The head of the child’s mother was crushed instantly by a hand made of Spiritual Qi that appeared out of nowhere. Brain matter and blood splattered everywhere. Some of the blood landed just a short distance in front of Ye Xuan.
"No!"
This woman was Ye Xuan’s younger cousin. They had played together as children. He had even snatched her lollipops back then.
"Sun family, I’ll tear you all limb from limb!" Ye Xuan roared, clenching his fists. As the Patriarch, harming his people was the same as harming him. Every single clansman was his absolute bottom line. Damn them. Everyone in the Sun family deserved to die.
At this moment, the Spiritual Qi within Ye Xuan’s body grew increasingly frenzied. He had to shatter that invisible barrier quickly. He needed to rapidly push his cultivation to the sixth level of the Demon Spirit Realm.
Faster, faster, faster!
Although it was only an advancement of one level, this single level was absolutely crucial! To save time, he swallowed another tier-eight Beast Pill. As the pill entered his stomach, the energy within his body felt as though it was about to detonate. His entire body faintly glowed red—a clear sign that the sheer volume of energy was threatening to burst him apart.
But Ye Xuan couldn’t care less. He intended to use this incredibly frenzied energy to forcefully open the entrance of his Hidden Vein.
BOOM!
With every impact, overwhelming waves crashed through his body. It felt as if his very soul was ascending to the heavens. Fortunately, his Sea of Consciousness remained as impenetrable as a fortress, keeping him from collapsing. Still, doing this was utter madness.
"You want to kill me? You? Heh heh heh," Sun Zhenwu laughed disdainfully. When he finished laughing, he continued, "Someone had to die for you to realize that I wasn’t joking. So, I’ll say it again: if you stab Ye Xuan, I might consider sparing your lives. Is anyone going to step up?"
Silence fell over the scene as Sun Zhenwu’s words hung in the air. All the members of the Ye family bit their lips, refusing to move an inch.
"What a bunch of stubborn wretches. You people really won’t give up until you’re staring death in the face," Sun Zhenwu said, shaking his head.
He reached out his hand once more. A claw made of Spiritual Qi materialized in front of a woman holding an infant. The Spiritual Qi latched onto the baby’s head like an octopus. The baby didn’t cry; instead, he laughed, as if he had just seen something amusing. But while the baby didn’t cry, his mother was terrified out of her wits.
"No... Please, no!" the woman screamed, desperately trying to destroy the Spiritual Qi.
But the Qi claw was as hard as steel—she couldn’t move it, let alone shatter it. In the distance, Ye Xuan’s eyes narrowed into thin slits of pure rage, but he was powerless to help. The excruciating pain tearing through his body was agonizing.
His internal assaults grew increasingly fierce.
Faster! He had to go faster. He could feel that the invisible barrier was already starting to loosen. Just a little more force, and he would definitely shatter it! Break, break, break!
Blood had already begun to seep from Ye Xuan’s pores, but he remained entirely oblivious to it. Only one thought echoed in his mind: "No one else can die."
If the next to die was his sister, his father, or his grandfather, how could he possibly bear it? Even if he subjected the Sun family to a death by a thousand cuts, it wouldn’t bring his loved ones back to life.
Beside Ye Xuan, Hua’s body suddenly emitted a faint Spiritual Light. Earlier, forcing the use of her Secret Technique had sent her vital energy and blood into chaos, preventing her from channeling any Spiritual Qi. Now, her condition had finally stabilized.
The Spiritual Light on her body was very dim at first, flickering only around her lower abdomen, but it rapidly began to expand. As long as the Spiritual Qi within her body fully circulated, she would be able to fight again. No more members of the Ye family could die. It broke her heart to see the bloodshot look of absolute torment in her young master’s eyes.
Instead of killing the child immediately, Sun Zhenwu said coldly, "I’ll count to three. Stab Ye Xuan, or the brat dies. One..."
Sun Zhenwu looked like King Yama himself—a cold, heartless arbiter of life and death.
