"Is... is that it?"
As the river of sword energy faded away.
The Jalie Clan had been reduced to ruins.
Looking at the wreckage beneath his feet, Xiao Zhan sighed with emotion.
Had this clan, which had been passed down in Wutan City for a thousand years, really been destroyed by his own hand?
It still felt like a dream.
"Clan Head, the Jalie Clan has now been destroyed. Should we take action?" one of the Xiao Clan elders whispered in his ear.
"Take action? What action?" Xiao Zhan asked, puzzled. Hadn't their attack on the Jialie Clan already ended?
What other action was there?
Suddenly—
He looked at the Jalie Clan's ruins beneath his feet, as if a thought had just occurred to him. A strange smile tugged at his lips. "That's right. We should indeed take action."
"Everyone, listen up! Clear the battlefield immediately!"
"Carry everything you can take, everything you can see, back to the Xiao Clan!"
"Remember! Don't leave a single thing behind!"
Xiao Zhan looked at the Jalie Clan's ruins and rubbed his hands together excitedly.
The Jalie Clan had been established in Wutan City for a thousand years and possessed countless resources. Though it was now in ruins, who knew what treasures might still be left behind?
At the thought of all those resources, Xiao Zhan couldn't help drooling.
He understood the principle: the winner took all, and the strong only grew stronger.
When a giant whale fell, all things thrived.
The Jalie Clan's destruction would cement the Xiao Clan's position as the overlord of Wutan City!
At Xiao Zhan's command,
the Xiao Clan experts rushed into the ruins and greedily searched every inch of the land.
"Hm?"
Just as Xiao Zhan was directing the Xiao Clan members as they cleared the battlefield,
suddenly,
he sensed a powerful surge of energy rapidly approaching the Jalie Clan's territory.
In the span of a few breaths,
more than a dozen figures with imposing auras appeared at the Jalie Clan's ruins.
Xiao Zhan knew these people well.
They were all renowned Great Dou Masters in Wutan City.
Among them were experts from the Mittel Auction House, the Oba Clan, and other well-known unaffiliated Great Dou Masters. There were twelve in total, representing the highest fighting strength Wutan City currently had.
They had come here because they had been drawn by the sword energy that had filled the skies. Anyone with eyes could see the terrifying sword scars still etched across the sky.
"Clan Head of the Xiao Clan? What are you doing here?"
"What exactly happened here just now? Why has the Jalie Clan been reduced to this?"
"And what of Clan Head Jialie Bi and the other members of the Jalie Clan?"
The speaker was an expert from the Mittel Auction House.
No one knew his given name. They only knew his surname was Meng, so everyone called him Elder Meng. His cultivation was formidable, having reached the terrifying peak of Nine-Star Great Dou Master—and he had even stepped halfway into the Dou Ling realm.
In terms of cultivation, he could be considered the number one expert in Wutan City!
It was precisely because he was stationed there that the Mittel Auction could dominate Wutan City. More than a hundred years later, the Mittel Auction House still firmly held its position at the top.
Its annual auction was also able to offer many astonishing treasures.
"So it's Elder Meng from the Mittel Auction House. I never thought even you would be alarmed..." Xiao Zhan stepped forward and greeted him with a smile and a cupped fist.
"Hm?" Elder Meng murmured in surprise, looking at Xiao Zhan.
For some reason, he felt that Xiao Zhan seemed a little different today.
In the past, whenever Xiao Zhan saw him, he had always been respectful—if not deferential, then certainly full of respect. But today, he was nothing like his usual self, as if he were brimming with confidence.
"Strange..." Elder Meng didn't pay much attention to Xiao Zhan's change. After muttering to himself, he soon forgot about it.
After all, compared to the Jalie Clan's ruins before him, this little change in Xiao Zhan was utterly insignificant.
If Xiao Zhan had known what he was thinking, he would have scoffed. Having just destroyed the Jalie Clan, his confidence had swelled to its peak.
Not only would he stand tall before Elder Meng, even if the emperor of the Jia Ma Empire stood before him, he would still hold his head high and refuse to grovel.
And it all came from the ancestor behind him!
"Clan Head Xiao, do you know what happened here?"
"Also, where did the powerful sword energy that just blanketed the skies above Wutan City come from...?"
"I hope you'll explain everything to us."
Elder Meng looked at him, his expression grave. The sword energy that had just enveloped the whole city had left even him, a Nine-Star Great Dou Master, feeling utterly terrified.
That surging sword intent was still branded in his heart.
He had felt like a struggling ant, desperately fighting to survive.
"This world-destroying sword energy must have been unleashed by some terrifyingly powerful expert."
"To think such an expert is in Wutan City. I wonder whether that's a blessing or a disaster!"
Deep worry welled up in Elder Meng's heart.
He wasn't the only one. The other Wutan City experts also looked grave and worried. Wutan City was already tucked away in a remote corner. When had they ever witnessed such a terrifying sight?
For Wutan City's future—and their own lives—they had hesitated for a while before finally deciding to come and take a look.
But they hadn't expected to find members of the Xiao Clan at the scene—and it seemed the Xiao Clan was connected to the terrifying spectacle from earlier.
Could everything that had happened here have something to do with the Xiao Clan?
The experts present couldn't help forming that thought. Then they all turned to Xiao Zhan, expecting him to give them an answer.
With all those Great Dou Masters staring at him, Xiao Zhan felt his skin crawl.
He was just about to speak when a voice brimming with anger cut him off: "Xiao Zhan! Why are members of the Xiao Tribe here?"
"Is everything that happened here connected to you?"
"Could it be that your Xiao Clan intends to take advantage of the Jalie Clan's misfortune and rob them while they're down?"
"I'm telling you, as long as I, Aoba Pa, am here, I will never allow your Xiao Clan to lay a finger on the Jalie Clan!"
"I advise you to abandon that idea at once."
"Hmph!"
A short, stout, portly middle-aged man strode out of the crowd, his voice sharp with fury. He was none other than the head of the Oba Clan, one of Wutan City's three great clans, and a Five-Star Great Dou Master.
He looked at the Xiao Clan members busying themselves among the Jalie Clan's ruins, and a trace of greed flickered in his eyes.
Now that the Jalie Clan had met with disaster, its vast resources ought to be taken over by his Aoba Clan.
Oh, no, that wasn't right. "Taken over" sounded too blunt.
His Oba Clan should merely "hold" them temporarily on behalf of the future Jalie Clan.
As for when the future Jalie Clan would be rebuilt, that had nothing to do with him.
In his heart, he had already claimed everything belonging to the Jalie Clan as his own. Naturally, he was deeply displeased with the Xiao Clan members ransacking the ruins.
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