Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Annihilation and Harvest
Chen Yuan retracted his Killing Intent Origin and used his Inner Strength to suppress the roiling Qi Blood in his body.
He then stood where he was, watching with keen interest as the Zhu brothers tore each other apart.
Although Zhu Cheng’an was heavily injured, he was a Martial Artist in the Qi Casting Realm, after all.
Furthermore, resigned to his own death, he fought with only offense and no defense, plunging Zhu Chengze into peril in an instant.
As Zhu Chengze fought for his life, he roared at Chen Yuan, "Kill him! Kill him now! You said you wouldn’t kill me! You’re going back on your word!"
"I did say *I* wouldn’t kill you, but I never said I wouldn’t let someone else do it."
Chen Yuan watched Zhu Chengze with a smirk. "If you can kill Zhu Cheng’an, I will naturally keep my promise and won’t lay a hand on you again."
Despair filled Zhu Chengze’s face.
’Even a fool would know by now! I’ve been played by Chen Yuan!’
Zhu Cheng’an, however, burst into maniacal laughter. "All your schemes, all your plotting, betraying our Zhu Family... and for what? You were still played for a fool!
You want to live, don’t you? In your dreams! Today, we all die together!"
The moment he finished speaking, Zhu Cheng’an recklessly burned his Qi Blood and lunged at Zhu Chengze.
Just as his Qi Blood was nearly exhausted, Zhu Cheng’an slammed his palm into Zhu Chengze.
The overwhelming Palm Force of the Black Death Fire Cloud Palm erupted in an instant, driving straight through his opponent’s chest cavity!
With a look of utter indignation, Zhu Chengze collapsed. Zhu Cheng’an, his Qi Blood completely spent, toppled over with him. The two bodies, tangled together, hit the ground with a heavy thud.
"Tsk, tsk. I suppose you could call that brotherly love,"
Chen Yuan said, shaking his head lightly, his words dripping with sarcasm.
Stepping into the Zhu Family’s rear courtyard, he found the ground littered with corpses.
Zhu Chengze must have used some excuse to gather them all together before beginning his slaughter.
The problem in this world is never scarcity, but inequality.
The "Five Tigers of the Zhu Family" was an impressive title, but once disparities emerged among them, cracks were bound to appear.
Chen Yuan searched the Zhu Family Manor and easily located the family’s Treasure Vault.
It was secured with several large locks, but none could withstand Chen Yuan’s Cyan Dragon Blood Drink. A single swing of the blade smashed them to pieces.
Though the Treasure Vault was filled with riches, there were few items of true value.
The Zhu Family’s foundation was simply too shallow. There were very few treasures related to the Martial Dao in the vault; most of it was just gold, silver, and jewelry.
It looked like spoils plundered after wiping out Small Noble Families like the Chu Family.
These items were of little use to Chen Yuan and far less convenient to carry than silver notes.
So Chen Yuan only took some gold bars and silver notes, leaving behind the bulkier jewelry that would be difficult to liquidate.
After another search through the Treasure Vault, Chen Yuan finally found the Celestial Star Divine Box in an inconspicuous corner.
The object looked like a block of iron three feet long and one foot wide, exquisitely engraved with celestial patterns.
Though it was called a box, it didn’t have the slightest seam or crack on its surface. It wouldn’t be wrong to call it a solid block of iron.
The bottom of the box was covered in countless marks and scratches, likely left by the Chu Family’s attempts to brute-force it open over the years.
However, the box was made of Cold Iron, a material that could only be mined from the Frozen Soil Mines of the Far North. It was an excellent conductor and amplifier for Inner Strength with an Ice Attribute. The material itself was incredibly tough, making it a superior ingredient for forging Profound Soldiers.
Judging by its feel, the box was almost solid. Shattering it would be virtually impossible.
After finding some cloth to wrap the heavy Celestial Star Divine Box and strapping it to his back, Chen Yuan scoured the Treasure Vault once more. To his surprise, he discovered two more valuable items.
