Chapter 140: The Dong Family Tragedy

Dong Yanwei sped through the air, yet a lingering dread gnawed at his heart.

Thinking back on how he had ventured alone into the Blood Abyss Sect to negotiate with Old Devil Sun, escaping unscathed truly felt like a stroke of luck.

Fortunately, he held that five-thousand-year-old Nether Soul Spirit Mushroom. Because they coveted it, the other side had not dared to drop all pretense and turn hostile. Furthermore, he was backed by the Precious Heaven Pavilion, the greatest merchant guild in all of Ganzhou.

While it ostensibly had only two Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivators presiding over it, its hidden influence, clan consecrators, and capacity to mobilize resources far outstripped any sect.

This was the true backing that allowed the Precious Heaven Pavilion to establish branches across Ganzhou, the Outer Sea, Southern Frost, and the Northern Plains.

His mind somewhat eased, he was about to quicken his pace back to Thousand Leaf City when a jade pendant at his waist suddenly flashed with an urgent red light. Frowning, he raised his hand and drew it out.

This jade pendant was an exclusive transmission talisman between him and his younger brother, capable of sending messages up to a hundred thousand li away. It was exceptionally precious and would never be used unless life and death hung in the balance.

Yet at this moment, it was glowing.

Dong Yanwei swept his divine sense into it, and his expression warped. The message came in broken fragments, sent in frantic haste; the words were fractured, yet each one pierced straight to the heart.

"The clan... disaster strikes, our extermination is at hand... Eldest Brother, do not return..."

The streak of white radiance halted abruptly, hovering in midair.

Dong Yanwei clutched the jade pendant until his knuckles turned white. He stared down at those words, reading them three times, yet it still felt like an absurd dream.

How long had he even been away?

In just a few days' time, how could disaster have struck Dong Family City?

Though his younger brother had mediocre aptitude, he was still a Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivator. There were also two clan elders presiding over the city, coupled with the multiple layers of defensive measures he had secretly arranged over the years. Even if the intruder were at the Middle Nascent Soul Stage, breaching them in so short a time would have been utterly impossible.

Unless... it was someone at the Nascent Soul Late Stage. Or perhaps, more than one.

Dong Yanwei's breathing turned ragged. His fingers clenched the jade pendant in a death grip, his gaze drifting uncontrollably toward the clan's ancestral home.

His younger brother was there, his clansmen were there, and the entire family fortune he had amassed over the years was there. His daughter was there too—her lovely face suddenly surfaced before his eyes, smiling as she called him "Father."

He closed his eyes and gave his head a violent shake.

He was still in the prime of his life.

He did not want to die yet.

Reason told him that whoever possessed the power to destroy his Dong Family was far beyond what he could contend with alone. Even if he rushed back now, it would be nothing more than throwing his life away. Yet that Spirit Velvet... that five-thousand-year-old Nether Soul Spirit Mushroom was still in the clan's ancestral grounds. It was his greatest bargaining chip in dealing with the Blood Abyss Sect, and his greatest harvest from this entire trip.

He could not lose it.

Yet he was even less willing to lose his life.

Dong Yanwei paced back and forth in midair, his eyes rimmed with red, his teeth grinding audibly. After a moment, he drew a deep breath and tore his gaze away from the direction of his clan.

He told himself, 'As long as the green hills remain, there is no fear of lacking firewood. Once I uncover who attacked and bring reinforcements, this feud will be avenged sooner or later.'

He raised his hand, shoved the jade pendant deep into his sleeve, and wheeled around, transforming into a streak of white escape light as he flew off in another direction.

"Rest in peace, clansmen. In the days ahead... this clan head will surely avenge you."

His voice drifted away in the wind, devoid of conviction.

What he did not know was that shortly after he departed, two streaks of blood-colored light appeared where he had just been hovering. The light faded, revealing two middle-aged men.

One of them was none other than the cultivator surnamed Sun who had just conducted the trade with Dong Yanwei. The other possessed an even heavier aura, remarkably at the Middle Nascent Soul Stage.

The two hovered for a moment, glancing in the direction Dong Yanwei had fled, then looking toward the other path.

"Why did that man surnamed Dong suddenly change direction? Could he have noticed us?" Cultivator Sun asked, frowning.

The man beside him said indifferently, "For this person to sit firmly as Branch Pavilion Master of the Precious Heaven Pavilion, he naturally possesses some remarkable abilities. It is hardly surprising that he detected the two of us. It seems our hope of tailing him to find where the Spirit Velvet is hidden has come to nothing."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the trajectory Dong Yanwei had taken, before looking away.

