2: Tan Tai

The heavens of the Nine Provinces Continent are divided into nine ranks.

The ninth-rank commoners are like ants, the sixth-rank noble families control life and death, the third-rank aristocratic families determine the world, and the first-rank imperial family commands all nations. The rank of a family is their heaven, pressing down on people, making it hard to breathe.

Bei Huang County, Mist Hidden Mountain.

The sky here is a hazy gray. A tiny spiritual vein, thin in spiritual energy, coiled like a dying snake in the mountain hollow, nourishing the only family here—the eighth-rank humble family, the Tantai clan.

At this moment, the 'heaven' of this world was being pressed down by a black cloud.

Above the black cloud, a blood-robed old man stood with his hands behind his back, his withered fingers twirling a string of skull prayer beads. In the eye sockets of each skull, a faint green ghostly flame flickered. He looked down at the green-tiled buildings at the foot of the mountain, his voice like rusted iron scraping: "This Venerable Luo Li, an elder of the Shituoluo clan, comes with the family head's decree."

“To take your Tantai Qinghuang as a concubine for our young master, Luo Jin.”

As the last three words fell, the nine blood corpses behind him all took a step forward. The Spirit Sea Realm's pressure surged down like a tide, and the golden runes of the Tantai Family's protective formation immediately flickered violently, like a candle in the wind, flickering unsteadily.

“To be a concubine for the Luo Family’s young master is your broken family’s good fortune.” Luo Li sneered, lightly pressing his foot on the black cloud, “If you don’t know what’s good for you—”

He paused, and the skull prayer beads suddenly made a harsh clattering sound: “Then let your clan be annihilated.”

On the bluestone plaza in front of the ancestral hall, the Tantai clan members all had flushed faces, their hands gripping their weapons, veins bulging.

The family head, Tantai Lie, stomped his foot heavily on the ground, and the hard bluestone slab instantly cracked into a spiderweb pattern. His tiger-like eyes widened as he roared at the black cloud: “A seventh-rank noble family dares to be so overbearing? Our Tantai Family is a vassal of the equally seventh-rank Song Family, how dare you be so presumptuous!”

“The Song Family?” Luo Li chuckled as if he had heard a joke, letting out a cackling laugh, “Are you referring to the Song Family that took three million spirit stones from our Luo Family and sold you out?”

“What?!” Tantai Lie was struck by lightning, staggering back half a step. The surrounding clan members exploded into an uproar, angry shouts rising and falling.

“Damn the Song Family! We offer so many spirit rice and elixirs every year, and they stab us in the back!”

Above the main seat, the family head, Tantai Lie, had his hair and beard bristling, his eyes bloodshot. He forcibly suppressed the metallic taste in his throat, his chest heaving violently, his heart filled with endless fury and bone-deep humiliation!

The Tantai Family had always kept a secret of its family heritage, known only to him—the Tantai Family… once upon a time, was incredibly glorious, a family from the Upper Realm.

How powerful it specifically was, he didn't know, but the remaining records within the clan contained eight characters: Overlooking all realms, disdaining all beings!

But now… Tantai Lie’s heart felt as if it had fallen into a bottomless cold abyss.

The family's heritage was severed, its glory turned to smoke.

From the Nine Heavens, it had fallen to this barren corner of the mortal realm, where even a lackey of a second-rate demonic sect dared to come to forcibly demand the family's brightest jewel as a concubine, or even… a cauldron!

“No matter what, Qinghuang is our clan's only hope for awakening her bloodline; she absolutely cannot be a human cauldron!”

“Patriarch, let’s fight them! The descendants of the Tantai Family would rather die than surrender!”

In the crowd, a red-clad young woman stepped forward half a step.

Tantai Qinghuang wore soft black scale armor, her crimson hair falling like flames to her waist, and her golden eyes held a coldness unsuited for her age. She had only been reborn less than an hour ago, and before she could even digest the memories of her previous life, the disaster of clan annihilation was already at their gates.

In her previous life, it was this very day. No one in the family yielded, and they were ultimately massacred by Luo Li. Only she, protected by her clan members, managed to escape, but she became a wandering spirit, struggling in the cultivation world for hundreds of years to reach the Quasi-Emperor stage. Yet, whenever she dreamt at midnight, the screams of her clan members in front of the ancestral hall would always wake her.

“Family Head, this matter started because of me; I will go with him.” The young woman’s voice was clear and cold as ice, yet carried an undeniable resolve, “I will find a way to escape and buy time for the family.”

