Looking back, Weisheng had all of these things happened to him but they were so random he couldn’t have found any connection between them.
He was completely defeated by the one thing he was good at, now his mind and heart were now in chaos.
It was at that time Li Shen’s hand suddenly shot out and grabbed his face.
Weisheng immediately let out a guttural scream because of the pain coming from his head. It felt as if something was branding itself on his soul and his head feel like it was about to explode.
After a few seconds, Li Shen removed his hand and Weisheng fainted.
A small plum blossom engulfed in dark flames was seen on his forehead that soon slowly started to fade away.
Suddenly, a furious shout roared from above.
“Bastard!! Get away from my grandson?!”
The figure of an old man appeared above the west gate. He immediately teleported in front of Li Shen and grab for his throat. His hand in the shape of a hawk's talons caused the void to tremble.
He was fully intending on wringing his neck, and if it wasn't obvious enough his vicious expression should give it away.
But even with his hand approaching his throat and his body completely locked in place, Li Shen demeanor looked unperturbed.
Just before the old man’s hand reached him it suddenly froze.
Hovering between Weisheng’s brows all of a sudden was a metal pike.
The old man seeing this had his eyes flickered.
‘I heard about his strange Daoist Magic. But how can he still cast it when I locked the space around him. Was he not chanting the mantra behind his mask? Could he really be creating these weapons with a thought?’
The old man’s eye’s narrowed.
‘This child is too frightening. He even made Sheng’er use the jade slip I gave him.’
“Child I don’t care if the rumors are true that you are a member of the Mercenary Guild. If you harm my grandson there is nowhere on this continent you will be safe from me.”
Li Shen simply lowered the pike and the tip of it broke Weisheng's skin to draw blood.
The old man seeing this gritted his teeth before lowering his hand and releasing Li Shen.
Regaining movement, Li Shen opened his mouth and said.
“It was your grandson that was the first to poke his nose where it doesn’t belong. Elder of the Ming Clan or not, I’ll show you not a minuscule amount of face and kill him if he continues. That is my one and only warning.”
The old man’s eyes turn dark at that.
“To think I would live to see the day a Sea Expansion Realm Cultivator threatens me. What guts you have.”
However, the old man froze as another pike appeared above Weisheng’s heart.
Looking at Li Shen’s cold eyes behind the mask, the old man snorted before retrieving his Divine Will he had released immediately after appearing.
He then turned around and teleported a mile away from the city.
After, ten seconds he teleported back.
Li Shen was gone along with the metal pikes.
The old man's eyes glowed with anger and he immediately sent off his Divine Will to encompass the entire city.
However, he frowned.
He sensed three Qi Signatures heading in three different directions. Even as a Nascent Soul cultivator he couldn’t tell the difference between the real and fake Qi Signatures.
“Bastard! He even has the ability to make perfect Qi Clone replicas?!”
The old man was furious that someone from the younger generation had forced him to compromise. But looking at his grandson and checking his condition with his Divine Will, he sighed in relief.
After, he teleported away together with him.
However, several minutes later, the old man’s figure suddenly appeared back again.
His narrowed eyes scanned the area for a brief moment.
‘Was it my imagination?’
After a few seconds more, he teleported away.
An hour go by before the ground in that area opened up.
Li Shen’s figure rose from the hole using a dirt mount.
Stepping off it he look up in the sky and said.
“Nascent Realm cultivators' senses are indeed terrifying. I used the Earth Laws to coat my body to completely erase any presence of me but he still sensed something.”
However, after saying that, Li Shen smiled behind his mask.
“But I now confirmed it. The plum blossom is undetectable, at least by Nascent Soul Realm cultivators.”
Li Shen had been fooling around with his Seven Sins Plum Blossoms these past years and with the Cardinal Sins Manipulation Art, he finally found a use for it.
“Now I have an important chess piece in the Ming Clan. It should come in handy in the future if Ghuanyu decides to escalate things.”
Over the years, the Ming Clan hadn’t made any move. Well, none in the open.
That was mostly because of the Demonic Cult.
After the disappearance of the Hidden Fragmented Realm, a crisis had befallen them.
