Defeating a Dou Emperor with a Flick

Yun Shan's figure staggered like a kite with a broken string, barely managing to rise to the same height as Xiao Chen. His face was waxen, his aura feeble. The composure of a Dou Zong expert walking through the void had long vanished, leaving only bone-deep terror and wretchedness.

He stopped a hundred meters away from Xiao Chen, not daring to come any closer. To a Dou Zun, that distance was no different from standing face-to-face.

"Sen... Senior." Yun Shan spoke with difficulty, his voice dry and hoarse, filled with pleading. "Yun Shan... knows he was wrong. It was all because Protector Wu of the Soul Hall deceived and incited me. Blinded by greed, I offended the Xiao Family and offended Your Younger Brother. Now that Senior has crippled my cultivation, and the Misty Cloud Sect has promised to close the mountain, I beg Senior... to show mercy and spare the lives of the several thousand disciples of the Misty Cloud Sect. They... they are innocent."

At this moment, Yun Shan no longer possessed even a trace of the majesty of a sect master. For the sake of the sect's inheritance, he had no choice but to cast aside all dignity and beg bitterly.

On the Misty Cloud Sect's plaza below, countless disciples watched the sect master they had once regarded as a god humble himself so completely. Many could not help lowering their heads as tears of humiliation and grief streamed down their faces, yet not a single person dared make the slightest sound. The figure in azure robes in the sky was like a sword suspended over the entire Misty Cloud Sect, leaving everyone silent with terror.

Xiao Chen looked at him expressionlessly, his gaze unfathomable and devoid of any visible joy or anger.

"Deceived by the Soul Hall?" Xiao Chen said blandly. "As the ruler of one side, your Dao heart was weak, and you willingly became another's lackey. That is foolishness."

"For your own selfish gain, you indulged your subordinates and allowed them to bully the weak. That is inhumanity."

"You allowed Yun Leng to abduct my father and injure my younger brother. That is unrighteousness."

"Someone so foolish, inhumane, and unrighteous—is he worthy of leading a sect?"

Every word Xiao Chen spoke was like an invisible slap viciously striking Yun Shan across the face, turning his complexion pale and green by turns, yet leaving him unable to refute a single word.

"I, Xiao Chen, distinguish clearly between gratitude and grudges." Xiao Chen changed tack. "The Soul Hall's chief culprit has been executed. Your Misty Cloud Sect was an accomplice. You may be spared the death penalty, but the punishment of life... cannot be so easily offset merely by crippling your own cultivation."

Yun Shan's heart lurched into his throat as he looked at Xiao Chen in terror.

Xiao Chen's gaze swept over the vast complex of Misty Cloud Sect buildings below, as well as the trembling disciples, before he slowly said, "Your Misty Cloud Sect has endured for many years. I presume you have accumulated quite a considerable foundation of resources."

Yun Shan instantly understood Xiao Chen's meaning. He wanted... compensation! And compensation severe enough to cripple the sect!

His heart bled, but he was now meat on the chopping block, with no right to bargain. Being able to preserve his life and the sect's inheritance was already a blessing beyond measure.

"Yes... yes!" Yun Shan hurriedly replied, lowering himself as far as he could. "My Misty Cloud Sect is willing to offer seventy percent of the resources accumulated over a century... no, eighty percent! Pills, cultivation techniques, Dou Skills, Medicinal Ingredients, gold coins... Senior may take whatever you wish. I only ask that Senior's anger be appeased!"

"Eighty percent?" A faint, ambiguous smile appeared at the corner of Xiao Chen's lips.

Yun Shan's heart went cold. Clenching his teeth, he nearly cried out, "Ninety percent! Senior, my Misty Cloud Sect is willing to offer ninety percent of our resources! We only ask to retain ten percent to maintain the sect's basic operations and leave our disciples a way to survive!"

After saying this, Yun Shan seemed to have been drained of all strength, his body hunching even further. Handing over ninety percent of their resources meant that even if the Misty Cloud Sect did not collapse, it would fall from one of the Jia Ma Empire's foremost powers to a second- or third-rate faction. It would take countless years to recover.

Only then did Xiao Chen nod slightly. "Agreed."

One word determined the future fate of the Misty Cloud Sect.

"Besides that," Xiao Chen spoke again, and Yun Shan's heart rose once more, "the injuries my younger brother suffered here cannot be suffered for nothing."

His gaze shifted to Yun Shan. "Though your cultivation has fallen, the foundation of your Dou Zong body remains, and your comprehension of the Power of Space has not completely vanished. Today, I will let you personally experience what true 'power' is, so that you may completely abandon any improper thoughts you might harbor in the future."

Yun Shan's pupils constricted sharply as an extreme sense of danger enveloped his entire body! He wanted to retreat, wanted to struggle, but the surrounding space became viscous and solid once more, rendering him utterly unable to move!

Xiao Chen slowly raised his right hand, lightly pressed his index finger and thumb together, and casually flicked in Yun Shan's direction.

"Buzz—!"

An invisible, formless finger wind condensed to the extreme instantly shot through the air!

There were no dazzling lights, no deafening roar, yet wherever it passed, the space itself rippled faintly like water. A tiny black crack flashed behind the finger wind before vanishing!

It was a sign that space had been torn apart!

Yun Shan watched helplessly as the finger wind came at him, his very soul trembling! He desperately mobilized the little Dou Qi remaining in his body, forming one thick azure wind shield after another before himself. Those shields could have easily withstood the full-force attacks of several peak Dou Emperors.

Yet before that seemingly weightless finger wind, those wind shields were as fragile as paper.

"Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!"

A string of soft sounds rang out as the finger wind passed through every wind shield without the slightest obstruction, then struck Yun Shan precisely in the chest.

"Bang!"

Yun Shan's body jolted violently as though struck by a massive hammer, and he spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs! He shot backward like a meteor, crashing viciously toward the plaza of Misty Cloud Mountain below!

"Rumble!!"

With a thunderous boom, the plaza's hard Green Stone floor was smashed into an enormous crater, dust and smoke billowing everywhere.

At the center of the crater lay Yun Shan, his chest slightly caved in and his aura even weaker than before. He was breathing out more than he was taking in. Xiao Chen's flick had not taken his life, but it had completely destroyed the foundation of his Dou Zong body and planted an eternal seed of terror toward Xiao Chen and the Xiao Family deep within his soul! For the rest of his life, his cultivation would never advance another step. Whether he could even retain the strength of a Dou Wang remained uncertain.

In the span of a flick, a former Dou Zong had been reduced to such a state!

The entire Misty Cloud Sect fell into Dead Silence. All the disciples and elders looked at Yun Shan lying in the crater like a dead dog, then at the spotless figure in azure robes still standing in the sky. Nothing remained in their eyes but boundless reverence and terror.

Xiao Chen looked down below and calmly declared:

"From this day forth, the Misty Cloud Sect will close the mountain for ten years. Deliver the resource compensation to the Xiao Family in Wutan City within three days."

"If you disobey..."

He did not finish, but the icy killing intent made everyone understand the consequences.

Having said that, Xiao Chen did not linger. He turned, took one step forward, and as space twisted, his figure had already vanished.

He came without sound and left without trace, yet with absolute power, he had completely rewritten the balance of the Jia Ma Empire.

All that remained was a Misty Cloud Sect cast down into the dust, and a legend bearing the name "Xiao Chen," soon to resound throughout the empire.