Curled up on the dark earth, Xing Su struggled to lift her head, looking up at Hun Changqing and feeling the mockery in his eyes. Her heart was filled with resentment, and she gritted her teeth.
Meeting Xing Su's venomous gaze, Hun Changqing slowly raised his foot, then stretched it forward, gently stepping on Xing Su's delicate and pretty cheek.
Sensing the cold, hard sole of Hun Changqing's shoe against her face, her expression instantly froze. Her mind went blank, as if struck by lightning, her eyes filled with disbelief, as if she couldn't believe Hun Changqing dared to treat her like this.
You must know, even when her talent was still intact, even after she was crippled, as a direct descendant of a Dou Di, with the legacy left by that Dou Di, no one in her clan dared to treat her like this.
After a brief moment of stunned silence, a deep sense of humiliation, accompanied by boundless rage, surged within Xing Su, violently assaulting her senses and driving her to the brink of madness. As a direct descendant of a Dou Di, to be so utterly trampled underfoot was something the usually proud Xing Su simply could not accept!
"Bastard! Ghost! Do you know what you're doing! How dare you…"
Enraged, Xing Su tried to struggle, but her severe injuries made her utterly unable to withstand the unparalleled pressure from Hun Changqing's feet. She was pinned beneath his feet, unable to move, and could only hurl insults at him with burning fury.
Hun Changqing, however, paid no heed to Xing Su's curses. In his eyes, she was already a dead person; he had no habit of arguing with the dead. A chilling glint flashed in his eyes, followed by a sinister, eerie laugh.
"Hehehe... Aunt Xingxiu... Goodbye..."
After sensing the chilling, murderous glint in Hun Changqing's eyes and hearing his cold voice, a deep sense of unease welled up within Xingxiu.
As Hun Changqing's eerie laughter subsided, the power in his foot surged instantly, as if he wanted to crush Xingxiu's exquisitely beautiful face.
When Xingxiu felt the unparalleled force from Hun Changqing's foot on her cheek, her pupils widened. Excruciating pain instantly flooded her mind, relentlessly stimulating her nerves. The intense pain caused Xingxiu to let out an incredibly shrill scream.
"Ah!"
With Xing Su's piercing scream, Hun Changqing's pressure on the ground continued to increase. It was easy to imagine that if this continued, Xing Su's exquisite face would explode like a bursting watermelon. Hun Changqing seemed to already envision this scene, a wicked and ferocious smile on his face.
"Wait...wait!"
Xing Su seemed to have reached a breaking point, almost unable to bear it any longer. The intense pain tormented her, and she gritted her teeth, desperately trying to speak to Hun Changqing.
However, Hun Changqing ignored Xing Su's cries, showing no intention of stopping. He wouldn't show mercy because of Xing Su's pleas. Having already made his move, he was going to finish it! Even if Xing Su was a peerless beauty, Hun Changqing wouldn't show the slightest hesitation!
"Ah!"
As Hun Changqing increased the pressure on her feet, Xing Su let out another piercing scream that soared into the sky. She could even hear the creaking sound of her skull trembling violently.
It felt as if it would shatter completely at any moment, and the thought of her skull breaking, with red and white matter mixed with bone fragments flying everywhere, sent chills down Xing Su's spine, her delicate body trembling uncontrollably.
"You... don't you want to know why, with my strength and status, I came to this barren Northwest Continent to take over this branch temple?"
Xing Su gritted her teeth, using the last of her strength to utter these words. Just as she felt she had reached her limit and her head was about to explode, she suddenly felt a lightness on her head, followed by an indescribable sense of relief.
Although her head was still spinning, her mind a blur, and she felt dizzy and disoriented, it was much better than the feeling of her skull being violently shaken and crushed, almost shattering.
Xing Su knew that Hun Changqing had taken a liking to her words, so she shook her head slightly, trying to dispel the dizziness and feel better. Then she looked up at Hun Changqing.
