Chapter 166 - Set Up

At the most critical moment, Li Yi woke up and realized that nothing was more important than his own life.

“Ice energy, Ice Sword Technique!”

Suddenly, rings of cold air emerged and wheeled around him, then a plume of cold air transformed into a sword light and slashed out, forcing away all the tiger power along the way as it cut a passage through the blue lotus petals that blotted the air.

“Li Yunxiao, I swear I will kill you one day, hack your corpse a thousand times, then burn it and scatter the ashes everywhere!” Li Yi screamed as he fled through the passage he had cut out.

Yunxiao laughed and said, “I’ll wait for you, and I look forward to our next meeting!”

Li Yi’s body paused for a brief moment. It was plain that he was provoked once again, but he vanished into the distance in the next instant.

“I doubt he will inform others about me, but I shouldn’t stay here for too long.” Yunxiao glanced around in the square tower, putting everything he saw into his ring.

“There are indeed many good things, but none of them is as good as the Outworld Dark Jade. Where is it now?” While frowning, he sat cross-legged down and spread out his divine sense, searching every corner in the square tower while not neglecting even the tiniest spot.

“How clever! They almost deceived me!”

Yunxiao sensed a weak energy fluctuation in a corner. He walked over and kicked the ground with one leg, and it broke open immediately, revealing a small pit. Inside was placed an exquisite small white box made of a jade-like material that seemed to be the bone of some animal.

He opened the box and saw an object wrapped in a square of gray leather. He touched the wrapping and cried out, “The skin of an ancient dragon! No wonder it can block my divine sense. Luckily, this leather is too small and not powerful enough.”

He lifted the dragon skin, and a silvery-white stone was revealed. Meanwhile, a strong cold air blew into his face, and he felt like he was frozen instantly and losing his senses while a stream of extreme cold energy was attacking his meridians. He quickly covered the stone with the skin, and the feeling disappeared, just that his hands were still covered in a thin layer of ice.

“It really is the Outworld Dark Jade! Although it is only the size of a palm, someone should have knocked it off from the one in the Beiming Dark Palace. Tsk, tsk, is Ma tianhe a traitor of Beiming Dark Palace? He is just a Martial Grandmaster, and yet he dared to steal it from them…He really has no idea of death or danger!”

After putting away everything, Yunxiao left the square tower and started toward the banquet hall. It had been a while since Li Yi fled, and the Supreme Palace was still quiet. He probably did not alert anyone for fear that it would drag him in as well.

As he heard the joyful singing and laughter coming from the banquet hall in the distance, Yunxiao sneered, then his lips moved slightly, compressing his voice into a line and sending it into the hall.

Xingyang Ming, who was drinking in the hall, suddenly frowned. A look of doubt came into his eyes, but it was gone in the next moment, and he abruptly looked outside, his face covered with shock and terror that could not be concealed. Without hesitation, he stood up and turned to Ma Tianhe and Ma Feibai as he said, “Palace Master, deputy Palace Master, there is something urgent that requires me to leave early. I beg your pardon.”

Ma Tianhe paused a moment, and an obvious look of displeasure came over his face. He said coldly without losing his grace, “Since Lord Xingyang Ming has something more important, we dare not to keep you any longer. Unlike us, who stay in the mountains like some savage men, a man who stays in the empire is usually bound by more things.”

Xingyang Ming knew his host was unhappy, but he could not care much about it now as he just spoke apologetically, “I am truly sorry. I promise I will visit and ask you for your pardon next time.”

Only then did Ma Tianhe look better as he waved and said, “You may leave now.”

Xingyang Ming felt relieved and took his leave hurriedly. As soon as he stepped out of the hall, he ran toward a certain direction. Just now, a voice was sent into his ear, reading him a very profound cultivation technique. He had only listened to a few words when he felt his bottleneck, which had been stuck for some time, start to loosen.

It shocked and surprised him. He knew if he could get the complete cultivation technique, he would definitely make a breakthrough. Therefore, after leaving the hall, he immediately ran toward the voice. He did stop halfway, hesitating. After all, he was in the Supreme Palace. Although most of the experts were in the banquet hall now, there might still be some others hiding somewhere. It would be very difficult for him to explain himself if he were found.

But, whenever he stopped, the voice would read the cultivation technique in his ear again. Although he did find it strange, he still could not help heading toward the voice.

Finally, he came to a small yard, and the voice taught him a set of steps. He crossed the yard with the steps and entered the square tower. But, it was empty inside, without even a shadow. And the voice disappeared as well, as if it had never existed before.

“What’s going on? Where is this place?” He frowned. “Judging from the strange restrictive spell outside, this should be an important place for Supreme Palace. But why is it so empty?”

“Something is wrong!”

Suddenly, he had a bad feeling, and he turned quickly to run out of the tower. When he got outside, he saw a large crowd of people rush over, led by Ma Tianhe and his son. The Palace Master looked shocked when he saw Xingyang Ming from far away, and he bellowed furiously, “Xingyang Ming! How dare you steal from Supreme Palace!”

