Phi-Fic Chapter 16 False Gods and True Immortals
Chapter 16 False Gods and True Immortals
Zhao Tiangang's breathing completely stopped when he heard the words "one hundred and thirty-seven mouths".
Those weren't vague numbers; they were a precise count of the Zhao family's direct bloodline—from him to the infant in swaddling clothes, every single one of them was thoroughly investigated by the other side. Without any probing or maneuvering, from the very beginning, the other side was determined to uproot the Zhao family completely, to eradicate them entirely!
Despair, like a cold, venomous snake, instantly coiled around his heart, frantically gnawing at his sanity. The fear of annihilating his entire family ultimately fueled a desperate, frenzied struggle. He abruptly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, looking like a madman.
"You forced me to do this...you forced me to do this!!"
His roar was hoarse and broken. Zhao Tiangang bit his tongue hard, and a mouthful of scalding blood gushed out, landing squarely on a black jade talisman hanging on his chest. The jade talisman was pitch black, engraved with strange runes, and instantly emitted an eerie black light when soaked in his blood.
"Please, Ancestor, come out of seclusion—!!"
A piercing, distorted roar pierced the roof of the banquet hall and echoed throughout the entire Xishan villa district, carrying both a desperate madness and a sliver of last hope.
"Snap—!"
The black jade talisman shattered instantly, scattering fragments everywhere. A black beam of light, as thick as a bucket, burst through the roof, shooting skyward and tearing a jagged gaping hole in the night. Immediately afterward, the ground throughout the entire Xishan villa district began to tremble violently, the rubble beneath one's feet bounced wildly, and the ruins of the banquet hall teetered on the brink of collapse, as if a devastating earthquake was about to strike.
The once clear night sky was suddenly shrouded in thick, dark clouds, obscuring the sun and even swallowing the starlight. A fierce wind howled, whipping up fallen branches, leaves, and fragments of corpses, swirling above the Zhao family manor and gradually forming a massive black vortex. The center of the vortex was pitch black, emanating a chilling suction force.
The surrounding temperature plummeted by more than ten degrees, and a bone-chilling cold seeped into the marrow through the pores. A terrifying aura, far surpassing that of Longyuan and crushing the four grandmasters, slowly awoke from the depths of the manor's back mountain, like a ferocious beast that had slumbered for millennia slowly opening its eyes. The aura was heavy and violent, carrying a century of deathly stillness and bloodlust, making one's soul tremble and even breathing difficult.
Those guests who hadn't yet escaped the banquet hall were so overwhelmed by the terrifying atmosphere that they couldn't even stand up straight. Their knees buckled, and they knelt heavily on the ground, their foreheads pressed against the cold floor. They trembled like leaves, not even daring to lift their heads. Some were so frightened that they lost control of their bladder and bowels, uttering unconscious whimpers.
"Hahaha... Hahaha! Lu Yuan! You're dead! You're absolutely dead!"
Zhao Tiangang lay sprawled on the ground, covered in blood and dust, yet he seemed to have found a lifeline. He let out a maniacal laugh towards the back mountain, his laughter filled with mad elation. "The reason my Zhao family has stood strong in the capital for a hundred years has never been because of money or power! It's because my Zhao family has a 150-year-old Divine Realm Ancestor!!"
He raised his head, staring intently at Lu Yuan, his eyes filled with resentment and provocation: "You think you're invincible? You think you can crush everything? Before a true Martial God, you're nothing but an ant that can be crushed with a flick of the wrist! Today, your ancestor will grind you to dust and avenge all the dead members of my Zhao family!"
From the direction of the back mountain, a muffled, loud bang suddenly exploded, shaking the entire West Mountain.
"BOOM—!!!"
The entire back mountain was blasted apart by a violent force, sending rocks flying everywhere and dust obscuring the sky. A figure in gray robes stepped out of the dust, his robes fluttering wildly, his body thin and frail, yet upright as a pine tree. He was surrounded by dense black true energy, and with each step he took, visible ripples spread through the air beneath his feet, causing the void to tremble slightly.
