Chapter 52: The Nascent Soul Realm Is But a Step!
The warm, intimate silence of the main hall was a stark contrast to the absolute devastation that lay just outside its threshold. Bai Qingyue rested her cheek against Lin Yuan’s arm, her breathing finally beginning to slow as the overwhelming terror of the night ebbed away in his presence.
However, as she slowly opened her tear-stained eyes, her gaze drifted past her husband’s shoulders and out into the courtyard.
Suspended above was the translucent sphere of lightning. Inside it, groaning in a pathetic heap, was a middle-aged man in Daoist robes. His face was grotesquely swollen, half of his teeth missing from the brutal slap he had just received, and his once-terrifying aura was now pathetically weak, barely registering at the Foundation Establishment realm.
Bai Qingyue’s breath hitched, her fingers tightening their grip on Lin Yuan’s sleeve. Even battered, broken, and humiliated, the distinct facial features of the man were unmistakable to anyone who had grown up in the inner echelons of Azure Cloud City.
"Lin Yuan..." Bai Qingyue whispered, her voice filled with a mixture of awe and disbelief. "Is that... is that the Clan Head of the Xu Clan?"
She turned her gaze back to Lin Yuan. This was Xu Canghai, the Thunder Lord, one of the three most powerful men in the entire region. The fact that he was caged like a common beast in their front yard was a reality too profound for her mind to easily process.
Lin Yuan looked down at her, he then reached out, gently tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"There is nothing to worry about," Lin Yuan assured her, his voice perfectly level. "I have completely destroyed his cultivation, and he poses absolutely no threat to you, or to anyone else ever again."
He cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing affectionately against her skin. "I just need to retrieve some specific information from him. Once he speaks, I will kill him. I am ending this feud tonight, permanently, and following the laws of karma. He struck first, he sought our lives, and now he must pay the ultimate price."
Leaning forward, Lin Yuan pressed a lingering, tender kiss against her forehead. "Rest here for a moment. I will be right back."
With a final, reassuring smile, Lin Yuan stood up and used his Thunder Step.
Without a sound, he flash stepped from the bedroom and seamlessly materialized directly in front of the lightning sphere in the courtyard. The transition was so flawless that Bai Chen, who was still kneeling on the ruined porch clutching his broken arm, nearly jumped out of his skin.
Standing before the cage, Lin Yuan’s demeanor underwent a terrifying, instantaneous shift. The gentle husband was gone. In his place stood a powerful cultivator, his black-and-white Daoist robes fluttering in the currents, his eyes radiating a cold feeling.
He looked down at Xu Canghai.
"Five years from now," Lin Yuan spoke, his voice cutting through the crackling of the lightning like a divine blade, "what event will uphold?"
Xu Canghai, clutching his swollen jaw, slowly dragged himself into a kneeling position within the sphere. Blood leaked from his mouth, staining his robe. He glared up at Lin Yuan, his eyes burning with the hatred of a fallen king.
The Clan Head spat a glob of blood and broken teeth onto the floor of his prison. He refused to talk. Instead, a hoarse, ugly laugh bubbled up from his throat.
"You think you have won, you nameless rat?" Xu Canghai mocked, his voice slurred but dripping with venom. "You think destroying my cultivation and killing a few elders makes you the master of this city? The Xu Clan’s roots run deeper than the bedrock of the Nine Provinces! You will never know peace! You will spend the rest of your miserable life looking over your shoulder!"
Lin Yuan’s expression remained entirely flat. He was completely unmoved by his pathetic bluster.
"If you do not talk," Lin Yuan stated, his tone devoid of anger but heavy with absolute certainty, "I will rain absolute terror upon your Xu Clan. I have already slaughtered your inner circle. And since no one in your clan remains at the Core Formation realm, wiping out your entire bloodline, down to the last servant, will be as easy as flicking a finger."
Xu Canghai flinched, the reality of his clan’s defenselessness momentarily piercing his arrogance.
"However," Lin Yuan continued, his purple eyes narrowing slightly, "you can choose to talk. If you give me the information I require, I will let the remaining members of the Xu Clan live. But do not mistake my mercy for weakness. I will still punish the clan."
