Chapter 648: Chapter 649: I Won’t Accept This!
 

“I don’t like it,”

Li Xiaobai said casually.

“Uh, Senior Brother, I was talking about this chicken.”

Long Xue’s pretty face flushed red as she brought a snow-white rooster up to Li Xiaobai’s eyes. She had caught it herself while he had been daydreaming just moments ago.

“Oh, this chicken. It’s quite good, plump but not greasy, and most importantly, it’s alive – the ingredient is very fresh. Nice, let’s roast it.”

Li Xiaobai nodded and said with a slightly embarrassed expression, it seemed he had accidentally spoken an uncomfortable truth just now.

With a gentle touch of his palm on the chicken’s head, the Spirit Realm Technique instantly activated. The originally plump rooster’s body suddenly shriveled, its whole body was much leaner, and the vitality vanished from its eyes.

At the same time, Li Xiaobai felt the inner strength within his Dantian grow a bit stronger, just a little bit. It was but a drop in the bucket for someone in the Essence Refining Realm, no wonder the former owner of this body had access to a treasure trove but was still a weakling. The inner strength provided by birds and beasts was just too limited.

“Oh, alright.”

Long Xue obediently took the rooster carcass to the side and started preparing to roast it over a small fire. Senior Brother’s casual and decisive killing of the chicken was something she had never seen before—he was more and more like someone from the martial world.

At night, inside the cave, both of them clutched a golden chicken leg and gnawed on it voraciously. Martial artists have larger energy expenditures than ordinary people and their appetite is several times greater too. Since they were captured by the authorities, they had scarcely had a proper meal, and their hunger had almost driven them mad.

“Little Junior Sister, it seems that before our Master passed away, he only had you by his side. Do you know where the second half of the Spirit Realm Technique is?”

Li Xiaobai asked.

“I don’t know. Master only said that he had hidden the technique within our abandoned sect, and it was in a place you definitely would not think to search. He mentioned that you would surely comprehend his meaning,” Long Xue earnestly recalled. Master had not directly revealed the location; he had left a riddle, probably fearing that others might get there first.

“I see, our Master was quite wise,”

Li Xiaobai nodded, feeling enlightened.

“Senior Brother, if you can acquire the complete Spirit Realm Technique earlier, you will definitely be able to dominate the world in the future, sweeping all those court hounds away. No one will be able to bully us anymore!”

“Correct. With my intelligence and wisdom, getting stronger is just a matter of time,”

Li Xiaobai said with a faint smile. Although he lacked experience in cultivation, he had plenty of experience dealing with opponents in the martial world. The challenges in this Illusionary Realm World weren’t a problem for him—the Old Dragon King had underestimated him.

“Shall we set off tomorrow to find the second half of the technique?”

Long Xue asked.

“No rush. Build up walls, accumulate food slowly, proclaim kingship only after preparing; we should first complete cultivating the first half of the technique before we search for the second,”

“Tomorrow, let’s find a remote village to settle down and then we can plan our next steps,”

Without a second thought, Li Xiaobai laid out his plans.

The current strategy was a single word—endure!

Endurance to the extreme would lead to kingship!

Long Xue: “…”

To make fleeing sound so refined and elegant, Li Xiaobai was surely unrivaled.

She was unaware that at this very moment, hundreds of eyes were watching their every move.

Simultaneously, within the main hall of the Dragon Palace in the Eastern Sea, the civil and military officials held their breath, staring bewilderingly at the scene before them.

Within the Formation, Gui Xuan was the first to awaken, his gaze dazed for a moment before snapping into clarity.

“Damn it, Li Xiaobai has gone too far!”

“To think he resorted to underhand tactics in secret, I won’t let you off, you’ll have no place to stand in the Sea Clan!”

“I must slaughter you!”

At this moment, Gui Xuan’s eyes were blood-red with rage, his heart burning with fury. He had been played from the very beginning, and furthermore, he had willingly stuck his neck out only to have it chopped off, effectively destroying his chances,

“Xuan’er, the Imperial Palace’s main hall is no place for clamor!”

The Tortoise Prime Minister coughed twice and spoke up as a reminder.

Gui Xuan felt as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water, his body shook, and his vitality and spirit instantly wilted. This was the Imperial Palace, where the full assembly of civil and military officials gathered, and it was not his place to be impudent.

“Gui Xuan, how did you find the trial in the Illusionary Realm World?”

asked the Old Dragon King.

“Reporting to Your Majesty, it was my negligence and carelessness that allowed Li Xiaobai to exploit the loophole. Should I be granted another chance, such an oversight would not occur again!” declared Gui Xuan, his expression twisted and ferocious.

As soon as he said this, the civil and military officials all subtly shook their heads. Such an answer was akin to digging one’s own grave. It seemed that the grandson of the Tortoise Prime Minister truly lacked the proper temperament.

Pampered and spoiled over the years, he had lost the most basic ability to judge. The one thing cultivators must avoid is being unable to see themselves clearly, and at this moment, Gui Xuan was in such a phase of self-delusion.

It was clear to anyone with eyes that his failure was inevitable. At the beginning, he found himself on the execution stand, trapped in continuous reversals. Each time, he was at the forefront, resulting in his words being confused and contradictory, leading him only to a disheartened conclusion.

“Heh, if it had been the real world just now, your head would be gone,”

“I designed multiple reversals from the start, and you fell for each one. Such performance shows that you truly lack the makings of greatness. Do you truly carry the bloodline of the Tortoise Prime Minister? I am very disappointed in you,” the Old Dragon King said dispassionately and coldly.

The teacher said that Gui Xuan’s performance greatly surprised him. He knew that Gui Xuan could not compete with Li Xiaobai, but he did not expect him to fail to pass even the first barrier; it was truly an eyesore.

“I refuse to accept this! That Li Xiaobai used special means to maintain his sense of self in the Illusionary Realm and did not integrate into the role within the realm. Such an act is clearly cheating!” Gui Xuan protested resentfully, ignoring the Prime Minister’s disapproving gaze and speaking out harshly.

“Do you not possess an object that allows you to keep your senses clear?”

“The reason for my disappointment is that you continuously fell into traps despite being completely lucid. This does not pertain to nature, but rather, because you are inherently a waste!” the Old Dragon King said icily, his eyes shooting out a blazing light that scorched Gui Xuan’s Primordial Spirit.

“I was aware of your uniqueness long before creating the Illusionary Realm World, and my silence was meant to give you both a chance to prove yourselves. Regrettably, you failed to grasp even such a simple opportunity.”

“Let me tell you plainly, this Formation contains a trace of Immortal Spirit Qi; even if you could stay lucid with the help of treasures at the beginning of the Illusionary Realm, as time progresses, you would become fully integrated with the role within the realm, eventually losing your original memories.”

“And yet, you could not even endure the earliest and simplest of tests. As dull as a pig, today, you have utterly disgraced our Sea Clan. Were it not for the fact that you are the grandson of the Prime Minister, I would have banished you this very moment!”