The person who had reported them was none other than Rong Yueshan, who had been stealthily observing Yun Ruoyan’s group from the crowd.

“Yun Ruoyan, don’t you dare hide!” Rong Yueshan squeezed past a group of cultivators and made her way to Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo, then pointed at them.

Pi Yang’s eyes lit up. “Where are they? Where’s Yun Ruoyan?”

The other cultivators immediately stepped aside, clearing out a circle around them. However, except for Rong Yueshan and a few other students from the northern college, the remaining students of Kongming Academy rapidly pushed past the other cultivators and gathered by Li Mo’s side. 

“Yun Ruoyan, you really are here! Come out and let me take a good look at you!”

“Damn it, we should have dug out his eyes back then,” Yun Ruoyan cursed. She tried to step out from behind Li Mo, but he held her tightly. 

“Hey, you, dark robe!” Pi Yang could see Li Mo holding Yun Ruoyan back. “Do you dare challenge my family’s warriors?”

“What if I do, and what if I don’t?” Li Mo replied coolly.

Pi Yang sneered. “Regardless of the outcome, you’ll be beaten half to death, then enslaved in the Pi family.”

“Kid, aren’t you forgetting something? You were equally arrogant when we first met, and it was 

you

 who suffered a thrashing at my hands.”

“You!” Pi Yang pointed at Li Mo, his face furious. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten at all! I’ll get back what you owe me, with interest!”

“Oh?” Li Mo raised a brow. “By yourself? Or are you going to get your dogs to do it for you?”

Li Mo was trying to infuriate Pi Yang in order to shift his attention from Yun Ruoyan to himself. Pi Yang had suffered quite a great deal at Li Mo’s hands, and he did want to challenge Li Mo by himself, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to beat the man just yet. Instead, he could only stare at him angrily.

“Yan’er,” Li Mo whispered to her mentally. “I’ll bring you out with me, then find an opportunity to crack the barrier open. Fly off on my sword.”

“And what about you?” Yun Ruoyan grabbed Li Mo’s robe tightly.

“I can feel where my sword is. When I’m free, I’ll go find you.”

“And how about Qingchen and Senior Sister Guan?” Yun Ruoyan was very confident in Li Mo. She firmly believed that, once she wasn’t around to burden him, Li Mo would be able to escape on his own—but what about Lin Qingchen, Guan Ruliu, and the still-poisoned Zong Yang?

“We’re the only two who have fought with the Pi family before. If we stay here, we might even implicate them,” Li Mo responded. “On the other hand, if we can escape, we can try to save them.”

“Alright,” she finally agreed.

Li Mo relaxed, then continued questioning Pi Yang. “Well? Have you decided how you’re going to collect this debt?”

“Young Master Pi, one of these groundhogs is challenging you. Do you dare accept?” Young Master Feng asked, smiling.

“At least give him a response! Even if you don’t dare, no one could force the second young master of the Pi family to do anything, right?” the Zheng scion added.

Although the young miss of the Chen family didn’t say anything, her expression was clearly one of derision.

“What a bold groundhog!” Just as Pi Yang’s face was turning red, the middle-aged man stepped out and began scolding Li Mo. “Do you, a lowly groundhog, really think that you’re fit to duel with my Young Master Pi? Dream on!”

“That’s not for a dog like you to decide,” Li Mo replied. “If your young master doesn’t dare to fight, then send a few dogs over.” He began walking out of the pillar of light along with Yun Ruoyan.

“Sister Ruoyan!” Lin Qingchen caught Yun Ruoyan’s sleeve and began following behind them. She had seen the horrendous treatment of the fatty and Xue Ji at the outworlders’ hands, and she couldn’t help being worried for Yun Ruoyan. After all, she still hadn’t recovered her eighth-rank cultivation and couldn’t even summon a spiritual membrane to protect herself.

“Qingchen, find Qingxue and Zhuo Yifeng. We’ll come back to save you,” Yun Ruoyan whispered in her ear.

Lin Qingchen immediately understood Yun Ruoyan’s meaning, let go of her sleeve, and watched hopefully as Li Mo stepped out of the pillar of light with her. Yun Ruoyan glanced all around her as she stepped through the light. The boundary of the pillar was at times as hard as steel and at times immaterial, and there had to be someone controlling the mirror emitting the light. Despite looking all around, Yun Ruoyan couldn’t find that controller.

