"The Zhang family... So, you betrayed me?"
Ye Xuan frowned, then understood.
The Zhang family naturally thought he was still in the Secret Realm. And Niu Tong, naturally, had sold out his information.
"Sir, I had no choice. In front of you all, I am just a weakling. What else could I do besides obey?"
"I can forgive you for that, but it seems you hurt my grandfather and my friend."
"This... this..."
Now, Niu Tong didn’t know how to explain himself. He indeed wanted to vent and release his frustration just now, but he had assumed Ye Xuan wasn’t at the Ye family’s home!
"Niu Tong, I never thought of killing you, but why is your stance so weak? Even if you came to capture members of the Ye family, couldn’t you have been a bit more polite? Weren’t you afraid that if the Zhang family failed to kill me, I would come looking for you? Or do you think Zhang Tian’s genius, Zhang Wuzong, can definitely kill me?"
"I... I..."
Niu Tong was truly in the wrong this time. He knew the young man before him was someone who could kill without batting an eye. The killing intent radiating from Ye Xuan was exactly the same as that day!
Without hesitation, a longsword appeared in Niu Tong’s left hand, and with a single strike, he chopped off his own right hand.
SLASH.
Blood sprayed.
The severed right hand fell to the ground, its fingers still twitching. Having severed his hand, Niu Tong endured the pain and spoke again.
"I am guilty. I thought you were trapped in the Secret Realm and ultimately doomed. That’s why I lost control of my emotions just now. But Mr. Ye Xuan, I am human too, and I also have emotions to vent. You don’t know this, but the hundred-plus Niu family members I took with me all died. I was the only one who made it back alive.
"Those people were the last experts of my Niu family, but they are all dead. As the patriarch, my heart is filled with grief. Since you are also a Patriarch, you should be able to understand this kind of sorrow, right? Previously, when I brought ten thousand people to wipe out Hongtu Town and you killed my men, I had no complaints. After all, I brought that upon myself. But this time, going to the Zhang family, I did nothing at all, yet because of you, sir, my Niu family members died. If I didn’t hold any resentment in my heart, I wouldn’t be human."
Niu Tong laid his cards on the table. These were all words from the bottom of his heart.
At this moment, Ye Zeyun and the others finally understood why Niu Tong harbored such immense anger.
"So, it was me who implicated you, and you were wronged?" Ye Xuan asked.
"Sir..."
That single sentence—*you were wronged*—instantly made Niu Tong burst into tears. He truly felt incredibly wronged.
"However, feeling wronged is not an excuse for you to hurt my family. After all, it was the Zhang family who killed your hundred-plus Niu family members, not me."
Ye Xuan’s expression didn’t change much. Anyone who bullied his family had to pay the price. They deserved to die!
As he finished speaking, Ye Zeyun suddenly spoke up. "Ye Xuan, let it go. I’m fine. Spare his life."
"Grandfather, are you sure?"
"Yes. If you kill him, you’ll have to wipe out the entire Niu family, otherwise, they will be a threat. They might not be a threat to you, but they can threaten us. Therefore, keeping him alive is better than killing him."
Ye Xuan thought for a moment and said, "Then I’ll listen to you and spare his life."
"Thank you, Mr. Ye Xuan! Thank you, Mr. Ye Xuan!" Niu Tong immediately expressed his gratitude.
"Niu Tong, how many days did the Zhang family give you?" Ye Xuan asked.
Niu Tong immediately replied, "Five days."
"In that case, there are only three days left. When the time comes, if you don’t bring people over, the Zhang family will definitely send someone here.
"Here’s what we’ll do, Niu Tong. Once the time is up, send a carrier pigeon directly to the Zhang family. Tell them that I, Ye Xuan, am not in the Secret Realm, but at the Ye family’s home. Tell them not to come looking for me here, but to wash their necks and wait for me to come to them. Tell them that if they don’t want their clan exterminated, they must submit to me!"
*If they don’t want their clan exterminated, they must submit to me.*
GASP.
Ye Xuan’s words made Niu Tong gasp in shock. To think that Ye Xuan actually wanted to wipe out the Zhang family. Moreover, wouldn’t sending such a direct message just allow the Zhang family to make full preparations and wait to trap him like a rat?
Did Ye Xuan really have that much confidence? Where was this confidence coming from? Besides, how did Ye Xuan even leave the Secret Realm? That day, the Zhang family members had inspected everyone one by one to ensure Ye Xuan wasn’t among them.
"Alright, you can go. Don’t worry, I will definitely go to Wuzong Main Town when the time comes. Even if I get killed, it won’t implicate you."
Ye Xuan sent Niu Tong away, then looked at all the Ye family members behind him and shrugged. "You all probably guessed it by now. I offended the Zhang family—the very same family that wiped out the Ning family."
As soon as he finished speaking, a family member asked, "Patriarch, is the Zhang family very strong?"
Ye Xuan nodded. "The Zhang family is definitely stronger than the Ning family."
"What? Even stronger than the Ning family!" The Ye family members looked at each other in astonishment.
"That’s right. Are you afraid?"
At those words, the clansmen fell silent. After a long while, someone finally spoke up. "We’re definitely afraid, but Patriarch, we just want to ask you one thing: are you confident in standing against the Zhang family?"
Ye Xuan said solemnly, "Right now, I’m not that confident. But in a few days, it’ll be over ninety percent!"
"Over ninety percent? With such high odds, haha, then we have nothing to fear."
"Since the Patriarch has said so, we all believe in you."
"Alright, everyone, let’s disperse! Those who need to improve their cultivation should continue to do so. The Patriarch will handle the matter with the Zhang family. What we need to do is rapidly increase our cultivation bases so that when we face enemies in the future, we can share the burden!" someone in the crowd shouted.
The family members suddenly became nonchalant, acting as if they didn’t even consider the Zhang family a threat. Then, without waiting for Ye Xuan to officially dismiss them, the Ye family members left the front courtyard one after another.
At this moment, Ye Xuan was somewhat dumbfounded. Were the Ye family members really this carefree? But then he smiled; this was true trust.
"Look, this is the current cohesion of the Ye family. Ye Xuan, you are indeed more suited to be the Patriarch than I am," Ye Zeyun’s sighing voice drifted over.
Ye Xuan shook his head and walked over to Tang Long nearby, handing him a few stalks of tier-three low-grade Healing Spirit Medicine. "Tang Long, heal your injuries first. By the way, did you get your share of the tier-three Beast Pills?"
"Yes, I did." Tang Long’s expression was somewhat complicated. He never expected that even though he wasn’t a member of the Ye family, they would still give him so many resources.
Resources were incredibly precious! To think they actually gave them to an outsider like him.
"Patriarch, thank you."
"There’s no need for thanks; it’s mutual. Didn’t you just step up for my grandfather without hesitation, even knowing your cultivation was inferior to the opponent’s?
"Tang Long, since you have the resources, you must also elevate your cultivation as quickly as possible. When I’m not around, the Ye family still needs you to look after them."
"I definitely will!"
"Mm."
Ye Xuan nodded, turned around, and chatted briefly with Ye Ling’Er. After that, he returned to the underground training room. His own cultivation also needed a rapid boost. Otherwise, how could he face the Zhang family?
He thought, "While the energy within my body has yet to dissipate, shatter, ninth Small River Vein!"
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Inside the Zhang family’s Secret Realm.
Tens of thousands of people were searching for traces of Ye Xuan, but it was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth; not to mention his shadow, he hadn’t left behind even the slightest clue.
The tens of thousands of people searched for five days and five nights, but they yielded no results.