Chapter 41 A Bizarre Scene

"Instructor Moxie, are you alright?"
"Li Xuan, how are you feeling?"
……
……
Li Xuan's face was deathly pale. Just a single glance from those mysterious eyes had made him feel as though the majority of his vitality had been stripped away, leaving his blood essence completely dried up.

Instructor Moxie was even more thoroughly shaken, her soul seemingly unhinged. The technique known as "The Green Bull's Metamorphosis into a Dragon" had been directly swallowed up. That spectacle was so utterly incomprehensible that it caused her mental state to collapse and her cultivation foundation to shatter.

Struggling to his feet, Li Xuan circulated the "Blue Pocket Codex" to heal Instructor Moxie's injuries. After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, a trace of color finally returned to her face.

However, the look Instructor Moxie cast toward Li Xuan was now tinged with terror.

"Li Xuan, what on earth did you do to push Instructor Moxie to this state?"
Jiang Qingyue asked with feigned courage, glaring at Li Xuan.

The other students looked at Li Xuan as if he were a harbinger of plague and terror. What kind of demonic arts could possibly exist to overpower even Instructor Moxie without fail?

Utterly exhausted, Li Xuan narrowed his eyes at Jiang Qingyue before collapsing unconscious.

Li Xuan had no idea how long he had slept. When he finally woke up, his mouth was bone-dry, yet a serene and tranquil fragrance drifted to his nose.

"Where... is this?"
Li Xuan's faint voice echoed softly in Tang Ruoxian's quiet, elegant boudoir, which was filled with a lingering, delicate scent.

"Sister Yueyue, am I in your manor?"
For a long time, there was no reply.

With great difficulty, Li Xuan pulled himself up into a sitting position. After pulling his garments straight, he staggered out of Tang Ruoxian's bedchamber.

"You brat, where do you think you're going?"
An imposing voice, resembling a thunderclap, reverberated in Li Xuan's ear. Immediately following it, an elderly man with a face full of fury appeared before him.

Lifting his gaze, Li Xuan forced out a meager smile and said, "Tang Mingchen, what are you here for?"

Tang Mingchen stood with his hands on his hips, the mole on his cheek twitching incessantly as he rebuked harshly, "Who gave you permission to climb onto my granddaughter's bed? Where do you get the gall?"

Consumed by rage and embarrassment, Tang Mingchen looked as though he wanted to devour him alive.

"You are already betrothed to my girl, yet you still dare harbor thoughts about the Jiang family's lass. Have you grown tired of living?"

Taking a deep breath, Li Xuan simply sat down on the ground and began to act shamelessly. "That's my own business. Besides, Sister Yueyue and I are childhood sweethearts, growing up together, perfectly matched in every way—"

Enraged to the point where his eyes bulged, Tang Mingchen seized Li Xuan by the collar and hauled him up from the floor. Panting heavily through his flared nostrils, he roared, "Do you truly believe this old man wouldn't dare slaughter you right now, and then sell the two sisters, Li Luochen and Li Chenxi, into a brothel to be tortured to death?"

Straightening his chest, Li Xuan raised his voice even higher. "You dare? My continued existence is the sole hope of the Tang family! Believe it or not, I'll drag Tang Ruoxian down to the grave with me as a funeral companion."

With a harsh shove, Li Xuan batted away Tang Mingchen's hand and dropped heavily into a chair.

"Dammit, you've really grown rebellious!"
Seething with fury, Tang Mingchen swung his aged fist, ready to plant it squarely on Li Xuan.

Suddenly, the barrier of light fluctuated violently. An aged figure materialized within the screen and reprimanded, "Mingchen, do you treat my words as wind passing a donkey's ear? Until the matter is settled, no one is permitted to touch Li Xuan—not even the Imperial Court. How are the tasks I assigned you coming along?"

