“Master!”
Lady Ying seeing this person yelled in surprise.
Li Shen observe this old woman he had recognized as the one who was responsible for delivering him. But until now this is the first time he saw her since then.
“Academy Leader!”
Li Xue, Li Shen's uncle yelled as well.
‘Huh? Academy Leader?'
Li Shen was taken aback by that.
'She’s the former Academy Leader of the Divine Star Academy?’
The former Academy Leader looked to be in her sixties and she wore simple light blue robes. Her head was filled with gray hair and despite looking like an old woman if one had sharp senses they would realize she looked... absolutely ordinary.
She seemed to have no power whatsoever, even looking like a normal mortal. However, her hand on Ghuanyu’s blade said otherwise.
Seeing the appearance of this old woman Ghuanyu’s eyes flickered with surprise.
“Are you done scouting our strength?”
Her voice softly echoed out into Ghanyu's ears and he frowned.
Li Shen heard it as well as most others and he thought.
‘Scouting? Was all of Ghuanyu’s actions till now scouting our Clan’s strength?’
Ghuanyu took back his saber and step back while saying.
“The goddess Li Mei, I never thought someone of your status was still here.”
“Oh, I can’t tell when last I heard that name of mine. They gave it to me back when I was in my prime.”
Li Mei smiled a wrinkled smile.
“But, to think that little boy I showed mercy to in the Ming Clan from back then would bare his fangs towards my Li Clan now. How the heavens work in mysterious ways.”
Li Mei shook her head as she said that.
Ghuanyu frown deepen at her words as he said.
“On the Emperor’s orders, you and your brother massacred my generation leaving me alive. The only reason I survived was that I didn’t have the Blade God’s Bloodline, not your so-called mercy.”
“But I see now you do have a portion of it. You must have been working hard in secret all this time.”
Li Mei then turned and glance at the crowd, her gaze stopping on Shiming.
“And I see the fruits of your labor are blooming.”
Ghuanyu's eyes grew cold to the extreme and he growled out.
“Touch him and I will make the Li Clan regret it.”
The saber in his hand released a strange aura that caused the saber mark on Li Mei's hand to burn slightly.
Li Mei's eyes flicker at this before she erased the strange aura on her palm.
Then shaking her head at Ghuanyu she asked.
“Why have you come here? What is your Goal? The throne means nothing to our families given how different our backgrounds are now. Are you doing this for revenge? To reclaim the Ming Clan’s honor? What do you want?”
Ghuanyu smiled mysteriously and said.
“I want everything.”
“Everything you took from me I want it all back. You people from the Li Clan don’t deserve anything in this world, neither your bloodline, your status, your reputation…”
Ghuanyu’s cold gaze then turned to land on Fu Wei before finishing.
“And your talented members. I swear on my Ancestors that one day the Li Clan will suffer the same fate they dealt to us.”
Li Mei looked at Ghuanyu and a younger image of him cowering in fear in front of her appeared in her mind.
‘It is my fault for being kind-hearted back then.’
“I should have finished what I started.”
Hearing Li Mei mutters Ghuanyu’s expression turned frosty.
“And that will be your biggest mistake.”
Turning to the crowd Ghuanyu yelled.
“SEE!!”
“The Li Clan wouldn’t bat an eye while exterminating an entire generation of your organizations if it meant they would remain in power!!”
Ghuanyu's voice then turn to the ceiling as if he could see to the outside world before he continued.
“Leaders of your respectful powers, you all have been silently watching the events until now. Tell me, if I were to build my Academy and share my method of Cultivation with all of you, do you think the Li Clan would stand idle by as your power increases?”
Everyone was surprised by Ghuanyu’s words and all looked to the entrance to see someone entering.
It was a lone Sun Wu Fen but he was then followed by the other Clan Leaders of the Major Clans. Even Academy Patriarchs and Noble Family Heads were recognizable as well shocking everyone to the core.
These people held power that was on the top of the hierarchy of the Maple Continent. All of them in this one room cause the atmosphere to become stifling for everyone.
“Ghuanyu, enough of this farce. Why start a conflict that would only end in meaningless deaths and destruction?!”
Sun Wu Fen immediately went against Ghuanyu.
Ghuanyu only stared at him indifferently.
One thing that should be mentioned is that the only people in this room that knows about the origins of the Ming Clan and the Li Clan were Ghuanyu himself, as well as Lu Shin, Lu Feng, and Lu Yue.
The secrets of the Great Ancestral Clans had been kept a secret from the public, and the only thing that was known was that the Li Clan has a strange bloodline, while the Ming Clan once had one but had declined and lost it. That was all the Clan Leaders knew.
