Seven Mysteries Sect, Listening Rain Pavilion.
This elegant courtyard residence was where the sect entertained honored guests, yet a heavy atmosphere hung over it now. The sect master, Elder Li, Nangong Wan, and several core stewards had gathered here. Seated in the guests' places, however, were two travel-worn mortals without any cultivation. Plainly dressed, their faces filled with grief and fear, they were Han Lu and Han Shou, villagers from Han Li's home village.
"Esteemed immortals, something terrible has happened!" Han Lu's voice trembled, tears streaming down his aged face. "Half a month ago, a band of black-robed cultivators attacked our village. They killed everyone they saw-not even the chickens and dogs were spared! Fewer than one in ten villagers survived, and... and Han Li's parents... they... they were murdered too! Only the two of us happened to be away on business. We escaped by sheer luck and managed to come here to bring you the news!"
Beside him, Han Shou sobbed too hard to speak. He held out a piece of family cloth stained with dark brown blood, its edges charred black. It recorded the horrific sight of Han Family Fort reduced to ruins, corpses strewn across the ground. On a scorched wall, a hideous Skull Demon Head had been painted in blood-the mark of the Black Fiend Cult!
Hum!
The sect master, seated at the head of the room, sprang to his feet. His late Foundation Establishment pressure spread uncontrollably, his face ashen with fury! Elder Li's hair and beard bristled, his rage beyond restraint! Beneath her veil, Nangong Wan's face instantly turned snow-white, her beautiful eyes filled with shock and anger!
An entire village exterminated! This was a blatant provocation against the Seven Mysteries Sect! Worse still, the dead were the closest kin of Han Li, the sect's newly risen genius and disciple with a dark spiritual root!
"Black-Fiend-Cult!" The sect master forced the words through gritted teeth, his killing intent soaring skyward! He immediately thought of Mo Juren's death and his possible collusion with the Black Fiend Cult. This was plainly retaliation! It targeted Han Li-and slapped the Seven Mysteries Sect across the face!
"Where is Han Li now?" the sect master asked gravely, forcing down his anger.
"Reporting to the sect master, Martial Nephew Han is in seclusion on the rear mountain, consolidating his Qi Refining ninth layer cultivation," a steward hurriedly replied.
"Summon him immediately! Remember... conceal the terrible news for now. Tell him only that there is urgent business." The sect master drew a deep breath as he gave the order. He feared the sudden news would damage Han Li's Dao heart, or even send him into cultivation deviation.
Yet just as the steward accepted the order and was about to leave-
The doors of Listening Rain Pavilion were suddenly thrust open by an invisible force!
Han Li stood silently in the doorway.
At some unknown point, he had already emerged from seclusion, and now he stood there. No spiritual power rippled from him, and his face bore no expression. His calm was terrifying. Yet his deep eyes were like two icy chasms that had remained frozen for ten thousand years, without the slightest ripple-only a bone-piercing deathly stillness that made souls tremble.
His gaze passed over everyone and fell directly upon the bloodstained Family Token in Han Lu's hands. Then it slowly rose to Han Lu and Han Shou.
No words were needed. The instant Han Lu and Han Shou met his gaze, they felt as though their throats had been seized. Trembling all over with overwhelming grief and terror, they dropped to their knees with a thud, tears and mucus streaming down their faces. "We... we have failed you!!"
Step by step, Han Li slowly entered the hall. His footfalls were light, yet each seemed to land upon everyone's heart. He walked up to Han Lu and held out his hand.
Trembling, Han Lu placed the bloodstained cloth into Han Li's hands.
Han Li took it, his fingertips lightly stroking the bloodstains that had already turned black, his touch as gentle as though he were caressing a lover's cheek.
Images flashed through his mind, one after another: the familiar courtyard reduced to scorched earth, familiar clansmen turned into cold corpses. Finally, they froze upon his parents' mutilated remains, their eyes still open in death.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
Inside Listening Rain Pavilion, a falling needle could have been heard. Everyone held their breath as they watched the youth in blue. The sect master's eyes held grief, Elder Li's face showed concern, and Nangong Wan clenched her delicate hands so tightly that her nails nearly pierced her palms.
They had imagined that Han Li might break down, howl, or lose his mind... but none had expected this suffocating deathly stillness.
At last, Han Li raised his head. His face remained utterly expressionless; even his gaze had not changed in the slightest. Only the aura around him began to shift.
An indescribable killing intent, cold to the utmost, slowly spread outward from him as though it had taken physical form. The temperature inside the hall plummeted, and tiny ice crystals even condensed in the air! This was not the pressure of spiritual power, but something utterly pure, born in the depths of his soul... the will to destroy!
"Aaaah!"
One of the less powerful stewards in the hall could not withstand that invisible killing intent. With a shriek, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot!
Even the sect master and Elder Li felt a chill shoot from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads! Nangong Wan's slender body trembled as she stared at Han Li in disbelief. Could... could a Qi Refining disciple truly possess such killing intent?
Han Li looked at no one. His gaze seemed to pierce the roof, turning toward Mirror Province, toward the source of that blood-deep hatred.
He spoke, his voice so calm that it held not the slightest inflection, yet it swept across everyone's eardrums like a freezing wind from the Nine Netherworlds:
"Han Family Fort in Mirror Province. One hundred and forty-three males, ninety-seven women and children, two hundred and five old and young... four hundred and forty-five people in total."
He recited each number with absolute clarity.
"This vengeance must be paid in blood."
"Black Fiend Cult..."
He slowly repeated the name. With every word he uttered, the killing intent around him thickened, and the ice crystals in the air fell in a rustling shower.
"...all nine degrees of kinship shall be exterminated."
"Not even chickens or dogs shall remain."
As those final words fell, the entire Listening Rain Pavilion seemed to become an asura's ghost realm! That icy killing intent almost solidified into substance!
Having finished speaking, Han Li paid no further attention to anyone in the hall. Holding the bloodstained token and Jade Slip, he turned and walked out, step by step. From beginning to end, he had not shed a single tear or let out a single howl.
But everyone knew that something within this youth's heart had died completely. In its place was a heart cast in the blood of his closest kin and filled with endless killing intent... a demon heart!
Nangong Wan instinctively stepped forward, wanting to say something. "Han Li, you..."
Han Li did not stop or even turn his head. Only a voice, cold enough to pierce bone, came back, firm as severed iron and allowing no doubt:
"I will avenge my own blood."
"Whoever dares stand in my way, I will kill."
His figure vanished beyond the doors, but the killing intent that could freeze souls lingered in Listening Rain Pavilion for a long time, refusing to disperse.
The sect master let out a long sigh and wearily closed his eyes. Elder Li's lips moved, but in the end, no words came.
They knew that from this moment onward, the youth named Han Li had changed utterly. The Southern Heaven Cultivation World would likely soon face a true storm of blood and carnage.
And at the heart of that storm stood the youth holding a bloodstained token, walking step by step down the path of vengeance... the Young Killing God!
The Seven Mysteries Sect, and even the whole of Heavenly South, would be shaken by him!
The Blood-Colored Forbidden Land? It was merely the first stop on his road to vengeance! The Black Fiend Cult would pay in blood for everything they had done!
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