Before the General's Mansion, there was dead silence.
The several dozen elite household guards Li Jing had brought all stared blankly at their general.
Their general—the man who had always stood tall against the heavens, regarded armies as nothing, and was hailed as Chentang Pass's Sea Stabilizing Divine Needle—now stood frozen like a rooster with its throat seized, his face deathly pale and his entire body trembling like a fallen leaf in the autumn wind.
What had happened?
No one knew.
They had only seen their general turn into this state after exchanging a single glance with the young man across from him, who was holding an immortal maiden's hand.
That man clearly looked utterly ordinary. There was not the slightest fluctuation of Magic Power around him, and he resembled nothing more than an ordinary young master from a wealthy family.
Yet it was precisely such a man who had frightened their general—a direct disciple of a Chan Sect immortal—into such a state?
Everyone felt as though their brains were no longer enough to process this. The scene before them was strange to the extreme.
Yet Qin Feng, who had caused all this, could not even be bothered to spare Li Jing a glance from the corner of his eye.
To him, the shock and fear of such a clown were duller than a speck of dust by the roadside.
Qin Feng's gaze seemed to pierce through the heavy walls and layers of restrictions surrounding the General's Mansion, landing directly upon its depths. A faint curve formed on his lips, carrying both indifference and amusement.
Then, he spoke.
His voice was not loud, yet it clearly entered the ears of everyone present.
"Your wife carries the reincarnation of a Spirit Pearl in her womb, one burdened with immense fortune."
Without even looking at Li Jing, Qin Feng spoke as though he were merely stating a well-known fact.
Yet when those words entered Li Jing's ears, they were no less than Nine Heavens Divine Thunder exploding within the depths of his Primordial Spirit!
Boom!
Li Jing's mind buzzed, instantly turning blank.
The reincarnation of a Spirit Pearl?
How... how did he know?!
His wife, Lady Yin, had been pregnant for three years and six months without giving birth. This was the greatest secret of the entire General's Mansion, as well as the heaviest boulder weighing upon his heart!
He had secretly cast divinations and discreetly sought guidance from his sect, only to receive the vague answer: "Heaven's secrets are muddled and cannot be glimpsed."
Other than him, his wife, and a few of their closest maidservants, absolutely no outsider could know of this!
Yet this mysterious man before him had revealed heaven's secret in a single sentence!
How was that possible?!
A chill that penetrated his very bones made Li Jing's teeth chatter uncontrollably.
However, before he could recover from this overwhelming shock, Qin Feng's next words struck his Dao Heart like a Chaos divine hammer weighing billions of tons.
"Unfortunately, Killing Intent soars to the heavens within this General's Mansion, and you yourself are foolish and incompetent."
Qin Feng's tone remained calm, yet it carried an undeniable air of judgment.
"You are unworthy of being his father."
Unworthy!
Unworthy of being his father!
Those six short words were like a venom-coated blade, stabbing with flawless precision into the proudest and most vulnerable part of Li Jing's heart!
As a member of the Chan Sect and a mortal general, when had Li Jing ever suffered such humiliation?
He called him foolish and incompetent?
He said he was unworthy of being a father?
"Pfft—"
Shocked, enraged, and terrified, Li Jing felt sweetness rise in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"You... you..."
Li Jing's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins bulged on the hand resting upon his sword hilt. He wanted to draw his sword, roar in fury, and tear this arrogant madman before him into ten thousand pieces.
But he could not do it.
To his horror, he discovered that beneath the other man's seemingly casual gaze, he appeared to be suppressed by an invisible Primordial Divine Mountain. Forget drawing his sword—even moving a finger had become an impossible wish.
That absolute suppression originating from the level of life itself made even breathing incomparably difficult for him.
All his rage and all his pride were crushed into the lowliest dust at that moment.
In their place came boundless terror and horror.
Li Jing's lips trembled. Only by exhausting every ounce of strength in his body did he manage to squeeze several dry, hoarse, utterly distorted syllables from the depths of his throat.
"Se... Senior... who... who exactly are you...?"
At that moment, he no longer possessed even the slightest arrogance of a Chan Sect disciple or the dignity of a general. All that remained was the humility and trembling of an ant gazing up at the heavens.
Seeing Li Jing make such a fool of himself, Shi Ji felt an unprecedented sense of exhilaration in her heart.
Back then, it had been these Chan Sect lackeys. Each and every one of them had looked down their noses at everyone, treating the disciples of the Interception Sect as pigs and dogs to be bullied at will.
But now?
Before Senior Brother, these so-called Chan Sect disciples were nothing more than lapdogs that could not even stand steadily!
Shi Ji stepped forward, standing before Qin Feng. Her cold, breathtakingly beautiful face carried pride and delight from the bottom of her heart, as though she were displaying her most precious treasure.
Her gaze was icy as she looked down upon the wavering Li Jing. Her red lips parted, delivering the proclamation that would utterly shatter him.
"This is Senior Brother Qin Feng, the Azure Stone Palace Lord who repelled the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect at Skeleton Mountain!"
Repelled...
The Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Sect?!
When those eight words crashed into Li Jing's sea of consciousness like Primordial Divine Mountains forged from Chaos black iron.
His thoughts came to a complete halt.
His world turned into a pure, silent darkness at that instant.
Skeleton Mountain's terrifying sword formation...
Martial Uncle Taiyi's humiliating flight...
The strange silence of the entire Chan Sect after suffering such a heavy loss...
And the terrifying means by which the man before him had revealed heaven's secret in a single sentence...
Everything he had previously failed to understand, every self-righteous guess he had made, linked together in that instant, forming an answer that made his liver and gallbladder split and sent his soul flying from his body!
So that was it.
So that was it!
He had not merely kicked an iron plate.
Like a fool, he had rammed headfirst into the Sun True Fire that could incinerate all things!
He, this self-important clown, had taken the initiative to come to this man's doorstep and wildly provoke a terrifying existence whom even the Chan Sect's saints could only tacitly accept a loss against!
At that thought, darkness filled Li Jing's vision.
The last shred of strength supporting his body was completely drained away.
He could no longer hold himself up. His knees gave way, and with a thud, he fell stiffly to his knees before the General's Mansion under the horrified gazes of several dozen household guards and countless townsfolk.
His heavy silver armor collided with the cold ground, producing a dull yet piercing crash.
That sound seemed not to be the sound of him kneeling on the ground.
It was the sound of his pride as a Chan Sect disciple shattering to pieces.
And the sound of the worldview of every soldier and civilian of Chentang Pass present being shattered as well.
Before you continue