However, there was no fear in Xing Su's eyes when she looked at Hun Changqing; instead, her gaze was filled with resentment and an extreme unwillingness hidden deep in her eyes. She was not afraid of death.
Decades ago, after she was severely injured, she knew that weakness was more terrifying than death. At that time, she had already disregarded life and death; otherwise, she would not have been able to resolutely leave the clan alone with her Dou Wang cultivation.
At that time, she saw no hope left in the clan, and her strength was constantly declining, which was unbearable for her, a descendant of Dou Di and once the most talented young member of the Hun clan.
Unwilling to continue wasting her life in that courtyard forbidden by Dou Di, a place of torment for her proud and arrogant nature, she left the clan with a dark, ancient jar passed down through generations.
After leaving, Xingxiu searched far and wide for a treasure that could heal her condition. She didn't expect to restore her bloodline; she only hoped to solve her inability to condense Dou Qi.
However, she ultimately found no solution and, during one of her searches, offended a Dou Huang. In the past, she could have easily killed such a person, but she was no longer the same.
Her cultivation had fallen to Dou Wang, and even with her rich combat experience, the gap in cultivation levels couldn't be bridged by mere experience.
Just as she was critically injured and on the verge of death, her dripping blood fell onto the black earthen jar—the one she had just summoned to defend against the Dou Huang's attack, a jar left behind by the Dou Di ancestor she had brought from her home.
At that moment, the earthen jar burst forth with a dazzling black light, instantly enveloping the Dou Huang and turning him into dust. Xingxiu was also struck by the black light and fell into a coma. When she awoke, she discovered that not only were the injuries inflicted by the previous Dou Huang completely healed, but she was also able to condense a trace of Dou Qi, no longer leaking out wildly as before. This unusual change filled her with both surprise and joy. After examining her mind, she found a new cultivation technique and some information.
It turned out that her ancestor, initially lacking talent and ranking at the bottom of the clan, had unintentionally obtained this black earthen jar. Inside the jar was a cultivation technique; combined with the jar, it could absorb the Dou Qi and souls of others, not only repairing one's own flaws but also enhancing strength and talent.
Her ancestor had relied on this technique and the jar to rise step by step from the lowest level of the clan to the supreme throne.
Xingxiu, upon obtaining this information about the cultivation technique, was overjoyed. Her previously despairing heart was filled with renewed hope, and she began to wreak havoc on the lower-ranking families, leaving no corpse intact.
Later, Xingxiu recovered her Dou Zong realm using the earthen jar and that strange cultivation technique. She then joined the Soul Palace under the name Xingxiu. Leveraging the Soul Palace's resources and her own unique abilities, she quickly returned to the Dou Zun realm within a few years and restored her bloodline power.
At that time, she was highly regarded by a Heavenly Venerable/Half-Saint of the Soul Palace's Heavenly Gang Hall, who wanted her to join directly. However, Xingxiu refused, wanting to go to the branch hall in the Northwest Continent. This surprised the Soul Palace's higher-ups. However, Xingxiu stated that she would return to the Central Continent in a few years, so the higher-ups couldn't say anything more and simply transferred her to that branch hall.
The reason Xingxiu came to this branch hall in the Northwest Continent was naturally because, with the activation of the earthen jar, her Dou Di ancestor had left her a message explaining that there was a Dou Di relic on the Northwest Continent, a legacy of their Soul Clan's Dou Di.
It turns out that although the ancestor of the Star Constellation Clan was a Dou Di (Battle Emperor), there were many Dou Di on the continent at that time. For some reason, that ancestor engaged in a fierce battle with the patriarch of the Nine Netherworld Python Clan. That battle was so devastating that the heavens and earth trembled, the battlefield stretching for countless billions of miles. The Central Continent was shattered, and the Northwest Continent was forcibly separated from the Central Continent.
