Captured an Acquaintance?

Liu Yunxuan was shaken to his very core! Staring at the pair of boots before him, he knelt upon the ground and kowtowed wildly without the slightest hesitation. *Thud! Thud! Thud!* In just those three strikes, his forehead was reduced to a bloody pulp. After bowing three times, Liu Yunxuan pressed both palms flat against the stone, upturned, his brow pinned to the earth, not daring to twitch a muscle. Terrified as he was, he did not want to die! His voice trembled, struggling past his lips. "Liu clan... Liu Yunxuan greets... the Blood Venerable." Through the young man's blood just moments before, Youming had already learned a great deal. He looked down at the youth with keen amusement. Crimson light suddenly surged beneath the man, slowly coalescing into a towering throne! Entirely blood-red, the seat was as vivid as fresh gore, swirling with streams of light that reeked nauseatingly of blood—a stench like ten thousand slaughtered beasts confined to a narrow room. Beneath the dais sat a dense cluster of skulls, each one polished and translucent like white jade. Youming sank slowly onto the throne, crossed one leg over the other, leaned back, and murmured, "You're the one who snuck out, aren't you?" Prostrate on the ground, Liu Yunxuan was paralyzed with fear, yet he answered honestly. "Replying to the Venerable... it was me..." The moment the words left his mouth, Liu Peiyuan's face turned deathly pale in the crater, his eyes going entirely dead. The old man's lips quivered, unable to utter a single sound. He knew Youming's temperament all too well; upon hearing such a confession, the entire Liu clan might be buried alongside the boy for his mistake! Yet the anticipated wrath never came. Instead, Youming inquired with an amused look, "You're quite clever." Liu Yunxuan blurted out in haste, "Before the Venerable, I dare not conceal a thing!" With a flick of the man's hand, everyone was enveloped within a dark, blood-red hall. Aside from Youming, only three people remained in the chamber: Liu Peiyuan, the ancestor of the Liu clan; Patriarch Liu Xiaochen; and Liu Yunxuan. As the crushing pressure lifted slightly, Liu Xiaochen scrambled to Liu Yunxuan's side, falling to his knees and knocking his head repeatedly in desperate plea. "Blood Venerable above, we... our Liu clan had no intention of breaking the rules! Yunxuan... he only snuck out to take a look at the Great Xia Domain, nothing more..." *Rip!* A monstrous force abruptly crushed the man's throat, tearing away a huge chunk of flesh and blood. *Crash!* Liu Xiaochen's body twisted grotesquely as it was slammed into the stone floor! Youming looked down at him with cold, hooded eyes, his voice frigid. "Did I give you permission to speak?" With that, he turned back toward Liu Yunxuan, the corners of his mouth curling upward in mocking amusement. He suddenly found the situation quite fascinating. Tapping his slender fingers gently on the armrest, he looked at the youth and remarked softly, "Sneaking out just once, yet you managed to bring back a cultivation vessel... You're quite something, aren't you?" At those words, both Liu Yunxuan and Liu Xiaochen turned ashen, their faces drained of color. Liu Peiyuan had been in secluded cultivation all this time and had known nothing of these matters! The revelation made his blood surge backward through his veins, yet he forced it down with sheer willpower, knowing full well that the man on the throne loathed anyone dirtying his Nether Blood Hall. The reason Youming brought it up was that he knew exactly who the captured vessel was! Yu Sui'an! The person the Domain Lord's grandson cared about so deeply. The pivotal figure who had ignited the great war between the two sects in the past. Youming lowered his eyes, countless thoughts racing through his mind in a single instant. When he opened them again, an imperceptible gleam of playful malice flashed in their depths. He actually spoke. "Do you have any idea... what an extraordinary little girl you captured?" The moment he uttered those words, Liu Peiyuan and Liu Xiaochen were both shifted out of the grand hall, leaving only Liu Yunxuan behind in the vast, empty space. Hearing that question, the youth began to shake like a sieve. Outside, Liu Peiyuan stood frozen where he was, his gaze hollow. "Look at what you've done..." he muttered numbly. "The Liu clan... is finished..." Liu Xiaochen still lay on the ground like a puddle of mud. Hearing the ancestor's despair, he surprisingly did not argue back. Youming was too terrifyingly powerful—so powerful that neither of them harbored even a shred of courage to resist. Yet he still stubbornly sent a sound transmission: "There's still a chance! I can see the Blood Venerable treating Yunxuan differently! Perhaps our Liu clan might even turn this disaster into a blessing!" Liu Peiyuan did not bother to acknowledge him. He could not comprehend how such a fool had been born into the Liu clan's bloodline, let alone risen to the position of patriarch! Neither knew how much time slipped by. To both men, every passing second felt excruciatingly slow, like living through years in a single day. *Whoosh!* A dazed Liu Yunxuan reappeared alongside Youming. Clasping his hands behind his back, the man smiled. "Come, take me to see the seal." Relief washed over the old ancestor. Grabbing the limp, broken Liu Xiaochen from the ground, he bowed low with his head hung. "This way, Venerable. The seal lies beneath the main hall." Youming nodded. Completely ignoring every sealing barrier along the way, he vanished and reappeared all by himself upon a sacrificial sealing altar. Looking at the grand array patched together with crude afterthoughts, Youming curled his lip in disdain. Just as several figures materialized nearby, they watched the man raise a hand and shoot forth a streak of blood-red light, forcefully shattering the sealing formation! *Boom!* The formation's barrier burst apart, and Liu Xiaochen cried out in terror, "Venerable, don't! Inside lies—" *Roar!* A blood-chilling bellow erupted from beneath the pitch-black altar. Amid swirling demonic qi, an Abyss Demon fully ten feet tall leaped out! The aura it radiated was terrifyingly formidable, unleashing the crushing pressure of a middle Void Refining Realm combatant! Even with Youming's tall stature, his head barely reached the demon's waist. Yet the man did not even lift his head, allowing the creature to slash a savage claw straight toward him! The instant the demonic claw drew near, an irresistible pressure detonated! *Bang!* The Abyss Demon was slammed brutally against the rim of the altar, utterly pinned and unable to rise! The massive stones along the altar's edge cracked and splintered, web-like fissures spidering outward in an instant. With a cold snort from Youming, countless crimson threads flashed, slicing the mighty Abyss Demon into countless pieces in the blink of an eye! Watching this unfold, the three behind him did not dare breathe. Immediately after, blood-red primal energy surged, condensing countless glowing talismans and runes in mere breaths. Within seconds, a crimson formation spanning a hundred feet enveloped the fractured altar! *Hum!* The instant the grand array solidified, the spiritual energy across the entire Liu clan domain was stripped clean in an instant! Vegetation withered, spiritual qi vanished, and countless pitch-black rifts tore through the fabric of space. Liu Peiyuan's pupils shrank to pinpricks. A single formation had nearly drained the Liu clan's domain to total collapse! Having finished his work, Youming slowly turned his head to look at Liu Yunxuan, his abyss-deep eyes fixing upon the youth as he spoke in a low murmur.