Volume Three: Rising Fame - Chapter Ninety-Nine: What Did You Say?

Seizing scores...

Wen Xiangxuan and the others twitched the corners of their mouths. Who on earth would believe such nonsense! To not speak up a moment earlier or later, but to chime in precisely when Qing Yuan was on the verge of collapsing—was the underlying intention not obvious enough?

They had actually arrived some time ago, but instead of drawing attention, they had been lingering on the sidelines to observe.

"Seizing scores? Why couldn't you come up with a better excuse?!"

Zhu Yangfeng looked entirely unconvinced, even breaking into a smile driven entirely by sheer rage!

Standing nearby, Wang Fenghua looked at him speechlessly. Only a moment ago, Zhu Yangfeng had seemed eager for peace and harmony to make a profit, so why had he suddenly failed to restrain his fury and burst into a scold?

Yet, looking at the newcomers, Wang Fenghua knew they were undoubtedly harboring malicious intent. Naturally, he had to stand aligned with Zhu Yangfeng at this juncture, so he nodded in agreement and chimed in, "Li Yu, no matter how formidable you are, we are still two fifth-rank cultivators. Besides, you've always despised Qing Yuan anyway—why not leave him for us to deal with?"

"I am speaking the absolute truth. Why won't you believe me?" Li Yu said, sounding somewhat exasperated. He continued at a leisurely pace, "Just think about it, how difficult is it to capture people and hunt for scores right now? Once I got word, of course I had to rush over and catch you lot!"

"So what you're saying is that you're definitely going to help Qing Yuan, is that it?" Wang Fenghua's mouth twitched, his expression turning gloomy. "Is there any point in dragging out all this useless nonsense?"

And he expected them to believe that was the truth? Did he take them for fools?

"Li Yu..." Qing Yuan opened his mouth to speak, only to be ruthlessly cut off.

Li Yu waved a hand dismissively. "You, be quiet! The mere sight of you irritates me, so don't flatter yourself into thinking I'm here to rescue you. If people hadn't been so impossible to track down these past two days, I wouldn't have bothered showing up at all!"

"Why bother saying so much? Why don't you just admit you're here to beat us up?" Wang Fenghua retorted.

Standing beside him, Zhu Yangfeng also nodded and echoed, "Li Yu, your reputation for the Thunder Meridian is grand indeed, but right now we are essentially helping you vent your grudges. Don't be ungrateful!"

"Did he just say I'm ungrateful?" Li Yu turned his head and asked, feigning an expression of utter innocence.

Wen Xiangxuan looked at the two figures suspended in mid-air, who clearly believed they held all the cards. Did these men genuinely think that a pair of fifth-rank cultivators granted them the right to act with absolute lawlessness?

She let out a charming laugh, looking up at Li Yu. "Young Master, it seems some people are rather lacking in self-awareness!"

"In that case, shall we go up and have a proper discussion with them?!" Li Yu suggested.

The moment the words left his mouth, three figures shot straight up from the ground, soaring directly toward the pair.

"Three fifth-ranks?!"

Several gasps of shock rang out, coming both from the people on the ground and the two in the sky.

Wang Fenghua moved to spin around and flee, but he suddenly felt himself enveloped by a massive surge of spiritual energy, rendering his body utterly immobilized. After a few futile struggles, his complexion turned ashen. "What a dense spiritual domain!"

Zhu Yangfeng's expression underwent a drastic change as well, for he too had been trapped within Li Yu's spiritual domain. He attempted several maneuvers, only to find it completely impossible to wrest back control of even a fraction of the domain from Li Yu's grasp!

"Hand over all your scores!" Wen Yongsi had long since received his instructions. While the others were locked in a tense standoff in the air, he openly and shamelessly proceeded to collect the scores from everyone's tokens on the ground!

Naturally, among the subordinates of Wang Fenghua and Zhu Yangfeng, there was no shortage of peak sixth-rank cultivators. Yet, trapped within the spiritual domain that Li Yu had deliberately expanded, these individuals were utterly powerless to resist. Even when facing Wen Yongsi, whose cultivation was inferior to theirs, they could only stand frozen in complete subjugation as the scores were forcibly drained from their tokens.

