The Return of the Condor Heroes: Starting with a Suicide Note and Conquering All Realms

Lujiazhuang Training Ground.

The wind stopped.

The ground was covered in charred ash and the huge, vitrified crater emitted a pungent ozone smell.

Lin Yuan walked up to Huang Rong.

Huang Rong knelt in the blood. Her hands, which had been tightly holding the unconscious Guo Fu, slowly loosened.

She looked up.

The gray-robed youth before them had just wiped out three thousand elite Mongol soldiers with a single blow.

Huang Yaoshi's jade flute broke. Hong Qigong's Dragon Subduing Palm technique dissipated. Guo Jing lay in the ruins, coughing up blood.

All of Huang Rong's trump cards, schemes, and pride were crushed to dust in the face of this otherworldly power.

She looked into Lin Yuan's dark golden vertical pupils.

Their psychological defenses completely collapsed.

Huang Rong knelt on the ground with both hands, her forehead hitting the bluestone slab heavily.

"Bang."

"Lin Yuan... I was wrong."

Her voice trembled, trembling with tears.

She did not claim to be the leader of the Beggars' Sect, nor did she mention national righteousness or the prestige of Peach Blossom Island.

She was just a woman who watched her daughter lose an arm, her husband be seriously injured, and her own life hang by a thread.

"I shouldn't have poisoned you back then, I shouldn't have schemed against you. The fault of Peach Blossom Island lies entirely with me." Huang Rong's forehead was pressed against the ground, and blood stained her cheeks.

She straightened up and placed her hands on her slightly protruding belly.

"I'm carrying a child." Huang Rong looked up, tears welling up in her eyes. "Please, for the sake of this unborn life, spare my worthless life. I promise, the entire Guo family will never be your enemy in this lifetime."

Hong Qigong stood not far away, turning his head away. He had the utmost contempt for those who begged for mercy, but at this moment, he couldn't bring himself to rebuke Huang Rong.

Huang Yaoshi gripped the broken flute, veins bulging on his arm. He had always been arrogant; he had never seen his daughter kneel so humbly, begging for her life. He wanted to intervene, but the force of the recoil he had just experienced told him that going forward would be suicide.

Amidst the ruins, Guo Jing dug into the mud with both hands, his fingernails curling upwards. He let out a low growl like a wild beast, but he didn't even have the strength to stand up.

Lin Yuan looked down at Huang Rong.

There was no sense of triumph, nor the satisfaction of avenging a great grudge.

Only coldness.

"Chief Huang," Lin Yuan said calmly.

"You're kneeling here now not because you know you're wrong."

Huang Rong's body stiffened.

Lin Yuan's words were like a rusty, dull knife, slowly sawing away her last fig leaf.

"All you know is that you're going to die."

Lin Yuan pointed to the giant, glassy pit outside the manor.

"If I hadn't killed all three thousand Mongol soldiers today, hadn't driven Guo Jing into ruins, and hadn't scared away your father and your master..."

Lin Yuan lowered his head and met Huang Rong's eyes.

Will you admit your mistake?

Huang Rong's lips trembled, but she couldn't make a sound.

"You won't," Lin Yuan answered for her. "You'll stand on the steps and continue to use your righteousness to oppress me, and use your江湖 (jianghu, the martial arts world) rules to judge me. You'll make all the heroes in the world regard me as a demon, and then kill me with a legitimate reason."

Lin Yuan shook his head.

"Your admission of wrongdoing is merely a survival tactic. It's too cheap."

The words fell.

Lin Yuan raised his right hand.

Bring your index and middle fingers together.

The energy of One-Finger Divine Skill condensed at the fingertip, with dark golden inner flames swirling around it.

Huang Yaoshi's expression changed drastically: "Stop!"

Hong Qigong also shouted, "Lin Yuan, show mercy when you can!"

Lin Yuan didn't even glance at them.

Pointing out with fingertips.

The dark gold energy shot out like lightning, precisely piercing Huang Rong's Qihai acupoint.

"puff."

A muffled thud.

"ah--!"

Huang Rong let out a piercing scream. Her body arched as if electrocuted, and she clutched her lower abdomen tightly with both hands.

The domineering Sovereign Flame True Essence surged into her dantian, instantly burning through the Qi Sea Wall.

The internal strength of Peach Blossom Island and the foundation of the Dog-Beating Stick Technique that she had painstakingly cultivated throughout her life melted away completely under the high temperature, like snowflakes under the scorching sun.

The meridians are withered.

Dantian shattered.

Huang Rong collapsed in the blood, gasping for breath. She had become a cripple, worse off than even an ordinary peasant woman. She would never be able to muster a single ounce of inner energy again.

The heroes knelt on the ground, silent as cicadas in winter.

The leader of the Beggars' Sect, the smartest man in the world, had his martial arts crippled in public.

Huang Rong's face turned deathly pale. She felt the emptiness in her dantian, and despair overwhelmed her like a tidal wave.

But she found herself still alive.

"Thank you... for sparing my life." She gritted her teeth and squeezed out a few words.

Lin Yuan looked at her.

"I've said it before, I don't kill pregnant women."

Lin Yuan flipped his wrist.

A highly concealed stream of dark gold true energy shot out from his fingertip and directly entered Huang Rong's protruding belly.

Huang Rong didn't even feel any pain, she only felt a warmth in her abdomen.

