White-Robed Chief

"Is Liang Yinge that strong?" Du Ying asked.

Chu Li nodded. "He's extremely strong! He had almost killed me last time and he's incredibly hard to deal with."

"What should we do then?" Du Ying frowned.

"Saint knows just how troublesome he is. I'm sure she's just testing me out." Chu Li shook his head. "I'll try and kill him again."

His torture by Liang Yinge last time was due to the Twelve Prince Sun Yucheng. He would not have suffered so much if not for Sun Yucheng pulling his legs.

Although he had still failed to kill him afterward, it would not hurt for him to try out his new idea. After all, one did not need to be stronger than someone in order to kill them.

"Junior Brother Zhao, I'm sure you'll succeed." Du Ying smiled.

Chu Li shook his head and laughed.

He closed his eyes as he recalled what he saw on the scrolls earlier. He started to analyze them word by word in hopes to find his weakness, his style, and his habit.

After a while, he still could not find anything useful. Hence, he concluded that Liang Yinge's master was a very powerful man. After all, he was shrouded in mysteries.

"Senior Sister Du, please return and tell Saint that I want to obtain intel on Liang Yinge's master," Chu Li said.

"Alright," Du Ying said. "Is there anything else?"

Chu Li shook his head. "Please look for more information on Zhu Lieyang as well. He's an Enlightened Master from a thousand years ago."

"Alright." Du Ying left the little courtyard and vanished in an instant.

Chu Li watched her leave before he stood up and strolled towards the little courtyard.

Ever since he had left the Secret Guardians Hall, he had lost his purpose of staying in the Holy Church of Light. He had no reason to probe any further but he was reluctant to give up this identity of his.

He was quite frustrated. He, a full-fledged man had been bullied by this woman, Sun Mingyue. Moreover, he was annoyed that he could not make his own decisions and he had been trying to find an opportunity to overthrow Sun Mingyue all these while.

He had lost the motivation to break apart the Holy Church of Light. However, he had to do something when the thought of him controlling Fu Dynasty crossed his mind.

Furthermore, the Holy Church of Light held more power than the Secret Guardians Hall and even the Tempest Temple. He could have requested help from others to achieve something unimaginable.

One of these examples was assassinating Liang Yinge. He had been wanting to kill Liang Yinge all these while but it had been to no avail. Now that he had the help from the Holy Church of Light, perhaps there was a slight hope to it.

With this, he would be able to avenge King Ping and make a path for Xu An if he killed Liang Yinge. Whether Xu An had the chance in the future would depend if he would become the Emperor. Xu An would not have a chance if Leng Jianghua did not make any mistakes.

However, Chu Li was certain that Leng Jianghua would make a mistake at some point. The current Leng Jianghua and the Leng Jianghua before he was crowned as the Crown Prince was different. His temperament had changed which meant that it was easier for him to make a mistake.

If he could catch Leng Jianghua messing up red-handed, he would have a thread of hope. This hope would not come if he could not kill Liang Yinge.

A week later, Du Ying returned to Gale City and appeared before Chu Li.

Li Hanyan had learned the sword technique within these seven days.

Chu Li was incredibly impressed with her speed of understanding. She was indeed a talented Swordsman.

It was something he found when he was learning the Great Heaven-deriving Sword Technique and Fillip Swift Thunder — the work of his intuition. Who would have thought that Li Hanyan was able to learn it in just ten days?

With that, he sent Li Hanyan back to Snow Lunar Pavilion before he returned to Gale City and waited for Du Ying's return.

Chu Li looked at the scroll. He frowned as he remained silent.

The two were in his bedroom. Du Ying was sat on a stool as she kept her eyes on him. She asked hastily as she watched him frowned. "Is it not useful?"

Chu Li shook his head. "There's something useful in here. Who would have thought that Zhu Lieyand and Liang Yinge are related?"

When he wanted to search up on Liang Yinge's master and Zhu Lieyang, he did not know that the two were related in any way. He only wanted to use Sun Mingyue to search up on Zhu Lieyang so that he could find more clues to obtain the Spirit Crane Technique.

