Three Months Later.
Outside the Myriad Grave Valleys, the world had moved on. The burning of the Ye Estate was now a fading memory, a story told in taverns. The Lin and Zhou families had divided the spoils, their banners flying high over the captured lands.
But inside the Wailing King's tomb, time flowed differently. Under the influence of the Star-Iron shard, nine months of brutal, soul-shredding cultivation had passed.
The heavy stone gates of the tomb groaned. Not from a key, but from a pressure so immense that the ancient hinges simply snapped like dry twigs.
A figure stepped out into the twilight.
Shen Yuan looked the same, yet entirely different. His skin was pale as moonlight, and his presence no longer felt like that of a mortal. He had stepped into the [Foundation Establishment Realm]. In this era, a Foundation expert was a powerhouse capable of suppressing an entire city.
Around him, the very shadows of the forest seemed to bow.
Behind him stepped two figures.
Ye Lin moved like a ghost. Her eyes had turned a piercing, glacial blue, and her jade sword was now encased in a permanent sheath of black, crystalline ice. She had reached the 9th Layer of Qi Condensation, only a step away from her own breakthrough.
Ye Fan had grown broader. His movements were no longer frantic. He carried the heavy Earth-Shaker Polearm as if it weighed nothing. Each step he took left a faint crack in the stone floor.
"The air of the outside world," Shen Yuan breathed in, his voice vibrating with a metallic ring. "It smells of arrogance."
"Master," Ye Lin whispered, her voice like cracking ice. "My senses can reach three miles. There is a scout camp from the Lin family near the river. They are flying festive banners."
"A banquet," Ye Fan added, his grip tightening on his polearm. "I heard a merchant's guard mention it yesterday near the valley's edge. The Lin family is celebrating the 100th day of their 'Victory' over our clan. They've invited the local governors."
Shen Yuan's eyes flickered with a dark, predatory amusement.
"A celebration? How thoughtful of them to gather all my targets in one place. It saves us the trouble of hunting them down individually."
He looked at his disciples. Nine months ago, they were crying children. Now, they were weapons forged in the Void.
"Go to the camp," Shen Yuan commanded. "Leave no one alive. But do not use your full strength. I want them to send a message to the main city before they die. Tell them... the debt collector has arrived."
"And you, Master?" Ye Fan asked.
Shen Yuan looked toward the distant lights of the Lin Family's main city, Heaven's Reach.
"I am going to pay my respects to the Lin Patriarch," Shen Yuan said, his body beginning to dissolve into a swirl of black mist. "He stole the Ye Clan's spirit veins. I intend to take them back... along with his soul."
Before the siblings could respond, Shen Yuan vanished. There was no sound, no Qi fluctuation. Just a sudden emptiness where a god had stood.
The "Victory Banquet" of the Lin family was about to become a funeral.