Another year passed.

  Su Chen successfully fused with a Spirit Vein and stepped into the Spirit Vein Realm.

  This particular Spirit Vein had been pieced together from a third-tier Gale Demon Wolf. It carried beast patterns and possessed an azure quality. Su Chen had no right to be picky.

  In this world, Spirit Veins were ranked in six colors: white, azure, blue, purple, orange, and red. A high-quality Spirit Vein signified combat power. It granted its owner powerful enhancements. The Gale Demon Wolf's enhancement was speed.

  From the soles of Su Chen's feet, cyan particles swirled upward in a spiraling ascent.

  "So this is the power of the Spirit Vein Realm?"

  In his previous life, Su Chen had never broken through to the Spirit Vein Realm—not once. He had lacked both cultivation methods and a Spirit Vein. In this life, at merely twenty-three years old, he had already reached it.

  "The Xu family…"

  A cold light flickered across Su Chen's face. He still harbored deep hatred toward the Xu family. The extermination of his clan in his previous life—if even one member of the Xu family escaped, he would never rest easy.

  "Wait… At Spirit Vein Realm First Layer, if I act rashly and get held up by their old monsters, many of them might slip away."

  What Su Chen wanted was utter annihilation: not a single chicken or dog left alive in the entire Xu household. He did not strike immediately. After enduring for so many years, what were another one or two?

  After breaking through to the Spirit Vein Realm, Su Chen returned to Soaring Clouds Martial Mansion, causing quite a stir. He also received a large quantity of cultivation resources.

  That had been his goal all along. With these resources, reaching the Spirit Vein Realm Second Layer within a year was no longer a dream. And so, Su Chen entered another period of secluded cultivation.

  …

  Two years later.

  The old master of the Xu family celebrated his one hundred and fortieth birthday. Members of every branch returned to the main residence to offer congratulations.

  For a time, the entire Xu estate was festooned with lanterns and decorations. But no one noticed that, beneath the cover of night, in a shadowed corner, a figure wearing a ghostly mask and shrouded entirely in black robes stared coldly toward the Xu compound.

  This was Su Chen, fresh from seclusion at Soaring Clouds Martial Mansion. The time had finally come to settle old scores with the Xu family! He would seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wipe them out in one stroke.

  Su Chen moved with terrifying speed. Each step summoned cyan streams of air that propelled him forward, his figure flickering like teleportation, reappearing dozens of meters away in an instant. Behind him came faint tremors. A group of fully armed martial artists followed closely, entering the Xu estate in his wake. Leading them was an old man with narrowed eyes, silver-streaked hair, a hunched back, and a somewhat plump frame.

  Inside the Xu family courtyard.

  Su Chen unleashed the full might of the Spirit Vein Realm and carved a bloody path inward. Many Xu clansmen fell beneath his blade, finally alerting the household. A large number of martial artists quickly gathered.

  "Who are you? Why do you attack our Xu family?"

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  The speaker was a middle-aged man of the Xu clan. Though his appearance had changed with age, Su Chen still recognized him at once: Xu Changyuan, the youngest son of Xu Ba. In his previous life, he had met the man once.

  Su Chen walked slowly, then vanished from sight. By the time the Xu martial artists reacted, he already stood directly before Xu Changyuan.

  Terror filled Xu Changyuan's eyes. His throat worked as though he meant to speak, but a single sword stroke severed his head.

  Su Chen held the sword in one hand and lifted Xu Changyuan's head by the hair in the other. The direct-line descendants of the Xu family wailed in grief and despair. They rallied the martial artists loyal to the clan and charged at Su Chen in a desperate bid for revenge. He casually cut down several of the boldest, and the rest recoiled in terror, stumbling backward.

  Su Chen did not pursue them further. Killing these people would be a pointless waste of vital energy. He would leave them to the Su family.

  Yes—Su Chen had located the Su family from his previous life. He had found its current head: his own younger brother from that life, Su Xuehe.

