CHAPTER 264: LINGYUN’S GUARDIAN ANGEL

Author’s Note: Do Not Unlock Yet. Chapter Is Still Under Construction.

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Victor sensed the shift in the air before their arrival and decided to get out of the courtyard.

Up ahead, the six eldest members of the family, each a senior elder or branch leader—faced him as he stepped out.

They were an impressive group by local standards. Elder Qin Mu, the first among equals, carried the rare air of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

Beside him stood Bai Xian, the chief Bai representative whose Qi aura quivered with barely restrained anger, around early Nascent Soul.

The four other elders hovered between the middle and early Nascent Soul stages. All of them combined could muster a decent force, or so they assumed.

"Fang Chen," Elder Qin Mu intoned with an overbearing voice. "You’ve stirred unrest in our family, incited rebellion, freed slaves, and have undermined every plan we put in motion. We demand answers: who are you, and by what right do you sabotage us?"

The chamber doors closed behind him with a resonant thud.

Fang Chen offered them a slight bow that was almost too casual. "You’ve asked the wrong question," he said softly. "You should be asking how a nobody—someone with no history, no promotion records, no family lineage—came to walk among you."

Murmurs spread across the surroundings as Elder Bai Xian cheeks flushed with indignation. "We have documents! We have registers! Every disciple’s history is recorded in the family archives."

"And yet," Victor replied while spreading his hands, "there is no entry for Fang Chen. You welcomed a stranger with open arms, and now you blame me for your mistakes."

The elders immediately felt more enraged than earlier.

He had been under their nose this whole time and no one ever figured it out.

"Evidence suggests you have been at the crux of every fault line in our unity."

Victor gave a half-smile. "I destroyed the chains around the necks of the ones you enslaved. I merely returned your stolen humanity."

"That’s enough!" Elder Qin Mu’s palm blazed with condensed Qi.

"You demon of deceit! This elder will now invoke your retribution by crippling your cultivation."

Now Victor knew it was game time because he couldn’t go against any of them while suppressed.

As Elder Qin Mu charged in with his arm wickedly outstretched, Victor took a slow breath, lifted his chin, and let the suppression pill’s effect ebb away.

Beneath his calm guise, his Qi suddenly exploded in a controlled crescendo, radiating outward like waves across water.

He shifted into a low stance, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

A soft rumble resonated through the surroundings as his thrust his palm out to meet Elder Qin Mu’s strike.

Bang!

Both blows met with a thunderous boom, causing sand and dust to scatter in every direction as the ground beneath their feet cracked.

The gathered elders stiffened upon witnessing this.

When the dust cleared, Elder Qin Mu had shifted back by four paces while Victor was still standing at his initial position.

"Behold, the truth," Victor announced.

In an instant, he unleashed a vibrant pulse of violet-tinged energy... which was the unmistakable aura of a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, enriched by the unique resonance of his Void Emperor bloodline.

Gasps echoed. Several elders staggered back, clutching their chests as if the revelation had struck them physically.

Bai Xian’s mouth fell open. Bai Yao hand shot to a talisman at his belt. The mightiest among them, Elder Qin Mu himself, angled his head as his eyes widened.

He swiftly lowered his trembling right arm and put it behind him, unwilling to accept the travesty playing out before his eyes.

"Impossible," Elder Qin Mu breathed. "You—"

Victor held up a finger. "Don’t finish the sentence. Yes you were fooled."

Without further preamble, Elder Qin Mu lunged once again, lifting a roaring torrent of stormlight Qi from the heavens.

He was anguished that this youngster had made a fool of him and everyone else; and now he wasn’t going to go easy.

Lightning crackled around his blade, splintering the wooden dais behind Victor with explosive force.

Victor did not dodge.

Instead, he spun, twisting into the attack, and absorbed the strike with a single palm.

He channeled the energy deep into his dantian, shifting the attack with his Void Qi to another location entirely.

Then, with the ease of stretching a hand to pick a flower, he swept his leg in a low arc, sending Qin Mu sliding across the floor and splintering stone in his wake.

The other five elders sprang forward at once with their Qi coalescing into a ring of wind and flame which surged toward Victor from all sides.

His eyes narrowed as he inhaled.

A smile cracked his lips. "Is this the best you have?"

With a flick of his wrist, he drew his sword and spun 95 degrees with the blade extended.

[ Shadow Crescent Strike Activated ]

A radiant tendril of cresent shaped shadow Shadow spread across his blade in tye process of spinning.

In the same instant, Darkness lanced through the surroundings, slicing the ring of attackers in two.

The wind gusted as two elders went tumbling backward with their robes shredded.

Bai Yao lunged with a talisman flare sending arrows of sealing light shooting toward Victor.

