Volume 1, Chapter 82 – The Ye Family Backs Down

Everyone in the Ye family, from Ye Lingyun to the ordinary guards, underwent a drastic change in expression. They were both shocked and furious.

Arrogant!

Far too arrogant!

She had actually dared to say such audacious words in front of all the Ye family’s higher-ups!

“You’ve got some nerve!”

A hot-tempered elder at the peak of the Body Integration realm could no longer restrain himself and roared:

“A mere barbarian from the Southern Region dares to make such outrageous claims before the gates of my Eastern Region’s Ye family! Do you truly think there is no one capable in the Ye family?!”

Before his words had even faded, he attacked without hesitation.

A crimson battle saber appeared in his hand, its blade blazing with fierce flames. He swung it down in a single slash.

A hundred-zhang-long arc of flaming saber energy tore through the air, carrying a terrifying heat capable of scorching the heavens and boiling the seas as it cleaved straight down at Gu Han’s head.

He had used eighty percent of his strength in this strike. Clearly, he intended to establish the Ye family’s authority with a single blow.

“Fourth Elder, don’t!”

Ye Mingyuan’s expression changed. He tried to stop him, but it was already too late.

Ye Lingyun’s pupils also contracted, but he did not intervene. He wanted to use this opportunity to probe the true depth of Palace Master Gu’s strength.

Faced with a violent strike powerful enough to severely injure an ordinary late-stage Body Integration cultivator, Gu Han did not even lift her eyelids.

She merely raised the index finger of her right hand and lightly tapped the flaming saber energy tearing through the sky toward her.

Her movement was gentle, like a dragonfly touching the surface of water.

Then came a soft pop.

The sound was so faint it was almost inaudible.

The hundred-zhang-long flaming saber energy, which had charged forward with enough momentum to split a mountain apart, instantly collapsed the moment it touched Gu Han’s fingertip, like a bubble being punctured.

There was no explosion and no burst of energy. It simply vanished silently into the air.

Not even a single spark scattered.

It was as though that world-destroying strike had never been anything more than an illusion.

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“What?!”

The Fourth Elder’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, his face filled with disbelief.

His full-powered strike had simply… disappeared?

He had not even sensed any significant fluctuation of spiritual power.

How was that possible?!

The rest of the Ye family’s higher-ups were equally horrified.

Palace Master Gu’s strength was even more terrifying than they had imagined.

“It seems you have chosen the second path.”

Gu Han slowly withdrew her finger and calmly swept her gaze across Ye Lingyun and the others.

Her eyes were like those of someone watching a swarm of insignificant ants vainly attempting to shake a towering tree.

“In that case…”

She let out a soft sigh. Then her gaze abruptly turned sharp and icy.

“I will replace your main branch for you.”

An indescribable, unimaginable pressure erupted from her, as though an ancient deity that had slumbered for countless ages had suddenly awakened.

A deep hum shook the heavens.

Heaven and earth lost their color. The sun and moon dimmed.

The entire sky darkened in an instant, as though covered by an invisible hand.

The pressure was as vast as a sea of stars and as heavy as a primordial divine mountain. Like a tangible tide, it instantly engulfed the entire Ye family estate before spreading across all of Tianfeng City.

Under that pressure, Ye Lingyun, an early-stage Mahayana cultivator, instantly turned as pale as paper. He gave a muffled groan and staggered several steps backward, unable to control his body.

The elders behind him fared even worse. It was as though a giant hammer had struck them in the chest.

They all spat out a mouthful of blood. Their auras weakened, and they nearly fell from the sky.

The Nascent Soul and Golden Core guards atop the gatehouse were even more helpless.

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They dropped one after another like dumplings falling into a pot. Many immediately lost consciousness, with blood seeping from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths.

As for the clan-protecting grand formation that the Ye family took such pride in, personally laid down by their ancestor, it shook violently beneath the impact of that pressure like a fragile eggshell.

Cracking sounds rang out as it failed under the strain, then shattered with a thunderous crash.

It was only pressure.

Gu Han had not even truly attacked.

Yet all the Ye family’s higher-ups had already been injured, their guards had collapsed, and their clan-protecting grand formation had shattered.

Ye Lingyun had seen their ancestor take action before, but even he had not seemed this terrifying.

Their ancestor was a mighty expert at the peak of the sixth layer of Tribulation Transcendence!

For this woman to break a grand formation personally laid down by their ancestor so effortlessly, her strength was clearly above his.

Just what realm had she reached?

The seventh layer of Tribulation Transcendence?

The peak of Tribulation Transcendence?

Or perhaps…

Since when had a barbaric place like the Southern Region produced such a powerful expert?

Ye Lingyun screamed in despair within his heart. His eyes were filled with unprecedented fear and disbelief.

He had originally thought that she was, at most, at the late stage or peak of Mahayana. Never could he have imagined that she possessed such terrifying strength.

