Xin'er, Don't Fear, Father Is Here!

The man's eyes flickered, the wrinkles at the corners deepening as he spoke with a grim expression. "Are you saying... there is someone behind him pulling the strings?" Luo Changqing nodded, cast a glance toward Luo Siyang, and sent a cold voice transmission. "Are you sure this will go smoothly? Li Guanqi... is not someone to be trifled with!" With that, Luo Changqing slowly turned his gaze upon his father. Void of the slightest hint of respect, his voice rang out chillingly, "Luo Dongyang, is it worth trading this good-for-nothing's life for that fortunate encounter?" Luo Dongyang's expression shifted slightly. Without hesitation, he raised a hand and slapped toward Luo Changqing's cheek! "Insolent bastard!" *Thud!* *Clang!* In a flash, Luo Changqing's left hand locked onto his father's wrist, while his right hand unsheathed his saber, resting its tip squarely against the man's throat. A terrifying aura surged outward in an instant, crisscrossing saber qi swirling wildly around them. Luo Dongyang's face darkened completely. Glaring with venomous eyes, he hissed, "Vile son, you dare raise a hand against me?! Had I known, I should have left you to die in the forbidden ground!" A bone-chilling sliver of murderous intent flared deep within Luo Changqing's eyes. Blood vessels crept across his sclera, and his voice trembled faintly with ice-cold fury. "Do you think I am still that useless weakling you could beat and scold at will? Luo Dongyang... what a ruthless heart you have! Taking advantage of my absence... you murdered my mother just to seize the Life-Soul Golden Cicada Gu to prolong that waste's life! But you never expected it, did you... I returned. I came back alive! You slaughtered my mother with your own hands—you truly are a beast! Even if my mother was merely a concubine, she was family chosen by your own hands! All for nothing more than a wretched Golden Cicada Gu!" Luo Changqing grew increasingly agitated. The saber's tip broke through the man's skin, and blood actually flowed toward the blade! Luo Changqing's chest heaved violently. Lowering his saber, he violently shoved the man's hand away. He turned aside to compose himself. If not for what the man had promised him, he would have abandoned the Luo Clan long ago. This family... *heh*... could it even be called a family? A place steeped in calculated interests, utterly devoid of human warmth... Perhaps it did not deserve to be called a home at all... Nearby, experts of the Luo Clan sat in a circle behind Luo Siyang. Before them stretched a spatial rift a full ten zhang wide. The rift opened and closed rhythmically like a pulsing jellyfish, its brilliant silver luminescence flickering with an enigmatic gleam. This was a clear sign that the secret realm space teetered on the brink of collapse. The space around the entrance was fractured with dense webs of hairline cracks. By now, Ye Bingxin had been tortured until she lacked the strength even to cry out, her voice raspy and spent. Only the occasional shudder of pain running through her body proved she was still breathing. Her entire back was a mangled blur of torn, mangled flesh, looking horrifyingly gruesome. Blood stained the surrounding green grass, and blood blurred Ye Bingxin's vision. Her eyes were filled with despair... Staring at the bloodstained grass before her, she still clung to the desperate hope that her father would come. To deliver her from this living purgatory. Yet her eyelids grew heavier and heavier as the shrill crack of the whip rang in her ears. Her clone had likewise been brutalized until its breath was as faint as gossamer. Suddenly! Luo Changqing and Luo Dongyang looked up toward the heavens almost simultaneously! Luo Changqing sprang to his feet, shooting outward like a cannonball as a roar ripped from his throat. "Enemy attack!" Before his words even finished echoing, two terrifying sword lights descended in rapid succession! Terrifying sword qi swept across the void. In a single exchange, the surrounding array plates shattered to pieces! Everyone present was instantly blasted hundreds of zhang backward by the monstrous assault! And Luo Changqing caught sight of the man who had always struck terror into his heart. Clad in white robes, carrying a sword coffin on his back, wielding a four-foot crimson sword, his eyes as calm and unrippled as stagnant water! "Li Guanqi!!" Flying backward, Luo Changqing forced his body to a halt and surged against the blast wave. With a sweep of his hand, he seized both Ye Bingxin and her clone. The moment Ye Xuan tore through the boundary, he saw Ye Bingxin lying on the ground, her breath faint as thread. His eyes nearly splitting at the corners, the man flew forward, only to find Li Guanqi was faster still! Reaching forward, Li Guanqi raised the sword in his left hand and struck out with three slashes! Every hair on Luo Changqing's body stood on end. He detonated his full might, raising his saber to slash in return! Yet the crisscrossing saber light failed to impede those three sword beams in the slightest. Before his opponent's strikes, his own saber light was like clay chickens and pottery dogs, obliterated utterly the moment they clashed! The stench of death engulfed Luo Changqing. Yet just as Li Guanqi moved to pull Ye Bingxin back... A sudden chill rose at his back! *Bang!* With a thrust of his palm, Li Guanqi sent Ye Xuan flying to safety beside him, while swinging his sword behind him in a reverse slash. At the same time, his right hand condensed a lightning blade, thrusting straight toward Luo Changqing's face without so much as a glance! With no time to think, Luo Changqing flicked his saber upward, barring it horizontally across the bridge of his nose. *Boom!* Terrifying force discharged in an instant. The impact slammed the saber's spine into his nose, snapping the bone clean in two. His body shot backward uncontrollably. As his grip loosened, the falling Ye Bingxin was seized by Luo Dongyang, who clamped a hand around her throat. "Xin'er!" Seeing this, Ye Xuan roared in fury and charged forward, an overwhelming pressure erupting from him. Yet Li Guanqi had no luxury to spare them any attention, for a withered, blackened palm had lunged out directly behind him. *Clang!* Where the blade pointed, a razor-sharp, terrifying sword intent soared into the heavens. Yet the sound that rang in his ears was the heavy chime of clashing metal. The palm merely drew back slightly; Red Lotus had failed to pierce the opponent's defenses! Lightning flared across his body, wings of thunder unfurling from his back. With a single flap, he teleported over a hundred zhang away! Immediately after, an oddly dressed old man slowly stepped out from the silver-lit spatial rift. He was withered and small, and nearly all the exposed skin on his frame was pitch-black. His heavily wrinkled face bore bizarre, inky tattoos, and his shriveled flesh and sunken eye sockets exuded a sinister, unholy aura. The old man's hair reached his waist, braided into long plaits. The grotesque black tattoos on his face resembled the unrecognizable totem of some venomous creature. Li Guanqi could not detect the slightest trace of an aura from him! Yet simply standing there, his gaze calm as water, the elder exerted an inexplicable, suffocating pressure upon Li Guanqi. Even the hand holding his sword involuntarily tightened. Ye Xuan was held at bay by Luo Changqing alone, unable to advance an inch. He could only watch helplessly as Luo Dongyang held Ye Bingxin hostage. "Father..." A feeble murmur drifted from the girl's lips. Ye Xuan's eyes were bloodshot to the point of tearing, his knuckles whitening as he gripped his sword. Crisscrossing sword qi slashed the earth into jagged ravines. Seeing Ye Bingxin in such a wretched state, his eyes reddened, and his trembling lips parted in a gentle, reassuring murmur, "Xin'er, don't fear... Father is here! Father is here!" Yet just as Ye Xuan prepared to strike, Li Guanqi suddenly sensed disaster! "Watch out!"