Lei Tian stood up. He looked at her, searching his heart for a shred of the love he used to feel. He found only a hard stone of betrayal.
"Forced," Lei Tian repeated. "Forced with what, exactly? His charm? His father's name?"
"I had no choice!" she cried.
"Do you remember," Lei Tian asked, walking toward her, "when your family was too poor to provide you with basic resources? Do you remember when I worked double shifts, using my own wages to buy you Qi Condensation pills so we could progress together?"
"I remember," she wept.
"Is this how you repay me?" Lei Tian asked.
"It's not like that," she pleaded, reaching out a trembling hand toward him. "I was confused."
"We have been here for only two months," Lei Tian stated. "Two months. And you already found someone 'better' than me. You threw away years for a chance to be a young master's plaything."
"Tian, please, I love you. I always loved you," she begged, grasping at the hem of his dark robes.
Lei Tian looked down at her grasping hands.
He didn't have the heart to torture her. The disgust he felt was too overwhelming.
He pulled the sword from its scabbard.
He swung the sword downward.
The blade sheared through her neck with effortless precision. Her head hit the floor with a soft thud, her pleas silenced forever.
Lei Tian stared at both bodies. He felt no desire to plunder their power. The thought of taking their energy into his own core made him feel physically sick.
He wiped his sword clean on the bedsheets and sheathed it.
He walked out onto the veranda and picked up the jade concealment array, storing it back in his ring.
His dark clothes were splattered with crimson.
He extended his spiritual sense outward, sweeping the entire compound.
The strongest aura was still in the main pavilion. Middle stage goldcore expert, just like him.
Lei Tian moved silently across the gardens, bypassing the ornamental ponds and weeping willows.
He reached the main pavilion.
He placed the concealment array on the front steps, activating it again. The dome of silence enclosed the building.
He stood by the main sliding doors.
Before he could push the doors open, a gruff voice called out from within.
"Who is there? Jian? I told you not to disturb me!"
The shadow of a large man moved behind the paper screen. The door slid open abruptly.
Elder Lei Shan stepped out, his own Golden Core aura flaring slightly in irritation.
The moment the Elder stepped through the threshold, Lei Tian channeled every drop of his power into the blue tinged blade.
He swung the sword with terrifying speed and devastating force, aiming directly for the Elder's neck.
Elder Shan was caught completely off guard. He had expected an argument with his spoiled son, not an assassination attempt in his own home.
Instinct took over. Shan roared, throwing his arms up, dense Golden Core Qi forming a hasty shield over his skin.
The spirit sword struck the shield.
The collision generated a localized shockwave that shattered the wooden veranda. The blue blade cut through the hasty defense, biting deep into Elder Shan's shoulder and chest, carving a horrific wound diagonally across his torso.
Blood sprayed violently.
Shan staggered backward, crying out in pain.
"Who are you?!" Shan bellowed, clutching his chest, his face pale. "You dare attack an Elder of the Lei Family?!"
He tried to draw his own weapon, his aura fluctuating wildly as he fought through the pain.
Lei Tian stepped into the pavilion.
Shan parried frantically, but his movements were sluggish from the massive injury.
Lei Tian ducked under a desperate swing, stepping inside the Elder's guard.
He drove the pommel of his sword into Shan's face, shattering his nose, then followed up with a vicious horizontal slash.
The blade sheared through the Elder's neck, severing his head completely.
The headless body stood for a split second before collapsing heavily onto the polished floorboards.
Lei Tian stood over the body.
"System," he commanded. "Plunder."
[Target Defeated: Lei Shan.]
[Cultivation: Middle Stage Golden Core Realm.]
[Talent: Earth Grade.]
[Physique: Earth Grade (Iron Forge Body).]
[Initiating Plunder Protocol...]
Blue light enveloped the fallen elder.
The energy rushed into Lei Tian.
[Plunder Complete.]
[Current Cultivation: Peak Stage Golden Core Realm.]
He stepped over the body and began to search the pavilion.
He found the Elder's spatial ring on the severed hand. He stripped the high grade armor from the corpse.
He scoured the study, emptying the hidden safes of spirit stones, high tier forging materials, and rare pills.
He took everything of value, leaving nothing behind but bloodstains.
He picked up his concealment array.
He moved out into the compound.
He walked toward the barracks where the elder's personal guard and the compound's servants resided.
He moved through the barracks like a scythe through wheat.
He encountered a group of five Initial Stage Foundation Establishment guards playing cards in the mess hall.
Before they could even draw their weapons, Lei Tian was among them. His sword flashed.
He decapitated the first two with one horizontal swing.
He drove his blade through the chest of the third, lifting him off his feet, before ripping it free and backhanding the fourth across the throat.
The fifth tried to run, screaming for help. Lei Tian threw his dagger, burying it deep between the man's shoulder blades.
"System. Plunder."
The blue lights flashed rapidly.
He moved to the next building.
He killed the sleeping guards in their beds. He killed the patrolling sentries in the gardens. He killed Qi Condensation servants who tried to hide in the kitchens.
He moved, killed, and plundered.
Thirty one foundation establishment cultivators of varying stages.
Ninety Qi Condensation servants and low ranking guards.
He slaughtered them all, draining their cultivation bases and their talents.
When he finally stopped, he was standing in the center of the main courtyard.
His dark clothes were soaked with gore. His hands were stained red.
He stood still, letting the massive influx of plundered energy settle in his Dantian.
"System," Lei Tian said. "Current progress."
[Host Profile]
[Name: Lei Tian]
[Current Foundation: Peak Stage Golden Core Realm]
[Progress toward Nascent Soul: 23.8%]
[Innate Talent: Earth Grade (Superior)]
[Physical Form: Iron Forge Body (Earth Grade)]
[Bloodline Trace: Faint Thunder Affinity (Mortal Grade)]
Peak Stage Golden Core.
In two nights.
He had surpassed every Elder in the Citadel. He was on par with the patriarch himself.
He looked around the silent compound. He wiped his bloody sword on a dead guard's tunic and sheathed it.
PS: There are 10+ Advance chapters available on the Patreon for those who want to read ahead. www.patreon. com/Drrajnovel