Chu Rou

"Today, I am the one who will kill you?"

Chu Fan seemed to mutter to himself. The next moment, he burst into loud laughter. "How arrogant. You really think that just because you took one of my sword strikes, you can kill me?"

As his words fell—

Chu Fan's eyes widened as well.

Because Li Zhōujūn had already made his move.

A fist the size of a casserole pot, carrying an irresistible force, grew larger and larger in Chu Fan's vision.

Chu Fan wanted to defend himself, but to his horror, he discovered that his entire body seemed to be bound by invisible chains between heaven and earth, leaving him unable to move.

He could only watch helplessly as Li Zhōujūn's fist smashed squarely into his face.

Accompanied by a tremendous bang.

Before the eyes of the gathered cultivators, Chu Fan's physical body was obliterated by Li Zhōujūn's crushing punch, turning into a mist of blood.

Even at death, Chu Fan could not believe that after enduring in silence for thousands of years, his life would end so hastily. He truly was unwilling to accept it!

And with Chu Fan's fall, the blood-colored barrier that had originally shrouded the Xue family quietly dispersed as well.

"This..."

"A cultivator at the peak of the Integration Stage just... died like that?!"

"Hiss!"

"The Cloud Dwelling Mountain Lord blew apart a peak Integration Stage cultivator with one punch. Just what level has his cultivation reached?"

"Could it be the Tribulation Transcendence Stage?!"

"It's highly possible..."

At this moment, all the cultivators present gazed in awe at that blue-robed figure standing in the air, as though a true immortal had descended into the world.

Murong Xue looked at Li Zhōujūn in the air, a complicated expression appearing on her face.

A forty-year-old Tribulation Transcendence cultivator?

Even throughout all of history, there could not have been many like that, could there?

When she had fought Li Zhōujūn back then, he had clearly gone easy on her...

As Sū Nán looked at her master's peerless figure, her heart surged with excitement. If not for the presence of so many people, she would already have begun dancing with joy.

Xue Wuliang, who had only recently broken through to the Integration Stage, looked at Li Zhōujūn in the air and smiled bitterly.

He had thought that after breaking through to the Integration Stage, he would already stand at the summit of Azure Continent.

But after today, he finally understood that the so-called summit of Azure Continent was simply laughable.

On this vast and boundless Azure Continent, perhaps Integration Stage cultivators had only just taken their first steps?

"This old man thanks the Cloud Dwelling Mountain Lord for saving my life!"

At this moment, Xue Wuliang clasped his hands and bowed to Li Zhōujūn.

"We also thank the Cloud Dwelling Mountain Lord for saving our lives!"

The gathered cultivators came to their senses as well and hurriedly saluted Li Zhōujūn.

Li Zhōujūn merely chuckled at this. Descending from midair with his hands behind his back, he said with a smile, "There is no need for such courtesy, everyone. As the mountain lord of Azure Continent's foremost righteous great sect, killing such a fiend is merely the fulfillment of my duty."

"Mountain Lord Li is truly righteous!"

Xue Wuliang said reverently. He then turned toward the cultivators present and said, "Everyone has suffered a fright in my Xue family. It is my Xue family that has failed in its duties. If you do not mind, this old man is willing to extend the three-day banquet to ten days, to calm everyone's nerves. During that time, my Xue family will certainly bring out our treasured fine wines to entertain you all."

Although the Xue family were the victims here and had even lost their patriarch, with so many cultivators present, it would be somewhat inappropriate to immediately send everyone away and hold a funeral. It would make the Xue family seem too fragile, as though a single mishap had left them incapable of doing anything.

As for the currently vacant position of family patriarch—

as long as their ancestor, Xue Wuliang, was present, the Xue family could not descend into chaos.

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"You are too courteous, Xue Family Patriarch."

The cultivators all smiled.

They were naturally happy to stay a few more days and enjoy delicacies from land and sea. After all, the Xue family's foundation was not weak, and the food they served would certainly benefit their cultivation, sparing them quite a bit of arduous cultivation.

