Snapping out of the trance of prolonged, fierce combat, Li Wei looked at the battlefield displayed on the computer screen.
He saw that his clansmen and the cultivators of the Azure Cloud Prefecture had already settled into a routine, dividing into nine groups to take turns suppressing the Zhao Clan Ancestor.
He was, after all, an Integration Realm powerhouse whose body had merged with space.
Even though he was weakened to the extreme, it was unlikely they could kill him within three to five days.
"It seems there is no need for me to continue fighting."
Li Wei let out a long breath.
Watching his clansmen fighting side by side, a complex smile unconsciously appeared on his face.
[Special Event — Suppressing the Integration Realm Zhao Clan Ancestor]
[The members of the Immortal Zhao Clan, aware that they had long since died and unwilling to become mere fodder for their Ancestor, chose to sacrifice their lives to resist the Zhao Clan Ancestor in order to allow the only Zhao descendant with a complete soul to survive and continue the bloodline.
They have exposed the Zhao Clan Ancestor's weakness for your family.
Your clansmen and the fellow Daoists of the Azure Cloud Prefecture are currently working together to suppress the Zhao Clan Ancestor.]
The landscape of flesh and blood within the Immortal Domain remained.
The Great Formation had been shattered, and snow began to fall upon the Immortal Domain.
The severed flesh of powerful cultivators did not freeze despite the cold, but the blood and flesh of cultivators below the Foundation Establishment realm gradually solidified.
Scattered across the Immortal Domain was flesh that appeared crystal clear and translucent, alongside chunks of meat that still emanated spiritual Qi.
High above, the battle in which the Li clansmen and the warriors of the Azure Cloud Prefecture were suppressing the Zhao Clan Ancestor raged on.
On the screen, the map of the [Immortal Domain] showed only white dots remaining; these markers represented the troops belonging to the [Friendly Forces] of the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
While the elders of the family were still locked in fierce combat, the younger generation—Li Xinnian, Nangong Qingya, Su Chen, and Li Zhiheng—lacked the qualifications to participate in the battle to suppress an Integration cultivator.
Instead, they took it upon themselves to sweep the battlefield.
[Your descendant Li Xinnian asks you how Zhao Qingguang should be handled.]
Li Wei passed this difficult problem onto Li Zhiheng and the numerous people of the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
Li Qiukong, of Li Zhiheng's lineage, had died at the hands of the Zhao clan; therefore, only he was qualified to decide the fate of the last remaining member of the Zhao family.
...
"Cousin, your spirit tablet is glowing!"
As Li Zhiheng's spirit tablet lit up, Li Zhijing, who had come from the Northern Region, looked on with a face full of envy.
She touched the ancestral spirit tablet hanging around her neck and pouted.
"I want my spirit tablet to glow too; then I could take Father to pay his respects to the Old Ancestor."
Li Zhijing had never truly grasped just how powerful the Main Family was.
But during these three months of grueling warfare, the family had led the cultivators of the entire Azure Cloud Prefecture to crush the Zhao clan, revealing one trump card after another.
She had participated in the wars against the Demon Race in the Northern Region, but compared to the battle in the Immortal Domain, those conflicts could only be considered mere village skirmishes.
"Hehe, I belong to a great clan now. Forget about Northern Region City—I could even strut around the Imperial Capital unhindered, hmph!"
As she murmured this, she noticed that her cousin Zhiheng and the clansmen of the Immortal Martial lineage remained silent.
Li Zhijing scratched her head.
The people of the Immortal Martial lineage were different from those of her Demon Suppressing lineage; they were relatively reticent and never spoke nonsense.
If you asked them after a major battle where to find beast fighting arenas or stone gambling dens, they wouldn't know a thing—they only knew cultivation.
She immediately asked, "Cousin, what did the Old Ancestor say?"
"The Zhao clansman has been left for us to deal with."
Li Zhiheng led his clansmen toward Zhao Qingguang.
