Yefutidaolu

Chapter 328 Genocide
Gao Jian's icy voice, like a death knell, resounded through the ornate courtyard of the Jin family mansion. Those accusations, like poisoned steel needles, pierced the Jin family.

"Lord Gao?!" The young master of the Jin family snapped out of his shock, his face turning deathly pale. His voice trembled, filled with disbelief and shrillness. "What...what do you mean?! My Jin family is utterly loyal to the court, with absolutely no disloyalty! This...this is pure slander! It's a frame-up! It's..."

"Kill." Gao Jian's voice was completely flat, even colder, more even, and shorter than when he had read out the charges. He simply and casually waved his slender, pale hand downwards.

There was no overwhelming force, no furious roar. Just a simple gesture, a cold, ruthless word.

However, the moment the word "kill" was uttered, the shadow behind Takashi, which had been empty, rippled violently like water!
A figure, like a vengeful ghost emerging from the frozen depths of the underworld, appeared without warning! It was Qin Long! He was still wearing that old, dusty gray fur coat, and still clutching that dark, matte short sword tightly to his chest. His face was expressionless, as cold and hard as the most solid frozen earth of Liaobei. Only his eyes, now like two bottomless pools of ice, reflected the extravagance of the Jin mansion and the impending bloodshed!
"You scoundrel! How dare you do this?!"

"Fight him!!"

"Brilliant insight! My Jin family patriarch will surely tear you to pieces!!!"

The Jin family was not entirely composed of mediocre individuals. Several guard leaders and tough-minded members of the collateral branches instantly turned bloodshot, their eyes blazing with fury! Roaring, they drew their swords from their waists, channeling their full power, and with a desperate madness, charged fearlessly towards Gao Jian and the newly appeared Qin Long! The flashing blades and howling winds instantly shattered the deathly silence of the courtyard!
Faced with several fierce killing moves, Qin Long did not even draw his sword.

He just moved.

It wasn't dodging, it wasn't parrying. Amidst the oncoming flashing blades, his body, at an angle and speed defying common sense, like a boneless venomous snake, or a shadow compressed to its extreme, suddenly "kneaded" into the attack!

"Pfft!"

"Crack!"

Several teeth-grinding, dull tearing sounds and the cracking of bones rang out almost simultaneously!
The Jin family guard leader, who was at the forefront, had his powerful blade only three inches from Gao Jian's throat, but it could not go any further. His chest had been pierced by that dark short sword, the tip protruding through his back, dripping with hot blood! His eyes were wide open, filled with disbelief and shock, as if he did not understand how he had died.

The other branch disciple had only delivered half of his sword strike when his wrist bent backward at an eerie angle, revealing the white bone fragments piercing through his flesh! Immediately afterward, a very thin, faint line of blood appeared on his neck, and then his head rolled limply to the ground like a severed melon vine, his face still frozen with the ferocity of his charge.

There were no fancy moves, no superfluous actions. Qin Long's figure darted and flashed among the onrushing men like a ghost, each pause accompanied by a dull thud of flesh tearing or bones shattering.

That dark, short sword in his hand transformed into a deadly, chilling glint—precise, lethal, and utterly merciless! Like a cold-blooded butcher dismembering livestock, efficient and cruel.

In just a few breaths, the first few figures to rush forward collapsed to the ground like sacks with their bones removed. Blood quickly spread across the smooth bluestone slab, and a strong stench of blood instantly filled the air.

This bloody, efficient, and almost crushing slaughter, like a cold tide, instantly extinguished the last bit of courage the Jin family had to resist!

Two Grandmasters!
Nine Realms, Two Gates Grandmaster!

Only Jin Dafu and the clan elder he brought along were qualified to speak in front of such a person.

"No...don't kill me! Lord Gao! Spare me!!" A Jin family woman, dressed in fine silks and satins and accustomed to a life of luxury, let out a piercing scream as she watched the head roll to her feet. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground, frantically kowtowing in Gao Jian's direction, tears streaming down her face. "I don't know anything! I'm just a woman! Spare me! Spare me!!"

"Master Gao! It's a misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding!!" The young master of the Jin family trembled violently, his body covered in sweat and oil, looking utterly disheveled.

