Kunpeng World. Azure Crane City. Crane Sun Tower. Two titans of the Heavenly Ranking, the Wine Immortal ranked seventeenth, and the Guard Fei ranked nineteenth, were both present in this tower. The Wine Immortal and Guard Fei were quite familiar with each other, so they held no reservations about their past defeat, instead chatting about how if they ever encountered Li Taishi, they would certainly settle that old score—not necessarily to kill him, but merely to bring disgrace upon the Confucian Civilization, given that the Deputy Master of the Confucian Civilization had also only chastised Li Taishi back then, rather than killing him.

Guard Fei remarked, "That Li Taishi, so young, yet he managed to slay both Zhu Tianren and Wang Xueze working in tandem. Defeating him naturally wouldn't be difficult for you, but defeating him within ten moves might prove somewhat challenging."

The Wine Immortal declared brazenly, "He cannot possibly leave my hands unscathed for ten moves. If I lacked such confidence, I wouldn't deserve the name Wine Immortal. It’s just a pity that finding Li Taishi in the Kunpeng World is no easy feat now. If he truly appeared before me, I would certainly give him a good showing."

"Is that so?" A clear, resonant voice sounded. Both the Wine Immortal and Guard Fei turned simultaneously to see a scholar in white robes approaching, hands clasped behind his back. This scholar was exceedingly handsome, possessing an ineffable, elegant bearing.

The Wine Immortal immediately exclaimed, "Li Taishi!" Li Taishi had only recently become famous, but the Wine Immortal paid extraordinary attention to the Confucian Civilization and had previously inquired about Li Taishi's appearance, thus recognizing him instantly.

Guard Fei was also startled. Was this handsome young scholar truly Li Taishi, the new titan of the Heavenly Ranking? He couldn't help but be amazed! So young! So handsome!

"You say I cannot last ten moves under your hand; I, in turn, say, let's see if you can last ten moves under mine," Lu Yuan stated calmly.

How audacious! How utterly arrogant! Did he know to whom he was speaking? His audience was one of the giants on the Heavenly Ranking. Every single titan on the Heavenly Ranking was no ordinary figure. Those ranked in the teens were already quite close to the Civilization Realm. Truly, under the Civilization Realm, only about ten people could defeat the Wine Immortal. While there were a few as arrogant as Li Taishi, their rankings were significantly higher. Who would expect someone like Li Taishi, ranked merely in the forties on the Heavenly Ranking and so young, to exhibit such astonishing arrogance? It was simply unimaginable.

Guard Fei was also staggered by Li Taishi's arrogance. Having long resided on the Heavenly Ranking, he had witnessed countless figures of staggering genius, yet he had never encountered anyone so blatantly presumptuous. This was hardly in line with the purported gentle and polite demeanor of the Confucian Civilization.

The Wine Immortal laughed heartily, "Good, good, good! Let me see the prowess of the current successor of the Confucian Civilization."

The Wine Immortal was thoroughly provoked and abandoned all pretense of courtesy. In a surge of anger, he unleashed his first move: The Red and White Great Wall. The Red and White Great Wall was a type of wine, and now this stream of liquid had transformed into a formidable wall, surging directly toward Lu Yuan—a wall of wine, the boundary of a world made of wine, a paradise of liquor, assaulting Lu Yuan head-on. The Wine Immortal earned his title precisely because his techniques were based on wine, and his first move was the technique named Red and White Great Wall.

Seeing this move, Lu Yuan couldn't help but rejoice. He immediately activated the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao. Although named a Sword Dao, it did not strictly require a sword; it could replicate the opponent's techniques. If it was a sword move, it could be copied in one attempt; for other techniques, multiple attempts might be necessary.

This was the normal case. However, Lu Yuan himself possessed an extraordinary aptitude for the Dao of Wine, given his habitual fondness for drinking. Furthermore, facing an assault on the Dao of Civilization via wine at this moment, his mastery of the Wine Dao was not inferior to his mastery of the Sword Dao. His innate talent for the Wine Dao was also astonishingly high. Because of this, Lu Yuan copied the Red and White Great Wall in a single attempt. Not only that, but by seizing this technique, his understanding of the Wine Dao deepened further.

Seeing his first strike fail, the Wine Immortal immediately deployed the Drunken Haze of Lanling. This technique was based on Lanling wine. The ancient verse, "Lanling fine wine, rich as tulip, poured into jade bowls, glowing like amber; if only the host could intoxicate the guest, who knows where his home might be," was used to describe this exquisite liquor. As the Wine Immortal unleashed the Drunken Haze of Lanling, Lu Yuan momentarily felt as if he had forgotten much of what he knew—such was the power of this technique. But Lu Yuan had already activated the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao and instantly copied the move, simultaneously using it to further deepen his comprehension of the Wine Dao.

The Wine Immortal inwardly paused, surprised that even two moves failed to subdue Lu Yuan. He then summoned the technique of Liu Ling's Drunkenness. Liu Ling had reached a state of inebriation that Lu Yuan himself hadn't matched; Liu Ling once constructed a massive container, filled it with wine, and submerged himself within to drink continuously. As the Wine Immortal launched this move, he submerged Lu Yuan in an ocean of wine teeming with infinite killing moves. Lu Yuan immediately activated the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao, instantly copying this technique as well, allowing his grasp of the Wine Dao to advance yet again.

