From the moment he arrived, Li Yan had targeted the weak, picking on the softest opponents. In an instant, he had left the enemy's Nascent Soul-level Wind Beasts with one dead and one injured.
Almost instantaneously, he had thrown the balance of high-end combat power into disarray, completely disrupting the Wind Beasts' plans.
The Wind Beasts' soaring fighting spirit had rapidly waned. Coupled with their inability to fathom Li Yan's true strength, they surely thought it best to retreat first and plan for the long term.
Although the Tianli Clan's Great Elder and the others saw the enemy retreating, when they noticed Li Yan had stopped in mid-air and was not pursuing, they hesitated for a moment and also came to a halt.
They were not, of course, following Li Yan's lead. Rather, the Fourth Elder's injuries were so severe that he needed to immediately return to secluded meditation to heal.
With only the three of them remaining, led by the Great Elder, it would be impossible to hold the enemy back without Li Yan's help. Therefore, there was little point in giving chase!
"Do you dare to leave your name, Your Excellency?"
Just then, Yan San's somewhat furious voice came from the distance. They had planned for so long to take down the Tianli Clan.
They had gone to great trouble to lure away Gong Shanhe and another Nascent Soul Elder, and their side had waited for two more of their clan to advance to the fourth rank.
Yesterday, the two clansmen had just stabilized their cultivation, and this morning they immediately launched a lightning-fast strike. Everything was supposed to end today, but unexpectedly, a cultivator from an unknown origin had appeared.
Not only had he disrupted their plans, but from the very beginning, he had left their high-end combat power with one dead and one injured. How could Yan San swallow this insult?
"Li Yan!"
The current Li Yan had no fear of retaliation. Besides, he was not a cultivator of the Wind God Continent and would be leaving after some time.
Following that, Yan San and the others said no more. Instead, they looked back, their gazes shooting towards Li Yan, filled with coldness and venomous resentment, as if they wanted to swallow him alive. Then, they quickly flew into the distance.
Li Yan paid them no mind. With a wave of his large sleeve, several hundred figures appeared around him.
Apart from Gong Chenying, who remained by his side, all the others slowly descended to the ground below. As soon as Gong Chenying appeared, she immediately looked around.
She and her clansmen had been in Li Yan's Spirit-Storing Pouch for no more than ten breaths. After briefly comforting the bewildered clansmen, just as anxiety was rising in her heart, her vision blurred, and she was outside again.
Looking around, Gong Chenying was stunned to find the Great Elder and the others hovering not far from Li Yan, while the Wind Beasts were retreating with the speed of an ebbing tide in the direction they had come from.
"Are you alright?"
Gong Chenying's beautiful eyes quickly returned to Li Yan, looking him up and down incessantly.
"I'm fine!"
A smile appeared on Li Yan's consistently indifferent face, and he also retracted his gaze from the distance.
Far away, Qian Ji, leading the Snow Mosquito Clan, and Zi Kun were still hunting down the Wind Beasts. They too were cunning, doing their best to kill Wind Beasts of a lower rank than themselves.
That way, the killing was easy, and they could cause a large number of Wind Beast deaths in the shortest amount of time.
This made the mid-rank Wind Beasts roar in anger, but with Yan San leading the retreat, they dared not stay for a major battle under the watch of the Tianli Clan's Nascent Soul cultivators.
They could only try to block Qian Ji, Zi Kun, and the other pursuing Tianli Clan cultivators while retreating. This left the Wind Beasts feeling extremely frustrated, and their furious roars rose and fell one after another.
The cultivators and demonic beasts that appeared today had no regard for face, specifically attacking their clansmen whose spiritual intelligence had not yet awakened. They were nothing like the "straightforward" Tianli Clan, who would fight them head-on.
"A Ying, this time we owe a great debt to this senior from your sect for his help. Why don't you introduce us first!"
A pleasant voice, like that of a warbler, came over. The peerlessly beautiful Third Elder, though spattered with blood, was smiling as she looked at Gong Chenying, her beautiful eyes sweeping over Li Yan from time to time, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Although she was also a Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator and also a dual dharma-body cultivator, this young cultivator who had suddenly appeared seemed to have even stronger combat strength than her, which piqued her interest.
Li Yan had acted for only a short time, and he had used his Mid-stage Nascent Soul strength to suppress a newly advanced Wind Beast. So, he gave the impression of being strong, but the power of his magical treasure was even more formidable.
The elders had heard some information about the high-level cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect from Gong Shanhe.
But for a moment, they couldn't match Li Yan with any Nascent Soul cultivator from their memory. The Third Elder thought that the other party might be Gong Chenying's master.
"Third Elder, he is my Little Martial Uncle!"
Although no one had explained the reason for the Wind Beasts' retreat, Gong Chenying naturally understood the current situation clearly. Hearing the Third Elder's inquiry, she retracted her gaze and looked at her.
A rare smile bloomed on her perpetually cold and beautiful face, a smile that could truly overthrow cities, peerless in its beauty.
Besides making Li Yan's heart skip a beat, the smile on her face caused the smiles that had just appeared on the faces of the others to freeze instantly when they heard the content of her words...
"He... he... he is your martial uncle?"
The Third Elder's delicate and beautiful face was now replaced with an expression of utter disbelief. She was already stuttering...
