The Ancestor of the Zhao family slowly opened his eyes, and the air in the secret chamber instantly grew heavy with a suffocating, blood-colored mist. Without a word, he lashed out; a single slap, infused with the terrifying power of a Nascent Soul Level 4 expert, struck Zhao Chen across the face.
The Patriarch was sent flying, sliding violently across the cold stone floor until his body slammed into a jagged pillar. Bloody and battered, his robes tattered and his bones groaning from the impact,
Zhao Chen did not utter a single cry of pain. With trembling limbs, he forced himself to stand, wiped the crimson trail from his lip, and crawled back to kneel before the Ancestor in a display of absolute, terrified submission.
Emerging from his long seclusion, the Ancestor strode into the main courtyard of the Zhao estate, his presence causing the very ground to tremble. A massive gathering was called, a sea of over four thousand people: the nine remaining Golden Core elders, the bloodied Zhao Chen, the arrogant Zhao Yan, and a legion of Foundation Establishment stewards and disciples.
The Ancestor's gaze, cold and predatory, landed on Zhao Yan. He began to question the boy, forcing him to recount every detail of the encounter at the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Radiance.
As Zhao Yan finished his stuttering explanation, the Ancestor's expression darkened into one of pure disgust. Without warning, his hand blurred; a single, thunderous slap crushed Zhao Yan's skull and shattered his meridians, killing him instantly in front of the entire horrified clan.
"How could you tolerate this idiot as the Young Master of the family?" the Ancestor roared, his voice echoing like a death knell through the silent assembly. "He didn't even have the eyes to discern the cultivation realm of his opponent and has brought our lineage to the brink of ruin over a piece of jewelry!"
Looking at the mangled corpse of his only son, Zhao Chen's eyes turned a terrifying, hollow black. He clenched his fists so hard his nails drew blood from his palms, but he dared not breathe a word of protest against the Ancestor. He channeled his grief and the agonizing humiliation of the night into a singular, burning hatred, shifting all his murderous intent toward Lin Feng.
To him, the white-robed youth was no longer just an enemy, but the demon who had cost him his son and his dignity.
With the death of Zhao Yan casting a dark shadow over the courtyard, Zhao Wenzhuo, the Ancestor of the Zhao family, issued his final, chilling command.
He ordered every remaining family member—from the highest-ranking inner disciples to the lowest outer servants—to retreat immediately within the estate walls, effectively putting the entire clan in a state of total lockdown.
To ensure their absolute defense, he deployed the nine remaining Golden Core elders to the ancestral perimeter, tasking them with activating the Nether Bat Array, a forbidden formation gifted to them by their extraterrestrial overlords. As the elders took their positions, channeling dark, pulsating energy into the ground, a translucent, leathery dome of violet Qi began to envelop the estate, emitting a high-pitched screech that echoed in the souls of those nearby.
Standing at the center of this grim fortification, Zhao Wenzhuo commanded the four thousand disciples to take up their battle stations, turning the Zhao residence into a death trap designed to drain the life force of any intruder who dared to step foot inside.
With the death of Zhao Yan casting a dark shadow over the courtyard, Zhao Wenzhuo, the Ancestor of the Zhao family, issued his final, chilling command.
He ordered every remaining family member—from the highest-ranking inner disciples to the lowest outer servants—to retreat immediately within the estate walls, effectively putting the entire clan in a state of total lockdown.
To ensure their absolute defense, he deployed the nine remaining Golden Core elders to the ancestral perimeter, tasking them with activating the Nether Bat Array, a forbidden formation gifted to them by their extraterrestrial overlords. As the elders took their positions, channeling dark, pulsating energy into the ground, a translucent, leathery dome of violet Qi began to envelop the estate, emitting a high-pitched screech that echoed in the souls of those nearby.
Standing at the center of this grim fortification, Zhao Wenzhuo commanded the four thousand disciples to take up their battle stations, turning the Zhao residence into a death trap designed to drain the life force of any intruder who dared to step foot inside.
Lin Feng arrived before the towering gates of the Zhao estate, his white robes fluttering slightly against the oppressive, violet pressure of the Nether Bat Array.
His eyes narrowed as he sensed the unnatural, sickening aura of the formation; it felt like a living parasite, hungry for the life-force of anything that drew near. Standing calmly at the threshold, Lin Feng released a burst of his refined Sword Intent, testing the strength of the barrier. Inside the estate, Zhao Wenzhuo's mocking laughter boomed out, amplified by the dark energy of the dome.
"Ignorant brat! This is a sacred gift from the Nether Bat Clan! It is an absolute defense that even a Peak Nascent Soul expert would find impenetrable. Only a Soul Transformation cultivator could hope to crack it! You might as well sit there and wait for your death!"
Hearing the ancestor's boastful taunts, a cold, mocking smile played on Lin Feng's lips. He didn't waste another word on pointless arguments; instead, he reached into his sleeve and produced a shimmering, golden slip of parchment that pulsed with a heat so intense it caused the air to distort.
