Liu Chengming's body trembled slightly as he felt the binding restriction within his body, which was like a leech clinging to his bones. The wildness in his eyes subsided somewhat, and he respectfully lowered his head:
"Chengming... will remember your teachings, young master, and will certainly live up to your expectations within ten years!"
As for those trembling members of the Liu clan's collateral branches, Ning Chen ultimately did not exterminate them all.
He demoted all these people to outer servants of the Ning family and sent them directly to a remote mine outside the Ning family's sphere of influence in Cangzhou to perform endless hard labor, their lives left to fate.
This fulfilled the seemingly "benevolent" promise made to Liu Chengming, and also fundamentally eliminated any possibility that Liu Chengming might want to rely on the power of these collateral relatives in the future.
Thus, this turmoil in the Great Qian Dynasty has been initially resolved.
The Ning family had already plundered the imperial palace's treasury to the brim.
Ning Qingtian was in high spirits and loudly ordered, "All members of the Ning family, listen to my command! Set off and return to the Cangzhou Main Mansion!"
He personally set up and activated a giant teleportation array on the ruins of the imperial capital, capable of enabling ultra-long-distance teleportation.
A dazzling light shot into the sky, violently distorting space and forming a deep spatial passage.
Ning Qingtian led Ning Chen and the core members of the Ning family into the teleportation array.
While traversing the endless spatial turbulence, Ning Chen was not idle.
With a thought, he unhesitatingly poured the more than 10,000 editing points he had accumulated into the Ancient Double Pupil, attempting to analyze the mysterious and broken jade pendant obtained from the Great Qian Treasury.
[Edit value -1000... -2000... -5000...]
The edit value was consumed rapidly, like flowing water, and nearly eight thousand points were lost in the blink of an eye!
And the information about the jade pendant finally revealed a vague outline in Ning Chen's mind.
[Item: A token suspected to belong to a prominent figure from the ancient Celestial Court (extremely damaged)]
[Clue: Points to an unknown region at a higher level of the Xuanling Realm, far beyond the barren land of Cangzhou...]
[Note: Exploring the complete information requires more edits and may involve higher-level causality...]
"Ancient Celestial Court?"
"A token of an important person?"
Ning Chen felt a chill run down his spine. It seemed that the origin of this jade pendant was even more astonishing than he had imagined.
However, the information is currently too vague, and he has very little editing value left, so he can only keep it deep in his heart for now and study it in more depth when he has enough strength and editing value in the future.
Spatial teleportation is faster than you can imagine.
As the spatial barrier ahead gradually became clearer, a familiar and welcoming aura could be faintly sensed, which was the edge of the Ning family's territory in Cangzhou.
Transmission is about to complete.
The Ning family members all wore relieved smiles.
However, at that very moment!
A sudden change has occurred!
The once perfectly stable teleportation channel suddenly began to shake violently without warning. Waves of incredibly violent spatial turbulence, powerful enough to tear apart even a Life and Death Realm expert, crashed fiercely against the entire teleportation light screen!
"Oh no! It's a massive space storm!"
Ning Yuanshan, an elder of the Ning family who had appeared at the execution ground before but had remained inconspicuous and was responsible for assisting Ning Qingtian in controlling the teleportation array, suddenly exclaimed in surprise.
He was an elder from a collateral branch of the Ning family, responsible for maintaining the family's formations. He was also a distant confidant of a senior elder in the family who disagreed with Ning Qingtian politically.
At this moment, although his face was filled with panic, for a fleeting moment deep in his eyes, a strange and unsettling light flashed!
His hand, hidden in his sleeve, silently crushed a specially made, one-time-use communication jade talisman!
"Hmph! A mere spatial storm dares to block the Ning family's return journey?"
Ning Qingtian snorted coldly, and his terrifying cultivation at the peak of the ninth level of the Saint Realm erupted.
He took a step forward, formed hand seals, and a vast amount of spiritual power surged into the core of the teleportation array like a boundless ocean, personally stabilizing the violently shaking spatial passage.
However, just as Ning Qingtian was focusing most of his attention on fighting against the sudden and violent spatial turbulence...
A more deeply hidden, more insidious, and more deadly terrifying killing intent suddenly erupted from behind a twisted node cleverly concealed by spatial turbulence!
That was a deadly formation that had been pre-set here, waiting specifically for this moment to be activated!
Its target was not Ning Qingtian, nor the other elders of the Ning family, but... Ning Chen, the young master of the Ning family who had just been recognized as a member of the clan and was currently under the protection of everyone, and seemed completely unprepared!
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
Several thin, hair-like flying swords, shimmering with a terrifying, eerie green light, were clearly specially crafted and coated with a deadly poison. They silently tore through the void, carrying a terrifying power capable of piercing through everything, and aimed straight at Ning Chen's brow and other vital points from an extremely tricky angle!
Fast! Ruthless! Accurate!
Clearly, someone is plotting to take advantage of this last opportunity before returning to Cangzhou, and in this chaotic teleportation channel, strike with overwhelming force to kill this newly rising young master of the Ning family in one fell swoop!
This sudden life-or-death crisis caused Ning Chen's pupils to contract sharply!
The poisoned flying sword, a deep, cold blue, carried a deadly force capable of piercing through the void!
Each flying sword was wrapped in wisps of black death energy, clearly indicating that it had been tempered with some extremely insidious poison.
The timing of their attacks was ruthless to the extreme!
It was precisely at the moment when Ning Qingtian was preoccupied with stabilizing the violent teleportation channel, leaving him no time to spare and unable to provide immediate assistance!
This terrifying killing formation, hidden within the spatial turbulence, had been held back until now, when it suddenly revealed its ferocious nature. It was clearly a long-planned attack, intended to kill Ning Chen in one blow!
"Young Master, be careful!"
"Chen'er!"
The elders of the Ning family exclaimed in shock.
Ning Qingtian's eyes were bloodshot, and his pupils were filled with boundless rage. However, he was held back by the increasingly violent spatial turbulence. The space around him was making cracking noises as if it could not bear the strain. For a moment, he was unable to provide immediate assistance.
In the blink of an eye, life and death hung in the balance!
At this critical moment, Ning Chen's innate, mysterious, and unpredictable ancient double pupils suddenly erupted with dazzling divine light, protecting their master on their own!
Buzz—!
In Ning Chen's left eye, the golden illusory sun suddenly blazed brightly, bursting forth with dazzling golden light. The scorching and domineering power of the true fire of the sun surged forth, as if to melt everything in the world, and fiercely met the flying swords that shot towards him!
At the same time, within his right eye, the silvery, cold crescent moon phantom also shimmered with light, scattering a large expanse of eerie yet holy lunar radiance, like an ice barrier attempting to freeze the deadly poison and chilling killing intent attached to those flying swords!