10th Place?

  With the recovery of his mind, Li Li, at the first stage of the Qi Consolidation realm, dealt with the beast swarm with ease. His claws and spectral spirit beasts demolished the creatures. Neither Li Li nor his captured souls could lose stamina. They could fight against an endless number of spirit beasts and still wouldn't get tired even after fighting millions of them. The only possible way Li Li and his small group of ghostly beasts could be stopped was if someone managed to kill or seal Li Li into a formation. Or he ran out of qi and was overwhelmed.

  Just like his mother, Li Li also had an unfathomable amount of qi within him. So, him running out of qi wouldn't be too common of a situation unless he faced someone several stages above him just like when Jing faced off against the Wise Monkey that nearly enslaved her. Right now, he was using his large quantity of qi to manifest his stored souls and use several techniques from his martial arts given by his mother.

  One of his favorite phantom beasts was the Worm Dragon. It's giant size almost allowed it to match the wall in height. It easily crushed several hundreds of beasts with just one swipe of its tail. The spirit beasts in the wave were helpless against its size. Even those at a higher stage than it couldn't resist against the natural laws of the world and survive that massive body from flattening them. Li Li also liked how worm dragons had very tasty hearts.

  While most of the work was done by the worm dragon, Li Li himself was definitely second in killing the most amount of spirit beasts. Thanks to Mr. Owls full set of martial art techniques, he had no trouble taking out any of the animals with his skills. His combat art, body art, and movement art were all from Mr. Owl's fantastic teachings. Mr. Owl was a highly acclaimed Great Horned Owl from the Messepic Sector.

  Neither Jing nor Li Li knew where this Messepic Sector was located or what it even was but that didn't stop them from reading Mr. Owl's self-defense techniques and realizing just how absurdly powerful they were. Li Li saw his mother pull the book out from her body but she did that often so it wasn't surprising for him at all. She placed many things into her body and pulled many things out of it. He still didn't know how she did it because he couldn't do it no matter how hard he tried. The only thing he could do was take souls in and bring them out differently. It wasn't the same as his mom's though.

  Li Li thought that because he was her son, he could do everything his mother could do. Every time he saw her doing something. He tried to replicate it to. Wielding a whip and using it during battle, making and using talismans to fight with or create formations, and even making his own group of followers just like his mother was. But his followers weren't as good as his mom's.

  They were only filled with the souls of the spirit beast he's stored with his auxiliary martial art, Ghost King's Chilling Breath. None of the dead creatures could talk or express any emotions at all, they didn't have cool weapons of their own, and without Li Li actively using his breathing art to bring them into the physical world, they were stuck around his soul palace inside his body. He still liked the phantom spirit beasts but it wasn't the same as his mom's group. Li Li planned to find other beasts like himself to create a group with and plans to call them the Great Fiends!

"Are you okay Li Li?" Jing asked him.

  She just returned to the top of the wall with the flag bearer from before hanging over the edge with her whip still wrapped around his throat. He's long since given up on resisting and wished for death to take him into its sweet embrace. But Jing couldn't allow such a peaceful death for someone who put her son in one of the worst experiences he's ever gone through. That time when he broke his leg in the cave was probably the worst.

'I'm fine now, Mom. I kept hearing a voice in my head telling me to destroy the wall and had to fight with everything I had so that I didn't follow it. It was only because of my auxiliary art that I could resist at all.' He told her.

"That's good..." She rubbed his head. "Don't worry, I took care of that spirit tool for you. Is there anything you want to do to him for making you go through that awful pain?" Jing asked him in a motherly tone.

  Jing pulled the flag cultivator from over the edge to in front of Li Li. She removed her whip from around his throat and hooked it onto her waist. The 8th stage Qi Gatherer didn't care that he could breathe once more. After what he's experienced, he was only looking forward to the suffering finally ending.

  Li Li stood on top of the man's chest. He was still very small in size so, he didn't put much pressure on the man's ribs. He stared at him with an undefinable expression on his face. The two locked eyes and a certain emotion could be conveyed between the two of them.

'You don't want to live anymore, right?' Li Li connected their souls.

  The man's eyes widened with shock. It was as if he was brought back to live from the edge of death once he heard the beast's voice inside his head.

"What?! You can speak?!" He tried to cry out.

  Jing grabbed his tongue mid-sentence and glared at him to keep his mouth shut. She didn't understand why Li Li was talking to the man but it was better if less people knew of his ability to speak through soul links. Jing hasn't had any time to research anything about souls nor did she know what the standard cultivator thought about spirit beasts speaking human language. Another objective to add to her long list of tasks after the Treasured Plains.

'Death would be better than this torture...' He responded.

'Hmm. Unlike my mom, I actually don't like to cause people pain. It seems unnecessary to me. I hate what you did to me but I think my mom put you through enough. I'll send you off without any pain.' Li Li told him.

'Thank you...' Tears fell from his eyes.

  Li Li concentrated most of his qi within his middle talon and gently tapped against the skull of the disciple. A powerful tiny beam of concentrated energy passed through the front of his skull to the back and fizzled out before it could pierce through the top of the wall to the bottom. Li Li just remembered that protecting the wall was one of the things his mom wanted him to do. If he didn't hold back with his martial technique, the inside of the wall would have a clean hole straight through it right now.

"Well, I would've done something a little worse but as long as you're satisfied." Jing petted him just as the floor was finally cleared.

  Some people looked up into the skies to see the scores which led to those who had no experience with the Great Tower copy their actions. The top 10 participants were especially interesting to Jing. She barely made it on to the top 10 at all, she was in 10th place. All of the names above her weren't unfamiliar.

  In first place was Gong Jun with second place being Tang Wuying with only 1 kill behind him. Third and fourth place was Song and Chaun respectively. Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth were all claimed by the Wolfeng Gang. Wenling in fifth, Ears in sixth, Du Lin in seventh, Zihao in eighth, and Scars in ninth. Her score wasn't very surprising as she herself didn't personally kill any beasts. Her formations did all the work and even then, all of them were destroyed in the end and didn't even kill a quarter of the beasts in the beast wave.

  Jing was very surprised that Li Li wasn't anywhere on the scoreboard. Seeing him massacre all those spirit beasts must have netted him somewhere near the top 10. It would be crazy if he wasn't. But it turns out it really was crazy, as Li Li was nowhere to be seen. Jing guessed that because he was a spirit beast, he must not count as a tower participant or something. How unfair to her son. He deserves rewards for participating in the tower too. Jing will just reward him with something similar to what Gong and Tang got for getting first and second place. She felt that he was certainly close to their score.

"Jing! We need plenty of healing talismans! And some qi recovery talismans! And maybe some other stuff too!" Wenling called out to her from the bottom of the wall.

  Behind her were most of the Wolfeng Gang covered in injuries that ranged from minor scratches and bruises to deep lacerations in the skin, broken bones, and torn limbs.

"I'm surprised you all managed to survive with this many people left. Very well, I'll be down in a moment." Jing responded at a normal volume but somehow still managing to have her words enter the ears of every surviving Wolfeng Gang member below.