As he spoke, Ye Lingtian’s gaze locked tightly onto Ye Mingtian. Deep within those eyes, there was not the slightest trace of blame—only unquestionable resolve and urgent insistence.
Ye Mingtian froze for a moment. Then it felt as if an invisible hand had seized his heart, squeezing so hard he could barely breathe.
As a mercenary leader who had wandered the outside world for years, how could he not understand the meaning behind his father’s gaze?
This was not an order.
It was a final entrustment.
He was being asked to trade his own life… for his younger brother’s chance to live.
If he didn’t go, then today, not a single member of the Ye Family would survive.
Hot tears surged into his eyes, only to be forcefully suppressed.
Ye Mingtian kowtowed heavily, his voice hoarse and heavy, “Yes, Father. Your son… will go at once.”
He abruptly rose, turning to dash toward the rear courtyard in a streak of light.
However, the moment he moved, Lu Qingxuan’s faintly mocking voice rang out.
“Qingyan, do you see now?”
Though he spoke to Su Qingyan, his tone seemed meant for the entire Ye Family to hear.
“I told you long ago—human nature is inherently base and incorrigible. When given a chance, they do not think of taking responsibility, but of how to escape.”
Su Qingyan bowed slightly, her expression respectful, “Yes, Master is right. This Disciple… has learned.”
Boom!
This casual exchange between master and disciple struck Ye Lingtian’s mind like a thunderclap from the heavens.
In that instant, he understood everything.
From the very beginning, Lu Qingxuan had never intended to spare a single member of the Ye Family.
The so-called “chance” was nothing more than a lesson—an act staged by this Divine Transformation Realm Ancestor to teach his soft-hearted disciple.
How cruel. How contemptuous.
The overwhelming humiliation and despair ignited into a towering fury.
Ye Lingtian slowly rose from the ground. Inch by inch, his bowed spine straightened.
The fear and pleading vanished completely from his face, replaced by a madness and resolve that burned with the last of his life.
Boom—
The aura of a peak 9th stage Golden Core Realm cultivator erupted skyward without restraint. His hair and beard whipped wildly, his robes snapping in the wind.
His eyes turned blood-red as he stared at the indifferent figure in the sky and roared, “So in the eyes of a Divine Transformation Realm Ancestor, my entire Ye Family is nothing more than ants to be toyed with at will!”
“Since death is inevitable either way, then today, I, Ye Lingtian, will challenge you—the Ancestor of the Azure Immortal Sect—and see what the peak of Lizhou truly looks like!”
This desperate roar ignited the blood of every Ye Family member.
“Fight them!”
“The Ye Family has no cowards!”
“Ye Family—fight to the death!”
Fear vanished, replaced by a fierce resolve born from absolute desperation.
The Ye Family—fight to the death!
Facing this unified roar of defiance, Lu Qingxuan’s expression remained utterly calm.
He did not even glance at Ye Lingtian, who stood like a madman with overwhelming momentum. Instead, he turned slightly to Su Qingyan beside him and asked gently, “Qingyan, have you ever seen a palm technique that descends from the heavens?”
Su Qingyan was momentarily stunned.
Before she could ponder the deeper meaning of his words, she saw Lu Qingxuan casually raise the right hand that had been resting behind his back and lightly press it downward toward the seething Ye Family estate below.
Just such a simple motion.
In an instant, the wind stilled. The clouds dispersed.
The entire world fell into absolute silence.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
The once-clear blue sky had been covered at some unknown moment by an enormous shadow.
The outline of that shadow… was unmistakably a hand.
It blotted out the heavens, replaced the sun, and the lines of its palm were as clear as mountains and rivers.
Before the giant hand even descended, the boundless pressure it carried had already begun to distort space itself.
The elegant pavilions and towering halls of the Ye Family estate began to collapse without any direct impact. Wooden beams turned to powder, bricks dissolved into nothingness.
Some younger members of the Ye Family, whose courage had just flared, were instantly crushed. Their legs gave out, and they collapsed to the ground, a stench of fear spreading from them.
Even the elders with deep cultivation now stood pale-faced, trembling.
At the very moment when everyone’s minds teetered on the brink of collapse, Ye Lingtian’s voice, burning with the last of his life, roared once more.
“All members of the Ye Family—hear my command!”
“Support me!”
The panicked crowd seemed to find their anchor. A spark of light reignited in their despairing eyes.
Yes. Death was inevitable either way.
Better to stand and be reduced to ashes than to kneel and be crushed into dust.
“Ancestor! My life was given by the Ye Family—now I return it!”
A white-haired elder roared, the first to unleash the full power of his Golden Core. It transformed into a dazzling beam of light that shot into the sky and merged into Ye Lingtian’s body.
“Father! Your son will accompany you to the underworld!”
Ye Mingtian’s eyes burned red as he too poured his entire cultivation into a torrent of energy, merging into the rising beam.
“For the Ye Family—fight to the death!”
“For the Ye Family—fight to the death!”
One, ten, a hundred…
From aged elders to young children, every member of the Ye Family made the same choice.
They sat cross-legged, expressions resolute, offering up their spiritual energy—whether strong or weak—and the fragile flames of their lives without reservation.
They converged in the sky, twisting together into a colossal pillar of light that surged violently into Ye Lingtian’s body.
“The formation—gather!”
Ye Lingtian threw his head back and roared, his voice filled with endless pain and power.
His body cracked apart inch by inch, only to be instantly healed by the overwhelming energy.
Peak 9th stage Golden Core Realm… the bottleneck shattered!
Boom!
A terrifying pressure far beyond the Golden Core Realm erupted from his body, stirring the winds and clouds.
The surrounding spiritual energy surged backward, forming a massive vortex.
Nascent Soul!
Using the lives of his entire clan as fuel, and the bloodline formation as a furnace, Ye Lingtian, in the final moments of his life, forcibly broke through the boundary and stepped into the Nascent Soul Realm—something countless cultivators could only dream of.
Feeling this unprecedented power within him, Ye Lingtian’s face held no joy—only desolate sorrow.
He raised his head, staring at the descending world-destroying palm. Gathering all his strength into his fists, he unleashed the strongest—and final—attack of his life.
“Ancestor of the Azure Immortal Sect! My Ye Family does not fear death!”
A blood-red fist aura, condensed to its absolute limit and carrying the last dignity and defiance of an entire clan, surged upward against the heavens to meet the falling hand.
However, the fist aura that held the hopes of Ye Lingtian and the entire Ye Family failed to stir even the slightest ripple upon contact with the giant hand.
It did not shake it in the slightest.
Then, the giant hand descended.
Silently.
The entire Ye Family estate—along with every person and every object within it—was erased from existence under that single palm.
The dust settled. The wind resumed.
The once magnificent estate, filled with carved beams and bustling voices, had vanished completely.
In its place was a bottomless, colossal palm print, seared into the earth.
The Ye Family, a prestigious clan of Lizhou… was erased from the world.
Not a single survivor remained.
In the sky, Su Qingyan’s cold eyes could no longer conceal her shock and lingering fear.
So this… was the power of the Divine Transformation Realm?
So this… was the palm technique her master spoke of?
Lu Qingxuan nodded in satisfaction. At the same time, his divine sense spread instantly across the flattened ruins of the Ye Family and every inch of land within a 100-kilometer radius.
In the next moment, his gaze locked precisely onto the depths of the Ye Family’s rear mountain.
“Oh? There’s actually one who slipped through the net.”