The runes burned bright and for a moment, it was fire against shadow but Victor simply rotated his blade in a spiral, igniting it with Dragon-Breath.

When he swung, the talisman bolts evaporated like mist before dawn as a dragon shaped flame swept forward powerfully.

Within seconds, the greatest melee the annexed family had ever faced on its own grounds erupted in chaos.

Sparks flew. Roaring incantations filled the air. Dust swirled around broken pillars. Yet Victor remained at the center, poised like a viper ready to strike.

Elder Bai Xian screamed and formed a crescent of earth around her—a barrier meant to trap and crush. Victor stepped forward, pressing one hand to her barrier. His Qi inverted its flow. The earth shuddered, splitting apart in a shockwave that sent Bai Xian skidding across the floor.

Only two remained upright now; the others lay groaning, Qi reserves drained. Elder Qin Mu struggled to his knees, eyes blazing with fury. "You—how—"

Victor sheathed his sword with a snap that echoed through the shattered hall. He strode to the dais, towering over the battered council.

"You wanted my strength," he said softly, though everyone in the room heard. "You wanted to see Fang Chen’s true Qi. You have it. Now decide if you’ll continue to rule with bloodstained hands... or if you’ll beg forgiveness and call for reinforcements you’ll never find."

Silence reigned. Guards at the doors hesitated, torn between loyalty and fear. Shen Yi, chest heaving, stared at Victor as if seeing him for the first time.

Finally, Elder Qin Mu bowed his head, blood dripping from a cut on his eyebrow. "We... we yield. Do not slay us."

Victor’s lips curved. "Then begone, and tell your masters that Fang Chen commands respect. Let the people I freed decide the rest."

With that, he turned, leaving the estate’s greatest hall in smoldering ruins behind him. Every elder too proud to confess defeat now forced to face their own fragility—exposed by a stranger who had walked into their family without lineage, yet dared to shatter their illusions of power.

Outside, the freed slaves and Renamed Exiles waited. A fresh wind blew down the steps as Victor emerged. The night air felt sweeter. Above, the moon shone through ragged clouds, illuminating a future forged by will, not by birth.

And this night marked the beginning of the end for the annexed Bai–Qin stronghold. The storm had broken—and Fang Chen, the one no one recorded, led the charge.

---ss

Victor sheathed his sword with a snap that echoed through the shattered hall. He strode to the dais, towering over the battered council.

"You wanted my strength," he said softly, though everyone in the room heard. "You wanted to see Fang Chen’s true Qi. You have it. Now decide if you’ll continue to rule with bloodstained hands... or if you’ll beg forgiveness and call for reinforcements you’ll never find."

Silence reigned. Guards at the doors hesitated, torn between loyalty and fear. Shen Yi, chest heaving, stared at Victor as if seeing him for the first time.

Finally, Elder Qin Mu bowed his head, blood dripping from a cut on his eyebrow. "We... we yield. Do not slay us."

Victor’s lips curved. "Then begone, and tell your masters that Fang Chen commands respect. Let the people I freed decide the rest."

With that, he turned, leaving the estate’s greatest hall in smoldering ruins behind him. Every elder too proud to confess defeat now forced to face their own fragility—exposed by a stranger who had walked into their family without lineage, yet dared to shatter their illusions of power.

Outside, the freed slaves and Renamed Exiles waited. A fresh wind blew down the steps as Victor emerged. The night air felt sweeter. Above, the moon shone through ragged clouds, illuminating a future forged by will, not by birth.

And this night marked the beginning of the end for the annexed Bai–Qin stronghold. The storm had broken—and Fang Chen, the one no one recorded, led the charge.

Victor stood at the very center of the sprawling courtyard, where jade tiles met polished marble, his breath steady despite the torrent of qi swirling around him. The night sky overhead was sliced by torches mounted on the pavilion’s balconies, their flickering flames casting restless shadows across the gathering of Qin and Bai family elders, each arrayed in their ancestral robes.

Moments ago, a peace had been declared, but only in words. Now, steel sang against steel, and the air crackled with raw power.

"How dare you!" Elder Qin Han’s voice boomed. He was the very man who had once driven Victor—Fang Chen—from Lingyun Town a year before, his strength overwhelming in his Nascent Soul form. Qin Han’s eyes blazed with indignation as he summoned his family’s signature art: the Iron Mountain Stance, feet rooted, body bristling with condensed earth qi.

Victor nodded once, respectfully enough to tease Qin Han, then drew a slow breath. In the blink of an eye, he vanished with Shadow Blink, reappearing behind the elder. He struck with Phantom Moon Slash—a graceful arc of shadowy qi that carved through the air.

