He gazed at the geniuses, scattered like flowers across the heavens, and let out a long sigh.
"Where are the geniuses of Eternal Sun Prefecture now?" he murmured. "They're all... finished."
The old scholar from the True Yang Faction heard his student's words and frowned. "What is it that you know?"
"They don't dare to break the chains."
The Wuwen Scholar seemed to recall some terrifying memory. He glanced at Nangong Yazhi, her eyes filled with hatred.
"In the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode," he began.
"Nangong Yazhi bewitched us into hunting the Li family members. And those monstrous talents from the Li clan were indeed a threat to us, so our aims happened to coincide.
For nearly two hundred years, we hunted them, until we had turned the entire Tian Xing Cultivator Abode upside down..."
"Nangong Yazhi?" The old scholar shot her a cold glance.
"They turned every possible hiding place upside down. It was a great slaughter that lasted for twenty years. But when the Li family finally appeared, everything changed.
They shattered the allied forces Nangong Yazhi had gathered with the ease of snapping dry twigs, and over a thousand people fell into their hands."
"Over a thousand?" The old scholar's expression changed. And now... only fewer than four hundred remained!
"With over a thousand captives, this Heaven-Locking Chain appeared. It was a name given by Li Changsheng, not to 'Lock the Heavens,' but to 'Lock the Geniuses.'
This was the beginning of the nightmare for all those pursuers.
Li Changsheng was cautious; he didn't believe these geniuses would submit so easily.
The Three Thieves were utterly insane, their vicious schemes endless.
And that Li Tianyue... she was bloodthirsty.
And so, the great suffering of the geniuses began."
The Wuwen Scholar shuddered.
"They would use all sorts of reasons, deliberately revealing openings to let the chained cultivators break free," he said. "But without a single exception, none could ever escape. And what followed was punishment from the Seven Ironclads and the Three Thieves!
The days of being trapped in the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode were long and boring, and this... this was the only amusement the Li family had."
"This..."
The old scholar's face turned pale. He recalled the Li family members who had just returned, how every one of them had seemed like a madman, yet not much of a threat.
But now, listening to the Wuwen Scholar's account, it was as if he were watching one slavering, vengeful ghost after another come pouring out of the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode.
"These people used every method imaginable to try and escape, but no matter how they fled, they would be dragged back within two or three days at most to face the Li family's punishment. That familiar chain would be fastened around their necks once more."
The Wuwen Scholar gritted his teeth.
"Hundreds were tortured to death by them," he said. "Those who survived slowly came to believe that they were only truly safe when the chains were around their necks!
They are no longer the geniuses of Eternal Sun Prefecture, nor are they members of the great factions.
They are... livestock, broken and trained by the Li family!
Teacher, do not attempt to rescue them. This student has tried.
They will run back on their own and put the collars back around their necks. It has become an instinct, etched into their very memory."
"What?!!"
The old scholar staggered back several steps. They had always hoped for the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode to open, for these new geniuses to become the foundation of Eternal Sun Prefecture.
Even with the Li family now seemingly unstoppable, these geniuses, with their long-accumulated potential, could still have resisted them. But now... There was a talent vacuum!
He suddenly looked at the Wuwen Scholar.
"And what about you?" he asked. "Did they let you go?"
"No, they didn't do anything to me. Rest assured, Teacher."
The Wuwen Scholar gave a bitter smile.
"This student was robbed by them time and time again," he explained. "You could say we're well acquainted. Why would they harm me? After I got out, I was even planning to have people seal them inside the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, but I never expected..."
The old scholar breathed a sigh of relief.
Just then, the Wuwen Scholar waved his hand. With a flash from the storage ring on his finger, a book appeared in his hand. He looked at his teacher with a grave expression.
"Let's speak no more of it, Teacher," he said. "You must take our fellow members of the True Yang Faction and leave.
This Eternal Sun Prefecture is no longer a safe place to stay.
These Li family members were trapped in the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, but they knew everything that happened on the outside.
The news of their clansmen's sacrifice has tormented their hearts every single day."
"For over a hundred years, they never discussed the matter, but this student could see it; they have truly gone mad.
Even those who appear normal have been driven completely insane by their hatred.
This student can see it clearly: they are a group of true Killing Stars, and they will not spare anyone connected to what happened to the Li family."
"Tian Xing isn't the true calamity," he said. "He has merely brewed one. Because of him, over a hundred years of pent-up resentment have forged a pack of furious, primordial beasts."
As he spoke, the Wuwen Scholar warned once more, "Teacher, leave Eternal Sun Prefecture. This is your student's sincere advice. As for myself, I still have important matters to attend to."
"What?"
The old scholar was stunned for a moment.
He watched as the Wuwen Scholar, holding a scroll, floated up into the air and headed towards the red mist. With a face full of humiliation, under the astonished gazes of everyone on Qilin Mountain, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Respectfully welcome... respectfully welcome the esteemed members of the Li family as they ascend to the very peak of Eternal Sun Prefecture!"
"All under heaven should celebrate! May the esteemed members of the Li family enjoy eternal immortal fortune and a lifespan equal to that of Heaven itself!!"
As the Wuwen Scholar's voice faded, the lightning tribulation on Qilin Mountain summoned wind and rain. The gale blew his long hair aside, revealing the raw marks on his neck where a collar had once been.
The faces of all the people from Eternal Sun Prefecture were deathly pale as they gazed at the lightning tribulations erupting everywhere on Qilin Mountain.
Accompanied by the roar of thunder.
The many geniuses who had once been the pride of Eternal Sun Prefecture, even as they endured their own lightning tribulations, turned towards the red mist and offered their congratulations.
"May the Li family enjoy eternal immortal fortune and a lifespan equal to that of Heaven itself!"
Their congratulatory cries were hoarse and strained, a mixture of utter humiliation and the faint peace of mind that comes from surviving a catastrophe.
The people of Eternal Sun Prefecture felt as though a monstrous hand had suddenly descended from the heavens, pressing down viciously upon the entire prefecture, making it difficult for any of them to even breathe.
The old scholar staggered backward unconsciously, bumping into a bewildered fellow Daoist without even noticing.
His eyes were vacant as he stared at his beloved disciple from nearly two hundred years ago.
He reached out a hand to catch a single snowflake drifting from the center of the red mist. It reeked of the foul stench of blood, causing him to murmur in a trembling voice.
"It's over," he whispered. "It's all over."
As the congratulatory cries of the geniuses, the very ones in whom all of Eternal Sun Prefecture had placed their hopes, rang out, great peals of laughter echoed from within the red mist.
The Old Tree's roots dragged the scions of the Li family out from the red mist.
In every direction, lightning tribulations began to rise, forming a protective circle around the Li family elders at the center!
Within the red mist and shadows, they abruptly opened their eyes.
The lightning tribulations descended!
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