They had recruited disciples in mass in preparation to have disciples who were going to die in the Hidden Fragmented Realm replaced. But now that it was a no-show, their resources have stretched thin with so many disciples.
As a result, more and more Demonic Cult disciples surface to pillage small sects, academies, and clans to make up for it. This had plunged the Continent into a chaotic battlefield.
Nothing major had happened like the Righteous Faction and the Demonic Cult Faction going into an all-out war, only small-scale conflicts reserved for the Foundation Realm and Core Formation Realm disciples of each side.
For some reason, Li Shen had a feeling the higher-ups on both sides have silently come to an agreement to make this a tempering opportunity for their disciples.
Well, that was mostly for the Righteous Faction. The Demonic Cult was just using this situation to cut down on the number of disciples they have. Weeding out the shrubs to make the seedlings bloom.
It was then that Li Shen decided to go down this path. In this chaos, he’ll develop his power under the surface. He just dealt with a major obstacle that would have been a stump in his path to achieving that.
Weisheng was a genius in his own right. If he was aware of another existence like him it would have been difficult to near impossible to get rid of him.
“Hm, luckily he had the weakness of not having a presence in the outside world. One can strive to become someone like that behind the scenes, but his method was flawed. The right way was to be in the eye of the storm to get a better view of the chaos, not on the outside observing things from the sidelines.”
“What exactly happened here? The City Lord just suddenly ordered everyone to leave the city, how strange.”
Li Shen coming out of his thoughts, he saw people entering the west gate and quickly rose into the air.
On a mountain just outside the Celestial Academy, Lihua could be seen.
Looking up in the sky, along with a sun appearing over the horizon, she saw Li Shen’s figure fast approaching.
When he landed in front of her a frown appeared on her face.
“What were you thinking about staying behind? He could have discovered you if you weren’t careful!”
Li Shen took off his blood-splattered mask and handed it to Lihua.
He didn’t question how Lihua knew that, and instead said nonchalantly.
“I wanted to see if he could sense the plum blossom. I couldn’t do it without being close to him when he examined Weisheng. For all I know, he could pretend not to sense it.”
Lihua was still frowning but she knew what he said made sense.
After taking off his mask Li Shen began to undress his clothes, leaving him in his underwear.
Handing it to Lihua with a smile, he then said.
“I need another one again, this one’s no good.”
Lihua simply rolled her eyes at that.
Her relationship with Li Shen had gotten to the point where it was different from Fang Chen, Fei Yin, and the rest.
She was more of an assistant to him while they were more like subordinates. To put it in metaphoric terms, she was a support-type weapon, while the others were swords and sabers he could call upon to battle.
Though what link them all was their genuine friendship with each other. Well, except for two idiots.
A result of this relationship with him was that she became desensitized to a lot of things he did or say.
Like this for example. He didn’t even hesitate to remove his clothes in front of her.
His perfectly carved muscles and abs were on display, but she was completely indifferent to this situation that would have led to most women fawning over him.
After taking out some clothes from his storage ring and putting them on, but not before his height of about nearly six foot also shrunk to a size of 5'4, 5'7.
Li Shen blinked his eyes a few times until his red pupils returned to their golden color.
As for his black hair, he conjured a blob of water around his head to wash out the black dye. It took a few vigorous swirls but it still came out.
He had went to great lengths to keep his identity as the Faceless Hero a secret.
After that, he turned to a small platform nearby that had three high-grade spirit stones placed in strategic positions.
Both he and Lihua stood on it and weaved a few hand-seals only known to few. The platform lit up before teleportation fluctuations appeared around them. They then disappeared soon after.
In a separate section in their courtyard on the Sword Pavilion mountain, rune teleportation light shone in a hall and they appeared.
They completely bypassed the Celestial Academy’s Grand Formation, which was totally forbidden I might add.
Stepping off the platform, Li Shen asked Lihua.
“Have you found out how those spies entered our Faction yet?”
Lihua nodded and went to say something, but a yell suddenly echoed outside.
“BASTARD JUN!! How many times have I said to not use that ability of yours on me?!! Come-on come-on spit it out, how many times?!”
Li Shen smiled upon hearing, and he hurriedly went outside.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