Starting with a Family System to Become an Immortal Official Chapter 98

Xu Lingxi’s vision swam with pain and blood.

Her cheek pressed into the hot sand as every breath felt like a sharp stab in her ribs.

Slowly and weakly, she forced her head up.

Through a haze of red and grit, she saw him.

Li Qingmu crouched right in front of her as his elbows rested casually on his knees.

His face was only a foot away.

That familiar lazy, half-lidded gaze met hers.

A crooked smile hung at the corner of his mouth.

"Li... Qingmu...?"

She rasped with a small and painful voice.

He tilted his head slightly and his smile widened a bit.

"What are you doing here, Holy Daughter Xu?"

He spoke with a little sarcasm.

"The exam’s gonna wrap up soon. Shouldn’t you be rushing off to hand in those pill bottles by now?"

He scratched his chin, then gave her a side-eye.

"Or... knowing you, you probably took all the pill bottles just so I wouldn’t get even one, hmm?"

Xu Lingxi’s eyelids fluttered.

She was too exhausted to muster real anger.

"Sorry. I can’t move right now."

Her voice was soft and submissive.

But not as much as her limpid purple eyes.

Li Qingmu’s eyebrows shot straight up.

"Really?"

Before she could process it, one arm stretched out.

His palm landed squarely on the curve of her hip then slid down and boldly cupped her backside.

"Not even if I do this?"

Xu Lingxi’s face exploded bright red.

"Y-, You—! Why are you so shameless?!"

She shrieked like a helpless little girl.

He gave one playful squeeze.

"Ooooh~ so super soft!"

"Stop it!"

She yelled as she tried to swat his hand away but barely able to lift her arm.

Li Qingmu chuckled low in his throat.

His fingers wandered to squeeze her waist, then brush the side of her ribs, then shamelessly and sensually palm the soft blobs of her robust chest through torn fabric.

Xu Lingxi has such nice breasts.

They are soft and healthy.

"Pervert! Don’t touch there!"

"Li Qingmu—stop!"

"Get your filthy hands off me!"

Statements that fell on deaf ears.

He kept going for a few more seconds, clearly enjoying her flustered outrage, until she finally bellowed his full name at the top of her lungs.

"LI QINGMU!"

He finally relented.

"Okay. Okay."

He pulled his hand back with an innocent shrug.

"Sorry about that."

Xu Lingxi let out a long, bone-deep sigh.

Much like an old widow who’d seen every disappointment life could offer.

"I don’t care if you die or not. Just... at least help me get Xiao Bai and Auntie Chuyan out of here. You don’t know anything about that creature in front of us."

Li Qingmu finally glanced forward.

Hai Tung Wan stood motionless, webbed claws flexing as its violet spiritual energy coiled like angry water serpents around its mangled body.

『Good. If this strange human feels my aura, he’ll run with his tail between his legs. Then I won’t have to deal with whatever that earlier instinct was.』

Its hands were still trembling faintly.

But to its growing confusion and fury—

Li Qingmu’s eyes merely turned half-lidded.

Bored. Underwhelmed.

The tiniest curl of contempt touched his lips.

Hai Tung Wan nearly snarled.

『What is that look? What kind of arrogance is this mortal displaying? It’s infuriating!』

Water spiritual energy roared to life around its fists.

Li Qingmu ignored it completely and turned back to his beautiful Lady Xu Lingxi.

"What are you talking about?"

She sighed again, long-suffering.

"Are people in the Mortal Realm really this stupid? That thing is a high-level fiend beast possessing a violet-grade water spirit root!"

"Ohhh..."

Li Qingmu nodded slowly like he was finally starting to understand something trivial.

He glanced back at Hai Tung Wan.

Then looked away again as if bored.

"Where’s the high-level beast, though?"

He lifted a brow.

"All I see is a woman-beater, heh."

Hai Tung Wan exploded.

"Watch your mouth, mortal filth!"

Li Qingmu scooted forward on his haunches until he was right beside Xu Lingxi again.

One hand absently patted her soft and springy butt like he was soothing an angry kitten.

"I mean... you killed plenty of cultivators out here... but the moment you found a woman, that’s when you really decided to vent your anger? Sounds like a classic woman-beater to me. Why get offended when I’m just stating facts? I really don’t get you people."

He gave a tiny shrug.

Xu Lingxi whipped her head around.

"Can you stop touching my butt?! I am the Holy Daughter of the Xu family! No man who isn’t my husband may touch me like this and you are nowhere near qualified!"

Li Qingmu tilted his head and yawned.

One pinky lazily dug into his ear.

Xu Lingxi’s voice rose even higher.

"DON’T IGNORE ME!"

Up on the central dais.

Song Yan slapped a palm over her beautiful face so hard it left a red mark.

"How does he find a way to joke at a time like this...?"

She sunk so low in her chair she nearly melted into it.

The shame was unbearable.

Ye Zirou should have been delighted.

Instead she sat rigid, fingers tight around her teacup.

Gu Bingyue noticed.

"All well?"

Ye Zirou hesitated. "...Yes."

But inwardly it wasn’t.