In the end, the ancestor of the Star Constellation Clan prevailed, killing the patriarch of the Nine Netherworld Python Clan. However, he himself was severely injured and near death. After learning of his condition, the ancestor of the Star Constellation Clan returned to his clan and passed on the cultivation techniques and fighting skills he had created.
However, because the Soul Clan had flourished because of him, the clan possessed considerable resources and even had a powerful nine-star Dou Sheng (Battle Saint) peak expert who was already faintly touching the Emperor Realm. Therefore, he didn't need to worry too much about the Soul Clan's future.
Thus, this ancestor harbored some selfish motives, intending to leave some of his inheritance and precious resources to his bloodline descendants. However, as the patriarch of the Soul Clan at the time, he naturally knew the true nature of his own clan members.
Therefore, he left the earthen jar in the courtyard of his bloodline descendants and set up a restriction. He then secretly left the clan and went to the Northwest Continent, which he had just separated from the Central Continent. He chose a secluded location, set up a restriction that only his bloodline could open, left the inheritance behind, and finally sealed his own coffin.
When Xingxiu saw the ancestor's message, she was extremely excited. After advancing to the Dou Zun realm, she resolutely came to the branch hall in the Northwest Continent. After some investigation, she finally found the location the ancestor had described.
It was an incredibly strange swamp, and the ancestor's inheritance cave was hidden beneath it. However, perhaps due to the leakage of energy from the ancestor's cave, a powerful race of magical beasts had formed within the swamp.
Although the strength of this demonic beast race, formed from the leakage of their ancestor's aura, had declined considerably over time due to the passing of ten thousand years since their ancestor's death, the strongest among them still possessed the strength of a nine-star Dou Zun.
This level of power was beyond the capabilities of Xing Su at the time, so he had no choice but to retreat temporarily and cultivate in this branch hall, hoping to quickly improve his strength, slay the demonic beast guarding his ancestor's cave, and obtain his ancestor's inheritance.
However, before he could even set off, he encountered the scoundrel Hun Changqing, who came looking for trouble. Now, facing a life-or-death crisis, Xing Su had no choice but to reveal information about his ancestor's cave.
"I'll give you ten seconds. I hope your answer satisfies me; otherwise, you can just die,"
Hun Changqing slowly withdrew his foot from Xing Su's face, his cold gaze sweeping over Xing Su like a sharp blade as he spoke indifferently.
"I received news in Zhongzhou that a high-level Dou Sheng had passed away here on this northwestern continent, and a Dou Sheng named 'Qianmu Saint' left behind a cave dwelling here. So, I came here to investigate under the pretext of managing this branch hall!"
Xing su gritted her teeth, suppressing the intense humiliation in hier heart, and said in a trembling voice.
Xing su's hatred for Hun Changqing had long surpassed the heavens, so naturally he would not tell Hun Changqing the whole truth just to save his own life. Xingxiu planned to trick Hun Changqing into going to that hall, and then use his bloodline within the hall to activate the restrictions of his ancestor and kill Hun Changqing directly.
"Oh? Saint Qianmu?"
Hun Changqing's eyes lit up upon hearing Xingxiu's words, his interest piqued instantly. However, he then frowned and asked in a deep voice,
"As far as I know, you came to this branch hall several years ago, right? You should have obtained this Dou Sheng inheritance by now, shouldn't you?"
Upon hearing this, Xingxiu revealed a mocking smile, coldly saying,
"If I had obtained that inheritance, I would have returned to Zhongzhou long ago. Otherwise, my strength would have greatly increased, how could I have been trampled under your feet!"
Xingxiu emphasized the word "foot" with particular force, her tone even filled with killing intent, clearly harboring resentment towards Hun Changqing's actions earlier.
However, Hun Changqing didn't care. He slowly squatted down, gently pinching Xingxiu's pretty and delicate cheek, and brushing away the gray-black dust and the black mud-covered footprint from her face, a strange smile appearing on his face.
"Continue..."