several elders and disciples surrounding him as they all stared intently at Li Fang Ren. Mo Zhu was a prodigy of his continent who had recently achieved something extraordinary—he'd successfully merged with one of their ancient clan relics, dramatically increasing his cultivation base.
Refining a Qilin relic was notoriously difficult. After dragons and phoenixes, Qilins were considered the next hardest beings to extract power from. Most people would have their bodies explode from the sudden surge of energy, yet him and Mo Zhu's elder brother Mo Hanxue too, had managed to refine not just one but three relics at once.
These relics were blood essences and body parts of ancient supreme beings, granting divine revelations, attributes, and powers from higher cultivation realms. The Qilin clan was celebrating Mo Zhu's achievement when Yunling had approached them and started boasting about Li Fang Ren—how he'd broken the heavenly restrictions on his ancient body, how he possessed supreme-tier techniques, how he was destined for greatness.
The tension between the two clans had a long history. The Li clan had only invited the Qilin clan to this celebration to repair their damaged relations from the third Heaven Defying War, a conflict that had lasted decades.
Now, as the banquet continued, Mo Zhu suddenly pulled Yunling from behind and threw her forward violently. She crashed to the ground hard, sliding across the marble floor.
"You bitch, you said he broke the heavenly Dao's shackles? What is this pathetic display I'm seeing?"
Li Fang Ren gave Ling Feng a subtle nod, silently asking her to help Yunling. He sighed internally at the situation.
Well, our own people are becoming rotten from the inside.
Li Fang Ren walked toward Mo Zhu with a calm expression.
"Hey you, horned guy, isn't it unmannerly to fight at someone's birthday celebration? She's a member of my clan... well, not that I can really complain much about this," he said with a slight smile.
Mo Zhu smirked arrogantly, clearly enjoying the power dynamic.
"Your clan? Hahahaha, she is a slave of my family now. I will treat her as I see fit."
Yunling's face went completely dark at his words, which told Li Fang Ren that something was going on here that he didn't understand. She quickly faked a smile to cover her emotions.
"Yes, I have decided to serve the young lord Mo Zhu. Even as a slave," she said, her voice strained but compliant.
Ling Feng turned to Yunling with confusion.
"You, why would you agree to such a thing?" she asked, not understanding the situation.
Li Fang Ren looked around and noticed Zhuang Jian in the crowd. The older cultivator was literally sweating, his hands trembling slightly. This told Li Fang Ren that Zhuang Jian had some connection to this situation as well.
Female slave... a member of our clan? Li Fang Ren thought, starting to piece together what had happened.
He raised his hand, giving Ling Feng a subtle signal.
"Take her away from here."
Ling Feng nodded and quickly escorted Yunling out of the banquet hall, though not before giving Mo Zhu a look of pure disdain.
Li Fang Ren's expression became serious as he watched them leave. He remembered something his grandfather had told him many times.
"My grandfather always said that the beast clans were a pain in the ass. Seems he was right, especially after my father killed a Qilin in the past war—the so-called last true Qilin to exist," he said quietly, mostly to himself.
He walked directly toward Mo Zhu, and the crowd instinctively cleared a path between them.
"Calling little girls as slaves, you sure have a lot of dignity. Kekek," Li Fang Ren said with a mocking smile.
Two of the Qilin guards immediately rushed forward to attack Li Fang Ren, but he easily punched through both of them with minimal effort. The guards flew backward, crashing into the crowd.
Strong members of the Li clan stepped forward to defend their young master, their auras flaring to life.
The crowd watched in awe as they felt the power being released.
"Those are the Sixth and Seventh Principle users! Such incredible aura, and they're not even in the top five of our clan guards. I wonder what kind of monsters rank at the very top of the Li family's strength," someone whispered.
Mo Zhu's body began to change as scales formed across his skin. He ran forward with incredible speed and slapped through three Li clan guards, sending them flying. Just as he was about to harm a civilian bystander, Li Fang Ren came running from the side and grabbed his wrist.
Without hesitation, Li Fang Ren released a shock of qi directly into Mo Zhu's forearm, bursting the nerve connections and causing severe pain.
"Ughh!" Mo Zhu cried out in pain.
Li Fang Ren pulled his hand away and delivered a powerful punch directly to Mo Zhu's face, sending him skidding backward across the ground. But before he could continue, he noticed his grandfather watching from the roof of the banquet hall.
Li Juntian was sitting casually, observing everything with an amused expression. When he saw Li Fang Ren look up at him, he made a gesture and announced loudly.
"Today is his day. Let him entertain our guests here. Haha!" Li Juntian called out, clearly enjoying the spectacle.
Li Fang Ren sighed heavily.
"Sigh, damn old fool. He just wants to watch me fight for entertainment," he muttered to himself.
A burst of clashes erupted between Li Fang Ren and Mo Zhu as they engaged in a serious spar. Qi flickered around them like a sphere forming, the energy becoming visible to everyone watching.
What was strange, though, was that both of them were smiling and laughing despite the intensity of their battle. It was as if they were genuinely enjoying testing their strength against each other.
Tang Yuha watched from afar, her eyes wide with amazement at the speed of their movements.
"So fast... I can't even follow their movements with my eyes. No wonder I couldn't even touch him before when he knocked me out," she said quietly to herself, finally understanding the gap in their power levels.
The destruction around them kept increasing as the spar continued. Buildings crumbled, platforms shattered, and they eventually took their fight into the air, trading blows among the clouds.
Li Juntian pulled out a talisman and cast a massive barrier around them to protect the banquet hall and its guests from stray attacks.
"You brats sure got some power in you," Li Juntian said with a chuckle.
