Chapter 244: You Serious?
For a moment, the three Soul Formation experts simply stood there, confusion written across their faces as they took in the unexpected sight.
"Where is the divine weapon?" one of them whispered, his eyes darting around the mountaintop looking for any sign of the treasure.
The three men exchanged bewildered glances before their attention settled on Li Yao, who remained seated in a meditative posture. Her gaze met theirs without a trace of fear or concern, in fact, they could sense a little excitement from it, but they were probably just imagining it.
"Where did you hide the divine weapon?" one of the men demanded. His spiritual pressure spread outward, creating small cracks in the ground around him. "If you don’t hand it over right now, don’t blame us for being impolite."
Li Mei watched this exchange in confusion. She wondered if these three had misunderstood something. Had they also assumed there was a divine weapon up here just like her?
She glanced sideways at her cousin with guilt. She had run so far precisely to avoid bringing trouble to Li Yao’s doorstep, yet it somehow ended up like this.
As she thought of this, she noticed something strange. "Huh? Why are you acting like that?" Li Mei wondered, noting Li Yao’s strange expression. "Is there really a divine weapon up here?"
Li Yao’s expression hardened when she heard their words. "How did you know I had a divine weapon?" She asked. "Has information leaked somehow? But who could have leaked it?"
Her mind began spiraling through possibilities, wondering who had exposed her, had someone noticed the treasure? But who was it?
The three men looked at each other, and then the most arrogant of them threw back his head and laughed. "Kekeke, what did I tell you?" He spoke to his companions.
The others’ greedy expressions deepened even more. "Hahaha, even without any leaked information, anyone with a single brain cell could tell there was a divine weapon here with all that tribulation lightning," one of them said, gesturing at the dissipating storm clouds above.
"Kekeke, well, what do you expect from a lower lifeform," the third man added, causing the others to laugh.
Li Yao exhaled audibly, her shoulders relaxing slightly as relief washed over her features. "So it’s not a leak. That’s good." She spoke in satisfaction. "Senior brother wouldn’t like it if I had to kill sect members."
She rose from her position.
"Cousin?" Li Mei called out in concern, but Li Yao walked past her without acknowledgment.
Li Mei stared at her cousin’s retreating form, thinking to herself that she seemed different. It wasn’t just Li Yao’s more mature appearance, but she felt something had fundamentally changed in her.
Li Yao approached the three men and stood just a meter before them. She raised her head to look up at them.
"Three Soul Formation realm trash..." she began. "Should be enough for me to stretch my bones after staying in one place for so long."
The three men blinked in unison, wondering if they had heard it correctly. Then they erupted into an explosive laughter, practically falling over each other in amusement.
"Hahaha, did you hear that?" one gasped between fits of laughter.
"That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day!" another wheezed, wiping tears from his eyes.
They continued their hysterical laughter for a long time. Finally, one of them managed to compose himself enough to speak, though he still leaned heavily on his companion for support.
"You’re really funny," he said, still struggling to contain his chuckles. "I’ve decided to let you live. Give me the divine weapon and scram before I change my mind."
But Li Yao simply maintained her indifferent gaze...
The man’s laughter gradually died as he registered her complete lack of reaction. His expression shifted from amusement to seriousness.
"You serious?"
...
Li Mei gazed at Li Yao from her position on the ground. What was wrong with her? Why would she deliberately antagonize three Soul Formation experts like that?
Although Li Yao had clearly broken through to the Nascent Soul realm, Li Mei didn’t believe that she could actually defeat a Soul Formation expert in combat. The gap in power was simply too huge.
Li Mei wasn’t particularly surprised that Li Yao had reached the Nascent Soul realm so quickly. After all, she herself was already at the mid-stage Golden Core realm, just a few steps away from her own breakthrough. And Li Yao had been said to possess genius-level talent when she was born, so rapid advancement wasn’t entirely unusual for someone like her.
Still, Li Mei couldn’t understand where this overwhelming confidence was coming from. Did Li Yao really possess a divine treasure? If she truly did, then maybe her boldness would be somewhat understandable. With a divine-level artifact, it might theoretically be possible for a Nascent Soul realm cultivator to defeat a Soul Formation opponent.