Lin Yuan raised a single finger, laying out the absolute terms of their survival. "I will seize all of your clan’s accumulated resources, spiritual stones, and inheritances. Furthermore, I will lay a suppression upon your bloodline, limiting your entire clan’s cultivation to the Foundation Establishment realm for one thousand years. But, to ensure your people are not merely slaughtered the moment I leave, I will make sure that the Bai Clan and the Wang Clan do not reap the benefits of your fall. The balance of power will not shift too drastically. You will simply exist as commoners, barred from the heavens, for a millennium."
For a moment, there was absolute silence in the courtyard, save for the hum of the lightning.
Then, Xu Canghai began to laugh.
It started as a low, wet chuckle and rapidly evolved into a hysterical roar. He laughed so hard he clutched his stomach, tears of mockery streaming down his face.
"Hahahaha! What foolish proposals!" Xu Canghai said, pointing a shaking finger at Lin Yuan. "Listen to yourself! Talking as if you can accomplish even a fraction of those things! Limit my clan’s cultivation for a thousand years? To enforce a decree for a millennium, you must first live for a millennium!"
The Clan Head sneered, his pride as a senior cultivator flashing through his despair. "You are in the Golden Core realm, boy! Even with a Supreme Grade core, your lifespan is but five hundred years! The earth will swallow your bones long before a thousand years have passed!"
Xu Canghai forced himself to stand, leaning heavily against the surface of the sphere. "And limit a bloodline’s cultivation? Seal their meridians across generations? Only a Nascent Soul expert can do such a thing! Only they possess the power to manipulate and bind a lineage! And there hasn’t been a Nascent Soul cultivator in the Azure Cloud City since the Fifth Ancestor of the Xu Clan—the very creator of the Five Thunder Arts!"
The Patriarch spat again, a manic, triumphant gleam in his eye. "So your words are empty talks! You are nothing but an arrogant brat making threats he lacks the power to enforce!"
Xu Canghai panted, waiting for the young man’s reaction. He waited for the anger, the embarrassment of being called out on a bluff, or the retaliation of a bruised ego.
But as the Clan Head stared through the sphere, his laughter slowly died in his throat.
Lin Yuan’s reaction was completely expressionless.
There was no anger. There was no shame. Lin Yuan simply watched the Clan Head with the mild, detachment of a scholar watching an ant scream at a boot. His deep, purple pupils were calm, reflecting a truth so profound that it suddenly sent a shard of ice straight through Xu Canghai’s heart.
The Clan Head’s mind suddenly shattered as a terrifying thought clawed its way into his consciousness.
Wait... Xu Canghai’s breath hitched, his eyes widening in sheer horror. Is he... is he secretly a Nascent Soul expert?!
The pieces violently scrambled in his mind. It would explain everything! It would explain how he instantly annihilated four Core Formation elders! It would explain the devastating soul attack that killed Xu Lie! It would explain how he walked out of the Nine Heavens Thunder Prison completely unharmed, emanating the terrifying, transcendent aura of a Thunder Immortal!
No! Xu Canghai’s mind desperately rebelled against the thought, his sanity hanging by a thread. I felt his aura when the hex tracked him! I am certain this rat is an early-stage Golden Core that has just been using forbidden arts throughout! There is no way he is a Nascent Soul old monster! But... what if... no...
The absolute terror of realizing he might have offended an entity capable of wiping his clan from the annals of time paralyzed the Clan Head. He slumped against the surface, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly, completely broken by his own deductions.
Lin Yuan did not bother to correct him, nor did he confirm the Xu Canghai’s frantic suspicions.
Instead, Lin Yuan slowly raised his right hand, his purple eyes shifting to look at his own fingers. He felt the vast energy of his Golden Core within his dantian, perfectly harmonized with the newly acquired tribulation thunder and his rejuvenated soul granted by the Origin Soul Revival Pill.
"The Nascent Soul realm..." Lin Yuan murmured softly to himself, his voice carrying the absolute weight of destiny. "...is but a step."