Proving the Dao through slaughter

It was just then.

A servant approached the hall, his face filled with terror, and said in a trembling voice:

"Reporting to the patriarch, something has happened."

"Hmm?"

The expressions of Lin Luo and the clan elders shifted slightly. After a moment's thought, Lin Luo said:

"Speak plainly. There are no outsiders here."

The servant nodded emphatically and hurriedly said:

"That Lin Tian... Young Master Lin Tian has begun a killing spree. Deacon Wang and the steward have both been killed by the young master."

"What?"

At the servant's words, all the clan elders in the hall looked shocked.

Lin Tian seemed to be only at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.

How could he have killed the steward, who was at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer?

That was what astonished them most.

Lin Luo's expression also became extremely frightening. Suppressing his anger, he said:

"What about Lin Yu?"

Terror instantly surfaced on the servant's face, and he hurriedly replied:

"I didn't dare keep watching. Before I fled, Elder Lin Yu had already had both arms severed by Lin Tian!"

Lin Luo narrowed his eyes, but inwardly, he was deeply shaken.

Whatever else might be said of Lin Yu, he was at the Body Opening Realm, Third Layer.

How could Lin Tian defeat Lin Yu?

It was impossible.

Although he was fairly gifted, the clan had continually reduced the resources allotted to him over the past few years.

Reaching the Qi Refining Fifth Layer alone already proved his exceptional talent.

At that moment, it was not just Lin Luo.

The clan elders in the hall also wore expressions of profound astonishment.

The envoy from the Joyous Immortal Sect, however, had eyes full of amusement.

"This has become a little more interesting."

The envoy chuckled, his words carrying an implication.

Lin Luo's expression turned exceedingly ugly.

"Lin Ba, Lin Chen, you two go bring Lin Tian here."

"Yes!"

Two clan elders stood and walked out of the hall.

Just then, the envoy propped his chin on one hand and said languidly:

"No need. He'll be here shortly."

Everyone else in the hall stiffened.

They looked outside the hall.

There, a blood-soaked figure was slowly approaching.

Lin Tian was covered in blood.

He held a sword in one hand and Lin Yu's head in the other.

He walked on silently like that.

On the path paved with fine square tiles, he left a long trail of bloody footprints.

His eyes stared straight at the person seated at the very front of the hall.

Neither joy nor anger could be discerned.

Yet his blood-drenched appearance chilled the heart.

On either side of the courtyard, the Lin family's servants and Lin Tian's peers watched in terror.

"Mmph!"

A young woman of about seventeen or eighteen stared at the scene before her, her pupils contracting as she hurriedly covered her red lips with her hand.

She feared making a sound that would draw Lin Tian's notice now.

"He actually killed Clan Elder Lin Yu!"

"Damn it!"

"Wasn't he at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer? How did he suddenly become so powerful?"

"He endured for over a decade and only chose to erupt today. Such intentions deserve death!"

"Don't approach him. He'll die sooner or later, but not now!"

"Let's put up with him a little longer. Once he goes to the Joyous Immortal Sect, he'll die in the end!"

Several peers who had frequently bullied his former self watched Lin Tian with cold expressions.

As they looked at Lin Tian now, what they felt was endless killing intent.

Someone they had regarded as an ant.

Had suddenly stepped forward today and become powerful.

It left them feeling dazed.

They were all children of people who held extremely high positions within the clan.

Among them was a young man surrounded by others.

He was handsome, and a trace of mockery lingered in his eyes as he looked at Lin Tian.

This was none other than the son of the Lin family patriarch.

Lin Tian's older cousin, Lin Ming.

"I really don't know how he endured it when we kept humiliating him back then."

A young woman's voice rang out.

Lin Tian stopped and looked at a pretty young woman seated beneath a pavilion in the distance.

Under Lin Tian's gaze, her face instantly turned deathly pale.

In that instant, she felt as though a primordial beast were staring at her.

The young woman was the granddaughter of a highly respected Lin clan elder.

Her relationship with his former self had been extremely hostile.

Relying on her status, she had frequently bullied his former self.

Lin Tian's eyes darkened slightly, then filled with a trace of man-devouring killing intent.

Then!

From dozens of meters away, Lin Tian gently raised the sword in his hand.

Then slashed down.

Whoosh!

A dazzling streak of azure sword light instantly shot forth.

"Lin Tian, don't you dare!"

A furious roar came from within the hall.

But in the next instant.

Crack!

The azure light swept across the young woman's neck.

Blood sprayed out, and her delicate body was already without a head.

"Bastard, how dare you!"

"You damned beast!"

"You dared kill Lin Qingqian! Lin Tian, you don't know when to stop courting death!"

All at once, within the courtyard.

Everyone glared with eyes nearly splitting, each gritting their teeth and wanting to kill Lin Tian.

Boom!

A sound instantly erupted from within the hall.

It was the old man who had roared earlier. He thrust out one hand, mysterious light gathering around it, and struck toward Lin Tian's head.