She secretly formed a hand seal with her fingertips. As soon as she got close to Luo Li, she would use the 'Blood Burning Art' to perish together. This secret art came at a great cost, burning a hundred years of her lifespan, but if it could buy a sliver of hope for her clan members, it was worth it.

“Nonsense!” Tantai Lie suddenly turned around, his beard trembling with anger, “You are a student of the Immortal Academy, the spark for the Tantai Family’s resurgence, how can you enter a tiger’s den?”

“Qinghuang, don’t say such foolish things! We would rather die in battle than let you suffer humiliation!”

“Right! The other three families in Cold Crow Marsh have been friends with us for generations; they might come to help! And there’s your aunt’s family too.”

The roar of the clan members almost overturned the clouds. Even the youngest children clutched wooden swords, babbling “Hit the bad guys,” without a trace of fear in their eyes.

Tantai Qinghuang looked at the familiar faces, and her nose suddenly stung. What had sustained the Tantai Family for a thousand years was never its bloodline, but this unyielding spirit.

Such a family was worth her protection.

“A bunch of ants, dawdling.”

Luo Li, above the black cloud, lost his patience. He pressed his withered palm down, and an invisible pressure suddenly descended, causing the floor tiles of the entire Tantai Family mansion to sink three inches! Clan members with weaker cultivation 'thumped' to their knees, blood spilling from their mouths.

Tantai Lie erupted with a faint golden aura, his bulging muscles hardening like rock, yet he could only barely stand with his back hunched, beads of sweat on his forehead hitting the ground, kicking up tiny dust.

“A bit of spirit, but useless, unfortunately.” Luo Li’s voice was laced with mockery, and the black cloud slowly pressed down. The runes of the protective formation had already begun to crack.

Tantai Qinghuang closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, only determination remained in her golden pupils. She broke free from her clan members' grasp and walked step by step towards the black cloud: “I will go with you.”

Just as she was less than ten zhang away from Luo Li, the young woman suddenly moved her delicate hands, forming an arcane seal. A crimson phoenix feather pattern appeared between her eyebrows, and a pure Glaze Pure fire suddenly surged, instantly transforming into a phantom of a fire phoenix with spread wings.

“Caw—!”

The fire phoenix let out a long cry and shot towards Luo Li, its tail flames as brilliant as shooting stars. With a 'poof', the blood-robed old man's body was pierced through, rapidly turning to ashes in the fierce flames.

Tantai Qinghuang staggered to the ground, her temples instantly covered with silver threads, and fine wrinkles appeared on her originally delicate cheeks—the backlash of the Blood Burning Art came faster than expected.

Gasping for breath, she was about to shout “Run!” to her clan members, but her pupils suddenly constricted.

In the sky, the incinerated blood corpse suddenly twisted and deformed, and in the blink of an eye, it transformed back into Luo Li’s appearance. His rotting eye sockets flickered with alarm and malevolence: “Fortunately, this old man was cautious and left a clone.”

“You destroyed my clone; today, I will make sure your Tantai Family—not even a chicken or dog remains!”

The nine blood corpses simultaneously let out sharp shrieks. Amidst the swirling black mist, they formed a blood-red grand formation. The golden light of the protective formation shattered with a 'crack', and amidst the flying debris, the blood corpses’ sharp claws were already reaching for the nearest clan members.

...

A hundred li away, on a flying boat shrouded in clouds and mist.

The three family heads were observing the tragic situation of Mist Hidden Mountain through a mystic mirror. The Zhi Family Head, dressed in a dark gold ruqun, sighed: “The Luo Family is powerful, even the Song Family acquiesced, why should we humble families get involved in this muddy water?”

The nine-foot-tall Tie Family Head rumbled: “If you ask me, the Tantai Family deserves it. If they had been willing to marry Qinghuang to my son, how could it have come to this today?”

The Li Family Head, dressed as a scholar, stroked his beard, a hint of greed flashing in his eyes: “Brother Lie is quite a man, what a pity. That spiritual vein of their family is indeed a good place, we…”

Before he finished speaking, a blinding golden light suddenly erupted in the mystic mirror, followed by a dragon's roar that seemed to tear through heaven and earth, echoing through the clouds.

The three men were stunned simultaneously, and the mystic mirror actually shattered with a 'crack' at this very moment.

The clouds and mist outside the flying boat churned violently, as if some terrifying existence was awakening.