Chapter 197: 155. Once again, a top auspicious divination lot!
Just as Chu Kun said, Lin Zhen was having some damn bad luck.
He was ambushed right at his own clan's doorstep, in Jiangzhou.
If he hadn't gotten wounded beforehand, Lin Zhen might still have had a chance to escape back to the Lin Clan's ancestral grounds in Jiangzhou.
But fate had it that he was intercepted and killed by Xu Yuanzhen right along the way.
The senior sister of the Celestial Master Mansion—she always did what she said she would.
*Your Lin Clan messed with my Celestial Master Mansion, whether you hurt my people or not, I'm still going to hit back.*
And she cut zero corners with it.
You ambushed my people,
I did the same to yours.
Live or die, it all came down to ability.
*Say Xu Yuanzhen had no rules? Well, at least she wasn't targeting the Lin Clan disciples at Middle Three Heavens like Lei Jun or Zhang Jingzhen.*
If she was going to move, she'd move on someone from the Upper Three Heavens!
*Say she did have rules? Hell, she had the cultivation of the Eighth Heavenly Layer, but not a trace of that sage-like style or master's bearing; against Lin Zhen of the Seventh Heavenly Layer, she just ambushed him, attacked without warning.*
So, in the end, Lin Zhen, the most promising successor among the younger generation of the Jiangzhou Lin Clan, wound up dead on the spot.
If this happened to our side, it'd be like Senior Brother Li Zhengxuan getting killed...
Lei Jun and Chu Kun glanced at each other, speechless for a moment.
"Honestly, I figured the senior sister would pick a Lin Clan expert from the Upper Three Heavens as her target, but I never thought she'd actually kill Lin Zhen,"
After a long silence, Lei Jun remarked, "Senior sister... always finds a way to shock you."
Chu Kun curled his lip, "Maybe... Master Three and the others don't see it that way."
*For some people, this was a surprise.*
*For others, it was a goddamn shock.*
Both at the Seventh Layer of Heaven Realm, even if Lin Chi had died at Tiansong Mountain back then, it wouldn't have been nearly as bad.
With Lin Zhen dead, no matter what the rest of the Lin family thought, they were sure to respond fast.
The silent truce at Poyang Lake wasn't happening anymore, that much was clear.
The front lines instantly became a battlefield of blood and flame.
Li Ziyang and Shangguan Ning, who were already at the front, suddenly found the pressure ramping up big-time.
*Whether or not they cursed Xu Yuanzhen in their hearts was anyone's guess.*
First, they just had to withstand this first wave of Lin Clan counterattack.
The good thing was, Xu Yuanzhen wasn't the type to just kill and disappear.
After finishing Lin Zhen, she stayed between Jiangzhou and Xinzhou, still fighting off the Lin Clan powerhouses striking back.
The generations-old enmity between the Jiangzhou Lin Clan and the Xinzhou Dragon Tiger Mountain was only getting deeper.
No matter the Li surname, no matter whatever conflict had brewed within before, the entire Celestial Master Mansion on Dragon Tiger Mountain had to pull together now to face the enemy.
Of course, to guard against other enemies trying to take advantage, the Mansion didn't send out every expert they had.
Yuan Mobai remained at the ancestral altar of Wanfa Sect, and Li Hongyu donned the one priceless Celestial Master Robe they couldn't afford to lose; neither left the mountain right away.
To deal with the Lin Clan's full-scale revenge strike, Supreme Elder Li Song left the mansion, heading to Poyang Lake to help out.
At the same time, a message was sent up the mountain, telling Li Zhengxuan and Tang Xiaotang, who were off traveling, to return ASAP.
But, since they were still searching for the Celestial Master's Sword, constantly moving and diving into all kinds of complicated places, there was no guarantee they'd even get the message in time, let alone make it back soon.
As for the High Merit Elders still on the mountain, besides Yuan Mobai and Li Hongyu, every single one got into the fight.
Xu Yuanzhen, Li Song, Li Ziyang, Yao Yuan, Shangguan Ning—all were battling powerhouse Lin Clan experts between Jiangzhou and Xinzhou.
Of them, the prime target was, of course, Xu Yuanzhen herself.
"Nephew Yuan Zhen, she's holding out for now."
On Dragon Tiger Mountain, Yuan Mobai looked at the two disciples before him and said, "Jiangzhou may be counterattacking hard, but there's no way they'll leave their ancestral grounds totally empty."
Lei Jun and Chu Kun both nodded.
*Now that upheaval was shaking the world, everyone had to stay wary.*
Not to mention, Great Demons were showing up more than ever.
With Demonic Qi and Evil Miasma hanging over things, Great Demons feasted on blood, and they didn't care whose.
Sure, they didn't cultivate Spiritual Energy, but the cultivators rich in it were all the more tempting to them.
Even if Celestial Master Mansion and the Jiangzhou Lin Clan didn't worry about grudges with other Human Race forces, neither dared empty out their home base just to go all-out in a single fight.
Otherwise, if a Great Demon raided the house, it'd be a disaster.
*History was full of blood-soaked lessons just like this.*
Back on Tiansong Mountain, when the Lin Clan met the Bipolar Heavenly Eagle, the casualties had been severe.
Although Lin Chi arrived in time, some victims were still devoured by the Bipolar Heavenly Eagle.
Right now, with Celestial Master Mansion and the Jiangzhou Lin Clan at war—not just playing at silent understandings anymore—they still kept some sense, watching for other threats.
"For the Lin Clan now, it's mostly about saving face and holding on to unity among blood relatives."
Chu Kun said, "The ones absolutely bent on dying for Lin Zhen's revenge aren't the majority."
*It was a matter of internal cohesion and their reputation outside; Lin Clan powerhouses weren't going to sit this one out.*
*But expecting them to throw their lives away was just unrealistic.*
Of course, expecting Li Ziyang or Li Song to risk their own lives just to help Xu Yuanzhen was no more realistic.
"That's all true enough, but this battle isn't going to end easily," Yuan Mobai said, "Everyone in our sect has to give their best, stay sharp, and not get careless."
Lei Jun and Chu Kun both replied together, "As disciples, we follow Master's teaching."
*In a way, Senior Brother Wang Guiyuan had truly seen this coming.*
With Lin Zhen dead, the battle just blew up.
The whole Dragon Tiger Mountain got moving, running tighter than ever.
It wasn't just a handful of High Merit Elders heading out.
A whole crowd of sect Elders and elite True Inheritors mobilized as well.