Shredded and Fed to the Dogs!

Xiao Chen was, after all, the head of the Three Great Families, and he was the first to recover his senses.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the shock on his face and replacing it with an expression of utmost respect. He even cupped his hands in greeting.

"May I ask this young brother's name? What brings you to my City Lord's Mansion? If there has been some misunderstanding..."

"I have a question for you."

Jiang Ming's voice was not loud, yet it made the rest of Xiao Chen's words catch in his throat.

"When the cemetery was demolished."

Jiang Ming's gaze swept across everyone present.

"Who struck the first shovel?"

The hall fell silent for a moment.

Then Xiao Chenyu stepped forward.

He did not notice his father's face suddenly changing color, nor did he notice the killing intent deep in Jiang Ming's eyes.

He merely assumed Jiang Ming was some young master from a great family who had come out to experience life.

"I did!"

"You may not know this, but that day was incredible. I..."

Xiao Chenyu took a step forward, his face full of pride.

"Well said."

"You won't need to speak again."

Jiang Ming raised his right hand.

His hand moved very slowly.

So slowly that everyone present could clearly see every one of his movements.

Then, his five fingers lightly swept through the air.

As though tearing open an invisible sheet of paper.

Space Tear.

Xiao Chenyu's words caught in his throat.

They remained caught there forever.

First, a thin line of blood appeared on his neck, slanting downward from his right shoulder to his left ribs.

Then came his chest, abdomen, and limbs.

More and more bloodlines appeared, growing denser and denser, as though an invisible net had covered his body.

The next second.

His entire body came apart.

Flesh, bones, and internal organs all slid down along those straight cuts, piling onto the floor.

Blood flowed into a river.

A river of blood in the truest sense.

Scarlet liquid spread through the gaps between the floor tiles, washing over Xiao Chen's shoes and Qin Yue's skirt hem.

Qin Yue's eyes widened. Her lips trembled a few times before she let out a shrill wail.

"Chen Yu...!"

Her voice was heart-rending as she threw herself toward the pile of minced flesh, only for Xiao Chen to seize her.

"Who are you?! Why would you be so vicious?!"

Xiao Chen's face had turned pale and bluish. He stared fixedly at Jiang Ming, his eyes nearly splitting apart.

"When you tore down my ancestral grave."

"Did you not expect today to come?"

Jiang Ming looked at Xiao Chen, his voice so calm that it sent chills through everyone's heart.

Silver-gray radiance slowly flowed around him.

The four floating Soul Rings seemed like four death warrants.

Xiao Chen's pupils abruptly contracted as every memory connected in that instant.

He had been cautious beyond caution, careful beyond careful!

He had patiently waited for years!

All to determine whether Jiang Ming had died somewhere outside!

And yet...

"It was you..."

Xiao Chen's expression completely changed at that moment.

Fear and shock receded like a tide, replaced by an almost savage resolve.

He understood.

There was no longer any room for reconciliation today.

He had destroyed the other man's ancestral grave!

The other man had killed his only son.

There could be no peace until one side was dead.

"Guards!"

"All guards! Surround him!"

Xiao Chen's voice exploded throughout the entire City Lord's Mansion.

Footsteps rushed in from every direction.

Several hundred guards wielding sabers, swords, and spears surrounded the hall so tightly that not even water could pass through.

Seeing this formation, Xiao Chen's heart settled somewhat.

He looked at Jiang Ming again, murder blazing in his eyes.

What was a Soul Master's greatest strength?

Soul skills!

But Soul skills required Soul Power to activate.

A Soul Ancestor's Soul Power was limited, and every use of a Soul skill was an enormous expenditure.

Once their Soul Power was exhausted, a Soul Master was simply a lamb awaiting slaughter.

They had three Soul Elders on their side.

Liu Feng was level thirty-two, Ling Tian level thirty-three, and he himself level thirty-seven.

Together, they might not lose to a level forty-five Soul Ancestor.

Not to mention the several hundred guards.

Although those guards were not Soul Masters.

With so many people, they could exhaust Jiang Ming's Soul Power even by sacrificing their lives!

"Brother Liu, Brother Ling!"

"We absolutely cannot let him leave alive today. We attack together, drain his Soul Power, and he will be a dead man."

Xiao Chen lowered his voice, his eyes brimming with killing intent.

A trace of hesitation flickered in Liu Feng's eyes.

The methods of the youth before him were far too bizarre, and his instincts told him to retreat.

"When his ancestral grave was demolished, do you think only the Xiao Clan was involved? Your Liu Clan sent men too, and your name is on that list of contributors!"

But Xiao Chen's next words extinguished that thought.

Liu Feng's expression changed.

Ling Tian realized it as well.

They were grasshoppers tied to the same rope!

There was no other choice!

The three exchanged glances, then released their Martial Souls at the same time.

White light blazed around Xiao Chen, and the phantom of a silver-gray giant wolf emerged behind him.

White, yellow, yellow!

Three Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet.

Qin Yue gritted her teeth and stood up, light glowing around her as well.

A somewhat smaller red wolf phantom condensed at her side.

A level twenty-four Soul Grandmaster, Martial Soul: Red Wolf.

Her Soul Ring configuration was white, yellow!

A pitch-black long staff appeared in Liu Feng's hand.

Three Soul Rings—white, yellow, yellow—rose and fell around him.

A level thirty-two Soul Elder, Martial Soul: Black Iron Staff.

A pair of blue-gray wings spread from Ling Tian's back.

That was his Martial Soul, Flying Swallow.

His Soul Power was level thirty-three.

His Soul Ring configuration was also white, yellow, yellow.

His son, Ling Feng, stood behind him and released his Martial Soul as well.

Several hundred guards surrounded the hall so tightly that not even water could pass through.

Rain poured in through the open doors, diluting the blood on the ground but unable to wash away the dense, inescapable killing intent in the air.

Jiang Ming stood at the very center, looking at everything before him without the slightest change in expression.

Then he moved.

Not toward Xiao Chen and the other two.

Instead, he turned toward the several hundred guards.

Silver-gray radiance burst from his palm, like a cold moon suddenly rising from the ground.

Space Compression!

The fourth Soul Ring lit up!

More than thirty guards on the left side of the hall suddenly froze.

Their bodies seemed to have been peeled from reality by an invisible hand, becoming sheets as thin as cicada wings.

More than thirty people, more than thirty human-shaped sheets of paper, drifted to the floor at once.

There were no screams.

No struggles.

Only more than thirty soft cracking sounds!

That was the sound of bones being crushed.

Space Tear.

The more than twenty guards charging in from the right did not even have time to react before their bodies split apart along countless horizontal and vertical lines.

Their flesh seemed to have been placed on a chopping block and cut into uniform chunks by an invisible blade.

Blood sprayed out, splattering the red silk hanging on the walls.

The festive red turned into a deeper shade of crimson.

The guards began retreating.

They were not afraid of death.

But to die so strangely, so utterly without any ability to fight back—no one could remain unafraid.

Jiang Ming did not pursue them.

He had not moved a single step from beginning to end.

He merely stood there, like a divine statue reaping lives.

Three Soul Rings lit up in turn, and every flash meant the disappearance of more than a dozen lives.

A massacre.

This was not a battle.

This was a massacre.

In less than a moment, over half of the several hundred guards had already fallen.

Everyone remaining shrank into the corners, and not one of them dared step forward again.