NOVEL NEXT Chapter 256: 256 - Updated*
Fang Yuan shot toward the eastern ravine, his expression dark.
One step carried him across the sky, and in the next breath he arrived, only to be greeted by devastation.
Most of the cultivation caves lay in ruins, their stone walls collapsed in heaps of rubble.
Disciples of the Fang family sprawled lifeless on the blood-soaked ground, their robes torn and charred.
At the center of the carnage stood four intruders. Each bore a pair of wings jutting from their backs, feathers glinting with a metallic sheen.
Their chests were bare, every one of them marked with the same inked sigil: a coiled dragon, Yinglong, etched in black across their hearts.
One of them dangled a child high in the air. Fang Yuan's gaze landed on the kid, Niyun.
The winged man studied the boy for a long moment, then shook his head in disdain.
"tsk.. You're not the one we seek. Die."
His hand rose to strike the boy, but the strike never landed.
A blur flashed instead and the man's head toppled clean from his shoulders, thudding onto the ground.
Niyun slipped from his grasp, plummeting straight through the air and hitting the ground, at least he was going to live.
The remaining three attackers reacted instantly.
Each seized a nearby child, wings flaring wide as they pulled their hostages tight against their chests.
"Stay where you are!" one of them snarled, his eyes flashing with killing intent. "Do you dare interfere with the business of the Feng Clan?"
Fang Yuan's gaze swept over the winged men, his tone as calm as it was merciless.
"First you step into my land, slaughtered my people… and now, you dare to ask if I'll interfere?"
His eyes narrowed and the killing intent rushed out off him like a storm. "Die!"
Without a pause, he raised his hand and three arcs of blinding radiance burst forth—Tyrant Light Sword, First Form: Divine Line.
Before the intruders very eyes, a rift in space itself cracked open, no wider than a thread.
It pulsed once, then swallowed the sword light whole.
And at that very instant, matching tears blossomed right before their necks and then their heads toppled from their shoulders, rolling across the shattered stone.
They hadn't even twitched once in that instant.
Their bodies just collapsed in silence, while the kids tumbling free into the dirt, dazed but alive.
Fang Yuan continued with instantly spreading his divine sense across the whole ravine.
To be invaded by just four Golden Core realm experts, slipping past the barriers he had set up, it was abnormal. Too abnormal.
Just a few meters ahead, he caught the faint residue of a spatial ripple.
A trace of teleportation which happened to be familiar. Too... familiar.
His eyes darkened, this was the exact same formation he had found once in the Wu courtyard and once in the Gu family courtyard.
Before the thought could deepen, a cry pierced the air.
"Nephew! Are you alright?"
It was his aunt, Jingyi.
He forced his shoulders to loosen, his expression to calm.
From the side, she was wobbling through the air, balancing awkwardly on the sword she had been practicing with.
Flying lessons may have taught her how to move in the sky, but nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to see.
Because when she drew close enough and her eyes first fell on the scene... on the small bodies of Fang children lying broken and still.
Her face instantly drained of all colours.
Her sword tilted beneath her, and she fell to the ground with a strangled cry.
"Ahhh… Yuzhe… no, no… why!"
Her voice cracked as she stumbled forward, clutching one small hand after another.
Her gaze darted, wild and broken, as she called their names, each one like a knife against the silence.
"Yuwei… Yuren… Yuting… Yulin… Yuxin… Yuhui… no, no, heavens, why! What did our family do to deserve this?"
Her cries rose into a scream, echoing through the ravine as she shook her fists at the sky, voice hoarse and desperate.
Fang Yuan turned his head away. Even for him, the sight was too bitter to bear.
Moments later, Fang Sun, Fang Chen, Fang Yin and several other elders arrived.
Their steps faltered as their eyes fell on the scene.
Fang Sun's lips quivered as he staggered forward, his knees buckling when he recognized his own grandson among the fallen.
A guttural sound tore from his throat, half a roar, half a sob, before he collapsed to the ground and beat his fists against the rubble.
Fang Chen dropped beside another child, shaking him as if sleep were the culprit.
"Up, boy, get up… cultivation can wait, don't play dead…" His voice cracked, breaking into wet, ugly sobs as he finally pressed the small body to his chest.
Fang Yin, forcing herself as she formed that same bright smile, cradled Yuxin's small body in her arms.
"Wake up now, Yuxin… it's alright. I'm telling you, Clan Head already took care of all the bad guys. So please…"
Her voice cracked on the word, breaking into sobs.
"Please… you promised to play with me. You can't break a promise, Yuxin. You can't…"
Tears streamed down her face as she clutched the girl tighter, rocking her gently as though warmth alone could bring her back.
"Please… wake up…"
The smile finally shattered, and only her cries remained.
Jingyi's voice rose again, trembling with fury and despair.
"Heavens! Why us? What did our Fang family do to deserve such cruelty?"
Her body shook violently as she clutched at Yuzhe's hand, tears soaking his unmoving fingers.
"Why—why must it always be our children who pay the price? Why can't it be me? Claim me instead!"
No one had an answer.
The cries only spread, overlapping, each one a wound that would never truly heal.
Fang Yuan stood amidst the ruin in silence.
The grief of his clan pressed against him like a mountain.
Even with all his composure, even with all his power, he could not deny the ache that clawed at his chest.
Fang Mei, Fang Ruì, Fang Bo, and Fang Yang, the younger elders, hurried to the surviving children as they gathered them close, wrapping arms around trembling shoulders, whispering words of comfort through their own choked voices.