Chapter 100 - 83: How in the World Does a Qi Cultivation Grandmaster Crash and Die at My Doorstep!?

Chapter 100: Chapter 83: How in the World Does a Qi Cultivation Grandmaster Crash and Die at My Doorstep!?

A figure stood silently on her path, their face hidden, robes billowing around them.

Lin Ruxue unconsciously tightened her grip on her sword scabbard.

The figure strode forward at a steady, unhurried pace.

Yet an invisible pressure bore down on Lin Ruxue, so immense it was hard to breathe.

She watched as the man slowly raised his palms. Strands of True Qi, drawn from every meridian in his body, rose methodically and transformed into illusory chains that coiled around his arms.

As dusk fell, he looked like a judge stepping out of the Netherworld, forcing Lin Ruxue to retreat. Her expression shifted, her heart filled with utter shock:

’Anning County...’

’How can there be a genuine Qi Cultivation Grandmaster here!?’

A Qi Cultivation Grandmaster is a Martial Arts Grandmaster who has opened a Qi Sea and stepped into another realm of cultivation.

The term Martial Artist, by contrast, implies a common brute who practices the Martial Dao—it’s a rather crude term.

From barely a novice...

To becoming a master of the art.

One is called "Grandmaster," the other a "brute"—this is the vast gap between them.

"I am Wang Hongzu, the very man your Master, Xue Shaobai, chased across nearly half of the East Canghai nine years ago."

"Ghost Hand Judge Wang Hongzu. Others might not know the name, but as Xue’s disciple, surely you do."

"The disciple pays for the master’s debts."

"Only fair, wouldn’t you say?"

SWOOSH!

Wang Hongzu chuckled softly from beneath his robes. Then, he shot through the deep shadows like an afterimage, and before Lin Ruxue could even react...

...his palm was already raised, his chain-like "ghost hand" locked tightly around Lin Ruxue’s neck!

In but a moment,

her body went rigid. With no room left to struggle, she slowly collapsed.

In the space of a single breath, her life was extinguished.

Wang Hongzu paused for a moment. As he watched the life rapidly drain from her, he glanced to the side.

"I followed you this whole way. If I wasn’t already headed to the place that brat Wei Changjiao told me about, I would’ve finished you off long ago."

"If I can’t kill your Master, you think I can’t kill you?"

He chuckled softly and lifted his foot...

Suddenly, CRACK!

Out of the darkening Celestial Universe, a sudden bolt of lightning struck a stone right in front of him, instantly scorching it black!

Wang Hongzu stared, shocked and uncertain:

’What in the heavens was that?’

’This...’

He hesitated.

But he glanced toward the Ji Family residence and didn’t hesitate for long.

’Just some country bumpkin from a minor family. Just like this Lin Ruxue. Even if he gets out now—or eventually—so what?’

’He hasn’t amounted to anything. He’s someone I can kill whenever I please.’

’As for Duan Chenzhou... Hah. I’ve never dealt with him, but he’s just a half-crippled Powerful Martial Artist. Suppressing his own realm for over a decade just to achieve a flawless Perfection in the Third Realm? What’s the point?’

’He’s no different from me, running off like a stray dog. Nothing to worry about.’

Long after Wang Hongzu had snorted and departed,

Lin Ruxue still lay at the end of the alley. Her neck was bruised a dark purple, and her dress fluttered in the cold wind, RUSTLING softly. Her brows were furrowed, but she was utterly silent.

However...

At that moment, a transparent Jade Token at her waist began to emit a faint glow.

It seemed as if invisible strands of Divine Thought were seeping into it...

...

「The Lin Residence.」

"The young miss has left?"

Lin Zhenhai was alerted almost as soon as Lin Ruxue had left.

Seeing her spotless chambers, he couldn’t help but sigh.

’The Anning Lin Family is too small to contain her ambition.’

’I just wonder... when we will meet again.’

’In thirty or fifty years, who will I even pass this family legacy to...’

In the middle of the night, Lin Zhenhai sat in the main hall of the Lin Residence, a mournful look on his face. A cup of hot tea had just been brewed when, suddenly—

"Father, if you don’t pass the Lin Family’s estate to your own son, who else is there?"

SWISH!

At the sound of the vaguely familiar voice, Lin Zhenhai’s hand tightened on the armrest of his chair. He shot to his feet, his voice laced with shock and disbelief.

"Lin Du!?"

"You..."

He stared at his son—the son whose Cultivation his own daughter had destroyed, whose tendons and bones she had severed. And yet, here he was, standing before him in the dead of night, completely unharmed. Lin Zhenhai was stunned.

But then he noticed that his son, dressed in yellow, was flanked by two figures who had both cultivated their Flesh, Bone, Skin, and Membrane to enter the Skin Refining realm...

...and his face changed drastically.

"These people are..."

Lin Du waved his hand dismissively.

"Father, don’t expect Lin Ruxue to be chasing her ’ambitions’ anymore."

"Even the late autumn sun..."

"...she will never see it again."

What!

"The people with you are..."

Lin Zhenhai’s muscles tensed. His large hands trembled with rage, and just as he was about to speak—

—he saw the indifferent look in his son’s eyes as he spoke softly.

"Dharma Protectors, the weather is turning cold. My father’s constitution is weak; he needs his rest."

"Go... and help him put on another layer of clothing."

"As for the Lin Residence, from this day forward..."

"...I will take charge in my father’s stead."

After speaking, his muscles bulged slightly as he took out the Divine Shrine of the Central Yellow Sect’s Dharma Guardian General, the "Spirit Summoning and Saint Manifesting General," his expression one of utmost piety.

"If I weren’t qualified to be a Tributor to the Divine Beings... how could my status in the Anning Sect be so lofty? How could even Wei Changjiao, the Central Yellow Order Envoy in charge of the County, treat me as an equal?"

He bowed to the Divine Shrine, feeling faint wisps of Qi flow back into him, augmenting his flesh and bone. The sensation was exquisitely invigorating.

He completely ignored...

...the fact that his own consciousness had, without him realizing, grown ever more pious, ever more fanatical.