“I say, sirs, have you gone mad searching for this person?”
Ling Hu countered.
The five men’s expressions darkened. Though their manner of questioning did hint at desperation in the hunt.
Yet for this youth to address them so, he truly showed them no respect.
“How dare you speak to us like that?”
One Martial Venerable youth said angrily.
The crowd from Anshu Village looked on in astonishment. Faced with a Martial Lord, they would never dare utter such words. They could not fathom why this youth spoke this way.
“What do you lot amount to?”
Ling Hu grew forceful, leaving the villagers stunned.
The five were momentarily taken aback. They had been ready to call him worthless, only for him to turn the insult back on them.
“Courting death. Do you really think that resisting my mid-grade fifth-rank spiritual force means you can stand against us?”
The mid-grade fifth-rank spirit controller snorted coldly.
“Precisely.”
Ling Hu sounded impatient now. He glanced at Zi Ling and said, “Zi Ling, have them come down here to speak.”
The villagers gasped. Were the two sides about to clash?
“Courting death.”
The five hardened their gazes, and the youths prepared to strike first.
Yet in that instant, the Martial Lord elder’s body suddenly plummeted to the ground.
Bang.
Dust exploded upwards as the Martial Lord elder dropped to his knees.
The three youths and the middle-aged man paled in shock. Their Fifth Layer Martial Lord elder had been seized by spiritual force?
The woman was a spirit controller too?
Powerful enough to control a Fifth Layer Martial Lord?
That meant her strength surpassed the Fifth Layer Martial Lord.
At least mid-grade sixth-rank spiritual force, or higher?
Shock surged through the four.
A mid-grade sixth-rank spirit controller at this age rivalled the former Wen Ruo, rivalled the geniuses of the great spirit controller clans Shangguan and Ouyang.
One youth resisted mid-grade fifth-rank control, another wielded mid-grade sixth-rank cultivation. This group’s origins were clearly extraordinary.
Even the Fifth Layer Martial Lord elder reeled inwardly, never imagining such a formidable spirit controller lay hidden among them.
The watching villagers stood dumbfounded.
To them, a Martial Lord was already immensely powerful.
Yet here was such a powerhouse forced to kneel before these newcomers.
The youth who had spoken politely with Zi Ling felt overwhelming awe. The fairy-like woman had been so courteous, yet her strength was staggering.
Powerful, yet so unassuming. Admiration welled up in him unbidden.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Then bodies fell one after another.
The middle-aged man and the three youths crashed down, kicking up clouds of dust.
“Why are you here? Why do you seek this person? Explain everything, from beginning to end.”
Zi Ling spoke in an indifferent tone.
“Yes.”
The elder nodded hastily. “Lin Xiao is a genius who rose recently. He offended the overlord force of Yangzhou, the Ji family, and killed a great many of their geniuses and clansmen below the Martial Saint realm.”
“Killed a great many geniuses and clansmen below Martial Saint?”
At these words, Ling Hu and the other eight were stunned.
Killing those below Martial Saint implied that Lin Xiao now possessed strength at the Ninth Layer Martial Emperor realm.
Lin Xiao had grown this powerful?
They had endured countless near-death trials and seized heaven-defying opportunities in the forbidden sea region to reach their current realms.
Yet Lin Xiao could already slay anyone below Martial Saint.
This fellow had advanced even faster than they had.
“Lin Xiao was pursued by Martial Saint elders from the Ji family and the Holy Heaven Gate into a void rift and vanished. Fearing he might escape alive, the Ji family seeks those close to him, to capture them and hold as leverage.”
The Fifth Layer Martial Lord elder continued.
“Martial Saints?
This place actually has Martial Saint powerhouses?”
Only then did Ling Hu and the others react.
The elder spoke of “below Martial Saint” rather than “Ninth Layer Martial Emperor” because true Martial Saints existed.
Shock filled the nine. In the Southeast Domain, the strongest were merely mid-tier Martial Emperors.
Yet here Martial Saints existed, and more than one at that.
Lin Xiao had been hunted by two Martial Saints?
Just what had the man done to draw pursuit from Martial Saints?
And moreover, he possessed the means to escape from Martial Saints.
“We are from the Wen family. We learned that our young miss was also slain by Lin Xiao. At the time, our Wen family was returning from training in the Nanyang Mountains. That is the earliest known trace of Lin Xiao we know.”
“The Ji family suspects he hails from the region beyond the Nanyang Mountains, so they summoned every force, great and small, across this area for a thirty-thousand-li sweep…”
The Fifth Layer Martial Lord elder recounted the full sequence of events in detail. His words could not be false.
For Zi Ling had used mind control to compel his answers.
Ling Hu and the others were shocked once more, their eyes growing cold.
Unable to find Lin Xiao, the Ji family targeted those close to him. Such conduct was utterly despicable.
A thirty-thousand-li sweep. The scale was immense.
“How many has the Ji family sent, and at what cultivations?”
Zi Ling asked again, cold light flashing in her eyes.
“Forty or fifty in total, all Martial Emperors. Led by one Ninth Layer Martial Emperor elder, with two Eighth Layer, five Seventh Layer, over ten mid-tier Martial Emperors, and twenty to thirty early-tier Martial Emperors.”
The Fifth Layer Martial Lord gave the approximate strength of the Ji family contingent.
Zi Ling, Ling Hu, and the nine were deeply shaken.
Forty or fifty Martial Emperors. This was far too terrifying.
Were Martial Emperors truly so commonplace in Zhongzhou?
One Ninth Layer, two Eighth Layer, five Seventh Layer, over ten mid-tier. The combat power was horrifying.
Among their nine, the highest cultivation belonged to Sheng Li and Lu Chuyou, both at Seventh Layer Martial Emperor.
Zi Ling had reached mid-grade seventh-rank spiritual force, while Ling Hu and Li Luo were at Fifth Layer Martial Emperor.
The remaining four had all reached Fourth Layer Martial Emperor, each having seized heaven-defying fortunes and survived among a hundred geniuses.
They had believed their combined strength could at least place them among the upper tiers in Zhongzhou, if not allow them to rampage freely.
Who could have foreseen that a single detachment from the Ji family would prove so overwhelming.
At present, they lacked the power to oppose it.
The villagers of Anshu Village were equally stunned.
A Martial Lord was already the mightiest existence they had ever witnessed.
Yet now forty or fifty Martial Emperors were coming. This utterly shattered their understanding of the world.
They knew nothing of Lin Xiao’s affairs, but they understood that something momentous was about to unfold here.
They wondered whether they would be caught up in it.
Even a single Martial Emperor was beyond anyone’s power to resist.
“Are all these forces gathered in one place?
How far is the Ji family headquarters from here?”
Ling Hu asked suddenly.