“Yun Ruoyan, long time no see!” Pi Yang smiled and walked closer to her.

Yun Ruoyan stared back coldly. “I wish I had never encountered you.”

Pi Yang clearly anticipated this sort of response, so he wasn’t mad. “If you agree to join the Pi clan, I’ll save you from injury and humiliation during this trial, then protect you afterwards.”

“Thank you for your intentions, but I decline!” Yun Ruoyan turned away and refused to face him any longer.

Pi Yang sighed. “You took care of me in my time of need, so I won’t make things hard for you. On the other hand, that Mo fellow will have to be punished.”

“Well? I’m waiting right here for you!” Li Mo continued to provoke Pi Yang. “Show me what kind of dogs your family breeds!”

“You punk!” Pi Yan, who had clearly demonstrated a tendency for violence and brashness, was the first to respond, but the other swordsmen guarding the slaves also seemed to be itching for a fight.

“Brother Zhuo, I don’t think Sister Ruoyan and the Slaughtering King can recognize us like this.” By this time, Lin Qingxue had turned her face drab and gray by liberally applying mud and dirt to her face. Zhuo Yifeng had consumed a pill he had on hand, stemming his bleeding, and had likewise covered up his face with dirt.

“Better if they don’t. They’re in some trouble of their own, and we can’t keep dragging them down,” Zhuo Yifeng whispered back. He stooped down amidst the slaves and kept his gaze firmly planted on the ground.

One of the swordsmen, Pi Li, used water-attuned techniques. He froze a layer of ice on top of Pi Yan’s wound, temporarily sealing the injury. Pi Yan stood up and brandished a fist at Li Mo.

Li Mo had carefully hidden his cultivation ever since he saw Pi Yan thrashing Xue Ji to within an inch of her life. As a result, none of those gathered, even the sword saints if there were any, would be able to detect the true depths of Li Mo’s cultivation without concerted effort. In that case, he would have a chance to win the upcoming battle.

He situated Yun Ruoyan right against the pillar, then curled a finger toward Pi Yan. It was a gesture that transcended realms, used to beckon a dog over.

“Pi Yan, you’re no match for him!” By the time Pi Yang spoke, however, it was already too late. He had intended for all the guards to attack Li Mo at once, but after Li Mo’s provocation, he couldn’t find a good way of doing so without losing face. In the meantime, Pi Yan had grown so incensed that he was leaping toward Li Mo on his own.

His two hands glowed brightly in gold, transforming his fingers into claws. One claw slashed at Li Mo’s heart, and the other at his neck. Li Mo swept an arm toward Pi Yan, shooting out dozens of icicles at once. As they struck Pi Yan, his entire body glowed in the same golden light, as though he had become wholly invulnerable to physical attacks.

Although the icicles didn’t hurt Pi Yan, they did slightly slow down his charge.

Pi Yan smirked. “And here I thought you would be strong, but you only have the offense of an early ninth-rank blademaster!”

Pi Yang frowned. “Pi Yan, don’t get complacent.”

However, Pi Yan’s prideful and arrogant nature meant that he paid no attention to anyone else’s remarks, even his supposed master’s. When he next attacked Li Mo, he sacrificed his defense and focused on attack, confident that his armor would be more than sufficient against a weakling like Li Mo.

Pi Yan’s claws seized Li Mo’s chest and neck, but he suddenly discovered that Li Mo’s body seemed to be even tougher than Xue Ji’s crystalline knives. Even with his golden claws at full power, he was unable to scratch the surface of Li Mo’s skin.

Except for Li Mo, no one knew that his entire body had been encased in a thin layer of transparent ice, almost impossible to detect with the naked eye. This was a sign that Li Mo had broken through to a second-rank sword saint.

As a first-rank sword saint, Li Mo had been able to freely manifest spiritual energy outside his body. As a second-rank, he was able to compress and multiply the effect of this manifestation. Ever since Li Mo had begun dual cultivation with Yun Ruoyan, his innate spiritual energy had only become more and more refined in quality.

In the few days that he spent treating Yun Ruoyan after her grave injury using the dual cultivation technique, Li Mo had used up almost all his spiritual energy. The dual cultivation technique worked on a system of banked power, which would be released all at once upon facing an overwhelming crisis. It was this explosion of spiritual energy that had suddenly brought Li Mo from a first-rank to second-rank sword saint...

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