"Brilliant idea! My Jin family ancestor is a great power of our time! You dare to wipe out my entire Jin family, my ancestor will surely emerge from seclusion and tear you to pieces! So that you will never be reincarnated!!" An old man with white hair and beard, probably one of the elders of the Jin family, forced himself to maintain his last bit of dignity, roaring fiercely but inwardly weakly, trying to bring up the ancestor as his last lifeline.

Unfortunately, Gao Jian knew very well that the Jin family's ancestor had been taken to the border by Jin Dafu and died in a mutual destruction with Qilin Shen.

Therefore, the only response they received was Gao Jian's cold, emotionless eyes, and Qin Long's figure, which seemed like the embodiment of death, disappearing into the shadows only to reappear in the crowd in an instant!
"puff!"

"Ugh—!"

"mother--!"

Screams, pleas for mercy, desperate curses, and the terrified cries of children... erupted instantly throughout the Jin mansion! Qin Long, like a silent grim reaper, flashed through the luxurious halls, the secluded gardens, and the panicked crowds. Each appearance was accompanied by a flash of dark, cold light; each flash of light claimed one or more lives!

The Jin family mansion actually contains many formations and magical treasures, which can be used to help or to block enemies.

but……

What's the use?
There are no qualified experts to oversee these formations. The eighth and ninth realm experts of the Jin family have already been taken to the border by Jin Dafu. Moreover, the Jin family is a family founded by martial artists and is not good at these things.

Qin Long is a stronger martial artist than them.

The young master of the Jin family wanted to say more, but at that moment he felt the light above him dim. He looked up in alarm and saw Qin Long's face, sculpted like frozen earth, right in front of him. In those cold eyes, there was no emotion, only pure, indifferent indifference to following orders.

"No..." The young master of the Jin family could only utter one word in his plea.

The dark, short sword, like a venomous snake's tongue, pierced his throat in an instant! His body stiffened abruptly, then he collapsed with a thud, a hissing sound escaping his throat, his eyes wide open, filled with endless fear and confusion.

"Spare...spare me...I..." A young man from the Jin family next to him stammered incoherently, his crotch instantly soaked, and a foul stench filled the air.

Qin Long's eyes remained unwavering as his short sword traced a cold arc. The Jin residence had been completely transformed into a battlefield.

Gao Jian stood still the entire time, without moving an inch. He coldly watched this massacre he had personally started, seeing the once arrogant Jin family members being slaughtered like pigs and dogs.

The threats, pleas, insults, and cries... passed by like the wind, without stirring the slightest ripple in his cold eyes. He simply watched calmly, like a detached spectator watching his carefully orchestrated game come to an end.

The shouts and screams gradually thinned out, eventually fading into complete silence. Only the thick, pungent smell of blood lingered and fermented in the luxurious courtyard.

Qin Long reappeared beside Gao Jian, still in that silent posture.

Thick blood dripped slowly from the blade of the short sword, blooming into tiny blood flowers on the bluestone slab. His face showed no excitement or exhaustion after the killing, only an almost mechanical calm after a mission was completed.

Gao Jian's gaze swept across the hellish courtyard, looking at the corpses lying in pools of blood in various postures—some with wide-open eyes, some with faces full of fear, some with a hint of flattery… men, women, young and old, none were spared.

He nodded slightly, as if he were merely inspecting an ordinary item.

"Just leave it here. Someone will come and take care of it later." Gao Jian's voice remained calm, as if instructing a servant to clean up a pile of useless garbage.

He didn't even glance at the corpses again. Turning around, he stepped through the still-viscous pools of blood in the courtyard and walked towards the main hall of the Jin mansion, a symbol of supreme power. His boots made a soft, sticky sound as they stepped on the blood.

Qin Long followed silently, like a most loyal shadow, stepping over the mess of corpses and bloodstains, heading towards the core of the Jin family's power.

Behind them, all that remained was a once-grand mansion, utterly soaked in blood and devoid of life, and the nauseating, pungent smell of blood in the air, a testament to the complete annihilation of a powerful family.

The expert did not conceal the news.

The news of the Jin family's extermination spread like a thunderclap from a clear sky, carrying a heavy stench of blood, and swept across the entire Liangzhou region at an alarming speed.

There was no concealment, no need to concealment. Gao Jian seemed determined to make this bloody "sacrifice" the loudest clarion call to intimidate the entire Liangzhou aristocratic group.

