Chapter 109: The Father-Son Battle, Manifestation of the Heaven and Earth Avatar!
Whoosh!
Li Hao's figure shot forward abruptly, rushing toward the little white fox outside the courtyard wall.
In an instant, his figure was close, like a speeding cannonball yet stopping as gently as a breeze before the little white fox.
Seeing the fox lying on the verge of death, Li Hao crouched down, carefully cradling it in his arms, his expression filled with anguish.
Over the years, the little white fox had stayed by his side day and night, and the bond between master and companion had long taken root in his heart.
Moreover, this little white fox was also an orphan, with no one to rely on—so much like him.
“Fifth Grandpa!”
Li Hao turned sharply toward Li Qingzheng in the courtyard and cried out, “Save Xiao Rou! Save her!”
His voice was laden with grief and urgency.
Li Qingzheng’s expression shifted. Over the years, Li Hao had often accompanied him in games of chess, with this little white fox frequently nestled in the youth’s embrace. They were inseparable.
In the large courtyard filled with servants and stewards, aside from himself and a few older family members, Li Hao had few friends, let alone anyone he could confide in.
Li Qingzheng understood how much this little fox meant to Li Hao.
In a flash, Li Qingzheng appeared by Li Hao’s side, releasing a surge of vitality to envelop the little white fox.
Taking the fox into his arms, he said, “I’ll find a divine healer!”
With that, he hurriedly stepped away but seemed to recall something. Before leaving, he glanced back at Li Hao. “Hao’er, don’t act rashly.”
Li Hao gave a bitter smile at these words and said to Li Qingzheng, “Thank you, Fifth Grandpa, for saving her!”
Then, he knelt down and kowtowed heavily.
Li Qingzheng froze, as if sensing something, and his expression changed slightly. He quickly said, “I’ll save this little one first; her heart meridian hasn’t stopped—there’s still hope!”
With that, he disappeared from Li Hao’s sight.
“Ridiculous!”
Li Tiangang sneered as he watched Li Hao’s actions, his eyes flashing with even greater fury. “It’s just a mere demonic beast! If it’s dead, it’s dead—what of it?!”
“You value the life of a demon so highly, yet you’ve harmed your brother and beaten your sister. How utterly laughable!”
Li Hao, still kneeling on the ground, seemed to tremble slightly.
He slowly stood up, and the sky seemed to grow darker and heavier.
Turning his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the towering figure of his father.
That earlier slap hadn’t just struck the little white fox—it had shattered the child inside him who had waited for fourteen years.
That slap had killed him.
“Li! Tian! Gang!”
Li Hao’s gaze burned red as he enunciated each word, “From this day forth, there is no bond of father and son between us!”
Li Tiangang roared in anger, “You would sever ties with your father for a mere beast?!”
“You just asked me how I’ve survived all these years, didn’t you?”
“It was Xiao Rou who got me through them!”
Li Hao’s eyes widened in rage as his icy voice rang out. “In my heart, Xiao Rou is a hundred times more important than you!”
At these words, Li Tiangang trembled with rage, his eyes blazing with a fierce, terrifying light.
“Fine, fine, fine! These years of lax discipline are my fault!”
“It’s my fault, Li Tiangang’s fault!”
“That my Li family could raise such an unfilial descendant—I am ashamed before our ancestors!”
“This sin I created, I will clean up myself today!”
Li Tiangang strode toward Li Hao with a thunderous step.
Chen Hefang’s face turned pale as she hurriedly called out, “Tiangang, don’t be reckless! Hao’er must have his reasons for acting this way. We should investigate first.”
“Mother!”
Li Tiangang paused slightly but didn’t turn back. He only said, “Back then, Second Brother entrusted his widow and child to me. His will kept me alive to this day!”
“I owe him a debt I can never repay. Today, even if Hao’er is telling the truth, this life of mine can be the payment!”
“But Hao’er’s stubbornness cannot be indulged any longer!”
With that, he stepped toward Li Hao again.
“Tiangang!”
“Seventh Brother!”
