A Will Eternal

After Master Cloud-Dao left, Li Yuansheng went back into his immortal's cave, his face ashen and yet green with fury. Blood still smeared his lips as he balled his hands into fists and growled, “Bai Xiaochun is nothing more than a hostage from a Middle Reaches sect. The River-Defying Sect is still unstable, and doesn't even have a Deva Realm cultivator yet. They could be destroyed at any moment. How could a hostage like that have anybody powerful supporting them?”

Li Yuansheng gritted his teeth and contemplated giving up on the matter. However, that seemed too bitter of a pill to swallow, especially when he thought back to the humiliation he had endured in Sky City. It only took a moment for him to lose his cool immediately. Eyes flickering with cold light, he thought, “It must have just been a coincidence. Hallmaster Feng must have had a beef with Eccentric Earthvile. There’s no way that Bai Xiaochun can have somebody that powerful watching out for him!

“Since Master Cloud-Dao won’t help me, I guess I’ll have to handle things myself. This time, I’ll make sure Bai Xiaochun knows the height of the heavens and the breadth of the earth!” Li Yuansheng pulled out a jade slip, thought for a moment, and then decided that he would call upon the resources of his clan….

A few days later, Li Yuansheng emerged from his immortal's cave, a grim expression on his face as he headed straight for the teleportation portal that led down to Sky Quarter Rainbow. His destination: the desert, and Bai Xiaochun’s tavern.

**

Now that Big Fatty Zhang and the other Dao protectors had been promoted, Xu Baocai was the only one who remained to lead the rest of the Azure Dragon Society. For the most part, he just watched the merit points rolling in, and enjoyed a comfortable life.

“Ah, this is the life. I can have anything I want at the snap of a finger. Even the junior patriarch and all of them up in the rainbow district are probably jealous of me.” He was currently laying on his belly, enjoying a full body massage being performed by eight maidservants. The feeling of their warm, dainty hands caused a wide smile to spread out across his face. He even reached his arm around the waist of one of the beautiful maid servants and pulled her close.

“You’ll be keeping me warm tonight,” he said, smiling so broadly his eyes became nothing but slits.

The maidservant flushed and said, “Lord Baocai, you....”

Xu Baocai laughed heartily. Heart burning with passion, he was about to roll over when, all of a sudden, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering noise filled his ears. In the blink of an eye, everything began shaking violently, and the roof of the tavern shuddered as if it were about to be torn off.

Instantly, numerous agonized shrieks rang out, and the entire tavern began to collapse into rubble. Screaming, Xu Baocai scrambled to safety, heart pounding with rage. Just when he was about to cry out some orders, he looked up and saw the yellow-robed Li Yuansheng floating up above in the air.

“You have the time it takes an incense stick to burn to get in touch with Bai Xiaochun and tell him to get the hell down here. If he doesn’t show up in time, then I’ll rip that property-bestowal flag right out of the ground!!” With that, Li Yuansheng waved his right hand, sending a sea of flames down to engulf the remnants of the tavern.

As the tavern began to burn, a little flag was revealed, which was none other than the flag Bai Xiaochun had received, granting him the right to personal property in Sky City.

Xu Baocai looked around with bloodshot eyes at the ruins around him, and the wailing cultivators of the Azure Dragon Society. Obviously, Li Yuansheng was trying to goad Bai Xiaochun out into the open, but at the moment, Xu Baocai couldn’t think of anything else to do other than make contact with him.

Without any hesitation, he pulled out a jade slip to send a message.

Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun was in his immortal's cave on Sky Quarter Rainbow, consuming the medicinal pills Feng Youde had given him and reveling in the feeling of his cultivation base rising. After performing some breathing exercises, he expelled some impure vital energy from his mouth, and then prepared to continue with his cultivation.

He had taken the time to contemplate the events which had played out on the Eternalflux Continent on a few occasions, but still couldn’t make heads or tails of them. No matter how many explanations he came up with, none of them made much sense.

“First there was that incident with the Sky Quarter peak lord, and then Feng Youde’s sudden change in attitude. What’s going on here? Should I take the initiative to do a little investigating of my own?” Even as he was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, his expression flickered, and he pulled a jade slip out of his bag of holding. As soon as he sent some divine sense into it, he heard Xu Baocai wailing,

“Save us, Junior Patriarch.... Li Yuansheng is here, he burned the tavern to the ground! Lots of brothers of the Azure Dragon Society are injured....

“He said to tell you that you have the time it takes an incense stick to burn to get down here or else he’ll take the property-bestowal flag! What do we do, Junior Patriarch...?”

As soon as Bai Xiaochun heard this, he gasped, and his anger began to burn. “You want my flag? That’s my personal property!! You burned my tavern to the ground? Li Yuansheng, ah, Li Yuansheng. I still haven’t settled accounts for the last time you plotted against me in secret, and now you try to bully me out in the open!?”

