Chapter 87

Chapter 87: Threat

You Yuan’s eyes flashed cold. “Playing tricks. Big mouth, though. Get out here!”

He thrust his palm forward.

The spiritual power distorted space itself, stiffening the air for a breath.

A black spirit stream tore through the distance.

The instant You Yuan’s hand made contact, his entire palm turned black.

His expression changed violently. “How is that possible?!”

By his judgment, that black spirit stream shouldn’t have been lethal enough to do this.

He hurried to drive his spiritual energy through it, trying to purge it.

It didn’t budge.

Left with no choice, You Yuan used brute force to seal it within his palm.

As he dealt with it—controlled, but unmistakably thrown off—a towering figure stepped into the space beside Han Yan.

Xiao Yuan Tian’s gaze flicked over his wife. He checked her condition, fed her several Upper-Grade pills, then turned to You Yuan.

“You actually dared to reach into the Heavenly Phoenix Continent,” he said. “The Ancestral Dragon Continent has grown more reckless by the year.”

Pressure rolled off him, quiet and suffocating.

You Yuan’s arrogance thinned. “An Integration Realm cultivator from the South Sea Academy…”

His eyes narrowed. “You should be a director.”

With his current strength, he could handle elders from the three great powers.

But against someone like Xiao Yuan Tian, he was still a step behind.

Even if a continent that once rivaled the Ancestral Phoenix had declined, its foundation remained.

After a brief thought, You Yuan’s figure blurred—then slowly faded, vanishing from the world.

Han Yan’s eyes sharpened. She slapped Xiao Yuan Tian’s shoulder, breath still ragged. “I’m fine. Chase him.”

If they let him escape, they would lose the Ancestral Dragon Continent’s trail.

“I placed a curse on him. He can’t get far,” Xiao Yuan Tian said, relief flashing when he saw color return to her face. Then his gaze hardened. “And you—something this big, and you didn’t send word back to the academy.”

If he hadn’t felt something was off and insisted on following, Han Yan—and Lin Zhao, a student recognized by the Venerable Elders—would have been finished.

Lei Yuan spoke, unable to stop himself. “No one expected Yao Chi Sacred Land to be colluding with the Ancestral Dragon Continent. It was also our mistake. We let them scheme against the Lin Family for years.”

Xiao Yuan Tian fell silent.

The three great powers maintained transcendent status. In truth, they rarely cared about other forces’ struggles. Over countless years, noble houses rose and fell, geniuses bloomed and vanished, sects flared up and died.

Even top forces faltered sometimes. The South Sea Academy itself had risen through constant turmoil.

The Lin Family’s decline, to them, had been tragic—but not unusual.

Even back when they’d learned Ji Wan Tang had stolen Lin Zhao’s Phoenix Fortune, they’d only sighed at the cruelty of fate.

Who would have thought that “normal” tragedy hid a continent’s plot?

“This time, it was our Lin Family that failed to judge people,” the Lin Family Old Ancestor said with a helpless smile. “With Yao Chi Sacred Land as cover, it’s only natural you didn’t realize people from the Ancestral Dragon Continent had come.”

Who would ever suspect one of the four Sacred Lands was tied to the Ancestral Dragon Continent?

Han Yan turned, cold eyes landing on the Yao Chi group.

The moment Xiao Yuan Tian arrived, he had already trapped them in a Heaven and Earth Prison Cage.

“You people,” Han Yan said, voice flat, “are you still not handing her over?”

Ever since You Yuan fled without taking them, Ling Yao had been drowning in despair. Facing Han Yan now, she closed her eyes. “Let us go—and we will hand her over.”

As long as they returned to Yao Chi Sacred Land, what then? Unless a Tribulation Transcendence expert appeared, Yao Chi Sacred Land feared no one.

“Let you go?” Xiao Yuan Tian’s smile was thin. “Han Yan—you’re still too soft-hearted.”

Han Yan understood what he intended in an instant.

A flicker of pity rose—for the disciples trapped behind Ling Yao.

It vanished at once.

Xiao Yuan Tian lifted his hand casually.

Behind Ling Yao, Yao Chi disciples began to scream.

Bodies exploded and collapsed into puddles of black water.

A handful of Nascent Soul cultivators resisted, but only barely. They shook like leaves on the verge of tearing free.

The Lin Family members shivered.

This was their first time seeing it clearly: before a high-level expert beyond Spirit Transformation, numbers meant nothing. Lives were cheap.

Lin Zhao stood beside the Lin Family Old Ancestor, watching with a face like stone.

She felt nothing at the deaths.

If these experts hadn’t stepped in, those same disciples would have slaughtered the Lin Family to the last.

“Still won’t speak?” Xiao Yuan Tian pointed at another Nascent Soul cultivator.

The man’s body softened, then melted into black water.

The remaining Nascent Soul cultivators howled. “Elder! Save us!”

Ling Yao’s jaw trembled.

Nascent Soul cultivators were valuable strength for Yao Chi Sacred Land. Losing them all wouldn’t cripple the sect, but it would be a bleeding wound.

Xiao Yuan Tian stood with hands behind his back, black spirit streams writhing in his palm. “Or do you want to test whether I can melt your Spirit Transformation body with this water?”

Ling Yao’s lips pressed together until they whitened.

Then, in a sudden motion, she slapped a Teleportation Talisman onto Shen Yu Han.

And lunged straight at Lin Zhao.

“No handing her over!” Ling Yao screamed. “Only one life—then let this little slut die with our Yao Chi elites!”

She was fast.

Xiao Yuan Tian was faster.

The moment she turned, Ling Yao and Shen Yu Han froze mid-motion, as if time itself had been pinned in place.

“Regional Spacetime Lockdown,” Granny Hong Hu murmured, voice faint with awe. “He should be mid Integration Realm.”

Lin Zhao’s heart surged.

So this was Integration Realm.

In the next instant, she flashed to Shen Yu Han, grabbed him, and dragged him back like a hostage carved from silence.

“Immortal Venerable Ling Yao,” Lin Zhao said, voice deadly calm, “I know you can’t move, but you can hear. If you don’t return my mother—Shen Yu Han will die here today.”