Others in the courtyard called out, trying to stop him.
Li Hao laughed aloud at Li Tiangang’s words.
“This life of yours, repaid as you see fit?”
“You speak so lightly, but this is my life! What gives you the right to repay it?!”
“That was your brother, not mine! You have siblings—I have none! I don’t even have parents!”
“If you must repay him, use your own life! No one can take mine—no one!”
His bloodshot eyes burned, his aura surging wildly as he clenched his fists.
Li Tiangang bellowed, “Silence! Your life is mine—I gave it to you! Without me, there would be no you!”
“Then try taking it back!”
Li Hao’s eyes reddened to the point of bursting as he stepped forward, throwing all notions of familial bonds aside. Let the world judge and scorn—what did it matter?!
Boom!
The ground of Qinglian Courtyard trembled violently.
A terrifying force of tens of millions of jin erupted from Li Hao as all his major meridians opened. His aura, wild and untamed, exploded without restraint or hesitation.
“You’re courting death!”
Li Tiangang’s gaze grew colder at Li Hao’s overwhelming momentum. Raising his palm, he summoned an immense, mountain-like force to crush Li Hao.
“Break!”
Li Hao roared toward the heavens, his aura surging like a rainbow. The Zhoutian Fortune Technique spun madly within him, his energy coursing through his meridians like a raging river as he unleashed a powerful punch.
The vast energy of Li Tiangang’s palm strike was torn apart, shattered by the force of the punch.
The crowd instantly recognized the move—it was the Half-Step Invincible Fist, a technique of Li Muxiu!
Even Li Qianfeng, who stood supporting Liu Yurong nearby, showed shock and envy in his eyes.
Second Uncle, Second Uncle!
Why did the family elders always favor Li Hao so?
Li Tiangang, too, recognized the punch’s origin. His gaze sharpened as he sneered, “You dare to act so brazenly, relying on the indulgence of Second Uncle and Fifth Uncle? Today, I will extinguish your arrogance!”
He struck again, both palms unleashing a golden palm strike that descended upon Li Hao like a blazing sun.
Li Hao countered with fury, his Yin-Yang Dual Meridians surging. His strength nearly doubled, reaching nearly twenty million jin.
His punch shattered the golden palm strike, sending shockwaves through the entire courtyard.
Li Hao’s body slid back slightly from the impact, but he immediately stepped forward again, dashing toward Li Tiangang like a flash of lightning.
Li Tiangang’s expression flickered with surprise. That palm strike had been strong enough to suppress anyone at the Fifteen Li realm, even the most elite prodigies of that level, yet Li Hao had withstood it.
Watching Li Hao charge at him again, Li Tiangang sneered angrily, “Good, very good!”
“You dare to raise a hand against me, your father? Do you intend to kill your brother and now also commit patricide, you unfilial beast?!”
With his anger boiling over, Li Tiangang unleashed another strike. His hand clashed directly with Li Hao’s fist, intending to crush his son’s rebellious spirit.
However, at the moment of impact, Li Tiangang’s expression changed.
Li Hao’s fist carried an overwhelming power that far exceeded what was possible for someone at the Fifteen Li realm. It broke past even the normal limits of this level, defying expectations entirely.
The father and son clashed, and the ground beneath them trembled violently. Li Tiangang’s body tilted slightly backward as his feet shifted a half step to stabilize himself.
Li Hao, on the other hand, felt as though he had struck an immovable mountain. The immense force rebounded through him, sending his blood surging and causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.
Thud! Almost simultaneously, both father and son spat blood from their injuries.
No one was surprised that Li Hao had been hurt, as Li Tiangang was a Three Immortals cultivator.
But Li Tiangang’s injury left everyone stunned.
A cultivator at Li Tiangang’s level, the Three Immortals, was all but invincible in this courtyard. Not even the most outstanding Fifteen Li cultivators could have harmed him. Yet now, he stood bleeding.
The realization dawned on everyone at once.
