With a single “a moment,” everyone’s brows twitched again.
Enough is enough. Push any further, and they were all afraid the head of the Rong Family would stop restraining himself on the spot and tear her to pieces.
Gong Tinglan was at a complete loss for words. In the past, he had considered Lang Jiuchuan a quite level-headed person — now it was becoming apparent she was actually the unpredictable sort, completely turning all convention upside down. She kept provoking the head of the Rong Family, who was already on the verge of eruption. She truly had no fear of death and no regard for consequences. Good grief.
As expected, the head of the Rong Family spun around with blazing speed. The murderous intent in his eyes no longer held any concealment — it solidified into something almost physical, blades of energy erupting in every direction toward Lang Jiuchuan: “Vile creature, do not presume to be so brazen — do you think this old one fears you?”
“Everyone present has witnessed it — he struck first.” Without dodging, Lang Jiuchuan channeled her Dao resonance through her inscription brush and slashed it fiercely through the air. A wave of pressure, sharper and more devastating than his blades, struck back.
Bang.
The two forces collided in an enormous explosion of sparks and then crushed back toward the head of the Rong Family with overwhelming force. The head of the Rong Family was in a state of profound fury, and had already expended Dao essence on abolishing Rong Huanxuan’s Dao foundation — struck by this supreme pressure, his throat went sweet. He stumbled back two steps while still holding Rong Huanxuan, and coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
“Who is the vile creature?” Lang Jiuchuan’s own face had gone pale. She looked at him with icy eyes: “Could it be the wicked demon that you personally crippled?”
These words drove the head of the Rong Family past all limit. The moment he had received the cracked fate tablet for Rong Huanxuan, and when the family’s soul-preserving secret technique also triggered, he had known her life was in danger — it was why he had come rushing in frantic haste to save her. Yet the reality was that after arriving, not only had he failed to save her, he had personally pushed her further down the road to death with his own hands.
This burning fury — held back by the righteous cultivators present and by the Black Impermanence of the underworld, forcibly suppressed and endured all this time, waiting for another day — yet Lang Jiuchuan had continued, again and again, to challenge his limits, to humiliate without cease. A mere wandering orphan spirit — how dare she?
The head of the Rong Family let out a sharp cry of rage, set Rong Huanxuan down, and produced a spirit weapon that appeared in his hands as if from nowhere — the Taiji Bagua Soul-Extinguishing Hammer.
Upon seeing his spirit treasure, Gong Tinglan had just moved to step forward when he heard Lang Jiuchuan’s transmitted whisper. He restrained himself and stayed put, holding back Kong Xu Zi and the others as well.
The head of the Rong Family did not notice this silent exchange of glances. At this moment, his entire heart and eyes were filled with only Lang Jiuchuan — this culprit who had brought ruin to Huanxuan, had driven the Rong Family’s foundations into sharp decline, had stripped the Rong Family’s dignity completely bare. He was going to destroy her.
Such were his thoughts — and Lang Jiuchuan’s thoughts were no different.
Before, she had still been somewhat restrained, mindful of the family behind her, and wary of provoking the head of the Rong Family to such an extreme that — shamelessly invoking his status as family head and patriarch of a Daoist lineage — he would dig in and protect Rong Huanxuan come what may. That would have been a loss. But now, seeing that the head of the Rong Family had personally abolished the heir he valued most — there was nothing left to be restrained about.
She had died so wretchedly in this body. The original soul had been blood-sacrificed by Rong Huanxuan. If she could not exact swift vengeance now, she must at least claim some interest — otherwise, how was she to give account to that child who had died so cruelly?
He wanted to preserve the Rong Family’s good name? He could keep dreaming.
She was going to tear that filthy face of theirs apart, flesh and blood, right in front of everyone — only then could the wronged soul be given some comfort.
Both parties harbored the determination to annihilate the other, and when they moved, they held nothing back.
The head of the Rong Family’s Taiji Bagua Soul-Extinguishing Hammer was a weapon passed down from ancestors — capable of exorcising ghost souls and scattering wandering spirits. Even used against the living, it could inflict damage on one’s spirit-soul. Those of insufficient cultivation might be left half-witless with a single blow.
Now that Hammer came bearing tremendously thick and upright malevolent energy, crashing toward Lang Jiuchuan. The Dao markings on the hammer’s body were profoundly intricate — the blades of steel-edged wind tore across her skin, drawing blood, its spiritual pressure penetrating even her spirit-soul.
