novel-books Chapter 53 Countdown: Kunlun's Removal from the List
Chapter 53 Countdown: Kunlun's Removal from the List
Deep in the Kunlun Mountains, the snow line is six thousand feet high.
The blizzard, like a thousand hungry wolves, gnawed at the millennia-old glacier, whipping up rocks into the sky only to slam them down again, accompanied by a mournful howl. No one knew that deep within this forbidden zone lay a bronze palace, dormant for millennia—the core secret realm of the Kunlun Sect, the very place Lu Yuan was about to conquer.
Inside the main hall, the flames of the eternal lamps were wildly flickering in the draft, illuminating the jade pendant floating on the altar. Dark red bloodstains had congealed on the jade's surface, like a wound that would never heal, while the crack in the center of the pendant was spreading at a visible speed. Every crack meant a further loss of life for Lu Yuan's sister, Lu Qingxue.
The sect leader, Xuanjizi, sat cross-legged on a futon, his knuckles rubbing two jade pendants. The jade was warm and smooth, but it only made the sinister look in his eyes seem even more chilling. Beside him, the fat old Taoist, Xuanchen, stroked his fleshy face, his eyes greedy; the thin old Taoist, Xuanfeng, kept glancing at the jade pendant, his Adam's apple bobbing, full of restlessness.
"Master, the Blood Shadow Guards have been gone for three hours. They should have obtained that little girl from the Lu family's blood by now, right?" Xuan Chen opened his eyes, his voice filled with impatience. "As long as we use her pure Yin blood to break the jade pendant's seal and get the primordial immortal energy left by our ancestor, the three of us brothers can break through the shackles of heaven and earth and reach the Earth Immortal realm!"
Xuanfeng snorted coldly, tapping his knee with his fingertips, his tone full of disdain: "Just a few mortals. Xue Yi personally led the team. If they can't even handle this small matter, they might as well jump into the Evolution Blood Pool and become snacks for the Gu worms. I'm just worried about how to divide the immortal energy once we get it—it can't all go to you, Xuanjizi, alone, can it?"
These words were like a poisonous thorn, piercing the facade of harmony among the three. The air in the hall instantly froze, a murderous intent surging within. The realm of Earthly Immortals—that was the only path after breaking the severance of the natural order; who wouldn't want to monopolize the opportunity and achieve immortality?
Xuanjizi clenched his jade gall bladder tightly, a ruthless glint in his cloudy eyes: "What's the rush? Wait until the Blood Shadow Guards bring the blood back and lift the seal before we talk about dividing the spoils! The mountain-protecting formation is now at its strongest killing array. Let alone a worldly nuclear bomb, even if an ancient demon came, it would be blasted to ashes. There's no chance of failure!"
The words "absolutely foolproof" had barely left his lips when the ancient bronze bell on the dome of the main hall suddenly emitted a deep, muffled thud—not a warning, but a mournful cry after being struck by a tremendous force!
"Buzz—"
The entire bronze hall shook violently, and the mythical beast statues on the twelve white marble pillars instantly cracked open with countless fissures, sending fragments of stone falling in a flurry. The four old Taoist priests (along with an elder who had been sitting in a corner) sprang up from their prayer cushions, their expressions changing drastically.
"What's going on? Is it an anomaly in the Kunlun ley lines?" Xuan Chen staggered and grabbed a pillar for support, his fat jiggling violently, and his voice distorted.
Xuanjizi stared intently at the palace gate, the jade disc between his fingers shattering with a "crack," powder slipping through his fingers. His voice was hoarse, as if it had been sanded: "It's not the earth's veins—someone is trying to break through my protective mountain formation!"
"Absurd!" Xuan Feng roared, rushing to the central Xuan Guang Mirror. His fingertips flashed with incantations. "The Kunlun Mountain Protector Array was set up by ancient immortals. Its core is connected to the entire Kunlun ley line. The nuclear weapons test was conducted outside the mountain, and the array's light didn't even budge an inch. Who has the ability to make the main hall tremble? You must be mistaken!"
The water rippled on the mirror, quickly reflecting the scene outside the great formation.
The next second, the four old Taoist priests stopped breathing at the same time, their pupils shrank to pinpoints, and the hairs on their bodies stood on end.
In the raging blizzard, a vacuum zone over a kilometer in diameter was forcibly torn open—snowflakes, hail, and even the air were all forcefully pushed aside by an indescribable force, and even the wind and snow dared not approach. In the center of the vacuum, a young man hovered in mid-air, his black clothes fluttering in the gale, his face cold and stern, his eyes devoid of any emotion, only a frozen stillness.