Yet he had never expected that the two would be related.

From the information he had gotten from the Holy Church of Light, the Crescent Cryptic's Nine Kills Trial that Liang Yinge was training on was related to Zhu Lieyang's disciple, even though it was a few generations apart.

It looked like the clue to obtain the Spirit Crane Technique hidden away by Zhu Lieyang was on Liang Yinge's body.

Du Ying said, "Are you going to make your move?'

Chu Li nodded. "Senior Sister Du, please tell Saint that I'll make my move now."

"Please be careful…" Du Ying said softly.

Chu Li smiled. "Don't worry. I'll retreat if I can't win against him."

Du Ying nodded.

… 

At the bottom of Ascending Dragon Mountain, Liang Yinge stood underneath a tree. He raised his head as he looked at Ascending Dragon Mountain. Behind him were four Elders in grey robes who looked rather confused.

These four Elders were very skilled as they were slightly weaker than Liang Yinge. They could only shake their heads hopelessly as they stood behind Liang Yinge.

"Can't you break this formation?"

"No?" One of the Elders shook his head and said hopelessly, "Master, this Vast Cold Palace is quite weird."

"It's the Heavenly King Palm. It's not weird that this is here," Liang Yinge said indifferently.

Liang Yinge was in a green robe, looking extremely magnificent as he stared indifferently at the Ascending Dragon Mountain.

The Ascending Dragon Mountain was filled with fog. It had been completely covered up by a formation, so much that nobody could see what was within it.

It was obvious that the Vast Cold Palace was quite independent since it could cast such a formation. Although they were not strong, they were very intimidating in the sense that they had caused much trouble, especially towards the Mysterious Pavilion. Incredibly angry about it, Liang Yinge had been wanting to dispose of this trouble once and for all.

Unfortunately, the Vast Cold Palace was not something easy to deal with. After all, the Ascending Dragon Mountain did not consist of just a mountain, it was an entire valley. It was entirely possible to seal up the entire valley and lock everyone in it.

Furthermore, the Ascending Dragon Mountain was filled with flora and fauna. They would not have to worry about food and attire even if they could not leave. Rumor had it that the Vast Cold Palace had only a handful of people, so it would simply be impossible to cast such a formation.

Liang Yinge was incredibly knowledgeable in formations as Zheng Dynasty had amazing formations as well. Although he had summoned the best formation masters to the Vast Cold Palace to break it, they did not achieve anything even after ten days.

The other thin Elder donning a grey robe said, "Master, it's impossible. Why don't we burn down the entire mountain?"

Liang Yinge stared at him and shook his head.

The three Elders shook their heads in unison too. "No can do. Burning the mountain will hurt the geomancy here. Furthermore, it might not be effective as well. Since this formation master is incredibly skilled, how could he not thought of a precaution against that?'

"I don't believe that he can do a thing against a sea of fire." The thin Elder in grey robe scoffed.

Liang Yinge said, "It's pointless to burn things down in a formation. All of you should learn formations as well, pick up some basic knowledge even if you can't learn them!"

"Yes." The four of them immediately lowered their heads.

Liang Yinge gestured his hand as he continued to stare at the Ascending Dragon Mountain.

The four of them shook their heads in their minds. They knew it was pointless to keep staring at it as the formation was simply unbreakable. According to the two formation masters, this formation was strange because it had merged with the valley. Over thousands of years, it became denser and denser, which gave it such powerful strength.

They would be helpless against such a formation even if they were incredibly powerful.

"You guys go ahead. I'll check it out myself." Liang Yinge waved his hand.

The four of them made a fist salute before they retreated. They wanted to see if they would be lost in the mountain if they really were to charge into the Ascending Dragon Mountain.

As soon as the four of them had left, Chu Li appeared before Liang Yinge.

Liang Yinge frowned and looked at him. "Zhao Dahe, how dare you to appear before me?"