The old Li family loved blockading doors.
The grand array in front of Jade Mist Valley exuded a majestic Dao rhythm.
Within the grand array, the cultivators of Jade Mist Valley stood in strict formation, ready for battle.
From within, the rule-based power of numerous experts emanated, resembling a mountain wildfire; the stifling silence hung in the air, as suffocating as breathing in volcanic ash.
Today, Li Yaotie was walking on the absolute frontline of fashion.
His massive iron hammer was planted head-down, handle up, though it tilted slightly because he had smashed it down at an angle.
This iron hammer was no more than three hundred meters from the mountain gates of Jade Mist Valley.
Shirtless and seated on the bare earth, Li Yaotie leaned his broad back against the hammer.
He rested with his arms crossed over his chest, the motion bunching his thick, iron-like muscles together.
His bald head gleamed with a cold luster under the distant reflection of the Blood Moon.
Streak after streak of probing auras washed over him from within Jade Mist Valley.
Li Yaotie was using this method to tell Jade Mist Valley: he had arrived.
If they knew what was good for them, they would obediently remain inside and thoroughly execute the demands Zhiheng had spread across Grandhaven Prefecture.
Otherwise, even the most exquisite materials among them would be hammered into useless scrap metal by his own two hands.
There was a bizarre harmony between the two sides. There were no so-called harsh words, only naked threats.
"I reckon they won't eradicate the Peerless Hall. They've made up their minds to fight us to the bitter end."
Li Yaotie shrugged. Upon first arriving, he had shouted that as long as the people inside behaved, he would gift them an autographed, personally forged supreme-grade artifact.
Unfortunately, these people didn't give him, Old Tie, any face, and even spat at him. If he were younger, he would have absolutely cursed them out a few times.
Just as he was thinking this...
He suddenly heard a majestic, reprimanding voice echoing from afar:
"Since Jade Mist Valley consists of Human Race cultivators, why fight over immortals and associate yourselves with the Dao Seeds of the Blood Moon?
A single misstep breeds a lifetime of ruin. Turn back to the shore now, and you shall live to see the spring of next year."
In the cloudy sky was a short, black-robed old man holding a whisk.
With a flick of the old man's left sleeve, solid muscles and sinews were revealed.
He stood atop a flying sword, with a Buddhist bell hovering behind him—what an utter hodgepodge.
"..."
It was the Martial Emperor's Martial Dao avatar.
Li Yaotie exhaled a long breath.
Before he left home, his wife had told him that he was now a century-old Body Integration expert, and needed to bear the demeanor of a transcendent master.
Li Yaotie had always felt he was easygoing, but seeing the Martial Emperor—who had only just entered Body Integration—so eager to show off, hanging all sorts of bizarre things on his body just to put on airs, he suddenly felt that he actually possessed quite a bit of a transcendent master's demeanor.
Soon after, he rolled his eyes, closed them, and waited quietly, muttering to himself, "Senior Martial Emperor is still too young. True experts never speak."
...
Li Yaotie oversaw the south; the Martial Emperor oversaw the west.
When a breeze blew through the air, the bristles of the whisk fluttered onto the Martial Emperor's nose.
He shook his head to suppress the itch on his nose, then looked calmly at Jade Mist Valley.
Then, his white hair blew into his eyes.
In slow motion, he moved the whisk behind his back, adopting a posture with his hands clasped behind him, and put the whisk he had borrowed from Li Yunlin back into his spatial ring.
"Everyone, the shore of salvation lies right behind you. Please, turn back."
Following his previous reprimand, Jade Mist Valley remained as silent as a graveyard.
He had no choice but to call out again, yet after a long while, there was still no response.
Just as he was about to continue reprimanding, he suddenly heard an impatient female voice transmission: "Stop yelling, you old geezer. Do you really think they're going to pay attention to you?"
The Martial Emperor remained silent for a long time.
Answering a completely different question, he stated, "I am at the Body Integration realm."
Directly opposite, on the other side of Jade Mist Valley, Huan Gui was leaning against a tree.
Hearing this ostentatious answer, her facial muscles, which were as pale as paper, twitched. "Go on."
The Martial Emperor stopped yelling.
He frowned; to his left was Sword Venerable Drizzle in the cloudy sky, and to his right was Li Yaotie leaning against his iron hammer.
This kid Li Yaotie was too casual and clearly lacked the demeanor of an expert. As for Sword Venerable Drizzle... they weren't very familiar.
He glanced at Jade Mist Valley and transmitted his voice to Huan Gui ahead, whom he had spoken a couple of words to and was somewhat familiar with.
