Azure Creek City was bathed in a sea of crimson today. The two most powerful clans in the region, the Zhao Family and the Mu Family, were celebrating a union decades in the making. Scarlet lanterns lined every street, and the sound of gongs and drums echoed against the city walls.
It was the wedding day of Zhao Hao, the favored grandson of the Zhao Patriarch, Zhao Yan. The youth was a prodigy of his generation, having already reached the ninth level of the Foundation Breath with eyes set firmly on the Spirit Origin Realm. His bride was the Mu Family's pearl, a young woman named Mu Ling.
Inside the sprawling Zhao estate, the air was thick with the scent of expensive wine and incense. Zhao Yan sat in the seat of honor, his face glowing with a pride that had only grown over the seventeen years since he had usurped the Han Family's legacy. Beside him sat Mu Yan, her beauty still sharp, though her eyes were filled with the cold ambition that had once led her to drive a blade into Han Feng's heart.
"The auspicious hour has arrived! Let the couple bow!" the master of ceremonies bellowed.
As the newlyweds prepared to kneel, a shadow stood motionless on the tiled roof above. Li Ye looked down at the festivities, his gaze as cold as a frozen lake. He remembered his own wedding day the smell of smoke, the screams of his kin, and the laughter of the two people now sitting in those seats of honor.
Today, he would return the favor.
He moved with the silence of a falling leaf. The slaughter began in the rear gardens. Li Ye did not use a sword; his fingers had become instruments of precision. Each flick of his wrist pierced a throat or crushed a windpipe before a single breath could be drawn. Guards slumped into the koi ponds, their blood clouding the water in a silent, spreading ink.
He walked through the estate like a reaper, systematic and detached. Anyone carrying the name Zhao or Mu was silenced forever.
In the main hall, a guest paused with a cup of wine halfway to his lips. "Do you smell that? It is metallic... like raw meat."
"It is likely the kitchen slaughtering the feast," another laughed, though his smile faltered as the heavy oak doors of the hall were kicked off their hinges.
A man stumbled in, his robes drenched in gore. It was the Zhao family steward. "Patriarch... ghosts... a ghost is killing everyone!"
Before he could take another step, a severed head rolled across the polished floor, stopping at the feet of the groom. The music died instantly. A terrifying silence swept through the room as Li Ye stepped through the threshold. He wore a mask of black iron, and though his clothes were pristine, the stench of death followed him like a shroud.
"Who dares?" Zhao Yan roared, standing up so abruptly his chair toppled. "To disrupt my house on this day is to seek a slow death!"
Li Ye did not speak. He scanned the room, identifying every member of the two bloodlines. Then, he vanished.
He was a blur of lethal intent. Screams erupted as he tore through the crowd. He ignored the guests, focusing only on those he had marked for death. Whenever he moved, a life was extinguished.
"Stop him!" Mu Yan screamed, her face pale as she recognized the sheer efficiency of the killing.
Zhao Yan erupted with power, his Spirit Tempering aura shaking the foundations of the hall. He threw a massive palm strike of condensed spiritual energy toward the masked intruder. Without looking, Li Ye met the attack with a simple backhand.
Boom!
The spiritual energy shattered like glass. Zhao Yan was sent staggering back, his arm numb. Shock replaced his fury. "Impossible... Second Level of the Spirit Tempering Realm? Who are you?"
Li Ye ignored the question. He appeared instantly before the groom, Zhao Hao. The boy tried to raise a hand in defense, but Li Ye flicked a finger. A needle of spiritual energy pierced the boy's forehead, ending the Zhao line in a single heartbeat. Mu Yan let out a shrill cry of despair.
"Monster!" Zhao Yan lunged with a greatsword, pouring every ounce of his cultivation into a final, desperate strike.
Li Ye turned his full attention to the man. He allowed his aura to erupt, the raw and suffocating pressure of the Third Level of the Spirit Tempering Realm. He caught the heavy blade between two fingers.
Crack.
The high-grade steel snapped. Zhao Yan froze, his eyes wide with a terror he hadn't felt in seventeen years. "I... I will give you anything! Gold, techniques, the city! Just tell me what we did!"
Li Ye reached out and gripped the man's throat, lifting him off the ground. He leaned in, his voice a low, icy rasp.
"The dead do not need explanations."
A sickening snap ended the life of the man who had once betrayed him. Li Ye turned his gaze toward Mu Yan, who was trembling on the floor. He showed her no more mercy than she had shown his family all those years ago.
By dawn, the Zhao and Mu families of Azure Creek City were no more.
Li Ye did not stop there. He traveled through the night toward Panyan City, where the third architect of his previous life's ruin resided. The Zhao family of Panyan, those who had directly caused the death of his beloved Ling'er faced the same clinical extinction. Three days later, the debt was paid in full.
The empire stirred at the news of three great houses falling in a single week, but Li Ye had left no trail. To the high officials in the capital, it was merely a local feud taken to an extreme.
Returning to the Rising Cloud Sect, Li Ye found a peace he had not known in two lifetimes. But his journey had yielded one final, unexpected gift. Through the records he seized from the Zhao estate, he discovered the fate of his son, Han Dong.
He had searched for the boy for years, fearing the worst. But the records revealed that a traveling master from a hidden sect beyond the Grand Azure Empire had taken the boy as a disciple, sensing his hidden potential.
Han Bao was alive.
Li Ye stood on the balcony of his room, looking toward the distant horizon. His enemies were ash, and his bloodline endured somewhere beyond the clouds. For the first time, the weight in his chest felt light.
"Wait for me, Bao'er," he whispered. "I will find you."