Chapter 2917 Prelude to Vengeance

Dragon Ridge Mountain Range.

Before the vast, undulating peaks of Dragon Ridge Mountain Range, a flicker of nostalgia rippled through Lin Xun’s eyes. Back then, after aiding the Luo Clan’s branch in reclaiming its rightful power, he settled on Jianjia Peak within the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range.

At that time, he was just a supreme Emperor Ancestor. Now, he returned as a cultivator of the advanced Transcendence Stage. Everything had changed.

The mountains were now veiled in Earth Rank law power and layered with countless restriction arrays. However, to Lin Xun now, such defenses were nothing more than mist before the wind.

After a brief silence, he stepped forward. When he first entered the Eternal True Realm, most of his enemies had come from this Sixth Heaven Domain.

For instance, in this Heavenly Water Divine State alone stood the Yao and Ling Clans, while elsewhere across the Sixth Heaven Domain were other Immortal Imperial Clans, such as the Wen, Heng, Zhu, and He Clans.

Back then, they had hunted Lin Xun relentlessly, driving him to the brink again and again. He had survived, but how could such hatred ever fade? Leave the snake alive, and it would come back to bite you.

On this day, Lin Xun’s vengeance began.

......

Within the Yao Clan, Yao Zhangchong sat in meditation when a sudden, icy dread crawled up his spine. His eyes snapped open. At some unknown moment, a tall, imposing figure had appeared before him.

“Who are you, Fellow Daoist? Why have you trespassed upon the sacred grounds of my Yao Clan?” Yao Zhangchong’s expression shifted slightly, but he forced down the turmoil within and steadied his voice.

“This place does not belong to your Yao Clan.” Lin Xun said calmly, “I’ll give you a chance to live. Call your patriarch, Yao Nanli, and have him come here himself.”

Yao Zhangchong’s brows furrowed. “Fellow Daoist, what do you mean by that?”

Mid-sentence, he sprang from his seated posture, his figure flashing forward like a thunderbolt toward Lin Xun.

Bang!

Yao Zhangchong felt as if he had crashed headlong into an indestructible wall. In the next instant, he was sent flying backward, slamming into the ground with a dull thud. His mind reeled, his vision spinning.

Lin Xun hadn’t moved an inch, his expression calm and detached. “I gave you a chance, but you failed to cherish it...”

Bang!

Before the words had even faded, Yao Zhangchong’s body ruptured, disintegrating into ash that drifted soundlessly through the air. He was merely a supreme Emperor Ancestor, someone Lin Xun could erase with a single thought. With that, Lin Xun turned and left Yao Zhangchong’s chamber.

Outside, the once-peaceful Dragon Ridge Mountain Range erupted into chaos.

“This is terrible! Enemies! The elders’ cultivation has been crippled!”

“Run! The enemy’s strength is monstrous!”

“Quick! inform the patriarch!”

Panic swept through the Yao Clan branch. Figures fled in all directions like frightened beasts, their cries echoing across the mountains.

Through it all, Lin Xun walked calmly with his hands clasped behind his back, passing through the collapsing grounds like a silent storm. He did not slaughter wantonly. Only those above the Emperor Stage lost their cultivation, and among them, only Yao Zhangchong met his end.

As for the rest, the small fry scattering in terror, he did not even spare them a glance. Killing the innocent served no purpose, and slaughtering an entire clan was simply too cruel. For Lin Xun, it was enough to sever the head and uproot the foundation.

Of course, he knew well that for an Immortal Imperial Clan, this was a punishment far crueler than extermination. When one had grown accustomed to gazing down from the heights of power, the sudden plunge into ruin was often worse than death itself.

Stripped of its former prestige and influence, they would be hounded by countless forces...those who would strike while they were down, those who would trample them underfoot, and those who would bare their fangs for a bite of flesh. This was the truest form of torment.

.......

When Yao Nanli, the patriarch of the Yao Clan, arrived with a host of high-ranking clan members, they were met with an unexpected sight...

Before the gates of the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range stood a lone rocking chair. Reclining in it was a young man, a wine gourd dangling from his left hand, his right hand lazily tapping the armrest. His posture was unhurried and his expression relaxed.

“Patriarch! That’s the one who crippled our elders!” A young clansman shouted hoarsely, his eyes bloodshot with rage.

Yao Nanli’s gaze turned to the distant figure. His face remained composed, but deep down a faint unease stirred. For someone to single-handedly wreak such havoc, and then calmly remain seated here as if awaiting them...This was no ordinary cultivator.

“May I know your name, Fellow Daoist?” Yao Nanli’s deep voice rolled through the mountains like thunder. “Why have you harmed the members of my Yao Clan’s branch?”

Murderous intent surged from the gathered experts, distorting the air. Among them stood the Yao Clan’s last two Immortal elders, both Nirvana Spirit cultivators whose auras shook heaven and earth!

Such a lineup would make even the greatest powers of the Sixth Heaven Domain tremble. Despite that, the young man in the rocking chair merely swirled his wine, his eyes distant and calm.

“Is everyone here?” Lin Xun asked absentmindedly.

Yao Nanli's expression darkened. “What do you mean by that?”

Lin Xun smiled faintly. “A family should always be together, shouldn’t it?”

“Enough of your nonsense!”

With a roar, an old man in a black robe stepped forward, releasing the terrifying might of the Nirvana Spirit Realm. “No matter who you are, anyone who dares provoke my Yao Clan...dies!”

He thrust out a palm from afar.

Boom!

A colossal flaming hand condensed in midair, sweeping across the heavens with the fury of a descending sun. Its terrifying power shattered clouds in all directions and made the mountains and rivers quake.