One was a small porcelain bottle containing an Elixir, which the Zhu Family had carefully placed inside an exquisite sandalwood box.
Written on the bottle were the five words "Blazing Extreme Qi Condensing Pill," but only a single Elixir remained inside.
The Elixirs from Medicine King Valley were renowned throughout the Jianghu for their quality, but other top-tier powers also had their own Elixir Recipes and dedicated Alchemists.
The Blazing Extreme Qi Condensing Pill was created by the Blazing Sect specifically for disciples in the Qi Casting Realm to strengthen their Inner Strength True Qi.
For a Martial Artist in the Blood Movement Realm, taking this pill could also increase their chances of breaking through to the Qi Casting Realm.
Zhu Chengzong had brought this Elixir back from the Blazing Sect. The bottle originally contained five pills; Zhu Chaofeng had consumed four of them to break through to the Qi Casting Realm.
But Zhu Chaofeng couldn’t bring himself to consume the final pill, intending to save it for his fourth brother, Zhu Chengzu.
The eldest and second brothers were already in the Qi Casting Realm, so for them, the Blazing Extreme Qi Condensing Pill would merely be icing on the cake.
If the fourth brother, Zhu Chengzu, took the pill when he was stuck at the bottleneck before the Qi Casting Realm, his chances of a breakthrough would be much higher.
However, the Elixir he had painstakingly saved now belonged to Chen Yuan.
The other item was an exquisitely crafted, black, gold-stamped invitation.
Chen Yuan opened it. It was an invitation from Sealed Demon Valley for the upcoming Demon Sealing Conference.
Looking at the invitation, a thoughtful expression appeared in Chen Yuan’s eyes.
Sealed Demon Valley was not far from Beihai Collection. South of Beihai Collection lay Ning Province, and Sealed Demon Valley itself was located on the border between You Province and Ning Province.
Sealed Demon Valley was both a place and a power in its own right.
Legend has it that a thousand years ago, an Ancient Demon broke free from its confinement at the site of present-day Sealed Demon Valley and began to wreak havoc on the region.
At that time, a powerful expert known as the Three Extremes Venerable—whose Cultivation combined the three paths of Daoist, Buddhist, and Demon—took it upon himself to suppress the Demon.
But the Ancient Demon was so formidable that it could only be suppressed, not killed outright.
Thus, the Three Extremes Venerable sacrificed his own body to form a great Array, hoping to use the passage of time to slowly grind the Demon to dust.
But as the years passed, the Array would inevitably suffer damage from the constant assault of Demonic Qi.
The Three Extremes Venerable had tasked his three disciples with guarding Sealed Demon Valley and reinforcing the Array every ten years.
Those three disciples lacked their master’s genius and could not cultivate all three paths of Daoist, Buddhist, and Demon. Each inherited only one of the Three Extremes Venerable’s signature techniques.
Hundreds of years passed, but the Demon’s resilience was beyond anything they had anticipated; it still had not been completely vanquished.
Moreover, every ten years, the Array would weaken slightly, allowing the Demon’s power to seep out.
The land beneath Sealed Demon Valley happened to be an ancient battlefield, where countless creatures lay buried.
The leakage of the Demon’s power caused a bizarre transformation on the ancient battlefield; the buried bodies would reanimate as Corpse Monsters and assault the Array.
At first, the three disciples were still able to repair the Array and slay the Corpse Monsters.
But as the three disciples grew old and their Qi Blood waned, and as their descendants proved increasingly weaker than their forebears, they found their strength was no longer sufficient for the task.
Left with no choice, the three disciples convened the Demon Sealing Conference, appealing to the surrounding powers for help in suppressing the Corpse Monsters while they focused on reinforcing the Array.
If the Demon ever escaped, the surrounding powers would also suffer disaster. Thus, upon receiving the invitations, they all came to help.
After slaying the Corpse Monsters, however, the various powers discovered that the creatures left behind Spirit Pills containing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi upon death.
By using one’s Inner Strength True Qi to purify the Demonic Qi from the Spirit Pills, one could directly refine the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi within, enhancing both their Inner Strength and their physical body.
