At that moment, hundreds of Demon Suppression Bureau elites had surrounded the Liu Family estate so tightly that not even water could seep through.
With his hand resting on his saber hilt, Lin Xiao stood below the stone steps before the main entrance, his expression so dark it could have dripped water.
The vermilion gates stood wide open.
Liu Tianjue, head of the Liu Family, sat calmly in a grand armchair in the courtyard, leisurely holding a cup of tea.
He wore a dark purple robe, his face pale and utterly bloodless.
"Commander Lin, surely mobilizing such a force to surround my Liu Residence goes against the rules?"
Liu Tianjue blew on the tea foam, his voice even.
Lin Xiao snorted coldly and hurled the stack of blood-colored letters to the ground.
"Colluding with the Demon God Cult and murdering the people of our Great Qin! Liu Tianjue, is that rule enough for you?"
Liu Tianjue set down his teacup and slowly rose.
In the sunlight, a chilling smile appeared on his face.
"The rules have always been made by the strong."
He raised his head and looked at Lin Xiao, purple light blazing in his eyes.
"Did you think you, or that wet-behind-the-ears brat named Su Yu, could change the heavens over Nanhe County?"
Lin Xiao's heart abruptly sank.
He's too calm.
His son's head was nailed to the city gate, yet this old fox hasn't shown the slightest anger.
Something's wrong!
Just then, two figures clad in loose black robes silently emerged from the shadows behind Liu Tianjue.
One of the black-robed figures held a white bone staff, two balls of ghostly green flame burning in the eye sockets of the skull atop it.
Lin Xiao's pupils contracted sharply, and the heavy sword at his waist left its sheath with a clang.
"Heh heh heh..." Liu Tianjue let out a grating laugh like a night owl's cry. "Since you're all rushing here to die, none of you will be leaving!"
He swept his hand!
The ground throughout the Liu Family courtyard began to shake violently.
One after another... withered claws covered in green hair burst out of the earth and dug tightly into the bluestone bricks!
Lin Xiao's expression changed drastically, and he roared, "Form up!"
Before his voice faded, urgent hoofbeats approached from a distant street corner, like drumbeats demanding their lives.
Su Yu rode at the fore, his posture straight, a long saber in hand as he galloped toward them.
At some point, an ominous layer of dark clouds had completely shrouded the sky behind him.
Liu Tianjue spotted Su Yu in the distance, and his lips spread into an exceedingly vicious grin.
He took a dark red jade talisman from his robes and crushed it without hesitation!
Su Yu arrived, and Liu Tianjue came into view, with two black-robed figures behind him.
"Brother Su, don't go over there!"
Tang Shan, who had followed behind, shouted a warning.
Countless blood-colored threads appeared out of thin air above the Liu Family courtyard, like a gigantic spiderweb, completely sealing off the area within a hundred-meter radius.
The Demon Suppression Guards touched by the blood threads instantly stiffened, the light rapidly fading from their eyes.
Liu Tianjue turned his head, his face contorted ferociously. He bared his mouth at Su Yu, revealing a mouthful of fangs like a wild beast.
"Su Yu, your life is mine!"
He raised a withered finger and pointed at Su Yu from afar.
Whoosh!
An intensely condensed beam of blood-colored light pierced the sky, shooting straight for Su Yu's throat!
Su Yu's pupils contracted, and his black-and-gold saber burst from its sheath!
Wind Falls Silent, Leaving No Trace!
The soundless saber light collided thunderously with the deadly red radiance.
The bluestone slabs along the entire street were instantly ripped up and pulverized by the escaping energy!
The dust cleared.
Su Yu stood amid the ruins, his saber held across his chest, a thin trickle of blood slowly dripping from the web of his hand.
He raised his head, looking past the seemingly crazed Liu Tianjue to stare fixedly at the black-robed figure behind him on the left.
The black-robed figure slowly raised his hand and removed his hood.
Beneath it was a face Su Yu knew all too well, yet one that could never possibly have appeared here.
"Su Daqiang!"
The name caught with an indescribable stiffness as Su Yu forced it from deep within his throat.
The tip of his black-and-gold saber pointed diagonally toward the ground. A thick drop of blood slid down its fuller and struck a shattered bluestone slab, instantly evaporating against the scorching ground.
Ahead, the "person" who had removed his hood stood stiffly.
That face overlapped with the taciturn man in his memories, yet carried a sickening sense of wrongness.
His skin was a deathly grayish blue, like rotting flesh left soaking in formalin for years, with a slick, greasy texture.
His once-deep eye sockets now held no pupils, only two balls of ghostly green flame dancing violently, as though they might spill out at any moment.
A stiff curve hung at the corners of his mouth. His exposed teeth shone with a cold, metallic gleam, and his fingernails had grown three inches long, wisps of black Qi coiling around their tips.
"Brother Su... is that?"
Noticing something was wrong with Su Yu, Tang Shan spoke questioningly.
"Su Daqiang!"
Lin Xiao's voice rang out beside him.
Several years ago, Su Daqiang had still been a Demon Suppression Guard under his command, yet now he had become this monster.
Aside from his outline, where did the monster before them retain even a trace of humanity?
"Stop looking. He's already dead."
Lin Xiao took a step forward, holding his heavy sword across his chest, its blade reflecting the ghastly red light around them.
"Su Yu, snap out of it."
"This is the Demon God Cult's secret art, Corpse Fiend Rebirth."
"Someone dug up your father's grave and poured Yin Qi and demon blood into him through the crown of his head, refining his body into a weapon of slaughter."
Lin Xiao's gaze remained fixed on that "Su Daqiang," each word as heavy as iron.
"Puppets like this have no soul, only an instinct to kill."
"Judging by the fluctuations of his presence, this corpse must have been fed plenty of heavenly materials and earthly treasures while alive. Its current combat strength has firmly reached the Spirit Realm First Level."
Su Yu said nothing.
At that moment, his divine sense concentrated in a single direction, enveloping Su Daqiang like an invisible net.
In his perception, the "father" before him had no heartbeat and no flowing blood, only an evil power as thick as ink rampaging through his meridians.
Those meridians had been widened to a terrifying extent, and every inch of muscle brimmed with explosive strength.
This wasn't a person.
This was merely a heavy weapon draped in human skin.
"Heh heh heh... Su Yu, do you like this lavish gift?"
Liu Tianjue sat in the grand armchair, an eerie presence emanating from him.
His eyes, filled with purple light, stared at Su Yu, his voice brimming with sick pleasure.
"You killed my son, so I'll make you kill your father with your own hands."
"Or be torn apart by your father, bite by bite."
"I've been looking forward to this spectacle of blood kin slaughtering each other for a very long time!"