Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

Inside and outside the city gates, there was deathly silence.

The cold wind whipped up ice shards from the ground, which struck the broken bronze door knocker with a soft, crackling sound. All eyes were fixed on the woman in white robes, awaiting her decision.

Chen Boyong was breathing heavily, his right hand gripping the poisoned dagger, the knuckles white. The blade pressed against Chen Fan's carotid artery, black poisonous blood dripping down the blade and hitting the obsidian bricks below, etching small pits into them.

He was gambling, gambling that this woman with the power of a quasi-emperor would hesitate to act against Chen Xuan because of his Dao heart.

Su Chang'an stood quietly in place. The tip of the Taiyin Sword pointed diagonally at the ground, and a drop of dark blue ice water slid down the sword groove, silently seeping into the soil.

She looked at Chen Boyong, and at the Chen family collateral relatives who were chained up and looked ashen-faced.

Suddenly she let out a very soft sneer.

The laughter wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear amidst the deathly silence of the ruins. Her white robe fluttered slightly in the cold wind. She raised her eyes, and in those eyes, there was no panic, no compromise, not even anger, as Chen Boyong had expected.

Only the utmost indifference when looking at a dead person.

Chen Boyong was stunned. The dagger trembled slightly against Chen Fan's neck, drawing another line of blood. He didn't understand this reaction. Normally, powerful figures from reputable sects valued karma and reputation most highly, so how could they be so indifferent?

"What are you laughing at!" Chen Boyong shouted sternly, his voice revealing a hint of barely concealed panic.

Su Chang'an, sword in hand, took a step forward. His boot shattered a piece of ice.

"The blood ties and kinship that aristocratic families talk about are a robe to save face in peaceful times, but in this cannibalistic battlefield, they are nothing but a piece of paper to fool ghosts, which can be torn apart with a single puncture."

Su Chang'an's voice was cold and clear, each word striking Chen Boyong's eardrums with undisguised mockery.

"You're using these people's lives to blackmail me? Chen Boyong, aren't you overestimating the strength of your Chen family?"

She took another step, and the Taiyin Moon Amber emitted a faint light between her brows.

"You personally dug out Chen Xuan's Supreme Bone and threw him into the extreme north seal when he was three years old. Where was the kinship of your Chen family back then? Now that he is about to die, you think of using your kinship to hold him hostage."

Chen Boyong gritted his teeth, forcing a ruthless expression: "He is still surnamed Chen! If your attack leads to the tragic deaths of his own kind, this blood debt will become his inner demon! He will never be able to set foot in the Emperor Realm in this lifetime!"

Su Chang'an stopped in her tracks. She looked at Chen Boyong, the mockery in her eyes turning into cold arrogance.

"You don't understand him at all."

Su Chang'an slightly raised his chin, his tone revealing a chilling calmness.

"He's a monster who crawled out of piles of corpses. His Dao heart has never been with you so-called kin."

The wind and snow seemed to stand still at that moment.

"He only cares about me." Su Chang'an's gaze swept across the city wall. "As long as I live, even if the whole world dies, Chen Xuan will not have the slightest malice. You want to kill them? Go ahead."

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan's tense body suddenly relaxed. He closed his eyes, a tear of blood sliding down his cheek, but a relieved smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He knew Su Chang'an was right. His elder brother Chen Xuan owed the Chen family nothing.

Chen Boyong's face instantly turned ashen.

Looking into Su Chang'an's unwavering eyes, he finally realized that the bargaining chip he thought he held was utterly worthless in this woman's eyes. His blackmail had failed.

The panic subsided, replaced by a desperate frenzy.

"Then you'll all die together!"

Chen Boyong's face twisted, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes. He said no more, his divine sense suddenly hardening as he prepared to forcefully detonate the explosive restrictions within Chen Fan and the others. Once these dozens of collateral disciples exploded, the violent surge of spiritual energy would be enough to level the area near the city gate.

In that instant when his divine thoughts stirred.

Gu Xiang made a move.

His left hand remained behind his back, and the hem of his blue robe didn't even sway. His right hand held the great writing brush of a sage, pointing it in the air. There was no grand display, no dazzling golden light.

The pen tip paused lightly in mid-air.

A palm-sized, golden character, "定" (ding), silently pierced through the barrier of space and entered Chen Boyong's brow.

Confucianism is a supernatural power; its words become law.

Chen Boyong's body suddenly stiffened. His divine sense, which had detonated the restriction, was forcibly frozen in his sea of ​​consciousness by this righteous energy. Although his Great Sage cultivation level allowed him to be immobilized for only a breath.

But for true masters, a single breath can decide life or death.

In that very moment when Chen Boyong was frozen in place...

The Taiyin Moon Amber between Su Chang'an's brows shone brightly. The extremely cold Taiyin Law spread instantly along the dust particles suspended in the air at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

A deep blue frost covered Chen Boyong's right arm, where he held the knife.

There was no sound of ice forming. The extreme cold penetrated directly into his flesh and bone, freezing his marrow and completely locking down the spiritual energy circulation that was frantically circulating in his right arm.