With this discovery, the Jianghu Forces, who had originally come to help out of a sense of duty, suddenly found themselves far more motivated.
After that Demon Sealing Conference, the three disciples gave their lives to reinforce the Array, leaving their descendants to continue guarding Sealed Demon Valley. These descendants became known as the Three Sealed Demon Races.
Thereafter, the decennial Demon Sealing Conference became a tradition.
Surrounding Jianghu Forces and a number of expert Loose Cultivators would be invited to help suppress the eruption of Demonic Qi, while the Three Sealed Demon Races would be responsible for reinforcing the Array.
The Spirit Pills obtained from slaying the Corpse Monsters would belong to the visitors, creating a mutually beneficial arrangement for both sides.
In the region bordering Ning Province and You Province, the Three Sealed Demon Races enjoyed a very good reputation.
After all, their ancestors had sacrificed themselves to suppress the Demon and could be considered heroes.
And while the Three Sealed Demon Races were a power unto themselves, not a single one of their members had ever left Sealed Demon Valley to meddle in the affairs of the Jianghu.
Coupled with the fact that they were still guarding Sealed Demon Valley to suppress the Demon, it was no surprise they had such a good name.
When Chen Yuan had previously gathered information about the Jianghu from Wen Rou, she had mentioned the upcoming Demon Sealing Conference. It seemed that time was now fast approaching.
This Demon Sealing Conference was clearly going to be large-scale, considering that even a newly risen power like the Zhu Family had received an invitation.
Chen Yuan had never participated in the Demon Sealing Conference in the original plot, but he knew what was supposed to happen.
There was more to the Demon Sealing Conference than met the eye, and the same was true for the Three Sealed Demon Races.
This particular Demon Sealing Conference was bound to be dangerous, so Chen Yuan’s initial plan hadn’t included paying it a visit.
’I killed members of the Murong Family and seized the Seven Kills Stele. I definitely can’t stay in You Province any longer.’
Chen Yuan’s original plan was to go to Ning Province and use a suitable plot point to join the Ning Province Martial Hall.
Ning Province was a major province, at least three times the size of You Province, but it was a chaotic place where all sorts of people, good and bad, mingled.
At the same time, Ning Province also held many opportunities and Cultivation Techniques from the original plot, all ripe for the taking.
Zhenwu Hall was the number one power in Ning Province, but its internal politics were even more complex, a web of entangled factions that would be perfect for Chen Yuan to hide his identity in.
’Now that I’ve successfully obtained the Inner Vision God Observation Method, my combat power will skyrocket as long as I can gain complete control over the Seven Kills Stele’s Blood Fiend Power.’
’And now, by a stroke of luck, I have this invitation. I might as well stop by the Demon Sealing Conference and see what I can get out of it.’
’It’s dangerous, to be sure, but fortune is found in peril. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.’
He put away the invitation. After confirming there was nothing else of value in the Treasure Vault, Chen Yuan found a large box, placed the four heads of Zhu Chaofeng and his sons inside, and headed straight down the mountain.
The people of Lonely Mountain City had all heard the sounds of slaughter from the Zhu Family’s estate, but they didn’t dare to cautiously approach and investigate until the following morning.
When they arrived, they found the gates of the Zhu Family Manor thrown wide open, revealing countless corpses, each killed in a gruesome manner.
Everyone in Lonely Mountain City was in disbelief.
’The Zhu Family, who had only just established their dominance over Lonely Mountain City and whose power was at its absolute peak, had been annihilated by a single person, just like that?’
Amid their terror, the people also felt a certain grim satisfaction.
They had long been resentful of the Zhu Family’s cruel and tyrannical ways.
At the same time, they all sighed to themselves. It just went to show that you couldn’t be too ruthless. When things reach an extreme, they swing back the other way. Retribution would come, sooner or later.
The Zhu Family had never understood the wisdom of leaving others a way out. They had taken everything to the extreme, and now they had met a fitting end.
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