"Could this girl have some connection to the Lin Family?"
Chen Changqing wondered to himself.
He swept his vast divine sense farther out and saw seven jet-black warships tearing through the void several thousand miles behind the girl's Starship, advancing with brazen arrogance.
A blood-red flag hung from each warship, embroidered with the character "blood" in wild, clawing strokes.
At the bow of the lead warship stood a sinister young man in a blood-red robe, his hands clasped behind his back. His aura had reached the Great Sage Realm. He watched the girl flee with a cold smile, as though she were prey that could never escape his grasp.
"Heh..."
"You Lin Family remnant—did you think fleeing to the Purple Star Domain would help?"
"The Chen Family hasn't involved itself in the world for a million years. It stopped meddling in the affairs of the Great Desolate Realm long ago."
"Even if they've announced their return, do you think they'd stand up for a subordinate Lineage that fell into decline ages ago?"
The blood-robed young man's voice echoed through the void, thick with mockery.
The girl felt her pursuers drawing closer, and her face grew paler still. She bit her lip so hard that blood ran down her chin, yet she did not notice.
Behind her, the outlines of the seven blood-red warships grew clearer.
She could feel several murderous strands of divine sense locked onto her. There was no shaking them.
Worse, the true essence within her was almost spent, and the Starship was slowing little by little.
She looked down at the Purple Azure Token in her hand and tightened her grip. Nearly despairing, she asked inwardly, "Ancestor, the people from the Blood God Palace are about to catch us..."
"Does our Lin Family truly still have a chance?"
"A million years have passed. Will the Chen Family... really help us?"
Silence lingered in her sea of consciousness before a faint voice of thought answered, so weak it was almost imperceptible.
The voice was frail beyond measure, like the last spark of a candle guttering in the wind. "Don't worry!"
"Now that the Chen Family has emerged again... they will certainly act."
"But..." The girl glanced at the approaching warships, her eyes reddening. "I'm afraid we won't last long enough to reach the Chen Family."
"You must hold on!"
The voice of thought grew a little louder, only to fade at once, becoming weaker and more broken.
"We're... already so close... to the Purple Star Domain..."
"If you cause enough of a disturbance, they'll surely... surely noti—"
The voice never finished.
Like a kite with its string cut, it vanished into the depths of her sea of consciousness.
"Ancestor! Ancestor!"
The girl called out twice in her heart, but received no answer.
Tears finally spilled from her eyes. Mingling with the blood on her face, they fell drop by drop onto the token in her hand.
Her ancestor had fallen into slumber again.
Along the way, she could never have escaped this far alive if her ancestor had not used the power of her remnant soul to shield her from their pursuers time after time.
Each time her ancestor acted, a portion of her soul power was consumed.
And this time, she likely could hold on no longer and had been forced into slumber.
The girl wiped her tears away fiercely with the back of her hand.
Deep in her blood-smeared eyes, hatred surged like a fire suddenly set ablaze, swallowing every trace of weakness and fear.
The ancestor was right. I can't give up!
I must never give up.
I will avenge the Lin Family!
At that thought, painful images rose unbidden in her mind.
Collapsing halls. The dying screams of her kin. Severed limbs strewn everywhere...
She had watched the blood-robed young man crush her father with a single palm strike. She had watched her mother push her into the teleportation array, only to be swallowed by a spell from behind.
That night, rivers of blood had run through the Lin Family ancestral grounds.
The girl's eyes grew redder and redder. Hatred she could no longer suppress erupted from the depths of her heart and surged toward the heavens!
The emotions she had forced down for so long burst free. Like a beast trapped with no way out, she let loose her wildest roar.
"Ah—"
She leaped from the Starship and raced toward the Purple Star Domain without looking back.
Behind her, the battered Starship suddenly blazed with dazzling light. Every formation pattern across its hull flashed wildly...
Then—
Boom!!!
An earth-shaking blast shattered the silence of the void.
The terrifying shock wave from the Starship's self-destruction spread in a visible ring, sweeping in all directions with enough force to crush all before it.
Countless black fissures tore through the void, and several nearby meteors were instantly reduced to dust.
The blast hurled the girl away. Blood sprayed from her mouth, and the clothes across her back were shredded, exposing a mangled wound.
But she gritted her teeth and forced herself steady. Drawing on the last thread of true essence in her body, she screamed toward the Purple Star Domain.
Her voice was hoarse and piercing, filled with hatred and the resolve of one staking everything on a single throw. It carried far across the void.
"The Blood God Palace abused its power and slaughtered every blood descendant of my Lin Family!!"
"I, Lin Yue Ru of the subordinate Lin Family—"
"Beg the elders of the Chen Family to save me!!"
Riding the lingering force of the explosion, her voice rang through the void like thunder and traveled far into the distance.
"This is bad!"
Aboard the seven warships behind her, several Blood God Palace experts' expressions changed drastically.
"Young Master! That woman's insane—she blew up her Starship! With a disturbance this big, the Chen Family could easily notice!"
"If that Quasi-Emperor Realm expert of the Chen Family intervenes, we'll be in danger!"
Yet—
The blood-robed young man merely smiled, utterly unconcerned.
"What are you afraid of? It's only the Chen Family! And that Quasi-Emperor Realm expert is nothing but an old bag of bones putting on a show."
In his previous life, that Quasi-Emperor Realm expert of the Chen Family had pretended to be powerful, making everyone wary. In truth, he had been hanging on by half a breath.
The only person in the entire Chen Family with any real ability was the rumored Evergreen Divine Son. But at this point, he had only recently broken out of the Divine Source. His strength was nothing to fear!
The Blood God Palace experts frowned and were about to urge him again, but in the next instant, they all froze.
Because, at some point, someone had appeared beside the girl.
A young man in a green robe, no more than eighteen or nineteen years old by his looks.
He stood casually in the void, radiating no aura whatsoever, a Purple Azure Broken Sword riddled with cracks in his hand.
His features were refined, while his eyes were as deep as though they reflected the stars of countless ages. Their calm sent a chill through the heart.
The shock wave reached within three feet of him and dissolved without a sound, as though it had struck an invisible barrier.
Fragments of the shattered Starship flew past him, but not one touched the hem of his robe.
The Blood God Palace members exchanged looks. The same ominous thought rose in all their minds—
Someone from the Chen Family?
Already?
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