The Main Branch's Gaze

The deafening cheers surged like a tangible tsunami, echoing over the Su family's martial arena for a long time. The Branch family disciples had endured their pent-up frustration and anger for far too long, and now it all transformed into fervor, focusing on the moon-white figure in the arena. Su Qingxue's name was shouted again and again, like war drums being struck.

Lin Xiao leaned in the shadow of a cold corridor pillar, his violently pounding heart hammering against his withered chest. The ghostly -0.8 glow in his mind remained glaring, but the faint warmth (+0.8) that had just been injected, originating from "event influence," was like a drop of sweet dew in a drought-stricken desert, barely nourishing his soul, which was cracked almost to the point of collapse. The tearing agony brought by depletion had lessened, but it had not vanished, like a chronic disease. Deep in his right leg, the dark-green remnant core of Viper's Kiss seemed to pulse even more coldly and greedily under the stimulation of his recovering Source Energy Points. It lurked deep within his marrow, radiating a silent threat.

He greedily drew breath, every inhalation carrying the rusty scent of blood and the noisy air of the martial arena. His vision remained somewhat blurred, while the buzzing in his ears was like countless tiny insects flapping their wings inside his skull. He barely supported himself, his bloodshot eyes piercing through the blurred lights and shifting heads to lock firmly onto the arena.

The Enforcement Elder announced the result with a grave expression, then shouted in a deep voice, "Silence!" The roar infused with True Qi forcibly suppressed the Branch family's cheers. Several Main Branch disciples had ashen faces and venomous eyes, but they did not dare defy the elder's authority. They hurried into the arena and, with everyone lending a hand, lifted Su Hao from the ground. He was as limp as a dead dog, barely breathing, and covered all over with frost.

Su Hao's body hung limply, every movement accompanied by faint cracking sounds from his bones and pained groans. Blood froth mixed with ice chips continued spilling from his mouth. The sharp, arrogant eyes that had once belonged to him now held nothing but hollow pain and incomprehension, fixed on the gray sky. Fragments of his black martial outfit, mixed with clotted blood, stuck to his body. He looked utterly miserable.

The Main Branch disciples carried him like a piece of humiliating evidence. Under the gazes of countless Branch family members—some indifferent, some gleeful, and some concealing fear—they lowered their heads and quickly retreated toward the Main Branch viewing stand. Wherever they passed, the crowd silently parted like a tide, opening a path. The atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.

The Main Branch viewing stand was now like an icy hell.

Su Zhenshan still sat in that broad redwood chair, but the armrests beneath him had already been crushed to powder without his realizing it. Stains of tea mixed with porcelain shards dripped from his tightly clenched, white-knuckled fist, spreading dark marks across his expensive brocade robe. He kept his head lowered, his graying temples trembling slightly. His usually dignified, composed face was now so gloomy it seemed capable of dripping water. Overwhelming fury, bone-deep humiliation, and anguish over his son's grave injuries tore at his heart like venomous snakes, nearly breaking through the dam of his reason.

Yet he did not move. He did not even raise his head to look at his son being carried away. He merely suppressed the volcano on the verge of eruption with every ounce of his strength. His fingernails dug deeply into his palms, and blood seeped between his fingers, but he remained completely unaware.

Only after Su Hao had been carried away did the noisy martial arena gradually return to a strange calm under the Enforcement Elder's suppression.

Only then did Su Zhenshan slowly, like a rusted machine, raise his head.

Those eyes!

Gloomy and cold, like an ancient frozen pool steeped in deadly poison! What surged within them was no longer anger, but a resentment and... scrutiny that had settled to the utmost degree and made one's hair stand on end!

His gaze passed over Su Qingxue, standing proudly in the arena as she accepted the Enforcement Elder's symbolic reward—several bottles of pills and a token allowing her to select a cultivation technique from the family armory—and, like two invisible blades coated in venom, stabbed with pinpoint accuracy toward the inconspicuous corner of the corridor!

The target—Lin Xiao!

That gaze seemed to pierce through the brim of Lin Xiao's lowered hat and through his feeble, pale disguise, stabbing straight into the secrets hidden deep within his soul!

Lin Xiao instantly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave! A coldness far more piercing than the chill over the martial arena seized his heart in an instant! Under the enormous pressure, the wounds on his back seemed to split open again, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his undershirt. He forcibly steadied his breathing and maintained his position against the pillar, but his fingers trembled faintly beyond his control.

What had Su Zhenshan seen? Su Hao's strange final step into empty air? The unreasonable, terrifyingly precise flaw detection in Su Qingxue's technique? Or... this "ruffian" who should have been irrelevant, yet happened to appear here?

