Chapter 44: The Gathering of The Xu Clan Experts (2)
Patriarch Xu Canghai stood at the very center, his late-stage Core Formation aura unrestrained. Violent arcs of purple lightning cascaded off his robes, scorching the floor beneath his boots. The oppressive weight of his wrath was so palpable that the guards stationed at the courtyard walls had all collapsed to their knees, struggling to breathe.
Within moments of the Thunder Sense echoing across the estate, the sky above the courtyard distorted.
A massive wine gourd descended lazily from the clouds. Sitting cross-legged atop it, his loose white tunic flapping in the wind, was Xu Zifeng. He possessed a youthful, handsome face flushed with the rosy tint of wine.
"Ah, Patriarch," Xu Zifeng greeted, a carefree smile across his face. "Summoning us all at this hour? I was right in the middle of a very important matter. This early-stage Core Formation rat better be incredibly entertaining, or I am going to be severely disappointed."
Before Xu Canghai could scold the youth for his flippancy, the ground violently trembled.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Heavy, earth-shattering footsteps echoed from the southern archway. Xu Lie, the clan’s chief armorer, marched into the courtyard. The middle-aged brute was bare-chested, his massive muscles gleaming with sweat from the forge. In his right hand, he casually dragged a colossal, nine-ringed halberd that weighed over ten thousand pounds, the heavy blade carving a deep trench into the floor.
"Entertaining? This is not a game, Zifeng!" Xu Lie barked, his voice like grinding boulders. He slammed the butt of his halberd against the ground, unleashing a shockwave of aggressive Core Formation qi. "If someone has dared to provoke the Xu Clan, I want their head. My blade has been thirsty for a decade. Patriarch, just point me in the direction of this fool so I can flatten his skull."
A sudden chill swept through the courtyard, extinguishing the lingering heat of Xu Lie’s entrance.
From the shadows of the northern pillars, a flurry of pristine snowflakes gathered and materialized into the form of a lean, sharp-featured man. Xu Shan stood perfectly straight, his short swords resting silently in their sheaths at his waist. His expression was as cold and unyielding as a millennium glacier.
"If the Patriarch has summoned all three of us," Xu Shan spoke, his voice quiet but incredibly piercing, "then this is not a simple execution. Logic dictates that the situation has escalated beyond a mere provocation. What has happened, Patriarch?"
Xu Canghai’s eyes swept over his three greatest warriors. Together with him, they represented the absolute zenith of the Xu Clan’s martial might.
"Elder Mo is dead," Xu Canghai stated flatly. "And so are the other Core Formation elders who accompanied him to the outer city."
The absolute silence that followed those words was deafening.
Xu Zifeng’s carefree smile instantly melted off his face, the wine gourd slipping a fraction of an inch in his grasp. Xu Lie’s grip on his massive halberd tightened until his knuckles turned white. Even the eternally stoic Xu Shan visibly stiffened, a flicker of profound disbelief shattering his composure.
"Elder Mo?" Xu Lie growled. "Dead? That old bastard was at the late stage of Core Formation! You just told us via the Thunder Sense that we were hunting an early-stage rat! How does a new Core Formation brat kill Elder Mo and the other elders?!"
"It was a trap," Xu Canghai snarled, the purple lightning around him violently flaring. "The rat must have drawn them into a high-tier demonic array—some cowardly formation designed to obliterate the soul. There is no other logical explanation. An early-stage Core Formation cultivator simply does not possess the raw power to bypass Elder Mo’s defenses in a head-on clash."
"A demonic array..." Xu Shan murmured, his mind rapidly processing the information. "If he is an array master, fighting him on his home ground is a foolish endeavor. We must draw him out."
"He is already out," Xu Canghai interjected, raising his right hand. A lingering, violent arc of purple lightning pulsed between his fingers, pointing toward the distant wilderness outside the city. "I used the Heavenly Lightning Soul-Seeking Hex on his lingering aura. He is currently miles away from that outer-city slum. He must have fled the moment his array executed my men, knowing the Xu Clan would rain hell upon him."