"Let's go. We will return and report first."

The two streaks of blood-red light wheeled around immediately, vanishing into the clouds on the other side.

...

Dong Family City had become a living hell.

Wails surged from all directions, one after another, layering over each other as if the entire city were crying out its final grief.

Corpses littered the streets and alleys.

Some were still fleeing when a Cyan Chain pierced through their backs; some cowered in street corners only for a Nether Soul Puppet to tear out their throats in a single bite; some knelt in pools of blood, clutching loved ones who would never wake again.

A woman frantically dug through the rubble like someone possessed.

"My child... have any of you seen my child? He's only ten months old, still just a baby..."

She shoved broken stones aside, her hands sliced and dripping with blood from the sharp shards, yet she felt nothing.

When she uncovered a tiny, cold body, she suddenly went still, sitting on the ground with the tiny corpse held to her chest. There were no cries, no screams. She simply held it in silence, as if terrified of waking the child in her arms.

A young woman knelt beside a man's corpse, clutching his lapels with a desperate grip, refusing to let go.

"You said you would love me for a lifetime..."

"I'm already pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. They're both your children... and you haven't even seen them yet..."

"Wake up, won't you? Let's go home, please..."

She repeated it again and again, her voice sinking lower and lower until she seemed to be speaking only to herself. Even as the bitter cold froze her solid, she lay sprawled over the man's body, never moving half an inch.

In another corner, a youth gripped his little sister's hand tightly, fleeing with all his might. His face was smeared with blood and grime, and he panted heavily, yet he dared not stop for even a heartbeat.

"Run, Little Sister! Your brother is here—these monsters won't lay a finger on you!"

Before the words finished leaving his mouth, an iron chain shot out from behind him, piercing silently through his chest. The boy's steps ground to a sudden halt. He looked down at the chain protruding from his chest, turned back to look at his sister once more, and used the last shred of his strength to shove her forward with all his might.

"Run..."

The girl was hurled several zhang away, crashing to the ground. Turning her head, she watched her brother slowly collapse as the chain ripped free from his chest, dragging out a spray of bright crimson blood.

"No, Brother—!"

Her cry tore from the depths of her soul. Across that youthful face, mud and tears mingled together.

Farther away, a white-haired elder leaned on a walking stick at the entrance of an alley. Watching his clansmen fall one by one before him, his face contorted in tragic grief and fury, his teeth clenched tight.

Controlling a flying dagger, he barely managed to slay a malicious ghost at the Foundation-Establishing Stage. Drenched in blood and hoarse, he still shouted toward the rear with everything he had in him.

"Run! All of you, run! Head for the Central Courtyard! That is our final line of defense!"

Someone running past tried to pull him along, but he shoved them away.

"My sons and grandsons have all died to these monsters, and this old man has lived long enough! You are still young—you are the future of our Dong Family! Go!"

A youth at merely the third layer of Qi Refining charged out from the crowd. Bare-handed, he glared furiously at the cyan demon before him, his eyes entirely devoid of fear.

"You want to wipe out my clan? I, Dong Yan, will be the first to say no! Do you truly think the sons and daughters of the Dong Family are all spineless cowards, soft and easy to bully?!!!"

His voice rang out resonant and clear, burning with the fiery passion unique to youth.

Yet in the very next instant, a razor-sharp claw shredded half his shoulder. The youth's body seemed drained of all strength as he slowly sank to his knees, but his eyes still glared fixedly ahead, as though refusing to close even in death.

...

Above the Central Courtyard, eight formation arrays lit up layer upon layer, their spiritual light forming a dome that sheltered the last remnant of the Dong Family's younger generation.

Within the array, some wept with their heads in their hands, some knelt in prayer, and some slumped on the ground, their eyes hollow and vacant. Outside the boundary, more and more Nether Soul Puppets gathered, their iron chains scraping across the surface of the formation to kick up blinding sparks and an ear-grating screech.

The earth shuddered. The formations trembled. The entire Central Courtyard was like a solitary leaf tossed upon a raging storm.

Some began to weep softly, some clutched those beside them, and some squeezed their eyes shut, praying desperately for the safety of their kin, the return of their lovers, and the arrival of aid from the clan's high-level cultivators.

Across all of Dong Family City, nothing remained but the howl of the wind, the sound of weeping, and the piercing screech of iron chains scraping across the formation.

Yet that blue figure remained suspended high above, never once casting a downward glance.