  After Su Chen's death in the previous life, Su Xuehe had secretly searched out the descendants of Su Chen and a few close friends, hiding them away so thoroughly that the Xu family had never managed to track them down all these years.

  Su Xuehe bore an irreconcilable hatred toward the Xu family. He had once seized Su Chen's position as heir within the Su clan—all for the sake of his own martial path.

  The martial dao demanded competition. Yet Su Chen had been his blood brother, his only remaining family after their parents and stepmother passed away. When the Xu family slaughtered him and wiped out the entire clan, how could Su Xuehe not hate them with every fiber of his being?

  The moment Su Chen discovered that his own descendants had been secretly taken in and protected by Su Xuehe, a storm of complicated emotions surged through his heart. Still, he felt genuine relief. Compared to himself, Su Xuehe was far better suited to lead a family.

  For that reason, Su Chen concealed his true identity and approached Su Xuehe to form an alliance aimed at annihilating the Xu clan.

  Su Chen's sole demand was one stroke of fortune belonging to the Xu family. Everything else—resources, treasures, lands—could go to Su Xuehe. It served as compensation to the clan he had failed to protect in his previous life.

  When Su Chen revealed his cultivation at Spirit Vein Realm Third Layer, Su Xuehe agreed to cooperate without hesitation. The Su family had only one realistic choice. Their greatest hidden asset was an ancient elder at Spirit Vein Realm First Layer, already teetering on the edge of death. They desperately needed a new powerhouse to anchor the clan. No matter how one looked at it, cooperating with Su Chen was the wisest path.

  Thus, while Su Chen pressed deeper into the Xu family's inner compound, Su Xuehe led a large force of Su clansmen in through another entrance. Without a word of warning, they unleashed indiscriminate slaughter. New grudges and old—only the complete extermination of the clan could settle the debt.

  Su Chen carved his way straight to the inner courtyard. By now, every member of the Xu household realized disaster had descended; panic spread like wildfire. Along the route, he killed several more direct descendants of the Xu line. If a face bore even the slightest resemblance, he struck without pause.

  When he could no longer carry all the severed heads in his hands, he strung them from his belt. He looked exactly like an asura who had crawled out of hell.

  Suddenly, Su Chen halted. Among the fleeing crowd, he spotted a familiar figure trying to slip away unnoticed.

  "So it's you."

  Murderous hatred exploded in Su Chen's eyes.

  The man sensed the gaze and jerked his head up. When he met those blazing, furious eyes, his whole body shuddered violently. All around him, Xu clansmen—young disciples and elders alike—fell beneath Su Chen's blade in sprays of blood and severed limbs. The sword art was brutal, merciless, and utterly familiar.

  Lin Yifei knew that technique better than anyone. In all the world, only one person could wield it with such terrifying mastery. He had not even noticed when the disciples and elders beside him were cut down. By the time he realized he stood alone, the demonic figure that seemed to have climbed straight out of the underworld fixed its gaze upon him.

  Lin Yifei could bear no more. His legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees. Cold sweat poured down his aged face.

  So alike… impossibly alike…

  Lin Yifei kept his head bowed, not daring to look up. His throat worked several times before a trembling voice emerged.

  "You… just who are you?"

  He was absolutely certain the man he had once feared more than anything had died long ago—dead beyond any doubt.

  Su Chen's eyes were ice.

  "Merely a vengeful ghost collecting a debt for an old friend."

  The sword flashed.

  Lin Yifei's head tumbled to the ground, rolling once before coming to rest. A pair of wide, incredulous eyes stared up at Su Chen.

  Su Chen did not bother asking why Lin Yifei had betrayed him. There was no need. The price of betrayal was death—for him and for every last one of his descendants. Su Xuehe would handle the rest.

  Right then, a heartrending wail of grief rose from deeper within the inner courtyard.

  Su Chen looked up and saw a face he recognized all too well.