Suspicion! Like a maggot gnawing at the bone!

That icy gaze lingered on Lin Xiao for only a brief instant, as fleeting as an illusion. But Lin Xiao knew it had not been an illusion! That old fox Su Zhenshan had already driven the seed of suspicion firmly into him!

"Qingxue, my niece," Su Zhenshan's voice finally rang out, hoarse and low, like sandpaper scraping against rotting wood, without the slightest trace of emotion. "Well done. You hid your strength deeply. Hao'er... was simply inferior, so his loss was not undeserved." He slowly rose, his tall figure carrying a heavy pressure. "Enforcement Elder, by the rules, Qingxue's reward should be given. The Main Branch... will not withhold a single thing!"

He deliberately emphasized the words "Main Branch." His cold gaze swept across the Branch family area, carrying an unmistakable warning. The Branch family's cheers, which had just begun to rise, were instantly suppressed, and many people instinctively avoided his gaze.

"Thank you... Uncle." Su Qingxue accepted the token and pills handed over by the Enforcement Elder. Her eyes, clear as an icy spring, met Su Zhenshan's unfathomable gaze, and her voice remained cold and calm, without the slightest ripple. But Lin Xiao keenly noticed that the fingertips gripping the token tightened almost imperceptibly for an instant.

"Hmph." Su Zhenshan let out an ambiguous snort through his nose. He no longer looked at Su Qingxue, but his gaze once again swept faintly over the corner where Lin Xiao stood. Then he turned and silently left the viewing stand with the Main Branch disciples, all wearing ugly expressions and holding their breaths, heading toward the inner residence like a heavy dark cloud. Their heavy footsteps seemed to fall on everyone's hearts.

Only after the Main Branch had left did the tense atmosphere in the martial arena loosen slightly. The Branch family disciples surged toward Su Qingxue again, surrounding their hero as congratulations, praise, and questions rose one after another. Su Qingxue stood in the center, her face still calm, but beneath that calm seemed to lie a trace of barely perceptible fatigue and distance.

Taking advantage of the crowd's commotion, Lin Xiao endured the depletion of his soul and the icy numbness of his right leg as he silently edged backward along the shadows of the corridor pillars. He had to leave as quickly as possible! Su Zhenshan's final glance had been like a viper's tongue licking the back of his neck, leaving him cold all over.

"Lin Xiao."

A cold voice flowed like an icy spring, suddenly ringing out amid the noisy background and clearly reaching Lin Xiao's ears.

His footsteps halted. He did not turn around, merely angling his face slightly.

At some point, Su Qingxue had already broken free from the crowd and was standing a few steps away. She held a small brocade box that gave off a faint sandalwood fragrance. She did not look at Lin Xiao, her gaze seeming to rest on the withered leaves drifting in the distance. Her voice was calm and emotionless. "Take it. As I promised you."

She extended the brocade box, her movement crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

Lin Xiao fell silent for a moment, then reached out and accepted it without ceremony. The box felt warm and slightly heavy in his hand. Even through it, he could sense the pure energy fluctuations within. Three medium-grade Energy Stones!

Medium-purity energy source detected (3 units)... Absorbable... Estimated replenishment: 0.3–0.5 points...

The cold prompt carried a hint of temptation.

"Don't forget your promise." Su Qingxue's voice rang out again. She still did not look at Lin Xiao, but her icy-spring eyes clearly reflected his pale, weary profile. "Three days from now, the usual place. 'Study' my Jade Balance Hidden Meridian."

Her voice was quiet, yet carried a cold contractual force that allowed no refusal. After speaking, she did not linger. She turned, and her moon-white figure flowed back into the current of Branch family members surrounding her, like cold jade cast into the center of a lake, quickly swallowed up.

Lin Xiao gripped the warm brocade box tightly, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force. This box of Energy Stones was a lifeline, but also a death warrant! Su Qingxue's "Jade Balance Hidden Meridian"... this would definitely not be a pleasant research process!

He took one last look in the direction where Su Qingxue had disappeared, then warily glanced toward the direction the Main Branch had left for the inner residence, as if he could feel Su Zhenshan's gloomy gaze still hanging above him like something tangible.

This place was not safe to linger!

Lin Xiao tucked the brocade box close to his body, pulled down the brim of his hat, and, like a ghost merging into the shadows, dragged his increasingly cold and heavy right leg toward the Su family's main gate, leaving quickly and silently.

Every step felt like treading on an invisible blade's edge.