“You want me to talk, so I’ll talk? I refuse to…”
The young man, thinking himself clever, decided to play word games.
*If I don’t speak, you can’t do anything to me, right?*
*Bang—*
The young man was still feeling smug when Chen Xiao glanced at him. The young man’s body instantly dissolved into a mist of blood.
It was like an exploding balloon, leaving not even a speck of bone dust.
In an instant, the entire hall fell silent as dust.
If the young man’s spontaneous flight towards Chen Xiao had only shocked them,
Then now, they felt terror.
And everyone felt a sense of impending doom.
This included the elders behind Chen Xiao.
“Now, are you willing to cooperate?”
Chen Xiao asked with a mocking smile.
“Hmph, ask whatever you want!”
Li Tianxiang spoke with the utmost disdain, uttering the most cowardly words!
“I only ask you one thing: back then, why did your five great families join forces against my Li family? Why did you force my parents to their deaths?”
Li Ziqing struggled to control her emotions, ensuring her voice wouldn’t tremble.
Upon hearing this question, the four elders were silent at first. Then, the gazes of the other three elders all fell upon Wang Xuedao.
“Your father crippled my son. Our five great families are united, so naturally, we wouldn’t let him off! What, is there a problem with that?”
Wang Xuedao stated righteously.
The feud between the Li family and the five great families ostensibly stemmed from Wang Xuedao’s son, Wang Yanhui, coveting Li Ziqing’s mother’s beauty and making advances towards her. Li Ziqing’s father happened upon this scene.
Enraged, Li Ziqing’s father immediately crippled Wang Yanhui. Subsequently, the five great families, bound by kinship, jointly dealt with Li Ziqing’s family.
They killed Li Ziqing’s parents, who had fled to Weicheng. Thus, the enmity between Li Ziqing and the five great families was forged.
However, this was merely the superficial reason. Chen Xiao and Li Ziqing had already reached a consensus that the truth of the matter was far from simple.
“Heh, I want to hear the reason behind it, not this nonsense. I’ll give you one more chance. Tell me, why did you do it back then?”
Li Ziqing sneered.
“This is the real reason. Believe it or not!”
Wang Xuedao snorted, his mouth still defiant.
“It seems you truly don’t know fear unless I show you a little color,”
Chen Xiao sighed, shaking his head helplessly.
Then, with a reach of his hand, Wang Xuedao was lifted from his chair and, in the next second, sent flying across the table to Chen Xiao’s front.
Chen Xiao slapped him, “Are you going to talk or not?”
Following that, the sound of repeated slaps echoed incessantly.
Within mere seconds, Wang Xuedao’s old face was beaten into a pulp.
The other three elders, seeing this, gritted their teeth in anger.
They empathized with Old Wang’s plight and felt sympathy, but it was of no use. They lacked the courage to stop Chen Xiao.
They could only silently curse in their hearts, *“Brat, keep being arrogant. The more arrogant you are now, the more miserable you’ll be when the Nine Thousand Years old arrives!”*
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk, I’ll talk, alright…”
Wang Xuedao finally relented, speaking in a faint, gasping voice.
He was already old, and if this continued, his life would be in danger.
“It was the Batian Sect. The Batian Sect ordered me to do it,”
Wang Xuedao said with a vacant stare, blood and saliva trickling from his mouth.
In his current state, he looked as if Chen Xiao had beaten him senseless.
“Old Wang, don’t…”
Zheng Tianpeng tried to intervene, but it was too late. Wang Xuedao had already uttered the words ‘Batian Sect’.
Zheng Tianpeng shook his head helplessly. Old Wang was doomed this time.
Even if Chen Xiao didn’t kill him, the Batian Sect wouldn’t spare him.
“The Batian Sect said that the Li family had a person with great destiny. We initially thought it was Li Tianyou, but now it seems we were wrong. The true person with great destiny is clearly not him!”
Wang Xuedao said with immense regret.
The person with great destiny he spoke of was clearly Li Ziqing.
Upon hearing this explanation, Chen Xiao believed it to some extent but still frowned, “What does it matter to you if others have great destiny? Why did you target them?”
Wang Xuedao’s expression shifted, and he finally spoke truthfully, “Originally, the Batian Sect only informed our family about this matter and warned us never to reveal it. But our five great families are united. If a person with great destiny appeared in the Imperial City, it would inevitably affect the destiny of our five great families. Therefore, before Li Tianyou could gain power, we devised a plan to eliminate him, but we never expected…”
Hearing this explanation, Chen Xiao was speechless.
This so-called person with great destiny ultimately did affect the five great families of the Imperial City, but it was entirely their own doing.
Li Ziqing smiled, and as she smiled, her eyes reddened, and tears began to fall.
“So that’s how it is. So you harmed my parents for this ridiculous reason. You… by what right?”
This incident had impacted more than half of Li Ziqing’s life. For twenty years, there wasn’t a single day she dared to forget about revenge.
She had carried her burden forward all this way, only to discover that the reason was so absurd, even preposterous.
Simply because of someone’s words, the five great families colluded to harm her parents.
By what right… by what right did they do this?
Li Ziqing’s heart cried out countless times.
“What right? What right is there?”
Wang Xuedao said as a matter of course, “Your Li family back then was as weak as an ant. We could kill you if we wanted, we didn’t need any reason.”
Indeed, when someone wants to step on an ant, they need no reason.
They don’t even need to think about why they want to step on the ant; they just do it, as it only requires lifting a foot.
“Well said, ‘no reason needed’…”
Li Ziqing said with a smile, but the brighter she smiled, the more her tears flowed.
“Just as I don’t need any reason to kill you now! I will not only kill all of you, but I will also exterminate your descendants!”
Li Ziqing gritted her teeth, each word seeming to carry the full force of her being.
This statement terrified everyone.
*The wronged have their tormentors, the debtors their creditors. What does this have to do with us…*
The members of the other four great families were all in a panic, praying fervently, *“Nine Thousand Years old, oh Nine Thousand Years old, please come quickly!”*
Perhaps their prayers were answered, as a series of fine, rapid footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
A group of warriors, clad in brocade robes and with sabers at their waists, entered in an orderly fashion, forming two lines and standing at attention.
Another set of footsteps, heavy and rhythmic, was ascending…