CHAPTER 140: 140- LIN’S FAMILY PLAN [2]

Fang Yuan strode past her kneeling form towards Fang Ruì.

His voice cut through her desperate justification, flat and final: "I’m aware."

Lin Xi’s head jerked up, stunned. He knew? He knew I saved her? Then why... why the destruction? Why the execution? Why point that sword at my heart?! The injustice screamed silently in her mind, a tempest of fear and fury.

As if reading her very thoughts, Fang Yuan paused beside the sleeping girl.

He didn’t turn, but his words fell like stones into the silence, answering her unvoiced plea: "You breathe only because you stood up for yourself."

Lin Xi’s breath hitched.

Before she could process the chilling meaning, before she could even blink, Fang Yuan and Fang Ruì were gone. Vanished.

Only a faint displacement of air and the lingering scent of ozone remained.

The immense pressure vanished.

Lin Xi collapsed forward, forehead pressing against the cool stone floor.

A ragged, shuddering sob escaped her as she gulped air she hadn’t realized she had been holding.

Relief warred with the bone-deep terror still vibrating through her.

She pushed herself up onto her knees, trembling violently.

And then she felt it. The cold, spreading dampness soaking through the silk of her inner robes.

The sharp, undeniable tang of urine cutting through the sandalwood.

A choked, hysterical laugh bubbled up, dying instantly in her throat.

Shame, hot and scalding, flooded her face.

She squeezed her eyes shut, not against the destruction outside, but against the utter humiliation within.

"Hah..." The sound was hollow, broken.

She, Matriarch Lin Xi, Peak Golden Core cultivator... had pissed herself in pure terror.

Fang Yuan, on the other hand, was flying, holding In his arms, Elder Ruì who lay unconscious but uninjured.

Without pause, Fang Yuan continued to soar through the sky, a streak of silver light cutting across the horizon, before landing directly on the balcony of his personal chambers.

The moment his feet touched stone, his voice rang out, firm and commanding:

"Felicia."

She appeared almost instantly, as if summoned by instinct rather than sound.

Fang Yuan turned and gently laid Elder Ruì on the cushioned divan inside his chambers. "She’s unharmed, but unconscious. See to her recovery."

Felicia’s gaze flicked up to meet his, steady and sharp but silent.

She simply nodded once, then turned, already issuing quiet, precise orders as she disappeared into the inner halls with the elder cradled in her arms.

Fang Yuan didn’t watch her go.

He was already turning, his cloak flaring behind him as he strode out of the estate without a word, heading north.

Straight toward the main branch.

The journey north was a blur of screaming wind and burning meridians.

The familiar landscapes of the Fang territory vanished beneath him in a streak of distorted colors.

He wasn’t flying; he was hurling himself through the air, qi blazing from his core like a comet’s tail, scorching pathways normally traversed in weeks down to mere, agonizing hours.

The strain etched lines of exhaustion onto his face, but his eyes remained fixed, glacial chips of obsidian reflecting the rushing ground far below.

He landed hard on the outskirts of Phungrei City.

Without pause, he ripped open the System Shop interface hovering in his mind’s eye.

A Nascent Soul Realm pill materialized in his palm, radiating potent energy.

He crushed it between his teeth, the surge of raw spiritual power flooding his depleted reserves like a tsunami, washing away the fatigue but doing nothing for the cold fury simmering beneath.

He then pushed his divine sense outwards, a vast, invisible net seeking a specific, fragile thread of consciousness, Fang Lian’s.

The scene that he witnessed was brutal.

Images slammed into his mind and a sharp, involuntary wince tightened his features. Rage, pure and wild, flared hotter than the pill’s energy within his core.

He then vanished from the snowy ruins.

★ ★ ★

Lin Estate basement, Phungrei City, Northern Region:

The air in the basement hung thick with the coppery tang of blood and the sickly-sweet stench of burnt flesh.

Four guards, faces flushed with sadistic glee, surrounded the slumped figure chained to a central post.

"Still playing the silent martyr?" sneered one, prodding her bruised ribs with a boot. "Tell us where your master has kept our young mistress, little bitch!"

"You claim you’re the disciple of that Fang Yuan?" another jeered, lifting a branding iron glowing cherry-red from the coals.

"Where’s your mighty master now, eh? Saving someone important?" He pressed the searing metal against her bare shoulder.

A hiss, the smell of cooking meat, but Fang Lian only gritted her teeth harder, a low, animal groan escaping her clenched jaw.

Her eyes, though clouded with pain, burned with unbroken defiance.

Lin Clan Head’s daughter? Who was she? The thought was a distant, bitter echo in her fogged mind. Even if I knew... would they stop? The answer was a cold certainty. Survival meant nothing here; only defiance remained.

A third guard slapped her hard across the face, snapping her head back.

"Wake up! What, dreaming of rescue? Dreaming of him?" He laughed, a harsh, grating sound.

The leader, a man with eyes like chips of dirty ice, smirked. "Enough games, lads. She’s not talking..."

He let the pause hang, heavy with vile implication. "Maybe she just needs... proper motivation."

His gaze raked over her battered form, lingering.

The others caught his meaning instantly. Sleazy grins spread across their faces as they stepped closer, hands reaching out, eyes glinting with predatory intent.

Suddenly, the air thickened, heavy and oppressive.

In the next instant, everything fell silent, utterly, unnaturally so.

A silence so absolute it devoured breath and thought alike.

The leering grins froze in place.

Reaching hands halted mid-air, fingers still curled.

Even the oppressive heat from the brazier vanished, replaced by a bone-deep, suffocating cold that coiled around the chamber like a noose.

And then, without flash, flare, or warning. It happened.

All four guards ceased to exist.

One moment they were living, leering threats, thick with bloodlust and arrogance.

The next, they were crimson mist—flesh, bone, and sinew pulverized into a splatter of gore that painted the stone walls in streaks of red and dark.

There was no scream nor a reaction, it was instantaneous, total annihilation.

In the space they once occupied, amidst the raining gore, appeared Fang Yuan.