In the dense forest, clusters of large banana leaves were scattered about, surrounding a spacious, two-story wooden and bamboo pavilion.
The surface of the pavilion was painted in rich reds and greens, giving it an exotic flair. It was adorned with carvings of ferocious demonic beasts in various poses, all lifelike.
This pavilion covered a vast area, a full thousand zhang in size. Both in front of and behind the building, under the window eaves, various green plants and flowers grew, creating a lush, vibrant scene.
This place was quite far from the battlefield where Li Yan and the others had been, about seven thousand li away. This was also the core area of the Tianli Clan.
This pavilion was named the "Heavenly Dawn Hall," a sacred place that was only opened when the Tianli Clan had important matters to discuss. Those who could enter here had to have at least a Golden Core realm cultivation and special permission from an elder.
At this moment, seven people were seated in the second-floor pavilion. On the Tianli Clan's side were the Great Elder, Second Elder, and Third Elder, as well as Gong Chenying. The remaining three were Li Yan and the two demons.
The Fourth Elder, upon returning, had immediately apologized to Li Yan and hurried back to heal and meditate.
With Li Yan's status, it was only natural that he be accompanied by the Tianli Clan's Nascent Soul cultivators. The other clansmen who were curious about Li Yan's identity could only keep their distance, not having the qualifications to meet him.
But regardless, Gong Chenying had to be here!
After taking the Bodhi Pill, although Gong Chenying hadn't had time to refine it carefully, as she slowly circulated her magical power, the medicinal efficacy was gradually dissolving. As long as she didn't recklessly use her magical power now, her injuries were slowly recovering.
Originally, Li Yan had wanted her to immediately go into meditation to recover. However, given that there were many matters between him and the Tianli Clan that required Gong Chenying's explanation, after checking her injuries once more, Li Yan agreed to let her come for the time being.
"Li Yan, my Little Martial Uncle..."
After sitting down, Gong Chenying reached up to tidy the short hair falling by her ear, her beauty even greater than before.
Years of battle had made her more mature, both inside and out, like a perfectly ripe peach at the optimal time for picking.
Then, she began to introduce him in detail!
On the way here, Li Yan had not let her leave his side, but had her sit cross-legged on the Cloud-Piercing Willow to recover first.
Therefore, the group had not discussed Li Yan's matter on the way back.
In addition, the Great Elder had accompanied them back first, while the Second and Third Elders had stayed behind to redeploy the defenses. Only after observing and confirming that the enemy had truly retreated did they hurry back.
Although Gong Chenying had said similar words before, when she spoke of Li Yan's identity again, she felt her own voice was somewhat ethereal.
When did it happen that the Little Martial Uncle who had always needed her protection had transformed into a Nascent Soul cultivator who could shake the four corners of the world, and a Mid-stage Nascent Soul at that—an existence that sounded somewhat absurd.
She had, of course, briefly inquired about the outcome of the battle with the Wind Beasts earlier. When she learned that Li Yan had actually caused one death and one injury among the fourth-rank Wind Beasts in such a short time, in her disbelief, she had swept the distance with her Divine Sense.
Although the few fourth-rank Wind Beasts there had long since disappeared, she still subconsciously wanted to see how many high-rank Wind Beasts the enemy had left.
Moreover, at that time, the Third Elder had also secretly sent her a voice transmission, repeatedly confirming Li Yan's identity, unable to believe that a Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator was her martial uncle.
She had even asked if Li Yan had joined the sect as a master of his craft at a very old age, which was how he became her martial uncle.
Otherwise, why had Li Yan already reached the Mid-stage Nascent Soul, and a powerful one at that, not one who had just advanced?
After hearing that Li Yan's cultivation had reached the Mid-stage Nascent Soul, Gong Chenying's surprise was more than double that of the elders. In less than two hundred years, not only had Li Yan successfully formed his Nascent Soul, but how did he suddenly reach the Mid-stage?
And his combat strength was on par with the Second and Third Elders. At this moment, she had completely forgotten Li Yan's habit of concealing his cultivation. Her Little Martial Uncle's true situation was far more than just this combat strength!
If Li Yan were to truly go all out, even their clan's Great Elder might not be able to keep him there.
Although Gong Chenying was speaking, she constantly felt her voice floating in the pavilion, as if it wasn't her speaking.
Could she still not truly believe that the one who had arrived was that Little Martial Uncle? She had even repeatedly sized him up before, which left Li Yan speechless. He could only secretly mention a few things that had happened on Little Bamboo Peak in the past.
"...He is also my future Dao Companion. The reason is simple. During a sect trial, I was severely injured and on the verge of death. My injury was near my Dantian, and when my Little Martial Uncle was treating me..."
But Gong Chenying's next words made even Li Yan's smiling face freeze. He hadn't expected Gong Chenying to just state their relationship so directly.
There was no preamble at all; she just said it so bluntly.
'Sixth Senior Sister's personality is still so... so...'
For a moment, Li Yan couldn't find the right words to express what he was thinking.
As Gong Chenying spoke, even with her firm and steady mind-nature, a blush flew across her beautiful face.
Her slender, mature, peach-like body couldn't help but shift in her chair, as if doing so could alleviate some of her nervousness.
And when the three Nascent Soul cultivators of the Tianli Clan looked at Li Yan again, their faces were even more spectacular!