Chapter 67: Terms
Elder Xu Gan stared blankly at the corpse resting at his feet. The robes, the swollen face—it was undeniably Patriarch Xu Canghai. The Thunder Lord, the head of the Xu Clan, had been slaughtered like a common stray dog and tossed back to them as garbage.
The moment the realization fully settled into his mind, Elder Xu Gan’s spirit immediately plummeted. The walking staff slipped from his trembling fingers, clattering loudly against the floor. His knees finally gave out, and he collapsed beside his dead patriarch.
All around him, the remaining four late-stage Foundation Establishment experts exchanged entirely defeated glances. Their faces were ashen, devoid of any fighting spirit. The reality of their absolute doom had finally shattered the last remnants of their clan pride.
Standing safely near the guest pavilion, the Saintess of the Pure Cloud Sect stared at the corpse and then up at Lin Yuan. She murmured softly to herself. "To erase a late-stage Core Formation expert so utterly, leaving no trace of his soul... this karma is far too heavy. I was truly a step away from walking into an execution."
For several moments, the only sound in the entire estate was the wind.
Then, Slowly, using every ounce of his remaining willpower, Elder Xu Gan dragged his body forward, until he reached a spot directly beneath where Lin Yuan hovered. He pressed his forehead deeply into the floor in a kowtow.
"Senior!" Elder Xu Gan said out, his voice devoid of any pride. "I beg of you... please spare the Xu Clan!"
As the old man pressed his face to the dirt, a thought raced through his mind. This monster... this must be the man the Patriarch went to kill last night! The outer-city rat! Oh Xu Canghai, you blind fool! You dragged a true sleeping dragon out of the abyss! You went to exterminate a peasant and ended up bringing a Nascent Soul monster to our doorstep! Surely, he is immensely pissed by the murderous actions of our Patriarch. We are all going to die!
Desperation completely overtook the elder. Xu Gan began to soften up, his tone shifting into one of groveling submission.
"Senior, the offense was committed solely by Xu Canghai and the inner circle!" Xu Gan pleaded. "The rest of the clan, the women, the children, the outer branch members... they are ignorant of this karma! Please, I beg you for your mercy! We will do anything, give anything, to preserve our bloodline!"
Hovering in the sky, his black-and-white Daoist robes fluttering in the wind, Lin Yuan looked down at the elder with a gaze devoid of pity but filled with absolute authority.
"I have already given Xu Canghai my terms," Lin Yuan stated, his voice resonating like a heavenly bell. "One: you will grant me immediate entrance to your grand treasury. Specifically, to the vault where the Barrier Token is placed."
The moment the words Barrier Token echoed across the plaza, one of the four remaining Foundation Establishment experts suddenly snapped out of his terrified stupor. Driven by a surge of foolish, deeply ingrained clan loyalty, he stepped forward, his eyes wide with indignation.
"The Barrier Token?!" the expert objected, his voice trembling but defiant. "You cannot take that! That token is the supreme hallmark of the Xu Clan! It was bestowed upon our ancestors by the Great Emperor! Giving away the legacy of the clan to this damn... this outsider... is worse than death! All the treasures, the absolute wealth this clan possesses is due solely to our exclusive ability to send someone to the Barrier Realm! Without it, we are nothing!"
Before the foolish expert could utter another word, Elder Xu Gan whipped his head around. His eyes were completely bloodshot, filled with a frantic panic.
"Keep quiet or lose your life this instant, you absolute fool!" Xu Gan roared, raising his hand and violently slapping the expert across the face with a surge of qi, sending the man tumbling across the floor. "Do you wish to drag the rest of us into the grave with your arrogant stupidity?!"
Xu Gan instantly turned back to Lin Yuan, pressing his forehead back into the floor. "Senior, please forgive him! His mind has been shattered by the trauma! The treasury is yours! The token is yours! Take everything!"
Lin Yuan’s expression remained perfectly stoic, completely unbothered by the momentary outburst.
