Chapter 99
After answering the first question, a faint killing intent began to seep from Hu Ruoyan's body.
The warmth vanished from her eyes.
When she looked at Ling Yunxiao now, it was as though she were already looking at a corpse.
Yet under that murderous gaze, Ling Yunxiao remained completely calm.
"Everyone says the Hu Family Head hired a divine physician to heal your disfigurement."
The moment the words Hu Family Head were spoken, Hu Ruoyan's expression turned cold.
She let out a mocking laugh.
"That hypocrite? If the injuries on my face had been real, he would've left me to rot."
Ling Yunxiao's eyes narrowed slightly.
"So your relationship with the Hu Family Head is quite poor."
He paused thoughtfully.
"Second question. Does it have something to do with your mother's early death?"
His gaze settled on her.
"Or perhaps... your mother was killed by the Hu Family Head?"
The instant those words left his mouth, Hu Ruoyan's expression changed dramatically.
The darkness in her eyes deepened.
Her killing intent surged.
"I was originally planning to leave you a complete corpse." Her voice dropped to an icy whisper. "But now I've changed my mind. A slow and painful death suits you much better."
She stared at him coldly.
"One final question. After that, you can die."
Ling Yunxiao remained unmoved.
This reaction was exactly what he had intended.
His gaze shifted slightly and landed on one of the swaying memorial tablets.
A moment later, he spoke slowly.
"What a good name."
The tablet read: Hu Haitian's Wife, Xue Lian.
Hu Haitian was the current head of the Hu family.
As for Xue Lian's identity, it was obvious. She was Hu Haitian's deceased first wife.
Ling Yunxiao looked at the tablet and continued calmly.
"I've always wondered something. When I investigated the ancestral hall a few days ago, why did the wolf demon suddenly appear at the Hu residence in broad daylight?"
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Now I understand. Miss Hu was trying to conceal something related to Xue Lian."
His gaze returned to her.
"To be more precise... it's related to your mother."
The veins at Hu Ruoyan's temples twitched.
The fury boiling inside her had already reached its limit. Even so, she retained enough rationality to keep herself composed.
After a long silence, she asked softly, "Do you have any last words?"
Ling Yunxiao nodded thoughtfully.
"Then I should thank you for your generosity, Miss Hu."
His tone remained courteous, as though they were discussing an ordinary matter rather than life and death.
"I have to admit, I'm quite surprised."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"So the Snow Lotus was never a spiritual medicine at all."
His gaze settled on her.
"It was a person."
The smile faded.
"There's just one thing I don't understand. Why are you so determined to kill me over this?"
His eyes gradually sharpened.
"Unless..."
The temperature inside the ancestral hall seemed to drop.
The flickering candlelight cast long shadows across the rows of ancestral tablets.
"You possess a secret that absolutely cannot be exposed. A secret capable of destroying everything you've planned."
Ling Yunxiao paused briefly before continuing.
"And if my guess is correct..." His gaze locked firmly onto Hu Ruoyan. "The key to that secret lies with the Head of the Hu Family."
Silence descended upon the ancestral hall.
For a heartbeat, neither of them spoke.
Then Hu Ruoyan laughed.
The sound was soft at first, almost pleasant. Yet in the deathly stillness of the ancestral hall, it carried an indescribable chill.
"Correct."
A smile spread slowly across her face.
"You guessed everything."
There was no longer any attempt to conceal her intentions. If anything, she seemed delighted.
"I want him dead." Her voice was gentle. "I want the entire Hu family dead."
The smile on her lips widened.
"And on the day of the ancestral worship ceremony..." Her eyes curved slightly. "...every one of them will die."
She tilted her head and looked at him with genuine curiosity.
"But tell me, Fellow Daoist Ling."
The smile she wore was beautiful and utterly chilling.
"Did you also predict... that you would be among the dead?"
She spoke openly about the time and location of her plan without the slightest concern.
Perhaps she no longer cared because the secret had been buried inside her heart for too many years.
Or perhaps because the revenge she had prepared for so long was finally about to become reality.