Seated in the rocking chair, Lin Xun didn’t even lift his head. Before him, a violet gourd suddenly flared with divine brilliance. With a resonant hum, it spun in the air, and from its mouth shot forth an ethereal green divine sword, like a fragment of the eternal firmament itself.

Pu!

The fiery palm was cleaved apart with a single stroke, its embers scattering like falling rain. The old man’s expression twisted in horror. He hastily summoned a dao seal, the life-bound dao treasure that he had nurtured for thirty thousand years.

To his horror, with a deafening boom, the dao seal shattered into countless motes of light.

Pu!

A heartbeat later, the sword descended again, splitting the black-robed elder cleanly in two. Blood sprayed across the air. His primordial spirit barely had time to flee before a streak of sword light flashed and erased it on the spot.

The entire exchange unfolded in a single breath. It was clean, precise, and impossibly fast. By the time Yao Nanli and the other high-ranking figures of the Yao Clan realized what had happened, that Nirvana Spirit powerhouse had already been slain where he stood!

“You...”

Yao Nanli and the others went rigid, their scalps prickling as if frozen needles had pierced them. Terror flooded their hearts. The sight before them was beyond comprehension. The strongest Nirvana Spirit Realm expert of their clan had been slain with a single stroke.

Too terrifying!

“Run!” Another Nirvana Spirit expert of the Yao Clan shouted hoarsely. He turned, trying to flee with the others.

From the rocking chair, Lin Xun’s calm voice drifted out like the toll of a bell, “Where can you possibly go? The Northern Genesis Divine Mountain lies in ruins, and the eighth grade Earth Rank law that guarded your clan has already been seized by me. You...have nowhere left to call home...”

His tone was calm, yet his words reverberated clearly through heaven and earth. As his voice faded, an invisible and terrifying pressure rippled outward, blanketing heaven and earth. The Yao Clan elites who had just taken flight froze in mid-air, then they plummeted one after another, striking the ground with bone-shaking thuds.

Even the Nirvana Spirit cultivator was no exception! A deathly silence followed. They were petrified, their minds blank, swallowed whole by a terror beyond words.

“You...who are you?!” Yao Nanli’s voice trembled, his face ashen.

Lin Xun rose slowly from the rocking chair. “Have you forgotten me?”

At that moment, the surviving Nirvana Spirit expert’s pupils shrank to pinpoints. Realization struck like thunder. “He...he’s Lin Xun!”

Lin Xun!

The name itself seemed to carry a dark power. Yao Nanli and the others froze in place, and a tide of shock and despair washed over them.

It’s him...

Lin Xun’s voice was calm. “Rest easy. Every wrong has its debtor. I’m no indiscriminate butcher. Aside from you few, your clan still has a slim chance. But without the protection of the Yao Clan...I can’t promise what cruelties or disasters will befall them.”

Yao Nanli’s roar split the air. “Even if the Yao Clan perish, you, Lin Xun, will not escape! The Ten Clans Alliance will carve you to pieces!”

Lin Xun smiled faintly. “That’s exactly why I’ve returned to the Sixth Heaven Domain...to welcome them. Unfortunately, you all won’t get to witness that moment.”

With that, he flicked his sleeve.

Boom!

The heavens seemed to collapse as a torrent of dao power burst forth, vast and blinding, sweeping through the world. In an instant, Yao Nanli and the Yao Clan elders were snuffed out like blades of grass in a wildfire, reduced to drifting ash and erased without a trace.

Not far away, the younger members of the Yao Clan who witnessed it all stood frozen in shock, then collapsed to the ground, their minds shattered, their wills broken. Lin Xun raised his wine gourd, took a slow sip, and waited in silence.

Shua!

Moments later, the Green Wood Dao Body descended from the distant sky. Through the dao body, Lin Xun’s true body instantly understood everything: the Northern Genesis Divine Mountain was now in ruins, the Yao Clan’s stronghold utterly destroyed and all their important figures who had guarded it had been stripped of their cultivation by the Green Wood Dao Body.

Retracting the Green Wood Dao Body, Lin Xun lifted his gaze toward the distant horizon. This was only the beginning!

In the Heavenly Water Divine State, besides the Yao Clan, another Immortal Imperial Clan still remained...the Ling Clan.

“Hm?”

Just as Lin Xun was preparing to depart, his brows furrowed and his gaze locked onto a vast plain beyond the Dragon Ridge Mountain Range. Across the desolate wilderness, a lone figure was sprinting toward him with frantic speed.

Lin Xun remained motionless, watching in silence. He soon saw the man clearly. He had disheveled hair, tattered robes, a face gaunt and withered beyond recognition. He looked worse than any beggar on the streets.

Drawn by the fading shockwaves of battle, the man sprinted like a madman, screaming at the top of his lungs, “Lin Xun! Lin Xun...is that you?!”

Lin Xun’s pupils contracted sharply. The moment he recognized the man, a look of utter disbelief crossed his face.

How did he end up like this?

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

In a single step, Lin Xun vanished and reappeared before the crazed, ragged man.

“Move aside! Don’t stand in my way!”

The ragged man’s eyes were bloodshot as he shoved at Lin Xun with both hands. However, his shove didn’t budge Lin Xun in the slightest. He looked up in fury and the moment his eyes met Lin Xun’s face, he froze as if struck by lightning.

“Lin Xun...it’s really you.”

His voice came out hoarse, quivering with the sound of a suppressed sob, and his eyes were red-rimmed. Then he dropped heavily to the ground and broke into sobs. Whether it was from relief, sorrow or anguish, it was impossible to tell.