No wonder… No wonder she dared to act without the slightest restraint!

No wonder she did not take the Ye family seriously at all!

Before a great expert suspected to be above the seventh layer of Tribulation Transcendence, even the Azure Dragon Guards would be useless unless their ancestor descended personally or Empress Qingxuan took action.

However, Empress Qingxuan and their ancestor were both currently in secluded cultivation. It was clearly too late to notify them now.

“S-Senior! Stop! Please stop!”

Ye Lingyun could no longer care about the dignity of a family head or the reputation of his clan. He cried out hoarsely, his voice filled with terror.

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“The Ye family has offended Senior! We know we were wrong! We choose the first path! The first path!”

The instant Ye Lingyun’s terrified plea ended, the horrifying aura that had enveloped heaven and earth silently receded like a tide and vanished without a trace.

It was as though the pressure that had dimmed the sun and moon and made even Mahayana cultivators feel suffocated had merely been a collective hallucination.

The sky cleared once more, and the sunlight remained warm.

However, the devastation in the plaza before the Ye estate, the pale faces of the Ye family’s higher-ups, the blood still staining the corners of their mouths, and the guards sprawled all over the gatehouse all proved just how real and terrifying everything that had happened was.

After a brief, deathly silence, Tianfeng City erupted like the surface of a lake struck by a massive boulder.

Outside the Ye family estate, the cultivators from various factions and the ordinary citizens who had been watching from afar, too intimidated by the remnants of the pressure to even breathe loudly, finally dared to speak.

Their suppressed voices erupted into a torrent of discussion like a volcano that had been dormant for far too long.

“My heavens! Just now… Just what was that…?”

A Golden Core rogue cultivator who had been standing relatively close to the Ye estate and had luckily avoided most of the pressure stared at the scene before the gates.

His voice trembled, and his face was filled with utter shock.

“The Ye family head… spat blood? And those Ye family elders…”

“The clan-protecting grand formation shattered?! That formation could withstand attacks from a Tribulation Transcendence cultivator!”

“J-Just like that? It shattered from her pressure alone?!”

“Who in the world is that silver-haired woman?!”

“Didn’t you hear? Yaochi Immortal Palace! The Yaochi Immortal Palace of the Southern Region!”

“Yaochi Immortal Palace? Since when did the Southern Region have such a terrifying power? The Ye family looked like it was made of paper before her!”

“Is that blue-haired girl Ye Ling’er, the branch-family girl from the Ye family with that once-in-ten-thousand-years case of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians?”

“She… she can actually cultivate now? And she became the disciple of such a terrifying expert?”

“The Ye family truly kicked an iron plate this time!”

“That may not necessarily be the end of it. Don’t forget who stands behind the Ye family… That is Empress Qingxuan!”

“That pressure just now… I felt as though my soul was about to be crushed! It was terrifying!”

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“Ye Lingyun actually bowed his head… I’ve lived in Tianfeng City for over three hundred years, and this is the first time I’ve seen the Ye family in such a miserable state!”

Shock!

Horror!

Disbelief!

All kinds of emotions spread wildly through the crowd and intertwined.

In the past, how imposing had the Ye family been in Tianfeng City and throughout the Eastern Region?

How domineering had they been?

They were backed by Empress Qingxuan, while a late-stage Tribulation Transcendence ancestor presided over their clan. Experts were as numerous as clouds under their command, and ordinary powers did not dare provoke them.

Yet today, in broad daylight and before countless witnesses, someone had come directly to their gates.

Their family head had spat blood, their elders had been injured, their clan-protecting grand formation had been broken, and in the end, their family head had been forced to bow his head and beg for mercy in public.

The scene carved itself deeply into the hearts of every witness like the sharpest engraving knife.

It was easy to foresee that in less than half a day, news of what had happened before the Ye estate in Tianfeng City would spread throughout the entire Eastern Region faster than the wind.

Gu Han, Palace Master of Yaochi Immortal Palace in the Southern Region, had single-handedly confronted a first-rate aristocratic family of the Eastern Region.

As the eyewitnesses retold the event, she would only become more mysterious and powerful in the eyes of the world.

The Ye family had suffered a crushing setback this time and lost all face.

And the source of everything was merely a girl from a branch line whom they had once regarded as a cripple and discarded like a worn-out shoe: Ye Ling’er.

Countless complicated gazes involuntarily turned toward the blue-haired girl standing quietly beside the silver-haired woman, her cool and ethereal bearing setting her apart from the crowd.

Envy, jealousy, amazement…

Who could have imagined that this girl, once diagnosed with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians and destined not to live past thirty, would not only gain the ability to cultivate but also become the disciple of such a terrifying expert and soar to the heavens in a single step?

The Ye family disciples who had once mocked and looked down on her were probably sick with regret by now.

Within the crowd, scouts from various factions who were well-informed and quick-witted had already sent back everything they had seen and heard that day.