After she finished speaking, Hu Ruoyan suddenly threw back her head and laughed.
The laughter echoed through the ancestral hall, sharp and unrestrained.
Years of hatred.
Years of resentment.
Years of bitterness buried deep within her heart.
It was as though all of it had erupted at once, pouring out through that laughter.
A sinister wind swept through the hall.
Clatter!
One memorial tablet after another toppled from the altar and shattered against the ground.
The names engraved upon them disintegrated into ash the moment they fell.
In the blink of an eye, the floor was littered with broken fragments.
Only a single tablet remained standing.
Untouched.
Unmoving.
The memorial tablet bearing Xue Lian's name stood alone amid the wreckage.
At the same time, Ling Yunxiao's figure gradually blurred.
He was neither fully tangible nor completely incorporeal, as though he existed somewhere between illusion and reality.
Watching Hu Ruoyan, he let out a faint sound of realization.
"Oh?"
A trace of understanding flickered through his eyes.
"A sound-based technique?"
His expression remained as calm as ever.
"Unfortunately..." He shook his head slightly. "That won't work on me."
The laughter came to an abrupt stop.
For the first time, Hu Ruoyan frowned.
She had not laughed without reason.
That laughter itself had been a spell.
A mental technique capable of quietly invading a target's consciousness and seizing control.
She didn't need long.
A moment of distraction.
A single opening.
That would have been enough for her to make her next move.
Hu Ruoyan's expression darkened slightly.
"You noticed?"
Ling Yunxiao remained unmoved.
"We've been talking for quite a while now." His voice was calm and even. "I doubt it's out of the goodness of your heart."
His gaze met hers.
"The more reasonable explanation is that you were preparing something-your spell."
For the first time, Hu Ruoyan didn't answer immediately.
Because he was right.
The moment she realized Ling Yunxiao had escaped her formation, she had already abandoned any intention of underestimating him.
Every word she had spoken since then had carried a trace of her power.
On its own, each trace was insignificant.
Nearly impossible to detect.
But layered together, little by little, they would quietly strengthen the technique until the moment it was unleashed.
The ancestral hall fell silent once more.
The cold wind drifting through the broken hall seemed to grow heavier.
Neither moved.
Neither spoke.
The atmosphere stretched taut, as though both were waiting for the other to reveal a flaw first.
Then, without warning, Hu Ruoyan smiled.
The hostility from moments ago seemed to vanish completely.
"Someone came to the ancestral hall earlier." Her eyes curved gently. "Why don't you guess whether he fell into my trap?"
A beat passed before she seemed to remember something.
"Oh, that's right."
The smile on her face deepened.
"He should be one of your companions."
Ling Yunxiao immediately thought of the disturbance from the neighboring room in the middle of the night.
A faint sense of unease rose within him.
Then he remembered something.
That room hadn't belonged to Lou Yuqing.
The tension in his chest eased slightly.
"So that was your doing."
"Correct."
Hu Ruoyan admitted it without hesitation.
A faint smile lingered on her lips.
"Compared to you, he was far easier to deal with. I barely needed to say a few words before he lowered his guard."
A trace of amusement flickered through her eyes.
"He became my puppet soon after."
Her gaze settled on Ling Yunxiao.
"Now tell me."
The smile on her face deepened.
"How many of your companions do you think are still alive?"
As her voice fell, she casually raised a hand.
A stream of white light swept outward.
The light gathered in midair, condensing into a floating screen.
Ling Yunxiao's eyes immediately locked onto it.
The image shifted.
Lou Yuqing and Si Nidie appeared within the screen, attacking a formation together.
A moment later, Shen Lijun's face came into view.
The smile on his face was unfamiliar.
Malicious.
Then, before either woman could react, Shen Lijun struck. The formation's pull surged violently, swallowing Lou Yuqing and Si Nidie in an instant.
The image flickered.
Then went blank.
The ancestral hall fell silent.
Hu Ruoyan covered her mouth lightly, feigning surprise.
"Oh? What a pity." A soft sigh escaped her lips. "It seems none of them survived."