The Wine Immortal, having failed with three consecutive moves, grew ruthless and deployed his ultimate technique, the Second Pot Old Burn. This move followed the intensity path of a potent distiller's spirit, but its ferocity was ten thousand times that of the original. An ordinary person would die instantly upon a single sip, and the wine transformed from the Second Pot Old Burn carried boundless destructive power. Lu Yuan was fiercely seared by the intensity, but having experienced the Second Pot Old Burn before, Lu Yuan's own attainment in the Wine Dao was considerable. Simultaneously absorbing more of the Wine Immortal's mastery into his own framework via the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao was the essence of the technique.

The Wine Immortal unleashed several more consecutive moves—the Double Ditch Drunken Ape, Osmanthus Intoxication, Heaven Swallowing Gulp, and more—but in all his successive attacks, he could not subdue Lu Yuan. On the contrary, Lu Yuan had stolen too many of his hard-won insights into the Wine Dao, a fact the Wine Immortal was utterly unaware of.

In the blink of an eye, the Wine Immortal had used dozens of moves without making any headway against Lu Yuan.

The Wine Immortal was now attacking in a frenzy, deeply humiliated. He no longer cared about the count of ten moves.

Lu Yuan noticed that through the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao, he had absorbed much of the opponent’s profound insights into the Wine Dao, reaching what felt like a critical peak. He could not assimilate the Wine Immortal's deepest, most core secrets; this now exceeded the scope of what the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao could achieve. Lu Yuan roared, "Wine Immortal, you've attacked dozens of times. It seems your ten moves are spent. Now it is my turn to attack; let's see if you can withstand ten of my moves."

The Wine Immortal’s face turned ashen; he felt utterly disgraced.

Lu Yuan then stated, "Furthermore, I shall use attacks rooted in the Wine Dao. How do you fare against that?"

The Wine Immortal felt an even greater sense of shame. This Li Taishi was going to employ Wine Dao attacks too? Was this an intentional reciprocal act designed to humiliate him?

Lu Yuan paid no mind. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed the first move: Curved Wine. This was the curved wine sold by the young woman below Mount Hua years ago. So many years had passed that the wine-seller was likely nothing more than dust by now, but Lu Yuan still remembered the taste of that wine—a favorite during his time on Mount Hua, a flavor of nostalgia instantly manifested. As this first move struck, the Wine Immortal suddenly realized that he, the dignified Wine Immortal, was already being outmatched in the Wine Dao by this junior, Li Taishi; in a single move, the advantage had shifted. Lu Yuan pressed his attack: the second move, Muddled Wine, embodying the flavor of willful confusion.

The third move was Tumultuous Heavenly Wine, the fourth, Wine of Longzhong's Debate, the fifth, A Wine House Hidden in White Clouds, and the sixth, Wine in the Maple Forest Night.

In a mere flip of his hand, he reached the eighth move, and Lu Yuan shockingly produced a book.

This book contained countless principles of wine!

"Heaven and Earth are vast, but the Dao is supreme!" Lu Yuan shouted, his body expanding limitlessly, and the book grew just as immense: "The Dao of Wine, manifest!" The Wine Immortal struggled within the pages of the book, realizing that the principles of wine recorded within were far more profound than his own; he was completely buried within the logic of wine.

Lu Yuan had merely defended until this point, ultimately defeating the seventeenth-ranked Wine Immortal in just nine moves. This outcome terrified the Wine Immortal himself, while Guard Fei watched from the sidelines, utterly dumbfounded. He had never imagined Li Taishi possessed such terrifying power.

In truth, Lu Yuan's current combat strength was only slightly superior to those ranked in the teens, marginally better than the Wine Immortal. However, because he had stolen the Wine Immortal’s techniques via the Myriad Manifestations Senluo Sword Dao, his own mastery of the Wine Dao was augmented by the Wine Immortal's, which is why he won so easily in a mere nine moves.

Lu Yuan did not kill the Wine Immortal. Since the Wine Immortal was neither purely good nor evil, and had never intended to kill him, he did not fall into Lu Yuan’s category for execution. Lu Yuan was no mass murderer. Since beginning his cultivation, the number of people he had slain was certainly less than one hundred and fifty, perhaps not even reaching one hundred.

His consistent principle was never to execute an innocent person. He only killed the treacherous, the wicked, the depraved, and those who displayed lethal intent toward him.

Lu Yuan simply confiscated all of the Wine Immortal's unopened wines. This was his primary objective: to borrow wine to achieve a breakthrough.

......

Wine. Lu Yuan ceaselessly drank the wine. After consuming about half of the Wine Immortal's supply—roughly one hundred thousand catties—he finally achieved a breakthrough.

The character 'Wine' in his spiritual sense erupted in brilliant white light. His strength advanced considerably. Now, overwhelming the Wine Immortal was even easier. Lu Yuan estimated his current standing to be around the tenth position on the Heavenly Ranking. This calculation stemmed from the battle with the Wine Immortal: his base rank was in the twenties; the illumination of the 'Sword' character had elevated him into the teens; thus, the 'Wine' character granting him a boost to the tenth position was entirely plausible.

Next, he must cultivate the character 'Righteousness' (Zheng).

This time, the path of Righteousness would likely not be easy. Sword and Wine were ingrained deep within his bones, but Righteousness was not yet so intrinsic. The difficulty would probably be higher. This was why he had left Righteousness behind the cultivation of Wine and Sword. But no matter how difficult, it must succeed.

Lu Yuan sat cross-legged. The myriad teachings of righteousness imparted by Li Yuanbai, the Deputy Master of the Confucian Civilization, flowed through his mind. Simultaneously, he held the primordial character 'Righteousness' aloft in his consciousness. Yet, even so, the hazy gray 'Righteousness' character in his spiritual sense remained completely inert, showing no sign of releasing its white light. (To be continued)