Chapter 72: Honest Liar
Chapter 72: Honest Liar
Chapter 72
"This..." The Clan Lord trembled. Whether it was from shock or something else, Liyu couldn’t tell, but one thing was certain: he had never seen him this shocked before.
"This..." The Clan Lord’s eyes trembled violently as he forced the words out. "This is impossible..." he couldn’t help but mutter. How could this kid possess a Sacred Grade Spirit Root? That was something that only existed in myths.
One could say that when he first discovered that Yuexin possessed a Sacred Grade Spirit Root... a talent believed to exist only in myths and ancient legends... he had already been utterly shocked.
If the measuring artifact hadn’t made it absolutely clear, he never would have believed it. He had been overjoyed beyond words.
The thought that another legend would rise from his clan... no... not just a legend. Yuexin’s future was destined to become unimaginably vast; she possessed limitless room to grow.
Witnessing the rise of someone like her alone was already enough to be considered one of the greatest honors of his lifetime. And yet... now he was suddenly supposed to believe that there was another person possessing the same mythical aptitude?
"This is impossible..." The Clan Lord repeated once again. Liyu raised an eyebrow. "What is impossible?" The Clan Lord slowly turned his shocked gaze toward him.
"How... how do you suddenly possess a Sacred Grade Spirit Root?" Liyu couldn’t help but rub the side of his head before asking the System. "Hey, Sys. What is he talking about? Isn’t my Spirit Root at Divine Grade?
What is this Sacred Grade he keeps talking about?" The System answered unusually quickly after performing its own analysis:
"Host, I believe the Clan Lord has misunderstood the situation... or rather, he is judging based on the limits of the knowledge available in this world. After a quick analysis, there are only five Spirit Root grades that they seem to know exist."
"They are: Earth Grade... Sky Grade... Heaven Grade... Supreme Grade... and finally Sacred Grade. Among them, Sacred Grade is considered an absolute legend, something that has existed only in myths since ancient times."
Liyu blinked. "Wait... but where is Divine Grade on that list? I believe it should be higher than Sacred Grade, right?"
"Yes, Host. You are correct. Divine Grade is indeed higher... and not by a small amount either. The information available to me is still rather limited, but from what I can analyze... Divine Grade should stand far above Sacred Grade. There are likely several levels separating the two." Liyu couldn’t help but feel surprised.
If that was truly the case, then the number of people possessing Divine Grade Spirit Roots in this world was probably... zero.
Well... excluding himself, of course. Now he finally understood why the Clan Lord looked so shocked. The old man had already made the enormous mistake of assuming he possessed a Sacred Grade Spirit Root, when in reality... his Spirit Root was far beyond that.
Still... he wasn’t about to explain that; he doubted the Clan Lord would believe him anyway.
Li San remained lost in thought for quite a while before finally collecting himself. His sharp gaze locked onto Liyu’s eyes; the shock still remained within them, but now there was another emotion as well: excitement, or perhaps... greed.
"So... you said a drop of water did this, right? The holy water was the one that not only repaired your broken Spirit Root but also elevated it directly into the mythical Sacred Grade?" Liyu nodded.
He could tell that the Clan Lord still found the entire story difficult to believe, yet Li San desperately wanted it to be true.
After all, if he could somehow obtain that water, then feed it to every member of the Li Clan... including himself... within only a few short years, the Li Clan would become the strongest clan in the entire world.
Their strength would surpass even the unrivaled great sects that ruled the continent. Li San was smiling now as he turned toward Liyu. "Tell me, kid. Where did you obtain that water?
Is there perhaps a lake? Or maybe a small pond where you found it?" If they could get their hands on something like that, it would become the greatest blessing the Li Clan had ever received.
Liyu raised an eyebrow; this old man was truly greedy. A lake, or even a pond, filled with Holy Cleansing Elixir? Could something so absurd even exist? One had to know just how terrifying that elixir truly was.
Heck, it was capable of completely resurrecting the dead, and even much more than that.
If there really were a lake filled with Holy Cleansing Elixir, and Liyu somehow gained access to it, his thoughts immediately wandered toward all the different ways he could monetize it and make an outrageous fortune.
But he quickly snapped himself back to reality; after all, he knew better than anyone that such thoughts were nothing more than pure delusion. Liyu shook his head.
"My lord... I’m afraid I have to disappoint you. There is no such place." Li San frowned slightly; he was disappointed, but he wasn’t willing to give up yet. Not yet. Instead, he asked another question:
"Apart from the drop that healed and elevated your Spirit Root... are there any other drops?" He couldn’t help but ask. He was willing to buy them from Liyu regardless of the price.
Liyu remained silent for exactly half a second before finally speaking. "Actually, my lord... I’m afraid I have to disappoint you once again.
There was only one drop... and I already used it. If I had known it was something that precious, I definitely wouldn’t have used it. I would have brought it straight to you instead." Liyu said those words with complete sincerity.
Of course... he was lying through his teeth. After all, he still possessed two more drops, but would he hand them over? Over his dead body.
Those remaining two drops were among his most precious treasures; there was no way he was giving them away. Li San stared at Liyu for a long moment; for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this brat was lying, and yet, he couldn’t prove it.
The expression on Liyu’s face looked so sincere, so genuine, that it was almost impossible to believe he was telling a lie.
"If you do have any drops on you, I am willing to pay for them," Li San couldn’t help but say once more. Those drops of holy water were simply too valuable.
Liyu twitched inwardly. What was this old man talking about? Paying for them? He wasn’t trying to badmouth the clan or anything of that sort.
But he was more than certain that even if the clan’s entire treasure vault were emptied, it still wouldn’t come close to being enough to buy even a single drop of the Holy Cleansing Elixir in his possession.