Her eyes widened in shock, and she clutched her stomach in horror: "What...what did you do?!"

Guo Jing, amidst the ruins, desperately raised his head: "Lin Yuan! What are you doing!"

Lin Yuan withdrew his hand and put his hands behind his back.

"Back on Peach Blossom Island, you brought me a bowl of nourishing soup to strengthen my body and replenish my vital energy."

Lin Yuan's voice wasn't loud, but it carried throughout the deathly silent training ground.

"That soup contained Peach Blossom Island's unique Tendon-Softening Powder. It can break bones and destroy meridians."

Lin Yuan looked into Huang Rong's despairing eyes.

"You wanted me to be a cripple for life, never able to learn martial arts. Because you were afraid I would threaten your family."

Lin Yuan pointed to Huang Rong's stomach.

Today, I return this gift to your child.

Huang Rong trembled all over, shaking her head desperately: "No...don't..."

"I've severed this fetus's martial arts meridians." Lin Yuan's tone was cold, leaving no room for negotiation. "For the rest of his life, he'll only be a powerless mortal. He won't even be able to practice the most basic introductory internal energy cultivation technique for a single day."

"You can teach him to read, to write, to play musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, and painting. But he will never be able to lift a sword."

Lin Yuan looked at Huang Rong.

"That's what they call an eye for an eye."

Guo Jing stood amidst the ruins, his eyes blazing with fury. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and roared hoarsely, "Lin Yuan! You didn't even spare an unborn child! You're utterly depraved!"

Lin Yuan turned his head and looked at Guo Jing.

"Master Guo, you can have another child. Just stop imposing your disgusting rules on others."

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze and looked around.

Hundreds of martial arts practitioners buried their heads in the ground, not daring to even breathe.

Huang Yaoshi held the broken flute and closed his eyes.

Hong Qigong sighed and slumped to the ground in dejection.

"The score with Peach Blossom Island is settled."

Lin Yuan announced.

Lin Yuan turned around.

He walked towards Yang Guo and Xiaolongnu.

Yang Guo gripped his longsword, his chest heaving violently. He looked at the mess on the ground, at the crippled Huang Rong, and at the one-armed Guo Fu.

Six years of pent-up frustration were finally released at this moment.

"Let's go," Lin Yuan said.

Yang Guo sheathed his sword.

Xiaolongnu took Yang Guo's hand, her expression aloof, as if all the bloodshed around her had nothing to do with her.

Ouyang Feng squatted in the corner, scratching his head and muttering incomprehensible nonsense. Seeing Lin Yuan approach, he quickly stood up and obediently followed behind.

The four walked toward the gate of Lu Family Village.

The group of heroes blocking their way scrambled and crawled to the sides.

They managed to carve out a wide avenue in the crowded schoolyard.

No one dared to look up at Lin Yuan.

In their eyes, that spotless gray Taoist robe was more terrifying than a demon from hell.

Lin Yuan stepped over the black ash covering the ground.

Stepping over the broken bluestone slabs.

We walked out of the dilapidated gate of Lujiazhuang.

The moment he stepped out the door.

"Boom!"

The leaden clouds in the sky churned violently.

A muffled clap of thunder boomed deep within the clouds.

This was no ordinary thunder. It carried an extremely clear sense of rejection and warning.

The Heavenly Dao rules of the Condor Heroes world sensed the existence of Lin Yuan, this anomaly.

His recent Junyan nuclear explosion and his actions that completely altered the Guo family's fortunes have severely disrupted the balance of this low-level martial arts world.

Heaven is putting pressure on him.

Lin Yuan stopped in his tracks.

He raised his head and looked up at the dark night sky.

His dark golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted.

A higher-dimensional spiritual force, even more arrogant and domineering than the might of heaven, crashed directly into the clouds.

Lin Yuan remained silent. He simply stared coldly at the thundercloud.

The thunder lasted for three breaths.

Then, the clouds gradually dispersed, and the thunder subsided.

Heaven yielded.

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze, a cold smile curling at the corner of his lips.

"Even the sky is a bully that preys on the weak."

Leaving Dashengguan.

The official road was silent.

The night wind carried away the smell of blood from my body.

The moonlight shone on the ground again.

Yang Guo followed beside Lin Yuan. His mind kept replaying everything that had happened that night.

From defeating Huo Du, to confronting the Golden Wheel Monk, and then to Lin Yuan's single strike that wiped out three thousand iron cavalry.

His worldview was completely reshaped.

It turns out that when martial arts are mastered to the extreme, one can truly disregard all rules.

Yang Guo calmed his boiling blood.

He looked at Lin Yuan.

"Brother Lin," Yang Guo said in a low voice.

"Um."

"Where do we go now?" Yang Guo asked. The Quanzhen Sect was destroyed, Peach Blossom Island's debts were settled, and the Heroes' Gathering had been razed to the ground. For a moment, he didn't know where to go next.

Lin Yuan stopped in his tracks.

He turned his head and looked at the vast, dark, primeval mountains outside Xiangyang City.

Deep within the Qi Sea, the fragment of the Demon-Suppressing Sword brought back from the Tang Dynasty plane emitted an extremely faint hum.

It yearns for a stronger sword intent.

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze.

"Dugu Sword Tomb".

Lin Yuan uttered four words calmly.