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

Su Chang'an stepped through the shattered bronze city gate.

A white robe fluttered in the wind, its clean hem sweeping across the scattered obsidian fragments on the ground. Gu Xiang and Bai Yin stood guard on either side of him as the three figures stepped onto the main street of the Chen family's ancestral home.

This white jade avenue, which once symbolized the highest power in the Central Continent, is now filled with the pungent smell of blood and death.

The Chen family cultivators along the way were terrified and fled frantically into the streets and alleys on both sides. No one dared to look back, and no one dared to raise their weapons. The quasi-emperor's pressure, which was above all living beings, transformed into an invisible mountain, pressing heavily on the backs of everyone.

The profound heritage of aristocratic families may seem deep and captivating on the surface, and appear ancient and dignified on the outside, but once someone rudely breaks through the facade, all that remains inside is a pile of sour and rotten things, so disgusting that one would not even want to look at them.

Several Chen family stewards, unable to retreat in time, pressed themselves against the cold wall, their legs trembling uncontrollably. One of them, overwhelmed by extreme fear, lost his composure, and his spiritual energy instantly reversed course. His bloodshot eyes widened, a strange gurgling sound came from his throat, and then blood flowed from his seven orifices. He collapsed stiffly onto the white jade floor tiles, dying from a qi deviation.

In the vast ancestral land of the Chen family, with tens of thousands of cultivators, not a single one dared to step forward and stop the three of them.

At the end of the main street lies the Guiyuan Hall, the most central building of the Chen family.

The main hall was majestic, its golden roof and flying eaves gleaming with a cold, hard luster in the dim light.

Just as Su Chang'an was less than a hundred feet from the plaza in front of the hall, three muffled rumbles suddenly came from the depths of the Guiyuan Hall. Immediately afterwards, three decaying yet extremely powerful auras of the peak of the Dongxuan Realm soared into the sky, stirring up the vortex of spiritual energy in mid-air.

Three extremely thin old men broke through the dome of the main hall and landed heavily on the white marble steps in front of the hall.

They were the reclusive, patriarchal elders of the Chen family, who spent years in seclusion to prolong their lifespans. Awakened by the impending annihilation of their clan, they exuded a strong aura of death and the stench of decay, attempting a final, desperate struggle for their dying family.

"You arrogant brat! How dare you presume that the Chen family has no one to rely on!"

The leading elder had white hair and beard, sunken eyes, and a hoarse, grating voice, like the violent friction of dry tree bark. He stared intently at Su Chang'an, who was approaching step by step, and his withered hands suddenly formed a hand seal in front of his chest, spitting out a mouthful of blood from his heart.

A dark yellow scroll, exuding an air of antiquity, flew out from his sleeve and swelled in the wind.

It was a tattered imperial edict left behind by the Chen family's ancestors, imbued with a trace of a true emperor's aura. The moment the edict was unfurled, the surrounding space let out a mournful cry of unbearable pressure, and terrifying imperial might erupted and crashed down, attempting to forcibly suppress the white-robed figure below.

The emperor's aura descended upon mortals, bringing a heavy sense of oppression that could crush everything; even breathing felt like an overstepping of bounds.

Su Chang'an did not pause in her steps. She didn't even spare a glance for the tattered imperial edict that radiated golden light.

A faint light flashed from the amber shards between her brows.

The extremely cold Taiyin Domain spread outwards from her center in an instant. Moisture in the air condensed into ice crystals in a flash, and the Great Emperor's decree, which had not yet been fully unfolded, along with the distorted space around it, was directly frozen into a huge, dark blue ice sculpture by the terrifying Taiyin Laws.

Diwei was forcibly severed within the ice layer.

Gu Xiang snorted coldly, his blue robe billowing in the wind. He put his left hand behind his back, grasped the sage's giant brush with his right hand, and made a stroke in the air.

A single, bold, and powerful character, imbued with a profound sense of righteousness, crashed down onto the ice sculpture in mid-air.

A crisp cracking sound echoed across the square. The imperial edict, which the Chen family was so proud of and regarded as their life-saving secret, shattered directly into countless tiny ice crystals, which scattered and fell onto the white marble steps.

"Old bones should stay in the grave. What's the point of coming out here?"

Bai Yin let out a bloodthirsty laugh. His dark red Asura Tiger claws tore through the air, and he transformed into a blood-red afterimage, appearing in front of the two Supreme Elders in an instant.

The malevolent energy of Geng metal erupted without reservation.