However, upon approaching, they saw Zhao Qingguang digging up chunks of solidified flesh and blood from the ground and carving the names of his clansmen onto them.
The members of the Immortal Martial lineage looked on with complicated expressions.
During this battle, the Immortal Martial lineage had been restricted to blocking the Zhao family at the periphery, but they generally understood what had transpired within the Immortal Domain.
They, too, had witnessed the scene of the Immortal Zhao Clan charging fearlessly toward the Zhao Clan Ancestor, disregarding death itself.
Seeming to sense the arrival of the Li family, Zhao Qingguang did not turn his head.
He continued silently carving the names of his clansmen onto the solidified chunks of blood.
His voice was as cold and desolate as the perennial wind of this region.
"That Heart was not a gift from the Heavens to the Old Ancestor; it was a curse.
Perhaps from the moment the Old Ancestor began devouring the Qi Luck of others, the cycle of karma had already been set in motion, and our clan was destined for this ending."
"In truth, every single one of us was greedy.
We enjoyed the Qi Luck that the Heart stole.
The Old Ancestor needed us to acquire the Qi Luck of others for him.
Eventually, the Great Demons came... but regrettably, that extermination of our clan was merely the beginning."
"The Old Ancestor believed he truly treated us as his kin, going to great lengths to resurrect us.
But the moment he tasted the flesh and blood of his descendants, he changed.
Or perhaps, he never considered descendants who had lost their souls to be true kin at all.
Our clansmen changed as well; they clearly could have killed the Old Ancestor, yet they tried every means to exploit him.
We, too, were divided."
The cold wind blew against everyone's faces.
Even Li Wei, sitting in front of his screen, felt a chill run down his spine.
Zhao Qingguang's expression was numb.
"You call them beasts, but have I not been one as well?
I knew long ago that they were already dead, yet I delayed telling them the truth, allowing the Old Ancestor to devour the flesh and blood of our kin.
They were clearly dead, yet I wavered in indecision.
I could have rescued the Old Ancestor long ago, but I was afraid—afraid that the Old Ancestor would eat me too.
So I could only stand by and allow them to seal the Old Ancestor away."
"My greed knows no bounds; such greed has long been etched into the very bloodline of my Zhao clan.
Li Zhiheng, I cannot control myself."
Clang!
To the side, Li Zhijing unsheathed her longsword.
The young woman furrowed her brows, but just as the sword was half-drawn, it was forced back down by Li Zhiheng.
Li Zhijing's dark brows knitted tightly. "Cousin, this man..."
Li Zhiheng shook his head.
"He wants to die.
The members of the Immortal Zhao Clan are all dead; he has completely lost the will to live.
Every minute and every second he remains alive is torture. Yet, he will not commit suicide.
Those Zhao clansmen sacrificed themselves one after another just to keep him alive.
If he were to dare seek death himself, that would be the true ultimate impiety."
Having said this, Li Zhiheng turned and led his clansmen away.
Seeing Li Zhiheng walk away, Zhao Qingguang turned around.
Gone was the numbness from a moment ago; tears streamed down his face as he roared,
"Kill me! Your family's Li Qiukong died at the hands of my clansmen—kill me and take your revenge! Kill me! Kill me..."
His shouts lost their strength, gradually becoming swallowed by the wind and snow.
The members of the Immortal Martial lineage remained silent.
Li Zhijing tugged at her cousin, her eyes wide as she glared.
"Cousin, what if he is faking it? I've seen it in the Northern Region; people from the outside are wicked—truly wicked. They can pretend to be anything just to survive."
"The people of the Azure Cloud Prefecture are all watching. To kill him now would be going back on our word, which would be of no benefit to the family's reputation."
Li Zhiheng smiled. "If, in the future, the Immortal Zhao Clan causes even the slightest calamity in this world, I, Li Zhiheng, shall personally exterminate them to the last."
Among the members of the Immortal Martial lineage, smiles broke out on everyone's faces.