Chapter 388: Who Might You Be?
When Lian Xi got mad, she was like a behemoth unleashed. Appearing in a flash before Yuan Wu, her palm wrapped in thunder and flames thrust forward.
"Scram!" She shot Yuan Zhantian a glare that could freeze hell over.
"Fairy Lian Xi..." Yuan Zhantian's voice trembled, but he stepped aside, knowing better than to argue.
BOOM! With a swift smack aimed at Yuan Wu's head, Lian Xi's dainty hand descended like a mountain, thunder and fire swirling around it, cracking his chest open before it even landed.
"Heh." Yuan Wu, seemingly tired of living, cursed and awaited death with a cold smirk, as if enjoying his final moments.
Just as his head was about to burst, a calm voice intervened, "Hold on, Lil Xi."
BANG! Lian Xi's palm veered off course, the thunder and fire in her palm blasting a charred crater into the ground, shaking the entire hall.
"Hah" Yuan Wu, having brushed with death, was not yet ready to part with life. Despite his tough exterior, he was drenched in sweat, gasping for air.
Everyone was stunned.
Even Celestial Official Qin and Yuan Zhantian, who had written off Yuan Wu, were taken aback. Yun Xiao, the insulted party, had with a single sentence pulled Lian Xi back from the brink of murder? It was curious, indeed.
"Why?" Lian Xi, with one hand pinning Yuan Wu to the ground, turned to Yun Xiao with a pout, her nose red with rage, resembling an infuriated little white tiger.
Chen Xi would get cold when angry, unlike her fierce yet adorable demeanor.
"Pfft! You're too chicken to even kill me?" Yuan Wu sneered, regaining his composure.
KLANG! Yun Xiao ignored him, drawing the Heaven Burial Sword Soul, and coldly commanded Lian Xi, "Hold him down."
"Okay!" Lian Xi obediently nodded.
Yun Xiao gave the golden-eyed youth a cold glance, then sneered, "Know what? I killed your brother. He thought he could challenge me, but I chopped him up right there."
"Y-you!!" Yuan Wu's eyes bulged in shock. Before Yun Xiao and Yuan Wu became sworn enemies, a treacherous plot had already unfolded.
Without uttering a word, Yun Xiao swiftly brought down his blade. SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! In a brutal display, he severed Yuan Wu's limbs, each chop sparking flames off the indomitable Heaven Burial Sword Soul. Blood gushed like a fountain.
Yuan Wu's screams tore through the air, a mix of agony and despair. Death by a single blow would have been mercy; living limbless was a torment beyond his worst nightmares.
"Yun Xiao, you're just a shadow behind a woman, a pitiful sight! You won't get far..." Before he could finish, Yun Xiao's blade pierced his tongue, silencing his curses with a cruel finality.
Gagging in pain, Yuan Wu spat out fragments of his tongue, his eyes bulging with rage and pain, rendered speechless by the brutal act.
Yun Xiao then pinned him down with a foot, calmly stating, "I'll leave you your eyes so you can witness just how far I can go. Don't die too soon now."
Yuan Wu's eyes, filled with hatred and defiance, locked onto Yun Xiao as he lay bleeding profusely.
Yuan Zhantian, witnessing the horrific scene, clenched his teeth and turned away, overwhelmed by a mix of fear and despair.
"What's your name?" Yun Xiao turned his cold gaze to Yuan Zhantian, who remained silent until prodded by Lian Xi.
"Yuan Zhantian, sir," he finally muttered, bowing his head in submission.
Yun Xiao issued a chilling command, "Keep your son alive, but don't heal him. I'll be watching. If he dies, so do you."
Yuan Zhantian's face contorted with the weight of the grim decree, a father's worst nightmare laid bare before him.
Yuan Zhantian locked eyes with Yun Xiao again, his look cold and defiant. His glare seemed to challenge Yun Xiao's very essence, as if to say, "And who might you be?"
Despite their fall from grace, stripped of celestial duties and status, Yuan Zhantian couldn't fathom why Yun Xiao felt entitled to threaten them.
In the midst of this tense silence, Lian Xi gently tugged on Yun Xiao's sleeve and declared with finality, "His words are mine."
This declaration left Yuan Zhantian and his sons with veins of disbelief in their eyes, puzzled by Lian Xi's unwavering support for Yun Xiao.
"Yes," Yuan Zhantian finally acquiesced, his voice heavy, "I wouldn't dream of letting my son die..."
Yun Xiao could guess the turmoil in their hearts, but this was just the beginning.
His icy gaze shifted to Yuan Fu, inquiring about the body.
Stammering, Yuan Fu admitted to having the body moved to the morgue in the eastern temple.
At this, Celestial Official Qin urgently dispatched a guard, instructing him to use a top-quality ice coffin.
The golden hall fell back into silence, with Yuan Zhantian and Celestial Official Qin exchanging perplexed looks at the young couple's closeness.
Soon, the guard returned with an ice coffin bearing Zhang Qingwei, causing Lian Xi's heart to sink, her grief palpable. Yun Xiao supported her, assuring her, "We'll take her home."
With a heavy heart, Yun Xiao lifted the coffin, his gaze lingering on Zhang Qingwei with a soft sigh.
"The path of Immortals is fraught with peril, life and death decided in an instant. Decades of arduous cultivation can vanish like mist in a moment."
After Yun Xiao and Lian Xi had left, Yuan Zhantian and Celestial Official Qin stood side by side, their minds far from peace. With Yuan Wu and Yuan Fu taken away, they were left to ponder the day's events.
"Seeing Lian Xi and that young man hand in hand, skin to skin, could it be she's not the child of disaster we thought?" mused Yuan Zhantian.
"Not necessarily," Celestial Official Qin replied coolly. "Maybe the lad's got a special knack for soaking up disaster, even if it hasn't shown yet. Sooner or later, it might just be his undoing."
"So, Lian Xi's playing him for a shield, eh?" Yuan Zhantian smirked.
"Poor fool. If disaster doesn't do him in, his lack of wit surely will," Celestial Official Qin chuckled, shrugging.
Yuan Zhantian grinned, "Not the sharpest tool in the shed. Our clan might be down, but we're far from out. He's made an enemy of us for no good reason. With our connections in the Primordial Ruins, we could have him dealt with five hundred times over in a day."
"Let's wait and see how the Primordial Academy plays this. But what about you? Joining the ranks of the Three True Immortals as shadow warriors might not be glamorous, but it beats being mocked in the streets," Celestial Official Qin raised an eyebrow.
"The elders are weighing their options. They'll choose wisely," Yuan Zhantian's eyes narrowed. "After all, the fault lies with those senile old fools, not us. We're faithful servants of the Three True Immortals, ready to die for a grand era."
"Indeed," Celestial Official Qin gazed into the distance. "The grand era is nigh."
In the Primordial Academy, a brief service was held for a friend Yun Xiao had known but briefly, leaving him feeling somber.
The complexities of the Primordial Ruins weighed on himits people, its smog, its beliefs, all swirling in a world where splendor masked the tumultuous depths.
And still, the Three True Immortals loomed from their prison, reminding Yun Xiao of his dwindling time.
So, after paying respects with Lian Xi, he dove into cultivation at the Divine Dawn Pavilion, not wasting a moment on sentiment.
It had been just a night since the Apex Battle in the Nine Hells Conquest Clash, and Yun Xiao was stuck at a critical juncture in his cultivation.
As he focused, Lian Xi sat by, watching him intently, chin in hand.
Suddenly, Liu Yingying appeared, gesturing urgently to Lian Xi, "Come out here, I need to talk to you."
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