Lang Jiuchuan evaded that first blow without a moment’s hesitation, and summoned the Dizhong Bell — saturating it with great surges of Dao resonance. A resonant, earth-shaking clang rang out as the sound wave struck back at the malevolent energy of the Soul-Extinguishing Hammer hot on her heels.
Boom.
The hall shook violently. The glazed tiles on the rafters above were shaken loose, crashing down in fragments that scattered in all directions.
Before the first strike was done, the Dizhong Bell rotated again. The thunder markings on its body grew more intricate and wondrous — like a thunder serpent roused to life, it opened its vast jaws and lunged toward the head of the Rong Family.
Pure and supremely potent violet lightning — carrying the overwhelming thunderous might that tolerates no challenge — coiled around him in an instant, intent on burning him to charred remains.
The head of the Rong Family’s pupils contracted sharply. He hastily summoned a golden bell barrier, blocking this killing blow — but the thunderous might still conducted through the barrier, leaving his entire body numb and stinging, his spirit-soul stunned for a single heartbeat, pain driving tears from the corners of his eyes.
The head of the Rong Family felt a surge of alarm. He urgently chanted an incantation, and the Soul-Extinguishing Hammer struck toward Lang Jiuchuan once more with lightning speed.
Lang Jiuchuan coughed up a mouthful of blood, her spirit-soul in sharp pain — yet the jade-bone inscription brush in her hand shot toward Rong Huanxuan on the ground.
The head of the Rong Family’s gaze hardened: “Vile creature, you dare!”
He lunged forward. His golden bell barrier also swept toward the brush, trying to restrain it — yet how could it possibly restrain the Panguan inscription brush? This brush carried supreme divine resonance in its very form. Nimble as a dragon and serpent in flight, it flitted lightly between the two of them — and a brush stroke passed across both of their foreheads.
A thread of blood, appearing from nowhere, connected between them.
Hiss.
The crowd drew a collective sharp breath, stunned, staring at the head of the Rong Family and Rong Huanxuan with eyes that nearly bulged from their heads. They rubbed their eyes instinctively — this, this was—?
Gong Tinglan’s eyelid twitched. He looked at Lang Jiuchuan with a complicated expression, raised his violet bone flute to his lips, and let out a breath. A gentle, soothing melody flowed out — like a spring of water, it poured in by force, diluting the blazing battle intent.
Lang Jiuchuan looked at the head of the Rong Family with ashen face and a mocking smile, her eyes brimming with malice.
This gift — is for the Fourth Madam of the Rong, hiding away in the Rong Family’s ancestral grounds.
The head of the Rong Family suffered the recoil of his own spirit weapon, and coughed up two successive mouthfuls of blood. Suddenly he felt something was wrong — the moment he caught sight of the blood thread pulsing at Rong Huanxuan’s forehead, his whole body went rigid. He snapped his head around, saw the look of shock and barely-concealed contempt on every face, and his mind let out a thunderous roar — a complete blank.
How — how was this possible?
“No wonder the head of the Rong Family was so harsh in his censure — it turns out it is because his love was so deep. Truly, what a moving father-daughter bond.” Lang Jiuchuan, unwilling to let the matter remain small enough, let out a short laugh.
The crowd: “……”
Discovering it was one thing — but saying it out loud like that, was she truly not afraid of being silenced on the spot?
The head of the Rong Family’s mind was humming. Both his eyes went red, every inch of him taking on the appearance of a man who wanted to devour someone alive. Malevolent energy roiled and surged all over him, his Daoist robes whipping violently in the wind.
“Lang. Jiu. Chuan.” He raised his head, eyes locking onto Lang Jiuchuan, grinding her name out through clenched teeth. That gaze — it was no longer something that the single word hatred could describe. It was an all-consuming venomous malice, branded into the deepest layer of the soul — a curse of implacable enmity that would not rest until one of them ceased to exist.
The head of the Rong Family’s pressure erupted outward in waves, sweeping over the crowd. An impulse to kill everyone here and bury them in silence rose from within him.
This secret — it could not spread beyond this place. Otherwise, what had been the point of personally crippling Huanxuan just now? Not only would he have lost an heir, the Rong Family’s reputation would be heaped with yet another layer of disgrace.
He was at an absolute loss in this exchange.
The fury was on the verge of consuming him entirely. The malevolent energy solidified, thick as ink.
Kong Xu Zi and the others read the situation clearly, their faces darkening in unison, expressions turning guarded. Each produced their spirit weapons and talismans. A gentleman preserved virtue in his heart — if one could not keep one’s own conduct in order, committing acts that defied human morality, was one to then blame others for witnessing it?
What kind of reasoning was this?