Kill Yu Meng

On a lonely hillside, three figures—a wizened old man and two youths—quietly appeared.

In the distance, a dilapidated manor was gradually swallowed by a crimson sea of fire.

"Just look, just look. This is, after all, nominally our clan's Ancestral Land. It was bad enough that it had fallen into disrepair, but now it's been burned to the ground by a mysterious fire overnight. Let's see how those lords and marquises seated high in the Imperial Capital react."

Old Shi Jian'an watched it all with a cold sneer.

A blazing fury had long smoldered in the old man's heart. He resented the Stone Kingdom's imperial clan for turning a blind eye, hated the Rain Clan's arrogance and tyranny, and was even angrier at his own impotence.

"Great-grandfather, I want to go to Chongyun City and uproot the Rain Clan's outpost there. Even a lowly Rain Clan steward dares bare his teeth at our Second Ancestral Land. It's a tremendous disgrace to every member of the Shi Clan. Unless I behead a few of them, I simply won't be able to rest easy."

Shi Hao spoke.

In the original story, the Stone Kingdom's attitude toward the Rain Clan had been highly questionable.

Little One rescued Shi Qingfeng, then set fire to the Second Ancestral Land before leaving, enraging the Stone Kingdom's Imperial Capital. The Human Emperor sent three lords and marquises to investigate, and the Rain Clan's every move against the Second Ancestral Land was exposed.

By rights, the Second Ancestral Land was an ancestral site of the Stone Kingdom, where the ancestral tablets of countless forebears stood. Its destruction had utterly humiliated the Stone Kingdom's imperial clan, bringing shame upon every lord and marquis of the Shi royal family.

When the investigation uncovered the Rain Clan's unsavory role in the matter, they should have stormed Rain King Mansion and cut down Rain Prince, that old schemer. At the very least, they should have taken one of Rain Prince's arms, to make him understand that the dignity of an Ancient Kingdom's imperial clan could not be violated.

But instead, the three lords and marquises who had come under the Human Emperor's orders investigated this and that, making quite a commotion, only to behead some minor peripheral lackey named Yu Meng in the end. Then they dusted off their backsides and returned to the capital to report.

If the Stone Kingdom's Sage Emperor knew his descendants were such cowards, he would probably climb out of his grave, cursing and swearing, and hack every last one of those spineless wretches to pieces before feeding them to the pigs.

This time, Shi Hao wasn't about to let the Rain Clan off so lightly.

"Go to Chongyun City? Cut down every member of the Rain Clan?"

Shi Jian'an murmured, then burst into laughter. "Good! I've wanted to do that for ages. You really are the third son's boy."

"We need to reach the stronghold in Chongyun City, a thousand li away, before the Rain Clan hears the news. So we'll need a little help."

As he spoke, Little Shi took out a Crystal Bone Flute and blew into it.

"Caw!"

An exceptionally piercing cry rang across the sky. A colossal Ancient Demonic Bird beat its deep-green wings and shot through the air, covering dozens of yards in an instant.

"An Ancient Demonic Bird—the Azure Heaven Roc?"

The old man was visibly moved as he gazed at the blue roc, so majestic in bearing.

It wasn't that this Ancient Relic was especially powerful. As a human lord and marquis, he could easily kill an infant at the Cave Heaven Realm. But its bloodline was exceptionally pure, enough to show the astonishing depths of the Shi Clan's Ancestral Land.

"There are three more Azure Heaven Rocs in the Ancestral Land. They're all our clan's war beasts."

Shi Hao smiled, pulled the other two onto the Azure Heaven Roc's back, and rode the eldest of the three little birds away in a flash, vanishing into the thick clouds high in the Nine Heavens.

As planned, they would first go say farewell to the old man known as Grandpa Hai, so the kindhearted elder wouldn't worry about the grandfather and grandson in the manor.

Chongyun City, inside a grand manor.

"Is that child still alive?"

The clean-shaven, fair-faced middle-aged man spoke nonchalantly. Deep in his pupils, awe-inspiring Bone Texts wove together. He was clearly a master with profound knowledge of Bone Text.

Yu Meng was a cultivator in the middle stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm, from Rain King Mansion in the Ancient Kingdom's Imperial Capital.

