"How did you guess?" Li Shilian asked with great interest, no longer in a hurry to return.
"A tall tree attracts the wind, the wind shakes the tree!" Li Zhirui said, "The two businesses our family runs in the marketplace are so booming that every day a huge amount of Spirit Stones come in, surely stirring up envy."
"Not to mention, the very existence of our family is a threat to those three families. With the family's growth momentum being so strong now, of course, they want to hinder our progress. Do you think they'd just watch idly as our family rises and eventually swallows theirs?"
Li Shilian suddenly understood, but the three men's faces were ashen. If Li Zhirui had not guessed it, maybe they could have survived a little longer, but now that the reason had been deduced, their existence had lost its value.
In fact, the calculations of these three families were not flawed. If today it had been Li Shilian alone going to the marketplace, even if he had the assistance of the Stone Ape, he would ultimately have been injured or even fallen.
But it just so happened that today was the day Li Shiting and Li Shiren were handing over duties; one could only say that their fate was unfortunate.
Another very important reason was that the various powers around them did not know that the Li family had once been a vassal force of Beast Taming Sect. They were also unaware that most of the Li family's cultivators had raised a Spirit Beast, thus underestimating the combat power of the Li family's cultivators.
"Alright, you go to the marketplace first. I'll take these people back to Da Rong Island and imprison them to see how the Clan Leader decides to deal with this matter." Since it was a major issue, Li Shilian couldn't possibly settle it privately.
"Don't be smug! It's not just our three families who want to make a move on you!" someone yelled hysterically.
Li Shilian's face turned grim, but no matter what methods he used to interrogate them, the three men stubbornly kept silent. Instead, they looked at his face which was full of surprise and let out bursts of satisfying laughter.
The three split up, with Li Shiting taking Li Zhirui as usual to the marketplace, while Li Shilian scattered everyone's aura on the way back to the family to avoid leaving evidence that could allow the three men's families to find concrete proof of the Li family's actions.
Even without proof, they could guess that it was the Li family who took action, but at least they wouldn't be able to take evidence to Yuanming Sect to adjudicate the matter.
...
"Aren't you going to the marketplace to settle accounts? Why did you come back so soon?" Li Shiqing asked with confusion as Li Shilian appeared suddenly before him.
In order not to let more family members know about this matter, Li Shilian had deliberately hidden the three men in a corner of the island and had not brought them directly to see Li Shiqing.
"I'll explain to Second Brother later. Follow me for now." With that, Li Shilian flew towards where the people were hidden, with Li Shiqing hastily casting a spell to follow.
Upon seeing the three Foundation Establishment cultivators in a deep sleep, Li Shiqing's eyebrows knitted tightly, "What is this…"
Then Li Shilian told Li Shiqing about today's encounter and shared Li Zhirui's conjecture.
"A tall tree attracts the wind?" Li Shiqing sighed, "Such a simple truth, and yet I forgot! It looks like it's time for the younger generation to take over as the Clan Leader."
As soon as these words came out, Li Shilian could no longer focus on dealing with the three cultivators, and hastily said, "Second Brother, you must not say such things! The family still needs your leadership now!"
"Hm." But before Li Shilian could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard the Clan Leader continue, "Zhirui's cultivation is still too weak for now. At the very least, we must wait until he breaks through Foundation Establishment before handing over the position of Clan Leader to him."
"Second Brother, you want Li Zhirui to be the Clan Leader?" Li Shilian asked in astonishment, "Zhirui certainly is clever and has made significant contributions to the family, but he is of too low seniority."
"If he becomes the Clan Leader, how would he handle it if an elder makes a mistake? How can a junior like him step forward to deal with it?"
Li Shiqing was unfazed, "Don't we still have us? I believe that under Zhirui's leadership, the Li family will surely thrive."
"Besides, who else in the family do you think is capable of taking on the heavy responsibility of being the Clan Leader?"
Li Shiren was careless, and Li Shiting was cold in temperament. Since no other members of the Shi generation had the potential to break through to the Foundation Establishment level, the choice of the next Clan Leader would have to come from the Zhi generation.
Among the younger generation of the clan, Li Zhirui had good aptitude and an even better mind, and he had a strong affection for the family. Who else could take the position of Clan Leader if not him?
Of course, Li Shiqing's desire to step down wasn't merely a spur-of-the-moment idea that arose from this oversight; it had more to do with his ambition to seek a higher realm!
Previously, because he was always worried about the family, Li Shiqing could only suppress his yearning for The Great Tao, but now, since there was a very good successor, he found it difficult to contain himself any longer.
"That's enough, talking about this now is still too early, let's deal with the matter at hand first." Seeing that Li Shilian wanted to keep persuading, Li Shiqing preemptively changed the subject.
A hint of murderous intent flashed in Li Shilian's eyes, and he said without hesitation, "Just kill them, to teach those three families a lesson!"
"Take them out before you act, in case they have any special marks on them." One must absolutely not give others any handle to use against them.
Li Shilian understood and immediately grabbed the three men and flew out of Da Rong Island, not stopping until he approached Red Pine Island. He first struck to shatter their Dantian, causing them to fall into unconsciousness, then tossed them into the sea. Watching them being cleanly devoured by fish, Li Shilian swiftly erased his own presence and left at high speed.
At the same time, in the ancestral halls of the three major families, fragments of Life Tokens appeared.
Life Tokens were closely connected to the cultivators; the shattering of a Life Token meant the fall of the cultivator!
The sudden death of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was a very serious matter for the three major families.
"Wasn't Zheng Mingkai ambushing that Li Shilian with the Foundation Establishment cultivators from the other two families? How could he have fallen so suddenly!" Patriarch Zheng shouted angrily.
He could not believe that with such an overwhelming advantage on their side, Zheng Mingkai would suddenly fall. There must be some other reason!
"Patriarch, could it be possible that after the ambush, there was an uneven distribution of the loot, and the cultivators from the other two families joined forces to kill Mingkai?"
However, soon after, the other two families sent people to inform the Zheng Family that they too had lost Foundation Establishment cultivators and asked whether Zheng Mingkai was still alive.
After the three families compared notes, they arrived at an unbelievable conclusion.
"Was it the Li family who made a move!?" Patriarch Zheng exclaimed in disbelief, "Li Shilian is merely at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment; how could he possibly escape the ambush?"
Even if he managed to escape and called for reinforcements from Da Rong Island, it wouldn't result in total annihilation of their three men!
The other two families also felt it was unlikely, but no matter how much they didn't want to accept it, that was the reality.
It couldn't be that all three were simply unlucky enough to encounter a large group of the Sea Clan, or a passing Golden Core cultivator, could it?
In the end, it was because outsiders didn't understand the Li family well enough, they didn't know the true strength of the Li family, nor the family's background and hidden cards, leading to this cognitive discrepancy.
As the anger gradually subsided, the three families suddenly remembered something very serious. Now that the Li family surely knew they were being targeted jointly by them, would they take this opportunity to wipe out their three families?
The life of a Foundation Establishment cultivator was enough to turn them into mortal enemies. With such deep hatred and the Li family in a position of advantage, wouldn't they want to eradicate them completely?
Therefore, for a long time afterward, the upper echelons of the three major families were plunged into a state of panic, fearing that the Li family might suddenly make a move against them.