Song Xu's Dao heart shattered, shocking everyone.
Chen Yuan stood silently where he was, not uttering a word.
He did not immediately go to help Song Xu up, merely watching this middle-aged man, who had dominated the Far North Land for thousands of years, now lying in the ruins like a withered, rootless blade of grass.
Song Xu lay on the cold flagstones, his gaze hollow as he stared at the gray sky.
Snowflakes began to fall again, one, then two, settling on his eyebrows.
In an instant, his hair turned white, and his eyebrows turned white too.
He slowly raised his trembling hand, seemingly trying to grasp something, but ultimately let it fall powerlessly, hitting the cold ground.
Chen Yuan furrowed his brow. He could sense through the Soul Contract that the Spiritual Qi within Song Xu's body was in utter chaos.
His mental state fluctuated violently; his Dao Heart had likely shattered.
After a long while, Song Xu climbed up from the cold ground, bowed toward Chen Yuan, and said in a hoarse voice, "Master, please grant me my freedom. I wish to leave this place."
Chen Yuan remained standing, his profound gaze fixed upon Song Xu, devoid of joy or sorrow.
There was no ripple of emotion on his face. To him, a shattered Dao Heart meant a loss of value, and forcing him to stay was pointless.
The silence lasted only for a brief instant.
"Granted."
A single word, calm and unruffled.
Chen Yuan raised his hand and grabbed into the Void Realm, stripping an invisible contractual connection from the depths of Song Xu's Divine Soul.
From then on, the mountains were high and the rivers long; Song Xu and he had no further connection.
"Thank you... for your grace, Master..."
Song Xu was weak, yet he forced himself up and kowtowed three times heavily in Chen Yuan's direction.
Afterward, he stumbled up, not sparing another glance at the Sect ruins that had borne his five thousand years of life and suffering. His figure hunched over like a mortal old man, he staggered step by step, disappearing into the vast snowstorm, his desolate silhouette receding into the distance.
Chen Yuan did not even watch him leave.
The moment Song Xu's figure vanished, he had already turned and walked to Yan Ran, who was still unconscious.
He flicked out two Tier 6 Healing Medicinal Pills, which he placed into her mouth and dissolved with Spiritual Qi to help her absorb them quickly.
Just as the medicinal power began nourishing Yan Ran's injured body, the sound of tearing through the air came from the horizon.
A majestic and solemn Flying Boat broke through the clouds, its banner waving high, displaying the character 'Xuan,' indicating the Flying Boat's identity.
On the deck, the leader was precisely Dao Lord Ling Xu, the Second Inner Elder of Xuantian Sect.
Behind him were the supporting Disciples.
In an instant, roars like those of beasts sounded again, and dozens of Flying Boats arrived one after another.
Among them were Flying Boats from other second and third-rank forces in Jiuzhou, as well as Flying Boats from second and third-rank forces in the Great Thousand Domain.
Thousands of Cultivators leaped off the Flying Boats, and the moment they landed, they were so shocked by the sight before them that they were speechless.
The sky-high stench of blood almost solidified into substance. The once magnificent halls and towers were reduced to broken walls and ruins, and the scorched earth was covered in countless layers of mixed corpses.
Many young Disciples, those who had never experienced life-or-death combat, turned deathly pale on the spot and couldn't help but bend over and retch.
Even the Elders wore solemn expressions, their eyes filled with shock.
"Wha... what exactly happened here..." a Disciple from a second-rank Sect in Jiuzhou asked with a trembling voice.
Just then, Yan Ran, having consumed the Medicinal Pill, let out a muffled groan. Her long eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Her initial confusion was quickly replaced by deep-seated pain and memory.
Her lips moved a few times before she managed to utter a sound clear enough for every Cultivator present to hear:
"Cultivators above Foundation Establishment... in the Far North Land... are all... killed in action..."
She paused, as if using all her strength, before spitting out the last four characters:
"The Legacy... is broken."
"..."
