Wen Fengyuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression unusually cold and stern. The desperate screams and pleas for mercy from the Wen family members in the distance pierced the sky like sharp arrows, coming in wave after relentless wave.
Yet these sounds, heavy with despair and agony, failed to stir even the faintest ripple on Wen Fengyuan’s face—not the slightest hint of emotion.
His gaze remained calm and impassive, as if the Wen family members being slaughtered wholesale by the Black Bird Guard were nothing more than insignificant motes of dust in his eyes, completely irrelevant to him.
This was because Wen Fengyuan had long been prepared. From the moment he pledged allegiance to those two great families and used Princess Xingyue’s life as his “pledge of loyalty,” the Wen family had only two possible fates awaiting them.
One path was to soar to the heavens, transcend the mortal world, and ascend to the ranks of the Eight Great Families. They would revel in boundless wealth and honor, wield supreme authority, and command the power of the Ten-Pattern Sun Artifacts!
The other was to plunge into an abyss of eternal damnation, to be crushed like ants underfoot, to vanish without a trace from the annals of the Great Xia Dynasty, leaving not a single mark behind.
Looking at the situation now, the Wen family was already teetering on the brink, existing in name only. The imperial decree for the execution of their entire clan had already been issued, and their complete annihilation was merely a matter of moments.
Wen Fengyuan stood amidst the ruins, his gaze deep and complicated as he stared ahead. At this moment, a sliver of regret quietly arose in his heart, like a tiny thorn pricking deep within his soul.
But this sliver of regret did not last long; it was swiftly drowned out by Wen Fengyuan’s ruthless cruelty.
He thought to himself:
As long as I am alive, the Wen family will not perish! I am the Wen family. My strength is the very core of the Wen family’s existence.
Wen Fengyuan’s eyes once again gleamed with a sharp, piercing light, as if everything was still firmly under his control.
He no longer had any ties or fetters holding him back. What remained now was only an unyielding, ice-cold resolve.
The consummation of the Divine Mansion Realm!
Once he broke through to this level, he would gain several hundred more years of life. His aged, decrepit body would be revitalized and regain its former astonishing vigor.
When that time came, for Wen Fengyuan, trivial matters like continuing his bloodline would simply be a question of time.
Wen Fengyuan firmly believed that as long as he lived, the Wen family’s bloodline would not be severed. In fact, they could even rise again in the future.
But for now, Wen Fengyuan’s top priority was to shake off this Lu Xuan before him.
This Lu Xuan looked young and inexperienced, yet he had quickly dispatched that abomination from Haoran Manor. That proved one thing: Lu Xuan’s strength was truly unfathomable—undoubtedly superior to his own.
At present, Wen Fengyuan’s combat prowess had plummeted to around the minor achievement level of the Divine Mansion Realm. If he recklessly engaged in a protracted fight with Lu Xuan, it would not take even an hour before he was defeated—or worse, his life would be forfeit, meeting a miserable end of total annihilation.
Fortunately, he had been wise enough to keep a backup plan and spare Princess Xingyue’s life. Perfect—now he could use her life to threaten Lu Xuan.
Seeing that Lu Xuan remained silent, Wen Fengyuan frowned slightly, a flash of impatience and coldness flickering across his eyes.
Then, in a hoarse voice, he spoke: “Director Lu, you wouldn’t be refusing my terms, would you?”
The threat in his words was utterly naked and undisguised!
Before his words had even faded, Wen Fengyuan lightly raised his right hand and casually grasped at the air with his five fingers. The motion seemed effortless, yet it carried terrifying Primordial Spirit power, directly resonating with Princess Xingyue inside the purple flame barrier.
Inside the barrier, Princess Xingyue’s previously composed face instantly turned deathly pale. She knitted her brows tightly and let out a stifled cry of pain. Her body began to tremble faintly, as if tightly bound by an invisible force, making even breathing a struggle.
Wen Fengyuan’s Primordial Spirit power, completely bypassing Lu Xuan’s own, acted upon Princess Xingyue’s heart from a distance, compressing it ever so slightly. This agony was not just physical—it struck directly at her meridians, almost too much for her to bear.
However, to Wen Fengyuan’s disappointment, Lu Xuan’s expression remained utterly unmoved at this sight.
A hint of fury gradually crept onto Wen Fengyuan’s face. His features twisted slightly from rage, and his eyes narrowed as he glared venomously at Lu Xuan, speaking in an icy tone:
“Director Lu, stop putting on that act in front of me!” His voice seemed to carry some mysterious force, causing even the void itself to ripple faintly.
“If Princess Xingyue dies, I refuse to believe you’ll come out unscathed! That dog emperor will never let you off lightly, either!”
