" The Shen Family?"
The elders were taken aback. They had naturally heard of the Shen Family. They were an old and established family in the capital and were among the first families of sorcerers to pledge allegiance to the Great Jin Dynasty. However, their foundation was not particularly deep. Even though they had pledged allegiance so early, they still did not hold a share in the two largest power institutions of the Great Jin.
As is well known, in the Great Jin, the Nine Ministers and the scholars of the Six Great Halls held the most power in administration, almost occupying the top of all Great Jin. In order to suppress the southern aristocratic families led by the Duke of Duke of Qin, the Xiao Household granted them considerable authority, and the administrative power of civil officials was greatly expanded.
Another powerful institution is the Yin-Yang Academy. After twenty years of development, the Yin-Yang Academy has become the cradle for the advancement of sorcerers in the Great Jin. It not only possesses the Daoist scriptures contributed by various aristocratic families, but also, as the leadership of the academy, can allocate the resources shared by the various aristocratic families. Although it is mostly necessary to be fair and impartial, those who know better understand that, at the same level, positions that can hold more authority in the academy are always more convenient for their own descendants.
In both of these areas, Shen Family failed to secure a place!
The reason is simple: no matter how early one joins the Shen Family, their background is what it is. To put it bluntly, they are just a third-rate family and have no chance of getting access to top-level power and resources.
The Shen Family's most successful ventures these days are only two officials appointed to educational posts outside the capital. To make matters worse, one of them died in the turmoil in the Northern Frontier ten years ago.
This only made things worse for the Shen Family. The court, mindful of their hard work, transferred the remaining member Shen Yan, the current head of the Shen Family, back to the capital and appointed him as the Prefect of the Capital. This was a small compensation. Among the various aristocratic families, he was doing not too badly, but compared to these thousand-year-old aristocratic families, he was completely outmatched.
"Where is it?" the old man asked in surprise.
The Shen Family is easy to manipulate. Once they've captured the person and extracted information, the Shen Family won't dare do anything. If the person knows what's good for them, they'll offer some compensation later, like a teaching position at the Yin-Yang Academy. If they don't, well...
Almost everyone shares this view, including the younger generation!
They'd long disliked Shen Yuan's cold, aloof demeanor; what was he pretending for?
Do you really think they didn't recognize them?
Someone who was once down on their luck has changed masters and now thinks they've transformed from a golden rooster into a phoenix?
Thus, led by a group of young men, the old men quickly found Shen Yuan, who was having a meal outside the post station.
Shen Yuan ate with a group of soldiers, but instead of the food from the post station, they brought their own dry rations. To be honest, people in Jiangnan these days are picky eaters, and food from outside might not be very palatable. They just asked the post station to bring them some hot soup.
Shen Yang, who had come with the Shen Family, was trying to curry favor with them. When he saw a large group of people approaching aggressively, he was taken aback and cautiously took a step back with his bowl.
"I was wondering why we couldn't find Brother Shen at mealtimes. So Brother Shen likes to eat military rations?" the leader of the group mocked.
Shen Yang blushed. He certainly didn't like eating with this group of rough men, but you have to admit, the military rations were quite delicious. Although they couldn't compare to the hot dishes served to them in Nanming Prefecture, they were much better than ordinary food outside.
Brother Fang, what brings you here?
Shen Yang clearly sensed something was wrong. He seemed to recognize those old men. He hadn't expected the powerful families to arrive so quickly. Where were his own Shen Family elders? Not a single one of them had come.
Damn it, I should have sent a message earlier!
But after thinking about it, it seemed pointless. The only capable person in the Shen Family was currently the Prefect of the Capital, who was extremely busy and couldn't get away at all. If he didn't come, who in the Shen Family could compare with the elders of these great families?
The elder asked impatiently, "Which one is Shen Yuan?"
Shen Yuan frowned, looking at the menacing group, he roughly knew what they wanted to do, but he was not flustered at all. After all, he was escorting the people of the imperial court, which was also part of the emperor's plan to establish his authority. He had expected this scene, but he did not expect it to come so quickly.
"That's me," Shen Yuan put down the packaged bowl in his hand, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, and then stood up.
Seeing that the other side seemed to be looking for trouble, the other soldiers also grinned maliciously. After putting down their bowls, they stood up one by one. The group of tall and strong men stood up like a group of brown bears, their blood surging, which made the group of sorcerer disciples subconsciously take a step back.
