199: Chapter 199 Where's your shame?

Wang Family station, Chixia Peak.

Inside the Enshrinement Hall, sandalwood incense curled as hundreds of soul lamps were arranged in a pyramid according to seniority, emitting a faint yellow glow that symbolized the long-lasting Luck of the Wang Family.

The Disciple responsible for guarding the soul lamps was sitting cross-legged in meditation when he suddenly heard an extremely subtle, crisp sound by his ear.

Crack.

His eyelids twitched, and he instinctively looked up.

This one look made him break out in a cold sweat.

Located on the second tier of the pyramid, the three soul lamps representing the Family's Late Foundation Establishment Stage Elders had actually exploded at the same time.

They didn't just go out.

They shattered.

This meant Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering; even the chance for Reincarnation had been forcibly severed by someone.

"Elder..."

The Disciple's lips trembled, and he was just about to scramble up to ring the alarm bell.

Boom!

A terrifying heatwave, powerful enough to incinerate the heavens and boil the seas, erupted without warning from deep within the Forbidden Ground at the back of Chixia Peak.

The entire Enshrinement Hall shook violently under this pressure, roof tiles fell one after another, and the soul lamps of hundreds of low-level Disciples flickered wildly in the air current, nearly being extinguished.

"Who?!"

A furious roar, like rolling thunder carrying endless rage, instantly spread across a hundred-mile radius.

The stone door of the Forbidden Ground exploded into fragments.

A crimson figure soared into the sky, surrounded by tangible flames, his hair and beard bristling like an enraged Fire God.

True Person Chi Li.

This sole Purple Mansion Old Ancestor of the Wang Family had immediately entered secluded cultivation after the great war ended to break through to the Purple Mansion Second Divine Ability. Now, he had been forcibly awakened by the Karma backlash from the shattering of those three soul lamps.

Floating in mid-air, his Divine Sense flooded into the Enshrinement Hall like a tide, locking onto those three piles of extinguished glass shards.

Those were the soul lamps of Wang Tong and the other two.

They were also the pillars of the Wang Family's current generation.

"Dead... they're all dead..."

True Person Chi Li's chest heaved violently, a mouthful of blood surged up his throat, but he forced himself to swallow it back down.

This wasn't just the death of three Late Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators; it was the severing of the Wang Family's hundred-year Foundation!

Who was it?

The Taiqing Sect? Or those rival cultivation families?

"Whether you are man or ghost, today I will grind your bones to ashes and extract your Divine Soul to light a sky lantern!"

True Person Chi Li roared, his palm slamming against his chest.

Pfft.

A mouthful of essence blood containing the Purple Mansion Origin sprayed out, floating in mid-air and transforming into a blood-red round mirror.

His Lifebound Treasure — Crimson Fire Mirror.

"Manifest!"

True Person Chi Li formed hand seals, and a torrent of mana powerful enough to burn through the Void Realm poured into the mirror.

The mirror's surface vibrated violently, and the blood-red light intensified.

He wanted to trace the source.

No matter who the murderer was, as long as they were tainted by Karma, they would have nowhere to hide under the deduction of the Crimson Fire Mirror.

However.

In the next instant.

True Person Chi Li's face, twisted with rage, suddenly froze.

The mirror did not show the murderer's face; it didn't even show a blurred silhouette of their back.

There was only a patch of Chaos.

Gray mist churned on the mirror's surface, as if that place were a void of death that did not exist in this world, nor within the Five Elements or Karma.

"How is this possible?!"

True Person Chi Li's pupils shrank.

He was a Purple Mansion True Person, yet his deduction of the cause of death for a few Foundation Establishment juniors was like a stone dropped into the ocean?

Could a Golden Core True Lord have stepped in to obscure the heavenly secrets?

No.

If it were a Golden Core True Lord, the Wang Family would have been destroyed long ago; there would be no need for such secrecy.

"Playing tricks!"

True Person Chi Li snorted coldly. Since he couldn't deduce it, he would go to the scene.

The blood guide sent out by Wang Tong before he died was still active.

