Flee!
With the appearance of Xuan Tianzi, the very notion of escape had already become an unattainable luxury for Cheng Lingwu and the surviving avatars of Tian Xing.
They could all see it with dreadful clarity.
High above the Mountain, Ye Xiu's Nascent Soul had already begun to collide and fuse with the primordial, elephantine behemoth that had been formed from the lightning tribulation.
That was the definitive sign that he was about to successfully break through to the Divinity Transformation realm!
"Demons! Fiends! Heretics!!!"
Cheng Lingwu was roaring, his eyes bloodshot with fury, yet the very moment Xuan Tianzi turned her gaze upon him, he had already begun to flee in a mad panic.
He paid no mind to the fact that Xuan Tianzi had just slaughtered his entire clan; he didn't even pause to consider whether he stood a chance of fighting her.
Right now, his only thought was to escape!
Very quickly, however, his Nascent Soul perceived Xuan Tianzi's presence trailing him from behind, and his expression underwent a drastic change.
That Xuan Tianzi had deployed a Ghost Dao formation; from within the array came the mournful wails of vengeful specters. And they were... they were the anguished wails and furious accusations of his very own clansmen!
"Hand over your tongue!"
The frenzied voice echoed from behind him. Cheng Lingwu suddenly felt that if a "Tongue-Ripping Hell" truly existed, this must surely be it.
And he was not the only one.
"Split up! Scatter and flee, now!"
Lai Teng roared, ordering the other avatars to scatter and flee.
Over the years, he had been blackmailed by the Li family, and he had been intimidated by them. Yet it was only now, at this very moment, that he felt a genuine, bone-deep terror!
Because this time, the ones who had lost were not just him, but also Lin Wudao, all the way back in Eternal Sun Prefecture!
All this time, they had regarded the Li family as nothing more than ants. Even when they had previously sensed that the family posed a threat, they had merely considered them to be somewhat tougher pebbles in their path, and nothing more.
But now...
He did not know what the other avatars were thinking, but he himself could feel it with stark certainty: the Li family, like maggots clinging to bone, had latched onto them from the darkness.
Now, the ones who truly ought to be afraid... were these very avatars of Tian Xing!
Ye Xiu's breakthrough, the explosions at the Heavenly Light Sect, the theft of a vast number of puppets, the resistance of the Azure Cloud group, the assault on Qilin Mountain, the release of the captive geniuses...
Each and every one of these events signified that they, the avatars of Tian Xing, were falling step by step into a grand trap laid by the Li family!
"Useless trash!"
In the midst of his desperate flight, Lai Teng shot a vicious glare at Cheng Lingwu, who was now kneeling upon the ground, his tongue having been cut out by Xuan Tianzi.
"If it weren't for this high and mighty piece of trash," Lai Teng fumed internally, "how could Ye Xiu possibly have obtained the treasures needed to break through to the Divinity Transformation realm? And how would he (Lai Teng) have ended up in such a predicament?"
"And another thing..." his thoughts raged on. "Lin Wudao! That arrogant, useless piece of trash!"
That fellow, Lin Wudao, who acted like a mastermind behind the scenes in Eternal Sun Prefecture, silently observing everything, looking down upon all under heaven, imprisoning the world's geniuses.
He could scarcely imagine what terrifying things would come to pass now!
He did not know how long he had fled; perhaps it had been for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
Lai Teng let out a long breath, gazing down in a daze at the city below, and at the experts who were rushing from all corners of the city, intending to offer aid.
Listening to those experts inquire, "Daoist friend, what has happened?", Lai Teng felt not even the slightest hint of joy that one would expect from surviving a catastrophe.
He stared in astonishment at the peaceful scene below, then stiffly turned his head to look back at the vast, clear sky behind him, and at the distant thunderclouds...
The Li family... they hadn't pursued him. Or rather, could it be that the Li family had... spared him???
"Why?" he wondered. "Why would they spare me?"
Lai Teng's eyes were vacant and lifeless. A cool breeze drifted past. A faint light pulsed around his body, the tell-tale sign of another avatar perishing.
Lai Teng's power was growing stronger, yet his complexion grew ever paler. And gradually, he began to feel it: humiliation.
The Li family's blatant, undisguised humiliation!
"You scoundrels! You bastards!"
He stared furiously in the direction of that Mountain, the veins on his forehead throbbing violently.
For the very first time in his existence, he actually felt that being alive was, in itself, a disgrace.
He could almost see it, the members of the Li family, smiling at him with that same familiar mockery.
It was the same look from all those years ago, the same way they had smiled as they brazenly dispatched puppets to plunder his treasure vault, the smile one gives when looking at a worthless piece of trash!
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