The two elders didn't even have time to mobilize their spiritual power before their chests were instantly pierced by sharp tiger claws. Dark red baleful energy surged into their meridians through the wounds, directly pulverizing their withered souls. The two shriveled corpses were casually tossed down the steps by Bai Yin, lifeless.

The remaining elder witnessed the tragic death of his companion and, upon seeing the destroyed ancestral decree, his last shred of will to resist completely collapsed.

His knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the steps, opening his mouth as if to beg for mercy.

Su Chang'an slightly raised the Taiyin Magic Sword in his hand.

A dark blue Taiyin sword aura silently slashed through the void, precisely piercing the elder's brow. The extreme cold instantly froze his consciousness, forever sealing his words of pleading for mercy in his throat.

The three Supreme Elders at the peak of the Cave Profound Realm couldn't even hold them off for three breaths.

Su Chang'an stepped on the ice shards and bloodstains on the steps and walked straight towards the tightly closed, heavy wooden door of Guiyuan Hall.

At this moment, the gaze passes through the thick layers of earth and arrives at the Nine Netherworld Refining God Array, located deep within the Chen family's ancestral land.

The air here is filled with a nauseating, pungent smell of blood, and dark red patterns have transformed into blood-sucking veins, crawling all over the rock walls of the underground cave.

At the center of the formation.

Chen Xuan was pinned to mid-air by dozens of dark red chains of law. Those chains mercilessly pierced through his joints and collarbones, and blood dripped down the cold iron chains onto the array plate below, pooling into a shocking puddle of blood.

His black clothes were already torn to shreds, and his exposed skin was covered with deep, bone-revealing wounds.

This excruciating pain descends upon the cultivator's meridians, bringing waves of excruciating agony as if a rusty, dull saw were tearing at the flesh. Instead of giving you a quick end, it grinds your bones to dust bit by bit.

Li Changgeng sat cross-legged on the edge of the formation.

He wore a gray Taoist robe, his face cold and expressionless. His hands formed a strange hand seal on his knees, constantly urging the Nine Netherworld Refining God Array to operate.

As the formation drew in, the Great Sage Sword Bone within Chen Xuan's body, which had recently been reconstructed in the Fallen God Abyss, emitted a series of teeth-grinding grinding sounds. The pure killing intent was forcibly stripped away bit by bit by the formation, turning into wisps of black mist that flowed along the chains into a jade cauldron behind Li Changgeng.

This is the reserve nourishment that Li Changgeng prepared for his master's resurrection.

The intense pain of having his bones pulled caused Chen Xuan's muscles to spasm uncontrollably, and cold sweat mixed with blood slid down his pale cheeks.

But he gritted his teeth and refused to let out a single scream.

In his blood-stained right hand, he clutched a jade pendant imbued with the aura of a celestial fox. It was something Su Chang'an had left him. He gripped it so tightly that his nails dug deep into the flesh of his palm, staining the jade's patterns with blood, but he seemed oblivious to the pain, clinging to this last vestige of warmth with an almost manic obsession.

Li Changgeng coldly stared at Chen Xuan, who was convulsing in mid-air, and at the jade pendant clutched in his right hand, a hint of undisguised mockery flashing in his eyes.

"Stop struggling. It is indeed painful to peel off the sword bone of a Great Saint Realm cultivator, but if you give up resisting, you will suffer less."

Li Changgeng's voice echoed in the empty cave, carrying an indifferent air of superiority.

"You're still waiting for her to save you?" Li Changgeng sneered, flicking his finger slightly to increase the suction force of the formation. "You're nothing but a pawn she used to break the deadlock. Now you're a cripple, trapped in this Netherworld Death Trap. That woman is a master strategist; she would never cross millions of miles of void to save a worthless discarded pawn."

Chen Xuan's body twitched violently as the formation intensified.

The iron chains clanged together, making a rattling sound.

He slowly raised his head.

On that blood-stained face, there was no despair or collapse as Li Changgeng had expected. Instead, Chen Xuan smirked, revealing an extremely mocking sneer. His dark eyes pierced through his disheveled hair, staring intently at Li Changgeng, who sat at the edge of the formation.

"Someone like you..."

Chen Xuan's voice was terribly hoarse, with a dry, rough quality, like sandpaper rubbing against each other, but every word was pronounced exceptionally clearly.

"How could someone like you, a coward who's lived a life of utter emptiness and cowardice for three thousand years, possibly understand her?"