That direction... Luo Xia Slope!

Boom!

True Person Chi Li's body transformed into a hundred-zhang-long crimson rainbow, tearing through the great void and racing toward Luo Xia Slope with rolling heatwaves.

At Luo Xia Slope, Gu Changfeng had just tucked the black gold box containing the earth vein spirit marrow into his robes.

The previously cloudless sky turned crimson without warning.

It was as if a basin of scalding lava had been splashed across the firmament.

Clouds burned, and the air boiled.

A suffocating, terrifying pressure crashed down like a hundred thousand mountains.

Crack.

The rocky ground beneath his feet instantly shattered into countless spiderweb-like cracks.

Gu Changfeng's body sank slightly as his protective spiritual light groaned under the pressure, looking as if it could shatter at any moment.

But he did not run.

He didn't even summon the Flying Sword named "spirit swallower."

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the golden system panel was flashing frantically.

[Warning: Purple Mansion-level energy reaction approaching.]

[Target: True Person Chi Li.]

[Estimated arrival time: Three breaths.]

Gu Changfeng looked at the rows of crimson warnings, but a very faint curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Surprisingly, he did not choose to flee this time.

The reason he dared to come was that he had already used the System to deduce that Si Yuanzhi would stand up for him. After all, with the talent he was currently displaying, he was a Purple Mansion seed in her eyes, and she would certainly not let him die for nothing.

He quickly adjusted his facial expression.

That hint of indifference and mockery vanished instantly, replaced by a perfectly measured look of terror and indignation.

Best Actor mode engaged.

"Little beast! Die!"

A thunderous roar made Gu Changfeng's eardrums bleed.

In the sky above, the clouds were torn apart.

A giant flaming hand that blotted out the sun reached down from the Nine Heavens.

The giant hand was nearly an acre in size, its palm lines clearly visible, with destructive lava flowing through every crease.

It ignored the corpses of the Loose Cultivators and the remains of the three Wang Family Elders, locking onto Gu Changfeng alone.

It intended to crush this ant who dared to challenge the Wang Family's majesty, along with the land for ten miles around, into fine powder.

Gu Changfeng looked up at the giant hand slowly pressing down.

The heatwave scorched his eyebrows and hair; the aura of death was close at hand.

But he did not retreat.

Gu Changfeng stood in the shadow of the giant hand, as small as an ant.

He counted silently in his heart.

Three.

Two.

One.

Just as the rolling heatwave was about to touch the tips of his hair.

From the eastern horizon.

A streak of purple Qi surged across three thousand miles.

It was a color more noble than fire and more domineering than lava.

Zheng!

A clear sound of jade striking stone drowned out the thunder in the sky.

A gourd, crystal clear and emitting a soft purple light, appeared out of thin air three feet above Gu Changfeng's head.

It seemed like a light blow.

Yet it struck exactly in the center of the giant flaming hand's palm.

Bang!

Heaven and earth stood still for a moment.

Immediately after.

That overbearing flaming hand shattered inch by inch, like porcelain struck by a heavy hammer.

A rain of fire exploded across the sky, but before it could hit the ground, it was swallowed whole by the vast purple Qi.

Everything became calm and clear again.

It was as if that world-destroying strike from a moment ago had been nothing but an illusion.

Gu Changfeng lowered his hand that was holding the black gold box and quietly wiped a drop of cold sweat from his forehead.

He had won the gamble.

Ripples appeared in the Void Realm.

A figure exuding charm slowly stepped out from the purple Qi.

Si Yuanzhi was dressed in purple, her long black hair falling like a waterfall, as she stepped through the air barefoot.

She didn't glance at Gu Changfeng behind her; she simply stood with her hands behind her back, blocking True Person Chi Li.

Those eyes, as bright as stars, coldly watched the enraged old man in the clouds.

"Old Ghost Chi Li."

Si Yuanzhi's red lips parted slightly, her voice not loud, but carrying a heart-chilling coldness.

"A man hundreds of years old, attacking a junior."

"Has your face... been burned away by this fire of yours?"