From within the hall, the Lin family patriarch, Lin Luo, rushed out with several other elders.

"Lin Duo, you must not kill him!"

Seeing that Lin Duo intended to kill Lin Tian with one palm strike, Lin Luo hurriedly shouted to stop him.

Lin Tian could not die.

Lin Tian was someone who was to die beneath the Joyous Immortal Sect's holy maiden.

If Lin Duo killed someone belonging to the Joyous Immortal Sect's holy maiden, the Lin family would face utter destruction.

At this, however, Lin Tian chuckled.

He did not resist. Spreading his arms, he tossed Lin Yu's head onto the ground.

He seemed to have given up resisting, waiting for Lin Duo to annihilate him with a single palm strike.

Boom!

Lin Duo charged like a massive boulder, plowing across dozens of meters.

Terrifying sonic booms rang out without cease.

After all, he was at the Body Opening Fifth Layer.

The force of this palm strike could directly blast Lin Tian's head apart.

Swirling gusts swept outward without cease.

That palm finally reached Lin Tian.

Yet it stopped an inch from the tip of his nose.

Bang!

The wave of air whipped up Lin Tian's bloodstained hair.

"Damn it!"

Roaring like a savage beast, Lin Duo stared at Lin Tian before him in fury.

In the end, he had not annihilated Lin Tian outright.

Reason had prevailed.

Ordinarily, killing Lin Tian would have been nothing to him.

Leaving him alive had merely been a matter of keeping a plaything for the younger generation.

Now, however, he did not dare kill him.

After all, Lin Tian had already been chosen by the Joyous Immortal Sect's holy maiden.

If the holy maiden's plaything died at his hands.

It would mean enormous trouble.

"How I hate this!"

Lin Duo growled, veins bulging all over his body, his face flushed red.

"Clan Elder Lin Duo, do you not dare kill me?"

Lin Tian raised his brows slightly, a smile curling his lips.

"Your granddaughter just died at my hands, you know."

As he spoke, Lin Duo grew even angrier.

Never in his life had he wanted to kill someone so badly.

Today, Lin Tian had achieved that.

"Lin Duo, calm yourself. Don't let him provoke you!"

At that moment, Lin Luo's voice rang out again.

Lin Luo's expression was exceedingly ugly as he looked into the hall.

The envoy from the Joyous Immortal Sect was still sitting there quietly.

Only now, a faint, inscrutable smile rested on his face.

Lin Luo cursed inwardly.

And just then.

Lin Tian's quiet voice rang out again.

"Elder Lin Duo, a person lives for that one breath of pride. Are you really going to let your precious granddaughter's death go unavenged?"

"After all, I'm merely someone lowly."

Brutality filled Lin Duo's eyes.

He looked into the distance, where his granddaughter's headless corpse still lay on the ground.

Blood flowed out continuously, forming a pool.

"Ah!"

He roared, his voice rising from low to high, gradually becoming a bellow, his face flushing red and then turning blue.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

His presence grew chaotic; he had already fallen into a frenzy of rage.

Swish!

A clear sword cry rang out.

A sword strike unleashed without warning.

Cold burst forth, wreathed in the breath of death.

Lin Duo's raging fury instantly turned to terror.

Without turning his head, he fled from Lin Tian at that very moment.

But it was already too late.

The azure sword pierced his temple.

Then it emerged, trailing red.

His head was pierced clean through.

Blood instantly welled from Lin Duo's eyes, and his brain stopped working.

As all emotion vanished, he collapsed to the ground.

"Ah!"

In the courtyard, a timid woman cried out in alarm.

"Damn you!"

"Lin Duo!"

"How dare you kill Lin Duo!"

Beside Lin Luo, all the clan elders were beside themselves with rage.

What Lin Tian had done had thoroughly enraged them.

Although Lin Tian's strength was no longer as meager as they had once believed.

Their perception of Lin Tian had yet to change.

An ant they had raised had turned around and slaughtered its master.

How could they not be furious?

Meanwhile, inside Lin Tian's mind.

"You have slain a powerful enemy through treachery. Your sword sensed the evil within you and was extremely excited."

"Sharpness increased by ten percent. Your cultivation has broken through to the Body Opening Realm Second Stage."

As the voice resounded.

Every particle within Lin Tian's body shuddered violently.

In an instant, his presence surged dramatically.

He merely withdrew his sword, and a vortex had already formed, ravaging the ground and cutting a shallow groove.

Inside the main hall, the envoy, who had been sitting composedly in a chair, stiffened.

With a faraway gaze, he studied Lin Tian as he was now.

"Proving his Dao through slaughter?"

"To think he is such a heaven's chosen."

"Leaving him to the Holy Maiden would truly be too much of a waste."

He murmured, his eyes flickering.

As though something had occurred to him, the envoy walked out.

Everyone saw faint ripples rise in the air the moment he appeared.

He had only just stepped over the threshold.

The next instant, he was beside Lin Tian.