Li Tiangang’s injury was a result of the ancestral oath embedded in the Li family’s bloodline. His earlier slap against Li Hao had violated the heart oath to protect those of the direct bloodline, triggering backlash from the family’s ancestral spirit.
That single act had harmed both father and son, with Li Tiangang forcibly suppressing his own injuries earlier in his rage.
Now, in the heat of battle, the suppression faltered, and his injuries flared up.
“Excellent! Simply excellent!”
Li Tiangang wiped the blood from his lips, his gaze as cold as ice as he glared at Li Hao.
“You do have enough talent to stand above your peers. No wonder you’ve grown so arrogant!”
“But raising a hand against your own father—this cannot go unpunished. Today, I will personally test just how far your so-called abilities can go!”
Li Hao, noticing the blood trickling from his father’s lips, felt a brief moment of clarity.
Yet instead of calming him, it only stoked his fury further. He laughed bitterly, his voice filled with mockery.
“Fourteen years of waiting... I thought I was waiting for someone to stand by my side.”
“But what I got was a slap—one so furious that you’d even risk violating the ancestral oath!”
“You’d rather harm yourself than show me an ounce of compassion!”
“This is what it means to be father and son? Am I such a disappointment as a child?”
“Fine, then! If you want my life so badly, come take it!”
Li Hao laughed maniacally, his eyes filled with scorn as he stared down his father.
“You want to turn the heavens upside down? Not while I’m still breathing!”
Li Tiangang erupted with rage, his aura surging wildly. Golden light blazed from his body as a massive golden avatar emerged above him, a divine soul manifesting from his head.
The avatar stood over ten zhang tall, clad in resplendent divine armor, its gaze sweeping over the courtyard with overwhelming majesty.
“So powerful!”
Lin Wujing, watching from the courtyard, felt his breath hitch. This was the might of a true dragon of the previous generation, second only to the Li family’s Nine Lords of Heaven.
Even though Li Tiangang had ascended as a replacement candidate, his strength was undeniable.
“Tiangang!”
Chen Hefang’s voice trembled as she watched the scene, her heart aching at the sight of her son and grandson locked in a life-or-death confrontation.
“Seventh Brother!”
Li Fenghua, standing nearby, tried to intervene. “Enough! Hao’er may have made mistakes, but he’s already been punished. You’ve already taught him a lesson.”
His daughter, Li Rumeng, pouted in displeasure, and his wife, Wang Xiangru, shot him a disapproving glare.
“Stay out of it!”
Li Tiangang’s voice was cold. “He is not yet the true dragon of the Li family. If I don’t put an end to this now, it will be too late!”
The golden avatar loomed over the courtyard, its size dwarfing everyone. It radiated a divine brilliance, its imposing presence like that of a god descending upon the mortal realm.
Li Hao looked up at the towering figure and laughed wildly.
“Come on, then!”
In response, Li Hao’s own aura surged to its peak. A blazing power erupted from within him as his own soul avatar began to take shape.
Behind him, a colossal avatar emerged, its features identical to Li Hao’s. Dressed in a blue robe that mirrored his own, it exuded the elegance of a scholar while concealing a latent ferocity.
Unlike Li Tiangang’s avatar, Li Hao’s Heaven and Earth Avatar stood over a hundred zhang tall. Its sheer size dwarfed the courtyard and even overshadowed Li Tiangang’s golden avatar.
The air grew heavy with a vast, overwhelming pressure as the Heaven and Earth Avatar’s energy engulfed the area, leaving everyone in stunned silence.
Even guests departing the Divine General Mansion halted in their tracks. The immense aura spreading outward reached the streets of Qingzhou City, stopping carriages and forcing pedestrians to turn back in awe.
“That... That’s an avatar of heaven and earth?!”
Standing on the street, Jian Wudao’s sharp eyes pierced through the walls and layers of space, locking onto the massive figure within the Li family’s mansion.
His pupils shrank as realization dawned.
“That golden avatar... It’s that boy?!”
Jian Wudao’s eyes widened in disbelief as he shot into the air, hovering above Qingzhou City to get a better look at the Divine General Mansion.