Red leaves filled the sky, a crimson moon hung high, and red snow drifted and fell.
Above the clouds, thunder raged, and those first red leaves had become an ancient tree.
This blood-red ancient tree had emerged from the void. Its canopy dyed a stretch of the sky crimson, appearing as if it could hold up the very sky.
Upon its crown stood row after row of spirit tablets—the spirit tablets of the Li family.
Upon these spirit tablets, one could see the phantoms of the departed.
The image of Li Tianshuang, the Swamp Queen, showed her riding a crocodile, her hands waving as if summoning countless demonic beasts.
Li Tianniu, who had fathered over a hundred Li family children, was laughing playfully, the names of his many, many wives inscribed behind his tablet.
Li Kuangshi and Li Kuangcai, that pair of Buddhist children, still sat upon their lotus thrones, their eyes filled with compassion, yet lacking no measure of ruthlessness...
One by one, the spirit tablets of the Li family members shone beneath that scarlet canopy, a dazzling sight to behold.
Primal Blood Tree!
[Your family's Divine Tree, the Primal Blood Tree, has had its life force reawakened by Li Yaowen, who borrowed the power of Heaven and Earth.
Its roots now permeate the entirety of Merit City.
It has undergone a baptism of Heavenly Dao-bestowed techniques and, in its Nascent Soul form, has acquired the Primordial Spirit Technique—Void-Piercing Roots.]
[The Roots, imbued with the power to pierce the void, can penetrate space to claim an enemy's head.]
These were the very roots that had once pierced through those petty scoundrels in Azure Cloud Region.
The Primal Blood Tree, which had lain dormant for over a hundred years, now stirred once more.
Returning to its true form.
Beneath its trunk, the Void-Piercing Roots pierced through all the Tian Xing avatars and the abdomens of every Li family clansman on Qilin Mountain, lifting them all towards the sky.
In that moment, the Li family stood upon the Primal Blood Tree, beneath the crimson moon.
These roots penetrated the very ground of Qilin Mountain.
Following the lines of the suddenly appeared "Essence Harvesting Death Formation," they began to form a new spiritual Formation as the Ancestor Spirit Formation Diagram started to cover the entirety of the Death Formation!
At the forefront, Li Yaowen's spirit tablet, along with those of all the other Li family members, rose into the air as one.
The spirit form of Li Yaowen appeared before the eyes of the world.
Her body was ethereal. She, who had always been so calm, now wore a surprisingly ferocious expression.
Her hands formed incantation seals, and a Spirit Seal materialized before her, covered in mysterious, inexplicable threads.
Her slender hands moved like the world's most skillful needlework, her eyes blazing with white light; few could perceive the world as she did.
Before her eyes were the blood-red threads connecting Lin Wudao to his Tian Xing avatars, and also the filaments that had appeared when the Primal Blood Tree's roots connected to the Li family.
Under the manipulation of her slender hands, those threads of Tian Xing's Qi that she had once severed fractured again. The Qi of the Li family members, following the "Essence Harvesting Death Formation" and the "Ancestor Spirit Formation Diagram" on the ground, surged like a bloodthirsty beast into Tian Xing's own Qi!
Back then, she had been merely at the Nascent Soul realm, yet she could escape Tian Xing's techniques of fate and conceal the secrets of heaven. And now, she was at Divinity Transformation—even if only a First-Grade Divinity Transformation!
"Follow the Laws of Heaven and Earth, seize the power of Heaven and Earth, conceal the heavens, and steal from Heaven itself!"
"Old Tree, aid me!"
Over a hundred years ago, the Primal Blood Tree could already glimpse a corner of fate, and it possessed the innate talent to block others from prying into the Li family's affairs. Its Nascent Soul could even leave its body to engage the enemy in battle!
As Lin Wudao began to frantically resist, the Old Tree's vines shot forth.
Its red leaves decayed, bit by bit, only for new life to be infused into them! For that, life force was the essence Qi being absorbed by the Tian Xing avatars, which then flowed into the tree's own body, renewing it!
Ultimately, a single tree could not fully distribute all the Human Dao Essence Qi flowing in from across the world, nor could it handle the full power of over three thousand Tian Xing avatars.
Root after root, like great blood vessels, seized Tian Xing's power from within the grand formation and redirected it to every member of the Li family!
Its roots lifted the Li family members, holding them aloft in the air.
The red leaves decayed only to be reborn, swaying against the backdrop of the crimson moon.
The Li family floated, suspended in the air, their auras climbing steadily higher!
"Scum! You ants! I want you dead!"
In the distance, Lin Wudao roared, charging frantically towards the Li family.
These ants.
They were stealing his ten-thousand-year plan, the fruits of all his labor. They were nothing but a pack of out-and-out thieves!
Lin Wudao's aura erupted. He was going to kill that Li Yaowen who had contended with him for over a hundred years, and kill that blood tree which should have been left to slowly rot in Merit City!
Yet, in a flash.
The black-misted figure holding the long spear reappeared before him, its Yin-Yang Diagram radiating an oppressive might even greater than before, growing stronger with every moment.
Within the Yin-Yang Diagram, the two black and white circles had, to his astonishment, transformed into two black and white carp, swimming freely and wantonly within its bounds!
"You cannot kill them!"
Li Wei opened his scarlet eyes!
"Take a good look at the spirit tablets on that Old Tree," he commanded. "They are watching you. They... are watching..."
As Li Wei's voice faded, all the spirit tablets began to pulse with light, radiating a monstrous battle intent that seemed to transmit from the underworld to the mortal realm.
Though these children of the Li family have already perished, the will of the Li Clan will endure forever!
"Watch as we, your once-powerless elders, now step before you."
"This time, you will not be victorious again!"
"And we... we must bring back a long-awaited victory for our children, to offer tribute to their departed souls in the underworld!"
"We will..."
"Strip you of everything you possess!"
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