Xu Lie let out a dark laugh, his muscles tensing for battle. "Then he has abandoned his only advantage! Without his cowardly traps, he is nothing but raw meat waiting to be tenderized."
Xu Zifeng let out a long breath, restoring his carefree smirk, though his eyes remained dangerously sharp. He took another swig from his gourd, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"To force the great Thunder Lord to mobilize the entire inner circle over a single, fleeing brat," Xu Zifeng chuckled, offering a deep, exaggerated bow of respect. "You inherited the supreme legacy of our ancestors, Patriarch. The Five Thunder Arts are the absolute foundation of our clan’s dominance in Azure Cloud City. If the Thunder Lord has personally locked onto this boy’s soul... then today, even the heavens cannot save him."
The title of ’Thunder Lord’ was not given lightly. It was a mantle passed down only to the Clan Head who successfully mastered the techniques of the Five Thunder Arts. Xu Canghai had spent a century bathing in actual thunderstorms to forge his meridians for this very legacy.
"Save the flattery for after we mount his head on the estate gates, Zifeng," Xu Canghai commanded, stepping forward.
The Patriarch of the Xu Clan raised both hands to the heavens. The sky above the courtyard immediately darkened, storm clouds rapidly converging as the spiritual energy of the world submitted to his supreme authority.
"We will not fly there and give this rat time to prepare," Xu Canghai declared, his voice echoing with the wrath of a god. "We will descend upon him instantly. Gather around me!"
Zifeng, Lie, and Shan immediately stepped into the center of the courtyard, forming a tight circle around their Clan Head.
Xu Canghai’s fingers blurred as he rapidly formed an incredibly series of seals. The purple lightning surrounding him shifted, turning into a blinding crimson hue.
"Fifth Art of the Five Thunder Arts!" Xu Canghai roared. "Phoenix Thunder Teleportation Array!"
SCREECH!
A deafening, avian cry echoed through the plane as the crimson lightning violently expanded, forming the massive shape of a glorious thunder phoenix. The blazing wings of the phoenix wrapped protectively around the four Core Formation experts.
The Phoenix Thunder Teleportation Array was an incredibly taxing spatial spell that could instantly transport a maximum of five individuals across vast distances, bypassing all conventional barriers and geography. With the coordinates perfectly supplied by the Soul-Seeking Hex, there was absolutely no room for error.
The crimson thunder phoenix flapped its wings once, tearing a massive hole directly into the fabric of space.
ZAP!
In a blinding flash of crimson light that temporarily blinded the guards of the estate, the four supreme pillars of the Xu Clan completely vanished from the courtyard.
Miles away, hovering above, Lin Yuan had just wiped the blood from his chin, his crimson-lit pupils narrowed into dangerous slits as he stared toward the horizon of Azure Cloud City. The invasive, heavy pressure of the tracking hex was still clamped onto his soul like a spiritual leech, reeking of late-stage Core Formation lightning.
Lin Yuan did not panic. He did not attempt to flee further. The flawless foundation of his Golden Core, coupled with his death gaze spell, had bred a terrifying confidence within his Dao Heart. If a monster wanted to hunt him, he would simply tear the monster’s throat out.
Suddenly, the ambient atmospheric pressure around him violently spiked.
The hairs on the back of Lin Yuan’s neck stood on end. He instantly decoded the spatial anomaly occurring mere yards in front of him. The fabric of reality was actively tearing open, superheated by a crimson thunder storm.
They were teleporting directly to him.
Lin Yuan tightened his fist. He lowered his stance, ready to plunge his fist through whatever arrogant fool stepped out of the spatial tear.
But just as the crimson lightning reached its apex, preparing to disgorge the four furious experts of the Xu Clan into the sky above, then...
[Ding!]