"If there really is an immortal inside, I've seen one before."
That massive heart.
If the Zhao Clan, from top to bottom, hadn't been united in exhausting the already weakened Zhao Clan Old Ancestor's Spiritual power, they would have suffered heavy losses that time.
And in Grandhaven Prefecture, there was actually a true immortal.
"You've seen one?" A trace of vigilance flashed across Huan Gui's beautiful face, and the indescribable form of Taotie surfaced in her mind.
"Fought it for a long time." The Martial Emperor's expression was heavy. "There are more here. I'm telling you in advance, lest you get scared and flee mid-battle."
To the north, Sword Venerable Drizzle also heard the voice transmission.
Reaching out to catch the light drizzle falling from the cloudy sky, he said,
"Senior may probe this fairy, but there is no need to probe me. Traveling all the way here from the Sword Pavilion to repay a debt of equal weight is a supreme principle of heaven and earth within my heart."
"You're not afraid of death?" The Martial Emperor was taken aback, and even Huan Gui was somewhat surprised.
When she first laid eyes on Taotie, even she—a woman who spent her days toying with corpses—had felt an absolute, bone-deep terror.
It wasn't until a child tore its way out from that hideous mass of flesh that she felt the last lingering shred of pity left in her cold heart.
"If I am truly fated to fall here, it simply means this junior failed to grasp the pinnacle of his Dao."
Sword Venerable Drizzle laughed freely.
"For us cultivators, gratitude and grudges are resolved in a single thought. We arrive open and aboveboard, and we leave open and aboveboard.
Those who cower in fear ought to shave their heads and become monks, or resort to despicable hidden weapons. How could such cowards be worthy of wielding a sword?"
"..."
Hidden in the shadows outside the encirclement of the four Body Integration experts of Jade Mist Valley, several old faces turned pitch black.
Sword Venerable Drizzle smiled. "If this is a matter of life and death, why did you two come?"
Hearing this, Huan Gui furrowed her elegant brows tightly.
She knew Sword Venerable Drizzle wanted to know their bottom line, so they could entrust their backs to each other during battle.
She hesitated for a moment before saying, "My younger brother is very safe in Azure Cloud Prefecture."
"The fairy is exceedingly beautiful; I can trust the fairy."
Sword Venerable Drizzle smiled faintly. He could see Huan Gui's hesitation and inner struggle. More often than not, this was exactly what it looked like when someone clung fiercely to their bottom line.
Then, he looked at the Martial Emperor.
He had personally witnessed this man forge his Dao. To break through the Heavenly Dao using pure martial arts was a near-impossible feat; this senior could not be underestimated.
The Martial Emperor said without hesitation, "I am at the Body Integration realm. What is there to fear?"
Sword Venerable Drizzle shook his head. "Is it difficult for Senior to speak of?"
At these words, the Martial Emperor fell silent for a long time, then let out a melodious sigh.
"I had prepared to enjoy my twilight years in peace, tending to simple things. That boy Yuanshang was already making arrangements to provide for this old man's retirement."
"But I foolishly forgot about a certain stubborn mule I met. He asked, so I taught him. And whatever madness I taught him, he actually dared to learn."
"I truly didn't lie to him. That was a Dao I pursued my entire life but could never achieve.
Consequently, elevating martial arts into Dao techniques became my absolute dead end. I believed I would never break through in my lifetime, left only to wait for death."
"But the heavens love to play tricks on mortals. I was born with extraordinary aptitude, yet they denied me the comprehension and perseverance required to anchor a singular heart."
"Meanwhile, the boy I casually instructed possessed terrifying comprehension, yet his innate aptitude was tragically abysmal.
He paid a hundred times the effort and endured a hundred times the agony of ordinary men."
The Martial Emperor took a slow, deep breath.
"Fate is just like that. Had the two of us never crossed paths, we would merely be two parallel lines extending infinitely into the void without intersection.
Fate is also a cruel, blind beggar. I walked alongside it for a long time, and forced to choose the tallest among dwarfs, it finally chose me."
"So Senior is repaying a debt, acting in accordance with heavenly principles. Very well."
Sword Venerable Drizzle finally felt reassured.
"I am merely finishing the task the original master of this Great Dao should have completed."
Resting beneath the iron hammer, Li Yaotie slightly raised his left eyelid.
He had to somewhat admit that this old wretch, being older, did have a bit of a transcendent master's demeanor...
"And moreover, I am at the Body Integration realm."
Motherfucker, you ostentatious old geezer.