Chapter 121. Xu family [4]
The treasury instantly descended into a bloody melee.
"Kill them!"
A Peng Family elder swung his blade, sending a crescent of spiritual qi tearing through the air.
Boom!
A wooden shelf exploded apart, scattering jade bottles and cultivation manuals across the floor.
"Those manuals are ours!"
A Hao Family cultivator lunged forward, only to be intercepted by a Xu acting elder clutching three storage rings in one hand.
"Get lost!"
The Xu elder unleashed a palm strike with all his strength, forcing the Hao cultivator back several steps.
Before he could press his advantage, three Peng Family cultivators attacked him from different directions.
Their attacks landed almost simultaneously.
Blood sprayed across the treasury as the Xu elder crashed heavily onto the floor.
The storage rings slipped from his grasp and rolled across the ground.
Without the slightest hesitation, cultivators from both families rushed toward them.
No one spared the fallen elder a second glance.
Outside the treasury, more and more cultivators from the Peng and Hao Families poured into the Xu Family estate.
Their overwhelming numerical advantage became increasingly apparent.
Explosions echoed throughout the clan as one building after another collapsed beneath the relentless assault.
Inside the treasury, the remaining acting elders finally realized they could no longer hold their ground.
"We have to escape!"
One elder rushed toward the rear wall before abruptly stopping.
His expression instantly froze.
"...Where’s the escape route?"
The others halted as well.
Only then did they realize that, in their greed, none of them had bothered to ask where the hidden passage actually was.
"Damn it!"
Another elder clenched his teeth.
"The Young Miss knows!"
"Go to the ancestral hall!"
Without another word, the surviving elders abandoned the treasury and fled through the corridors at full speed.
Behind them, cultivators from the Peng and Hao Families immediately gave chase.
The distance between both sides shrank with every passing breath.
The elders no longer cared about dignity or status.
Survival had become their only concern.
At last, the ancestral hall came into view and the massive doors stood open.
Hope immediately lit up their faces.
"The Young Miss is there!"
They rushed inside without slowing down.
The moment they crossed the threshold, every one of them came to an abrupt halt.
Xu Qingyue lay collapsed at the center of the formation.
The countless formation lines beneath her had already faded into darkness.
Blood flowed from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, soaking her pale robes crimson.
Not even the faintest trace of cultivation remained within her.
One elder hurried forward.
"Young Miss!"
"Where’s the escape route?"
"Tell us quickly!"
"The enemy is almost here!"
Xu Qingyue slowly opened her eyes.
Her gaze drifted across the familiar faces before settling upon the bulging storage rings hanging from their waists.
She understood everything without asking.
For the briefest moment, disappointment flickered across her face before quietly fading away.
With great difficulty, she slowly raised a trembling hand and pointed toward the stone wall behind the ancestral tablets.
"...There."
The elders immediately turned around.
One of them struck the wall with his palm.
Boom!
The stone wall shattered apart, revealing a narrow tunnel hidden behind it.
"It really exists!"
"Hahaha!"
"We’re saved!"
The elders surged into the tunnel without offering a single word of thanks.
None of them asked whether Xu Qingyue intended to come with them.
None of them offered to help her to her feet.
Within moments, every last elder had disappeared into the darkness.
The ancestral hall fell silent once more.
Xu Qingyue’s raised hand slowly dropped onto the cold stone floor.
A lonely smile appeared on her bloodstained face.
Before the silence could linger for long, the entrance to the ancestral hall exploded inward.
Splintered wood and shattered stone scattered across the floor as cultivators from the Peng Family and the Hao Family stormed into the hall with weapons drawn.
Within moments, the entire ancestral hall was surrounded.
Peng Tianyuan and Hao Zhenshan slowly walked through the ruined entrance.
They first noticed the open tunnel before their eyes immediately fell upon the lone girl lying at the center of the formation.
Blood stained her robes, and crimson streaks ran from her five orifices.
The aura of cultivation that had once surrounded her had completely vanished.
Hao Zhenshan looked at her for a long moment before quietly muttering.
"So you were the one who entered the formation eye."
He slowly shook his head.
"What a shame."
A genius capable of astonishing the entire kingdom reduced to this.
Just then, a youthful voice suddenly echoed from somewhere within the hidden tunnel.
"Ahhh! Young Miss, don’t bite me!"
Everyone instinctively turned toward the passage.
"Then shut up!"
A young girl’s irritated voice immediately answered.
"If you continue to fool around, your father is really going to kill all of us!"
"What are you talking about?! I can’t hear you! I’m deaf!"
"I’m saying I’m telling everything to the Patriarch!"
"I’ll kill you if you do!"
The tunnel abruptly fell silent.
Peng Tianyuan and Hao Zhenshan exchanged puzzled glances.
A moment later, a little girl dressed in white stepped out of the tunnel with both hands covering her ears.
Behind her, one child after another emerged until twenty four children stood gathered at the tunnel entrance.
The carefree expressions on their faces gradually froze.
At the same time, the smiles on the faces of the Peng and Hao cultivators slowly disappeared.
The ancestral hall fell into complete silence.
On one side stood the cultivators of the Peng and Hao Families.
On the other stood twenty-four children who had unknowingly walked straight into the middle of a battlefield.
Lin Zhaowen’s gaze swept across the ancestral hall before finally landing on the motionless Xu Qingyue.
His expression immediately became serious and without saying a word, he hurried over and knelt beside her.
He gently placed two fingers against her wrist and carefully examined her pulse.
Several breaths later, he let out a long sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness, she’s still alive."
Only then did Lin Zhaoyue withdraw her gaze from Xu Qingyue and look toward the two patriarchs standing at the front of the hall.
She tilted her head innocently.
"Hey, old men."
Her sudden greeting made both Peng Tianyuan and Hao Zhenshan look at her.
"Since she’s already crippled..."
She pointed toward Xu Qingyue.
"She’s basically as good as dead anyway, right?"
Hao Zhenshan’s face instantly darkened.
"What nonsense are you—"
Peng Tianyuan calmly raised a hand, stopping him before he could continue.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he looked at Lin Zhaoyue.
"Of course, you may take her, Young Miss of the Lin Family."
He spoke as though granting an insignificant favor.
"In return, I hope the Lin Family won’t interfere with today’s matter."
Lin Zhaoyue blinked several times, then she looked at him as though he had just said the most ridiculous thing imaginable.
"...What do you mean our family won’t interfere?"
She pointed toward the surrounding Xu Family estate.
"My father was the one who killed all of the Xu Family’s Golden Core cultivators."
She swept her finger toward the Peng and Hao cultivators surrounding the hall.
"You’re stealing my family’s loot! You’re robbing my family right now!"