Wen Fengyuan gritted his teeth inwardly, seething with dark thoughts.
This Lu Xuan bastard… just wait until I get out of here. I’ll dig up every last secret about your origins, down to the very roots!
Hmph! Today, my Wen family has been sentenced to annihilation and my descendants wiped out. I will remember this blood-debt! Let this brat have his moment of glory for now. There will be plenty of time ahead. One day, I’ll make sure this snot-nosed kid tastes the same bitter fruit of losing his entire family!
Just as Wen Fengyuan was sinking into his vicious fantasies of future revenge against Lu Xuan, that was when Lu Xuan finally moved. He raised his right hand and gently brushed it across his surroundings. The motion appeared light and casual, yet it seemed to carry the immeasurable power of heaven and earth.
In an instant, the empty space within a thousand-meter radius seemed to be violently pressed down by an enormous invisible hand, causing a violent tremor. Everyone within that thousand-meter range was instantly enveloped by Lu Xuan’s spiritual sense and Primordial Spirit power.
The Black Bird Guards among them felt only a flicker of light before their eyes. The next second, they were transported safely and precisely to the distance, completely unharmed.
But the Wen family members were not so fortunate. To them, this casual wave of Lu Xuan’s was like a cataclysmic disaster of apocalyptic proportions. They didn’t even have a chance to struggle.
Before Lu Xuan’s Primordial Spirit power, their bodies were as fragile as paper scraps in the wind. In that instant, the terrifying force of heaven and earth cascaded down, and wherever it reached, no Wen family member escaped—all were instantly crushed into clouds of diffuse blood mist.
Thick, cloying blood filled the air, and the sharp stench of gore assaulted the senses. Everywhere one looked, there was nothing but a blurred sea of blood and gore—like a living hell, grim and bone-chilling.
Seeing this, Wen Fengyuan’s heart constricted violently. An overwhelming sense of foreboding swept over him like a surging tide, drowning him in dread.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Lu Xuan!”
Wen Fengyuan roared at the top of his lungs, his voice finally laced with frantic panic.
At this moment, he could no longer care about the fate of the Wen family—in his eyes, they were nothing but fleeting smoke. His mind was now consumed with dread for this seemingly young and inexperienced Lu Xuan, whose methods were vicious and whose strength was unfathomable.
He was terrified that Lu Xuan would disregard Princess Xingyue’s life and fight him to the bitter end. If it came to that, his old hide might very well be lost here today. All his revenge plans and dreams of restoring his family would vanish into thin air.
Lu Xuan paid no heed to Wen Fengyuan’s reaction. In that same moment, a faint purple radiance shot forth from his physical body.
In almost the blink of an eye, the ground within the thousand-meter radius rapidly cracked open. Shocking fissures snaked out in every direction like clawing, ravenous beasts. The dazzling purple glow, like surging lava, flowed along the cracks, illuminating the ground in eerie, brilliant splendor.
At the same time, at the edges of the thousand-meter zone, four terrifying walls of purple flame rose from the ground. These colossal flaming barriers burned fiercely, radiating scorching heat. Even from afar, one could feel the terrifying waves of heat assaulting the senses.
Then, these four purple flame walls closed in with lightning speed, completely sealing off the thousand-meter area—even the sky above was covered without a single gap.
From the outside, the area where Lu Xuan stood now looked like a blazing square-shaped inferno. The bewitching purple flames danced and flickered, their dazzling light making it impossible to see anything within.
It was as if that space had become an isolated, alien dimension, cut off from the rest of the world.
After sealing off this realm with his Primordial Spirit power, Lu Xuan slowly turned his gaze toward Wen Fengyuan. His eyes were ice-cold and utterly calm.
Threats? Hmph. How utterly laughable.
In Lu Xuan’s code of conduct, he had never been afraid of anyone’s threats. To be more precise, he simply didn’t give a damn.
Even if that exalted emperor himself dropped dead right in front of him, it wouldn’t stir the slightest ripple in Lu Xuan’s emotions.
Why? Simple—it wasn’t him who died, so why should he care?
Wen Fengyuan’s eyes bulged wide, his sunken sockets nearly splitting open. His face instantly flushed an ugly, purplish-red like a pig’s liver, hideous beyond words.
Then, his eyes filled with utter disbelief, as if witnessing the most inconceivable thing in the world.
Gnashing his teeth, Wen Fengyuan squeezed out words one by one from between his clenched jaws: “Primordial Spirit power! You… you’re a Divine Mansion Realm major-achievement martial artist, Lu Xuan!”
Inside, Wen Fengyuan felt as though he’d been struck by lightning. He cursed inwardly: Damn it! This is completely different from the intelligence those families gave me!