He didn't step on his sword, didn't make any hand seals, and didn't even use any magic weapons. He simply raised his right fist slowly, without any fancy moves, and with that one punch, he smashed it into the cyan light screen of the mountain-protecting formation.
"boom!"
No sound came from the Xuan Guang Mirror, but the earth-shattering impact, backlashed from the formation, instantly swept through the entire bronze hall. Dozens of Kunlun disciples responsible for maintaining the formation's operation coughed up blood, their bodies flying backward like kites with broken strings, crashing heavily into the hall pillars, unconscious, their fate unknown.
On the cyan light screen of the mountain-protecting formation, the spot where the fist struck created a huge crater, with countless cracks spreading wildly like a spider web, almost tearing the entire light screen apart.
"What...what the hell is this monster?!" Xuan Chen pointed at the Xuan Guang Mirror, his fingers trembling like a leaf, unable to even speak coherently. "He used his physical body to withstand the great formation? The laws of Earth simply do not allow a physical body of this level to exist! This is impossible!"
Xuanjizi's face was ashen as he stared intently at the expressionless boy in the mirror. A ridiculous yet undeniable thought flashed through his mind, and his voice trembled: "He...he's that peasant woman's son, that kid named Lu Yuan!"
"Impossible!" Xuanfeng screamed, seemingly insane. "The intelligence says he's just an ordinary high school student who doesn't even know how to cultivate! If he were that strong, how could the Ye family dare to touch his mother? How could they dare to lure his sister here for us?"
"Fool!" Xuanjizi slapped Xuanfeng across the face, the crisp sound echoing in the hall. "The intelligence was provided by the Ye family! But have you forgotten? The Ye family was wiped out three days ago!"
These words struck the three old Taoist priests like a thunderbolt. They finally realized—they had been tricked from beginning to end!
Xuanjizi forcibly suppressed the fear in his heart, his mind racing: the mountain-protecting formation could only hold for three more times at most. Once the formation broke, the centuries-old foundation of Kunlun Mountain would surely be razed to the ground by this monster! He had to buy time. As long as he could summon the ancestor's Dharma body and use that trump card, no matter how strong this kid was, he would surely die!
"Hurry!" Xuanjizi roared towards the outside of the hall, his voice filled with desperate madness, "Go to the back mountain and fetch the ancestral golden image! Fill the array's core with all the spirit stones and rare treasures! Even if it means death, you must hold on!"
Outside the formation, Lu Yuan withdrew his fist, looking at the cracked light screen in front of him. His eyes were calm, but he simply raised his wrist and glanced at the watch on his wrist.
It took only four minutes and seventeen seconds to take off from Jiangnan City and arrive at Kunlun.
His speed just now had reached over Mach 30. His physical body, at the peak of the Mahayana stage, traversed the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, its surface ignited with golden, glazed karmic fire, scorching the air along its path, and even causing subtle ripples in space.
At this moment, he was no longer the reserved high school student Lu Yuan, nor the orphan who had lost his mother, but a killing god who had crawled out of the deepest hell, seeking only revenge. The blood of his sister Lu Qingxue, the lingering scent of his mother, and the greed and cruelty of the Kunlun Sect were like sharp knives piercing his heart. His only outlet was destruction.
"The formation is quite interesting." Lu Yuan stretched out his finger and gently tapped the crack on the light screen. He felt a slight sensation on his fingertip and spoke in a calm tone, as if he were evaluating an ordinary object. "It contains a bit of Xuanhuang Mother Qi. No wonder it can withstand a fraction of my normal attack."
His voice wasn't loud, but it pierced through the wind and snow, through the broken formation, and clearly reached the ears of everyone in the bronze hall.
Even a fraction of an effort.
These four words, like a rusty saw, ripped at the nerves of the four old Taoists, sending chills down their spines and making their scalps tingle. He had almost broken their proud ancient formation with just a fraction of his strength? If he had used his full power, the consequences would have been unimaginable!
"Arrogant!" Xuanji Zi roared at the Xuan Guang Mirror, trying to mask his fear with his imposing aura. "You brat, don't think you can run wild in Kunlun just because you have brute force! This mountain-protecting formation is connected to the entire Kunlun ley lines. Even if you fight until tomorrow morning, you won't be able to set foot in the main hall!"
Lu Yuan chuckled, a hint of impatience flashing in his eyes.
Negotiation? Not necessary.
This group of people harmed his mother and even tried to draw his sister's blood in exchange for a so-called "destiny for immortality." From the moment they conceived this idea, their fate was sealed—a gruesome death, their souls scattered to the winds.
Lu Yuan slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers spread, aiming at the broken mountain-protecting formation below. Instantly, the power of the laws of heaven and earth surged wildly, like countless invisible chains, tightly binding his arm, trying to suppress his power—this was the limitation of the Earth's natural order, which could only accommodate the combat power of a peak Golden Core stage cultivator at most.