Xingyang Ming was startled, and he felt a chill run down his back. He immediately knew that he was set up, and he panicked. “Palace Master, this is a misunderstanding! Please listen to my explanation!”

“Explain my ass! Hand over everything you have taken right now or die!”

Ma Tianhe’s voice spread out like a powerful blast, and the might of a Martial Grandmaster contained in it shook Xingyang Ming’s chest and made him spew out a mouthful of blood. He was completely in a panic, and he felt a chill in his heart as he saw the murderous eyes of the father and son.

Meanwhile, a voice suddenly rang out beside his ear, “Run to the left.” As if he had found a straw to clutch at, he mustered all his strength into his legs and ran to the left without even thinking. Moreover, he was so fast that even he felt incredible.

“Hmph! You are just a mere Martial Lord! Do you think you can run away from so many of us?”

With a sneer, Ma Tianhe rushed into the yard and walked quickly with the dance steps. However, just as he was about to cross it, a strange force suddenly pressed over from all directions and stopped him. Ma Tianhe was shocked, and he felt the force grow stronger and stronger until even he, a three-stars Martial Grandmaster, could hardly resist it. Hurriedly, he leaped backward out of the yard.

“Dad, what’s going on?” Ma Feibai asked shockingly. They had walked many times through the restrictive spell in the yard, and such a situation was unprecedented.

Ma Tianhe’s face was livid and unsightly, as if he had just swallowed a rat. He clenched his jaws and said, “Someone has modified the restrictive spell!”

“What! But it is…” Ma Feibai blurted, but he immediately realized something and shut his mouth. His eyes were filled with a look of disbelief.

Even they, as Martial Grandmasters, did not have the ability to modify this restrictive spell, let alone Xingyang Ming, who was just a mere Martial Lord. It was also the reason why he and his father placed the square tower in it and did not post any guards here. They had too much confidence in it.

Ma Tianhe’s expression was extremely ugly. Hundreds of people from various powers were watching gloatingly from behind him. He had invited them here to show them his strength, and yet it was only a joke that he showed them in the end.

“Find him! I don’t believe he can escape the Supreme Palace’s boundary in such a short time!” Ma Tianhe bellowed. Then, he took a deep breath and mustered a mouthful of Primordial Qi in his chest, before opening his mouth and blowing it out into the sky!

The crowd saw an almost corporeal sound wave shoot up into the sky and explode over the Supreme Palace. In the next moment, the whole void began to shake, with rings of sound wave spreading out rapidly, bringing his voice to as far as ten miles away!

“All disciples of the Supreme Palace, pursue Xingyang Ming immediately and kill him on sight!”

The faces of those behind him who came for the banquet fell in an instant as they were awed by the might of a three-stars Martial Grandmaster. Many of them nearly coughed blood under the thunderous roar and turned extremely pale. The furious roar had also hurt the meridians of a large number of Supreme Palace’s low-ranking disciples. A look of fear came over their faces as they poured out in the direction where Xingyang Ming had fled.

Xingyang Ming was the most wronged man right now. While fleeing desperately, he kept thinking about what was going on. Soon, he realized that he must be set up by someone. The fact that the man could frame him under the nose of everyone showed that he was not someone simple.

‘Who on earth wants to frame me and why?’

“Because you are from the Xingyang family.”

A faint voice rang in his ear. That startled him, and he halted suddenly in terror. Then, he saw a young man with a pair of cold eyes standing in front of him.

“Who are you?!” He was shocked, not only because this person knew what he was thinking, but the voice was exactly the voice that framed him just now. ‘But why is he so young? And he is only a peak-level Martial Master?’

“You have wasted all your time living to this age, so the strength of a Martial Master is enough to kill you,” Yunxiao said calmly, and his murderous aura grew stronger and fiercer.

“You!”

Xingyang Ming was deeply frightened now. “How… how do you know what I’m thinking? And, why did you set me up?”

Yunxiao sneered, “Ask Xingyang Kun these questions when you’re dead!” His murderous aura exploded out as he lifted his right hand and shouted, “The purple air comes from the east, the cauldron that suppresses heaven and earth! Eye technique, Demon Moon!”

In Xingyang Ming’s shocked eyes, a small purple cauldron suddenly expanded while a pair of blood-red pupils emerged behind it.

As he was in a rush, Yunxiao did not want to waste time on the latter, so he used his spiritual attack and the most powerful strike as soon as the fight began. With just a few moves, he trapped Xingyang Ming in the cauldron and refined him into ashes. At that moment, many people of the Supreme Palace had arrived, about thirty of them, and all below the realm of Martial Lords.

Yunxiao’s eyes were still blood-red, and there was an evil gleam flicking on his face. In a voice as cold as ice, he said, “You will die with him as well.”

A tiger roar rang out across the woods.