The Western Desert, an arid and deadly region... In this place, far removed from the Central Plains, a battle was in full swing. Numerous people, arranged in tactical formations, were fighting a single man.
The young man had a robust body, long black hair, and an intimidating presence: it was Li Wushou. Long considered the future of the Li family, he was now falsely accused and treated worse than the practitioners of the Demonic Cult.
"Look at you, every single one of you!" Li Wushou shouted, his clothes reduced to mere rags. "Not long ago, you all sought to win my favors, but as soon as you saw an opportunity, you all turned your backs on me."
"From beginning to end, you have never practiced virtue. Not content with tarnishing my name from the Central Plains to the Glacial North, do you now wish to take my life as well?"
Li Wushou roared with indignation. Ignoring his wounds and his battered body, his pupils bloodshot, he glared at the crowd that thirsted for his life.
"Do not listen to the demon's words!" an elder shouted, pointing his sword at Li Wushou. "He seeks to invade your hearts and sap your resolve. Do not forget your brothers who fell by his hands."
"To think the yellow banner flown by such a prestigious family would turn out to be a curse. Why do you not repent before you die, Wushou?"
The elder spoke with a furious face, but deep down, he was screaming with joy. Li Wushou, who had become a thorn in their side, was finally on the verge of being eliminated.
A genius who had reached the high peaks of martial arts, up to the Body Transformation stage; this man, who appeared twenty years old, was actually sixty.
All the masters of his generation were old and liguied against him. During this battle, the rumor that he had mastered all types of martial arts proved true: corrosive arts, arts from neighboring regions, orthodox martial arts, and, during his flight which lasted several years, unorthodox arts. But no matter how strong he was, he was only one man.
Li Wushou was exhausted. If this were a normal fight, he would have slapped each of them into oblivion, but this battle had been raging for months.
While his enemies took turns, sending cannon fodder to track him down, he had not had a single moment of respite. Worse, the fight had reached the Western Desert, and he had nowhere left to hide.
Most factions had united to hunt him. They sent men incessantly. This time, he was surrounded by elders, the leaders of various factions—those who could once have been considered his peers, and for others, his friends.
"Li Wushou, who could have thought you would commit such fallacious acts in the name of power? We all should have suspected it since the fall of the leading figure of the Central Plains. You are the devil behind all the incidents that have shaken the Murim in recent years."
"Hurry up and die!"
Li Wushou breathed heavily. Having fought for so long, his body was at its limit. His vision blurred; he saw the young talents accompanying these people mocking him, despite the horror of the scene and the mountain of corpses that had been piled up.
"I am ashamed to have ever had this man as a role model," Li Wuji, the son of Wushou's sister, gnashed his teeth. He could not stand such humiliation; his family's pride was now a source of opprobrium, and his future was bleak.
He had joined the hunt against his uncle to wash his family's honor and, perhaps, find favor in the eyes of the Young Lord. As a talent of the new generation, he lacked nothing compared to the others, except that his family's status had just collapsed.
He screamed: "Wushou! If you have even a shred of honor left, you would crush your own heart and apologize to the Heavens, to the people whose lives were destroyed because of you, and for having offended that Young Lord!"
Li Wushou became increasingly agitated. His eyes had no hope to begin with, but now they sank further, inhabited by a dark desire for destruction. Looking at this desert tinged with red, he wondered one last time: where did things go wrong?
He tightened his grip on his saber, so hard that it betrayed his intentions. While everyone took the time to insult him, Li Wushou caught his breath. Of course, he knew he had no hope of escaping.
But as things seemed to drag on, a voice drew everyone's attention from the sky. Two young men of majestic appearance, dressed in top-quality robes, appeared. The voice was soft like a siren's whisper, yet it brought a cold wind that seemed to freeze everything to the bone.
"So? Is it not over yet?"
The eyes of one were as black as darkness and seemed unfathomable to all who gazed into them, while the other kept his eyes closed. The battlefield froze upon their arrival. Li Wushou felt a surge of fear rise within him, but he managed to suppress it with his hatred and anger.
"Young Lord, forgive us for keeping you waiting," a sect leader stammered. "Li Wushou is finished; we are just about to dispose of his corpse. There is no need for our noble guests to soil their eyes with such a spectacle."
"You inferior creatures, you bark a lot but you do not act...! And yet, this insect dared to point his weapon at this Lord."
Everyone turned pale, not realizing what had happened, but they quickly understood as they looked at Li Wushou, whose arms had been severed.
The moment these Lords appeared, he had used all his strength and leaped to strike a blow, but he had failed to reach them. Not even a grain of dust or a bloodstain was visible on them. They had not moved, and yet, they had severed Li Wushou's arms.
And no one had seen a thing. Of course, this move had signed his death warrant; he could no longer do anything.
"What audacity!" The leaders of the various factions immediately regained their composure and rushed toward Li Wushou. "How dare an insect like you touch the Saints? Li Wushou, you have accelerated your doom!"
But as they charged toward him, the sky began to change. The atmosphere around him changed as well.
"???"
"Is he in a trance? In the middle of a fight?"
"Is this enlightenment? Kill him before something strange happens!"
The Lords, who until then seemed to watch the spectacle without any particular emotion, were the first to notice what was happening. The one leading the dialogue spoke:
"A Tribulation?"
Seeing the atmosphere degrade, the group of attackers was suddenly alerted, and they retreated in great haste. A massive bolt of lightning tore through the sky and struck the earth with a deafening roar. Nothing could survive something like that. It seemed this lightning was targeting Li Wushou.
"A mortal managed to trigger a Tribulation? What taboo has he broken?"
The other Lord, following him, spoke for the first time: "What a waste... He could have made a fine specimen for my collection; I would have kept him alive had I known this outcome. But there is no chance he can survive the Tribulation. Let us leave; we must accelerate our plans."
The Young Lord's words were correct. Li Wushou was vaporized.
The entire area where the lightning struck was carbonized; nothing remained. Everyone was stunned. Those observing from afar, both the new and old generations, were petrified. Li Wushou had been incomprehensible and dangerous until the very end. No doubt they would all be dead if they had been caught in that.
The human toll of the hunt against Li Wushou was heavy.