Chapter 122. The kids aren’t weak.
Peng Tianyuan’s smile gradually faded when he heard her.
The warmth in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a cold indifference befitting the head of a cultivation family.
"Young Miss Lin."
His voice remained calm, but the pressure behind his words became noticeably heavier.
"I agreed to let you take Xu Qingyue because I was showing the Lin Family respect."
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Do not mistake courtesy for weakness."
Lin Zhaoyue blinked back innocently at the remark, totally not taking him seriously.
Peng Tianyuan continued.
"I gave you an inch, yet you’re asking for a mile. You’ve already gained Xu Qingyue. Now you wish to claim the entire Xu Family as well?"
He slowly shook his head.
"Children should know when to stop. There is a saying in the cultivation world...
The taller the tree grows, the stronger the wind that seeks to break it."
His gaze sharpened.
"You are still young. Do not let a few fortunate encounters make you believe the world revolves around you."
Beside him, Hao Zhenshan let out a cold snort.
"Young people these days truly don’t know the immensity of heaven and earth."
He looked down at Lin Zhaoyue as though lecturing a junior.
"Arrogance is a disease. It may win you applause today, but it will cost you your life tomorrow."
He swept a glance across the twenty-four children gathered behind her.
"You’ve already been shown enough mercy, take Xu Qingyue and leave. Do not force us to withdraw the little goodwill we’ve shown."
The ancestral hall fell silent once more.
Dozens of cultivators from the Peng and Hao Families tightened their grips on their weapons, their eyes fixed upon the little girl standing before them.
In their eyes, Peng Tianyuan and Hao Zhenshan had indeed already shown extraordinary restraint.
If this child continued to push her luck...
She would truly be failing to appreciate a favor when one had been given.
Just as the atmosphere reached its breaking point—
Bzzt... Bzzt...
A communication talisman suddenly began vibrating.
Everyone instinctively turned toward the source while Lin Zhaowen calmly took the talisman from his sleeve and infused a thread of spiritual qi into it.
"Yes, Patriarch, we’re currently at the Xu Family."
He listened quietly for a moment before nodding several times.
"Ah, yes. Yes.
Please bring the Su Family along as well. What is that? The Shangguan family also wishes to come?
Sure, sure, we’re all here."
"Yes, thank you."
He paused once more.
"Oh, and the Patriarchs of the Peng Family and the Hao Family are here too."
The hall became noticeably quieter.
Lin Zhaowen tilted his head as though listening to another question.
"...You’re asking what they’re doing here?"
He slowly raised his eyes toward Peng Tianyuan and Hao Zhenshan before replying with a faint smile.
"They’re being wonderful hosts to us. Yes... very wonderful indeed."
The moment those words left Lin Zhaowen’s mouth, Lin Zhaoyue made her move.
Her tiny figure vanished from where she had been standing, leaving only a blur behind as she shot straight toward Peng Tianyuan.
Her small fist carried no dazzling spiritual light, only pure, terrifying speed.
Peng Tianyuan’s pupils contracted.
"So fast—"
Caught completely off guard by the sudden assault, he instinctively raised his arm to block.
Boom!
A thunderous impact echoed throughout the ancestral hall.
Peng Tianyuan was forced several steps backward before finally stabilizing himself.
His sleeve had been torn apart by the force of the collision, exposing a forearm that had already turned bright red.
A flicker of astonishment flashed across his eyes.
Before anyone could recover from the shock, Lin Zhaoyue had already returned to her original position as though nothing had happened.
She rubbed her tiny fist with a dissatisfied expression.
"Ow..."
Looking up at Peng Tianyuan, she pouted.
"Your bones are really hard."
The entire ancestral hall fell silent.
Even Hao Zhenshan stared blankly at Peng Tianyuan.
No one understood Peng Tianyuan’s physique better than he did. Peng Tianyuan had cultivated a body-refining technique for decades, and even cultivators of the same realm would struggle to move him with a single blow.
Yet a little girl had forced him backward with nothing but the strength of her punch.
Peng Tianyuan slowly lowered his arm, the calmness in his expression disappearing completely.
He stared at Lin Zhaoyue as though seeing her for the very first time.
"So..."
His voice turned icy.
"The Lin Family intends to interfere—"
"Attack!"
Before he could finish speaking, Lin Zhaoyue’s clear voice rang through the ancestral hall.
The brief silence instantly shattered.
A delicate folding fan appeared in her hand with a flick of her wrist. Spiritual qi surged into its surface as she executed the Cloud Chasing Art.
The fan swept forward.
A crescent-shaped gust of compressed wind tore through the hall, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye before crashing directly into Peng Tianyuan.
Boom!
The violent impact sent him flying backward once more, his robes fluttering wildly as he forcefully steadied himself several dozen feet away.
At almost the same moment, Hao Zhenshan lunged toward Lin Zhaoyue, only for her fan to reverse direction in a graceful arc.
Another blast of compressed wind exploded outward.
Boom!
Hao Zhenshan was likewise blasted backward, his feet carving deep grooves across the stone floor before he managed to stop.
Neither patriarch suffered any real injuries, but the disbelief on their faces was impossible to conceal.
A little girl who looked no older than twelve, had forced two Golden Core patriarchs backward with nothing but her own strength.
Peng Tianyuan’s expression turned incomparably grave.
"She’s... at least at the Sixth Layer of the Golden Core Realm," he muttered.
Hao Zhenshan’s expression immediately became solemn.
He had never imagined that the Lin Family possessed such a monstrous child.
"Now!"
The two patriarchs attacked simultaneously.
They had already abandoned any thoughts of underestimating her.
Facing two opponents, Lin Zhaoyue showed no trace of panic.
Boom! Boom!
The hall trembled violently.
Three Golden Core cultivators clashed repeatedly, their spiritual qi shaking the entire ancestral hall.
Meanwhile, Lin Zhaowen lowered the communication talisman in his hand and calmly pointed toward the surrounding cultivators of the Peng and Hao Families.
"Let’s kill them all."
The children exchanged glances before rushing forward one after another without the slightest hesitation.
Although every one of them was still in the Qi Refinement Realm, they held an overwhelming advantage in numbers.
The Peng and Hao Families had only brought a handful of Qi Refinement elders into the ancestral hall.
The rest of their forces were still outside searching the Xu Family estate.
"Protect the patriarchs!"
A Peng elder roared.
Before he could finish speaking, three children tackled him simultaneously.
Another Hao elder was instantly surrounded by four more.
The narrow ancestral hall erupted into complete chaos.