But Qin Han was no novice. He turned, his own cult­ivation art flaring, and blocked Victor’s strike with the Mountain’s Heart Palm. The collision rang out like thunder, qi fracturing around them in sparks of reddish-brown dust. Victor staggered back a step but recovered instantly, a small grin flickering across his pale features.

"You’ve improved," Qin Han admitted, stepping forward. "But you’re no match for me still."

Victor’s eyes glowed a faint violet. He flexed his fingers, gathering qi into a cruel crescent shape. "Let’s put that to the test."

With a sudden surge, Victor unleashed Shadow Crescent Strike; darkness and light entwined as a curved blade of pure void qi shot forward. Qin Han’s eyes widened, and he slammed both palms down in an explosion of earth qi, shattering the strike into jagged fragments. The ground around them trembled, tiles cracking beneath the force.

Nearby, two other elders advanced. Elder Bai Rui, her hair streaked silver despite her youth, summoned a flurry of icy petals with her Frost Bloom Seal. Each petal fluttered out, sharp as razor glass and coated in freezing qi. A second elder, Qin Song, channeled Flame Serpent Arts, his arms wreathed in burning qi that licked the air with hungry tongues of fire.

Victor danced between them. He activated Dragon Breathing Arts, flame coiling along his arms, and used it to vaporize the frost petals midair. Then, with a sudden bound, he leapt in a soaring arc and swung his fist forward, sending a spiraling shockwave that buffeted the flame serpent’s qi back into a sputter. Qin Song landed heavily on the courtyard edge, coughing black blood.

Elder Bai Rui pressed her hands together, chanting softly. Another wave of freezing petals descended, but Victor quietly closed his eyes, feeling the chill in his blood. With a low hum, he condensed a shield of void qi around himself, nullifying the frost and melting it into harmless sparks.

The elders recoiled at the ease with which their family arts were dispatched, and murmurs of shock rippled through the assembled disciples. This boy—the outsider—had turned their signature techniques against them.

Qin Han scowled and charged. "You dare ridicule our arts?" With a stomp, he shattered the ground beneath Victor’s feet, sending jagged earth shards shooting upward in an attempt to pin him. But Victor was gone in a blink—another Shadow Blink—and appeared above Qin Han, sword drawn for a Phantom Moon Slash aimed straight at the elder’s shoulder.

Qin Han barely raised an arm in time, blocking the blow. The sword’s qi carved a deep groove in his armor, but the elder managed to stagger back, retrieving his balance. Dirt fell from his robes as he glared upward.

Victor dropped softly and sheathed his sword. His qi flared, and for a heartbeat he looked every inch the Nascent Soul cultivator he truly was—an apex predator poised to strike. The other elders hesitated, glancing at one another with wide-eyed alarm.

Then Victor spoke, calm but fierce. "Remember me? A year ago, you ran me out of town. You almost broke all my bones and tortured me until Bai Xue intervened. I escaped then, and I promised I’d return."

Shock registered in every elder’s eyes. Whispers flooded the courtyard. "It’s him..." "Fang Chen..."

They remembered all too well the boy who had humiliated Qin Fei and set the entire household into chaos. The same upstart who had vanished without a trace—until now.

Qin Han’s face twisted. "You insolent—" He lunged again, but Victor’s next strike was a Phantom Moon Slash combined with a crescent of flame from Dragon Breathing Arts. The combined qi cleaved through the elder’s earth palm, sending him sprawling backward across the courtyard.

The other elders raised their voices, desperate to overwhelm Victor with coordinated attacks: fire, frost, earth, wind. But their efforts only served to showcase his superiority. He sidestepped with Phantom Mirage Step, countered with Frost Bloom Seal to frost-bind ankles, then expelled a torrent of void qi that shattered their formations.

As the battle reached its crescendo, the courtyard shuddered. Qi crackled in the night air like lightning trapped in a bottle, illuminating the horrified faces of the family’s core disciples watching from the balconies above.

Victor breathed deep, gathering his final reserve for one decisive strike. His aura pulsed, the night around him dimming as he activated his nascent soul’s full might.

But before he could unleash his Shadow Crescent’s ultimate form, a twin gong clang rang out, echoing through the estate.

The courtyard gates thundered as they were flung open, and a figure strode in, radiance blazing. He was older yet formidable—hair the color of silver starlight, robes rippling like liquid moonlight. His presence alone snapped the gathered disciples upright in reverent terror.

"Who dares defy my heirs?"

His voice was low, but it carried the weight of a mountain and the hush of midnight. The battle arrests mid‑air; Victor’s qi faltered, the elders froze, and even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

Elder Qin Han, battered and bleeding, struggled to his feet, stumbling toward the newcomer. "Master... it is Fang Chen. He—"