Cohabitation with Sword Spirit-Chapter 278 - 17: Every One of You Has Extraordinary Skills

After listening to Wang Jiu's story, most of the Shen Family present had unpleasant expressions.

Because the information was so overwhelming that their relatively limited brain capacity struggled to process it while enduring severe pain.

Just the stories of human meat stew and Phantom Limb Ball were enough to shatter one's worldview. Not to mention, Wang Jiu's words contained many noteworthy points!

For example, who is the Shen Family's ancestor Shen Kaishan? Or which world's Shen Family is he from? As elites from the Outer Courtyard, even the few who don't pay attention to cultural studies at least look at the family tree. Even if not carefully, they would at least flip through the first page. Yet, within the introduction of ancestral history, there's no mention of Shen Kaishan.

Even considering homophones, associations, or dissecting the strokes… no clues related to Shen Kaishan could be found.

Then there's Shen Qingming, what is the deal with her? Why is she surnamed Shen? Weren't they from QingCyan Cloud City, sent as a Li Family envoy group for everyone to humiliate? How did she blend into the Shen Family?! Which branch cultivated this traitor?!

Also, who invented the Physical Divine Techniques that can endure level 40 pain even before reaching the Cloud Surge Realm?!

For a moment, even facing Shen Herong's icy gaze, Shen Family's youths couldn't suppress their desire to discuss, and started to chat among themselves.

"Shen Qingming, I feel I've heard this name somewhere, maybe in the news."

"News? Let me think, was it this one, on the night of January 8th, a Shen Qingming escaped from the West District of Shen City's General Hospital, taking advantage of the guards' negligence?"

"That was a madwoman, not Shen Qingming!"

"Or was it this news? On January 9th, the 33rd successor of sandstone barbecue, Huang Hezu, attempted but failed to obtain Shen Qingming's seat in the hall."

"... How did you manage to extract those three words!?"

The scattered group finally had a young man suddenly recall: "I remember now! Spirit Cat! The newly rising idol in QingCyan Cloud City, Spirit Cat Shen Qingming!"

"What's that? A new lotus scent?"

"It refers to an artist who attracts attention through personal charm!"

"Shen Shuchong, are you indulging in QingCyan Cloud City's decaying culture again? You, a proud son of the Shen Family, obsessed with idol culture—It's utterly disgraceful! I think you need to be influenced and rectified by the culture of War Elephant Club!"

"I look at it with a critical eye! If we don't understand our opponents, how can we eliminate them? Besides, I have no interest in your War Elephant culture!"

While a few youths were arguing about Spirit Cat and War Elephant, another voice suddenly exclaimed.

"I remember now! Isn't she the champion of the QingCyan competition?! I thought her name sounded familiar, Shen Qingming is the tournament champion in QingCyan Cloud City!"

"What!? The cultivator competition supervised by the Holy Sect Envoy? This little girl is the champion?"

With eyes full of shock, people once again focused their attention on Shen Qingming.

"...You must have mistaken someone else; this person, she's clearly only in the Wind-Rising Realm."

"Hold on, let me recall, the news had the champion's portrait, the impression was indeed of a petite figure, like a child… Yes, it's her!"

This conclusion ignited even more discussion and debate in the room.

"Gosh, what's going on in QingCyan Cloud City? Even someone at the Wind-Rising Realm can win the competition?! This scandal is just too much!"

"Exactly! Can't they find even a 20-year-old Cloud Surge Realm there? No matter how deteriorated and incapable the Li Family is, they can't be this weak, right?"

"Thus, it must be a scandal; it is said Shen Qingming is the daughter of Patriarch Li, that's why she competed at only 14 and snagged the championship all the way."

"Gosh, how shameless can the Li Family get? Winning at 14, do they think their daughter is akin to Zhao Chenlu, City Lord Zhao?!"

"But why does Patriarch Li's daughter have the surname Shen?"

"Perhaps it's QingCyan City's unique culture? Think about it, the 'QingCyan' in QingCyan Cloud City sounds like being overshadowed!"

"I see, for some reason, I suddenly feel sympathetic towards the Patriarch Li."

"This issue isn't just within the Li Family; many Great Cultivators have unhappy marriages due to either focusing excessively on Immortal Cultivation or on public duties, causing emotional neglect."