Inside the protective barrier, the two continued their intense exchange. Li Fang Ren decided to taunt his opponent slightly.
"Haha, aren't you here for revenge and whatnot? Why are we playing around here like friends?" he asked with a grin.
Mo Zhu's smile widened instead of faltering.
"It's a rare chance to fight someone of equal prowess. What point is there in fighting for old clan grievances?" Mo Zhu replied, clearly enjoying the battle more than pursuing his original mission.
Both of them flaunted their auras simultaneously, and Mo Zhu created a near-perfect Qilin form using just his qi alone. The spectral beast was massive and detailed, radiating raw power.
Li Fang Ren smirked at the display.
"Should I use that technique?" he said to himself, opening his arms.
He began chanting in a strange language, the words flowing naturally from his lips as if he'd always known them.
"Thousand swords of Zhou," he declared, his voice carrying power.
The crowd erupted in shock as they realized what was happening. More than one hundred spiritual swords materialized around Li Fang Ren, each one gleaming with pure qi.
"Is this the martial technique that was passed to the holy son?"
"Rumors say that once fully mastered, you can form any number of weapons with just a single thought. This must be it!"
"The Zeroth Principle finally reveals its true power!"
Li Fang Ren clapped both of his hands together, and the thousand swords rushed forward to meet the Qilin spirit form. The collision of energies was absolutely insane, with qi spurts erupting in all directions like fireworks.
After four minutes and eleven seconds of continuous combat, the battle reached its conclusion. Mo Zhu fell to his knees, his body covered in cuts and bruises from the sword strikes.
"When will I be able to have such a massive qi pool..." Mo Zhu said breathlessly, clearly impressed despite his loss.
Li Fang Ren turned away, thinking he'd finally won the spar. But just as he relaxed his guard, a sudden and terrifying aura erupted from behind him.
Mo Zhu suddenly slashed his nails through the air, tearing through Li Fang Ren's robe with deep claw marks.
"You... I thought the fight was over," Li Fang Ren said in shock, turning back to face him.
But something was wrong. Mo Zhu's attacks were no longer controlled or tactical. He moved like a wild beast, his eyes glazed over and unfocused. This wasn't the same person Li Fang Ren had been sparring with.
Something's definitely not right. This doesn't feel like him anymore, Li Fang Ren thought, extending his senses to examine Mo Zhu more carefully.
He scanned Mo Zhu's entire body and immediately felt it—a foreign qi presence deep within his core, controlling him like a puppet.
"Hey, you're being controlled! Fight back and wake up!" Li Fang Ren shouted, trying to reach the real Mo Zhu through whatever was controlling him.
But his words had no effect. Mo Zhu continued attacking wildly, moving faster and more aggressively than before. The control was too strong.
Li Fang Ren kept fighting defensively, trying to wake him up through physical combat.
When that proved futile, he jumped away and ran toward the forest bordering the banquet grounds, hoping that the puppeteer controlling Mo Zhu would either lose control at a distance or reveal themselves.
As he ran, the system suddenly activated.
[SIGN IN AVAILABLE]
Huh, finally! Yes, yes, yes, do it! Li Fang Ren thought desperately.
[DAO BONE ENHANCED]
[HEAVENLY TRIBULATION INCOMING IN 10... 9... 8...]
No... wait, heavenly tribulation? We don't have time for that! Li Fang Ren thought in panic.
The sky above the banquet grounds suddenly darkened as massive clouds began to form. Lightning crackled between them as the heavens prepared to test his new realm.
People at the banquet looked up in wonder and fear.
"A heavenly tribulation? Is it for the holy son?"
"How lucky to advance and receive a tribulation right in the middle of a fight! But the Qilin lord doesn't seem to be stopping his attack."
"Yes, he seems to have gone completely crazy. But wait, how did he get a dao bone? Wasn't he just at the divine realm? Forming a dao bone requires divine essence from years of cultivation."
Li Juntian's eyes widened in shock as he watched the scene unfold.
"When did he form a dao bone? This kid is absolutely full of surprises," Li Juntian muttered, understanding the significance of what was happening.
With a dao bone, becoming a supreme, an ancient, or an ascendant was just a matter of time. But forming one before even turning one hundred years old was completely unheard of. Usually, it took cultivators twenty to thirty years of solid seclusion just to form a proper divine sea, let alone achieve a dao bone.
Suddenly, a massive Qilin appeared in its true form, hundreds of meters tall and radiating ancient power. The beast descended from the clouds where it had apparently been hidden the entire time.
Now it's time, Li Fang Ren thought, realizing the puppeteer had finally revealed themselves.
He opened his arms wide to embrace the incoming heavenly tribulation. The timing was perfect—Mo Zhu was right there with the Qilin, so he would take fifty percent of the attack just from being in proximity.
Multiple beams of heavenly lightning fell from the sky, striking downward with devastating power.
The true-form Qilin tried to protect itself but let out a furious roar.
"You!!! This kid forced me to reveal my true form!" the Qilin beast screamed in rage.
The Qilin took the beams of heavenly tribulation head-on, unable to dodge due to its massive size, and was struck directly by multiple lightning strikes.
The crowd gasped as they finally understood what had happened.
"This... so that's why the young master of the Qilin clan came to fight here! He had backup from a true-form Qilin all along!"
"Their clan was invited to mend their bonds with us, not to assassinate the holy son!"
Li Fang Ren felt the tribulation strikes hit him as well, but the pain was worth it. His cultivation advanced with each strike, and the heavenly lightning tempered his body and dao bone simultaneously.
"The coward finally comes out! Now embrace the heavenly tribulation!" Li Fang Ren shouted at the true-form Qilin as lightning continued to rain down from above.