The Lin's Patriarch is weird.

The corners of Peng Tianyuan’s eyes twitched.

"This annoying little pest..."

He stared at the lone girl standing before dozens of cultivators without the slightest trace of fear.

"What exactly are you trying to do?"

Lin Zhaoyue tilted her head innocently.

"Don’t worry, I only chased you all the way here to make sure you don’t get lost."

For a brief moment, the forest fell completely silent.

The cultivators of both families looked at one another, each wondering if they had heard correctly.

Peng Tianyuan’s face gradually darkened.

"We spared your life yet you actually dared to chase us."

Hao Zhenshan let out a cold laugh.

"It seems children truly don’t understand the meaning of fear."

He took a step forward, the spiritual qi around him surging once more.

"If you’ve come back on your own, don’t blame us for no longer showing mercy."

Lin Zhaoyue’s smile only widened.

"Oh no! What is this, my kindness is being misinterpreted."

With a flick of her wrist, an exquisite folding fan appeared in her hand.

The fan unfolded with a crisp snap and a gentle breeze stirred the surrounding leaves.

"The Flowing Cloud Fan Art..."

She slowly raised the fan before her face, leaving only her smiling eyes visible above its edge.

"...is much more enjoyable when there are plenty of targets."

Lin Zhaoyue gently twirled the folding fan between her fingers, seemingly oblivious to the killing intent gathering around her.

Instead, she lowered her head and began mumbling to herself.

"Father really is amazing. To think he actually found a technique this profound."

She slowly opened the folding fan, tracing its smooth surface with her fingertips.

Even in her previous life, despite wandering the cultivation world for centuries and having entered various sorts of ruins and auctions.

She had never, not even once, encountered a martial technique that could compare to the one Lin Xuan had given her.

Its profundity was beyond anything she had ever imagined.

What made it even more unbelievable was that she had only scratched the surface.

She had merely only mastered the first technique recorded within the manual.

There were still sixty-eight more techniques waiting to be comprehended.

Sixty-eight!

Just thinking about it made her heart race with anticipation.

Her gaze gradually drifted toward Peng Tianyuan and Hao Zhenshan.

She tilted her head.

"...Actually. I’ve been wondering about something."

The two patriarchs instinctively frowned while Lin Zhaoyue blinked innocently.

"Are you two really worthy of being family patriarchs?"

The forest suddenly became deathly quiet.

She counted on her fingers as though seriously calculating something.

"I’m only twelve and I’ve only cultivated for less than two year. Yet the two of you, after cultivating for decades..."

She looked up with genuine confusion.

"...still can’t beat a twelve-year-old?"

She sighed and shook her head.

"I think your ancestors would be crying if they saw this."

The veins on Hao Zhenshan’s forehead bulged.

"You little—!"

Peng Tianyuan raised a hand to stop him, but his own expression had already darkened to its limit.

"Don’t fall for her words, she’s merely trying to anger us."

His voice was as cold as ice.

"Let’s kill her."

Boom!

Golden Core spiritual qi erupted from his body.

Behind him, a massive phantom mountain condensed in the air, radiating an oppressive aura that caused the surrounding trees to creak under its pressure.

"The Mountain Suppression Art."

Peng Tianyuan thrust both palms forward.

The phantom mountain descended with overwhelming force, as though intending to crush everything beneath it.

At the same moment, Hao Zhenshan let out a low roar.

Scarlet spiritual qi surged around him, gathering into the shape of a gigantic tiger.

The tiger’s phantom opened its jaws and released a deafening roar that shook the entire forest.

"The Crimson Tiger Devouring Technique!"

The enormous tiger pounced toward Lin Zhaoyue, its claws tearing through the air.

The surrounding cultivators immediately retreated, unwilling to be caught within the collision.

Facing the overwhelming assault, Lin Zhaoyue raised her folding fan and a gentle breeze swept through the forest.

"The Flowing Cloud Fan Art..."

Her spiritual qi circulated along a mysterious path before flowing into the fan.

The fan seemed to disappear beneath layers upon layers of drifting clouds.

Lin Zhaoyue smiled.

"First Form..."

She gently swept the fan across the air.

"Clouds Part Beneath the Azure Sky."

The drifting clouds burst outward and a graceful current of spiritual qi surged through the forest, colliding head-on with the descending mountain and the roaring crimson tiger.

The moment the three techniques collided, the forest shook violently.

Boom!

A deafening explosion erupted between them.

Towering trees were uprooted by the violent shockwave, while countless branches and leaves were blasted into the sky.

Peng Tianyuan’s pupils contracted.

"How is this possible?"

His Mountain Suppression Art specialized in overwhelming opponents through absolute force.

Yet the moment it touched those drifting clouds, its power seemed to disappear without a trace, as though countless layers of silk were gradually absorbing its momentum.

The harder it pressed, the softer the clouds became. The softer they became, the more terrifying their resilience grew.

On the other side, Hao Zhenshan’s expression also changed.

His crimson tiger tore through layer after layer of clouds, only to discover there was no end to them.

Every cloud it dispersed was immediately replaced by another.

Its momentum steadily weakened until even its roar became noticeably fainter.

Lin Zhaoyue smiled.

"So this is what that line meant, the soft overcomes the hard."

She had never truly understood those words while practicing alone.

Only now, facing two Golden Core patriarchs, did she finally grasp their meaning.

An opponent could unleash ten times more power than she possessed, yet that power would gradually dissipate within the endless currents of flowing clouds.

The smile on her face widened.

"What an incredible technique..."

With another graceful sweep of her fan, the drifting clouds suddenly changed.

The previously gentle currents began revolving around one another.

Within moments, an enormous vortex formed before her.

"What?"

Peng Tianyuan’s expression changed dramatically.

"Our techniques are being pulled away!"

The two family techniques could no longer advance.

Instead, they were dragged into the rotating cloud current, their trajectories becoming increasingly unstable.

Lin Zhaoyue then snapped her fan shut and the spinning clouds instantly reversed direction.

The power contained within the phantom mountain and crimson tiger was forcibly redirected.

The two massive techniques crashed directly toward one another.

BOOM!

The earth quaked and a blinding explosion engulfed the forest.

The phantom mountain shattered into countless fragments of spiritual qi.

The crimson tiger exploded into scarlet light.

The resulting shockwave swept across the battlefield, forcing every Peng and Hao cultivator backward.

Even the two patriarchs were pushed back several dozen metres before regaining their footing.

When the dust finally settled, both men stared at Lin Zhaoyue in stunned silence.

She had used their own strength against each other.