Pan Litian said, “What does my personal affair with Feng Qinghe have to do with the Evil Sky Pavilion?”
“Are you going to disregard your debt of favor with my master?” Feng Liu asked. He was genuinely worried that Pan Litian would respond in the positive. After all, Pan Litian had joined the Fiend Path.
However, Pan Litian was from the Clarity Sect after all. He was once the greatest elite of the sect. It was not in his nature to leave his debts unpaid. When he was saved by the Fourth Prince, he spent many years at the borders just to repay the life-saving debt.
In the end, Pan Litian said, “A junior such as yourself has no right to talk to me. I want to meet Feng Qinghe.”
“That can be arranged. Old senior, this way please.”
The two of them traveled southeast through the air.
…
Four hours later. The night grew even darker.
While they were flying, Feng Liu asked, “Old senior, with your identity and standing, you could’ve easily joined any of the seven great sects. You’d be an elder, at least. Why must you join the Evil Sky Pavilion?”
“Because I like it.”
“Although Old Villain Ji’s cultivation base is terrifyingly profound, he still can’t defy the will of the heavens. Moreover, at his age, he can’t sever his Golden Lotus to cultivate,” Feng Liu said.
Pan Litian glanced at him and asked, “You know about that method as well?”
“The method of severing the lotus has spread in the entire cultivation world. Everybody knows about it,” Feng Liu replied.
Pan Litian sneered and said, “If I were you, I’d live in seclusion and study the method of severing the lotus. When I’m at the Nine-leaf stage, nobody will be able to stop me from taking out the Evil Sky Pavilion.”
“Time waits for no man. It takes too long to reach the Nine-leaf stage. There are many treasures and cultivation methods in the Evil Sky Pavilion. Almost every sect covets them.” It seemed like Feng Liu was finally honest about his intention. At the end of the day, their motivation was the benefits they would gain from taking down the Evil Sky Pavilion. It had nothing to do with being on the Noble or Fiend Paths. If their true goal was to take down Ji Tiandao, they could have just patiently waited out ten years. Why were they so insistent on taking down the Evil Sky Pavilion when it would lead to heavy casualties? The quarrels and disputes in the world were fundamentally caused by greed.
Feng Liu suddenly stopped flying. As he hovered in the air, he said, “Old senior…”
“Hm?”
“Why don’t you join Zhencang Branch… Our master has said that if you’re willing to join us, the seat of the First Elder will be yours,” Feng Liu said.
Pan Litian suddenly found this young man’s impudence grating. He said, “Don’t you understand what I’ve said to you?”
“I don’t.”
“You will once I meet Feng Qinghe,” Pan Litian said.
“I’m afraid you won’t be meeting my master.”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
100 cultivators suddenly appeared on the treetops.
Several of them nocked their bows, and some of them circled the air above their heads.
“A trap?” Pan Litian scowled. He did not expect the Zhencang Branch’s Feng Liu to resort to such lowly methods.
Feng Liu retreated in the air. With a smile, he said, “I had no choice. I wanted to persuade you to return, but since you refuse, you’ll be buried here.”
Pan Litian wielded his wine gourd bottle, and he descended. He was at the center, surrounded by cultivators on all sides.
“I thought Feng Qinghe is a man who knew how to differentiate between right and wrong. It seems like I’m wrong.” Pan Litian raised the wine gourd bottle in his hand and took huge swigs from it. In just a brief moment, he emptied the wine gourd. His clothes were wet from the wine that spilled from the edges of his mouth.
Feng Liu said, “It’s useless to talk about morality with those on the Fiend Path. I’ve said everything I wanted to say. You’re no longer at your peak. If you quietly surrender, you might be left with an intact corpse.”
Pan Litian tossed the bottle out. The wine gourd turned golden as it circled him. “You’re right… I’m heavily injured, and I’m no longer at my peak… Even so…” He paused for a moment. His voice deepened as he said in a deafeningly loud voice, “I ‘m not so weak so as to be pushed around by the likes of you!”
Boom!