What followed were a series of "invitations" with plain wording, yet every word exuding a chilling coldness—

Gao Jian "invited" the other twenty-two prominent families of Liangzhou to gather in the main hall of the Jin family's ancestral home, which had just been ransacked and was still not cleaned up, three days later, for a "discussion".

The sky over Liangzhou had completely changed color.

Panic spread like a plague through the grand mansions of powerful families. The music and revelry that once filled the lofty halls vanished, replaced by a deathly silence, hushed whispers, and the barely audible clinking of teacups in hands.

"The Jin family... is gone? Just like that... gone?" The head of the Chen family, an old fox with white hair and beard who had lived through two dynasties, slumped in his armchair, his face ashen, muttering to himself, as if he had aged considerably in an instant.

He held the gold-embossed "invitation" in his hand, but it felt incredibly heavy, and his fingertips were icy cold.

The Jin family was the king of Liangzhou! They were a behemoth that had been entrenched in this land for hundreds of years, with deep roots and a profound foundation! They had multiple nine realms under their control, private armies, industries, and a complex network of relationships... Yet, overnight, they were uprooted, their entire clan wiped out, leaving not a single chicken or dog alive?

"Insightful... insightful!" At the Zhou family mansion, the current patriarch was no longer as arrogant as before; his eyes were filled with fear and lingering dread. He abruptly smashed the teacup in his hand on the ground, shards flying everywhere and tea spilling everywhere.

"We've all fallen for his trap! We've all fallen for his treacherous scheme!"

Fear fueled a frantic deliberation. No aristocratic families lacked intelligent people; when the bloody facts were laid bare before them, when fear pierced the barrier of arrogance, Gao Jian's seemingly perilous yet meticulously planned strategy was finally pieced together, bit by bit, by their trembling hands.

"Using one tiger to devour another! What a brilliant 'using one tiger to devour another'!" The strategists of the powerful families conversed in a secret chamber, their voices hoarse and chilling. "He's a newcomer, powerless and without influence, possessing only a piece of paper and the title of 'Imperial Envoy'! But what has he done? He first used the pretext of the Qilin Tribe and the border's urgent need to force the Jin family to contribute money and resources to the border's development! The Jin family thought this was an opportunity to consolidate their power, but in reality, their foundation has been emptied and their vitality exhausted! This is the first step—to blunt their claws and teeth!"

"And then? Then he got something for nothing!" another person interjected through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with regret. "He took the border defenses that the Jin family had emptied their coffers to build, and then turned around and colluded with the various tribes of the grasslands! No, it might have been even earlier! The Qilin tribe's attack on the border was all a play he orchestrated himself! The purpose was to lure the Jin family's last elite forces—Jin Dafu and those retainers—away from their stronghold! This was the second step: to lure the tiger away from the mountain and draw the snake out of its hole!"

"Finally! Finally, he revealed his true fangs!" A young nobleman's voice trembled. "Taking advantage of the Jin family's internal weakness, with the patriarch and his experts dead at the border, he led that killing god Qin Long and, with overwhelming force, massacred the Jin mansion, leaving no one alive! Not even the infants in their swaddling clothes were spared! He... he never even considered negotiation! From the very beginning, his goal was to destroy the Jin family! To use the Jin family's blood to establish his rules!"

The room was deathly silent. Cold sweat soaked everyone's backs.

While the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits!
These aristocratic families have been fighting with the Jin family for so many years, restraining and scheming against each other. But who would have thought that the real player, that seemingly insignificant "little imperial envoy" who is only at the sixth level, has already laid an invisible giant net outside the chessboard!
He skillfully exploited the Jin family's greed, the infighting among aristocratic families, the precarious situation at the border, and the power of the Hu people to accomplish all of this.

“He… he’s probably been plotting this day ever since he stepped into Liangzhou half a year ago!” A clerk’s voice was filled with helplessness.

His cultivation level may not be high, but his wisdom, his methods, his ability to see through people's hearts and control the general trend, and... his insatiable bloodlust that treats human life as worthless and wipes out entire families without batting an eye, all made these aristocratic families who were used to being high and mighty feel a chill from the bone.

The Kim family serves as a stark warning! A bloody example is right before our eyes!
I can only go... I have to go.

So, three days later, the area in front of the Jin family mansion was filled with carriages and horses.

(End of this chapter)