『Li Qingmu is no fool. He’s never confident unless victory is certain. It was the same when he fought my brother—he was utterly calm because he knew he would win. Could he have some trick up his sleeve?』

She straightened her back because of her massive chest and tried to force calm into her heart.

Beside her, Gu Linyuan kept his gentle, superior smile.

This would be Li Qingmu’s final day beneath the heavens and he was sure of it!

Down below.

Li Qingmu tilted his head left, then right, as if inspecting Hai Tung Wan from new angles.

"So..."

He asked Xu Lingxi casually.

"What exactly does a man need to undoubtedly qualify as your husband?"

She let out a soft, indignant hmph.

"It’s none of your business... but strength. Strength that far surpasses most of the Xu family’s experts. Noble blood isn’t required—the Xu family isn’t so shallow as to judge solely by background."

Li Qingmu nodded slowly.

"Hm. So if I defeat this weird whatever beast... would that put me roughly on the same level as some of your Xu family experts? Don’t lie."

"That will never happen. I don’t need to lie."

Xu Lingxi scoffed.

"This beast is comparable to a Grandmaster realm expert. You have no hope."

He nodded again.

"Hmmm."

Auntie Chuyan gathered the last dregs of strength.

"Please. Just run away with the young miss. That’s all this old servant begs."

Xu Lingxi screamed immediately.

"NO! I’m not leaving without Auntie!"

She struck her fist against the sand.

"If you dare try that nonsense, I’ll kill you myself!"

Li Qingmu folded his arms and sighed.

"These women are really a handful..."

He muttered to himself.

"Can’t they just let me decide for once?"

He clicked his tongue sharply.

Hai Tung Wan had reached its limit.

"You bastard—thinking you can joke in the presence of an immortal beast!"

Water surged into its right fist and compressed into a huge sphere of violet liquid.

The air itself groaned.

BOOOOM!

It launched forward like a cannon as its fist screamed toward Li Qingmu’s chest. The entire Thousand Empty Sea Domain trembled as though an angry dragon had awoken beneath the sand.

On the dais, Ye Zirou’s lips curved.

"Even a Grandmaster realm expert would turn to ash against that strike. He is surely dead."

Gu Bingyue hid a laugh behind her teacup.

Song Yan clasped her hands to her chest.

『Please... please let him be alright...』

Gu Linyuan laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Prayers are worthless. Even this King realm expert would struggle against such an attack. A measley Core Formation cultivator like Li Qingmu is surely—"

A tired voice cut through the rumbling aftermath.

"Immortal beast?"

Everyone froze.

Down below, Li Qingmu stood completely unharmed.

One finger.

Just one casually extended finger had caught Hai Tung Wan’s full-powered punch dead.

Xu Lingxi and Chuyan stared in silence.

They were utterly stunned.

"Impossible..."

Auntie Chuyan whispered.

Xu Lingxi’s voice trembled.

"He’s only Core Formation! Even with a Heaven-Dao Golden Core... how can he block an immortal beast’s strike with a single finger? The difference should be like a cup of water facing the entire ocean!"

Hai Tung Wan stared at its own fist in disbelief.

It couldn’t push forward another inch.

An overwhelming force coming from that one slender finger locked it in place.

Li Qingmu smiled up at the towering beast.

"When I marry a beauty like Xu Lingxi... I’ll be sure to raise a toast in your honor."

Hai Tung Wan’s rage ignited.

But before it could react, Li Qingmu’s other palm flipped up in a flash.

Great water gathered instantly and compressed into a blinding point of light.

Then he flicked it forward.

A sea of razor-sharp water blades erupted outward.

The desert screamed.

Sand split, dunes collapsed, the air itself was shredded into misty ribbons.

When the torrent finally dried and sank back into the ground...

Hai Tung Wan still stood.

But more than half its body was gone.

The entire right side...

Arm, shoulder, chest, part of the face...

They’d all been torn away as though a shark had taken a big chomp out of the beast.

『My body...』

Hai Tung Wan’s body went numb.

『Tempered by heaven and earth, baptized in the blood essence of the Great Water Spirit... the most perfect vessel of the Great Water Dao... indestructible... the very manifestation of water itself... how can a water attack harm me!? It shouldn’t even be possible!』

Li Qingmu planted a hand on his hip and grinned.

"I’m the father of the future Water Heavenly King."

He dusted his palms gently as he spoke.

"I also possess a violet water spirit root, Heavenly Water Dao Bone that makes my water cultivation stronger just by existing. Sure, you might be able to slaughter Grandmaster level experts... but to me?"

He chuckled with contempt.

"You’re just a minor nuisance."

Hai Tung Wan’s mind fractured.

『He means... even though my realm is higher... his water completely overshadows mine!?』

It blinked and suddenly Li Qingmu was already standing right in front of it again.

When did he move—!?

Li Qingmu looked up as he stroked his chin.

It was still there...

That smug and utterly condescending look.

"Don’t tell me... water cultivation is all you’ve got?"

Hai Tung Wan took shaky steps back.

"This man is the peak of water cultivation!"