She spoke as though discussing something entirely unrelated to herself.
"My formation contains powerful repulsive forces. Anyone dragged inside will eventually be torn apart."
The smile in her eyes never faded.
"There won't even be a body left behind."
Ling Yunxiao said nothing.
His gaze remained fixed on the now-empty screen.
The moment he had seen Lou Yuqing swallowed by the formation, something had clenched violently inside his chest.
And with every word Hu Ruoyan spoke afterward, that pain only deepened.
It spread through him like countless needles piercing his heart at once.
For a brief moment, Ling Yunxiao completely forgot this was only a trial world.
His eyes turned red.
When he looked at Hu Ruoyan again, the killing intent in his gaze was so intense that even her heart skipped a beat.
The next instant, his figure dissolved into nothingness.
A violent sense of danger exploded through Hu Ruoyan's mind.
Almost simultaneously, Ling Yunxiao appeared behind her.
Spiritual energy surged into his fist as he struck without the slightest hesitation.
Hu Ruoyan's pupils contracted.
Every instinct in her body screamed a warning.
Her fingers flew through a hand seal, and a lotus phantom blossomed behind her.
Bang!
The lotus shattered the moment it appeared.
It didn't even buy her a breath of time.
Ling Yunxiao's punch tore straight through the collapsing petals and continued toward her back with undiminished force.
If that strike connected, even surviving it would leave her crippled.
A frown finally appeared on Hu Ruoyan's face.
A lotus-seed-shaped treasure shot from between her brows, erupting in a burst of light that instantly enveloped her body.
Her figure vanished.
Ling Yunxiao's fist struck empty air.
When the light faded, Hu Ruoyan had already reappeared elsewhere in the ancestral hall.
Ling Yunxiao glanced toward her new position.
"Teleportation."
His expression remained unchanged.
"Interesting."
Hu Ruoyan's expression turned cold.
One of her precious lotus seeds had just been consumed.
She had thought she already understood Ling Yunxiao's abilities.
Instead, he had revealed yet another trump card.
That ability to shift between reality and illusion was far more troublesome than ordinary Shadow Escape and infinitely harder to guard against.
Just then, the image suspended in midair suddenly flickered.
Both of them looked over at once.
A large section of the Repulsion Formation's barrier bulged outward as though something inside was trying to tear its way free.
The entire formation trembled violently.
For a moment, it looked as though it might explode at any second.
Whether someone was forcing their way out or the formation itself was on the verge of collapse, the meaning was the same.
The disturbance had come from within.
Which meant only one thing.
Lou Yuqing and the others were still alive.
They were breaking out.
A trace of relief finally surfaced in Ling Yunxiao's eyes.
Meanwhile, Hu Ruoyan's expression darkened with every passing second.
She had only just declared that no one could escape the formation.
Now reality seemed poised to slap her in the face.
She refused to believe it.
There was no way those two could break free.
The battle between her and Ling Yunxiao came to an abrupt halt.
Neither moved.
Their eyes remained fixed on the floating screen.
Within the image, the bulging section of the barrier continued to expand, swelling larger and larger like a balloon stretched far beyond its limits.
Boom!
The formation finally reached its breaking point.
Although no sound emerged from the screen, the violence of the explosion was almost tangible.
The shattered barrier burst into countless motes of light that scattered through the air like the formation's final death throes.
And at the center of that drifting radiance stood a lone figure.
A young woman.
Soft light flowed around her, wrapping her in a luminous veil.
Her moon-white robes fluttered gently in the aftermath, lending her an elegance that seemed almost unreal.
For a fleeting moment, she looked less like a cultivator and more like an immortal descending from the heavens.
The sight alone was enough to leave those watching breathless.
Then the remaining fragments of the barrier gave way and shattered completely.
Ling Yunxiao withdrew his gaze from the screen and looked back at Hu Ruoyan.
A moment ago, the sight of Lou Yuqing being swallowed by the formation had nearly shaken his composure.
Now, seeing her break free, the pressure weighing on his chest finally eased.
His eyes settled on Hu Ruoyan.