But Lu Yuan didn't even lift his eyelids, as if those chains of laws were just insignificant dust.
He parted his thin lips slightly and coldly uttered two words. His voice was not loud, but it carried the unique power of a Mahayana Immortal Venerable, resounding throughout the heavens and earth: "Disqualify."
As soon as he finished speaking, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of a hundred miles was instantly severed from the connection with the Kunlun Mountain Protector Array by an invisible force. The spirit stone at the array's core rapidly dimmed, and the energy stored in the array itself was forcibly drawn away at a visible speed, like a flood bursting its banks, and gathered in Lu Yuan's palm through an invisible channel.
"No—!" Xuan Chen stared at the rapidly decreasing energy levels on the array plate, so terrified he collapsed to the ground, his limbs trembling. "He's severing the earth's veins! He severed Kunlun's earth veins with just a single sentence! How is this possible? What kind of monster is he?!"
The energy in Lu Yuan's palm grew increasingly concentrated, eventually being compressed into a black sphere of light no bigger than a fingernail—it was pure, destructive power, without a trace of impurity, capable of leveling mountains with just a light touch.
He lowered his eyes, looking at the four panicked old Taoists below, his tone calm but carrying a chilling coldness: "Here you go."
With a flick of a finger.
The black orb of light landed gently on the cyan light screen, without any earth-shattering explosion or deafening sound, just like a drop of water falling into the ocean, silently.
But the next second, a blinding white light erupted, engulfing the entire heart of Kunlun. The protective mountain formation crumbled inch by inch in the white light, and dozens of surrounding ancient snow-capped peaks were directly evaporated into nothingness by this destructive force, leaving not even a trace of ash.
The bronze palace, now free from the protection of its array, was instantly exposed to the raging blizzard. The roof was ripped off by the gale, the heavy bronze doors were torn apart like paper, and rubble and wood chips flew everywhere. The once majestic Kunlun Secret Realm was reduced to ruins in an instant.
Lu Yuan lightly touched the ground with his toes and slowly landed in the center of the dilapidated hall. His black boots made a crisp sound as they stepped on the white marble floor tiles. Each step felt like stepping on the hearts of the four old Taoist priests.
Without even glancing at the four old Taoist priests who were trembling with fear and even incontinent, he walked straight to the altar at the end of the hall—the floating jade pendant was still emitting a faint light, with traces of his mother's scent and a trace of his sister Lu Qingxue's blood on it.
Lu Yuan reached out and gripped the jade pendant tightly in his palm. The cool jade gave him a familiar touch, and his mother's gentle smile and his sister's clear laughter instantly flashed into his mind. His fingers twitched slightly uncontrollably, and beneath the deathly stillness in his eyes, extreme pain and anger surged.
"You...you stay away!" Xuanjizi scrambled backward, clutching a golden talisman tightly in his hand. It was his last trump card, a token capable of summoning the ancestor's dharma image. "My ancestor Kunlun has already attained the status of an Earth Immortal! If you dare lay a finger on us, when our ancestor emerges from seclusion, he will surely tear you to pieces and annihilate your soul!"
Lu Yuan slowly turned around, carefully putting the jade pendant away from his body. He gently stroked the outline of the pendant with his fingertips, his eyes showing no anger or murderous intent, only a calm as if he were looking at an inanimate object.
"An Earth Immortal?" He strode towards Xuanjizi, looking down at him with a hint of mockery in his voice. "Call him out."
Xuanjizi was stunned. He hadn't expected this kid to be so arrogant—knowing that the ancestor was about to appear, he still dared to be so cocky!
"Good! Very good! You're courting death!" A mad glint flashed in Xuanjizi's eyes as he spat a mouthful of blood essence onto the golden talisman. The talisman instantly burst into flames, transforming into a beam of golden light that shot into the sky, heading straight for the hidden cave behind the mountain—the place where Patriarch Kunlun had gone into seclusion.
"Boom!"
A deafening roar echoed from the back mountain, causing the entire Kunlun Mountain Range to tremble violently. A terrifying pressure, far exceeding that of the Foundation Establishment stage, erupted from the cave, sweeping across the entire heart of Kunlun. Golden light shot straight into the sky, condensing in mid-air into a hundred-zhang-tall golden Dharma body—its face majestic, clad in golden armor, holding a whisk, and surrounded by dense immortal energy, exuding an awe-inspiring presence.
"Who dares to invade my Kunlun Mountains, destroy my secret realm, and kill my disciples?!"
