Chương 111: The Overlord Strikes Back

This was all a trap laid by the Jiang Family. They had taken the bait. Jiang Wengyin was at the eighth level of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Once he made his move, the whole Prefecture would tremble. The two fourth level cultivators were shaken to their very cores. The one who had been ambushed, a cultivator from the Xing Family, was especially vulnerable. Staring at Jiang Wengyin, who stood almost within arm's reach, despair flooded his eyes.

Jiang Wengyin had seen through their identities with a single sentence. Clearly, he had done his homework. Today's events were now painfully obvious. It was all a trap. The Jiang Family's trap.

"Are you brainless? Or did you truly believe our Jiang Family had fallen so low? You couldn't see a scheme this obvious?" The Tier 1 rogue cultivators scattered in every direction. The Qi Refining Realm members of the Jiang Family gave chase, cutting them down one by one. From the shadows nearby, the backup the Jiang Family had prepared long ago began to emerge. Today, they would slaughter every last person who dared covet the Jiang Family's position.

Today, they would show every faction in Jianqu County exactly who the true overlord was here. Huaijin's expression remained unchanged. Hidden in the darkness, he silently watched the scene unfold. If his guess was correct, this was a long-planned battle by the Jiang Family, a battle meant to prove their strength and reassert their dominance. For the past decade, in their struggles against the other Tier 2 families, the Jiang Family had been retreating, giving ground.

This had led the other major powers to mistakenly believe that the Jiang Family's glory days were over. Now, the Jiang Family was using bloody, iron facts to show them who the real boss of Jianqu County was. Since their identities were already exposed, Xing Haomiao and Hong Tianhui dropped their disguises, revealing their true faces. They were Tier 2 cultivators from the Hong and Xing Families. Their mission: to stop the Jiang Family from getting their hands on that Foundation Establishment Pill.

If the Jiang Family's power had truly waned, they could not be allowed to rise again. The one severely injured was Xing Haomiao. His face was pale as paper, drained of all color. The Hong and Xing Families were both Foundation Establishment Realm clans in Jianqu County. They had never gotten along with the Jiang Family. The panic on Hong Tianhui's face slowly faded as he turned his gaze to the cultivator at the sixth level.

"And who might you be?" Xing Haomiao's eyes were likewise filled with hatred. It was this man's sudden backstab that had left him critically wounded. The man, standing beside Jiang Wuhe, pulled down his black hood.

"Yen Tianyang…" Huaijin, hidden in the shadows, raised an eyebrow in surprise. He hadn't expected to find Yen Tianyang here, the very man his uncle Wu Anhe had failed to locate. It seemed he had thrown in his lot with the Jiang Family. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

"You're not from Jianqu County," Hong Tianhui said, his voice cold.

"Why get yourself mixed up in this muddy water?"

"Enough with the nonsense," Jiang Wuhe roared.

"Are you trying to stall for time? Let me tell you, today is the day you die!" Jiang Wuhe charged straight at Hong Tianhui. Yen Tianyang was also about to make his move. But in the next instant, three auras, each as powerful as his own, suddenly erupted from the nearby forest. Three more figures emerged from the woods. All of them were at the sixth level of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Yen Tianyang's expression shifted dramatically. A faint smile touched Zhang Huaijin's lips.

Judging by their auras, these were cultivators from the Hong and Xing Families. Jianqu County had five major powers. The Jiang Family was the strongest, followed by the Hong and Xing Families. Because of the Jiang Family's dominance, the Hong and Xing had naturally become allies, competing with the Jiangs for the county's resources and interests.

"Jiang Wuhe, don't be so hot headed. How about I help you cool down?" The speaker was a burly man, with tiger-like eyes full of menace. It was Xing Taimo of the Xing Family. Seeing Xing Haomiao's injuries, killing intent surged in his eyes. Huaijin watched silently. It seemed no one was naive here. Both the Hong and Xing Families had their own agendas. This Foundation Establishment Pill was just a pretext, a trigger. They weren't fools. Of course they could see the Jiang Family's trap to lure in their enemies.

But they had come anyway, knowing the risk, to test the Jiangs' true strength. If the Jiang Family was truly weak, they would swarm in and wipe them out in one go. If not, well, the two families together would still be a match for the Jiangs. No one could land a decisive blow. Either way, they didn't lose. So why not play along? Jiang Wuhe's expression turned ugly in an instant. Jiang Wengyin's face was carved with killing intent.

Yen Tianyang, for his part, was constantly scanning his surroundings, already plotting an escape route.

"Heh. So the rumors were true," Xing Taimo said with a faint, mocking smile.

"Your Jiang Family really did lose two Tier 2 cultivators. I wonder which fellow daoist did that good deed?" First, he shielded Xing Haomiao behind him.

"Old Jiang, you're two hundred years old. Why are you still hopping around causing trouble?" Jiang Wengyin's face turned purple with rage at Xing Taimo's taunt.

"Young whelp! Today, I'll show you exactly how I'll cut you down!" Jiang Wengyin summoned his Spirit Artifact and charged into the fray.

"Yen Tianyang, hold off one of the sixth level cultivators for my family today! Don't even think about running. I have close friends in Qingtai City." Yen Tianyang received Jiang Wengyin's telepathic message. He immediately suppressed any thoughts of fleeing. He understood the logic. If the Jiang Family's strength weren't diminished, they never would have accepted his allegiance in the first place. Now that he had offended the Hong and Xing Families, he was stuck with the Jiangs.

The Jiangs' combat power was on the back foot, but it wasn't a lost cause yet. Everything depended on how much of his strength old Jiang Wengyin could still bring to bear.

"Don't worry," Yen Tianyang replied. Once Jiang Wengyin made his move, the two strongest sixth level cultivators of the Hong and Xing Families immediately moved to intercept him. Yen Tianyang, meanwhile, engaged Xing Taimo. Elsewhere, the Qi Refining Realm members of the Hong and Xing Families also appeared. The two sides began a bloody, life or death struggle right there in the desolate wilderness. Most of the rogue cultivators from earlier had already been killed. The few survivors had fled the area.

Waves of terrifying energy blasted outward in all directions. The landscape was torn to shreds, rocks shattered, earth flew skyward. Dozens of craters appeared in mere moments. A single Foundation Establishment Pill had sparked a chaotic three way battle between the major families. At its root, though, it was because the Jiang Family had grown weak. They still clung to immense power and resources they could no longer rightfully defend. Huaijin carefully analyzed the battle.

Jiang Wengyin, despite his late stage cultivation, was over two hundred years old. His life force and vitality were far from their peak. This was a major reason why the two sixth level cultivators weren't afraid of him. They knew they couldn't defeat him, but he had even less chance of killing them. Every single move Jiang Wengyin made cost him Blood Essence, shortening his remaining lifespan. But he had no choice.

All because that fool, Jiang Wenshi, had died at Zhang Huaijin's hands over a single Foundation Establishment Pill. And for the family's other Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators to reach the later stages… that would take decades. The saying "old age fears the young and vigorous" was not just an empty phrase. Yen Tianyang, for his part, fought with everything he had to hold off his sixth level opponent, all while constantly monitoring the overall battle. The moment things turned sour, he would retreat.

Nothing was more important than his own life.