Pan Litian stomped his feet on the ground and shot into the air like a fired arrow. He attacked without warning as his wine gourd shone with a blindingly bright golden light. The light grew larger and shrouded him.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A dozen cultivators reeled back as they were hit by the golden gourd bottle. They spat out mouthfuls of blood in the sky.
“Intoxicated World! How do you like that?”
Feng Liu shouted, “What a wonderful cultivation base! Shoot him down!”
Several archers in the distance fired their energy arrows at Pan Litian. Arrows sailed across the sky like meteors toward Pan Litian.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Pan Litian tossed his golden gourd bottle out again. He dove.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The wine gourd circled around Pan Litian and parried all the energy arrows.
“Continue,” Feng Liu ordered.
“Drunk on the Mountain!” Pan Litian descended and suddenly shot to the side. He left the range of the energy arrows at lightning speed, and his gourd bottle immediately crashed on two nearby cultivators.
Boom! Boom!
The two of them were sent flying back. Their Ten Worlds avatar flashed briefly before vanishing.
Pan Litian laughed and said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve behaved this freely! If this is all Feng Qinghe has, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed!”
“This is only the beginning.” Feng Liu waved his hand.
More than ten cultivators lunged at Pan Litian from all directions. Since he was in the middle, he felt the pressure from all sides. He fought hard to keep the lump in his chest down and to stabilize his old wounds as best he could. Then, he said, “Drunk on the Battlefield!”
Swoosh!
Pan Litian suddenly descended like a huge rock. When his feet touched the ground, a loud boom resonated in the air. After he evaded the attacks, he threw his golden gourd bottle out again.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The golden gourd bottle was moving extremely fast and formed a golden circle in the air.
A dozen or so cultivators retreated immediately.
“He’s powerful!”
“Isn’t he injured? Why is he so powerful?”
As the cultivators retreated, they regarded Pan Litian with a shocked expression.
“This shows the Fiend Extermination Alliance’s plan is right. In any case, he must die!” Feng Liu commanded the cultivators again, “Archers, don’t stop firing!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Feng Liu’s voice had barely faded when dozens of energy arrows shot toward Pan Litian.
Pan Litian looked at Feng Liu as a burst of energy surged out of his body.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The energy arrows dispersed. Pan Litian flew toward Feng Liu.
“Eldest Senior Brother, stand back!” The cultivators in the surroundings joined their palms and formed script seals.
The air was suddenly filled with script seals.
Pan Litian had no choice but to call off his assault. He descended again and looked up. “The Confucian Sect’s expansive energy seal?”
The Confucian Sect’s expansive energy seal was a kind of Expansive Heavenly Energy. All they did was condense the energy into seals and shaped them into scripts. It was fundamentally similar to the Daoist talisman seal although the Daoist seal required more brush strokes.
The scripts danced in the skies. They consolidated rhythmically and dove toward Pan Litian. “Block.” The golden gourd bottle hovered before him and spun rapidly.
The script seals kept attacking while the gourd bottle parried them.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The sounds of collision seemed never-ending, and ripples of colliding energies could be seen everywhere.
Pan Litian’s arms were growing numb from the impact.
At this moment, Feng Liu shot toward Pan Litian with a sword in his hand. At the same time, he summoned his Six-leaf avatar.
Whizz!
“Expansive Energy Sword!” A great surge of energy wrapped around the sword in Feng Liu’s hand, turning it into a shining golden sword. The sword shot toward Pan Litian like a bullet.
Pan Litian waved his arm. The gourd bottle rose slightly. He clapped his hands together.
Bam!
Pan Litian caught the sword between his hands. However, he was pushed backward by the force of the sword. He wrapped his feet in energy as he slid backward, leaving two shallow indents. When he finally stopped moving, the energy sword was barely half a foot away from him. His golden gourd bottle still circled him, deflecting the incoming energy arrows. “Trying to sneak up on me?”
“You’re old… just like Old Villain Ji, old. The first elite of the Clarity Sect can’t even hold his own against a Six-leaf cultivator like myself. Why do you have to throw your life away for that old villain?!”
“You’re still too green, child!”