The majestic voice, like rolling thunder, echoed through the mountains, making one's eardrums ache. Upon seeing the golden statue, the four old Taoist priests, as if grasping at a lifeline, wept bitterly, kowtowing repeatedly: "Ancestor, save us! This demon has destroyed our protective mountain formation and is about to annihilate our Kunlun lineage! We beg you, Ancestor, to avenge us!"
Lu Yuan looked up at the golden Dharma image in mid-air, a faint sneer on his lips, and even tilted his head, his tone full of disappointment: "That's it? I thought there was a real Nascent Soul stage expert, but it turns out he's just a piece of trash who forcibly extended his life and hasn't even touched the Golden Core stage."
"You insolent brat! How dare you insult me!" The ancestral image in mid-air glared angrily, its golden light surging. "Today, I will grind you to dust as a warning to others!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Dharma Image raised a giant golden palm, the wind howling and carrying the power to destroy everything, and slammed it down towards Lu Yuan's head. Before the giant palm even landed, the surrounding air was already compressed to its limit, the bronze fragments on the ground were crushed into a flat iron disc, the floor tiles shattered inch by inch, and even the blizzard was forced back by this pressure.
Lu Yuan sighed softly, his eyes filled with impatience.
He raised his right hand, joined his index and middle fingers together, and gently made a stroke towards the image of the deity in mid-air.
A thin, golden sword aura flew from his fingertips. At first, it was inconspicuous, but as soon as it touched the air, it swelled up and transformed into a sword aura ten thousand feet long. Its cold light was sharp and it carried the power to tear through space, heading straight for the golden body of the Dharma.
"Pfft—"
Without any obstruction, the golden sword energy instantly sliced through the enormous golden palm, then without pausing, it pierced into the chest of the Dharma Image, splitting the hundred-foot-tall golden Dharma Image in two.
At the same time, a shrill scream came from a hidden cave in the back mountain. The body of Patriarch Kunlun, along with the cave where he was in seclusion, was completely shredded by this sword energy, leaving him with no life.
The golden light scattered, turning into specks of light that vanished into the wind and snow.
The four old Taoist priests remained frozen in their kowtows, their smiles frozen, their eyes vacant, as if their souls had been ripped out.
Their invincible ancestor, the earth immortal they placed their hopes on and who could save Kunlun from danger, was completely destroyed by this young man with a casual stroke.
Lu Yuan walked up to Xuanjizi, looking down at him with a voice that was icy cold, each word like an ice pick piercing Xuanjizi's heart: "Who came up with the idea of drawing my sister's blood and using her pure Yin blood to break the jade pendant's seal?"
Xuanjizi's mouth was agape, making strange gurgling sounds from his throat. His face was ashen, and he trembled like a leaf in the wind, unable to utter a single word. Only one thought occupied his mind—regret! He was filled with unbearable regret! Of all people to offend, why did he have to provoke this monster? Why did he have to harm his family?
Lu Yuan didn't have the patience to wait for his answer.
He snapped his fingers.
A cluster of golden, glazed fire ignited simultaneously beneath the feet of the four old Taoist priests. The flames were clear yet intensely hot. This fire did not burn the physical body, but only the soul. Once tainted, one would never have peace, howling in endless agony until, after forty-nine days, the soul would completely dissipate, never to be reborn.
A piercing wail instantly echoed through the heart of Kunlun, mingling with the howling of the blizzard, creating a particularly jarring sound. Lu Yuan, however, remained unmoved, his eyes calm and undisturbed—this was the retribution they deserved.
After dealing with these four pieces of trash, Lu Yuan turned his gaze to the underground of the bronze hall. His Mahayana stage divine sense swept across the area, instantly penetrating a hundred-meter-thick layer of rock, revealing a huge treasure trove—filled with crystal-clear spirit stones, various radiant magical artifacts, and a variety of precious medicinal herbs that had aged for years, all exuding a rich spiritual energy.
A faint smile appeared on his lips, and a hint of warmth finally appeared in his eyes—a smile for his younger sister, Lu Qingxue.
"Perfect timing. Qingxue's Marrow Cleansing Pill is still missing a few key ingredients." Lu Yuan raised his foot and stomped heavily on the ground. "Consider this Kunlun family fortune as a service fee you owe the Lu family."
The ground suddenly shattered, revealing a huge hole, from which a rich spiritual energy rushed towards them. Lu Yuan lightly touched the ground with his toes and leaped into the hole, his figure quickly disappearing into the darkness.
The wind and snow continued to rage, and on the ruins of the Kunlun Secret Realm, only the burning crystal fire remained, along with endless silence.
No one knew that from this moment on, the Kunlun Sect would be utterly destroyed. And the young man named Lu Yuan would continue his journey, carrying his unwavering resolve and protective spirit—whoever dared to harm his family, he would destroy everything they owned, even the heavens themselves!