Up to this point, most people in this crowd would think the Ming Clan was going against the Li Clan to regain the throne. But for Li Shen and others in the know, that was only one of the reasons.
‘Father said that the Ming Clan and us discovered the bloodline tombs at the same time. Being that we were on the same Continent constant strife happened between us until we come to eventually overpower them and took away their bloodline. Father didn’t say it outright but he hinted that we couldn’t completely defeat them because they had their Founding Treasure.’
‘The Blade God’s Saber.’
Li Shen looked at the saber in Ghuanyu’s hands and his eyes narrowed.
Until this moment Ghuanyu and the Li Clan showed their hands several times.
If one knew the history between them and was paying close attention they would spot these show of hands clearly.
The first was when Ghuanyu revealed his knowledge about Li Shu’s departure. He had manipulated Bai Zhou back in the Bai Clan to attack Li Shen to make Li Shu act. It was there he obtain a portion of Li Shu's power and determined his cultivation level. After which he began using Li Shen's actions to ruin the reputation of the Li Clan.
But Li Shu confronted this by revealing a projection of his Heavenly Palace that he used to suppress the Bai Clan.
However, Ghuanyu reveal the Ming Clan’s Founding Treasure and broke apart his Heavenly Palace projection. In response, Li Mei reveal herself, which was Ghuanyu’s intention all along to determine the strength of the Li Clan.
It had reached a stalemate between them with Ghuanyu now calling out the Leaders of the various organizations to gain the upper hand.
“Greetings to the Emperor and goddess Li Mei.”
Sun Wu Fen along with Bai Luo and Zhong Hua as well as all the Noble Family Leaders greeted Li Shu and Li Mei, but the other Clan Leaders and most of the Academy Elders didn’t.
This was telling.
Li Mei looked at all these leaders of their respective powers and said.
“I guess you all came here wanting to know my Li Clan’s stance. We will not interfere with your dealings with the Ming Academy, and we will not start a war unless we feel threatened.”
“However…”
Li Mei turned away from the Clan Alliance and the Academy Alliance to look at the Noble Family Leaders who had come as well.
“To all of you who are loyal to the Crown, if any of you who decides to cultivate using th Ming Academy’s method will be stripped of their title and be executed on the spot.”
A cold chill immediately went down everyone’s spines upon hearing her declaration.
Li Shen looked at Li Mei and recalled some records of past events that were known about her.
She once had the title of the most beautiful woman on the Maple Continent as well as a genius within the top three in her generation. However, there was another moniker she goes by that few on the Maple Continent knew about but all her enemies know, that moniker was the Blood Soaked Empress.
The Noble Leaders all shivered in fear and thoughts of increasing their family's strength by allying with Ghuanyu was buried.
“Goddess Li Mei, there is still the matter of our young ones being injured by that Second Prince. Surely you won’t overlook this matter? I think compensation is in order.”
Li Mei thought for a moment and looked at the other to see if they share the same sentiments.
She was about to speak, but Li Shen suddenly spoke up.
“Why the need to compensate?”
All eyes turned to him, but Li Shen only stepped forwards calmly.
“I will accept any challenges issued by those I’ve hurt. But if any of them think they have a chance of beating me to satisfy their anger the odds of that happening is low to the point it’s nonexistent.”
Hearing such boastful words, a few youths in the crowd snorted and gave derisive looks towards him.
What was this trashy prince saying?
Has he become more of an idiot to have this sudden sense of inflated ego?
Li Shen accepted these stares but soon they’ll change to something completely different.
He had decided moments ago.
He was done being viewed as trash. Though not that he cared about others’ opinions of him but Ghuanyu using him to attack his father and family didn’t sit well with him.
As long as he had the title of a worthless prince he would forever drag down the reputation of his Li Clan.
However, right here and now he was going to put on a performance that would engrave itself into their minds.
He wasn’t afraid of showing some of his talents here, Ghuanyu had already shown his hatred for his Clan.
He was going to show him that going against the Li Clan wouldn’t be so simple. All of his plans only account for his brother’s talents, but his own was kept hidden until now.
Revealing it here would cause Ghuanyu to scrap everything he had up his sleeves until to deal with the new variable.
Any blow to him was worth it but Li Shen was going to make it as big as he could.
Li Mei saw the glimmering in Li Shen eyes and she smile approvingly.
“What would that achieve? You overestimate your value boy, stand back and don’t but into adults' conversations.”
Ghuanyu said to Li Shen with a completely dismissive attitude.
Li Shen looked at him and calmly responded.
“Up until now you have taken the moral high ground while insulting my Clan, but what about your Ming Clan?”
“Didn’t you send three Sea Expansion Realm Cultivators and even a Nascent Realm Elder to assassinate my disciple Yang Su?”
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