As a contemporary guardian elder of the Tang family, Tang Mingchen usually possessed immense prestige and threw his weight around with arrogance. Yet today, he was being scolded until he was utterly drenched in disgrace. Feeling aggrieved in his heart, he cursed inwardly, *I clean up my own messes, and running into this bastard of a brat must mean I've had eight lifetimes of bad luck!*

***

Tang Mingchen wore a mournful expression as he channeled his own source power into Li Xuan's body, taking the opportunity to extract a drop of the young man's heart blood.

At that moment, a withered, skinny hand reached out from within the light screen and directly snatched away Li Xuan's heart blood.

Dressed in fiery, tight-fitting martial attire that outlined her flawless curves, Tang Ruoxian walked in with a flushed face and asked, "Ancestor, Grandfather, what are you two doing?"

Maintaining a stern expression, Tang Mingchen warned, "Adults are working. Children shouldn't ask so many questions."

Having regained a measure of his vitality, Li Xuan rasped in a hoarse voice, "I am the son-in-law entering the Tang family; naturally, I must make some contributions. It's merely a drop of blood anyway—if I were a woman, I'd gladly give you a cup every month."

Hearing this, Tang Ruoxian's face flushed brilliant crimson, and she shot Li Xuan a ferocious glare.

About to flare up once more, Tang Mingchen suppressed his mounting anger and retorted, "Do you know why we had to take a drop of your blood?"

Although Li Xuan did not know what the Tang family intended to do, which family's ancestor would willingly allow themselves to grow old and die while supreme techniques cultivated through tens of thousands of tribulations vanished into smoke?

The most probable reason the Tang family was doing this was to study Li Xuan and discover the secret to living out a second lifetime.

"Isn't it just that you want to study me? If there were a way to resolve the 'Heaven-Defying Profound Woman Technique,' you'd be more than eager to dissect me directly. Wouldn't that make things much simpler?"

Hitting the nail squarely on the head, Li Xuan spoke without any fear of the Tang family's retribution.

Tang Mingchen laughed heartily. "You're a clever kid. If practicing the 'Heaven-Defying Profound Woman Technique' didn't require a virgin body, this old man would genuinely love to hold a little grandson from you and Xian'er. What a pity, though."

With a flick of his sleeve, Tang Mingchen stepped forward and vanished directly from Tang Ruoxian's courtyard.

"Grandfather, come back..."
In the exquisite courtyard, only Li Xuan and Tang Ruoxian remained.

Li Xuan remained entirely unbothered. Having lived two lifetimes, when had he ever lacked swallows and orioles, beauties of every shape and form, with peaks piled upon lush peaks? His skin was thick enough to handle anything.

Bound by the modesty of a maiden, Tang Ruoxian stood with a blushing face. As she chased after her grandfather, her twin peaks swayed like frightened little white rabbits escaping their cage—utterly adorable.

"Tang Ruoxian, usually you're cold as frost, the epitome of an ice-mountain beauty. Could that all be an act? I never took you for someone who could harbor such tender, dependent feelings."

Discovering that Tang Ruoxian possessed a tender side as well, Li Xuan naturally seized the opportunity to thoroughly tease her.

Tenderness had long since been deeply buried at the bottom of Tang Ruoxian's heart; dependence, for her, was practically an extravagant luxury.

Instantly reverting to her frosty demeanor, Tang Ruoxian spoke with biting chill, "It has nothing to do with you. Since you're staying in this young lady's courtyard, don't go shouting other people's names in the future."

"Heh..."
Shaking his head helplessly, Li Xuan chuckled mockingly, "Considering you took me in, Tang Ruoxian, I advise you to tell your family's ancestors to be careful—don't let themselves get scared out of their wits."

Possessing a nimble mind, Tang Ruoxian immediately recalled Instructor Moxie's desolate, soul-shattered appearance. Without hesitation, she activated the light barrier to convey the warning to the ancestors.

However, it was already too late.

Inside the Tang Family Laboratory!

"Pass down the order: activate the barrier surrounding the laboratory. Extract and analyze through the night; this old man wants to know what secrets Li Xuan is hiding."

A group of Tang family disciples immediately set to work refining Li Xuan's blood. Following round after round of purification, a beam of crimson light soared from the Tang Family Laboratory straight into the firmament.