But even that scenario had Li Mei unconvinced. There were three Soul Formation experts standing before them, not just one. Even with a divine weapon backing her up, the odds would still be heavily stacked against Li Yao. Divine-level weapons were typically wielded by Void Traversing realm experts and above—someone at the Nascent Soul realm like Li Yao wouldn’t be able to properly utilize such a weapon to its full potential. Not to mention that she had just completed her breakthrough moments ago, meaning her cultivation base was probably still unstable.
The three men had finally stopped their mocking laughter when they realized that Li Yao was completely serious about her challenge. They stared at her with expressions ranging from disbelief to irritation, while Li Yao stared back without the slightest hint of fear.
"What? Scared?" Li Yao mocked them openly, extending her hand in a casual gesture, inviting them to attack.
The men’s expressions darkened considerably at her brazen taunt. This kid really dared to mock them? Their auras flared, the pressure pressing down on the area around them. Though Li Yao remained unaffected.
Instantly, one of the three men vanished from his position and materialized directly behind Li Yao, his fist already mid-swing toward her head. Li Yao detected the incoming attack and she jumped sideways to evade it.
But the moment she landed, she found herself face-to-face with another attacker. The second man had positioned himself perfectly to intercept her escape route, his palm outstretched and glowing with concentrated spiritual energy as he launched his own strike.
Li Yao quickly lifted both hands to guard against the attack, crossing her arms defensively. But the moment the two collided, she was instantly overpowered and thrown back.
She slid roughly across the rocky surface, her feet carving a shallow groove in the stone before finally coming to a stop several meters away. Looking down at her hands where the man’s attack had made contact, she could see faint burn marks on her skin.
Li Yao thought to herself that Soul Formation realm strength really was on a completely different level. She glanced up at the three men, who were now looking at her with smug expressions.
Li Mei watched from her position on the ground, her concern for her cousin growing with each passing second.
Li Yao wiped off her hands where the man’s spiritual energy had left its mark, her expression shifting to that of excitement. "What perfect timing," she said with a slight smile. "I’ll use you guys to test out my new form."
...
Dark lightning clouds started swirling and gathering in the sky. At the same time, a thin barrier of crackling lightning began forming around the entire mountain peak, creating a dome of lightning.
One of the Soul Formation experts cautiously approached the shimmering lightning barrier. He pressed his hand against the translucent wall of electricity. The moment his flesh made contact, a violent shock coursed through his body.
"Ouch!" he winced sharply, yanking his hand back and shaking it vigorously to dispel the lingering numbness.
He stared at the barrier with growing unease. This barrier was definitely strange. His divine sense couldn’t penetrate beyond it at all.
The only thing he could think of that resembled this phenomenon was a domain, but that was an exclusive ability of Void Traversing realm cultivators. He glanced around nervously at the gathering lightning clouds above them.
This barrier didn’t seem quite as overwhelming as a true domain should be, so it probably wasn’t one. Instead, he concluded that the girl must be using that divine treasure to artificially create something similar to a domain. It seemed they would have to take this fight even more seriously.
All around them, the lightning in the sky began converging toward a single point. The energy swirled and compressed until it formed a massive, pulsing ball of pure lightning that completely enveloped Li Yao’s position.
"Fuck this! Do you really think we’ll let you—" one of the men shouted angrily as he rushed toward the gathering sphere of lightning energy.
The moment he made contact with the crackling ball, he was instantly knocked backward with tremendous force, his body tumbling across the rocky ground. He looked up at the lightning sphere in complete shock.
At that moment, the sphere began to crack.
Then, with a sound like breaking glass, the ball shattered completely, revealing Li Yao in an entirely new form.
After her transformation, she took on a more mature appearance, though not quite as mature-looking as her spirit form. Instead, this new transformation had a distinctly mischievous quality to it compared to the more restrained spirit form.
She began giggling softly, the sound echoing strangely in the confined space. Then she started zapping around the barrier at lightning speed, teleporting from one point to another so quickly that the Soul Formation experts found it nearly impossible to keep track of her movements.
The three men instinctively pressed their backs against each other, forming a defensive triangle as their heads swiveled frantically, trying to watch all directions at once for any sign of her approach.
She continued teleporting around the perimeter, her playful giggles filling the air from all directions.
"Welcome to the second heaven"
...
Author’s Corner
One Chapter again today, pc bailed on me and I had to write on the phone. I’ll have it checked out tomorrow and we’ll be back hopefully. Don’t worry, me counting.
"compared to the more restrained spirit form" idk if restrained is the right word, but yeah, this is a more childish like form compared to the more serious spirit form