The man burst from the ground, sending Du Lihuang flying with a single punch. Still not satisfied, he strode forward, ready to finish Du Lihuang off.
Just then, a voice rang out from the distance: "Brother Yue, hold your hand!"
The one who had sent Du Lihuang flying appeared to be in his twenties or early thirties, but the brown hair covering his head and face gave him the look of a wrathful lion.
This was none other than Yue Baize, the prodigious heir of the Sacred Lion Clan within the Great Sage Hall. In terms of raw power, he was virtually on par with Xiang Qin of the Sacred Elephant Clan.
Yue Baize's cultivation was approaching the second level of the Sacred Realm. In his fury, that punch was far beyond what Du Lihuang—merely at the ninth level of the Yuan Realm—could hope to withstand.
Though Du Lihuang had been bullying Kuzhu moments ago, he couldn't even last a single exchange against Yue Baize.
Yue Baize, seething with rage, meant to kill Du Lihuang, but was called to a halt.
His sharp gaze swept toward the approaching figure—a man in white robes. It was Wang Han, the chief genius of the Sacred Sword Palace, a first-level Sacred Realm prodigy in his own right.
Wang Han crossed the distance in a few swift strides, knelt beside Du Lihuang, fed him a medicinal pill, and tapped several acupoints on his body in rapid succession before Du Lihuang finally came around.
His mind was a fog. When he saw Yue Baize glaring at him with burning eyes, Du Lihuang felt equal parts fury and terror. He now understood—the one who had launched that savage attack at him was Yue Baize of the Great Sage Hall.
"Step aside, Wang Han." Yue Baize was clearly not done. His fists crackled as he clenched them, plainly intent on striking Du Lihuang again—until the man was dead.
Wang Han's aura turned icy. "Brother Yue, what exactly did he do to warrant such a vicious blow?"
Yue Baize saw no need to explain. "Are you moving or not?"
Wang Han was a Sacred Realm genius himself—there was no way he would be cowed by Yue Baize's pressure. The arrogance of the Great Sage Hall's people had long since worn on his patience.
During the earlier scramble for the Myriad Life Pill, Xiang Qin of the Sacred Elephant Clan had already threatened him. Wang Han had swallowed the insult for the sake of relations between their sects.
But now this Yue Baize was threatening him as well.
Wang Han had cultivated the way of the sword for twenty or thirty years. His nature was sharp and unyielding—how could he endure one humiliation after another? Yue Baize's domineering tone stoked the fire in his chest.
Without so much as glancing at Yue Baize, he turned to Du Lihuang. "Junior Brother Du, tell me what happened. This Brother Yue has no quarrel with you—why did he attack you? Speak freely. The Sacred Sword Palace does not go around picking fights, but we will not let just anyone walk all over us."
As the foremost senior disciple of the Sacred Sword Palace's younger generation, if Wang Han failed to stand up now, how could he ever hold his head within the sect?
His words were measured, but carried an edge of barely restrained anger.
Du Lihuang, seeing that Wang Han intended to stand up for him, did not hold back. "Senior Brother Wang, I was tracking someone and lost the trail. I casually destroyed a large tree, and this man burst out of the ground and attacked me without a shred of reason. How was I supposed to know he'd lost his mind?"
Wang Han cast a cold glance at the shattered trunk and splintered branches littering the ground. "Brother Yue, this tree is hardly a remarkable spiritual species. I fail to understand—surely you didn't try to kill my junior brother over a single tree? That seems a bit excessive, don't you think?"
Wang Han's tone was none too pleasant either. At most, the tree had been a low-grade spiritual species—utterly unremarkable. If Yue Baize truly intended to make an issue of it, Wang Han was more than ready to argue the point.
Yue Baize's tiger-like eyes blazed. "So, Wang Han—you're playing the hero, then?"
Wang Han let out a cold laugh. "What a joke. You attacked my fellow disciple—am I not supposed to demand an explanation? Hero? It seems to me you're the one who fancies himself a tyrant."
After taking the pill, Du Lihuang's internal injuries were slowly mending. He stood beside Wang Han with one hand resting on his sword hilt, ready to draw at a moment's notice.
The instant fighting broke out, he would hold nothing back and join forces with Wang Han against Yue Baize.
Though the gap between his own strength and Yue Baize's was vast, Senior Brother Wang—without question the Sacred Sword Palace's top prodigy—could certainly match Yue Baize in combat.
With Du Lihuang providing support on the side, slaying Yue Baize was not out of the question.
Yue Baize regarded the two of them with cold eyes, silently sizing up their combined strength. He knew that even if he was somewhat stronger than Wang Han, the Sacred Sword Palace's secret techniques meant the best he could hope for was a mutual wound. Adding Du Lihuang to the equation made a one-against-two fight distinctly unfavorable.
Moreover, he had been lurking underground not for amusement—he had been tracking a Spirit Beast. This particular Spirit Beast was fond of nesting in spiritual trees like this one.
Yue Baize had sensed the creature's aura around this very lion pagoda tree and had burrowed underground to lie in wait, planning to ambush it when it returned.
Then this fool Du Lihuang happened along, went completely mad for no apparent reason, and destroyed the tree—shattering Yue Baize's ambush plan entirely.
Born into the Great Sage Hall, Yue Baize had always been arrogant and domineering. Seeing his plans ruined by an outsider, how could he not fly into a rage? He had charged out and tried to kill Du Lihuang without a single word of explanation.
Seeing Wang Han's undisguised battle intent, Yue Baize naturally showed no fear either.
He nodded. "Fine, Wang Han—you want an explanation? I'll give you one. I entered the Illusory Wave Mountain yesterday, and I have a total of ten days. On my first day, I encountered a Silver Lion Beast. And this lion pagoda tree is exactly where the Silver Lion Beast likes to roost. I've been lying in ambush here for a day and a night, waiting for it to return. Your brainless junior brother here went and destroyed it—god knows what possessed him. You want an explanation from me? Who do I get one from?"