He had never imagined that this Lu Xuan before him was actually a Divine Mansion Realm major-achievement powerhouse. This bastard Lu Xuan had hidden his true strength far too well!
Earlier, Wen Fengyuan had assumed this brat Lu Xuan could only unleash power comparable to a Primordial Spirit True Person at best. But now it was clear—Lu Xuan himself was a Primordial Spirit True Person.
The difference between the two scenarios was like heaven and earth.
If it had been the former, Wen Fengyuan could still have used his ritual artifacts to tangle with Lu Xuan for a while. But if it was the latter, then Lu Xuan was utterly overwhelming in comparison. A heavily weakened Primordial Spirit True Person like himself was nothing but a pitiful ant before Lu Xuan, who stood at the pinnacle of such power.
Wen Fengyuan’s thoughts raced. Knowing his very life hung in the balance, he dared not hold back any longer.
In the next instant, all of Wen Fengyuan’s Primordial Spirit power within his Divine Mansion erupted violently. In a flash, a terrifying gale howled forth with earth-shattering force, raging in all directions.
Wen Fengyuan’s body floated steadily at the center of this vast hurricane, his robes flapping loudly in the storm, as if they would be torn to shreds at any moment. His frost-white hair and beard streamed wildly in the wind. At this moment, Wen Fengyuan looked like an immortal descending from the Ninth Heaven to the mundane world, every move radiating an extraordinary aura.
With just a casual lift of his hand, the invisible space around him warped and folded. Fragments of wood and roof tiles from distant buildings were stirred by an invisible, colossal force. Wooden planks mixed with damp earth churned incessantly, and even the ground seemed to groan under the burden, letting out deep, rumbling roars.
The next instant, Wen Fengyuan’s eyes erupted with blinding white light, followed by a thunderous roar:
“Wen Qian Qi!” (Wen’s Heavenly Energy!)
As his words fell, Wen Fengyuan’s Primordial Spirit power, like a raging flood breaking through a dam, surged wildly into the bronze ruler in his hand, pouring into it like an unstoppable torrent.
This bronze ruler was no ordinary object—it was an imperial ritual artifact bestowed by the late emperor: the Seven-Pattern Moon Artifact, the Haoran Ruler.
Empowered by Wen Fengyuan’s Primordial Spirit power, the Haoran Ruler erupted with a dazzling, profound white radiance. As the white light blazed, a torrent of pure white power, as thick as a stone pillar, shot forth from within the ruler.
This pure white flood of power, carrying the primal force of heaven and earth that could destroy all things, hurtled toward one of the purple flame walls with devastating impact.
BOOM!
Wen Fengyuan’s Primordial Spirit power collided head-on with Lu Xuan’s Primordial Spirit power. In that instant, the very heavens and earth seemed to collapse around the clash of these two forces.
Then, one deafening explosion after another rang out, like rolling thunder from the Ninth Heaven, echoing across the world. At the epicenter of the power storm, space seemed to endure the pressure of cosmic annihilation. The ethereal void collapsed and compressed violently. Several pitch-black spatial fissures, like the gaping maws of gigantic, terrifying beasts from some unknown void, tore through the fabric of reality, exuding an overwhelming, horrifying aura as if ready to devour everything in this world.
Meanwhile, the explosive hurricane triggered by the power storm swept across the ground with savage brutality, like countless razor-sharp blades. Everything in its path—whether boulders, broken wood, dust, or debris—was ruthlessly swept up. In an instant, countless objects, shrouded in billowing dust, were sent flying wildly within this sealed space, creating a scene of apocalyptic chaos.
But before the dust and smoke that blotted out the sky could even begin to settle, Wen Fengyuan seemed to sense something. His expression changed drastically, and he roared in frantic disbelief:
“Impossible!”
Wen Fengyuan simply could not believe it. He had just unleashed his most powerful attack, infused with the primal power of heaven and earth contained within the Moon ritual artifact. And yet, his devastating strike couldn’t even breach the barrier of Primordial Spirit power that Lu Xuan had casually erected!
The gap in strength between them was simply beyond Wen Fengyuan’s imagination.
“Damn it! How can there be such a huge gap?!”
Wen Fengyuan was now nearly driven to madness. His eyes were bloodshot, like a cornered beast fighting for survival.
In the next breath, his gaze locked onto the direction where Princess Xingyue was being held. A look of ruthless determination surged across his face.
“You damned brat! Even if this old man dies, I will never let you have an easy time!”
As his words finished, Wen Fengyuan unhesitatingly manipulated his Primordial Spirit power and directly detonated Princess Xingyue’s heart.