"I... I..." The infant’s mother trembled violently from head to toe. She didn’t know what to do. One was their Patriarch. The other was her own child.
"Two..."
"Ah!" she shrieked, finally making her decision. She scooped up a dagger that had been kicked into a corner. Holding her baby in one arm and the dagger in her other hand, she walked tremblingly toward Ye Xuan.
"Now that’s more like it. This is exactly what I wanted to see," Sun Zhenwu said, finally cracking a smile. Human nature could never withstand true testing. All that nonsense about clan unity and standing together as one was nothing but bullshit. Such things were like the clouds in the sky—a single gust of wind would blow them all away.
"Cousin... you..." Ye Wen and the others clenched their jaws, completely at a loss for words.
Was a mother wrong for trying to protect her child? She wasn’t wrong at all, was she?
"Patriarch... I’m so sorry. I... I..." the woman stammered her apologies as she raised her hand.
Above them, a stray ray of sunlight managed to slip through the gaps between the hovering Beasts. It illuminated the woman, causing the dagger in her grasp to gleam brightly. Her expression was somewhat twisted, almost demonic.
"Ah!" With a final, anguished cry, the woman’s hand swung down.
But she didn’t stab Ye Xuan. Instead, she plunged the dagger straight into her own heart.
The cohesiveness of the Ye family was indeed extraordinary. Everything the Ye family possessed had been given to them by Ye Xuan. That included this woman’s cultivation at the eighth level of the Strong Spirit Realm. In the past, she wouldn’t have even dared to dream of such profound power. Yet, their Patriarch had relentlessly poured countless resources into forcefully building up her cultivation.
Kill the Patriarch to save her child? She could make the choice. But she couldn’t actually go through with the act. It would simply make her far too heartless and ungrateful.
Yanking the dagger out of her chest, blood trickled from the corner of the woman’s mouth as her body collapsed to the ground, falling right in front of Ye Xuan.
"Why... why didn’t you stab me... Just stab me," Ye Xuan croaked. His eyes were bloodshot from the sheer agony, and the veins bulged violently against the flushed skin of his face.
Blood pooling in her mouth, the woman replied weakly, "I couldn’t bring myself to stab you. But as a mother, I can’t just stand by and watch my own baby die. So... I have to go on ahead of him."
Ye Xuan’s pupils contracted violently. The excruciating pain of bashing against his Hidden Vein paled in comparison to the agonizing weight of the woman’s words. She couldn’t bear to watch her child die before her very eyes, so she chose to die first.
In that moment, Ye Xuan’s heart shattered into a million pieces.
"Hmm? You’re courting death!"
In the distance, Sun Zhenwu’s expression turned incredibly ugly. By refusing to stab Ye Xuan, this woman had effectively slapped him in the face. He reached out and slowly curled his fingers inward, causing the Spiritual Qi enveloping the infant’s head to rapidly tighten. He fully intended to crush the baby’s skull to teach the Ye family a bloody lesson.
Right at that moment, the Spiritual Qi within Hua’s body finally began to circulate normally again. She was completely shrouded in a faint Spiritual Light. It was time for her to strike.
But just as Hua stood up and prepared to make her move, Ye Xuan suddenly rose to his feet beside her.
As he stood, sheer terror gripped the million Cultivators present.
"What’s happening?"
"My legs feel like jelly! I can barely keep myself from kneeling!"
"Look! What is that thing up in the sky?"
Everyone threw their heads back to stare at the heavens above. High in the sky, a colossal behemoth soared and circled. This massive creature had horns like a deer, scales like a fish, claws like an eagle, and paws like a tiger. It soared majestically between heaven and earth, radiating boundless divine might.
Yet, the most terrifying thing about it was its eyes. They were utterly cold and unfeeling. It felt as though a single glance from those eyes could obliterate their very existence. If there hadn’t been a million Cultivators gathered in one place, pooling their collective aura, they would have undoubtedly already dropped to their knees by now. Despite their overwhelming fear, the combined vitality and spirit of a million Cultivators barely managed to keep them standing.
"A dragon... That’s a Divine Dragon!"