Chapter 6 : Chapter 6
Chapter 6: Root and Branch
Half a quarter of an hour later,
all of Qingfeng Valley had emptied of men and horses.
They set out in four directions, bristling with killing intent.
Jin Family Town.
The stronghold of the Jin family.
In the rear courtyard,
a richly dressed and strikingly beautiful woman paced back and forth across the yard.
Under her breath, she kept muttering, “Heavens above, please protect him. Heavens above, please let my husband’s undertaking succeed.”
The two young maidservants attending her exchanged glances and both shook their heads helplessly.
Ever since the Family Head had gone out at dawn, the mistress had been acting half-distracted and uneasy.
Every half-quarter hour, she would ask, “Has the Family Head returned yet?”
Though they did not know what exactly the Family Head had gone out to do, all the experts of the clan had been taken away with him. The two maids assumed he must have gone to handle some great matter.
Only the noblewoman herself knew what her husband had gone to do.
Though before leaving, her husband had repeatedly assured her that this operation would succeed without fail,
she still could not shake the ominous feeling in her heart.
After all, that was a great clan that had endured for more than two hundred years—deep-rooted, long-inherited, and unfathomable in its reserves. Who knew what hidden trump cards they still possessed?
Unfortunately, she was only a woman of the household, and her cultivation was not high. She could be of no help. All she could do was stay at home and pray that heaven would bless her husband’s journey with success.
Suddenly—
her right eyelid began to twitch violently.
That bad feeling in her heart grew stronger and stronger.
As the saying went: if the left eye twitched, wealth was coming; if the right eye twitched, disaster.
Could something have happened on her husband’s side?
The woman pressed her hands together, her expression becoming even more devout.
“Ancestors of the Jin family above, you must protect the Jin family. You must protect my husband.”
At the same time,
outside Xiaoyan Town,
a squad of several dozen black-robed warriors arrived in silence.
At their head rode a broad-shouldered, powerfully built middle-aged man.
He wore a short beard, and his eyes were bright and steady.
This man was the Li family’s Fourth Elder, Li Xuanzong, a major expert of the Physical Body Realm. He excelled in the use of his iron fists, and once had the impressive record of blasting a rogue cultivator of the same realm to death within ten exchanges.
Li Xuanzong reined in his horse atop a low hill.
From that vantage point, everything in Jin Family Town could be taken in at a glance.
Looking at the still fairly bustling little town,
a trace of coldness rose on Li Xuanzong’s face.
He swept out a hand and said in a deep voice, “By the Family Head’s order, exterminate the Jin family. Leave not even chickens or dogs alive. Any who obstruct you—kill without mercy!”
The orderly ring of blades and swords leaving their sheaths was the best possible answer.
“Kill!”
Several dozen riders lashed their mounts and spurred them into a violent charge.
The thunder of hooves striking the earth shook all of Jin Family Town.
When the townspeople saw this squad of black-robed riders charging in with ill intent,
they began screaming and scattering in every direction.
Some seemed never to have witnessed such a scene before. They were frightened senseless and stood rooted in place, unable to move.
The galloping black-robed riders swung the weapons in their hands. Cold flashes swept through the air. Blood sprayed, and heads flew.
Headless corpses collapsed to the ground, drawing horrified screams from the townspeople all around.
Very soon,
the group reached the gates of the Jin family compound without slowing in the least. The two guards there had only just opened their mouths to shout a warning when their heads were cut off on the spot.
Li Xuanzong left a few men behind to guard the exits.
The rest stormed into the residence, killing whoever they saw, cutting down every person they encountered.
For a time, the Jin family estate became a river of blood.
In the rear courtyard, the woman’s right eyelid twitched faster and faster.
Just then, a blood-soaked member of the Jin family stumbled in.
He cried out in grief, “Madam... run... the enemy has... come to the gates...”
Before he could finish, his neck went limp, and he breathed his last.
The woman felt her vision go black, and nearly fainted on the spot. The dreadful premonition had truly come to pass.