It was a 9th-Rank Great Fire Dragon Talisman, a treasure of such rarity that even 1st-tier sects in the Central Star Field would fight over it. As he activated the talisman, the sky above Solar City turned a blinding, solar gold.
A colossal fire dragon, hundreds of meters long, manifested from the spiritual fire, its roar shaking the very foundations of the kingdom.
The dragon descended with an unstoppable, celestial fury, its divine flames immediately clashing with the sinister violet aura of the Nether Bat Array.
The dark formation, which was supposed to be "absolute," struggled for only a heartbeat before it was utterly engulfed by the dragon's cleansing fire. The violet dome hissed and shrieked like a dying animal before shattering into countless crystalline fragments.
The explosion of energy sent shockwaves through the city, but the dragon did not stop there. It coiled through the Zhao estate with sinister precision, its flames acting as a targeted wave of judgment.
In a terrifying display of controlled power, the dragon's fire bypassed the high-level cultivators but swarmed over the rest of the clan. The 4,000 disciples, the stewards, and the lower-ranked enforcers were instantly vaporized, turned to ash before they could even scream.
When the blinding light finally receded, the grand estate was a smoking ruin of charred stone and silence. Standing in the center of the wreckage, paralyzed by shock and the searing heat, were only the eleven survivors,
Zhao Chen, the nine Golden Core elders, and the Ancestor, all staring in mute horror at the total annihilation of their family's future.
Lin Feng stood amidst the smoking ruins of the estate, his white robes still pristine despite the carnage around him. He fixed his gaze upon the eleven survivors, his eyes reflecting a deep, icy disdain that seemed to pierce through their very souls.
"Are you even human anymore?" he asked, his voice carrying an ethereal echo that silenced the crackling of the remaining fires. "To think a family of the Blue Star would defect to those extraterrestrial rats... you have forfeited the right to exist in this world. As a disciple of the Eternal Sect, I shall put an end to this filth."
As he spoke the final word, Lin Feng's hand gripped the hilt of his Xuan-grade sword. The moment the blade left its sheath, the atmosphere of Solar City underwent a terrifying transformation.
The golden sky created by the talisman was suddenly overwritten by a swirling, emerald tempest. Drawing upon the boundless reserves of his Nascent Soul Level 4 cultivation and the profound truths of the Eternity Divine Technique, Lin Feng manifested his sword intent on a scale never before seen in the Western Region. Millions of glowing willow leaves, formed from pure,
condensed spiritual energy, began to materialize out of thin air, dancing in a lethal vortex that filled the entire space between him and the Zhao survivors.
Zhao Wenzhuo, the Ancestor, felt a wave of primal terror wash over him. Despite being in the same cultivation realm as the youth before him, he realized with a sinking heart that their "levels" were worlds apart. While his own power was built on the borrowed, decaying energy of the Nether Bat race,
Lin Feng's power was as vast and pure as the heavens themselves. He tried to circulate his dark Qi to form a final defense, but the mere presence of the willow leaf intent seemed to suppress his very soul, pinning him to the spot like a bug under a mountain.
With a single, fluid motion, Lin Feng swung his sword in a wide horizontal arc. He didn't use a flashy technique or a complex move; it was a simple slash, yet it carried the weight of absolute judgment.
The millions of willow leaves responded to the swing, accelerating into streaks of emerald light that tore through the air with a high-pitched hum. The nine Golden Core elders and the Patriarch, Zhao Chen, didn't even have time to scream. Their bodies were instantly caught in the path of the leaves,
which acted like microscopic razors, meticulously dissecting their physical forms and shattering their golden cores in a heartbeat.
The Zhao Ancestor watched in mute horror as his family's last remnants were reduced to a million pieces of red mist before his eyes. A split second later, the emerald tide reached him.
He felt the terrifying sharpness of the Eternity Divine Technique slicing through his Nascent Soul, severed his connection to the world and his extraterrestrial masters alike. As his vision faded into darkness, his last thought was a desperate, unanswered question,
How could a mere 9th-tier sect produce such a monster? He fell, his body disintegrating into the wind, leaving only the silent, blood-stained ruins of the Zhao estate behind.
While the emerald storm of Lin Feng's sword intent leveled the remnants of the Zhao estate, Huai remained seated within the sect's main hall, his figure shrouded in a calm, enigmatic aura as he watched the distant carnage reflected in a shimmering spiritual screen.
A slight, playful smile danced on his lips, the expression of a grandmaster watching a prized pupil finally master a difficult move. Beside him, Jian Tian,hiding in the shadows to protect Lin Feng ,the formidable Elder at the Void Refinement Peak,
stood with his arms crossed, his sharp eyes narrowed in unwavering interest. The Elder, who had seen countless geniuses across the centuries, couldn't help but marvel at the purity of the boy's strike; he wasn't just observing a battle, he was witnessing the birth of a legend whose potential promised to elevate the Eternal Sect far beyond the boundaries of the Great Solaris Kingdom.