"No, my lord. If I truly had any drops of the holy water left, I would surely have handed them over without collecting a single dime from you." He bowed even lower before continuing, "After all, whatever I do for you can also be said to be doing it for myself."
Liyu’s words came out so sincerely and righteously that no one would believe the brat was lying. Well... no one except his buddy:
"Ahem... Host... You truly are becoming more and more shameless as the days pass. How can you lie so smoothly and perfectly that it doesn’t make any sense? You still have two drops of Holy Cleansing Elixir, and yet you’re standing here swearing that you don’t have any left. How does that even make sense?"
Liyu’s mouth almost twitched, yet he forcefully restrained himself. Internally, he cursed the System while maintaining a perfectly calm expression.
He couldn’t allow even the slightest mishap while standing before the Clan Lord; one tiny mistake, and every single one of his lies would immediately be exposed. Li San sat there silently. He was no longer looking at Liyu; instead, his gaze rested upon the brightly glowing golden bead embedded within the white artifact.
He remained like that for a very long time, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Liyu was beginning to feel increasingly anxious. After all, if the Clan Lord didn’t believe him and decided to force the truth out of him, things would become extremely unpleasant.
Still... he was betting that his uncle would never go that far; the man was simply too kind and too gentle. Or at least... Liyu hoped he would remain that way and wouldn’t choose to interrogate him. Otherwise... things might truly get out of hand.
Li San finally gathered his thoughts before looking back at Liyu, who was still bowing respectfully. "I’m happy for you, kid. Now I’m no longer that shocked by your growth."
He was naturally referring to how Liyu had seemingly blitzed through the entire Body Refinement Realm in only a month... or rather... a few days, as Liyu himself had claimed. Liyu smiled and nodded; however... the very next words from the Clan Lord caused his face to freeze.
"Still... that isn’t a good enough reason for you to immediately start sending everyone in your clan... your fellow clan members... to death’s door on your very first day back. Is this how you’ve learned to live inside the Beast Forest?"
The Clan Lord asked while raising an eyebrow. Liyu couldn’t help but twitch. Was he really not going to escape punishment? No... he still had to try convincing the Clan Lord that it had all been a misunderstanding.
"Actually... I really had no idea they were that weak. It was only supposed to be a normal spar. Sincerely... I only gave each of them a single slap. And yet they all collapsed. It really isn’t my fault that they were so weak." Liyu said with complete sincerity.
The Clan Lord couldn’t stop his face from twitching after hearing those words. Liyu spoke as though everything he had just said was perfectly normal, but it wasn’t. Not by any means.
What did he mean by slapping people to death’s door? If he truly possessed enough strength to casually do something like that to people on the same cultivation level as himself, then just how monstrously powerful had this kid become?
"Just as I thought... Another monstrous prodigy like Yuexin. No..." Li San couldn’t help but feel that, in certain aspects... this brat might be even more monstrous than Yuexin herself.
Seeing the Clan Lord’s gaze, Liyu immediately put on the most innocent expression he could manage. Deep inside, he was silently praying to every god he had ever heard of... hoping they would help him escape this punishment.
And for once... it seemed they had answered his prayers.
"Okay. Good." The Clan Lord suddenly chuckled; his face was filled with genuine happiness. "It’s good that you can finally stand up for yourself now." He beamed warmly before standing up and ruffling Liyu’s hair as though he were still a little child.
Well... maybe to this old man, he still was. "It is truly good to have you back, kiddo. You may teach your fellow clan members a lesson if they deserve it... but nothing too severe. Otherwise... you really will have to be punished. I’ll pardon you... only this once."
Liyu, hearing that, couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. Finally... he did it. He immediately went down on one knee, ready to unleash another round of flattery from the depths of his heart. "If you say even one more word of flattery... I might need to reconsider."
Liyu instantly froze. "Your Hol..." He paused midway through the sentence; hearing those words, he acted as though he hadn’t been planning to flatter him in the first place. He quickly stood back up, coughing awkwardly.
"Ahem... You can leave for now. I will summon you again once a few things have been settled."
Liyu nodded as he prepared to take his leave; and yet... before he left, his intuition tugged at him once again.
His gaze unconsciously drifted toward the empty seat beside the Clan Lord. It felt... as though something... or someone... was silently staring at him from that seat.
And yet, no matter how carefully he looked... there was clearly nothing there. Still... the strange feeling only grew stronger. Unable to ignore it any longer, Liyu decided to make one final attempt; he silently activated his Origin Eyes.
A faint white ring of light immediately appeared within his pupils. The moment he did so, he sensed a slight disturbance in the flow of spiritual energy around that particular area, yet before he could focus on it... the disturbance disappeared.
Everything returned to its natural flow once more. Liyu frowned; several more seconds passed, but he was still unable to discover anything unusual. In the end, he reluctantly deactivated the Origin Eyes.
After all, they consumed a rather large amount of energy to maintain. At the same time... that strange intuition, which had been insisting that something was there... also vanished completely, as though it had never existed in the first place.
Liyu could only shake his head before leaving with a small smile on his face. Finally... he had escaped punishment.
Once Liyu had left, Li San remained silent for quite a while; only then did he slowly turn his gaze toward the seemingly vacant seat beside him. "So... what do you think?"
The moment those words fell... a figure dressed entirely in black slowly phased into existence. It was almost as though he had been sitting there the entire time.
Actually... he had been there the entire time; it was simply that he had concealed himself so perfectly that no one could sense, detect, or even feel his presence anymore.
The man, however, wore a small frown after revealing himself. The very first words that came out of his mouth immediately caught the Clan Lord off guard: "This is a rather troublesome situation."