A deathly silence enveloped the entire plaza.
The four characters "Legacy is broken" rang out like a heavy death knell in the hearts of all the assisting Cultivators.
That was not the annihilation of a single Family or faction, but the complete burial of a region's cultivation civilization!
It meant that from now on, it would be extremely difficult for native High-tier Cultivators to be born in this vast Far North Land; the spark of cultivation was nearly extinguished.
"In the end, we were still one step too late." Dao Lord Ling Xu sighed.
He looked at the remains covering the ground and was shocked to discover the corpse of a Void Return Dao Lord Yao Beast.
Many Disciples stepped forward to investigate and found that the Yao Beast Core inside the Yao Beast's body had long been taken.
Dao Lord Ling Xu quickly came to Yan Ran's side and asked, "Great Cultivator Yan Ran, who killed these Yao Beasts? Where is Dao Lord Song Xu? What exactly happened here?"
Yan Ran was currently weak. Chen Yuan, who had already used a Secret Technique to conceal his appearance, spoke first, "Dao Lord Ling Xu, the Yao Race dispatched one Void Return Demon Emperor and six Soul Transformation Demon Venerables. We Cultivators of the Far North Land were simply no match for them.
Originally, Sect Master Yan Ran and I were also prepared to die together. Fortunately, a powerful Human Race Sword Cultivator passed by and killed all these Yao Beasts." Chen Yuan gave a wry smile at the end.
"Otherwise, Sect Master Yan Ran and I would have perished here too."
"Who are you?" Dao Lord Ling Xu narrowed his eyes and scrutinized Chen Yuan. Strangely, no matter how he investigated, he could not discern Chen Yuan's True Realm.
"Cough, cough, Senior Ling Xu, this is a new Disciple I have taken in." Yan Ran explained on Chen Yuan's behalf.
From the moment Chen Yuan changed his appearance, Yan Ran had already guessed that he did not want to expose his True Identity.
"I recall your Sect only accepts females, not males?"
Yan Ran weakly explained, "Cough, cough, for a Genius, some Long-standing Traditions should be abandoned."
Dao Lord Ling Xu temporarily put aside his doubts.
Just then, successive cries of surprise softly rang out.
"It's Formation Master Lian Qing."
"And Formation Master Lian Jie!"
"Heavens! What in the world is going on?"
The Cultivators from Jiuzhou were all inexplicably shocked. These two were famous Tier 5 Formation Masters in Jiuzhou, yet one had turned into a Yao Beast and the other had his glabella pierced by a sword.
At this moment, the Leading Elder of the second-rank Sect Dingfeng Sect from Jiuzhou stepped forward to investigate. In an instant, her face changed drastically.
"It really is Lian Qing and Lian Jie."
The person who stepped forward to investigate was Core Elder Shen Yunling of Dingfeng Sect, Dao Lord Yunling, who had previously accompanied Disciple Xia Yuan to visit her Family.
"In other words, Jiuzhou has probably been infiltrated by the Yao Race. Lian Qing and Lian Jie are definitely not isolated cases." Dao Lord Ling Xu frowned. This made the situation complicated.
He needed to quickly Transmit a Message to the Sect Master, dispatch Sect Disciples to patrol the Sect's jurisdiction, and capture the hidden Yao Race Remnants.
Immediately afterward, Dao Lord Ling Xu led the Cultivators to begin the Northern Expedition. The Far North Land was divided into territories based on Sects, Families, and Cities.
The group flew a hundred miles and were horrified to discover a massive City ahead. The City had clearly been built recently, with walls stretching millions of miles from east to west, extending beyond sight. It seemed to divide the entire Far North Land in two: the inside was Yao Race territory, and the outside was Human Race territory.
Outside the City, Dao Lord Ling Xu's expression was solemn. To achieve such a monumental feat, there was likely more than one Body Integration Demon Saint guarding it inside.
In this way, half of the entire Far North Land had fallen into the hands of the Yao Race.