The Tang family barrier shattered with a deafening crash, and not a single disciple inside the laboratory was spared; all were reduced to ash without leaving a trace of bone.

While the ancestors stood in shock, they captured a terrifying sequence of images.

Within an endless, pitch-black river of darkness stood an ancient stone tablet towering into the clouds, covered in the vicissitudes of time and ancient source runes, writhing as though it were a living creature.

In the center of the tablet was an eye resembling a equinox flower. That eye seemed to possess infinite demonic power, and the moment it opened, a horde of monsters covered from head to toe in red fur was seen crawling forward.

***

They possessed human-like builds, yet they crawled and walked like beasts, emitting strange babbling sounds from their mouths as wisps of bloody mist leaked from their bodies.

The bloody mist billowed upward, converging in the sky like a river of blood surging toward that equinox-flower-like eye.

"Ah, my source power... it seems to be getting swallowed!"
"Quick, hold fast to your original nature, unite your divine souls!"
"Everyone, do not look! Cast aside all distracting thoughts!"
……
……

The divine souls of the Tang family ancestors trembled violently. Their already withered blood essence was once again vaporized, and the wrinkles on their skin rippled like waves.

"Dammit! Falling for that brat's tricks every single day, and each time is different! This is completely unreasonable!"

Spouting a mouthful of old blood, Tang Mingchen gnashed his teeth in fury, yet he had no way to vent it.

"Reporting to the ancestors, this disciple is willing to slaughter that dog—"
Before Tang Mingchen could finish speaking, he heard a feeble, weak reprimand: "That boy is no simple character. Watch over him well for me. If he fancies beauties, it wouldn't hurt to let Xian'er make a slight sacrifice."

Frowning deeply, Tang Mingchen rubbed his blurred eyes vigorously, finding it hard to believe his own ears. Was the "Heaven-Defying Profound Woman Technique" simply going to be abandoned just like that?

The aged, weak voice sounded once more: "From now on, when you see Li Xuan, show this old man some courtesy. Do not bark orders at him. That marriage contract is the greatest contribution you've ever made to the Tang family..."

Wanting to argue a few words further, Tang Mingchen was met with a closed door and could only retreat in sullen dejection.

Upon witnessing that beam of crimson light, Tang Ruoxian stood dumbstruck, her slender hand covering her red lips, utterly unable to believe what had just transpired.

What kind of astonishing power was hidden within Li Xuan's heart blood that not only blew up the Tang family laboratory, but even shattered the protective barrier in an instant?

Coupled with the incident involving Instructor Moxie, Tang Ruoxian scarcely dared to imagine that the shameless scoundrel who had peeked at her bathing three years ago possessed such terrifying bloodline power.

Naturally, Li Xuan felt it as well. Furrowing his brows tightly, he too realized the terrifying nature of those eyes.

Recalling the scene during his tribulation—when he had used a source rune formation to lure Xiao Ning into taking the bait—those eyes had appeared back then, though their true form had remained obscured.

Those mysterious eyes had emerged precisely because of the use of the source rune formation, and Old Hei had previously reminded Li Xuan that he belonged to the lineage of Source Heaven Masters, indicating a close, inextricable connection.

Furthermore, because Li Xuan had repeatedly employed source rune formations, those eyes had long since stealthily infiltrated his divine soul in the dark.

The lineage of Source Heaven Masters had suffered divine retribution, living in seclusion for tens of thousands of years, to the point of near-extinction.

"Li Xuan, tell me what on earth is going on here! Why would you slaughter members of the Tang family?"

With her chest heaving violently, Tang Ruoxian wished nothing more than to cleave Li Xuan in two with a single sword stroke.

Dropping his head and letting his azure, lake-like eyes scan Tang Ruoxian's proud figure with meaningful depth, Li Xuan said, "If you want the answer, take off your clothes and let's chat slowly in bed."

Clang!

Without hesitation, Tang Ruoxian drew her longsword, pressed the tip against Li Xuan's throat, and spoke with icy coldness: "Shameless!"