"Oh?" A hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of several old men. After Yuchi Peng was captured, the court analyzed the current military strength of Jiangnan. It seemed that Chen Qing's men were indeed capable, and these soldiers were no less than the elite Golden Dragon Guard.
Unfortunately, they were no match for them!
An old man stepped forward and grabbed, only to find that the ground rocks suddenly changed, and a giant hand formed from mud grabbed Shen Yuan and his surroundings. A group of soldiers approached, only to find that they could not move. Looking down, they were shocked to find that they had somehow ended up in a swamp, and no matter how hard they tried, they could not break free!
Several elders beside them nodded slightly. The Feng Family's Earth Origin Technique was indeed remarkable. Although they had been quietly preparing for a while, it only took a few breaths to silently change the terrain and trap these hundreds of martial artists. There were very few sorcerers in the entire sorcerer world who could do this!
But Shen Yuan, who was caught and lifted into the air, showed no panic at all, and even had a hint of emotion in his eyes.
Once upon a time, these figures were people I couldn't even see, let alone look up to. I never imagined I'd be able to fight them one day; it feels like a dream.
He chuckled, then crushed the Rune Stone in his hand, unleashing a massive surge of energy that startled the elders.
What kind of tactic is this?
They could clearly see that the energy was caused by the other party crushing the mysterious crystal in their hand. Leaving aside how this massive energy was sealed away, was the other party insane to release it so suddenly? Weren't they afraid of blowing themselves up?
But in the next instant, the other party drew with both hands, and the energy formed complex arrays like ink painting!
" Void Formation Drawing??"
The eyes of the elderly men nearly popped out of their sockets!
A magic array requires various high-grade materials to stabilize its energy, and then a special array-drawing method is used to introduce the energy into those materials in order to form the array. This is common knowledge that everyone knows.
However, records from ancient families mention that in the East Sea, there was once a group of people who could directly use the heavens and earth as their canvas and pure energy as their ink to form arrays. This method was Void Formation Creation Method!
This record was always regarded as a myth until fifty years ago, when Celestial Master Zhang of Cloud Capital used lightning to form an array and instantly annihilated the million-strong army of the five warlords who invaded Cloud Capital. Only then was the Void Formation Creation Method definitively established!
After that battle, the Zhang Family's Daoist master was recognized by the world as the greatest sorcerer in the land!
To this day, no other warlock has been able to use his Void Formation Creation Method, yet unexpectedly, that legendary skill has appeared in the hands of a junior member of a third-rate family!
" Martial Edge Formation, activate!!"
As Shen Yuan's grand formation was instantly formed, his words became law, and a terrifying wind force spread out from him. Upon seeing this, the elders immediately pulled their direct descendants back. In an instant, the wind swept through the area as if it were being cleaved by knives and axes, and the astonishing destructive power made all the elders no longer dare to underestimate it.
Although it's unclear how such a young sorcerer mastered this power, the opponent before them certainly has the qualifications to compete with them!
Thinking this, none of them dared to be careless, and they instantly unleashed their own techniques.
But at that very moment, a terrifying howl of wind rose into the sky. In the midst of the hurricane, they saw that the soldiers who had been trapped in the swamp had actually escaped and were surrounded by gusts of wind, floating in mid-air!
No. It shouldn't be said that they floated; it should be said that those soldiers mastered flight!
The elders of the clans who had opened their Spirit Eye quickly found the reason: behind all the soldiers was a huge formation, and the formation and the soldiers were connected by a line. The line seemed to be formed by elements, continuously providing wind element power, making the soldiers rush towards their group like birds!
"Retreat!!"
How could these flying soldiers have anticipated this? They certainly couldn't have imagined that the enemy's formation would allow them to control elemental power.
It was too late to retreat. As soon as he turned around, he found that a group of soldiers had surrounded him. The general in charge was at least First Rank -rank officer. His powerful blood and terrifying wind elemental power gave them an extremely strong sense of oppression.
They were completely surrounded from all sides, including the sky. Even the elders who were used to seeing big scenes couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
No wonder Yuchi Peng suffered such a crushing defeat; Chen Qing actually possessed such a battle tactic. Who could possibly defeat him?
"That junior from the Shen Family!" the elder who had been the first to attack exclaimed, "Stop now!"