He had come here at the behest of a powerful elder in the mansion, to inspect the Rain Clan's various holdings in the Western Frontier and, while he was at it, carry out a secret mission.

"My lord Yu Meng, that child is still alive. He's been weak and sickly since birth, but from what we've observed, he's most likely the son of some old monster in that dilapidated manor, pretending to be the child from back then."

The local steward hurried to his feet, nodding and bowing.

"Better to kill the wrong person than let the right one go. That child must die. The elders in the mansion don't want him alive. Do you... understand what I mean?"

The middle-aged man suddenly lifted his head, his gaze chillingly cold.

"Yes, your subordinate understands. I'll arrange for him to die in an accident as soon as possible. Last time, that Poison Flood Dragon only crippled him by biting his leg. This time, he must die."

The steward jolted and hastily assured him.

The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and studied him for a moment, then finally nodded with restrained approval. "Good. As long as you understand what I mean, arrange it as soon as possible... Boom!!!"

"Boom!!!"

The grand building was flattened in an instant. The steward, whose cultivation was no more than the Blood Moving Realm, had no time to react before a deep-green beast claw came crashing down from the sky and crushed him to pulp.

Dust billowed. Yu Meng tumbled out of the ruins in a sorry state.

"Yu Meng, you're under arrest. Come with us."

High in the Nine Heavens, an Ancient Demonic Bird spread its wings, with a youthful Heavenly Deity smiling atop its back.

"You dare come after my Rain Clan? Have you got a death wish?!"

Yu Meng, covered in dust, growled and scrambled to his feet.

"The Rain Clan? How does it compare to my Shi Clan? You're just a dog guarding the gates for us. Don't tell me you think you can turn the world upside down?"

An old man's hearty laughter rang out. His towering, burly form appeared in Yu Meng's sight, making Yu Meng's pupils contract.

"Shi Jian'an? Weren't you on the verge of death?!"

Yu Meng, who hailed from Rain King Mansion, recognized this lord and marquis of the imperial clan at once.

"Thanks to your Rain Clan, I'm not dead yet."

Shi Jian'an threw back his head and laughed. He activated his Bone Text and sent Little Shi down beside him. "Hao'er, get to it. Kill him."

"Hao'er? Could you be the child from back then?"

Yu Meng turned his gaze to Shi Hao. Something about the youth's features seemed vaguely familiar.

"The dead don't need to know so much. Make your move. You get one chance."

Shi Hao drifted down to the ground, as lightly as a young Golden Winged Roc.

"If I'm going to die either way, then I'll kill you and clear the way for our young master!"

With nowhere to run, Yu Meng's face twisted into a grimace as Bone Texts intertwined in his palm.

The lake deep within the estate answered his call, unleashing a torrential downpour. In an instant, everything within several hundred yards became a vast floodplain, and towering waves crashed down like a blanket covering the sky.

Every raindrop was as sharp as the keenest arrowhead.

The Rain Clan descended from the ancient Rain God. They were born with the ability to command the power of rain.

"The Dao of Water, huh? I seem to remember water conducts electricity~"

Shi Hao smiled and took a gleaming ancient mirror from his robes.

As Yu Meng watched in utter terror, Shi Hao activated Bone Text, drawing upon the divine power of thunder contained within the Suanni Treasure Mirror.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Boundless thunder descended, linking with the entire floodplain.

With the power of the heavy water amplifying it, the violent force of the thunder surged to its peak. A sky full of golden lightning swallowed the figure in the water in an instant, reducing him to charred remains.

Wisps of white smoke rose into the air, and the rain vanished in the blink of an eye.

Yu Meng, a cultivator in the middle stage of the Spirit Transformation Realm, was dead!

A note on what to call Shi Qingfeng:

In the original story, Qingfeng was a name Shi Qingfeng gave himself.

Here, the old man was speaking of his great-grandson in front of Little Shi, so he had to call him by his real name. So I've made a slight adjustment and had the old man give him the name Qingfeng.

After Little Shi's Supreme Bone was taken, he was a year and a half old. His body's growth had slowed, leaving him looking only six months old.

Shi Qingfeng was exactly six months old at the time, a year younger than Little Shi, so he could seamlessly pass as Little Shi when he was an infant.

Logically speaking, a six-month-old baby having a name is reasonable, too.