Killed with a Single Kick

In Cloudsurge Town, inside a magnificent manor.

A slightly plump middle-aged man paced back and forth. His name was Yu Meng. His face was fair and beardless, and intimidating runes flickered faintly in his eyes. He was an expert of the Rain Clan.

He had come under orders from a clan elder to inspect the Western Frontier and secretly search for traces of the child who had been lucky enough to receive the Supreme Bone back then, only to disappear afterward.

"Is the information reliable?" Yu Meng stood on a stone arch bridge in the garden, watching a school of Purple-Scaled Fish in the water as he questioned the steward beside him.

Although the Supreme Bone had suffered several mishaps and was already damaged when it was transplanted again, that lucky child's existence remained a thorn that made people uncomfortable.

Whenever certain powerful figures thought of her, they felt as though a fish bone were lodged in their throats.

The steward replied respectfully, "We have word of them. Their last appearance was here in Cloudsurge Town. Someone even saw her stay beside the Sacrificial Spirit for a long time. There can be no mistake."

"Good! We finally have a lead. Let me think what places nearby might be worth visiting." Yu Meng soon thought of the Stone Kingdom's Second Ancestral Land.

The location of the Stone Kingdom's Second Ancestral Land was no secret to an ancient clan like the Rain Clan. It was simply that no one would lay a hand on such a place.

"They say Shi Ziling and his wife also came to the Western Frontier back then," the steward reminded him at just the right moment.

"Oh? I'd like to see what's so special about that wretched place." Yu Meng sneered and personally led the Rain Clan's elite there.

That lucky child could be said to have merely been caught up in the events back then, suffering an undeserved calamity.

But Shi Ziling and his wife had driven Shi Yi's mother to her death. Everyone in the Rain Clan was deeply displeased by this, and some even wished they could drink the couple's blood and devour their flesh.

Shi Yi's mother had been a member of the Rain Clan. Her death was equivalent to severing their closest tie to Double Pupils One.

Double Pupils One was destined for a glorious future. As his mother's clan, they would naturally share in that glory and receive unimaginable benefits.

Yet his mother had been driven to her death, making things rather awkward. After all, however hard they tried to draw closer to him, their efforts often could not compare to a single word of advice from his mother.

Thus, far too many people in the Rain Clan hated Shi Ziling and his wife to the bone.

"This is the Stone Kingdom's so-called ancestral land? It's so dilapidated it doesn't measure up to even a ten-thousandth of our Rain Clan's ancestral land. Are you certain that lucky child and Shi Ziling and his wife came here?"

Outside the Second Ancestral Land, Yu Meng frowned as he asked, his eyes full of doubt.

"An old fellow who committed an offense is still alive here. He belongs to Shi Ziling's lineage and is a brother of Shi Ziling's father, Shi Zhongtian," the steward hurriedly leaned closer and explained.

"So that's it. That makes sense." Yu Meng nodded slightly, a vicious gleam flashing in his eyes. "Come. Let's have a look inside the Stone Kingdom's ancestral land and pay our respects to that old gentleman while we're at it."

The Rain Clan's people were accustomed to throwing their weight around. Not one of them hesitated over barging straight into the Stone Kingdom Ancestral Land. They took it for granted, as though it were only natural.

Inside the ancestral land, Shi Zhao had already sensed them. She dismissed the servants nearby, told A Man and Qingfeng to take good care of the old man, and casually tossed out several bone fragments to set up a soundproofing magic formation.

"Those who come mean no good, and those who mean good do not come." She stood alone in the front courtyard as crisp cracking sounds came from her body. Her bones were shifting, her flesh reshaping itself.

Before long, an ordinary woman stood in the courtyard. Her looks, figure, and even bearing were utterly unremarkable; she was the sort of person one would forget at a glance in a crowd.

A few freckles on her face and a change into coarse hemp clothes finished the job.

Unless she encountered Shi Yi, no one could possibly recognize her at a glance.

"Who are you? Why have you trespassed here? Don't you know this is the Stone Kingdom Ancestral Land?" She seized the initiative and demanded sharply.

"We merely came to visit a venerable senior." The steward stepped forward.

Shi Zhao scoffed and pointed at them. "Lies. I smelled that rain-soaked mildew stench on you from several miles away. People of the Rain Clan coming to our Shi Clan Ancestral Land? Heh, don't tell me you've come to destroy it?"

Without another word, she slapped a grave accusation on them to give them a scare.

The steward's face went pale, and he dared not answer. Even Yu Meng's expression changed slightly.

Seeing their reactions, Shi Zhao suddenly lost interest in toying with them. Her tone turned cold. "Cripple your own cultivation and leave. Otherwise, you won't be leaving at all."

She could not be bothered to investigate whom these people had really come for.

Who else could it be? Oh, what a difficult guess!

"How dare a brat like you insult me! You're courting death!" Yu Meng flew into a rage and kicked at her. Runes rose from his leg, fully revealing his late-stage spirit transformation realm cultivation.

Apart from a King or Marquis, cultivators in the spirit transformation realm certainly counted as experts. With his identity as a member of the Rain Clan on top of that, he would command respect wherever he went.

He had never expected to be humiliated in a godforsaken place like this.

If he could tolerate this, what could he not tolerate?

Since he could tolerate it no longer, there was no need to keep tolerating it!

Shi Zhao remained completely calm. Although she was still in the cave heaven realm, her true combat strength was astonishing, and she did not fear him.

Besides, it was not as though she had never killed fiercer beasts before.

She raised her left hand and called upon the secret power of the seven stars in her palm. Then she pressed her fingers together into a sword gesture and slashed fiercely through the air. Ringing sword cries suddenly pierced the skies.

The Grass Character Sword Art tempered the flesh into a sword embryo. There was no need to hold an actual sword.

Shhk!

The leg Yu Meng had raised flew away. The cut was smooth and even, and then blood gushed out in torrents.

Before he could scream, Shi Zhao likewise raised a leg and kicked him.

That kick was terrifying beyond compare. It concentrated not only her horrifying physical strength but also the power of a precious technique. The air itself burst beneath it with a deafening roar.

With a boom, Yu Meng flew straight backward. His chest caved in, and a large bulge protruded from his back. Blood poured from his mouth as he coughed up fragments of his internal organs.

Only then did the others react, unleashing all manner of precious techniques upon her.

Shi Zhao used the Bifang Precious Technique. It was a legacy she had obtained from the Supreme Hall, one of the precious techniques recorded on the beast hides within the Mountain Treasure.

As she unleashed the flawless divine ability of a pure-blooded primordial beast, a fierce bird resembling a crane, yet not quite a crane, appeared wreathed in divine radiance. It spread its wings and soared amid towering flames.

The Bifang was blue-green all over, with scarlet spots shining brilliantly across its body, while its beak was pure white. Its most unusual feature was that it had only one leg.

Since the Rain Clan took rain as its surname, its inherited precious techniques were naturally related to rainwater. Those who cultivated them deeply enough could even summon the power of lightning.

Clearly, however, these people had no ability to summon lightning. The rain-path divine abilities they unleashed with all their might were evaporated completely with a single spread of the Bifang's wings.

Fire and water countered each other

-this was the perfect example.

After sending these people to meet the Rain God with a blaze, Shi Zhao did not linger in the Second Ancestral Land. Instead, she chose to take the offensive.

It would be discourteous not to return the favor. She was not the sort to swallow her anger in silence. Otherwise, what was the point of all that painstaking cultivation? Wasn't it so she could act as her heart desired?

As the saying went, a gentleman could wait ten years for revenge. She took her revenge from morning till night!