After the Xue family members cleaned up the scene, the banquet continued.

But at the very moment Li Zhōujūn had acted to destroy Chu Fan—

within a magnificent grand hall, a breathtakingly beautiful young girl in a white dress, with golden eyes and bare red feet, reclined upon a throne. Looking at the shattered bracelet on her right wrist, disbelief filled her eyes.

"Brother Chu Fan..." the golden-eyed, bare-footed girl murmured, and two trails of clear tears unexpectedly flowed from the corners of her eyes.

After an unknown amount of time.

Her gaze gradually turned cold, and she spoke in a chilling voice to the empty hall, "Elder Wu."

"Saintess." Upon hearing the young girl's voice, an old man stepped out of the void.

"Go investigate who killed Chu Fan," the young girl said.

"Why should the Saintess concern herself with the life or death of someone from the lower realm? Besides, he has no blood relation to you." Elder Wu frowned.

As he spoke, his thoughts returned to several thousand years ago.

Back then, the Taixu Palace Lord had sent him to the lower realm with the Taixu Secret Technique to seek out seeds for Taixu Palace.

Those who could be sent to the lower realm were all peak experts below the Mahayana True Immortal realm.

As for why they did not send True Immortals to the lower realm—

The reason was simple: the secret technique simply could not achieve that. Sending a True Immortal from the Immortal Realm to the lower realm was impossible; Tribulation Crossing Stage experts below the Mahayana True Immortal realm were already the limit. Even so, cultivators at the Tribulation Crossing Stage were undisputed top-tier experts in the lower realm, more than enough to complete the tasks assigned by Taixu Palace.

Returning to the matter at hand, shortly after arriving in the lower realm, he had happened upon a young girl possessing the Golden Spirit Immortal Physique.

The girl was named Chu Rou. She had an older brother named Chu Fan, as well as parents so poor they could barely fill their stomachs.

Later, after looking into it, he learned that Chu Rou had merely been an abandoned infant picked up by that mortal family.

Thus, without hesitation, he became the protector of the girl named Chu Rou.

Yet Chu Rou did not wish to leave, because she could not bear to part with her brother, Chu Fan.

Left with no choice, he could only use a secret technique to draw a wisp of Chu Fan's soul into a jade bracelet. He told Chu Rou that if Chu Fan died completely, the jade bracelet would shatter.

Only then did Chu Rou follow him and leave that mortal family.

And that girl named Chu Rou was the golden-eyed, bare-footed young girl.

Who would have thought that after thousands of years, Chu Fan would suddenly die today? Naturally, the jade bracelet on Chu Rou's wrist had shattered as well.

"Elder Wu, if you refuse to go, then I will go myself." Seeing that Elder Wu did not care about her brother's death, Chu Rou said coldly.

"This old servant obeys."

Seeing this, Elder Wu could only agree helplessly.

His figure then vanished into the darkness once more.

After Elder Wu left, Chu Rou slowly rose to her feet and murmured, "Brother Chu Fan, I will make the person who killed you go to your grave as a burial companion."

Nightfall.

Great Zhao Mountain—the Xue family estate, lit as brightly as a small city.

After exchanging pleasantries with a group of cultivators, Li Zhōujūn rested in a small courtyard.

Sū Nán and Murong Xue stayed in the courtyards on either side of Li Zhōujūn's.

"Xue Wuliang mentioned Chu Fan a few times earlier. For some reason, I feel that this Chu Fan's life story resembles those protagonists from demonic cultivator novels. Could someone come seeking revenge later?"

A gentle breeze stirred, fluttering Li Zhōujūn's green robes. Standing in the courtyard with his hands behind his back, he gazed at the crescent moon in the sky and muttered thoughtfully.

But whether Chu Fan resembled a protagonist or not, the fact remained that he had wanted to kill everyone present today, including Li Zhōujūn and Sū Nán. For that alone, he deserved to die.