Chen Boyong's right arm turned into a chilling, dark blue ice sculpture. The poisoned dagger remained frozen at Chen Fan's neck, unable to cut any further.

One breath is up.

Chen Boyong's consciousness broke free from the constraints of the word "fixed." Excruciating pain and extreme cold surged into his mind simultaneously, and he opened his mouth, trying to let out a piercing scream.

But he didn't get his chance.

Bai Yin's figure had already disappeared from the spot.

A dark red line of blood shot out along the ground, carving a deep trench into the obsidian tiles along its path with the malevolent energy.

Asura White Tiger, the number one killer.

Bai Yin appeared beside Chen Boyong. He didn't even glance at the frozen right arm; his right hand was held together like a knife, and dark red Geng metal aura pulsed from his fingertips.

Knife up and down.

Chen Boyong's right arm, frozen into an ice sculpture, along with half of his shoulder, was severed cleanly by the Geng metal evil energy. No blood spurted from the cut, because the blood had already been frozen by the Taiyin power.

"Old dog, you talk too much nonsense."

Bai Yin grinned, revealing his gleaming white teeth. He exerted force from his waist, and with his right leg, he delivered a powerful kick to Chen Boyong's abdomen.

boom!

Chen Boyong's body flew out, clearing the crumbling city wall and crashing heavily into the ruins inside the city gate. He smashed through more than a dozen huge stone slabs, raising a cloud of dust.

Bai Yin flashed and landed in the ruins right behind him.

He stepped on Chen Boyong's chest.

Click.

A sickening sound of bones shattering rang out. Chen Boyong's sternum was crushed by the stomp, his chest cavity caved in deeply. Fragments of internal organs mixed with blood gushed from his mouth.

At this moment, his cultivation at the Great Sage Realm became torture. His powerful life force prevented him from dying immediately, leaving him only to consciously experience excruciating pain that was worse than death.

Outside the city gate.

Su Chang'an didn't even glance at Chen Boyong in the ruins. She flicked her wrist, and the Taiyin Sword twirled in mid-air in a delicate sword flower.

Dozens of thin, wispy blue sword energies detached from the sword's edge and precisely moved around Chen Fan and the other dozens of collateral disciples.

Ding ding ding.

The chains, forged from fine iron, snapped inch by inch under the Taiyin sword energy and fell to the ground.

Immediately afterward, the sword energy pierced into their bodies through their pores. The extreme cold precisely located the explosive restriction node planted by Chen Boyong. With a gentle twist of the Yin energy, those insidious restriction array patterns were instantly frozen and shattered, transforming into harmless spiritual energy that dissipated into their meridians.

They were not harmed in the slightest.

Chen Fan collapsed to the ground. He gasped for breath, feeling the shackles of the restrictions disappear from his body, his eyes red-rimmed.

He raised his head and looked at Su Chang'an, her white robes fluttering in the wind. This was the woman who had received the medicine he had given her outside the sealed cave, and this was also the woman who had severed the deadly straits between them with a single sword strike today.

Chen Fan knelt down, his forehead slamming heavily against the cold stone bricks.

"Chen Fan thanks Miss Su for saving my life!"

As he moved, the dozens of collateral relatives behind him who had escaped death also knelt down in unison, tears welling in their eyes.

"Thank you, Miss Su, for saving my life!"

The voice echoed desperately before the empty city gate, carrying the trembling of rebirth and the resolute determination to completely give up on the main branch of the Chen family.

Su Chang'an ignored their kneeling.

She sheathed the Taiyin Sword, the hem of her white robe gently brushing against the rubble on the ground. Her gaze passed over the collapsed city wall, landing on the towering Guiyuan Hall deep within the Chen family's ancestral land. Chen Xuan was there.

"Step back."

Su Chang'an's voice was calm, yet it carried an undeniable air of authority.

"Today, we will only punish the ringleaders."

After saying that, she took a step and stepped directly over the bronze city gate that symbolized the Chen family's thousands of years of glory but was now shattered and broken.

Gu Xiang put away the sage's writing brush and tucked his hands back into his sleeves. He walked with a composed gait, following Su Chang'an on the left, his blue robe fluttering in the wind.

Bai Yin pulled his foot out of the rubble. Chen Boyong lay at the bottom of the pit, his eyes rolled back, barely breathing, completely crippled. Bai Yin shook the blood off his boots, dark red Geng metal aura swirling around him. He strode after him, protecting Su Chang'an on his right.

The three of them walked side by side and officially entered the ancestral home of the Chen family.

Behind the city wall, the remaining Chen family cultivators, guards, and elders, seeing the three figures approaching and feeling the overwhelming pressure of a quasi-emperor, completely shattered their mental defenses.

Clang.

It's unclear who threw down their weapon first.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of weapons hitting the ground filled the air. No one dared to stop them, no one dared to utter a sound. Hundreds of Chen family cultivators were terrified, their legs went weak, and they all knelt down on both sides of the road.

Some turned around and fled towards the edge of the city, tumbling and crawling.

The Chen family, a colossal entity that had stood tall in Central Continent for thousands of years, had its backbone utterly crushed at this moment.