Chapter 6967 Music Grandmaster Li Jiuyao
The sword shot through the air at an incredible speed. Long Chen only noticed it when it was already right in front of him.
Long Chen was about to dodge on instinct, but when he heard the shout, he changed his mind. That was because the person shouting was Liao Yuhuang.
“The Music Grandmaster? Is that someone so amazing?” Long Chen mocked.
Long Chen spread his arms, and starlight gathered into a small astral bell. Instead of making it ring, he set it spinning.
BOOM!
A multicolored sword made of divine light crashed into the bell. Starlight burst out, and a powerful wave of qi swept through the area.
Now, everyone could see that the bright sword had seven colorful strings stretched across it, like those of a zither. As the sword trembled, faint zither music filled the air, a sound so powerful it seemed to command all of heaven and earth.
The sword’s owner was the proud young man Long Chen had seen earlier—Li Jiuyao, the Zither Sect’s top genius and the Music Grandmaster. His eyes were full of killing intent.
“You deserve a thousand deaths for your sins! How dare you kill our disciples and destroy our foundation?!” Li Jiuyao shouted.
Long Chen sneered, “The hatred you hold for me isn’t about those things. You hate me because you’re jealous—jealous that I could demolish the Zither Sect and save my woman even in front of the Heavenly Devil Zither and three major sect masters. Meanwhile, your arrogant ass can only shout from behind your sect master’s back!”
Each of Long Chen’s words was like a poison arrow stabbing into Li Jiuyao’s heart. His face twisted in anger.
All of it was true. But then, accepting reality was often the hardest thing for most people.
As a peak heavenly genius who had swept through everyone from his era, he thought all heavenly geniuses were only fit to prostrate beneath his feet.
But today, he had personally seen Long Chen barge into the Zither Sect and treat everyone there as if they didn’t matter. Even he wasn’t seen as a threat. How could he not be furious?
“Fool, I’ll show you that you aren’t qualified to be arrogant in front of me!” Li Jiuyao roared, his divine light surging alongside a terrifying aura.
“Your power isn’t bad, but you’re just too stupid,” said Long Chen.
Suddenly, the sound of a bell rang out, and the astral bell in Long Chen’s hands expanded, enveloping him and Li Jiuyao.
The bell rang again and again, too quickly for anyone to react. As it expanded, the astral energy inside squeezed tighter and tighter.
“Courting death!” Li Jiuyao was incensed. Only now did he realize that he had fallen for Long Chen’s trap. He didn’t wait for Long Chen to finish and thrust his sword toward Long Chen.
“Explode!” Long Chen shouted.
The astral bell’s detonation was focused on the two people inside, rather than radiating outward.
BOOM!
The astral energy inside the bell instantly shrank, pressing in on the small space around them.
Even with his astral protection, Long Chen was thrown back and coughed up blood.
As for Li Jiuyao, divine runes swirled around his body. Even with his strongest defense, he was left covered in blood, and nearly all his bones were broken.
He took more than three times as much damage as Long Chen did and barely survived.
“Music Grandmaster!”
The disciples of the Zither Sect roared and charged forward in unison.
“Jing Jing!” shouted Long Chen.
Jing Jing immediately appeared behind Long Chen. She slammed her hands together, and an ice rune ignited on her forehead.
Suddenly, frost filled the sky. The powerful ice energy froze everything, instantly turning thousands of opponents into ice statues.
Some of them broke free from the ice, but coughed up blood and froze again midair.
The four Music Maestros managed to break free, shocked. They had never seen such powerful ice energy before. They were the fastest to react, but even they couldn’t avoid being frozen at first.
Luo Xing and the other pavilion masters weren’t as lucky. They didn’t escape in time, and the Ice Qi seeped into their bodies, causing serious injuries.
Many disciples couldn’t break free at all. Others tried to save them, but when they smashed the ice with force, both the ice and the people inside shattered.
Some were rescued, but the Ice Qi had gone so deep that they were left unconscious.
Luckily, only a few thousand were caught in the attack. The rest managed to escape in time. But these few thousand were the Zither Sect’s elites. The seniors were the sect's main pillars, and the juniors were its top young talent.
Fewer than a hundred died, and a few hundred were left unconscious as the ice energy raged inside them. Without quick treatment, they would never wake up.
Long Chen was satisfied with the ice seal. After all, Jing Jing’s strongest move was a wide-area attack, and it didn’t need much technique.
By using her core energy, Jing Jing injured everyone except the four Music Maestros. If anyone kept fighting, the ice energy would only get worse inside them.
Long Chen reached out and broke the ice in front of him, revealing Li Jiuyao inside. Because he was badly hurt, he passed out from the attack. Long Chen sent astral energy into him, sealing his power.
Li Jiuyao’s luck was truly bad. When he saw Long Chen charge into the Zither Sect alone, even with three sect masters and many experts present, he wanted to prove he was just as strong—or even stronger—than Long Chen.
But he was too careless. If he had been half as cautious as Cao Yiyang, he would have used his strongest power before making his move.
He thought Long Chen had to be worn out after using so many powerful moves. If he could defeat Long Chen without using his full strength, then his name would go down in history.
After all, Long Chen was the top young expert of the human race in the nine heavens. If Li Jiuyao could beat such a terrifying existence with a simple wave of his hand, wouldn’t that be glorious?
However, reality hit him hard in the face.
In the past, summoning the astral heaven whale would have drained all of Long Chen’s energy. But thanks to the three-leaf golden lotus, Long Chen’s control improved, so he used less energy. He still had more than seventy percent left after using the astral heaven whale.
Li Jiuyao had wanted to make a name for himself, only to make such a blunder. However, this was partly because of Liao Yuhuang—if she hadn’t revealed Li Jiuyao’s identity, Long Chen would not have tried to capture him.
“Long Chen, how dare you injure the Music Grandmaster?! We won’t let you off!” Liao Yuhuang shouted, charging at Long Chen as if she would save Li Jiuyao no matter what.
But before Liao Yuhuang could get close, Long Chen’s expression suddenly changed, and he tossed away Li Jiuiyao.
“Detonate!” Long Chen shouted, and the astral energy binding Li Jiuyao exploded.