"It seems your formation wasn't all that impressive after all."
His voice was calm.
Almost casual.
Hu Ruoyan's expression darkened instantly.
The mockery in those words struck far harder than any direct insult.
Without another word, she attacked.
"What use is a sharp tongue?" Her voice turned cold. "You're still going to die today."
Ling Yunxiao let out a quiet laugh.
Rather than retreating, he stepped forward to meet her.
The fragile calm shattered at once as the battle erupted once more.
Outside the ancestral hall, the Hu family disciples remained entirely unaware. As though deaf and blind, none of them noticed the fierce battle raging within.
Meanwhile, Lou Yuqing had just broken free from the formation.
She didn't even spare a glance for the fake Shen Lijun.
The moment she steadied herself, she turned toward the stone house and called out loudly, "Senior Sister!"
Her voice echoed through the area.
"Senior Sister, are you there?"
Then, unable to stop herself, she added, "Are you still alive?"
The scattered motes of light drifted slowly through the air before fading away one by one.
No reply came.
Outside the small world, Si Nidie appeared in the plaza.
The moment her feet touched the ground, she let out a long, dejected sigh.
Honestly, surviving this long had already exceeded her expectations.
This trial was filled with Foundation Establishment geniuses from all Seven Sects. After joining forces with Lou Yuqing, she had even entertained the ambitious dream of fighting her way into the top three.
Now that dream had shattered completely.
Still... the outcome wasn't entirely unbearable.
That thought lasted only until her gaze landed on Shen Lijun.
The frustration she had just suppressed immediately surged back.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
Being tricked, betrayed, and thrown out of the trial like that was simply infuriating.
"When were you replaced, exactly?!"
She strode over and demanded an explanation.
Only then did she notice Chu Qingyang standing nearby.
Si Nidie's eyes widened.
"You got replaced too?"
Shen Lijun and Chu Qingyang exchanged helpless smiles.
Although she had already guessed the answer, seeing both Shen Lijun and Chu Qingyang standing in the plaza still filled Si Nidie with grief and indignation.
"Pathetic!"
She pointed at the two of them.
"The two of you went out together and still got yourselves wiped out!"
Her gaze swept around the plaza.
"Where's Ling Yunxiao? Why don't I see him?"
Shen Lijun silently pointed toward the light screen.
Si Nidie followed the direction of his finger.
Then she froze.
On the screen, Ling Yunxiao was locked in battle with a woman.
"...He wasn't eliminated?"
A moment later, she rubbed her forehead.
"Wait."
Her expression became increasingly bewildered.
"I'm confused. What exactly happened?"
Shen Lijun immediately looked away.
Chu Qingyang suddenly found the ground beneath his feet very interesting.
Neither seemed eager to explain.
Before the awkward silence could continue, a voice rang out from nearby.
"If they won't tell you, I will."
Luo Buqi strode over with his chin raised high, looking every bit like a rooster that had finally won a fight.
"When the four of you went to investigate the Hu family, Shen Lijun got himself killed in the ancestral hall by Hu Ruoyan. He ended up becoming her puppet."
Si Nidie's eyes widened as she turned back toward Shen Lijun.
"You died that early?"
Shen Lijun immediately protested.
"Miss Hu uses soul-capturing techniques."
His expression was full of frustration.
"My iron-sand puppet has excellent regenerative abilities, but what good is that against attacks aimed directly at the soul?"
Si Nidie was still digesting the news when Shen Lijun shot Luo Buqi an annoyed look.
Why are you still here?
Luo Buqi immediately snorted.
None of your business.
Then he continued mercilessly, "That night, Chu Qingyang followed the puppet Shen Lijun out because he thought he'd found clues about the Snow Lotus. He wanted to keep the discovery to himself."
Luo Buqi's smile widened.
"And then he got eliminated by the puppet."
The plaza fell silent.
In other words, by the following morning, both of them had already been turned into puppets.
Si Nidie slowly turned to look at Chu Qingyang.
The sympathy in her eyes disappeared completely.
"You deserved it."
Chu Qingyang: "..."
He had known that would be her response.