Bai Xiaochun was completely incensed. Xu Baocai had been bullied, the tavern had been destroyed, and his property-bestowal flag was being threatened. There was no other option for Bai Xiaochun than to shoot to his feet.

“You want me down in Sky City, huh? Not convenient to make a move against me on Sky Quarter Rainbow? Alright, that’s exactly what I wanted anyway!” Hanging his Hall of Devil Slayers identity medallion around his neck to make sure he had no problems getting down to the city, he flew out of his immortal's cave.

“Let’s go see if Li Yuansheng will dare to make a move against me when I go as a representative of the Hall of Devil Slayers! Will he dare to disrespect the hall?!” Seething with anger, he rushed over to the teleportation portal. Just before teleporting down, though, he hesitated for a moment, and then sent a quick message to Hallmaster Feng Youde. He felt much better after that, and quickly teleported down and shot toward the west district, and the desert.

Even from a distance, he could see the large crowd of cultivators gathered to look at the black smoke rising up into the air from the rubble that used to be his tavern.

Then he saw Xu Baocai and the other Azure Dragon Society cultivators huddled off to the side, ashen-faced and bleeding, and Li Yuansheng hovering in the air amidst a sea of flames, right above Bai Xiaochun’s flag of property bestowal.

“Li Yuansheng,” Bai Xiaochun roared, “how dare you threaten that flag of mine!” With that, he shot into the air toward Li Yuansheng, simultaneously sending frigid qi roiling out to quench the flames of the burning tavern.

As soon as Li Yuansheng looked up and saw Bai Xiaochun, a cold smile twisted his face, and he waved his finger. In response, the air around Bai Xiaochun twisted and distorted, and numerous pulses of astonishing energy erupted out. At the same time, four figures stepped out of thin air.

Bai Xiaochun’s face fell, and he stopped in place, causing the frigid qi around him to grow stronger and stronger as he looked around at the four newcomers.

They were all young men with cultivation bases in the mid Core Formation stage. Obviously, these were not like the silkpants friends Li Yuansheng had brought with him before. These four had grim expressions on their faces, and intensely murderous auras. These were true Chosen, people who were practiced killers. In addition to all of that, their handsome features were all similar in some ways, and they all wore identical green robes!

Most of the cultivators in the crowd didn’t recognize them, but a few did, and immediately began to call out in shock.

“The Flashflame Four!!”

“They're definitely the Flashflame Four! They’re in the top 300 of the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Superstars!!”

In response to the cries of shock, Bai Xiaochun frowned and looked over at the group. All of these four green-robed disciples emanated incredible pressure similar to that of Zuo Hengfeng’s two Core Formation cultivator escorts.

Li Yuansheng threw his head back and laughed. Clasping hands and bowing to the Flashflame Four, he then turned his attention to Bai Xiaochun, and his eyes shone with piercing light.

“Bai Xiaochun, I don’t care what happens today, I'm going to uproot your property-bestowal flag and put an end to the days of your tavern!”

With that, he let loose another stream of laughter. He had complete and utter confidence in the Flashflame Four, especially considering that all of them were in the same cultivation level as Bai Xiaochun, the mid Core Formation stage. From what he could tell, they should have no trouble dominating Bai Xiaochun in a fight.

“In fact, I'm not just going to take your flag. I’m going to make sure you personally understand that there are certain people in the world who you can't afford to offend!” More laughter erupted from Li Yuansheng’s mouth as he waved his hand, sending his sea of flames down to engulf what little remained of the tavern.

“Attack!” he cried. Instantly, expressions of disdain could be seen on the faces of the Flashflame Four, and they began to walk forward. As they did, shocking flames erupted out from them, to the point where they themselves almost looked like beings made from flame.

Clearly, they weren’t attempting to kill Bai Xiaochun, but they most certainly were attempting to seriously injure him.

Eyes flashing, Bai Xiaochun performed an incantation gesture with his right hand and shoved it out in front of him, causing the Frigid School Will-Evolving Incantation to erupt with power. As frigid qi began to build up in the area, he fell backward several paces, then threw his head back and roared.

“You bunch of insufferable bullies! You’re pushing things too far! Four of you ganging up on one of me? Plus you want to steal my flag and destroy my business! What’s next, you’re going to take my poor little life!?

“Hallmaster, hurry, they’re trying to kill me!!” Bai Xiaochun let loose his words with as much power backing them as possible, causing them to echo like thunder through the entire area. Before the Flashflame Four or Li Yuansheng could react, booms filled the sky, and a huge wind kicked up. Boundless fluctuations of power roiled through all creation as a blast of energy descended from above.

An old man suddenly appeared up above, his expression grim and his eyes shining with icy coldness. As he neared, the pressure in the area mounted, causing the land to quake and leaving everyone in the area trembling.

This old man was none other than the hallmaster of the Hall of Devil Slayers, Feng Youde!

“Who dares try to take Bai Xiaochun’s poor little life!?!?” he cried, his rage causing heaven and earth to shake violently.