And these so-called enemies could only be the Li family of Qingfeng come for revenge.
Which meant that her husband was almost certainly already doomed.
She could not collapse here.
Forcefully suppressing the grief in her heart,
the woman hurriedly ordered, “Acui, Abi, a great calamity has fallen upon the Jin family. Take the young master and go through the secret passage at once. Go to the Song family. Have them arrange for you to leave Baihe County. Go as far away as you can, and never come back.”
The two maids nodded hurriedly.
“Then what about you, Madam?”
The woman let out a sharp, tragic laugh.
“I am the wife of the Jin family. Naturally, I shall live and die together with the Jin family!”
With that,
she took down a sword from the weapons rack and strode out.
By this point,
the slaughter within the Jin family estate was already nearing its end. Severed limbs and ruined bodies were scattered everywhere. One Jin family clansman after another lay fallen in pools of blood.
The Jin family’s inner compound had been left hollow. Against these ferocious black-robed warriors, they did not possess the slightest power to resist.
The woman had only just stepped outside when she saw a black-robed warrior behead a child of four or five years old.
Her fists clenched so tightly they seemed ready to shatter.
“You beasts!”
Brandishing the sword in her hand, she slashed straight at that black-robed warrior.
Caught off guard, the warrior was just about to be split in two—
when a pair of iron fists appeared in time and slammed into the blade. With a resonant hum, sparks burst in all directions.
“Who would have thought that the Jin family’s mistress is also a Physical Body Realm expert?”
Li Xuanzong looked at the beautiful noblewoman before him, surprise flickering across his face.
“Li Xuanzong, you Li family even kill children of four and five. You have committed every evil under heaven. You will suffer retribution!”
the Jin family’s mistress cursed angrily.
The Jin family had once been a subordinate family of the Li clan. As the Jin family’s mistress, she had naturally dealt often enough with the Li family’s upper ranks.
At a single glance, she had recognized the man before her.
Hearing this, Li Xuanzong let out a scornful laugh.
“How laughable. Madam Jin, you know very well what your Jin family has done, do you not? The victor is king, the loser is an outlaw. If the one who had lost today were my Li family, then I fear our end would have been even worse.”
Madam Jin’s face turned pale.
“Hmph. From this day forward, the Jin family’s name will be erased from Baihe County!”
With that, his iron fists shot out and attacked Madam Jin.
Though Madam Jin had resolved herself to die and fought viciously, she was only at Minor Accomplishment in the Physical Body Realm.
The two of them exchanged only a handful of moves
before Li Xuanzong caught an opening and drove a punch into her beautiful face.
The terrible force blew Madam Jin’s head apart on the spot. Red and white matter splattered across the ground in every direction.
Her headless corpse toppled to the earth.
Li Xuanzong drew back his fist and said expressionlessly to those beside him, “This Madam Jin could at least be called a heroine among women. She showed more mettle than some of the Jin family’s men.”
Ten minutes later,
his subordinates came to report. “Elder, of the Jin family’s one hundred and seventy-one people, only three are unaccounted for. They most likely escaped through the secret passage we just discovered. Everyone else has already been put to death.”
Li Xuanzong frowned.
“Who escaped?”
“The Jin family head’s son, and two maidservants.”
“Hmph. How did you lot handle this, to let people slip away right under your noses? Go after them. If they are not killed, we do not stop!”
“Yes, sir!”
Half an hour later,
the three fleeing master and servants were found. Li Xuanzong raised his blade and brought it down, ending all three lives.
Once the final remnants had been wiped out, the Jin family estate was put to the torch as well. The blazing fire burned for nearly two hours before it finally died.
...
The first to be wiped out was the Jin family.
Then the Great Saber Sect, the Zhang family, and the Zou family followed in the Jin family’s footsteps.
More than a thousand lives were lost on the spot.
From that day forth, the four great forces were erased from the map.
As news spread, all of Baihe County was shaken.
How many years had it been since such bloody storms had swept through Baihe County?