CHAPTER 203: 203- A WIDOW’S SORROW [1]

A few days had passed since the sword-light incident.

Fang Yuan currently stood in silence, his gaze fixed on the looming mountain beyond the city walls.

Coldwind City itself was suffocating under tension.

Merchants and traders abandoned the city as they tried to escape the incoming disaster.

Mortals with nowhere to run, no place to escape to shuttered and prayed to the emperor to save them.

Fang Yuan finally retracted his gaze.

Just last night, several clan elders had came to him, their eyes sharp with fear. They had asked the same question, their voices wavering: Was the rumours true?

The golden screen flickered in his mind.

[Fang Clan]

Head: Fang Yuan (Strongest cultivator in Coldwind City)

Vassal: Lin Clan

Clan Faith in Their Head: 70% (Medium) ↓ (Previously 75%)

Daily Generation: 600 Faith Exp, 4,000 Faith Points

The drop in faith was clear.

Rumors of him cultivating a Heaven-grade treasure had already spread and taken root.

His clan elders also knew too well the bloody price such treasures demanded.

Though Fang Yuan did not address it. It wasn’t the time yet, the only person who knew was Lin Zhaoyue.

For some weird reason, he couldn’t help but feel that she was the most trustworthy person he could share it with.

Then—BOOM!

The deafening blast rolled across the city, shaking tiles loose from roofs. The sound came from the Wu clan’s ground.

Even from the Fang family estate, he could see debris bursting skyward from the Wu clan’s grounds.

Just in time, a servant boy sprinted in, breathless, collapsing into a bow.

"Clan Head! The Wu family is under siege! It’s a pack of Saberfangs, at least at the Nascent Soul stage! They have called for your support!"

Fang Yuan’s eyes narrowed as he muttered silently.

"...so it’s begun."

He turned to the servant, his tone calm, deliberate.

"Tell the Matriarch this, the Patriarch has already moved out to aid them."

Without another word, Fang Yuan drew his blade.

The sword hummed with power as he stepped onto it.

In the next breath, he was gone, soaring into the skies, streaking toward the Wu territory.

In the meantime, the Wu Clan’s territory was in chaos.

The first Saberfang, a beast at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm stood tall as a hill, its silver fur slick with blood.

Its claws carved trenches through stone walls as easily as parchment, every swing collapsing buildings like child’s toys.

With each roar, shockwaves rattled the very foundations of the estate.

Two others, both mid-stage, prowled through the wreckage, their fangs glinting.

One tore through the Wu clan’s outer guards like cattle, blood misting the air with every snap of its jaws.

The other slammed its massive tail into the training grounds, flattening dozens of disciples beneath rubble before they could even scream.

The last Saberfang, high-stage, leapt onto the central hall. Its weight alone crushed the roof, sending beams and tiles exploding outward.

From within came desperate cries of women and children as dust swallowed them whole.

The Wu Clan fought back.

Elders ignited their life force, releasing their last reserves of qi to conjure shields, blades, and storms of fire.

Yet for every strike they landed, the Saberfangs retaliated tenfold.

A single swipe of a claw shredded three cultivators mid-flight. Their bodies rained down like broken dolls.

Blood ran through the courtyards, pooling at the roots of the Wu Clan’s ancestral trees.

The air stank of burning flesh and crushed stone.

Amid the devastation, Wu Matriarch’s voice thundered, hoarse but unyielding.

"Hold the line! Do not falter!"

But her command was drowned out by another explosion, the peak Saberfang exhaling a gale of killing intent that shattered her defensive formation in an instant.

The protective array of the clan flickered, cracked... and broke.

The Wu clan’s last bastion had fallen.

And then, above the chaos, a streak of sword-light appeared in the horizon.

Fang Yuan had arrived.

His sword-light blazed across the skies and descended into the Wu Clan’s shattered estate.

Dust and screams greeted him, but his expression was unreadable, calm as still water.

The peak-stage Saberfang turned first, its blood-red eyes locking on him.

It roared, the sound splitting the heavens, and lunged with claws that could sever mountains.

Fang Yuan met the strike head-on.

He drew his blade in a single, fluid motion, one sweep of qi strong enough to bisect the beast where it stood.

The world itself seemed to pause, the light of his sword stretching for miles... but he stopped, deliberately pulling back at the final instant.

Instead of death, sparks flew as steel clashed with claw.

The shockwave ripped apart what little of the Wu Clan’s defenses still stood, flattening the remnants of the outer courtyard.

Mortals and servants were hurled into the air like leaves in a storm.

The Saberfang staggered, then growled, pacing in a circle around him, its fur bristling but its fangs bared in something that looked more like recognition than rage.

The Wu Clan’s cultivators gasped. He... he can fight a peak Nascent Soul Saberfang to a standstill?!

Yet Fang Yuan’s face was still calm, his voice carrying clearly through the carnage.

"Matriarch Wu," he called, blade locked against the beast’s claw as sparks rained around them, "where is Wu Shun?"

The matriarch, pale and bloodied, struggled to her feet amid the rubble.

Her lips trembled. "H-He... he was sent to rally reinforcements! Clan Head Fang, I beg of you—help us drive these monsters away!"

But Fang Yuan’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly, a gleam of calculation flickering within them before he began swinging his sword at the beast once again.

Each swing of Fang Yuan’s sword carved trenches in the earth, each swipe of the Saberfang’s claws shattered walls like paper.

The other three Saberfangs, sensing a worthy foe, turned their blazing eyes toward him. With snarls that rattled the heavens, they bounded forward.

The ground quaked as one mid-stage beast slammed its paw down, collapsing an entire courtyard, while the high-stage Saberfang lunged at his flank, jaws snapping like steel traps.