The old man closed his eyes, his nostrils flared slightly, greedily inhaling the pervasive smell of blood and stench in the air. A bloodthirsty smile curved his lips, and his voice was hoarse and aged, carrying the languor and savagery of a century's slumber: "A hundred years... I have finally smelled the scent of blood again, still so fresh, so tempting."
Zao Wou-Ki.
The first patriarch of the Zhao family was a top-tier expert who entered the Divine Realm a hundred years ago. In order to delay the decline of his blood and qi and preserve his Divine Realm cultivation, he did not hesitate to sleep underground for a hundred years using a secret method. He barely maintained his life by relying on the Zhao family's continuous blood and qi offerings. He was the Zhao family's true trump card and their ultimate killing move.
He slowly opened his eyes, and two beams of light, as solid as metal, shot out from his cloudy eyeballs, like two sharp swords, piercing through the smoke and dust, passing over the ruins, and accurately locking onto Lu Yuan, who was standing in the ruins of the banquet hall. His eyes were full of condescending indifference and disdain.
"Is it you, you little brat, who disturbed my peaceful meditation?"
Zhao Wuji's voice wasn't loud, yet it carried a power that pierced the soul, like a giant drum striking in everyone's head. The ordinary people kneeling on the ground suffered from bleeding eardrums, dizziness, and some even fainted. The pressure of a divine realm expert, without needing to be deliberately released, was enough to crush all mortals.
He hovered in mid-air, looking down at Lu Yuan with extreme arrogance. In Earth's current legal system, the Divine Realm is equivalent to a terrestrial immortal, someone who can disregard worldly laws and sit on equal footing with the heads of state of a major power—the pinnacle that countless martial artists strive for their entire lives.
He carefully sensed Lu Yuan's aura, his brows furrowing slightly—this young man in the blue robe before him had no internal energy fluctuations whatsoever, appearing as ordinary as an ordinary person. Yet, this ordinary person had forced Zhao Tiangang to crush the jade talisman, awakening him from his century-long slumber.
"To force Tiangang to crush the jade talisman and disturb my peaceful cultivation, you junior do have some skills." Zhao Wuji put his hands behind his back, striking a pose of a grandmaster, his tone carrying a merciful pity, "Kneel down, destroy your dantian, and I will consider sparing your body to spare you the pain of being reduced to ashes, considering that you have some talent."
Lu Yuan raised his head, looking calmly at Zhao Wuji who was suspended in mid-air, and a faint smile suddenly appeared on his lips.
It wasn't fear, nor anger, but an extreme contempt, a mockery of seeing an ant raise its antennae in front of it, trying to stop an elephant from moving forward, with a condescending indifference, as if watching a clown jumping around.
"A divine realm?"
Lu Yuan slowly shook his head, his tone undisguisedly mocking, clearly echoing throughout the entire manor, each word piercing the heart: "Forcibly compressing mixed acquired true energy into the meridians, unable to even achieve the most basic spiritual energy entering the body, a flawed product that hasn't even touched the threshold of cultivation, dares to call itself a god?"
He took a step forward, his aura fluctuating slightly, carrying a trace of the awe-inspiring immortality of a cultivator: "In the cultivation world, trash like you doesn't even qualify to be food for a sect's watchdogs."
"Arrogant!!"
Zhao Wuji's face instantly darkened, a violent killing intent flashing in his dark eyes. He had lived for 150 years, and no one had ever dared to humiliate him like this, let alone a mere brat! He was too lazy to waste any more words, and his withered right hand suddenly rose, fingers spread, and pressed down hard on Lu Yuan from afar.
"boom--!!!"
A surge of violent black true energy erupted from his palm, instantly condensing into a gigantic hand the size of a truck, as black as ink and covered with grotesque blue veins. With the force of Mount Tai crashing down, it slammed down towards Lu Yuan. The air was compressed by this terrifying power, producing a series of ear-piercing sonic booms. The ground was slightly dented, and debris flew everywhere.
Zhao Tiangang lay prostrate on the ground, staring at the colossal hand of true energy that blotted out the sky. He trembled with excitement, his face filled with wild joy: "It's here! This is the power of the Divine Realm! Lu Yuan, you're dead! This is a true dimensional reduction attack; you simply can't withstand it!"
