CHAPTER 199: 199- HYPOCRITE [2]

Fang Chen was stunned by what Fang Yuan had just said.

He rose to his feet, trembling slightly, and started toward Fang Yuan who was already about to leave.

But before he could take more than two steps, a slender figure blocked his path.

Lin Zhaoyue.

Her gaze was calm, her poise effortless, yet her presence weighed on him like a mountain.

"Uncle Chen," she said lightly, her lips curving into a faint smile, "wait. What do you want?"

"I need to speak with my nephew." Fang Chen forced his voice steady, his jaw tightening as he took another step forward. "Step aside."

The smile on Lin Zhaoyue’s face deepened, but her eyes... her eyes sharpened like blades.

"Here, let’s play a game, if you move, you can go."

Before Fang Chen could answer, her sleeve flicked ever so slightly.

In the next instant, his entire body froze where he stood.

His muscles strained, golden core Qi roaring within him as he tried to break free but it was useless.

It was as though invisible chains of iron had wrapped around his limbs, nailing him to the floor.

Lin Zhaoyue’s expression did not change. She leaned forward, her voice dropping into a deliberate cadence, each word heavy as though pressing into his bones.

"You lost so, you do not need to speak to my husband anymore."

Fang Chen’s eyes widened. Veins bulged on his neck as he tried to move, his teeth grinding audibly.

Sweat beaded on his forehead from the sheer pressure pressing down on him.

Fang Chen reeled. "What? What do you mean, no? I am his uncle! I have the right—I am his blood!"

His voice rose, half outrage, half desperation.

"I know," Lin Zhaoyue said, her smile widening by a fraction.

"You are his uncle... I know that," she continued, her tone as sharp as earlier.

His breathing grew ragged, his Qi thrashing desperately against the invisible force pinning him. His face twisted, half rage, half fear.

"And I also know... what it is you want to know."

Her words fell slowly, deliberately, like thunderclaps in the silence.

Fang Chen’s lips parted, but no sound came out. His throat felt locked, his body trembling from the suffocating weight of her Nascent Soul aura.

Lin Zhaoyue tilted her head, her smile returning but her eyes never softened.

"Here. Let me give you a hint."

She leaned in closer, her voice a whisper that cut deeper than a shout.

"My husband... never really cared about the merger."

The invisible weight on Fang Chen lifted in the next instant, and she turned her back on him, walking out as though nothing had happened.

Fang Chen collapsed to one knee, his chest heaving as he gulped down air, shaken to the core.

Despite still being a Golden Core cultivator, he realized the truth with burning clarity, before Nascent Soul monster, he would be as helpless as an insect.

Fang Jingyi rushed forward and caught her brother before he could collapse to the ground.

But Lin Zhaoyue’s voice drifted back, cold and imperious, echoing in the air like a lingering shadow.

"Don’t bother my husband with unnecessary things."

The last trace of her aura faded, and she was gone.

After a while, beneath the Phoenix Soul Pavilion.

The stench hit Fang Yuan the moment he reached the stairwell.

Thick, cloying, and rancid, the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh. He paused at the entrance, his silhouette framed against the faint torchlight, his expression unreadable.

Then he stepped inside.

The air grew heavier the deeper he went.

In the corner of the dim, stone-walled chamber lay a pile of dead animals, twisted and half-decayed, their bones jutting grotesquely from torn hides.

Beside them, in a rusted cell, a young man clutched his stomach, retching violently as if his body could no longer bear the stench.

Across the chamber, another cell housed an old man who sat slumped against the wall, his eyes dull, the fire of resistance long extinguished.

Fang Yuan’s voice, low and steady, broke the silence as he approached.

"Gu Jian. Gu Lanyue. So this... is what you’ve been reduced to."

He stopped at Gu Jian’s cell, his gaze piercing the younger man.

"Gu Jian, are you ready to talk now?"

The prisoner’s bloodshot eyes snapped open, burning with hatred.

He spat onto the floor and snarled, his words laced with venom.

"May your dao heart shatter to dust. May your soul be severed from reincarnation itself. May your cursed bloodline be erased from the great cycle of heaven and earth!"

Fang Yuan did not flinch.

Instead, he lowered himself into a crouch, his expression calm, almost indifferent.

"After today, the Gu family will be no more. I don’t blame you for their deaths, it was my choice. So don’t trouble yourself with guilt. I’m only telling you this... so you can die in peace."

Gu Jian’s composure cracked instantly.

His eyes widened, and he pressed against the bars in desperation.

"Wait! No! Please—please, I’ll speak! I’ll speak! I’ll tell you—why your parents died!" His voice broke, tears spilling down his face as panic took hold.

Fang Yuan rose smoothly, already turning away. His tone was flat, almost weary.

"I am no longer curious. If you wish to speak... do so when you meet them in the afterlife."

Gu Jian’s cries rose in desperation, but Fang Yuan ignored him, stepping instead toward the other corner.

His eyes fell upon Gu Lanyue.

The old man lifted his head weakly as Fang Yuan drew near.

Fang Yuan’s gaze was unreadable.

He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper, one that slithered into the cell like poison.

"I’ll make sure to tear out every tendon from your body... and weave them into a crown. Then I’ll place it upon your son’s head."

Gu Jian’s frantic shouts from behind echoed through the chamber, but Fang Yuan stood unmoving, his attention fixed on Gu Lanyue alone.

Gu lanyue’s lips were pale, his breathing shallow, yet his voice still carried a thread of steel.

"Young Fang... what do you gain from all this?" He coughed, a wet, rattling sound. "What meaning is there in torment?"

For a long moment, silence hung between them.

Then Fang Yuan exhaled slowly, straightening his robes with measured calm.

His expression remained impassive, but his words fell heavy.

"Why? ...Hmm maybe because I am bored."

With that, he turned and strode toward the exit.

The cries, the curses, the desperate pleading behind him clung to the damp stone walls, but Fang Yuan never once looked back.