Chapter 46: Arrival of the Xu Clan Experts
"Where do you think you’re going, rat?" Xu Canghai boomed, his voice echoing with the wrath of numerous thunderstorms.
The suffocating spiritual pressure of the four gathered Core Formation powerhouses instantly blanketed the sky above. The air itself grew so heavy and dense that the trees hundreds of feet below began to violently groan, their massive trunks splintering under the weight.
As the crimson spatial tear completely sealed shut behind them, the experts of the Xu Clan locked their gazes onto Lin Yuan.
Xu Zifeng, hovering lazily on his giant wine gourd, took one look at Lin Yuan and let out an exaggerated groan of disappointment. "This is him? Patriarch, you dragged me out of a perfectly warm bed for this? I can literally smell the freshness of his Golden Core from here! He is barely in the early stages! I thought we were hunting a hidden monster, not a newly hatched chick who just learned how to fly."
Xu Shan remained perfectly still, though his eyes narrowed with sharp, calculating precision. "Do not let his superficial aura deceive you, Zifeng. A mere infant does not slaughter four of our elders. If his internal qi is weak, it simply means he relies on devastating, high-tier artifacts or demonic arrays. Do not underestimate his hidden tricks."
"Tricks and arrays are utterly useless when a blade splits your skull in two!" Xu Lie, the bare-chested armorer, barked with a savage, bloodthirsty grin. He hoisted his colossal, ten-thousand-pound nine-ringed halberd onto his broad shoulder. "Artifacts or no artifacts, I’m going to flatten this arrogant little brat into a meat paste for daring to cross path with the Xu clan!"
The pillars of the Xu Clan radiated absolute confidence, their mid-and early-stage auras compounding with their Patriarch’s late-stage domain to form an inescapable net of spiritual energy.
But Lin Yuan was not intimidated. He was not afraid.
He was absolutely furious.
His pupils darted between the four men, his newly forged Ancient Beast Body Rank 1 effortlessly shrugging off their combined spiritual pressure as if it were a mild breeze. But his mind was not on the battle. His mind was miles away, anchored entirely to his home. The system notification was a blaring siren in his mind. Someone had tried to murder Bai Qingyue.
Every single second these pompous fools kept him hovering here was a second his wife might be in danger.
Xu Canghai stepped forward, the violent arcs of purple lightning whipping around his robes. He looked at Lin Yuan with the absolute authority.
"I am Xu Canghai, the Head of the Xu Clan," the Thunder Lord declared, his voice infused with spiritual energy designed to force lower-level cultivators to their knees. "You dared to spill the blood of my elders. You dared to provoke a sleeping dragon. For your arrogance, you and your entire lineage must pay for your sins in a river of blood!"
The Xu Clan, Lin Yuan thought, the pieces instantly snapping together.
The auction house. The young master who had tried to forcefully buy the Mountain and River Screen. And the Dao Protector, Uncle Yan, who had audaciously attempted to strike him.
Lin Yuan had crippled the old man to set an example, believing that letting him live would serve as a sufficient warning to whatever clan backed the foolish young master. Clearly, in the Nine Provinces, mercy was always misinterpreted as weakness.
The violent rage inside Lin Yuan’s heart boiled over, entirely eclipsing any desire for a prolonged conversation.
"That Dao protector struck first, and I merely defended myself by crippling his cultivation," Lin Yuan interjected, his voice completely devoid of fear, vibrating with a heavy bass that sliced right through Xu Canghai’s thundering voice.
The four experts blinked, momentarily stunned by the sheer disrespect of an early-stage cultivator interrupting a Clan Head.
Lin Yuan’s eyes flared with a terrifying, crimson light. "I spared his life, but that doesn’t mean I will spare yours. Move out of my way! I need to get back to my wife!"
The sheer audacity of the demand hung in the air for a fraction of a second before the Xu Clan experts reacted.
"You arrogant little shit!" Xu Lie roared, his face twisting into a mask of pure fury. The veins on his thick neck bulged as he fully ignited his mid-stage Core Formation qi. "Big words for a rat!"
Xu Lie did not wait for the Patriarch’s command. He stepped forward, his massive body lunging like a fired cannonball. He raised the ten-thousand-pound nine-ringed halberd high above his head, channeling a terrifying amount of force and spiritual energy into the blade. The air itself screamed as he swung it down, aiming to cleave Lin Yuan completely in half from crown to groin.
"Die!" Xu Lie bellowed, quickly closing the distance.
But Lin Yuan simply stood his ground, his rage instantly focusing into a singular point of lethal intent. He looked directly into the charging brute’s eyes.
Death Gaze.
Lin Yuan’s crimson-lit pupils suddenly began to emanate strands of crackling black lightning, each bolt carrying a chilling aura of death. With his breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm, the threshold that had once limited his Death Gaze had Changed. Now, he could unleash its full might against anyone whose cultivation was at or below the Core Formation Realm.
Crackle!
A streak of black lightning shot from his eyes and pierced through the void in an instant, striking the mid-stage Core Formation expert directly in his Sea of Consciousness.
In the span of a single heartbeat, the terrifying momentum of Xu Lie’s charge simply evaporated.
There was no explosion. There was no clash of weapons.
Xu Lie froze in mid-air, merely ten feet away from Lin Yuan. The furious, bloodthirsty roar that had been building in his throat abruptly died, replaced by a horrifying silence. The life force within his body seemed to vanish in an instant, and the light in his eyes faded, leaving them dull and glassy.
His body remained suspended in the air for a brief moment, completely motionless, as though time itself had stopped around him. Then, the truth became apparent.
His soul had been violently and flawlessly severed from his physical vessel.
The mid-stage Core Formation expert had died without even having the chance to unleash a single technique.
Then, his iron grip on the massive halberd loosened. The ten-thousand-pound weapon slipped from his lifeless fingers, plummeting toward the ground below. A millisecond later, Xu Lie’s body followed the weapon, dropping out of the sky like a sack of dead stones.
Thud.
The distant sound of the halberd and the body crashing through the trees below was the only noise in the entire world.
Xu Zifeng’s wine gourd nearly tipped over, the carefree youth staring in absolute shock at the empty space where Xu Lie had just been. Xu Shan’s swords remained half-drawn, his composure entirely shattered as a cold sweat broke out across his back.
But it was Xu Canghai, the terrifying Thunder Lord, whose reaction was the most visceral.
The Clan Head stumbled backward half a step, the violent purple lightning around him violently fluctuating in sheer horror as he stared at the young man who hadn’t even lifted a finger.
"A soul attack!"