"Two," Lin Yuan continued, his purple eyes glowing with absolute power. "I will place a suppression upon your everyone cultivation. For one thousand years, the cultivation of every member of the Xu Clan shall be forcefully limited to the Foundation Establishment realm."
Hearing this, Elder Xu Gan did not weep in sorrow; he wept in sheer relief. To a major clan, being suppressed for a millennium was a fate worse than death, but when the alternative might be utter extermination down to the last infant, a thousand years of humiliation was a blessing.
"Thank you!" Xu Gan cried out, kowtowing repeatedly. "Thank you, Senior, for your kindness! The Xu Clan accepts this terms!"
Knowing that the Nascent Soul expert would not simply rely on their spoken word, Xu Gan immediately scrambled to his knees. He turned to the thousands of trembling disciples and elders scattered across the estate.
"All of you! Listen to me!" Xu Gan ordered, his voice echoing. "Take out your soul blood immediately! If you hesitate for even a single breath, I will slaughter you myself!"
The clan members, completely broken and terrified, did not dare disobey. In perfect synchronization, thousands of cultivators—from the lowest Qi Condensation to the highest remaining elders—raised their hands. They bit their tongues or gathered their spiritual essence, placed their index fingers firmly against their own brows, and violently pulled outward.
A collective groan washed over the estate as thousands of crimson droplets of soul blood were pulled from their Seas of Consciousness.
The droplets hovered in the air, a massive, floating sea of red light.
Lin Yuan extended his right hand. He rapidly formed a series of hand seals, releasing a massive array that expanded across the sky like a giant net.
The array acted as a vacuum. It drew in the thousands of droplets of soul blood, binding them perfectly to the suppression seal.
The very moment the blood merged with the array, the absolute enforcement of the Suppression fell upon the Xu Clan.
For anyone whose cultivation was above the early Foundation Establishment realm, the suppression was instantaneous, forcefully crushing their cultivation bases down to the absolute limit. However, because the inner circle had already burned half of their cultivation to summon the Five Thunder Splitting Sword, they was no immediate effect, because no one was above the early stage of foundation establishment.
Excluding Elder Xu Gan, who halved his half-step Core Formation directly to the early Foundation Establishment realm, the rest of the experts were already out of the Foundation Establishment realm, and now in the mid and late stages of Qi Condensation.
"The everything is set," Lin Yuan declared, his voice echoing through the minds of every clan member. "After exactly one thousand years have passed, I will release this array, and your soul blood will naturally manifest back within your Sea of Consciousness. Until then, you are bound."
With a flick of his sleeve, the array containing the thousands of red droplets shrank into a singular point of light and flew directly into Lin Yuan’s Sea of Consciousness.
As the reality of their weakened state finally settled in, one of the severely diminished elders staggered forward, clutching his chest.
"Senior..." the man stammered, his eyes wide. "We accept our punishment. But... what about the Bai family and the Wang family? With our strength completely depleted and our Core Formation experts dead, we are the perfect targets! The moment they sense our weakness, they will march upon our gates and slaughter us all to seize our remaining lands!"
Hovering high above them, Lin Yuan slowly lowered his arms, his aura completely dominating the sky.
"I have already taken that into account," Lin Yuan assured them, his tone cold and absolute. "Before the sun sets, I will personally visit the Wang and Bai families. I will warn them. Anyone who dares to step within a hundred miles of this estate to plunder your clan will face my wrath."
The realization that this terrifying monster was not just punishing them, but actively maintaining the balance of the entire region to ensure they actually survived the millennium, struck the clan deeply. It was the absolute, and unquestionable authority of a true expert.
Elder Xu Gan looked around at the plaza, and at the thousands of disciples. He then looked up at the Lin Yuan who now held their very soul blood in his mind.
Xu Gan fell to both knees, crossing his arms over his chest.
"We recognize the Heavens!" Xu Gan roared.
Following his lead, every single member of the Xu Clan, regardless of status, fell to their knees on the floor.
"We recognize the Lord of the City!" the thousands of voices declared in absolute synchronization, their shouts echoing into the heavens, marking the end of the Thunder Lord’s era and the indisputable ascension of Lin Yuan.