"Haha, isn't that obvious! Can those achieving greatness indulge in romantic entanglements?"

"But aren't humans emotional? How can they be unfeeling?"

"Then replace romantic feelings with the warrior's passion and comradeship! Join our War Elephant Club, and you'll experience such emotional elevation!"

After such discussions, the topic gradually drifted away from the main issues of cultivation, increasingly becoming irrelevant; Shen Herong had to sternly halt this gossip midway.

Meanwhile, he had to quickly contact Shen Yueying.

Since the situation in the field had entirely spiraled out of control.

——

When more and more Shen Family youths reached their endurance limits and signaled to quit, Li Family members remained steadfast, unaffected by the Phantom Limb Ball.

Setting aside Wang Jiu, who earlier displayed extraordinary skills, and the flat-chested girl possessing miraculous Physical Divine Techniques with a pain tolerance index exceeding 40+, the remaining three members of the Li Family also demonstrated remarkable performances.

Most adept was Li Wanqing, who endured level 20 pain while laughing and teasing the Shen Family girl Shen He paired with her, causing Shen He to tremble with excitement and become uncontrollably infatuated.

Even the seemingly weakest, the plump Li Xinyu, was merely drenched in sweat and wheezing heavily—considering his obesity, it was unclear if it was cold sweat or virtual sweat from high fat levels due to pain—and the fortunate fat man was paired with a Shen Family girl as a counterpart. Hearing the girl's painful moaning and gasping, the fat man grinned lasciviously, amusingly rubbing his chubby hands without any sign of distress.

Most exaggerated was Li Chaolu, although in pain with a pale complexion and cold sweat falling like rain, she visibly smiled with enjoyment. After the Shen Family boy training alongside her couldn't hold on and withdraw, she even quietly asked: "Can your Shen Family sell me a Phantom Limb Ball…?"

These people's pain endurance was too exaggerated!

Watching these performances by the Li Family, Shen Herong's eyelids began to twitch.

Although he had anticipated that the Li Family confidently sent these youths as an envoy group to Shen City must have complete trust in their abilities, these individuals were unquestionably Li Family's proud elites. But... their capabilities were somewhat beyond expectations.

Is the Li Family truly this strong?

As an Outer Courtyard instructor, Shen Herong could be considered somewhat among Shen City's higher echelon, with a vision more expansive than the youths. He had quite an in-depth understanding of the Cyan Cloud Li Family.

Especially during the time when Li Fengyun swept through Shen City, Shen Herong witnessed it firsthand. For the following twenty years, the stirring Divine Sword remained his troubling Heart Demon…

Hence, Shen Herong never ceased focusing on the Cyan Cloud Li Family.

Overall, the Li Family's strength was weaker than the Shen Family. Whether it was overall strength or average cultivator standards, the Li Family was clearly at a disadvantage, with their top tier merely ranked middle upper level if placed in the Shen Family Outer Courtyard. As for the legendary talented Li Wanqing, supposedly comparable to Li Fengyun's talent, she wasn't worth too much concern.

For the Shen Family possesses equally peerless talented individuals, like the typically poised and leader-like Shen Feihong, currently the family's attention focus; Shen Qing, who ascended to Cloud Flipping Realm at 18; Shen Wuyong, adept at taking initiative, who reached Cloud Surge Middle Realm at 13; and the one whose efforts provoke sighs, yet with talent leaving one awestruck, Shen Feihu...

At similar levels as Li Wanqing, the Shen Family Outer Courtyard casually could find four others, and below them, despite the Shen Family cadets' lacking talent and capability, they were far from mediocrity.

In such a rigorous Outer Courtyard training environment, mediocrity has no place to survive. In Shen Herong's view, this represents the stark contrast between Shen and Li Families.

Compared to Shen Family's tough environment, the Cyan Cloud Li Family was seemingly synonymous with laziness and complacency, even though relying on talent and resource allocation, they achieve certain accomplishments in cultivation realm. Yet compared to the truly seasoned warriors, the disparity in determination is undeniably vast!

Hence, Shen Herong had confidently used the Phantom Limb to give the Li Family a wake-up call.

But now, it seemed the Li Family gave him a rude awakening instead.

These long-traveled diplomatic envoys truly came with formidable presence.