Li Yu kept a watchful eye on the situation below. Seeing that everyone was obediently cooperating, he gave an inward nod of satisfaction.

This was the very essence of 'I am invincible, do as you please'!

With his individual strength alone, he could suppress the entire field, compelling everyone to behave submissively without the ability to fight back. Furthermore, his powerful spiritual force was exerting influence as well, making it difficult for these people to even entertain the thought of resistance!

"Hand over your scores as well!" Li Yu raised his chin, a look of amused interest in his eyes, while Wen Xiangxuan stepped forward beside him.

Trapped in a situation where they were mere meat on the chopping block and he was the butcher, Wang Fenghua and Zhu Yangfeng could only humiliate themselves by transferring the scores they had worked so hard to accumulate.

Beneath the palpable humiliation in their eyes, however, lay a profound and deeply hidden fear!

Looking at this smiling, seemingly harmless young man, they felt as though they were standing face-to-face with a demon.

The pressure was simply too overwhelming; the mere suppression of his spiritual domain had rendered the two of them unable to even move. From this single glimpse, they could easily deduce that Li Yu had left them far behind, outstripping them by several towering mountains!

"Is this what Young Master meant when he said I would never stand a chance?!" Tuman Xiang gazed at the scene unfolding in the sky, utterly astonished. She muttered the words to herself, completely unaware she had spoken aloud.

At that very moment, she finally understood why Li Yu had stated that reaching his level was an impossibility. Previously, a part of her had harbored a lingering sense of defiance, but now, she was convinced heart and soul!

The Zhu Yang clan was one of the major great clans, an existence capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Qing clan. The Zhu Yangfeng selected from among them could certainly not be mediocre—he was bound to be far stronger than her; that much Tuman Xiang knew intimately. Yet now, it was plain to see that this very same Zhu Yangfeng possessed not the slightest bit of resistance before Li Yu!

"Not a bad harvest of scores. Thank you very much!" Li Yu glanced at the score total on the token handed over by Wen Xiangxuan, nodded with satisfaction, and then said, "Carry on with whatever you were doing, we'll be taking our leave!"

With those words dropped, he truly withdrew his spiritual domain, turned around, and descended back to the ground.

This casual departure left the people on both sides utterly stunned.

Did he really just leave?!

Wen Xiangxuan and Xing Chengping were somewhat perplexed. If the goal was genuinely to acquire scores, they could have struck at any time—why choose the exact moment when Qing Yuan was on the verge of collapse?

Yet just as they suspected that Li Yu had merely used the pretext of score-collection to stage a rescue, the latter simply collected the points and genuinely walked away!

Did he actually leave?

Wang Fenghua and Zhu Yangfeng also froze in place. However, seeing the three figures descend from the sky, a sense of disbelief gave way to an overwhelming feeling of surviving a catastrophe.

After all, the pressure emanating from Li Yu had been utterly terrifying, weighing down upon them like an entire mountain!

"Scores lost can always be retrieved later on..." Zhu Yangfeng murmured softly.

Wang Fenghua, prompted by his gaze, nodded in agreement. Immediately afterward, his eyes shifted toward Qing Yuan. Looking at the equally bewildered young man, Wang Fenghua sneered, "Rumors truly don't lie, after all. Li Yu really doesn't get along with this Qing Yuan fellow—he was actually willing to stand by and watch him die!"

"He can't be killed! To execute a member of the Qing clan right in front of everyone would be the equivalent of slapping Li Yu across the face, wouldn't it?" Zhu Yangfeng pondered for a moment before speaking. "Still, there's no harm in seizing his treasures before we leave. I imagine Li Yu won't mind at all; in fact, he'd probably be quite pleased to watch us teach Qing Yuan a lesson!"

The two quickly reached an agreement. Watching the figures of Li Yu and his group as they departed, the two men cracked their knuckles and advanced menacingly toward Qing Yuan.

It was only then that Qing Yuan seemed to snap back to his senses. Looking at the two approaching enemies, he abruptly shifted his gaze toward the retreating back of the young man in the distance. "Li Yu! I obtained a snow-fox demon vine—it's yours if you take it!"

*Boom!*

Wang Fenghua and Zhu Yangfeng once again found themselves completely paralyzed and unable to move, as Li Yu's voice drifted casually from nearby: "What did you say?"