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Chapter 824: 830
After spending half a month on meticulous investigation, Li Mingzi was certain of one thing regarding Li Mingkui—it was no mistake, someone had done it on purpose!
Their goal was very simple, to switch things surreptitiously and seize resources!
They aimed to transfer the qualifications of some clan members without backing over to their own faction’s name, thus obtaining more resources from the family.
It’s known that the Li family had never abolished the "birth" rewards; the better the qualifications of the offspring conceived, the more substantial the amount of resources awarded.
On top of that, there were other resources favored, such as the family’s key cultivation support, and so on.
The tampering mostly took place with the purity of the Spiritual Roots a factor not easily noticed, after all, the number of Spiritual Roots, as well as the Spiritual Body, were too easy to expose.
The reason for hiding Li Mingkui’s Spiritual Body was mainly due to the Li family obtaining a Fourth-grade Thunder-attribute Spirit Beast Egg. Among the elders’ faction, there was an individual with highly pure Thunder Spiritual Root and Three Spiritual Roots, who was just on the verge of a Golden Core breakthrough and lacked a second Contracted Spirit Beast.
With his background and cultivation, if nothing unexpected happened, the Spirit Beast Egg would be allocated to him.
However, that very year, Li Mingkui was tested to have Thunder-Fire Dual Spirit Roots, as well as a Kui Lei Spirit Body—a set of exceptional qualifications. The family was very likely to use a Secret Technique to preserve the Spirit Beast Egg for a few years and wait for Li Mingkui to formally begin cultivation.
Having no other choice, the elder risked concealing Li Mingkui’s Spiritual Body to eliminate this threat.
Although over a hundred years had passed, Li Mingkui’s meteoric rise as a dark horse caught Li Mingzi’s attention, leading her to start investigating the truth behind it.
Li Mingzi now could hardly wait to seize all those involved, but looking at the long list of names, she eventually fell silent.
Even though the successive Clan Leaders had been dedicated to eradicating the family’s factional powers, such things were indeed impossible to resolve completely!
As the Li family had developed to its current stage, even though everyone’s bloodline originated from a single person, in reality, most clan members no longer had any actual blood relation.
And this was a problem that had to be faced once family powers reached a certain level.
Naturally, those clan members with closer blood ties would be more intimate with each other than with the rest, and would slowly cluster together.
Once this happened, others, whether for the purpose of opposition or to ensure their own interests, would gradually start to connect and gather.
In fact, strictly speaking, the Li Zhirui family was the biggest faction in the Li family!
The sole Divine Transformation, along with a partner and children who were all Nascent Souls, and those Contracted Spirit Beasts, accounted for more than half of the family’s strength!
Fortunately, there were only four people in Li Zhirui’s family, and they always kept a low profile, not making a public appearance unless necessary. Otherwise, the various factions would not have been so quiet and would have long since fought openly for power and profit.
And the faction that Li Mingzi wanted to make a move against was relatively powerful within the family, including several Golden Core clan members and an elder with actual authority.
As the Li family’s business expanded, the need to deal with more matters grew. Originally, the elders were short-handed, so a group of elders specializing in certain affairs were established, which the clan jokingly referred to as junior elders.
And elders like the Internal Affairs Elder and the External Affairs Elder held real power, each of them in control of a certain direction of the Li family’s authority.
"I’m afraid I’ll have to ask Ancestor Rui for help," Li Mingzi did not want to disturb this revered ancestor’s cultivation, but given the gravity of the situation, her authority as Clan Leader might not be sufficient to resolve the matter.
By the time Li Mingzi met Li Zhirui, it was already two days later.
She succinctly summarized the matter and then quietly sat in place, waiting for Li Zhirui’s decision.
"Over a hundred years," Li Zhirui remarked calmly, yet Li Mingzi’s heart quivered. Although she didn’t have much contact with Ancestor Rui, she had learned of the old ancestor’s temperament from the previous Clan Leader.
For instance, when he truly became angry, it was not with thunderous fury, but like a calm sea surface harboring tumultuous waves underneath that no one could withstand!
"How many clan members’ qualifications were altered? And how many resources were seized from the family?" he asked.
Li Mingzi hurriedly replied, "Preliminary counts indicate more than five hundred clan members had their qualifications tampered with, and the resources amount to no less than ten million Spirit Stones."
"Mmm, I see," Li Zhirui responded indifferently, and then he asked, "Did they notice you were investigating?"
"No, I used the Dark Department."
"Hand over the full list of clan members involved in this affair to me, regardless of their status or cultivation level! And then..."
Li Zhirui’s voice became ethereal, faint, yet every single word entered Li Mingzi’s ears without fail, "Summon all clan members you can to return!"
Li Mingzi was horrified, cold sweat beading on her forehead, her throat felt as if someone had grabbed it, and it was a good while before she could utter a hoarse "Yes."
Li Zhirui sent her out of the Secret Realm and, looking at the lake surface with a few scattered white lotuses, he muttered to himself, "Why don’t you understand to restrain the desires in your hearts?"
He felt he’d been quite fair to those factions—merely repressing them, never actually striking them down, and they had never been shortchanged in the slightest in terms of their deserved benefits and resources!
Yet even so, they were never satisfied.
After leaving the Spirit Realm, Li Mingzi realized she was covered in a cold sweat, an extremely uncomfortable sensation, but without any delay, she hurried back to the grand hall at her utmost speed.
Dang, dang, dang—
A series of nine consecutive bell tolls sent tremors through all the clan members on Wanxian Island.
"What’s going on?"
"Could it be that a Divine Transformation is about to act against our family?"
All the clan members felt unease and agitation, with horrific thoughts emerging in their minds.
It was known that the nine bell tolls only rang out when the family faced the threat of destruction!
Even when Li Zhirui broke through to Divine Transformation, an event of great importance, the Li family had only rung the bell seven times!
Moreover, the bell sound spread throughout Wanxian Province and reached every family settlement via the Sound Transmission Array.
All clan members had to put aside what they were doing and rush back to Wanxian Island.
Streaks of Spirit Light appeared in the skies above Wanxian Province, resembling a spectacular meteor shower, with their destination being the large island to the east!
"What major event has occurred in the Li family?"
Such magnitude naturally could not be hidden from the eyes of various Cultivators.
Certainly, the Li family did not attempt to conceal it.
The sky full of meteors astounded all Cultivators, who previously only knew of the Li family’s great strength but now gained a more precise understanding.
"Do you think, with all Li family Cultivators leaving, that means those marketplaces, Spirit Fields, mines..."
The Cultivator spoke, his voice unconsciously lowering, his eyes overtaken by avarice, "Are all unguarded!" 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"If you want to die, I can lend you a hand."
His companion was cool-headed, speaking with a grim expression, "Don’t involve us and our family!"