He seemed to already see Lu Yuan being smashed into a pulp by the giant hand, and he seemed to already see the hope of the Zhao family turning the tables. The smile on his lips became more and more maniacal.
However, faced with this devastating attack, Lu Yuan remained indifferent, his eyes showing no emotion whatsoever.
He simply raised his right hand slowly, the movement casual and composed, without releasing any true energy, without any unusual phenomena, and without even the slightest sign of exerting force, just like casually raising his hand to brush away dust.
Then, he made a grasping motion towards Zhao Wuji in mid-air.
"Disperse."
A single word, light and airy, devoid of any sense of power, yet carrying an absolute authority that transcends all things.
The next second, the truck-sized, seemingly unstoppable black true energy giant hand, like a balloon punctured by an invisible needle, instantly shattered ten meters above Lu Yuan's head, turning into countless black light spots that drifted away with the wind without leaving a trace. The violent power also vanished without a trace in an instant.
"What?!"
Zhao Wuji's pupils contracted violently, his eyes widened, and his face was filled with disbelief. The black true energy all over his body began to swirl chaotically. He had lived for 150 years and personally killed countless powerful figures. Even a fellow expert at the Divine Realm would have to fight with all their might to block this attack. Yet this young man before him had easily crushed his full-force attack with just one word?
Before he could react, an indescribable, terrifying suction force suddenly erupted from Lu Yuan, instantly locking down the entire space around him, rendering him unable to move and even making it difficult to breathe.
His divine protective aura, which he was so proud of and relied on for survival, was like snowflakes under the scorching sun, melting instantly before this terrifying suction force. It had no chance to resist and was directly torn apart and crushed.
"come over."
Lu Yuan's voice remained calm as he slightly pulled his wrist down.
"Bang--!!!"
The once arrogant and domineering God of War, Zhao Wuji, instantly lost all his power. Like a plucked chicken, he was forcibly pulled down from mid-air by the suction force and crashed heavily into the pile of rubble at Lu Yuan's feet, creating a deep crater. The crisp, piercing sound of bones breaking echoed throughout the entire manor.
Zhao Wuji suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood, his whole body convulsing. His emaciated body was covered in bloodstains, and his face no longer held the arrogance and majesty of before, only a look of horror as if he had seen a ghost. His eyes were unfocused, and his whole body was trembling uncontrollably.
"You...you're not a martial artist...you are...you are..."
He finally realized something was wrong. The power that casually crushed his true energy and easily controlled his body was not internal energy, nor was it a power that a god could possess. It was a great power of heaven and earth that far surpassed the laws of the earth and was above all things. It was an existence that he could not even imagine!
Lu Yuan slowly raised his foot and stomped heavily on Zhao Wuji's chest. With a slight force under his foot, another crisp sound of bones breaking rang out, and Zhao Wuji spat out another mouthful of black blood, his aura instantly weakening.
Lu Yuan looked down at the 150-year-old monster, his eyes cold and devoid of warmth, and asked with a hint of mockery, "Now, do you know who the ant is?"
Zhao Wuji trembled violently, gripped by a primal fear and a despair that seeped into his very bones. Gone was the arrogance of a Divine Realm expert. He kowtowed repeatedly to Lu Yuan, his forehead striking the gravel, blood streaming down his face. His voice was choked with sobs and pleading: "Senior, spare my life! Please, senior, spare my life! My Zhao family is willing to submit! We are willing to surrender all our wealth and territory, willing to be your dogs, senior! Please, senior, spare my life, spare the Zhao family's life!"
"It's too late."
Lu Yuan gave him no chance to waste words, his tone resolute and devoid of any pity. A century of blood debt will be repaid today; no one in the Zhao family will survive.
He slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers forming a claw, carrying a chilling aura, and directly gripped Zhao Wuji's crown, a faint blue spiritual light emanating from his fingertips.
"Soul Search".
As the two words fell, an invisible force surged from his fingertips into Zhao Wuji's mind, forcibly seizing his century-old memories—the Zhao family's century-long sins, the blood debts of a hundred years ago, everything would be completely revealed at this moment, and would also be completely ended at this moment.